December 25pm, 1990
Bethlehem Baptist Church
John Piper, pastor

COMPASSION, POWER AND THE KINGDOM OF
GOD THE AUTHORITY AND NATURE OF THE GIFT OF PROPHECY
Part Two

WERE THERE TWO KINDS OF PROPHECY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?

Micah 4:1

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.

+ This shows that prophecy includes foretelling.

Micah 2:1-3

Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man an his house, a man and his inheritance.

+ This shows that prophecy includes forthtelling.
+ Prophecy in the OT includes a spiritual and moral assessment of the people, and the announcement of God's warnings of judgement and his promises of blessing.

Deuteronomy 18:18-20

(18) I will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses] from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. (19) And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. (20) But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

+ This authoritative prophet speaks the very words of God.
+ Complete obedience to these words is required.
+ The test of such a prophet is the question: is he a true prophet or a false prophet; not: how much of his message is useful and how much is not?

Numbers 11:24-29

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and placed them round about the tent [of meeting]. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders; and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did so no more. Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested upon them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, "My lord Moses, forbid them." But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!"

+ This raises the question whether the kind of prophesying that was going on in this group of seventy men was the kind that had the authority and verbal inspiration and infallibility spoken of in Deut. 18. Or was this group-experience a kind of speech less authoritative, and more like ecstatic magnifying of God's name?

+ Would Moses have wished that all God's people become prophets with the authority of himself and the other writers of Scripture? Especially in view of the terrible warning that one error could result in death?

1 Samuel 10:5-6, 9-12

[Samuel said to Saul] You shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines; and there, as you come to the city, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you, and you shall prophesy with them and be turned into another man. . . When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all these signs came to pass that day. When they came to Gibeah, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied among them. And when all who knew him before saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, "What has come over the son of Kish? And a man of the place answered, "And who is their father?" Therefore it became a proverb, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

+ This again seems like a kind of celebrative speech, even with instruments, that was on a different order from the absolute, inspired, infallible, Scripture-quality utterances of Moses. (The same kind experience came upon Saul and his messengers in 1 Samuel 19:20-24.)

Joel 2:28

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and the maidservants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.

+ Is Joel predicting the fulfillment of the desire of Moses that all God's people were prophets? It seems that the latter days is going to be a time when the Spirit of God is going to be active in new ways. It seems that the prophecy foreseen here is not of the absolutely authoritative kind.

Conclusion: There is at least a strong likelihood that the OT pictured two sorts of prophecy: one, a verbally inspired kind of speech that was infallible and had the standing of God's very words and the status of Scripture; the other a kind of ecstatic utterance that was inspired by God but perhaps not in its very words, rather more like spontaneous expressions of God's greatness and God's ways. WERE THERE TWO KINDS OF PROPHECY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?

Revelation 22:18-19

I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

+ John considered his prophecy on a par with the inspired Scripture of the OT. The same could be shown about Paul's letters by comparing 2 Peter 1:2-21 and 3:2.

+ Yet it is remarkable that Paul does not defend his authority by claiming to be a "prophet." He does so by claiming to be an "apostle". Among the Greeks of Paul's day and among the Jewish teachers the word "prophet" was not a word implying verbal inspiration with the kind of authority that the apostles had.

+ The following passages suggest that there was a kind of prophecy in the New Testament churches that had a lesser authority than apostolic teaching and Scripture.

Acts 2:17-18

And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

+ Does this mean that men and women and maids and servants all over the world will speak with the very authority of an apostle? Or is the kind of prophecy involved here described in the following texts from Acts?

Acts 2:11

We hear them [the 120 disciples at Pentecost] telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

+ This is what they were doing which Peter says is the fulfillment that they would prophesy -- to speak of the great deeds of God which he brings to mind by his Spirit.

+ Compare what happened at the house of Cornelius and in Ephesus to this Pentecostal event which Peter calls prophesying.

Acts 10:45-46

And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.

+ "Extolling God is the verb form of the noun used in Acts 2:11 for "telling the mighty works of God." So it appears that the same kind of Spirit-inspired speech is in view here. In the following passage the same thing happens and it is called explicitly "prophecy."

Acts 19:6

And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

+ "Prophesied" stands in the same place here as "tell of his mighty works in Acts 2:11 and 10:46. This is a strong suggestion that in all three cases we have an example of a kind of "prophecy" that does not have apostolic authority but is a Spirit-prompted, spontaneous utterance about God's great character or his ways.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22

Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

+ This text does not focus on testing the prophets themselves (though there is a place for that (Matt. 7:15-20; 1 John 4:1-3). The focus is on testing the prophecies and holding fast to "what is good" not "who is good." This implies that there is genuine prophecy that is not perfect, so that the good needs to be sorted out from the bad.

1 Corinthians 14:29

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

+ Again the test is most likely an examination of the prophecy itself not to discern whether this brother in the church is a true or false prophet but rather to discern what is useful and what is not in what he says.

1 Corinthians 14:37-38

If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. If any one does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

+ Here the measuring rod for prophets and prophecies is the teaching of the apostles. It seems as though Paul does not regard the Corinthian prophets as people whose speech could compete with his claim to authority.

Acts 21:3-4

When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria, and landed Tyre; for there the ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

+ This advice not to go to Jerusalem flew right in the face of what Paul knew in the Spirit he was called to do (Acts 19:21 "Paul resolved in the Spirit to . . . go to Jerusalem.") Here is a prophecy (cf. Acts 11:28) that contradicts Paul's deep conviction about what God wants him to do. He does not obey it.

+ But note carefully: Luke, who knew that the prophecy was not according to God's will when he wrote the book, still said they spoke it through the Spirit. This why I say prophecy is "prompted and sustained" by the Spirit and yet fallible and without intrinsic authority.

+ The Spirit gave them a revelation of Paul's trouble in Jerusalem (prompted) and He stirred them up to deliver the message (sustained). But their perception and reflection and delivery have some of their own feelings and finite judgments in them, and the message does not accord perfectly with the revelation. Paul will have trouble in Jerusalem, but he is still supposed to go. The prophecy was rooted in truth, but came out garbled. It had to be tested and largely rejected.

+ Alford (Greek New Testament, Vol. 2, p. 235) says about this verse, "We thus have an instance of that which Paul asserts in 1 Cor. 14:32, that the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets, i.e., that the revelation made by the Holy Spirit to each man's spirit was under the influence of that man's will and temperament, moulded by and taking the form of his own capacities and resolves."

+ Compare the prophecy of Agabus in Acts 21:11 and its imprecise fulfillment in 21:31-33.

1 Corinthians 12:31; 14:1,5,39

Earnestly desire the higher gifts (like prophecy).

Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

Now I want you all . . . even more to prophesy.

So, my brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy.

+ In view of James 3:1 ("Let not many of you become teachers."), it would seem strange that Paul would all to prophesy if prophesying were equal to apostolic teaching authority.

+ Isn't it more likely that Paul, like Moses in Numbers 11:29 and Joel in Joel 2:28 and Peter in Acts 2:17 is simply expressing his desire for the great end-time outpouring of the Spirit in which great numbers of men and women and old and young and low and high class would prophesy.

WHAT THEN IS THIS GIFT?

It is a regulated (1 Cor. 14:32) message or report in human words (1 Cor. 14:3,29; Acts 21:4,11) usually made to the gathered believers (1 Cor. 14:4) based on a spontaneous, personal revelation from the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:30; Luke 7:39; 22:64; John 4:19) for the purpose of edification, encouragement, consolation, conviction or guidance (1 Cor. 14:3, 24-25; Acts 21:4; 16:6-10) but not necessarily free from a mixture of human error, and thus needing assessment (1 Thess. 5:19-20; 1 Cor. 14:29) on the basis of the apostolic (Biblical) teaching (1 Cor 14:36-38) and mature spiritual wisdom (Col. 1:9).

Conclusion:

We should

recognize God's complete sovereignty in giving gifts to whomever he wills (1 Cor. 12:11; Hebrews 2:4); and

recognize that not all will become prophets (1 Cor. 12:29); and

be zealous for this gift (1 Cor. 14:1) by

praying for it (1 Cor. 14:13),

and by avoiding all jealousy if we do not have it, but being grateful for the gifts we do have and using them fully for the good of the church and the glory of God (1 Cor. 12:14-19);

and by growing toward maturity (1 Cor. 14:37; 2:14);

and having humble, loving motives (1 Cor. 14:1,12,26);

and by mustering the courage to speak out what we sense (with more or less assurance) may be from the Lord) in gatherings designed for this less structured expression (1 Cor. 14:26),

with the humble expectation that the prophecy will not be taken as a word of Scripture but as a Spirit-prompted human word to be weighed by the Biblical authority, and by mature spiritual wisdom. For a prophecy to be accepted as valid it should find an echo in the hearts of spiritually mature people. It should be confirmed by Biblically saturated insight. And it should find a resonance in the hearts and minds of those who have the mind of Christ and are ruled by his peace. (1 Thess. 5:19-21)

Copyright 1990, 1998 John Piper
Piper's Notes