Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius. Acts 11:27-28

Who were these prophets? The New Testament not only references Old Testament prophets, but speaks about prophets as a special “office/ministry gift “ in the context of the New Testament (e.g., Acts 13:1, 1 Corinthians 12 & 14, Ephesians 2, 3, & 4).

The number one role of a prophet is to proclaim the Word of God. Sometimes, but certainly not all, prophets predict the future. Everyone who accurately proclaims God’s Word (particularly when preaching) is exercising a prophetic gift. We must be very careful not to confuse speaking prophetically with being a prophet, in the more formal sense. Most New Testament scholars agree that the special office of Prophet, like the office of Apostle, ended at the conclusion of the Apostolic era when the last of the Apostles died.

If one does not adopt that position, then we would have to judge the prophets by the same high biblical standard of the Old Testament. That means if a person claims to be a prophet, and prophesies something that is either unbiblical or incorrectly predicts the future, they should be executed.

There have been a flurry of self-proclaimed prophets as of late, who predicted the future and were wrong. Some have even admitted that they were wrong and have given a defense that prophets can sometimes be wrong. I do not advocate executing false prophets, only that biblical (and sane) Christians disavow and condemn this kind of blasphemy.