In the previous post we looked at some odd stories about prophets in the books of 1st and 2nd Kings. Those stories did not cast prophets in the best light. Some scholars think Jeremiah the prophet wrote (or edited) these books, so this should not be surprising in light of what he says about prophets In fact, a number of Biblical prophets harshly criticize their fellow prophets:
The head is the elder and honorable man,
And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.
Isaiah 9:15
And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;
They reel while having visions,
They totter when rendering judgment.
Isaiah 28:7
(See post #16 for a discussion of drug use in ancient religion.)
This is what the Lord God says: “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing! Israel, your prophets have been like jackals among ruins… They see deceit and lying divination, those who are saying, ‘The Lord declares,’ when the Lord has not sent them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their word!… Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Because you have spoken deceit and have seen a lie, therefore behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord God. “So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations.
Ezekiel 13:3, 4, 6, 8, 9
You really should read all of Ezekiel 13, and then Jeremiah starting in chapter 5:
“The prophets are as wind, And the word is not in them. So it will be done to them!” …
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority;
And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?
Jeremiah 5:13, 31
Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own minds.”
Jeremiah 14:14
“For both prophet and priest are defiled;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.
…
“Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:
The committing of adultery and walking in deceit;
And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.
All of them have become to Me like Sodom,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
Therefore this is what the Lord of armies says concerning the prophets:
‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood
And make them drink poisonous water,
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Ungodliness has spread into all the land.’”
This is what the Lord of armies says:
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
They are leading you into futility;
They tell a vision of their own imagination,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:11, 14-16
Jeremiah does not mince words; he has nothing good to say about the prophets of his day. But what about Jeremiah himself? In chapter 38 he has a secret meeting with King Zedekiah, who asks him to lie about their discussion. And when Jeremiah is asked about the meeting, he does indeed lie about it, seemingly to save his own skin. Not that I fault him for that, but he sure was hard on others who practiced deception.
Distrust of other prophets is not confined to the Old Testament (pre-Christian times). The apostle Paul, one of the most influential figures in Christianity, said this of some of his opponents:
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
2nd Corinthians 11:13-15
So, even Satan and his agents can disguise themselves in righteousness. Then how is one supposed to know? Paul even took issue with that pillar of the church: Peter. In Galatians Paul discusses his disagreement with Peter over the issue of Gentiles in the church, saying, “I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned” (Galatians 2:11). That sounds like a pretty harsh criticism of Jesus’ right-hand man.
But what about Paul? How do we know he wasn’t a false apostle himself? He wasn’t even one of the original Twelve. Turns out that there were early Christians who did question Paul’s status. There are some writings referred to as “Pseudo-Clementine” because they appear to be falsely written in the name of Clement, an early church leader. In one part called the Letter of Peter to James there is a veiled reference to Paul as the “enemy” of Peter because he supposedly twisted Peter’s words in order to nullify the Law of Moses (the very issue Paul refers to in Galatians). There are those who think that there is even a book in the New Testament meant to oppose Paul’s teachings: the Epistle of James. That letter appears to take issue with Paul’s view that good works are irrelevant to salvation, but it appears to be based on a misunderstanding of Paul’s teaching: it is works of the written law like circumcision that are no longer necessary for salvation; Paul repeatedly exhorts his followers to good works and charity. So, were those who opposed Paul false apostles, or was Paul in the wrong himself, a false apostle? I will let you decide for yourself. (Traditional Christianity clearly seems to have sided with Paul, though.)
Returning to Jeremiah, does he pass the test of a true prophet given in Deuteronomy 18:22:
“When the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you are not to be afraid of him.”
But consider Jeremiah 33:17-18 in which Jeremiah declares that there would always be someone from the lineage of David to sit on Israel’s throne and Levitical priests to present offerings and sacrifices, yet after Jeremiah’s time there were about 600 years with no Davidic king, and the destruction of the temple around 70 CE ended the priestly system of sacrifices. Of course, Christians might argue that Jesus became both the king and the ultimate High Priest and thus fulfilled the prophecy. There is always a way to interpret a prophecy so that it seems right, or at least doesn’t seem outright wrong. Kind of like when Obi-wan Kenobi tells Luke that he wasn’t really lying when he told him Darth Vader killed his father even though Vader actually was his father because when he became Vader the man who was his father essentially died. (Whaaat?!)
Consider this prophecy:
“Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you, ‘You will not die by the sword. ‘You will die in peace; and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you; and they will lament for you, “Alas, lord!”’ For I have spoken the word,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 34:4, 5
But we are told of Zedekiah’s fate here:
The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah. Then he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.
Jeremiah 52:10, 11
I am not sure this qualifies as “dying in peace,” as his last sight was seeing his sons killed before he was blinded and taken off a captive to die in prison. Though technically he did not die by the sword, as far as we know. Also, that chapter says that Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and after taking him the Babylonians ransacked Jerusalem and the temple so I am not clear on how or why the people would have lamented him or burned spices for him as with previous kings. In Jeremiah 31 he prophesies about Jerusalem and concludes it “shall be holy to the Lord; it will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever” (Jeremiah 31:40). Of course, Jerusalem has been overthrown a number of times since then, such as by the Muslims in the 12th Century CE and of course, by the Romans during the early Christian era around 70 CE. But there are ways around this, like supposing that he was referring to a time yet to come. Why Jeremiah would be prophesying to his people something more than 2600 years in the future is beyond me. Anyway, feel free to judge such prophecies for yourself.
Regarding dying in peace, prophets were not too good with this kind of prediction. In 2nd Kings 22:14-20 we read of the prophetess Huldah who tells King Josiah that he “shall be gathered to your grave in peace.” Yet in the next chapter Josiah dies in battle (23:29). Maybe God has a radically different concept of “dying in peace” than I do.
Some people would explain away erroneous prophecies by saying that God sometimes changes His mind based on our actions, such as repentance or rebellion. Or, some prophecies, such as the one about David’s descendants on the throne, are yet in the future and will eventually come true. Then how are we to ever know if a prophet is speaking truth? If his prophecies are far off in the future how am I to know if he is really speaking from God and is to be believed? (Remember, according to Deuteronomy 13 even miraculous signs are not proof.) If I were to predict that God is going to bring disaster on our nation before the end of the year because of our sins, and then nothing happens, can’t I just claim that God saw enough repentance that He decided to relent? How can you prove me wrong? Is that a prophecy, really?
This may be a good point at which to mention the three methods that are used to explain away apparently false prophecies: postponement, marginalization and allegorizing. Postponement is straightforward: the prophecy simply has not happened yet, but will be fulfilled sometime in the future. People who keep making predictions of the end of the world usually fall back on this and simply change the date. Marginalization as the name implies is making a prophecy so minor or inconsequential that it does not seem to matter if it was true or not. I would say that claiming that a prophecy did not come to pass because God changed His mind for some reason falls into this category; it wasn’t so much a prophecy as a warning, you might say. Allegorizing means to place some spiritual significance on the prophecy so that it is not to be taken literally, but rather it is fulfilled in some symbolic or figurative way. If you think about it, you can use this method to explain away any unfulfilled prophecies, including any you yourself choose to make. I would contend that any prophecy that is meant as allegory is a useless prophecy; it can be interpreted in any way at one’s convenience and there is no way to assess the accuracy of the prophecy or the prophet.
I would also make a distinction between a prophecy and a prediction. If I were to say that one day America will have a Hispanic president that would be a prediction. Looking at America’s changing demographics it is just a reasonable assessment. However, if I said in 2040 a Hispanic woman named Isabela Dominguez will be elected president that could be considered a prophecy, particularly since I do not know of any woman in politics by that name. If it comes true it would suggest I had some special or even divine knowledge to lead me to say that. I have heard many people say there are hundreds of prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament, but if you examine them they are usually more vague than my presidential prediction and nothing like my presidential prophecy. Consider this “prophecy”:
Therefore this is what the Lord God says:
“Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
A precious cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
The one who believes in it will not be disturbed.
Isaiah 28:16
This verse is used in 1st Peter 2:6 as a prophecy of Jesus. Do you see any mention of Jesus, or even Messiah? In context Isaiah was addressing the people of his day and their situation. Why would they care about someone coming hundreds of years in the future? To be a worthwhile prophecy it must be specific and have an identifiable time frame. If Isaiah had said something like, “Six centuries from now God will lay a cornerstone and his name will be Joshua…” (Joshua being the Hebrew equivalent of Jesus) then I might consider calling this a prophecy of Jesus.
Here’s one from the Gospel attributed to Matthew: he uses Hosea 11:1 to say it is referring to Jesus returning after his family fled to Egypt (Matthew 2:15). Here is the actual passage:
When Israel was a youth I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.
The more they called them,
The more they went away from them;
They kept sacrificing to the Baals
And burning incense to idols.
Hosea 11:1, 2
Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols? Does that sound like Jesus to you? Pulling a verse like this out of context does not make it a prophecy; it is clearly talking about Israel, not Jesus. It even says “I called My son,” not “I will call My son.” It is referring to a past event, not prophesying a future event. Many of the so-called prophecies of Jesus are much like this.
In the next post we’ll pick up with one of the most famous “prophecies” about Jesus, and look at some other questionable predictions of the prophets.
Thinking exercises:
1. Look up a list of Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. Read them in context and decide for yourself if they are truly prophecies of a future messiah, and if Jesus fulfilled them.
2. Make a list of predictions for the next year on separate pieces of paper with the current date. If any appear to come true amaze your friends by showing them off. (Throw away the ones you got wrong, of course.)