“Do not believe every spirit…because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 Jn 4:1).
The word “prophet” comes from the Hebrew root naba’ meaning to speak by inspiration. The Lord was deeply concerned that the people could trust everything He said, including what He communicated through men. He knew that those who wanted to hear God’s voice might be misled by some who pretended to speak for Him. Unlike the Canaanites who “listened to soothsayers and diviners” (Deut 18:14), He wanted the nation of Israel to have ears only for His Word. The responsibility went in both directions—the hearing and speaking. “Whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him” (v 19). As the New Testament puts it, “Do not despise prophecies” (1 Thess 5:20). We can’t pick and choose what we like from God’s Word, or reject the truth because we don’t like the preacher’s style. Now in the other direction, even more seriously because it reflected on God’s trustworthiness, “The prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die” (Deut 18:20). But how would they know if it was not a message from God? “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously” (v 22). Today believers have the indwelling Spirit and God’s complete revelation in the Bible. Any who preach “another gospel,” who diminish our thoughts of the Lord, who elevate man apart from the work of Christ, who base theories on obscure verses, or gather disciples after themselves should be seen as dangerous to the faith. “From such withdraw yourself” (1 Tim 6:5).