Prophets are not limited to the period of the Old Testament. We read of prophets in the New Testament church, and many figures since have either claimed to be or have been attributed the designation of prophet. This is a highly controversial topic. Ask the group to discuss the following ideas and questions. Are there modern day prophets?
Are there modern day false prophets? What are the characteristics of a biblical prophecy? After the day of Pentecost, the New Testament records multiple examples of spiritual gifts, including prophecy. In 1 Corinthians, Paul encourages the Church to eagerly pursue the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. Of course, Paul also encourages restraint, and tells us that even having the gift of prophecy we are nothing without love 1 Corinthians To be prophetic, in a sense, is to reveal God's word, Jesus, and its divine authority, to others.
Read the quote below from Oscar Romero and consider the following questions. What do you think Romero means when he implores people to become prophets? What message do these prophets share? Can you think of any examples of modern-day prophets who prophetically speak the message of Christ into their situations? Part of being a Christian is wrestling with the practical implications of our faith. Indeed, sometimes this calling comes not to an individual, but to a prophetic servant community.
The scripture also says that there is grace given by the Holy Spirit as He wills 1 Corinthians You get a measure of grace upon your life to operate in that gift. So for some people, it comes really naturally and other people have to work at it. We can all operate in the gift of prophecy like we can operate in the gift of healing and wisdom and discernment.
If someone is called as a prophet then you're looking at a different function. The prophet function in Ephesians 4 is more of a life call. Which is God-given.
It's part of who you are, you kind of can't escape it. I believe true prophets who are walking in the fullness of their call have angelic encounters, they have visions or dreams or both. I'm more of a visions person, I've got a woman on our team, who has more of a dream gift. Prophets will have angelic encounters and the supernatural will be flowing through their life.
Not everyone who prophesies accurately is a Prophet. Prophets should be positioned in the body of Christ, in the local church and operate from being part of a family.
I don't believe they should be functioning outside of the local church. It's really good to be commissioned into your call by leadership who recognize the call and anointing in your life. The other thing to consider is the prophet's realm of influence.
Is it a local church influence, or is it a city-wide influence, or is it a global influence? That level of influence is definitely decided by God, not by us. I believe in faith that you have given me this gift, so would you teach me how to do this? Would you start to give me pictures or words or scriptures for the people around me?
True prophecy is about honoring God and revealing his heart. Of course, we are not called to stone even genuinely false prophets today. If a person has prophesied falsely, even publicly, but is not leading us toward other gods or counseling rebellion against the Lord, some discipline may be in order, allowing for a time of seeking where they got it wrong.
We just need to be pretty sure we get it right before exercising that full discipline, which is quite serious Matt ; 1 Cor ; 1 Tim If people got executed today for all the things that Old Testament law commanded, we might not have many people left. As Christians, we are called to bring life and restoration.
So keep your stones for your rock garden. But we do need to take prophecy seriously. On the local level, we grow and mature as best as we can. More generally speaking, the testing of prophecy in Paul also stands in relation to its Jewish heritage. In Paul, early Christian prophecy yet has a relatively more distinct and outspoken place: "the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets" 1 Cor , RSV.
Our next passage, 1 Cor , pinpoints the limitations of prophecy from an eschatological perspective. Prophecy is here considered finite, it will pass away, and it only manifests itself in part 1 Cor Prophetic knowledge could be perceived as being limited also in early Jewish thought, as illustrated by the Qumran Pesher to Habakkuk, which speaks of the final age being extended "beyond all that the prophets say" 1QpHab 7.
Paul compares the contemporaneous situation with seeing in a mirror dimly and knowing in part over against seeing face to face and gaining full understanding, being fully understood in the final age 1 Cor Throughout chapter 13, Paul emphasizes that that which endures from the present to the final age is love. Without love, nothing is gained with prophetic powers 1 Cor Wolter calls this the eschatological relativization of the gift of prophetic speech in Paul's theology.
The aim of love 1 Cor , heavily stipulated in 1 Cor 13, does not preclude eagerness for gifts of the Spirit, but in Paul's understanding should predetermine it. Perhaps it should be added that prophecy is not so much relativized as its nature is put into perspective with regard to the final age.
Yet the notions of full understanding and face to face contact appear proleptically embodied in Paul's understanding of love. If the aim of love undergirds the desire of the special gift of prophecy then Paul has nothing against it, but even commends it in the interest of the upbuilding of the faith community, as we see in 1 Cor This distinction has already been foreshadowed by consecutive references to speaking in the tongues of men and of angels and to prophetic powers in 1 Cor Speaking in tongues without love is associated with "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" in 1 Cor , whereas prophetic powers are surrounded by the understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge and all faith in 1 Cor , which yet amount to nothing without love.
In 1 Cor , Paul addresses this distinction in increasing sharpness. Thus we read in 1 Cor In 1 Cor , Paul adds that prophecy is greater than speaking in tongues. Both may be put in practice, but the latter is only for one's own benefit, unless it is followed by interpretation.
Where does this distinction between prophecy and speaking in tongues come from? Glossolalia vs. Speaking in tongues is characterized as unintelligible to other people, whereas prophecy stands out for its intelligibility and moral outreach to the faith community in Paul's understanding in 1 Cor In his study on prophecy and inspired speech, C.
Forbes sought to dissociate alleged Hellenistic religious contexts of "ecstatic speech" from Paul's discussion of speaking in tongues. Forbes rather associated Pauline glossolalia with spiritual elitism among the Corinthians drawing on speculations within Jewish Hellenism.
Thus a spiritual sense should be included. The fact that Paul does not specify where his idea of "speaking in tongues" comes from could imply its diffuse presence in various contexts.
With "speaking in the tongues ofmen and of angels" 1 Cor in mind, heavenly thanksgiving with angelic tongues which is evoked in the so-called Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice from Masada Mas1k and Qumran 4Q, , 11Q17 may constitute a parallel from Judaism. This manifests itself in unconsciousness of words spoken and lines written and at the same time relates to the reception of "language, ideas, an enjoyment of light, keenest vision, pellucid distinctiveness of objects" Migr.
In any case, Paul wants his Corinthian audience to stay away from unintelligible ecstatic utterances which are not guided by the Spirit 1 Cor and only commends speaking in tongues as inspired speech when it is accompanied by interpretation 1 Cor , Homiletic functions of prophecy.
How does Paul arrive at assigning these homiletic functions? In fact, the Corinthian audience has been addressed as God's building in 1 Cor Paul here sets out to assign a constructive role to prophecy, beginning with the faith community's upbuilding. Analogously, upbuilding would also be part of prophetic roles of a "prophet in the womb" according to Sirach Jewish literature has been noted in previous scholarship regarding "prophets as proclaimers of consolation".
The last passage under our consideration is 1 Cor a. It has been argued by F. Wilk that Paul's discourse in 1 Cor reflects a broader reading of Isaiah Under wrong influences, they have gone astray and their counsel has become void. Perhaps Paul's distinction between speaking in tongues and prophecy may here intertextually denote a contrast between ecstatic, distorted forms of prophetic inspiration and pure mediation of prophecy.
Paul even goes so far that speaking in tongues would give the impression of madness to outsiders and unbelievers 1 Cor Perhaps the intertextual dialogue with Isaiah When Paul goes on to discuss prophecy and other spiritual matters in 1 Cor a, he makes general references to prophecy: "if all prophesy" 1 Cor and "you can all prophesy one by one" 1 Cor Which generalization of prophecy could be at work?
Two examples from Jewish Hellenism may illustrate generalising tendencies of thought about prophecy:. The Wisdom of Solomon 7. The prophetic state is deemed generally reconcilable with holy souls and friends of God in Wis 7.
In Paul's view, prophecy is reconcilable with the community of the faithful, calling even the outsider or unbeliever to worship of God, to acknowledgement of God's presence 1 Cor Evaluation and conclusions. It is time to draw a balance and come to conclusions. Paul's Letters are the earliest documents of emerging Christianity, and also provide the earliest evidence of Christian prophecy.
How does Paul stand between the alleged "cessation of prophecy" in Judaism and prolific early Christian prophetism? As I have argued in this essay, it is not so much a matter of "cessation of prophecy" as a cessation of the line of biblical prophets. Paul also distinguished the prophets of the Holy Scriptures Rom from his ideas about early Christian prophecy. Yet prophecy as a revelatory phenomenon had not ceased in the Second Temple period.
Even if it were in decline in the early post-exilic period, it went through a transition. Illuminating worlds of thought in late Second Temple Judaism, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide clear indications of the heightened significance of biblical prophecy as well as contemporizing, eschatologically oriented exegesis of prophecy.
The abundance of parabiblical elaborations on prophetic texts among the Scrolls attests to an open dialogue with prophecy. The eschatological fervour of emerging Christianity also brought prophetic inspiration to the fore. In his Corinthian correspondence, Paul sees early Christian prophecy as an active and constructive force in the upbuilding of the faith community at Corinth. As for the second question which this essay aimed to answer, the sense of "prophecy" which Paul has in mind in 1 Cor , I conclude that its homiletic functions of upbuilding, encouragement and consolation may be partly correlated in broad lines with early Jewish tradition and synagogue settings, as illustrated in Acts Early Christian prophetic speech as identified in Romans , regarding Israel's salvation, and in 1 Cor , regarding resurrection, is also intertextually correlated with biblical prophecy by Paul, as we have seen.
Early Christian prophecy thereby builds on biblical models of prophecy and early Jewish contexts of prophecy. As for the third question what prophetic performance does in the communal setting of 1 Cor , it is destined to contribute to the upbuilding and peace of the faith community 1 Cor Acts When the faith community is united in prophecy, it ultimately also reaches out to the unbeliever or outsider in Paul's view 1 Cor Arzt-Grabner, P.
Ash, J. Aune, D. Barrett, C. Brooke, G.
0コメント