The Need for Prophecy

To prophesy (v.) means to predict the future.  And in the Bible, many prophets do just that. They provide prophecy (n.).

Yet the Biblical prophets also read the signs of the times, call the people of God to repentance, and give warnings. So Scriptures provide us with the fullness of prophecy, even though the last Biblical prophet lived two millennia ago.

The Messages of Prophets

While John the Baptist spoke of the coming Messiah, his primary message was repentance. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah spoke warnings and urged fidelity to God in a troubled age of Israel’s history. Jeremiah spoke the very unpopular word of the Lord warning about the Babylonians who would soon take Israel into exile. At the same time, God used Jeremiah to prophesy about the new covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-34). Every Lent we hear from Hosea, whom God asked to marry “a woman of prostitution” in order to show Northern Israel its infidelity (Hosea 1:2).

Despite their different historical eras and situations, the prophets collectively call Israel to return to the Lord, the God of their fathers. Do not do what is evil, avoid false gods, and be faithful to the covenant. However simple such prophecy might seem on the surface, this is precisely the message that often makes the occupation of prophet a fatal endeavor.

The danger of being a prophet rests in our fallen human nature. On one hand, humans have a tremendous capacity for truth, goodness, and beauty. Conversely, we also have within them a savagery that has the ability to throw those three transcendents out the window. And this latter aspect of human nature is the target and mission of the prophet.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn made a famous observation in “The Gulag Archipelago”:

“. . . [T]he line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.”

The World Has No Answer

For all its glitz and glamour, the darker side of human nature baffles the secular world. Secularists seem to think more man-made laws can fix everything.  They fail to take prophecy into account.

One place I recently noticed this was in H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel “The Time Machine.” In the novel an experiment in time travel transports the narrator to the future.  He finds the state of humanity terribly grim.

As I thought of zombie movie franchises and books, I could not think of any futuristic novels/movies that painted a positive picture of the future. The only exception that came to mind was the Star Trek franchise.  Star Trek skips forward a few centuries to find that humanity has solved poverty and become more egalitarian.

Think about Robert Hugh Benson’s “Lord of the World” (written in 1907), the “Planet of the Apes” movie franchise, Huxley’s “Brave New World,” and Orwell’s “1984.” None of these paints a picture of a desirable future world.  If humanity has turned its back on God, is this any surprise?

Divine Revelation

Catholics, however, have a theological framework for understanding both the fallen nature of humanity and sin (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church #385-390 on the Fall, and #396-412 on Original Sin). If we can see that sin is an offense against God, and ruptures our relationship with Him, the words of the Gospel and its prophets make sense:

“Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind’s origins.  Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc.” (CCC #387)

Outside of the illumination of divine Revelation, we cannot see sin. Put another way: if we fashion “a god” in our image and likeness, there is no relationship with the true God. With no relationship to worry about, sin poses no threat.

This kind of “god” is exactly what C.S. Lewis spoke to in a very perceptive image. In describing pantheism, he writes:

“The Pantheist’s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you. There is no danger that at any time heaven and earth should flee away at His glance.” – “Miracles,” pg. 149

Fallen Human Nature – The Target of Prophecy

Dr. Jeffery Mirus noted that “in the end, a prophetic denunciation is really designed to assist us in honestly accusing ourselves.” We need this kind of prophecy more than knowledge of the future.

History bears out this example year after year, century after century. Societies as a whole need correction and warning: casting God aside only turns humanity in on itself. The farther the world gets from God, the worse its problems become. Just as humanity cannot figure itself out without God, it cannot solve its problems without Him, either. We need the fullness of prophecy to assist us.

Individuals need prophecy as well. Without repentance, the Christian life is impossible. That’s not a judgment so much as a logical conclusion. If God becomes only a book on a shelf, repentance is a non-factor.

Where to Look for the Answer?

A very important thing for all Christians to take to heart is that whether in good times or in bad, in persecution or in flourishing, Christ is the answer. The only modern prophecies worth listening to are those that follow the pattern of the biblical prophets: return to the Lord, do not do what is evil, avoid false gods, and be faithful to the new covenant. There is always hope precisely because God is the source of hope. The core of even the most dire prophecy is a call to return to the divine life.

Any “prophecy” or “prophet” calling Christians to look to the world for answers—to embrace abortion, approve homosexual ‘marriage’, encourage transgenderism—speaks for the ‘god on the shelf.’  Christians should not look exactly like the world. If we do, something is wrong.

So much of getting on in life has to do with to whom we listen. Listen to Our Lord, the scriptures, and speakers who are true disciples. Life will never be easy and no true prophet would preach the easy way. We have lots of models in the saints.  Holy martyrs, pray for us!