You Have To Get Over The Bar

In case you were thinking of changing careers to Christian prophet, you should be aware that someone out there thinks you should be meeting a set of standards in order to assume this prestigious role. Here’s their lead-in:

WE BELIEVE that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of prophecy and the ministry of the prophet, are essential for the edification of the Body of Christ and the work of the ministry, which is why Scripture exhorts us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that we may prophesy (see 1 Cor. 14:1, 39). Prophetic ministry is of great importance to the Church and must be encouraged, welcomed, and nurtured.

Or, in other words, We want to be prophets because it’s easy work, so here’s why we’re essential workers.

But they do recognize that the greedy and undisciplined may endanger everyone’s livelihood:

WE RECOGNIZE the unique challenges posed by the internet and social media, as anyone claiming to be a prophet can release a word to the general public without any accountability or even responsibility. While it is not possible to stop the flood of such words online, we urge all believers to check the lives and fruit of those they follow online and also see if they are part of a local church body and have true accountability for their public ministries and personal lives. We also urge prophetic ministers posting unfiltered and untested words purportedly from the Lord to first submit those words to peer leaders for evaluation.

There’s more, but that’s enough. As an agnostic who’s quite dubious about any of the current religions being anywhere close to reality, I find it hard to take this seriously; still, I can see how someone writing this may be in earnest. I don’t want to be too unfair in mocking them, but it’s still important to realize that belief is not proof, and that prophecy, being fundamentally based on private knowledge rather than public knowledge, should be recognized as an unsound basis for communications with the Divine, should it exist. A Divine creature is unconstrained by definition, and thus prophecy is a form of communications completely uncalled for and ultimately damaging, even destructive, of a belief in the Divine.

Prophecy should simply be ignored as untrustworthy.