"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others evaluate."
The KJV is singular, "other"; but this is a mistranslation really. The Greek in the Textus Receptus is ἄλλοι (alloi), plural. It was corrected in the NKJV.
Now that that's out of the way, who are the "others?" Is it the other prophets? Does it refer to those with the gift of discernemt? The text doesn't really indicate this. Or is it the whole congregation?
So who does it refer to in your view, and why?
Good question. I believe that there are two groups of people who should evaluate prophecies. Some people have a gift of discernment. Obviously they are qualified. Others have the spiritual knowledge, including of God's word, to be qualified to discern. (Hebrews 5:14)
God sometimes uses the least qualified. I'd been saved for about 4 years when a false prophet came to the church where I was a member. I'd been reading a book about the gifts of the spirit. The false prophet gave a message in tongues. To me it was obviously demonic. The writer of the book gave some advice as to how to deal with tongues where there was no interpretation. He advised to say that it was just between the speaker and God. No one else said anything, so I spoke up. One of the elders spoke to me afterwards and gave me a pat on the back. My unspoken question was why didn't he speak up!
The pastor rejected any warnings about the false prophet. Eventually, the church imploded. I had been warned by the Lord to leave. It was a tough decision as I was committed to the people and the vision of the church. But I was also saved a lot of grief.
Fast forward 20 years and the "Toronto Blessing" was in full swing. Several of the people in our small group investigated this phenomenon. We compared the manifestations and the preaching to God's word. We were blessed with a leader who was genuinely spiritual. We discussed what we had seen and heard. It failed the test. The Toronto Blessing is 100% counterfeit.
It troubles me that there is so little discernment these days. Many Christians are excited about a new move of the Holy Spirit that is supposedly coming. I hope that I'm wrong, but my first reaction that it will be another fake.
Christians want a quick fix to spiritual problems. It is not how God works. Maturity in Christ is progressive.
Hebrews 5:
13For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. 14
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.
Ephesians 4:
12........to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, 13
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. 14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.…
The best defence against deception is to know Christ. We need heart knowledge, not just intellectual. If the mind is all that is used, it can be confused by scripture quoted out of context. Christians are prone to follow the pastor blindly. If the pastor is deceived, the people will likely follow. Now if we know Lord Jesus as our life, He will give us that inner witness that something is wrong with what we are seeing and hearing. If we know His word thoroughly, He will remind us of what it says and we will have the Bible backing to support our discernment.
For example, the Toronto Blessing was all about the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus hardly got a mention. One major denomination began to teach that we have the Holy Spirit, so we do not need Jesus. John 16 gives the lie to this heresy.
So who are "the others"? Ideally, those who can pick what is false by the inner witness, and who can back up that witness with the word of God.
