Can Prophets Be Wrong?

Q. According to 1st Corinthians 13:9, Paul speaks of “prophecy in part” and many people today point to that as justification for the many “prophecies” today being way off or completly wrong. Personally I don’t see that as being correct, and Deuteronomy speaks specifically of prophets having to be 100% correct or face dire consequences.

Do you see justification for the many “prophets” today being wrong? Can we trust those people to be speaking for God?

A. If 1 Cor. 13:9 can be used to justify prophets being wrong today, then it would have applied to an even greater degree in Old Testament times, since we know more of God’s plan than they did. It would have made Deut. 18:20-22 unnecessary.

The gift of prophecy as described in 1 Cor. 12 & 14 is not the same as the Office of Prophet from the past. The gift of prophecy is meant to help the church with details of God’s plan as outlined by the Prophets of old, the last of whom was Jesus. Therefore every new prophecy has to conform to His word.

In my opinion the incorrect or false prophecies of today stem from the fact that there’s a great abuse of the gift of prophecy and the perpetrators of this abuse are not held accountable. For example famous “prophets” have been prophesying of a coming world wide revival for as long as I can remember. But the Bible says no such thing. In fact, it says the opposite, that there’ll be a great falling away, or apostasy, until the true church is left with little strength.

In days of old the Lord sent people like Isaiah and especially Jeremiah to counteract this kind of thing. In our time He’s given us His Word to which all prophecy must conform. Sadly, a lot of it doesn’t.