How can you tell the legitimacy of a person's claims to be a prophet from God?

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Request for Question Clarification by josh_g-ga on 02 Jun 2006 11:10 PDT

Would you like this answered in the context of a particular faith, eg. Christianity?

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Clarification of Question by healthyfarm-ga on 07 Jun 2006 02:37 PDT

I would like this answered in the context of Judaism.  (ie, use Judaic
scriptural standards to determine the legitimacy of Jesus Christ and
Mohammad-- why were these two ultimately rejected as representatives
of God?-- and also any other person who claims to be a prophet sent to
clarify the message of Judaism.)

This may be useful:

"There are a number of criteria for determining the genuineness of
prophecy ? as opposed to speculative prediction. Prophecy must
involve:

Proper timing, i.e., the oracle must significantly precede the person
or event described. It must be beyond the realm of reasonable
calculation so as to preclude the possibility of an 'educated guess.'
When one 'prophesies' that it will rain tomorrow ? with a weather
front moving in ? it hardly evidences divine intervention.

The prophecy must deal in specific details, not vague generalities
which are capable of being manipulated to fit various circumstances.
To predict that 'someone' will do 'something' at 'sometime' is not
terribly impressive.

Exact fulfillment, not merely a high degree of probability, must
characterize the prediction. A prophet who is 80% accurate is no
prophet at all!

...The divine standard for a true prophet is stated by Moses. 'When a
prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor
come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken.'
(Deuteronomy 18:22)."

http://www.christiancourier.com/archives/prophecyPrinciples.htm

Great question, and, I believe, only one real way to answer; test them.  
Use the Bible and what it has to say.  If what they're saying doesn't
line up with what God said way before they did, then there's your
answer.  lol
Also, here's a good site I found:
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/howdowetestaprophet.htm

In short,there is no way you can tell.

Once upon a time I heard a competition advertised on the radio that
involved sending in entries (name etc on the back of an envelope).
3 Entries would be drawn each day, 5 days a week, for 2 weeks.
If your entry was drawn you were required to ring the radio station
within 96 minutes to claim your prize.
The first time I heard it advertised I knew I was going to win, and on
the first day. I don't know how, I just knew.
I told all my friends and work colleagues that's what I thought. I
sent in 5 entries.
On the first day of the competition my entry was drawn!!

Since the death of the last Apostle, John, there have been no
prophets. Almighty God has given us all we need to know in the Bible.
This is shown by Paul's comment at 1 Corinthians 13; 8-10 "
8 Love never fails. But whether there are [gifts of] prophesying, they
will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease;
whether there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we have
partial knowledge and we prophesy partially; 10 but when that which is
complete arrives, that which is partial will be done away with.
The first words of verse 10 " but when that which is complete arrives"
refers to the return of Jesus. He being now 'complete' having carried
out what his Father [ Almighty God] wanted. Which was to give up his
perfect life to buy back for us the right to no longer suffer death.
This is confirmed at Revelation 21;4.
4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be
no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The
former things have passed away.
This leaves open the question. Just when did Jesus return " as in the
clouds". [Matthew 14'62 and Revelation 1;7]
This is deduced from the prophecy of Daniel 9; 22-27.."fromk the going
forth of the word...
How, then, is the time calculated down to 1914? Counting 2,520 years
from early October of 607 B.C.E. brings us to early October of 1914
C.E., as shown on the chart.
CALCULATING THE ?SEVEN TIMES?
?Seven times? = 7 X 360 = 2,520 years
A Biblical ?time,? or year = 12 X 30 days = 360. (Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14)
In the fulfillment of the ?seven times? each day equals one year.
(Ezek. 4:6; Num. 14:34)
Early October, 607 B.C.E., to December 31, 607 B.C.E.=    1/4 year
January 1, 606 B.C.E., to December 31, 1 B.C.E.      =   606 years
January 1, 1 C.E., to December 31, 1913              = 1,913 years
January 1, 1914, to early October, 1914              =    3/4 year
                                                Total: 2,520 years
So Jesus HAS BEEN BACK in Kingdom power...as in the
clouds...invisible, but effective...SINCE 1914.
So anything ' partial' has been done away with since 1914.
So no more prophets.

While Moses'law was still valid, one could distinuish between the
prophets of the true God and false prophets according to what was
written in Deuteronomy 18:20-22:
"However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I
have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other
gods, that prophet must die. And in case you should say in your heart:
?How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?? when the
prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or
come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With
presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at
him."

Basically, only prophecies of the true God's prophet would be
COMPLETELY fulfilled. The words of the false one (the one not inspired
by the Creator Himself, but someone else) would be only PARTIALY
fulfilled. To see what this mean, read 1Samuel 28:8-19 and compare
with the outcome: 1Samuel 31:1-7, BUT ALSO: 2Samuel 9:3-6.
See; prophet from Endor correctly said that both Saul and Jonathan and
his sons will die and that Israel will lose the battle. But as can be
seen in 2Sa9:3-6, not all of his sons died - Mephibosheth lived!
Definite proof this was a false prophet.

To ilustrate prophecies told by the true prophets check out:
Hosea 5:1-7; Amos 2:6-8, 7:9 and the outcome: 1 Kings 15:25-30; 2
Chronicles 13:20. Of course, these are just a few.

Back to our days:
 In further support of Bible's point of view, (as already pointed out
by Pugwash), I can add Paul's words from Hebrews 1:1

"God, who long ago spoke on many occasions and in many ways to our
forefathers by means of the prophets, has at the end of these days
spoken to us by means of a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things,
and through whom he made the systems of things."

All put together, God speaks to us not by means of prophets any more,
but by example of his Son and by His Word.

P.S. Just a little sidenote - there's more to the word "prophet" and
"prophecy" than just the first and the most obvious meaning; it can
and it does also mean "to bear witness", " to bring out the facts, the
truth" about something or someone.
For instance, in Matthew 26:67,68 we can read:
"Then they spit into his face and hit him with their fists. Others
slapped him in the face, saying: ?Prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is
it that struck you??

These religious leaders didn't ask for an oracle (Just as pinkfreud
wrote - "the oracle must significantly precede the person or event
described") They wanted him to say certain facts that were otherwise
hidden.
That's why bearing witness about God, His plan, His son and His role
in it, by true Christians, is also called  prophesying. (Revelation
19:10)

Fruitfly,

Ummm...Mephibosheth was the son of Jonathan, not Saul.  So the
prophecy did not apply to him.

Saul went to a medium at Endor to have her call Samuel up from the
dead to tell him what to do since the Lord was not answering him. 
Samuel answered him and said that "the Lord will also deliver Israel
with you into the hands of the Philistines.  And tomorrow you and your
sons will be with me."  So this only applies to Saul's sons, not
Jonathan's.  The prophecy was true.  And it was made by Samuel, not
the medium.

Hello!

My mistake:I wrote Mephibosheth, when I should have written Ishboseth,
son of Saul. Everything stays;three of his sons died, but Ishboseth
lived. The prophecy WAS NOT COMPLETELY FULFILLED!
She was a false prophet.

Also the prophecy was not by deceased Samuel because the dead are
unconscious, asleep in the grave:
"For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead,
they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have
wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.  
Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already
perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in
anything that has to be done under the sun.
All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is
no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in SheŽol, the place to
which you are going"
"His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground;In that day his
thoughts do perish"(Ps 146:3,4; Eccl 9:5,6,10)

But even if you don't believe what the Bible says about the condition
of the dead, tell me one thing:
We know from the example of Jesus himself, who did nothing 'by
himself' but 'as taught by God' that it is not a prophet who reveals
the prophecy, but God Himself, using the prophet only as a media.
So are you saying that God for whom Saul had said: "God himself has
departed from me and has answered me no more, either by means of the
prophets or by dreams....? has now suddenly changed His ways and used
SPIRITISM as a way of passing a prophecy??? Why, He had prophets and
dreams at His disposal, as Saul  pointed out!?!?
"Although Saul would inquire of Jehovah, Jehovah never answered him,
either by dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets" (1Sa28:6)
See - if He had wanted He could have done it in so many different
ways, but to use something that He had condamned? And condamned so
strongly? (His law was warranting the death penalty for what that
woman was doing - Le 20:27)
No way! God does not contradict Himself. 
Obviously: God would not allow a spirit medium to get around this
divine cutoff of communication by getting in touch with a dead prophet
and having him deliver a message from Himself to Saul against His
will!!!!? :-)

And what about Samuel? Samuel himself a faithful prophet of God, had
ceased to have any dealings whatsoever with Saul. Would it not be
unreasonable, therefore, to conclude that Samuel was willing to speak
with Saul by means of a spirit medium, an arrangement that was
condemned by God?
What the woman said must have been of demonic origin. The message gave
no comfort to Saul but filled him with fear

It is also worth of noticing that women from Endor never said it was
Samuel! She said: ?It is an old man coming up, and he has himself
covered with a sleeveless coat.?
It was Saul who said it was Samuel. Why? Because he wanted to believe so!

See - we all must be carefull not to believe what we want to believe,
but what proves to be true using comon sense and the Bible as a
verified source of the truths.
As paul has put it nicely:
"..let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.."

The reason that Judaism rejected Jesus and Mohammad (and the prophets
of some other religions) is because they called upon Jews to reject
Judaism. I don't know your religion, but let's suppose you're a
Christian for the sake of argument. If someone came to you and said,
"I am the true prohpet of God. Jesus was wrong. Follow me!" would you
follow them? It seems that the paradox is that in order to be
recognized as a prophet, something like 90% of what you say must have
previously been stated by prophets of the same religion.

As for what some call the prophecy of Jesus' birth in the Old
Testament: Isaiah 7:14: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a
sign: a young woman will be with child and will give birth to a son
and she will call Him Emanuel." Pardon my correction of the English
text. I speak Ancient Hebrew and "Virgin" is a pittiful translation of
"????" which was inserted to serve the needs of those who were
translating it. But Mary didn't call Jeses "Emanuel." His supporters
only did that later so that they could argue that he is a prophet.
This wouldn't necessarily hurt his ability to become a prophet of the
time (it obviously didn't). But it doesn't strengthen the case,
either.

This page might provide some insight.  It finds a common thread with the prophets:
http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_prophets_stuart.html

yonr you wrong to say Jesus and Mohammad (peace be upon them) never
rejected the Judaism but rather came to bring in line the people not
religion of Judaism back to religion as it was revealed to the
prophets like Moses (peace be upon him). Now if Jesus or Mohammad
(pbut) came and said everything that you do is in according to God's
law as it was revealed during the time of Moses(pbuh) then we all
would have rejected them because if everything is right and good then
why would you need a new prophet to tell you that? The reason new
prophets are sent by God is out of the mercy of God for humans to
bring them back in line with God's religions.