“But I have this against you: You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20 CSB).
It’s interesting to note the construction of this portion of Jesus’ letter to the ancient church of Thyatira. Notice that Jesus refers to this woman as someone “who calls herself a prophetess.” This indicates that she wasn’t a true prophet, but chose to call herself one anyway. This provides us with an opportunity to discuss the ministry of a genuine prophet.
A “prophet” is loosely defined as someone who possesses the unerring ability to offer God’s direction, or convey divinely inspired information regarding a specific situation or future event. This is a legitimate spiritual office, as evidenced by the many prophets who appear within the Old Testament Scriptures (like Isaiah and Ezekiel) and those who appear within the New Testament as well.
In the words of one source, “The ability to prophesy may involve predicting future events, but its main purpose is to communicate God’s message to people, providing insight, warning, correction, and encouragement.” (1) Today, we might best associate the use of a prophetic gift with the ability to bring a fresh application of Biblical truth as prompted by the Holy Spirit.
With these definitions in mind, we can say that Jezebel of Thyatira was not who she claimed to be. Since her teachings conflicted with the established Word of God, we know with certainty that she was not a genuine prophet. To illustrate this, let’s take the doctrines of this so-called “prophet” and test them to see how they measure up.
First, we’re told that this person misled others into the practice of immorality. This reference to “immorality” is derived from the ancient Greek word porneia. If “porneia” seems familiar, it may be due to the fact that it serves as the source word for our modern-day term “pornography.” This pertains to any type of physical relationship that occurs outside of a Biblically sanctioned marriage partnership. Since God’s Word repeatedly condemns immoral conduct, (2) we know with certainty that anyone who advocates for such behavior cannot speak for God.
So, this “prophet” failed the test because her message did not align with the Biblical Scriptures. While there may be many who claim to have “messages from God” today, God’s Word encourages us to put those individuals to the test as well: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
Image Credit: Roman Ziomka, A Bible Standing on a Wooden Floor
(1) Life Application Study Bible Copyright © 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2004 by Tyndale House Publishers Inc., all rights reserved. [1Corinthians 14:1]
(2) See Hebrews 13:4, Leviticus 18:20, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, Ephesians 5:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, and Revelation 21:8 for some examples