{"id":2303,"date":"2005-05-24T12:52:32","date_gmt":"2005-05-24T16:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=2303"},"modified":"2005-05-31T09:45:04","modified_gmt":"2005-05-31T13:45:04","slug":"can-satan-give-the-gift-of-prophecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2005\/05\/can-satan-give-the-gift-of-prophecy\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Satan give the gift of prophecy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the more interesting stories in the Old Testament concerns Saul and the Ewok<\/del> Witch of En-dor<\/a>. The ewok<\/del> witch calls up a spirit, which foretells the events of the battle which will take place the next day:<\/p>\n

“The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David . . . Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The events occur as foretold, of course. <\/p>\n

What does this story tell us? Well, if the witch did not receive this vision from God, but rather from Satan (and our Bible Dictionary explicitly states that this is not a vision from God<\/a>), then Satan appears to be capable of granting prophetic visions to his followers. Is he?<\/p>\n

A few possible interpretations spring to mind:<\/p>\n

1. First, perhaps Satan can actually give the gift of prophecy (or some Satanic equivalent of it). This is important. For one thing, it calls into question the ability of a prophet to establish himself as a true prophet through the validation of his prophecies. For another, it opens up a theological can of worms. If prophecy is really a gift of the Spirit, how can Satan have access to it? And which other gifts of the Spirit might Satan be able to use?<\/p>\n

2. Second, perhaps Satan cannot actually give the gift of prophecy, but can mimic it through other means. This might happen through a few different methods.<\/p>\n

One possibility is that Satan has sufficient influence among evil men that he can often predict their actions with a high degree of certainty. Thus, he may reveal to a prophet of his that “a thief will steal Kaimi’s car tomorrow.” Satan knows this because he influences the thief who is going to steal my car. The ewok<\/del> of En-dor’s prophecy may fit in this category.<\/p>\n

Another possibility for mimicking prophecy could be based on Satan’s knowledge. Satan has very broad knowledge. He sees many things. Thus, he could reveal to a follower the location of a buried treasure, for instance. <\/p>\n

The import of a Satanic ability to mimic prophecy is still great. This also means that we cannot use the eventual occurence of a prophet’s predictions as proof that the prophet is of God. <\/p>\n

Note that this suggests a few particular limitations. If a prophet has predicted something which could be based on the actions of evil men, or could be based on knowledge alone, then that prophecy is not valid in determining whether the prophet is of God.<\/p>\n

3. Third, perhaps Satan doesn’t really tell his followers anything useful or reliable. He tells them all sorts of nonsense, and it is occasionally correct. This is reassuring, from a practical standpoint (we can still use the “did the prophesied event actually occur” test) and a theological standpoint (no worries about Satan having access to gifts of the Spirit). But it’s less compatible with the text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more interesting stories in the Old Testament concerns Saul and the Ewok Witch of En-dor. The ewok witch calls up a spirit, which foretells the events of the battle which will take place the next day: “The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David . . . Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” The events occur as foretold, of course. What does this story tell us? Well, if the witch did not receive this vision from God, but rather from Satan (and our Bible Dictionary explicitly states that this is not a vision from God), then Satan appears to be capable of granting prophetic visions to his followers. Is he?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}