By Barry Rosenfeld
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Although God has given us His word the Bible to guide us, He can and does still communicate with His people through dreams and visions.
Judaism today stresses the free will of the individual. Consequently there is much less emphasis on prophetic visions and dreams. If a prophet predicts what God is going to do in the future, presumably the individual no longer has a choice and free will is compromised. For the same reason, prophecies regarding the last days are left purposely vague leaving room for man to enter in and change the path of events through for example, keeping the Torah and thus hastening the coming of the Messiah. The great Jewish philosopher Maimonides for instance taught (Laws of Fundamentals of Torah 10:4) that prophecies of negative events may not occur if men repent and change their ways. They are simply warnings.
Do Jews Believe in Prophecy for Today?
Although the Talmud teaches that the Age of the Prophets came to a close in the first generation of the Second Temple Era, Maimonides (as mentioned above) listed as one of his 13 principles of faith the belief that God causes people to prophesize and it is believed that there are always special people in each generation called “the righteous ones” or in Hebrew, zaddikim who have this gift of prophecy. A prophet today would still be judged by the requirements placed on Old Testament prophets, that their prophesies come to pass and that they do not conflict with the teachings of the Bible.
Those who believe in the New Covenant have the teachings of Paul (1 Corintheans 12:7-11) who spoke of the gifts of wisdom, knowledge and prophecy. These are all gifts of the Spirit or in Hebrew, ruach ha-kodesh.
We also have God’s word in Joel 2:28 saying that after the Jewish people have returned to their land the Spirit will be poured out, with young men seeing visions and old men having (prophetic) dreams. So, as we enter the Last Days we should expect an increase in God’s presence through His Holy Spirit and consequently manifestations of the gifts, including the gift of prophecy.
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