42. Testing a Prophet

Yesodei HaTorah 10:1

If a prophet arises and tells us that God sent him, he does not have to prove it by performing wonders like Moses, Elijah and Elisha, who changed the course of nature. The proof of his claim will be the fulfillment of his prediction of some future event, as per Deuteronomy 18:21, “How are we to know when a prophecy was not spoken by God?” Therefore, if a person whose service of God makes him a potential prophet arises, so long as he does not seek to add to or detract from the Torah, but only to serve God through the mitzvos, we do not tell him to do something supernatural like splitting the sea or reviving the dead as proof. Rather, we ask him to tell us something that will happen in the future. We then wait to see whether his prediction comes true. If even a small detail of his prediction fails to occur, he is definitely a false prophet. If the entire prediction comes true, we consider him a true prophet.

Yesodei HaTorah 10:2

We test the prophet several times. If all of his predictions come true, he should be accepted as a true prophet, as I Samuel 3:20 says regarding Samuel, “All of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was accepted as a prophet of God.”