The Sunday Mail
Dr Augustine Deke
THE title of “prophet” is an office. Prophecy is the utterance by a prophet. Prophecy therefore is utterance based on inspiration.
Civil law is a body of rules that delineate private rights and remedies, and govern disputes between individuals in such areas as contracts, property and family Law; distinct from criminal or public law.
Civil law systems, which trace their roots to ancient Rome, are governed by doctrines developed and compiled by legal scholars.
Legislators and administrators in civil law countries use these doctrines to fashion a code by which all legal controversies are decided. And law is basically based on logic.
This instalment aims to discuss the legality of civil judgments on matters pertaining prophecy. Can aggrieved recipients of prophecies settle their disputes through civil law?
Prophecy in modern society is contributing in the social discourse of society and is gradually shaping human behaviour for the good or bad.
In civil law a delict is a breach of a general duty imposed by law leading to a civil action at the instance of the injured person. Civil law governs relationships between private individuals and is not concerned with the community at large.
In the event of absence of religious law in a nation, breach of general duty becomes difficult to identify in cases related to prophecy.
Religious law can only come about where there is state religion.
In civil proceedings it is up to the injured party to seek redress or waive his rights. In civil cases the two parties are always cited, for example Peter Dube versus Manyepo Manyepa.
The dominant role of civil law is to compensate the party injured by breach of legally imposed duties.
Civil law can also be used to prevent a threatened wrong from being committed, e.g. an injunction can be used to prevent a threatened breach of contract.
Interestingly, those administered with prophecy do so voluntarily without any legal agreement.
The prophet and the client both base their contract on faith in the divine deity.
The third party who inspires the message to be uttered by the prophet tends to be ignored by those who pass judgment.
This is so because civil law is silent on spiritual matters. Should breach of prophecy be considered as a moral breach?
In the law of contract the use of moral phraseology led to equal confusion, as I have shown in part already, but only in part.
Morals deal with the actual internal state of the individual’s mind, what he actually intends.
From the time of the Romans down to the 21st century, this mode of dealing has affected the language of the law as to contract, and the language used has reacted upon the thought.
We talk about a contract as a meeting of the minds of the parties, and thence it is inferred in various cases that there is no contract because their minds have not met; that is, because they have intended different things or because one party has not known of the assent of the other.
Yet nothing is more certain than that parties may be bound by a contract to things which neither of them intended, and when one does not know of the other’s assent.
Suppose a contract is executed in due form and in writing to deliver a lecture, mentioning no time.
One of the parties thinks that the promise will be construed to mean at once, within a week.
The other thinks that it means when he is ready. The court says that it means within a reasonable time.
The parties are bound by the contract as it is interpreted by the court, yet neither of them meant what the court declares that they have said.
In this case it becomes difficult to understand the true theory of contract or be able even to discuss some fundamental questions intelligently until he/she has understood that all contracts are formal, that the making of a contract depends not on the agreement of two minds in one intention but on the agreement of two sets of external signs.
Not on the parties’ having meant the same thing but on their having said the same thing. This is where aggrieved recipients of prophecies fail to understand.
Does agreement of two minds on spiritual issues make a contract?
Furthermore, as the signs may be addressed to one sense or another — to sight or to hearing — on the nature of the sign will depend the moment when the contract is made.
If the sign is tangible, for instance, a letter, the contract is made when the letter of acceptance is delivered. If it is necessary that the minds of the parties meet, there will be no contract until the acceptance can be read.
Religious law
Magistrates can easily come up with decisions on religious matters where there is religious law or the enforcing officer is well versed doctrines of religion.
To narrow this discussion, for example Christianity welcomes prophecies and encourages the hearers to test the prophecy before accepting it.
Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil (1 Thes 5:19-22).
Off target
There are no perfect prophets. There are very few perfect prophecies. People in every nation should expect that even experienced prophets get it wrong sometimes. I suspect that most prophets would be very happy, if they got it right 90 percent of the time.
An even larger percentage of prophecies from God will be slightly contaminated by something the prophet has added from his own heart.
This is normal even for experienced prophets, because all prophets are human.
The solution is not to reject all prophecy, but to test all prophecy. We must also learn to reject prophecies without killing the prophet. The church should accept a mistake as a reminder that all prophets are human.
The prophets should be glad to hear about their mistakes, so they can learn from them. This mode of thinking is entirely natural. The training of lawyers is training in logic. The processes of analogy, discrimination, and deduction are those in which they are most at home.
The language of judicial decision is mainly the language of logic. And the logical method and form flatter that longing for certainty and for repose which is in every human mind. But certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
Behind the logical form lies a judgment as to the relative worth and importance of competing legislative grounds, often an inarticulate and unconscious judgment, it is true, and yet the very root and nerve of the whole proceeding.
Prophets, therefore, must humbly accept the truth that they see through a glass darkly, that they know only in part.
In other words, they make mistakes. Mature prophets urge everyone to who they prophesy to judge, test and compare with scripture everything they say. They are not offended when people are careful.
Testing prophecy
The Bible gives a number of principles for testing a prophecy.
- 1 Cor 14:4 — It must build up the body.
- 2 Tim 3:16 — It must agree with Scripture.
- John 16:13,14 — It must exalt Jesus.
- Deut 18:22,22 — It must come true.
- Deut 13:1-5 — It must lead to God and obedience to him.
- Rom 8:15 — It must produce liberty
- 2 Cor 3:6 — It must produce life.
- 1 John 2:27 — It must be attested to the Holy Spirit in each believer.
All prophecies should glorify and honour Jesus. Anything outside this is for personal glorification.
Sometimes it is hard to test a prophecy. A word may seem to be okay, but it may take time before it is fulfilled. Some words of encouragement are consistent with scripture and hard to prove wrong.
In these situations, testing of prophets may be more helpful.
Dr Deke is Adjunct Professor at Team Impact Christian University, and also lectures at the Zimbabwe Theological Seminary, an associate college of Great Zimbabwe University
