Extracts from the Writings of the Learned. No. 3.
By M. M. Osgood
FROM THE AM. TRACT SOCIETY’S BIBLE DICTIONARY.
PROPHETS: “A class of men of God, especially in the Old-Testament dispensation, inspired to foretell future and secret events; and who also revealed the will of God as to current events and duties, and were his ambassadors to men. In the New Testament the prophets were a class of men supernaturally endowed, and standing next to the apostles. They seem to have spoken from immediate inspiration, whether in reference to future events or to the mind of the Spirit generally, as in expounding the oracles of God. The prophets received their messages from God, sometimes in visions, trances, and dreams. These revelations were at times attended with overpowering manifestations of the Godhead, at other times were simply breathed into the mind, by the Spirit of God. Their messages were delivered to the kings, princes, and priests, whom they most concerned, or to the people at large, in writing, or by word of mouth, and in public places.” FROM ADAM CLARKE’S COMMENTARY.
1 Cor. 14: 21: “The Jewish people were under the teaching of the prophets who were sent from God; these instructed, reproved, and corrected them by this divine authority.” Verse 25: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, &c. “As these who were the prophets or teachers, had often the discernment of spirits, they were able, in certain cases, and probably very frequently, to tell a man the secrets of his own heart. ‘The sinner therefore convinced that God alone could uncover the secrets of his heart, would be often obliged to fall down on his face, and acknowledge that God was truly among them.’ Num. 12: 6: And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. Micah 3: 8: But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. “Here is the character of a true prophet. . . . All his soul is occupied with power, i. e., with heavenly energy.” By the Spirit, &c., “the fountain of all truth and might,” and of judgment, “which enables him to make a proper discernment between the precious and the vile,” and of might, “prevailing power, against which, vice shall not be able to prevail, and before which, iniquity shall not be able to stand.” 2 Cor. 12: 1: I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Visions: “Symbolical representations of spiritual and celestial things, in which matters of the deepest importance are exhibited to the eye of the mind, by a variety of emblems, the nature and properties of which serve to illustrate those spiritual things.” Revelations: “A manifestation of things not before known, and such as God alone can make known.” FROM ALBERT BARNES’ NOTES.
Acts 2: 17. He that is now called a prophet was before time called a seer. 1 Sam. 9: 9. “This name was given from the manner in which the divine will was communicated, which seems to have been by throwing the prophet into an ecstasy, and then by causing the vision or appearance of the objects or events to pass before the mind. The prophet looked upon the passing scene, . . . as it actually occurred, and recorded it as it appeared to his mind. Hence he recorded the succession of images, rather than the times in which they would occur.” Acts 10: 9, 10. Peter went up upon the house-top to pray about the sixth hour; and he became very hungry, and would have eaten; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance. Greek, an ecstacy, ἔκστασις, fell upon him. In chap. 11: 5, he says, “And in a trance I saw a vision.” “The word trance or ecstasy denotes a state of mind when the attention is absorbed in a particular train of thought, so that the external senses are partially or entirely suspended. . . . This effect seems to be caused by so intense and absorbing a train of thought, as to overcome the senses of the body; or wholly to withdraw the mind from their influence, and to fix it on the unseen object that engrosses it.”