Prophets and Prophetic Words

Arthur C. Clarke was an English science-fiction writer and inventor who authored and produced the science-fiction movies 2001 and 2011. People considered him a prophet because, in the 1960s, he predicted the use of satellites for communications.

Peter had a much stricter definition of prophetical writings.

“Every prophetical writing doesn’t originate from an individual’s explanation because prophecies don’t come from people’s will. Instead, people spoke words from God as the Holy Spirit carried them.” (2 Pet 1:20–21)

Peter saw true prophetic words as divine in origin. The people or their willpower didn’t produce them, and the prophecies weren’t explanations of divine mysteries that people came up with. Instead, a true prophecy came from God. In fact, the prophets spoke those from God as the Holy Spirit carried them. Although the verb fero can mean many things, one common use in classical Greek was a pregnant woman carrying a child in her womb. Like a child protected and nurtured by a mother, people who were protected and nurtured by the Holy Spirit spoke God’s words, which were prophecies.

(Even the extended meaning of the prophecy, like exhortation or rebuke, still stems from the basic meaning that God spoke through people empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is why those who claim they are prophesying must ensure the prophecies are not their own understanding, thoughts, or interpretation; instead, they truly originate from God and via the Holy Spirit.)

Peter defined prophecy in the context of the gospel that he preached.

“We received this sure prophetic word, in which you do well to hold on as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day appears and the morning lights appear in your hearts.” (2 Pet 1:19)

He had just explained how he didn’t create wisely devised myths when he shared the gospel with them; instead, he was an eyewitness to God saying Jesus was his beloved Son (1:16–18). That was what he referred to as the sure prophetic word. Yet, that was like a torch people held or headlamp people wore in the darkness that gave them enough light to survive until the morning came and the sun lit the entire place! As sure as they were, prophecies and visions like seeing Jesus transfigure still didn’t compare to the reality of Jesus appearing as morning lights and enlightening people’s hearts.

Peter was fighting prophets who claimed they had visions and dreams and that their messages were unique and more significant than the apostles. In that context, Peter wanted his readers to know that seeing Jesus’s transfiguration authenticated his message, like all Old Testament true prophecies. But more than all visions, testimonies, dreams, and prophecies, what mattered was the appearance of Jesus Christ in one’s heart. That was the true daylight when the sun shone. The rest were torches, lamps, and headlights that gave enough light but not enough.

The Lord Jesus’s presence in our hearts and lives is far more important than being able to prophesy or interpret prophecies. If we had the choice between bright daylight and warm sunlight at a tropical beach or a gloomy, rainy, and cold evening in a remote place with a torch barely giving us light and warmth, which one we prefer? The bright daylight and warm sunlight at a tropical beach! Our Lord Jesus is that bright daylight and warm sunlight at a tropical beach; all prophecies and interpretations are flickering lights.