Here’s how to test prophecy - John Stott

“…Paul’s injunction to us is to treat with respect and not with contempt any utterance which claims to come from God. Indeed, we are neither to reject it outright, nor to accept it outright. We are rather to listen to it, and as we do so to test everything (21a), to sift it, to ‘weigh carefully what is said’. How are we to evaluate it, however? Paul does not answer this question here, but we can do so from the teaching of Jesus and his apostles elsewhere. Although discernment is a spiritual gift, we are nevertheless given certain tests to apply to teachers. The first test is the plain truth of Scripture. Like the inhabitants of Berea, we are to ‘examine the Scriptures’ to see if what any Christian teacher says is true. The second test is the divine-human person of Jesus. If we are to ‘test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world’, this is how we are to discern between the true and the false: ‘Every spirit [ i.e. prophet claiming inspiration] that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist …’. The third test is the gospel of God’s free and saving grace through Christ. Anybody who perverts this gospel (whether preacher, prophet, apostle or even angel) deserves to be ‘eternally condemned’. The fourth test is the known character of the speaker. When Jesus told us ‘Watch out for false prophets’, warning us that they are wolves disguised as sheep, he added: ‘By their fruit you will recognise them’. Just as a tree may be identified by its fruit, so a teacher may be identified by his character and conduct. This is an argument against listening to strangers, for the congregation cannot apply this test to them. The fifth test is the degree to which what is said ‘edifies’, that is, builds up and benefits, the church. An authentic prophetic message will ‘strengthen, encourage and comfort’ the hearers, ‘edify the church’, bring a conviction of sin and an awareness of God, and be conducive to peace and order, and above all to love…” John Stott, The Message of 1 Thessalonians, Bible Speaks Today series, IVP e-edition, no page, comments on 1 Thessalonians 5:18.