Prophecy

Prophecy is the certain foretelling of a future event by a person supernaturally informed of it, and supernaturally moved to announce it. Prophecy consists primarily in the knowledge of future events; this knowledge is beyond the natural power of creatures to acquire, and is imparted by God tothe prophet. Secondarily, prophecy is the “expression in speech” of the divinely imparted prophetic knowledge. And, inthe third place, prophecy takes it fullness and perfection from the”certainty of the message” prophetically made. This certainty will have its proof when the event prophesied comes to pass, but it is requisite for perfect prophecy to have a backing and guarantee at the time the prophet speaks. This backing and guarantee of certainty is usually afforded by the aid of miracles.

Naturally acquired knowledge is in a person as an intellectual habit; it is something he has acquired and keeps; it stays with him, and serves as a permanent mental quality which tends to make the mind better or worse in its operation. Thus natural knowledge can be used at the knower’s will. But the prophet’s knowledge is not something he can use at will. It is knowledge specially given, by a special divine light, and given inthe measure that God wills, for utterance as a divine help, guide,or warning to mankind. And, while both the prophet and the people who hear him can remember the prophecy, and in so far can make itan element of their knowledge, neither prophet nor people can work the prophecy into the common fabric of their natural knowledge tobe pursued, developed, and correlated with other items of natural experience.

Prophetic knowledge includes more than future free events. The prophet may announce timeless things, as Isaiasannounced what was divinely revealed to him of the eternalperfections of God. Sometimes, indeed, a man is called a prophet when he tells of the past; so Moses prophesied when he wrote, under divine inspiration, of the creation of the world. In this way a prophecy is the certain knowledge and pronouncement of what is”remote from human knowledge.” However, in its strict sense, prophecy is knowing and foretelling what is to come, thatis, what is remote in time from human experience.

A prophet is not in possession of the whole field of prophecy; he does not know all that can possibly be prophesied. He knows what God gives him to know, and moves him to make known to others.

The prophet may not always be clear in his own mind about the precise line which divides the divinely revealed message from his own knowledge. But, as St. Gregory says, the Holy Ghost takes care that no erroneous human elements are mixed with the prophecy which God wills to have pronounced.

Nothing false, therefore, can enter into the prophecy as pronounced; it is a message from God Himself.