Prophetic Inspiration

Paper Summary:

The role of a prophet in society has often been questioned and misunderstood. Prophets are often seen as peculiar people who receive divine inspiration. The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether a prophet is always inspired. It defines prophetic inspiration and the function of a prophet and focuses on how to distinguish between prophecy that is inspired and prophecy that is uninspired.

Outline
Introduction
Prophetic Inspiration
Are All Prophets Inspired?
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"It is important to keep in mind that prophets are people and that they can misinterpret God's words or operate out of their own desires. Although there were many prophets that were inspired by God throughout the Bible, there were also false prophets and prophets that were not always inspired by God. A book entitled, The Prophets: Their Personalities and Teachings explains that the false prophets were actually nothing more than soothsayers, traveling the country in groups and were paid to make predictions. The bible refers to these soothsayers as the prophets of Baal. Throughout the bible, there are some distinguishing characteristics of false prophets and real prophets. For instance, the book reports that the false prophets traveled in groups or gangs. (Cohon) On the other hand, the true prophets "Stood alone". "

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