MrBillPro,
Hi!
You yourself are elegantly capable of explaining how it is that the Holy Spirit interprets scripture to us as we read, being open to hear from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This itself is a legitimate way to define 'prophecy' - a forthtelling of truth - just as sound preaching is also 'prophecy'.
It is a short step from anointed preaching (using some of the written word of God as text), to prophesying in the strength of a grace (charis) of the Holy Spirit, where He directly gives words to the person obeying Him, which are then spoken out by that servant (son of God) within the assembly. If we have the Holy Spirit enlivening Christ in our beings, then it is natural for Him to speak (or teach, or heal, or evangelise, or direct (administer), and so on, as with other gifts) at the time appointed in that person's life in their function as a member of His body on earth.
Of course Jesus was going to tell forth the truth! He was in the unusual position as THE MAN, of being able to point to Himself and say 'I AM - THE TRUTH'. In so saying, I am not diminishing His status as THE SON (the Only-begotten Son, the Firstborn Son) of GOD.
Perhaps a way to rethink His status as a man, is to consider that we, as 'men' are created in His likeness. Although He had not been Incarnate at the time of Adam's creation, nevertheless, we are modelled on what God 'would have' looked like had HE been a man on earth first. Jesus Christ was not modelled on us, except in His taking 'the likeness of sinful flesh'.
(Therefore we recognise Him. Remember how no-one recognised Him after the resurrection - there was something different about His body... I suggest it was more like sinLESS flesh, than any man has ever seen - but that's another discussion.)
The Prophet that Approved noted in Deuteronomy 18:15 is referred to in other places in the New Testament, also. The people were waiting for 'that Prophet'.
John 1:21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou THAT PROPHET? And he answered, No. ... 25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither THAT PROPHET?
John 6:14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth THAT PROPHET that should come into the world.
Acts 3: 22 For Moses [Deu 18:15 - 19] truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23 And it shall come to pass, [that] every soul, which will not hear THAT PROPHET, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26 Unto you [Israelites] first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Acts 7:37 [Stephen speaking] This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. [Deu 18:15]
Acts 26:22 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
According to Jesus many prophets had been killed by the people. He includes that narrative in His parable of the vineyard with the tower. At the end of that parable, the King Himself comes and destroys those who did not receive His Son. That ending is exactly what Moses prophesied about 'that Prophet', recalled by Peter in Acts 3:23 (above).
Deuteronomy 18:19 And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require [it] of him.
Therefore, the generation to whom 'that Prophet' came, had had about 1500 years' notice that God had also determined a consquence to those who rejected Him.
It would not be possible for Mohammed to attribute to Jesus the glory which Christians believe He deserves, as that would have made his thesis untenable.
