I think you are operating under the misapprehension that testing the spirits applies to prophets.
We are commanded to test the spirits to discern whether something is in conformity to what has already been revealed, once for all, to the saints (see Jude 1:3).
If it is a teaching that is in conformity with what has been revealed then it must come from somewhere?
It is obvious that this is referring to the teachings of a Prophet, unless you are telling me that the teachings of the Church may fall into the “non-conforming” category?
If we are to test something, it must be something “outside the Church” otherwise you would agree, it is not worthy of testing, yes? Unless you do not take magesterial teaching as Gospel?
In Acts 3:24, Peter clearly outlines how God, from the beginning has guided mankind, through His Prophets, starting with Samuel in ancient Israel. So we have a whole series of Prophets coming every few hundred years, and then comes Jesus, who is also referred to as a Prophet in Acts 3:22 and then you are trying to tell me that God provided
no further guidance to mankind for another 2000 years through His Prophets?
Surely, this goes against any past historical evidence…and surely we need His guidance now, more than ever…
As has been clearly stated in Mark 7:6, God reveals His Will to man when Tradition becomes a barrier between God and man, something which has repetitively happened in Judaism, Christianity and Islam:
And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
There is no doubt that God will send True Prophets to continuously guide mankind, and will do so forever and ever, for human beings will always exist, and civilization will forever advance…
If I may share with you some of my thoughts on this. In Matthew 7, it is written:
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:7-10.
I thought about this passage, for the first time ever, as more than a comforting reference to God’s love. Can you imagine having several children, yet showing only one of them your love? Would you feed, clothe, and educate one child, while the others went hungry, naked, and ignorant, or were doomed to cobble together scraps of food, clothing, and knowledge, not from you directly, but from your favored child? If a human parent really did those things, most of us would consider him a criminal. Yet, I had believed that this was the way God behaved.
I had to ask myself: Would God give the Bread of Life to only one favored people and give stones to all others? Would He send His Word to only one nation at one time in all the history of the world, and allow false prophets to claim all others? If I believed Christ’s word, then the answer was a resounding “no”. It seemed clear from Jesus’ words and deeds that, as Peter said, “…God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”
May have been taught that Jesus’ was the last revelation from God until the end of all things. Yet who among us can imagine that a human parent would speak to his child once when he was quite small, then utter nothing more and offer no further guidance or words of love until the child was on his death bed?
If we, who are imperfect, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more so does the God Christ revealed know how to give gifts to those who ask?
