A prophecy is simply a message from God. It can be a message about the past, the present or the future.

A prophecy is given by a prophet. They are given a message by God, and pass it on to others. All sorts of people can have messages from God (see How does God speak to us).

There are lots of prophecies in the Bible. Some told things about Jesus before he was born. Some warned people that God was unhappy about the things they were doing. Jesus gave a prophecy about himself, saying he would be killed and rise from the dead. You can read some of the prophecies about Jesus.

It is important that prophecies are checked. Sometimes people get things wrong, and think they have a message from God when they don't, or they don't understand it properly. The Bible says that people should check prophecies and pray about them to make sure they are right.

Back to the contents for this section

Back to the list of sections