NOTES for Pe2 1:21
Prophetic experience was well known to Yahwism and later to Judaism. It was no less known to early Christianity. And in every age Yahwists, Jews, and Christians knew that people become prophets not because they want to, but because God calls them to this ministry. Of course, one could argue about "wanting." Practically all the prophetic books speak of false prophets, who become especially numerous in restless and troubled times. And almost always the crowd takes these false prophets for true prophets and listens to them more readily than to the true ones. Why is that? And who are these people who pass themselves off as prophets? The issue is apparently not prophets properly speaking, but a kind of prophesying ecstatic. Such people have existed in all ages and in all societies, and they are usually activated in periods of special social anxiety. There is nothing surprising here: ecstasy in itself is a purely psychological phenomenon, connected with a spontaneous widening of the boundaries of perception, usually accompanied by a rapid and sharp restructuring of the perceiver's consciousness, generally temporary, but sometimes quite prolonged, and in some cases even irreversible. Such expansion can be caused by many things, from drugs to direct spiritual influence. In true prophets ecstasy was connected precisely with such spiritual influence: not accidentally, they themselves spoke of the breath, or spirit, of God, which they sensed as completely real. And they testified to what they heard during communion with God. But what did false prophets hear? Apparently what, as people say, was in the air. And accordingly they said what those who breathed that air wanted to hear from them. True prophets, by contrast, could speak only of what they heard from God. And God, as is known, does not always say what we would like to hear from Him. Then listeners have to choose whose words to heed. Reason calls them to listen to what is unpleasant to hear: no one willingly says unpleasant things to an excited crowd. Emotions call them to side with those who say something pleasing to the ear. And the choice, as always, belongs to those who listen.