There was a time when God was silent. Between the days of Noah and Abraham, no one heard his voice. In that time, mankind collectively forgot who God is, yet we nonetheless pined for him. We saw what God had made, and we delighted in creation’s beauty. But we worshipped the creature rather than the creator, supposing that the sun or moon or stars ruled the world. We recognized that the most important things are invisible and godly, but we could only grope around in the dark for them. We created idolatrous religions throughout the world, yet we only received a true message from God when God spoke to Abraham.
God’s word to Abraham began an entirely new phase in human history. Abraham received true knowledge of God, and he shared it with his family. As time went by, God gave more and more of this knowledge to Abraham’s descendants by the gift of prophecy, and those revelations continue to illumine our minds today. This prophetic word is a great gift, but its origin can seem nebulous. What does it mean for God to speak through prophecy?
Saint Thomas Aquinas answers this question, and he remarks that prophecy is man’s first reception of God’s teaching. He defines prophecy as “a knowledge which divine revelation engraves in the mind of a prophet, in the form of teaching” (ST II-II, q. 171, a. 6). Prophecy, then, is God’s supernatural way of teaching us. Since God created everything, there is a sense in which we learn from God through his creation, but prophecy goes beyond our natural powers of reasoning. Every prophetic inspiration is a unique gift from God or one of his angels. Since this knowledge is given directly to a prophet from a higher power, prophecy is infallible and can extend beyond human means of discovery. Not only can prophecy give knowledge of future events, but it also (and more often!) gives us knowledge of supernatural realities like heaven, hell, God’s will for mankind, and grace.
Since prophecy is firstly a matter of knowledge engraved in the mind of the prophet, Aquinas notes that it is only secondarily a matter of particular signs or messages like we find in Scripture (see ST II-II, q. 171, a. 1). When thinking of God’s revelation to prophets, we often think of the marvelous phenomena that some moments of prophecy have involved, like the burning bush or vivid visions. Yet spectacle is not the point of revelation—the perceptible signs of revelation are at the service of the intellectual truth God seeks to communicate, and they are valuable precisely because they communicate truth. Truth stays in our minds far longer than a message rings in our ears or an outward sign stays visible. Truth is never exhausted. It can be shared without any diminishment.
The theology of prophecy implies that the purpose of prophetic words is to convey the truth of the divine teaching to us. Consequently, we are not disadvantaged if we do not personally receive signs or see visions. The truth imparted to men by prophecy has been handed on through the ages through Scripture and its caretaker, the Church. Indeed, by faith “we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable” (2 Pet 1:19). Through Scripture and catechesis, we can learn the same divine truths that God revealed to the prophets, even without ourselves receiving the gift of prophecy. God has not left us in silence. He has spoken the word of salvation to us—that his joy may be in us, and our joy may be complete (John 15:11).
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
