At
no time is it easy to distinguish the true from the false prophet. Different prophets
in Israel not unfrequently contradicted each other. One test of a true prophet,
but not the only one, is proposed here, viz. the fulfillment of prediction. Manifestly
this test could only be applied to predictions of the immediate future. But the
prophet sometimes prophesied of things that were afar off (Ezek 1225-27)
so that his words could not be verified by those to whom they were addressed. The
ultimate criterion of the true prophet is the moral character of his utterance.
Conscience is the true judge. Our Lord reproached His generation because they insisted
on seeing signs and wonders before they would believe. (A Commentary on the
Holy Bible, ed. J. R. Dummelow [New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1908],
130)
