When Aaron and Miriam rebelled against Moses’ leadership, God said to them: “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream” (Num. 12:6). Throughout Old Testament times the prophetic gift was in operation. The first person called “a prophet” in the Bible was Abraham (Gen. 20:7). In the history of Israel, Moses was the greatest of the prophets; he communicated with God “face to face” (Deut. 34:10). Shortly before his death he told the Israelites: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deut. 18:15). This prophecy was initially fulfilled through Joshua and the prophets who followed him. It found its ultimate fulfillment in the appearance of the Messiah who was the prophet who would lead God’s people from the slavery of sin into the heavenly Canaan.
Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming: “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.... Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”
The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place—that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, ... the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear.
The New Testament writers as well as several other individuals mentioned in the New Testament had the gift of prophecy (Luke 1:67; Matt. 11:14; Acts 13:1; 15:32; 21:8-10). Paul wrote to the Ephesians that the gift of prophecy would remain in the church “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:13). In the book of Revelation, therefore, the remnant church in the time of the end is said to have “the testimony of Jesus” (12:17), which according to Revelation 19:10 is “the spirit of prophecy.”
All through Bible history prophets served God, often delivering messages from God for both that time and for the future. God's prophets include Noah, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, Nathan, Stephen, and John, the author of Revelation.
