Prophets: Do they still exist today? 9

* Luís Alberto Alves

The Lord is present everywhere, knows our thoughts, even before they arise in the mind of the Christian, and knows our future. Something that no prophet, flesh and blood, would have to fulfill. According to his Word, we are his witnesses if we keep his commandments.

When God intends to speak to His servants, the Lord uses His Word, which is found in the Bible, and is renewed every day. No one has yet had the strength to replace the Word of God. We are all dependent on the Grace of the Lord. And each of us is the church of the Lord, whose temple of the Holy Spirit is our heart.

 He does not dwell in a temple built by human hands, as many religious insist on saying today. The temples exist for Christians to share their fellowship with the Lord, to study His Word, but never to leave it in the background to have clean hands and a pure heart, without which no one will see God in eternity, nor those who only attend the churches , without any intimacy with God.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 8

* Luís Alberto Alves

Whenever a disciple speaks of something concerning the future, as in Matthew, chapter 24/24, the name of Jesus Christ is quoted. It is different from the Old Testament, when the prophet quotes the following phrase: "Thus saith the Lord ..." Even when the Christian is in sin, there is no need to sacrifice ox, sheep, dove or delicacies. Just look at chapter 51, verse 1, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy mercy, according to thy great mercy, blot out my transgressions."

In Psalm 50, verse 15, the Lord makes it clear when the Christian is in a dangerous situation: "Call upon me in the day of peril! I will deliver you and you will give me glory. " Anyone, even one who has not yet confessed Christ as Savior, can ask for help from the Lord, without dependence on any prophet, because Jesus Christ, when leaving for Heaven, has left us the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us until with whispers.

From the moment that Jesus Christ was resurrected, there is no longer a need for prophets, as in the Old Testament, who served as intermediaries between God and the people. Today, the prophet of the prophets allows us to have access to Him at any time, regardless of the situation.

It is not necessary to wear certain clothes, to put powders on the face, to pour some essence of perfume on the body, to be barefoot or to recite words, as if they were mantras. The ears of Jesus Christ will always be open to our cry, especially in the moments when despair knocks at the door of the heart and only remains to remember Jesus and cry out for his help.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 7

* Luís Alberto Alves

No need to sacrifice animals to appease the Lord's wrath. It is no longer necessary to run just as crazy behind some prophet as to convey some message from God, explaining whether something is wrong or right. Jesus makes it very clear in the gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 5, that He is the way and the Truth. This Truth is his Word, which frees, converts and saves. In this same text Jesus makes it very clear that the Father lives in him and is doing the work.

It is this detail that shows why it is not necessary for the Christian to run after a prophet to hear the Word of God. It is present in the Bible. And no preacher goes up to the pulpit to bring any message from God without quoting some Bible book, whether from the New Testament or the Old Testament. It is this Word that serves as a channel for the Christian to understand the will of the Lord.

In Psalms 86, verse 11, God makes it very clear: "Lord, show me your way, that I may go in faithfulness to you. Guide my heart to fear Your Name. " That is, it is enough for the Christian or even the Gentile to open his mouth with sincerity, without the help of any prophet, that the Lord will guide him through his Word.

As we look closely at the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, the disciples' testimonies are visible on the three-year walk they had alongside Jesus Christ. Some particularities can not be ignored: Matthew directed his gospel to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, Luke to the Greeks, and John to the Gentiles. The various letters of Paul also reveal his intimacy with Jesus Christ and through his revelations various information is passed on to the churches, which he inaugurated on his journey through that region of Asia.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 6

* Luís Alberto Alves

According to Joel 2:28, the prophet was seen as one who was at the ends of time, or past or future, representing an eschatological figure. In Luke 7:16, when Jesus resurrected the son of the widow of Nain, the people recognized that Jesus was a great prophet who had risen in Israel. And when the fame of his prophetic ministry spreads.

In the New Testament, Jesus' disciples take on the ministry of preaching the Good News, healing the sick, freeing the possessed. But they were not prophets, because the Son of God Himself was at their side, all they needed to know about the Heavens, Jesus Christ enlightened them, though some of them had difficulty understanding that Jesus Christ was God Himself, but living here on earth, as a human being, who was thirsty, hungry, sleepy, sad and even weeping, as he had when he brought word of the death of his friend Lazarus.

But what is the New Testament difference from the Old Testament in the role of the prophets? In the Old Testament, no one could enter into contact with God were it not for some prophet. This was the rule from the time Moses received the tablets of the 10 Commandments. Sometimes the phenomenon of theophany occurred when the Angel of the Lord materialized as a human being, as is reported in Genesis, chapter 18, 10/13, when the Angel of the Lord communicates that Sarah will become pregnant even in old age.

At that time Jesus Christ was not yet present on Earth as a human being. The perfect sacrifice would still happen in the future. When Jesus Christ dies, the veil of the temple breaks, where the sacrifice of animals was offered by the priest for the atonement of sins, this picture undergoes profound changes. Access to God is facilitated by the prophet of the prophets, Jesus Christ!

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 5

* Luís Alberto Alves

In the New Testament we have the figure of John the Baptist, known as "the voice that preaches in the wilderness," as the Gospel of Matthew tells, chapter 3, verse 13, when he makes clear the coming of Jesus Christ, who will have power to baptize the Christians with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

It is in this passage that it is very clear that the last prophet passes the staff to his cousin, Jesus Christ, the son of Isabella and the priest Zechariah. From the age of 30, Jesus Christ begins his ministry, at that age, a man in Judaism can act as a rabbi, but because he is the son of God, he is the teacher of the teachers, the high priest who goes to make the perfect sacrifice, which no man has been able to accomplish since the beginning of the world, and also the prophet of the prophets.

During the three years that he lived with his disciples he showed in practice what every prophet should have, emphasizing that in Judaism, the figure of the prophet is highly respected, because he speaks under divine inspiration. It is worth mentioning that in Israel the most important offices were those of prophets, priests and king. The prophet must have three qualities: he must teach, have prediction, and work miracles. These three offices Jesus Christ fulfilled to the letter as it is written in Deuteronomy 18.15, Acts 3.22; Mt. 13:57; Luke 13.33 and John 6:14.

Contrary to what many think, God himself will severely charge those who do not heed the words of this prophet. "And whosoever shall not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require of him" (Deuteronomy 18:19). Today many people call themselves prophets, speaking words that do not come from the Lord, but from the flesh, with prophecies that will never be fulfilled, inducing different Christians to discouragement and even apathy, ending with a departure from the Lord's ways.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 4

* Luís Alberto Alves

In the Old Testament, books with fewer pages became known in Israel as "lesser prophets" and those of more pages, "greater prophets," but without disregarding their importance before the Lord.

During the time of the kings, the prophets of Yahweh preached in the northern kingdom (Israel), while Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Sophonijah and Jeremiah prophesied in the southern kingdom (Judah).

God used the prophets at that time to call his people and their leaders back into a covenant relationship with him (2 Kings 17:13) and warned them to judgment that they would come to refuse to repent and obey God. At this time the greatest prophets were Elijah (1 Kings 1719, 2 Kings 1 and 2) and Elisha (Ireis 19, 2 Kings 2-13)

During the Old Testament this was God's means of communication with his people. No one, not even kings, was allowed to speak to the Lord if they did not consult a prophet. According to Judaism, the last prophet would have been Malachi, according to the division of the books that make up the Old Testament. The blank page in some Bibles is the remembrance of the 400 years that God remained silent, without uttering a single word to his people.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 3

* Luís Alberto Alves

What is the role of the prophet? It was to listen to the Lord and to pass on to the people his Words, even those considered harsh, as Jeremiah did when he spoke of God for more than 20 years, and the Israelite people refused to listen to him, to the point of throwing him into a pit full of mud. There is the case of the prophet Hanani, 2 Chronicles 16/7, who rebuked the king of Judah, Asa, who refused to trust in God, seeking refuge with the king of Syria. In this same book of 2 Chronicles, 18 / 14-34, there is the story of another anonymous prophet, Micaiah, who prophesied the truth against King Ahab.

For many centuries, the prophets fulfilled their role: to hear the messages of God and to pass on to the people. Isaiah had the privilege, 850 years before, of announcing the birth of Jesus Christ, as it is written in the book of Isaiah, chapter 9, 1-7. Isaiah is the prophet considered to be messianic because it was much used by God in predictions that were to occur more than 1,000 after his death.

It was through him that in chapter 10, verse 1-10, that Isaiah describes how our Justice operates, where at present "the poor are deprived of their rights and the oppressed do not have full access to the Judiciary." He is so used by God that the Lord gives him notions of astronomy, as it is in chapter 40, verse 15. In this same chapter, God tells Isaiah, in verse 22, that "He sits on his throne above the dome of the earth, whose inhabitants are to him as grasshoppers ... "

The names of some prophets, with their writings transformed into books in the holy scriptures, show the care of God. Zechariah (God remembered), Malachi (My messenger), Samuel (Heard by God), Isaiah (Lord saves), Jeremiah (God exalts), Ezekiel (God is powerful), Daniel (God is my judge).

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 2

* Luís Alberto Alves

The Hebrews came to the earth flowing with milk and honey, as God had promised. To keep the Word of God in effect, the Lord is choosing people to be His emissaries, acting as prophets. They are men of great intimacy with God, for they hear his instructions and sometimes repressions and pass them over to the people. But the rebelliousness, since more than 3 thousand years ago, already accompanied the Jews.

In Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 14, the Lord announces to Moses that he will soon die and asks him to call Joshua in the Tent of Meeting, as will be the case after his departure for Glory. In this conversation, God warns Joshua that the Israelite people will embrace corruption, worshiping strange gods, forgetting the Lord. Because of this, many tragedies will strike them.

It is in this style that God will come in contact with the prophets in the following centuries until the day comes when Jesus Christ will be sent into this world to make the perfect sacrifice. Something no man, since Adam, has been able to do, because of sin. Christ was the perfect lamb without any blemish. Used by God to defeat Satan forever.

In these centuries until the birth of Jesus Christ, in the year 1 of our era, no one could get in touch with God except through the prophets. There were those whose books are in the holy scriptures (Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi, Samuel, Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Daniel, Hosea, Ezekiel, Habakkuk and Jeremiah, Joshua, Nehemiah among others) and the anonymous ones , but which served as channels with God.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today? 1

* Luís Alberto Alves

But what is the role of the prophet? Why did God choose certain people to serve as interlocutors, passing to the people his messages of blessing or correction? More than 3,000 years ago, a case of Deuteronomy, which would have been written about in the period from 1440 to 1400 BC The first prophet, according to the Jews, was Moses, but God raised up his brother Aaron to speak for him, as he relates Exodus 7/1.

We can never forget that at that time God only communicated with the people through prophets. An example of this is with Moses, when God is manifested in the tabernacle, which is the tent that kept the tables of the covenant. It is when the Lord appears in the form of a cloud, covering the whole tabernacle from dusk to dusk, with the appearance of fire.

When God appeared in the tabernacle in the form of a cloud, no Israelite was allowed to approach the place, because he risked dying from the flames that hovered over the place. Only Moses was allowed to stay there receiving instructions from the Lord. Not even Joshua, who would take his place years later, received a green light from God to enter the tabernacle.

God manifested Himself grandly at that time. The Jewish people saw when the cloud descended or ascended from the tabernacle, there were lightning and thunder, the flames of fire coming out of that place, without burning the cloths that covered the tent, where the tabernacle was.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor

Prophets: Do they still exist today?

* Luís Alberto Alves

Here is a controversial subject: prophets! Many people now call themselves prophets, some even assuming to be prophets of certain cities or states in Brazil. The problem is that a lot of people do not study deeply the scriptures. In this case, the Old Testament.

At that time, a few centuries after the departure of the Hebrew people from Egypt, the Bible did not exist as it exists today, divided into chapters, verses and united in one block, the 66 books, composed of Old Testament and New Testament. Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books composed of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

It is these five books that will form the Torah, considered sacred by the Jews. The other books were written centuries later, including the Apocrypha (not considered sacred by Judaism) and in the Roman Empire, when Christianity was officially officially declared, and by the year 400, Catholicism then annexed them to the Bible used by the church catholic

Many prophets did not know each other. They were used by God to write His Words, which centuries later would be annexed to the Old Testament. Example: Malachi did not live in the time of Elijah, just as Micaiah did not live in the time of Ezekiel.


* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor