THE AUTHORITY OF NEW TESTAMENT PROPHETS
New Testament prophecy appears to have had two levels of prophets,or with several different descriptions. There seemed to be a slightdifference between prophecy in the Palestinian Christian Circles andthe Pauline churches. Also, there was a sort of "apocaliptic"prophecy in Thessalonica. There were also "missionary prophets", and "itinerant prophets".
There were also "community prophets". Those considered to have the professional gift, or lasting gift,were the apostles, in contrast to those others who only prophesied occasionally. Also, it should be kept in mind, as I previously stated, that there was a distinction of authority between the various levels of prophets. Some of the New Testament prophets were not given the authority by the early church, as it did to the prophets who wrote the canonical Old Testament. In fact, none of the New Testament prophets, whether revelatory or not, enjoyed the authority which the Old Testament prophets had. It should be kept in mind, that in the New Testament, there was adifference in the authority the prophet thought he had, vs. the actual authority which others allowed him.
So, the New Testament prophet could have either been an impostor, genuine, or self deceived!In First Corinthians, the apostle Paul claimed to have the most authority, both as a prophet and apostle. This is the reason he wastrying to correct their church, which included other prophets. Paul told them that when he came to them, his "speech and preaching wasnot with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." (1 Corinthians 2:4) He claimed divine authority in that church! He stated, "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me." (1 Corinthians 4:15,16)He finally claims his rightful authority in 1 Corinthians 9:1,2, when he says, "Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubltless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord."
There is a strong indication that in 1 Corinthians, there were prophets who were giving messages, but which were questionable as to whether they were divinely inspired or not. The reasons are because of the message Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 14. He says in vs.29, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.Then he goes on to say in vs. 30, "If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace." So, there must have been real strong questions in their midst of whether anyof the prophets messages were really divinely inspired, direct from God, because how could they dare interrupt each other right in themiddle of each others messages. If one prophet was giving a message, another had a right to interrupt him before he finished. Then that prophet's message stood a very good chance of being permanentlyterminated right there, without him even having the chance to come back to it and finish it! Therefore, it is highly unlikely that those who claimed to be prophets were sure their prophesies were directly from God, otherwise, they certainly would not have dared to stop a message of God! The Holy Spirit would not have interrupted Himself to suddenly give another message leaving His other unfinished. Also in vs. 32, Paul explained, "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." Notice the word spirits is with a small s, denoting the human spirit, and not the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is neversubject to any prophet. So, it can be certain that in the Corinthian church, the prophets did not claim Divine authority as "Thus saith the Lord". They were just exercising their faith by prophesying fromtheir own human spirits. After each of them prophesied, they were tojudge the authenticity and doctrinal content of each other's messages.
That did not necessarily mean that one prophet would give a message, and another would stand up and verbally critique the message and correct any errors he may have thought he heard in front of the remaining of the congregation.The Greek word for "judge" can just as well mean "evaluate",indicating that what Paul had in mind was where each person would evaluate in his own mind, or weigh what was said, either acceptingthe prophecy as being helpful or good; or rejecting some of it as being misleading or erroneous. The fact is, that some of the message may have been inspirational, while part of it may have been carnal. The same applies today with preaching. Not all of every message is Divinely inspired. Part of most messages are carnal, or from men's wisdom. It is very likely that the prophets were not judging each other, but they were evaluating the content of each others messages. The lesson Jesus had given His disciples in Matthew 7:1, was most likely to have been recorded bythat time for their teaching.
Jesus had stated, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with that judgement whether the prophet was false or not, would have required a congregational vote which would have taken some time, so it is very unlikely that they were judging the authenticity of the prophets office or authority, but the content of his doctrine or message. Matthew had warned about false prophets "who came to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. "These will be known by their fruits." (Matthew7:15-20, Matthew 24:11,24).
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