Hi
Thanks for providing the above link. However, the Catholic Encyclopedia does not provide any defination of a ProphetMessenger of GodAllahYHWH, nor a Criteria from OTBible about a true/false that could help our friend
kellie to recognize a true Prophet from a false one.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, as I have obsered, does not have consistent and clear cut concept of the stuff provided. There are conflicting entries, one feels:
(1) The ordinary Hebrew for prophet is nabî’.** Its etymology is uncertain**. According to many recent critics, the root nabî, not employed in Hebrew, signified to speak enthusiastically, “to utter cries, and make more or less wild gestures”.
(2) The first person
entitled nabî’ in the Old Testament is Abraham, father of the elect, the friend of God, favoured with his personal communications (Genesis 20:7). The next is Moses.
(3) “And there
arose no more a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders, which he sent by him, to do in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land, and all the mighty hand, and great miracles, which Moses did before all Israel” (Deuteronomy 34:10 sqq.).
(4)
They are not Prophets in the strict sense of the word, nor are they disciples of the Prophets destined to become masters in their turn (the so-called “schools of Prophets”).
(5) Are we to consider as their degenerate and faithless successors those false Prophets of Yahweh whom we meet at the court of Achab,
numbering four hundred, and later very numerous, also fighting against Isaias and Micheas and especially against Jeremias and Ezekiel? A definite answer cannot as yet be given, but it is wrong to consider them, as certain critics do, as authentic as the true Prophets, differing from them only by a more retrograde spirit, and less brilliant intellectual gifts.
(6) Finally the Canon of the Scriptures closes with a prophetic book, the Apocalypse of
St. John, which describes the struggles and the victories of the new kingdom while awaiting the return of its Chief at the consummation of all things.
This is a very important religious issue, if Bible is worth what is said about it, it should have clearly mentioned as to what is a true Prophet/Nabi and what are Criteria of true/false Prophet/Nabi .
Thanks
The problem here with some of my Catholic friends is that they don’t let God speak for Himself. If they would have done it they would find a straight passage from the OTBible on every important issue, if Bible is a living book that answers every rational/reasonable/logical questions, of course we are not discussing here pure Mathematics or Physics, and we are mostly concerned with the every day moral, Spiritual and religious issues, and a religious worthwhile book must resolve such issues, if it is truthful to its purpose. When they don’t get support from the Bible, they think they are wiser than God, so they try filling the void by putting words into God’s mouth first for the Claim and then for the Reason which is usually not found there. One is hence left wondering if the Christian God is living and All-Wise.