Case Studies in Prophetry

In our discussion of prophets, so far three opinions have emerged concerning the question of whether we need them: 

1. We don’t need prophets at all in our modern time because God has already given us adequate messages and instructions. He really doesn’t have anything more to say.
   
2. Not only do we need modern prophets but also they are promised in the Bible (Amos 3:7: The prophets will arise and give the people the secrets of God) by Jesus, in his “Woes” to the Pharisees, in which he promised to send “prophets and teachers and sages” (Matthew 23).
   
3. The question of whether we need prophets in our time is really the wrong question because, given modern skepticism of such things as prophets, even if one did arise we would not believe him or her anyway. 

What is it that makes a prophet? We learned last week that prophecy is a calling, not an applied-for position. We learned that prophets have a specific message, usually of change. Prophets are agents of change. Indeed, it’s possible that a faith community may be incapable of making changes without a prophet. The compulsion to change is what makes death by murder an occupational hazard of being a prophet.

But how do we know if a prophet is real? And what are the secrets of God that the Prophet possesses? Anyway, as Amos says: “Certainly the Lord God does nothing Unless He reveals His secret plan To His servants the prophets.” 

As discussed in our study of Truth, we are drawn to secrets and to the mystery of God. The idea that the prophets could unveil the secrets of God and disclose the mysteries is, I believe, what makes us attracted to them. Somehow, if we could penetrate the mystery of God, we think we would be much better off. If we knew what God has in secret, and we could somehow know what God knows, it would somehow work out to our advantage. 

Last week, Carolyn asked a question about Sarah Young: Does she have a message from God, and why is there confusion around whether or not she had prophetic insight? Sarah Young serves as an excellent case study, I think, into the subject we’re discussing. She was (she is deceased now) a prophet in the Western culture. Another case study is TB Joshua, a well-known prophet and evangelist in Africa, also deceased now. I’ll use these case studies to ask the questions: Do these people have a message from God? Does the message resonate with the Bible? If their writings or actions or spoken words are beneficial, is that enough to authenticate their work? 

First, Sarah Young. Sarah Young wrote a book called Jesus Calling, based on another book that she was inspired by, named God Calling, published in 1932. The Southern Evangelical Seminary and Bible College published a long but insightful critique of Sarah Young’s book, written by College alumna Marcia Montenegro. [Dr. Weaver read aloud a substantial portion of this article in class. I am attaching a link to the article rather than reproducing it here—Ed.] Montenegro concludes: 

God can use a book that is not biblical but He does this in spite of its flaws; this does not mean the book is valid. Jesus Calling in this example becomes a substitute for the Bible. We must consider how this could mislead non-Christians into thinking these words are from Jesus; the priority should be truth, not what is appealing. So far, all the defenses of this book I have seen, including in dialogues I’ve had with the book’s devotees, have been subjective and based on experiences with the book. 

The Jesus who comes through is not a Jesus of glory and majesty, but rather an over-emotional, breathy, sometimes whiny figure. No, I do not think that this is the real Jesus who is “calling.” 

So there you have one person claiming to have special messages from God, written in first person to a modern world, and selling millions of copies.

The other prophet is TB (Temitope Balogun) Joshua, a Nigerian charismatic pastor, televangelist, and philanthropist. He founded and led the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), a Christian megachurch that runs the Emmanuel TV television station from Lagos, Nigeria. 

Joshua was and still is widely known across Africa and Latin America. He had a large social media presence with over 6 million fans on Facebook. Emmanuel TV had over 1 million subscribers and was the most viewed Christian ministry on YouTube before it was suspended in 2021 for alleged homophobic hate speech. Joshua was described by media outlets as the “Oprah of Evangelism” and YouTube’s most popular pastor. 

According to Joshua, he spent 15 months in his mother’s womb, and narrowly avoided death after a quarry explosion near his house sent rocks through his roof just seven days after his birth. According to his followers, a prophecy about the birth of a man of God from poor neighborhoods of Nigeria given 100 years ago, applied to TB Joshua. 

Joshua wrote that in a heavenly vision he had received a divine anointing and a covenant from God to start his ministry. Following this, he founded SCOAN. According to that organization, more than 15,000 members attend weekly Sunday service. Visitors from outside Nigeria are accommodated in blocks constructed within the church.  The Guardian newspaper reported that SCOAN attracts more weekly attendees than the combined number of visitors to Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. SCOAN’s popular services have also resulted in enormous boosts for local businesses and hotel owners. 

SCOAN has been described as Nigeria’s biggest tourist attraction, the most visited destination of religious tourists in West Africa, with thousands of foreigners flocking to the church’s weekly service. Figures released by the Nigerian Immigration Service indicate that six out of every 10 foreign travelers coming to Nigeria are bound for this ministry, a fact discussed in Zimbabwe’s Parliament in a debate on the economic potentials of religious tourism. The Day newspaper reported that about 2 million local and inbound tourists visited SCOAN annually. The church’s popularity led to an increase in flight routes to Lagos from several African countries in 2013. 

SCOAN claims that Joshua regularly facilitated miracles at the church. Several hundred people, Nigerian and international, visited SCOAN each week to participate in prayer lines prayed over by Joshua. SCOAN has published numerous videos claiming to document the healing of illnesses, disabilities, and injuries, many of which are known to be medically incurable (such as HIV/AIDS and blindness), and spiritual healing. 

SCOAN has been the subject of several media reports including a mention in Time magazine and the Associated Press, and an article by Foreign Policy detailing the tendency of Nigerians to seek spiritual help due to insufficient medical facilities. Many people have said they were healed by the anointing water that had been prayed over by Joshua and given to those who are unable to physically attend his church in Legos. Others say they were protected from deadly incidences because they were carrying the water with them. 

SCOAN is also known for the purported deliverance during its services of people allegedly possessed by evil spirits. Strange occurrences have been reported during these deliverance prayers, including the case of a South African girl who allegedly cried tears of blood and a Liberian man who began behaving like a dog, A young man allegedly delivered from a homosexual demon at SCOAN also attracted world wide attention, as it provided the purported transformation of a Paraguayan transvestite from being a woman into being a man. 

SCOAN claims that Joshua has successfully predicted events in the lives of individuals who attended his church services, as well as worldwide events including a purported prophecy of Michael Jackson’s death and the outcome of two African Nations Cup finals. Joshua was voted by the public to be among the most famous prophets of Africa. His prophecy about the impending death of an African president was widely reported in the African press. Joshua’s followers believe the prophecy concerned a former president of Malawi who died in 2012 at age 78. 

Joshua incorrectly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 US election but after this prophecy failed to materialize (Donald Trump won that election) Joshua stated he was referring to Clinton’s win of the popular vote by more than three million and any misinterpretation was a lack of spiritual understanding. 

Joshua has many critics and is controversial. He was publicly condemned by several prominent pastors within Nigeria, his most vocal critic being Pastor Okotie, who described him as the son of the devil. He was blacklisted by the government of Cameroon in 2010. Rumors of a visit by Joshua to Zimbabwe in 2012 led to intense national debate culminating with pastors and politicians strongly objecting. He died on June 5, 2021 after one of his evening services, just a week prior to his 58th birthday. 

So there you have two modern prophets: One in the West, one in Africa. 

Laying aside for the moment the specific cases of Sarah Young and TB Joshua, how does one authenticate the message of a prophet? Is an inspirational message, is the presence of miracles, is the ability to exorcize demons, is the ability to foretell the future evidence that this is a person who is a prophet? Does the message need to be specific? Does the message need to be infallible? What are the secrets of God anyway that a prophet should disclose? How does God actually communicate with mankind? 

If something seems ridiculous, like some of these stories from TB Joshua, I have to remind you that prophets have a rather checkered history even in the Scriptures. Isaiah wandered around naked for three years proclaiming the message of God. Ezekiel, at God’s instructions, cooked a specified kind of bread over a fire made of human feces in order to make a specific point that God wanted the people to hear. And Hosea took a wife, at God’s command, from the red light district in order to make a specific kind of sign act, that God wanted to be part of the communication. 

All these bizarre things come from God, all with a purpose and with a message and very bizarre kinds of images. Would you put much stock in these messages? How do you authenticate them? How do we know whether a prophet today is a true prophet or not?  Is it possible that prophets are a cultural element? Maybe a prophet is good for a certain culture but maybe not for another culture. Maybe it’s good for the naive, maybe it’s good where there’s not as much education; but maybe it’s not good for sophisticated cultures. Maybe it’s the difference between first and third world cultures. Does everybody need a prophet? Or do only some people need a prophet? 

What are your thoughts today about identifying a prophet, particularly a prophet in modern times? 

Donald: The word “prophet” is a charged term. It suggests capacity beyond that of a “teacher,” “preacher,” “minister,” and so on. So cynicism sets in. There’s quite a contrast between the two “prophets” described this morning. I have read Jesus Calling and found it a fresh way to come to understand our faith or spirituality. Did Young describe herself as a prophet?

Don: No, I don’t think so. But your comment about it being a charged word I think is apropos. She does imply that she has a message from Jesus.

Donald: Certainly we hear every Sabbath that we are going to hear the message spoken through someone’s mouth. That’s typically prayed for. The message that’s going to be delivered this morning is really a message from God being delivered by a person. Do we mean it or not? I’m not familiar with TB Joshua. Certainly, he’s much more challenging to accept. Predicting elections and things outside of spirituality seems to go beyond the bounds of prophecy.  

But are such people bringing people to Christ? Are they bringing people to themselves? I think that in Jesus Calling Sarah Young was not trying to bring people to her. She was using that tool or technique—writing—to bring people closer to Christ. 

Last point: Certainly, The Chosen is becoming extremely popular. Are the actors prophets? Is the producer a prophet? As Adventists, we have to be real careful in interpretation because we grew up thinking in no uncertain terms in the context of our church being formed by and based upon a prophet. 

Robin: I think someone can be inspired to write or to speak. That doesn’t automatically make theirs a prophetic message. I don’t think CS Lewis, who told the Gospel story eloquently but used fantasy, fantastical characters, to do so, thought he was a prophet, but I think perhaps he was inspired.  

My question about prophets would be: Are they for a certain culture at a certain time? If you try to bring them forward, out of their time and out of their culture, then are you doing a disservice? 

Adaure: Who would the disservice be to?

Robin: I just mean that we cannot apply all messages from all those claiming to be prophets. Does that make them prophets? I don’t think we can equate them with Scripture. That maybe encapsulates my question, and maybe even my problem is that we cannot equate them with Scripture that is revealed through the Holy Spirit, words that are spoken by Jesus and recorded while He was on earth. We have to be careful.

Carolyn: I have read several of Sarah Young’s books. She takes three passages from Scripture and places them together with a message explaining it, with the Lord to help her and to guide her words, as we do every day when we have our prayer time: “May we have the right words, the opportunity, to spread your joy, and your love and your grace.” 

I think this is where I have lost the criticism for Sarah Young, because she’s human, as well as a very fine writer. Some people are putting heavier dimensions on her and making her out to be something she is not. Now they’re demanding to know “Where is she inspired? How is she inspired? Who is she inspired by?” I feel, sometimes, that our advanced technology’s instant way to respond to things lets people get on a bandwagon, and, as they did with Jesus, tear them all apart.

C-J: If you look at the complete context of scriptures, language is really indicative of pointing a way back to the Divine, back to the Creator. It’s “less of me, more of you, Lord.” As for Mr. Joshua, all I could think of was, “Thou hast made my father’s house a den of thieves.” That man was just so far removed from the mark, but it was also time and place. I see that all over the world where people say “God has given me a vision.” It’s just so sad because in all that messaging I didn’t see or hear anywhere where God was lifted up, or humility, or discipline, or charity,… any of that. Those are the hallmarks of (speaking boldly) the belief system of the people who are present and who call themselves Christians, with evidence thereof.  

I wrote down some words this morning about what things seem to be clumped together with prophecy. It has something to do with prediction. It’s usually some kind of an intuitive understanding. There’s a vision (and I don’t mean just in terms of “They can see but we can’t”) with something down the line… futuristic… and it can be done through dreams or, in the in the way that Carolyn is speaking of, I believe that Sarah Young had a very close relationship with God. So for her, God was extremely personal, and I think her messaging was: “It isn’t just me.” 

God’s intention is to have that kind of intimacy with each of those who are willing to receive it—very personal, restorative, generous, kind—those are hallmarks of the God that I believe that those present and others who call themselves Christians use as lines of demarcation. Where’s the fruit? It’s all about God, and the time and culture really are not as important as pointing back to this relationship with the divine, the Creator.

Don: Adaure grew up in South Africa and Malawi, and gives me the impression that  prophet TB Joshua’s influence in that culture was monumental, if not greater.

Adaure: He came from poor origins and then, suddenly, he was a multi millionaire, with a TV station and a church and people lining up to get in. At home, they would play his recorded sermons over and over. It bordered on the fanatical. But this was across multiple countries and cultures in Africa. I grew up among South Africans, Malawians, and Nigerians. Despite their different cultures and different traditional beliefs, they shared an affinity with TB Joshua.  Of course, there were people on the other end of the spectrum who said that even if he had a power, it was the devil’s power. His supporters said his power to heal and do other extraordinary things was from God.  

I didn’t have much experience with Adventism back then. I came to the faith after a very big struggle with the culture I grew up in versus Western culture, which was sort of built into the Adventist message delivered by the missionaries. It changed my life. “Prophetic work” in Africa is changing people’s lives. Whether, in the grand scheme of things, that’s for the good or for the bad is something I continue to struggle with. Not to mention the culture shock of worshiping in America versus worshiping in Africa (which applies not just to the Adventist church, but to Christianity in general.) 

David: One of the things that TB Joshua shows (he’s not the only one—all televangelists are like him, in my experience of them) is that if a prophet popped up today he would be believed; that there is a tremendous hunger for prophecy.  A search for “prophesy” in Google produced a screen including a graph of the use, over time, for the verb (“prophesy.” The noun “prophecy” produced almost the same graph.) Usage of the word declined from the 1800s through to the turn of this century and then shot up back towards 1800 levels of use. Perhaps this is empirical evidence of modern demand for prophecy and tremendous interest in the concept and in prophets.

Don: Why do you think that is? 

C-J: I think it has to do with politics. I think it’s a way to control an environment in an uncertain world, where you don’t feel safe, where there’s scarcity of things, even just basic provisions. It’s the turn of the century. We just came off of a major war. Nobody had much, we’re going into a super depression in the United States, and next thing we know, we wake up and we’re entering another war: World War 2.  

I think prophecy is very closely tied to politics. When you look at the times in history, and at who was in charge of trade routes, whether it was Rome, or Egypt, or Greece, you would see these things pop up because people are asking “What’s going on? Are we going to die?” because there was plenty of evidence that there was a good chance you were going to be invaded and all that you knew and all the hopes you had for future generations was going to be flipped on a dime. You might win you might lose. So I think it has a lot to do with it.  

I think it has to do also with economics. If people are comfortable, they don’t think about it too much, life folds into the next. But when life is precarious, it’s the nature of humankind to turn to something greater than ourselves. It’s very predictable. Even in a nuclear family, you’ll see that. “We just have to work harder, we just have to have faith. We just have to make sacrifices, we just have to be good to one another.” These are themes that we see and say “God’s punishing us” or “God has blessed us because…” or “God isn’t finished yet. God is in the midst. God has given us promises.”  

But it all goes back to relationship. If I’m living my life hoping I’ll be blessed, I don’t think that’s what God had in mind. I don’t think the Creator had that in mind. I’ve had some good times and I’ve had a lot of bad times, but it was always about the relationship. God wasn’t interested in me running back to his lap, like a child to a mother’s lap saying “Protect me, pick me up and comfort me.” It was a partnership. “Teach me. Tell me what I’m looking at. Why is this happening now? Is there something I should be doing? What would you have me to do?” It’s always always about relationship and restoration.  

It’s just a chaotic mess when humans get in the middle of it and try to get ahead of God, like Joshua. That is a mystery to me. From the description I heard this morning, the minute he opened his mouth and the way he does business would turn me off. There was no evidence there that God was working, other than to say, “If you believe this, in the end, it will all be revealed.” Whereas I look at Sarah Young and she was always pointing to the best part of God. Is there a time for the checklist of “Did we get it right?”  

But God’s grace is always in the midst. God’s presence, wisdom,… the fruit is always there. I’ve known some really good Christians who have gotten off the sidewalk in a big way. I believe that God’s grace is sufficient, because at one time, they knew the difference and chose to make those sacrifices. That discipline was active because of the relationship with God. It was healthy.

Donald: It’s clear to me that Sarah Young was attempting to point people toward Christ and benefit their spirituality. That might also have been the case with TB Joshua. Initially, he may have been one that attempted, he was charismatic. It keeps growing and growing and all of a sudden, instead of pointing towards God, it starts to point toward him.  

I used to visit the Willow Creek church near Chicago. At this time of the year you would have to get tickets, because they had a week of Christmas events at the church that was remarkable. Only 5,000 people could be seated in the church. Willow Creek is way, way out from Chicago—very much out in the country. We would pass a small little white idyllic-looking church, with a graveyard and a small parking lot. It contrasted with the lines and lines of cars headed in the direction of Willow Creek. The small church had signs where everybody driving past to Willow Creek could see them, saying “No tickets required.” 

Are we afraid of success? I’m not suggesting that if a church is a success, that means it’s true or that if it’s not a success it’s not true. Sarah Young was not driving people away from Christ, but people are skeptical, and maybe even a bit jealous. Who’s the biggest church in town? Who’s drawing the most attention toward Christ? Let people be!

C-J: I’m very skeptical of those mega churches. They cost a lot of money. I can think of other places to put all that money. I can think of better ways to train. Servants of God go out and consistently speak a message. Even if the training is “Memorize this and do not deviate” (I don’t advocate that—I really believe in letting the Holy Spirit flow, be very personal with people) but when I look at the people that I really consider true servants, I think of Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa—very low key and yet instrumental in a big way in the direction of the government where people are very oppressed. They don’t stand up on podiums and say: “We’ve got to do this.” They’re not trying to change the politics. They’re letting the work speak for them.  

I just think that’s the way everyone in the Bible that really had a successful message that went generationally: That was it—the small still voice, the one who does the labor and looks for no recognition. The recognition is, “Who else would do that?” God resident within us. A life lived in unison, in agreement, with humility, is much more effective. Are you going to get people all over the world to use that tool, the internet, and big lights and funding and rubbing elbows to get a church bill at the crossroads of wherever, recognition on TV and other media? I think we’ve just gone off the deep end.  

I came from a small town. Relationships with community are very important to me. Every religious community that I’ve ever stepped into fell apart because they had expectations that the person at the podium didn’t have clay feet. “You did what? You’re gone.” So what does that mean that you never had the word of God, you had no right to be there? For Christians it’s all or nothing. You’re either in or you’re out and if you’re in, you have to always get it right. It’s ridiculous. We will never grow if we don’t fall. It’s part of the process, how we grow. We have to let go of something if we want to move forward. 

David: Connie has in some ways described Jesus. He is the ideal prophet, and indeed, of course,  Muslims do consider Jesus to be a prophet of God. When you think about the life he lived—a life of humility, he never he never got rich, he never had millions sending in donations. He didn’t build a church. We built one on top of him, afterwards, and maybe in doing so we’ve kind of smothered him and maybe even killed him. I don’t know.  

You have to look at any of these modern prophets who present themselves as TB Joshua did, with a new and flashy jacket for every appearance, all obviously very expensive. Compare that kind of behavior with that of Jesus and ask: Who was a real prophet? There’s just no comparison.  

With regard to Sarah Young, to me, the jury’s still out. Her publishing empire grew pretty rich and no doubt she probably did too. Whether wealth was her primary goal is a different question. The point is, would anybody who is truly speaking for God even want to be rich? Wouldn’t they want to run a mile from being rich? 

Bryan: The graph doesn’t really surprise me as much as I thought it would. Because as Connie mentioned, in uncertain times and times of chaos, the word “prophet” connotes the ability to do things other people cannot—mainly like see the future, to give us comfort in times of stress, separating them from teachers and pastors. “Prophet” means they have the ability to do something else, something above and beyond what a teacher or a pastor has and does, and people look to that.  

So the uptick in people wanting to see the future, or to be assured that good things will happen, is not all that surprising. In Bible times, it seems like there were always prophets—multiple prophets. They were part of the social fabric of the Israelite culture, specifically. Having them around was not something out of the ordinary, it was just part of their life. I guess the assumption, if they were deemed to be a prophet, was that what they said had some truth to it, some meaning to it.  

We talked about skepticism today and whether we need prophets. My jury’s still out. If TB Joshua really did all of this healing, he died at a very young age, and the skeptic in me wats to know why he couldn’t heal himself. Prophet is a very strong term. It connotes a lot of hidden meaning, and it’s going to take a lot for me personally to ever accept a prophet going forward.

Donald: That goes back to the question: Would this society, which thinks it is so sophisticated, accept a prophet? Sarah Young was just a writer. Western society will be pretty cautious about tying the term prophet to her. It would be very difficult for any except a very true prophet. 

Reinhard: The real prophets in the Old Testament dealt with the people and nation and kings of Israel. The message they were told by God to pass on was, number one, to straighten up their act, to repent, to change the way they lived—especially to stop worshiping idols. Maybe Daniel was the only prophet who spoke about politics, as when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams.  

In the modern day I think we probably don’t really need prophets. Most of the Bible prophecies have been fulfilled, including the coming of the Messiah. In the New Testament, we only really talk about Revelation as the prophetic message for the future, for the End Times. I don’t see any other message for us today. Just before he went back to heaven, Jesus told the disciples (Acts 1:6-8) when they asked: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” he said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”  We don’t really have to worry about the exact time of the End because the next verse says: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you [note the importance of getting thr Holy Spirit] and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.” We must have the word of God in us, to strengthen us to do God’s work and to act the way he wants.  

Maybe God uses modern-day “prophets” to attract some people to God by telling them what they want to hear. As individuals, maybe these prophets have many weaknesses, just like the televangelists (the PTL scandal, Jimmy Swaggert, and so on.) They were successful in bringing people to God but they were only human, imperfect, and desiring wealth. God will judge all these things.  But the one sure thing is that the word of God will hold true through the end of times, The messengers may have feet of clay but the message from God remains valid and is what we need. God wants people to live according to God’s will. I think that’s the key: That the message itself will go through, according to his will.

Don: So Reinhard is standing up for TB Joshua and the televangelists. I’m glad to hear it, because now we have those who don’t think there’s any message for today, those who think there’s a message but nobody will believe it, and those who think that the message can come from any number of sources.  

Next week, we’re going to talk about how God communicates with people. Have you ever received a communication from God? We will talk about dreams and visions and the biblical understanding of how God communicates with Humankind. 

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