Quotes about Prophets

Dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of his love, drawing people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.

In my tradition, one must wait until one has learned a lot of Bible and Talmud and the Prophets to handle mysticism. This isn't instant coffee. There is no instant mysticism.

I wait for the hour when that divine Beauty, which ravished the hearts of the Hebrew prophets, Hindu and Buddhist visionaries, Christian and Sufi mystics, and Chinese sages, will make itself known in America today.

Jesus spoke of miracles because he saw all of life as miraculous. Miracles appear to us as the eyes of our hearts are opened, and we see clearly. But, as defined by the churches, a miracle is a monstrosity—something contrary to nature, rather than in harmony with it.  Jesus respected Moses and the Hebrew prophets, but didn't limit himself to repeating their insights. He spoke from the heart, not from a book, and brought forth a new revelation: the divinity of the soul.

the promise of the Resurrection—eternal delight and joy in the presence of our Redeemer. Peter preached in Jerusalem of "the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21, NLT).

BELOVED, DO not believe every spirit [speaking through a self-proclaimed prophet]; instead test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets and teachers have gone out into the world.

A totalizing regime cannot tolerate dissent or subversion. Thus, as is necessary, totalizing regimes must silence dissent, must prohibit subversion, must control artists, must banish poets, and when necessary must kill prophets.

Such brutality is required because dissenters, subversives, artists, poets, and prophets invite thought that the regime is not absolute, that its claims to legitimacy are not ultimate, that its policies are not beyond criticism nor its practices beyond destabilization.

While the prophets are in a way future-tellers, they are concerned with the future as it impinges upon the present. Conversely, liberals who abdicated and turned all futuring over to conservatives have settled for a focus on the present.

The weariness and serenity of the churches just now make it a good time to study the prophets and get rid of tired misconceptions. The dominant conservative misconception, evident in manifold bumper stickers, is that the prophet is a fortune-teller, a predictor of things to come (mostly ominous), usually with specific reference to Jesus.

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.

It is the nature of all hypocrites and false prophets to create a conscience where there is none, and to cause conscience to disappear where it does exist.