Misapplied Scriptures: Amos 3:7

Introduction: Like many believers, I didn’t spend too much time reading the Bible, let alone doing serious study, for many of my years as a believer. It seems some religious leaders or devout followers know this and use verses such as this one to prove a point. If true believers don’t have a working knowledge of context and historical settings, the believer could be tricked or misled into believing something false.

Here’s one such verse that I heard a devout follower use—but the verse was completely taken out of its context.

Text: Amos 3:7, KJV: 7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

1 How the scripture might be misapplied

A certain, very large, denomination is headquartered in a Western state. They have a visitor’s center where, at one time, a guide gave tours of how this particular group was started. In terms of a production, it was very well done, but this denomination holds to some beliefs that are different from what other Christians believe and as such, I wasn’t interested when time came to fill out visitor cards. I left mine blank, handed it to the speaker or guide or whatever he was called, shook my head and left. I’ve had no desire to visit the place again.

The beliefs being different were bad enough but the thing that was most irritating to me was the guide’s appeal, if you will, to this verse, Amos 3:7. The guide said something along the lines of “the Word of God says that the LORD will not do anything before He reveals it to His prophets, and I tell you there IS a prophet”—and then proceeded to name the human leader of this group.

To me, that’s a misapplied Scripture. For one thing, there are no more “prophecies” because the Word of God, the Bible, is complete. In its pages we have examples from the past, lessons for the present, and glimpses of the future. We have the “back of the Book”, the last chapters, where God steps in, then history closes and gives way to eternity. Thus, there is no need for more “prophecies” beyond what’s already in the Bible.

And even more significantly, not only is God’s Word complete, there are some dire penalties for those who add to or take away from the Word (see Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19, for example). Anyone who claims to be a prophet, in the sense of allegedly bringing new “revelation” from the Lord, would do well to meditate on these verses. It’s one thing to explain the Word and some of the passages that are not easy to understand (oh, yeah, there are some) but quite another to add a “thus saith the LORD” or “thus says the prophet” when He has given us His complete Word already.

2 How the scripture should be applied

In the context, Amos is relaying a message from the LORD to the people of Bethel. This city was one of the two places where Jeroboam, the first Northern king, had placed golden calves and said, in so many words, “Worship here, Israel! Behold your gods who brought you out of Egypt, etc. etc.” Bethel was a site where several things had happened, but for the city called “the house of God” to become “the city of a pagan god”—the words fail me to describe it. Incredibly sad, and even worse, imagine the arrogance of the king who made, if not encouraged, his subjects to worship this false god.

Amos had listed the sins of various nations in chapters 1 and 2, and now takes direct aim at Israel, the whole nation, as this part of his message. Amos asked a series of questions, aimed to make the people stop and think. Just take a look at these, in Amos 3:1-6, where it seems to me the obvious answers to all of them are “No”.

Besides that, the LORD had used the prophets as His messengers to communicate the good and the bad, the blessings and curses, to Israel for many years. But all of that, let’s remember, was long before the Scriptures were completed.

We have, may I repeat, the complete Word and “all things pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3)". We’ll always need people to explain the Word, but we do not need those who claim to add to the Word, especially if these want to introduce something the Bible doesn’t teach.

Should you hear someone teach anything that sounds odd, or different than what the Bible teaches, do yourself a favor and check it out. Don’t be fooled by those who misuse the Scriptures to deceive you in any way.

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)