Have you heard any prophets recently? With so many would-be prophets around it’s hard to sift the shepherds from the wolves. Internet algorithms try to help, but recent advances in Artificial Stupidity (that is what AI stands for, isn’t it?) have made the problem worse, not better.
We think of prophecy as predicting the future, but a prophet should be much more than a predictor or futurologist. A prophet is there to guide us into the future. Not like a signpost so much as a shepherd: who knows the right way, shows the right road, walks on it, and encourages us along too.
“The end is nigh” are easy words to say – but if that’s all you have, you are no prophet just a doomsayer or scaremonger. How ‘nigh’ the end is we don’t know, but a prophet can help you navigate from here to there.
John the Baptist was the greatest prophet (see Mat 11:11). He told how to live without incurring God’s wrath, but more importantly, he recognised Jesus, pointed to Jesus, sent his disciples to Jesus, baptized Jesus. He was truthful, faithful, constant. It cost him his life; but, as with all God’s children, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Php 1:21)
Raymond