LIFE TOGETHER: AN INTERACTIVE STUDY OF 1 CORINTHIANS

PROPHECY

Prophecy is of particular interest to many Christians. The extremely popular Left Behind series of novels fictionally depicts a bleak scenario of what evangelical Christians believe will be the Great Tribulation preceding the Second Coming of Christ; these novels - while refusing to give a date for Armageddon itself - nonetheless have fueled a resurgence of speculation about the End Times.

There are several meanings of the word “prophecy.” According to St. Irenaeus, “Prophecy is a prediction of future things. That is, it is a declaration beforehand of things that will happen later.” This certainly means that one function of a prophet is to foretell the future. Holy Scripture contains many prophecies concerning the people of Israel, the human race in general, and the coming of the Messiah. There are still instances - albeit very rare - in which the Holy Spirit gifts pious saints with clairvoyance.

St. Diodore mentions a second function of prophecy that is far more applicable to most Christians: “Prophecy may also refer to the interpretation of a prophet’s words;” i.e., a prophet is also a person who can correctly interpret and teach the Word of God revealed in Holy Scripture. This means, according to Fr. Thomas Hopko, “Jesus shares His gift of prophecy with all who belong to Him. He gives the Holy Spirit to all of His disciples that they too might know the Father and speak His words and be themselves ‘the light of the world’ (Matthew 5:14-16).” Evangelism - the focus of the second half of this unit - is a prophetic work in which all Christians are called to share.

St. Paul reinforces this understanding of “prophecy” in 1 Corinthians 14:3: “he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.” The gift of prophecy that is given to all of us is the ability to teach others the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to convince others of the need to worship God and enter into a relationship with Him (14:24-25).

The issue is not whether we are given this gift - it is how much of the gift we currently possess. The passage from Romans teaches us that we prophesy “in proportion to our faith.” This means that our success at teaching others about Christ is related to how deeply we believe what we are teaching and how deeply the truth of this teaching has changed our lives.

The Didache instructs, “Not every one who speaketh in the spirit is a prophet, but he is so who hath the disposition of the Lord; by their dispositions they therefore shall be known, the false prophet and the prophet.” In other words, our teaching - even though what we are teaching is true - will not be prophetic if Christ is not visible in our own lives. A prophet not only speaks the truth, but also is a visible representation of that truth.