Question - How Are Believers to Know Good Prophets from Bad?

Trey Smith

In Jeremiah 23:25-28, we come upon this odd passage:

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.

In essence, God seems to be saying that his message does NOT come in the form of dreams. However, in several passages in previous books in the Old Testament, how does God share his message with the prophets?

Through dreams, of course!

So, how exactly are followers of the Christian faith to know which dreams originate from the Heavenly father and which do not? If the prophet says his or her dream came directly from God, what criteria do the faithful use to ascertain whether or not this supposition is correct?

It seems to me that it boils down to a guessing game.

We know from previous stories in the Old Testament that there were times when a genuine prophet shared his dream, but the people didn't believe him. This made God very angry. Yet, here we have people accepting the dreams of so-called prophets and God is angry with them for this acceptance.

What gives?

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