Are there prophets in the church today?

Many hastily conclude that a "prophet" is one who foretells or predicts things yet future and unknown. They then ask, "What place is there for prophets in the Church of God since the revelation of God's will and purpose is complete in the Scriptures?" But, the true definition of a prophet is "one who communicates the mind and will of God to those to whom he is sent." Samuel and Elijah were both prophets, yet they had very little to do with predicting future events. Rather, their main work was to bring God's will, already revealed in the Law, to bear on the hearts and consciences of their nation. So it is with New Testament prophets. Their job is to apply known truths to the hearts of the saints. Therefore, there is continual need for their ministry.

The work of the apostles and prophets was laying the foundation. That, I apprehend, we have in the writings of the New Testament, on which the faith of our souls is now built, and if once the foundation of a house be laid, you do not want any new foundation. The point is this, they are no more wanted. Consequently the idea of there being apostles and prophets now, in their primary sense, is clearly a mistake. We doubtless still have prophetic ministry in the sense of "He that prophesies speaks to men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort" (1 Cor. 14:3). Ministry that reaches the conscience, that edifies, or builds up, stirs up, and comforts, is prophetic. The man that can speak in that way is a most useful gift. We all need it. And if there be a prophet here, thank God for it. But mark, he is not a prophet if he do not build you up, stir you up, and bind you up. The prophets of this order are in evidence today when the Assembly is in function, i.e., gathered together; but as to apostles, there are none. They have done their work — laid the foundation — and passed off the scene.

Nor is it otherwise in the ways of God today. In the minds of many, the prophetic gift has been limited to foretelling future events, and thus it has been concluded that the gift of prophecy has been withdrawn. It is true that the revelation of God is complete, and apart from the Word of God, none but an impostor would profess to unfold the future with a "Thus says the Lord," but it is very far from true that the prophetic gift has ceased. It is evident from the New Testament that this gift holds a very high place in the estimation of God. In 1 Cor. 14 we read: "Follow after love and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy," for "he that prophesies speaks to men to edification, and exhortation and comfort." What more important in this day of ruin, of weakness and of failure, among the people of God, than to arouse the consciences of believers to their low spiritual condition, to comfort their hearts by unfolding the coming glories, and to engage their affections with the coming One. He will be a true prophet who can thus speak "to men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort."

Prophecy is not only the foretelling of future events. It includes the forth-telling of God's mind and message. In the apostolic days, before the written New Testament Scriptures were in circulation, there was prophecy of an inspired sort, such as is claimed by the Apostle Paul for himself and others in 1 Cor. 2:13. We have not that today, nor do we need it, having the inspired Scriptures in our hands. Prophecy of an uninspired sort we may still have, for we may still find men gifted of God to open up to us, from the inspired Scriptures, the mind of God and His message for any given moment, and when we find it we do well to be very thankful for it. Such ministry of the Word of God does indeed build up, and stir up, and lift up.

But a moment’s reflection will show that this is only a part of their ministry. A large part of the Old Testament prophet’s ministry was given to bringing the mind of God in relation to the state of the people and calling them to repentance. It was not only foretelling but also forth-telling. So it was with the New Testament prophets. But apart from special revelation, which has completely passed away with them, we have the prophetic character of their ministry, and “he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification [building up], and exhortation [stirring up] and comfort [binding up]” (1 Cor. 14:3). How much of this may be sought today to real profit.

The prophet was also a foundation gift. It was to prophets as well as to apostles that the mystery which had before been hidden was revealed by the Spirit. In certain cases too the prophet foretold future events. In all these characters the gift of a prophet was only temporary. On the other hand, that part of the prophetic gift which consists of speaking "unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort," and in this way "edifying the Church" (1 Cor. 14:3-4), has never been removed, though whether those possessing it are prophets, in the scriptural sense of the word, is at least doubtful.

Prophets, like apostles, were entrusted with the mystery, and laid the foundation of the Church. Some, like Agabus, foretold future events, but this was not their chief characteristic. The most striking feature was the address to the conscience. "If all prophesy," says the apostle, "and there come in one that believes not, of one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest" (1 Cor. 14:24-25). In an age when the Scriptures were not completed, moreover, special revelations, probably on other matters, but certainly connected with the "mystery," were made to the prophets; for it is said — "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge; if anything be revealed to another that sits by, let the first hold his peace" (vv. 29, 30). Some of the prophetic gift in reaching the conscience may still survive, but when God's Word was completed, all that He meant prophetically to reveal was already brought out, and the foundation part of the prophetic gift necessarily disappeared.

Certainly there are special gifts, — "evangelists, pastors and teachers," as the Word declares; but this not to restrain the manifestation of the same Spirit in others; and especially as to prophecy, of which the apostle speaks in this connection here; his own injunction is, "Covet to prophesy;" and his encouragement to it, that "ye may all prophesy" (1 Cor, 14:1, 4, 5, 24, 30, 39). This was not necessarily the utterance of predictions, as is too commonly imagined, but that speaking out of the fulness of the Spirit what would be thus the word of God Himself, the "oracle" for His people (1 Peter 4:11). This involved, not so much what is ordinarily called "gift," as spirituality — that nearness to God which makes the "man of God," and one to whom He can therefore communicate His mind. But this might be done in the simple quotation of a text of Scripture, or in "five words," — perhaps more likely so than in a long discourse, but whose testimony would be felt in heart and conscience. The effect on "one that believeth not, or one unlearned," entering in among those so engaged is that "he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth" (1 Cor. 14:24-25). But this overflow of the divine fulness which is in all the saints today as much as in apostolic times, is not limited as to time and place, as Philip's daughters who were prophetesses show, who certainly did not prophesy in the assembly. How blessed to know that such fulness is really in us all, and that the apostle urges that it should overflow, the hindrances to this being always in ourselves, the blocking of outlet to an illimitable spring, of which we may be quite or very little conscious. In how many ways may this be done! but if out of the belly there flows not the living water, it is certain that there must be some hindrance for which we are responsible, if the Lord's words be the simple, always verifiable words they must be (John 7:38).

Christ has come: the Word of God is complete; — no new revelation need be or can be added to it. Yet in a minor sense the voice of prophecy should be found among us. The apostle, in writing to the Corinthians, after bidding them "desire spiritual gifts," adds as the chief of all, "but rather that ye may prophesy;" his reason for the preference, "he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort." "Love edifieth;" and, he writes, "ye may all prophesy, one by one, that all may learn and all may be comforted." We see that he is not thinking of uttering predictions, which is what so many think to be all the business of a prophet, but of that speaking from God and for God which he can do best who has not necessarily most knowledge or most utterance, but most communion with Him, and who most stands in His presence, waiting for His word. The Church of God has much need of such men as these today.

Here, then, we have, in divine wisdom recorded in God's word, side by side, infallible commands and the judgment of a spiritual man. When it is the Lord speaking, the apostle tells us, and distinguishes this from his own judgment. And yet he spoke as a man guided by the Spirit. It is this last general guidance by the Spirit for our profit and edification that is the prophecy that always abides in the Church. Inspiration has ceased, because the word of God is complete, and there is no further need for it. But there is constant and daily need for this practical speaking by the Spirit of a word in season.