In religion, a prophet is a person
who has directly encountered God, of whose intentions he can
then speak. Those who are not prophets must then commit
themselves to the divinely inspired word as an act of faith.
This can be problematic, especially as there are false prophets.
When the prophet is held to be genuine, new religions may be
adopted, based on the prophet's teachings, and on their
interpretation.
A prophet often operates through some means of divination or
channeling. The process of receiving a message from God (or the
gods) is known either as prophecy or as revelation. (In this
sense, the terms are synonyms.) |
