Prophets of profits?

[RevZ62]

I want to raise a subject that might be upsetting to some. Especially those who have stuck the word prophet before their name.
Old testament prophets were chosen and sent by God to do a specific task. The bible list only a few but in each case they had a specific message to talk about a specific people about a specific issue.

Prophecy, generally, describes the disclosing of information that is not known to the prophet by any ordinary means.[1] In religion, this is thought to be a divinely inspired revelation or interpretation.
What is your prophecy disclosing?
Is it something that could have been seen by ordinary people by ordinary study and learning?
Questioning divine revelation is difficult if not impossible but does what you prophecy move people to be closer to God?
God is all about the SPIRITUAL not the material things of this world. God has promised to take care of our needs.
Material excess over and above need may be gained but it is not part of the promise. You do not need a Mercedes when a Prius will do. That is only an example. People who tell others about their future in this world are practicing something the bible warns against.
I will not say the future can not be glimpsed, for I have done so, but it was not for profit or gain but as guidance for me, that by the way I did not follow. Definitely lean not to your own understanding.

1Ti 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. (Presbytery (church polity), a governing body of ordained elders and ministers)
Timothy is warned by Paul but notice Timothy did not declare himself a prophet nor on second reading is he a prophet. His gift, which is not named, came to him through others God chose, hence the laying on of hands. Preachers are ordained in that manner.

1Co 13:2 And though I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.( Paul speaking of himself.)
Which so-called prophet can make the same claim as Paul?


1Co 14:37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or a spiritual person, he must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.
1Co 14:38 But if anyone ignores this, he should be ignored.
1Co 14:39 Therefore, my brothers, desire the ability to prophesy,
Paul notes that prophecy points to God and should otherwise be ignored.

Beware, you may have a gift that did not come from God. I am not saying yours did not but beware.
If what you see does not lead people to God beware.
Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.


Act 21:10 And as we tarried [there] many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.
Act 21:11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver [him] into the hands of the Gentiles.
Act 21:12 And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.
Act 21:13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
If another tells you of a possibility that entails personal loss for you, would you die for Jesus?

I was once told by a woman that a relative called himself a prophet and that for a charge he would prophecy fo r a person. That immediately struck me as wrong. That smacked of fortune telling which is none biblical.
Does a prophet profit off of God?
If God has something to say to an individual through you how do you dare not tell that person, thus saith the Lord?
How can your tongue be still, how can one deny God and claim to be a child of God.
As a preacher I will preach to anybody anywhere anytime and I expect no wages for thus saith the Lord, that is why I have my "tent making" to support me, not the word of God.
No matter how gifted one may be God for a fee does not sit well with me.

[RevZ62]

Thank you what else needs to be said?

[Tara Robinson]

Thank you for this blog this is something long over due that needed to be said.

[RevZ62]

Some things are intuitively wrong. I may be wrong but I feel some take titles as ways to prop themselves up and to be important. One of the first things taught to me was that the title Reverend is traditional but not to be taken seriously, after who am I to be revered. I know that is true for me. God has gifted me with a gift for teaching, called me to preaching but I would never title myself as Apostle, though I was called out.
But prophets for profit has always bugged me.
I thank you for the added enlightenment.

Be Blessed.

[Anna]

Excellent Topic!
Just to add some historical regarding how the Jewish people defined a "False Prophet" here is an entry from the Jewish Encyclopedia:

False Prophets.

Classes of False Prophets.

Deuteronomy is the only book containing laws concerning the false prophet (xiii. 2-6 [A. V. 1-5], xviii. 20-22). He is designated there as "prophet, or a dreamer of dreams," and it is in accordance with the former designation that the Talmudic jurisprudence provides that the subject of the charge of false prophecy must be one who is a consecrated prophet of God. The commoner ("hedyoṭ") who presumes to tempt people to idolatry is either a "mesit" or a "maddiaḥ," according as his followers are individuals or communities (Sanh. vii. 10; 67a; see Abduction). And in the same Scriptural dicta the Talmud discovers provisions against the following classes of false prophets: (a) one who presumes to speak in God's name what He has not commanded (xviii. 20); such a one was Zedekiah (the son of Chenaanah), who predicted in the name of God that Ahab would vanquish the Syrians at Ramoth-gilead (I Kings xxii. 11); (b) one who pretends to have been charged with a message which, in reality, God has entrusted to another (as an example of this class Hananiah, the son of Azur the prophet, is cited: see Captivity); (c) one who speaks in the name of other gods (Deut. xiii, 3 [A. V. 2], xviii. 20), whether ordering the observance of strictly Mosaic precepts on pretense of a revelation to that effect from a strange deity, or declaring that God ordains the worship of a strange deity, or that a strange deity ordains its own worship of itself (Sanh. xi. [x.] 5, 6; 89a).

Criteria.

The criteria by which a prophet is distinguished as false are, in the view of rabbinical jurisprudence, partly expressed and partly implied in the Deuteronamic dicta:

(1) One who has "spoken to turn you away from the Lord" (xiii. 6 [A. V. 5]). This may be designated as the religio-moral test, and implies that when the prophet wilfully ceases to enforce the doctrines embodied in the law of God he ceases to be a prophet to God. God's law is perpetual and immutable. Moses was its promulgator, and there can never be another Moses with a different law (Deut. R. viii. 6; comp. Shab. 104a). Hence, whoso professes to have received revelations changing the Law is a false prophet. Moreover, the passage implies that the prophet who refrains from correcting the sinner or from arousing the indifferent is a false prophet. Thus Jeremiah argues (xxiii. 22): "If they had stood in my counsel, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and to turn from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings" (comp. xxiii. 17).

(2) When the things predicted "follow not, nor come to pass" (Deut. xviii. 22). This test is applicable only when the alleged revelation has reference to the near future, as in the case of Zedekiah, who in God's name prophesied success to Ahab's arms, and in that of Micaiah, who predicted disaster from the impending war (I Kings xxii. 11 et seq.). Where his prediction concerns a distant period the skeptic will say (Ezek. xii. 27): "The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off." But even where the prophecy concerns the immediate future this test is not always applicable. It is conclusive only when a prediction of prosperity fails, because then it is seen that the alleged revelation did not emanatefrom the All-Merciful (comp. Jer. xxviii. 9); but the failure of a prediction of disaster is not conclusive, the fulfilment of such predictions being always conditioned by the conduct of the people (Jer. xviii. 7, 8; xxvi. 19; Ezek. xviii. 21, xxxiii. 11; comp. Yer. Sanh. xi. 30b).

(3) The test of miracles (Deut. xiii. 2 [A. V. 1]; comp. Yer. l.c. top) is the weakest of all tests, since the prophet whose teachings are in strict accord with the law of God needs no corroboration, while one who suggests the worship of a strange god, even temporarily, or the permanent suppression of any precept embodied in that law, is ipso facto a false prophet, and the performance of miracles can not prove him to be a true one (Deut. xiii. 3 [A. V. 2] et seq.). His suggestion when supported by a miracle is to be respected only if, in order to accomplish some salutary purpose, he orders a temporary suspension of a ritualistic law, as was the case with Elijah, who, to convince the misguided masses of the folly of Ba'al-worship, invoked a miracle on the sacrifice he offered outside of the central sanctuary (I Kings xviii. 22-39). This test is of positive value only at the first appearance of the prophet (Sifre, Deut. 175-178; comp. Albo, "'Iḳḳarim," i. 18; iii. 19, 20).

When a prophet is, by means of these tests, proved to have become a renegade, and it is duly ascertained that his attempt to mislead is the outgrowth of presumption (Deut. xviii. 20, 22), he must be tried by the Great Sanhedrin (Sanh. i. 5). If he is found guilty of false prophecy, he is punished with death by strangulation (Sifre, l.c.; see Capital Punishment). Other prophets who are denounced as false, but who are not subject to human punishment, are those who suppress the divine message, as did the prophet Jonah (i. 3), or who disobey a revelation received by themselves (I Kings xiii. 9-24; Sanh. xi. [x.] 5).