To Be Continued…

By Marv

Be careful what you ask for. You might get it.

Sinai. Year One of the new Nation constituted by YHWH Himself, for His own purposes. Yesterday they were an ethnic group, an agglomeration of clans and tribes, united by common ancestry: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. In the incubator of Egyptian bondage they had been fruitful and multiplied. Then, through Moses, YHWH came to take them to Himself:

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
(Exodus 19:4 ESV)

They saw it for themselves.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
(Exodus 19:5-6 ESV)

Moses heard and spoke these words to the people. But YHWH wanted the people to hear Him themselves.

All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”
(Exodus 19:8-9 ESV)

He then delivered His law before them, and they both saw and heard. But they were afraid of His fire and His voice and did not want to hear it themselves.

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
(Exodus 20:18-21 ESV)

A decisive moment. Called to faith, they responded with fear. Privileged to hear the voice of God, they rejected that privelege. Though they themselves were to be a “kingdom of priests,” they wanted an intermediary. God gave them what they asked for.

Moses continued as intermediary, God’s prophet for them. Through the years that followed He sent other prophets, other intermediaries, until the time when He sent THE Prophet, His Son.

 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
(Deuteronomy 18:15-18 ESV)

God’s grace shone through, but we can wonder what might have been for the generations to come, if the people on that day had not asked not to hear God’s voice. Understand, it folded into God’s sovereign plan, but He says He would speak through an intermediary and not to them, because they had asked for this.  But the arrangement came with strict specifications, both for the people and for the intermediary:

 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
 (Deuteronomy 18:19-20 ESV)

Severe consequences on both sides, but they had what they asked for. And they promised to heed the word of God’s prophet, though they no longer saw the manifestation of God’s glory or heard his voice. They had the Word through the prophets, and then the Prophet Himself, but the people failed:

 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
(John 5:37-40 ESV)

But with the Son comes something different, the New Covenant.

 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
(Jeremiah 31:31-33 ESV)

Though some of this is “not yet,” there is an “already” in the Body of Christ, through the Holy Spirit:

 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
(2 Corinthians 3:3-6 ESV)

And in this New Covenant, through the Son of God, the Holy Spirit is poured out on all believers, starting with Pentecost. The arrangement to which God agreed at Sinai is reversed. He came again in sound and fire:

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
(Acts 2:2-3 ESV)

All God’s people can henceforth hear His voice.:

 And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
 that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
 and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
  and your young men shall see visions,
  and your old men shall dream dreams;
 even on my male servants and female servants
  in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
(Acts 2:17-18 ESV)

Moses himself had foreshadowed this situation:

 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 on them!”
(Numbers 11:29 ESV)

So He has now done. A profoundly fundamental distinction of the Body of Christ to the nation of Israel under the Old Covenant is the Spirit poured out on all and His voice now present to all. How would the experience of Israel been different had they not rejected His voice? We may not know, but we do know how it is different today.

In the first place, the severity of the Deuteronomy 18 consequences were based on the people’s unwillingness to hear, to which God acquiesced:

 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
(Deuteronomy 18:19-22 ESV)

In the Body of Christ, now that “all God’s people are prophets,” the dynamics are very different, since all can hear for themselves:

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
(1 Corinthians 14:1-5; 24-25; 29-33 ESV)

Now questions are frequently asked about prophecy in the Body of Christ, whether the words spoken out are infallable or inerrant as the Scriptures are; whether any inaccuracies are tantamount to false prophecy; whether the dire penalties of Deuteronomy 18, or some similarly serious consequence be directed to the one so prophesying imperfectly.

This I intend to address in the second part.

By Marv

“Charismatics need to chill out. Evangelicals need to thaw out.”

So spoke a pastoral mentor of mine, some two decades back, on his premise that the two sides would eventually meet in the “radical middle,” as Vineyard history has termed it. He has proved more right than not. I was a thaw-out case myself–in my paradigm shift to Continuationism. Well before I had reached ambient temperature I realized there was scarcely straw to grasp at in the Scriptures that I could construct a Cessationist straw man out of. The rest–coming to view Continuationism in a positive light–as affirmatively supported in the Bible–took a little more time–process. So I know the symptoms.

When all you have left to operate on is your preconceived notions, these still take a bit of processing. You tend to figure child-rearing experts at least have children of their own. You don’t go for business advice to those who’ve never run a business. And sooner or later you realize that if anyone has understanding of how spiritual gifts actually work–they are more likely to be Continuationists than Cessationists. So long-held Cessationist notions will likely have to give way, but it takes time.

I venture, therefore, a diagnosis. If you want to see a thaw in process, keep an eye on C. Michael Patton’s posts in the ongoing Patton-Storms summit at Parchment and Pen, AKA “Why I Am/Not Charismatic.” Something in his remarks seems diffferent this time around. I think I detect some movement (and it isn’t just because on the latest TUP podcast he seems to have quoted your truly, AKA “somebody.”) Could it be he has passed the point of no return? Only time will tell.

The latest round has covered prophecy, and in it Sam Storms lays out an excellent presentation of what prophecy looks like post-Pentecost. With the “democratization” of prophecy, by the coming of the Holy Spirit, everyone in the Body of Christ can hear the voice of the Spirit. As the priesthood of the believer contrasts with the Levitical priesthood of Israel, the “prophethood of the believer” (as my colleague Scott has explained), removes prophecy from the theocratic authority structure of the Old Covenant.

The dispensational change has a consequent effect on the nature of post-Pentecost prophecy in terms of its level of authority, but Patton, Dispensationalism notwithstanding, continues to party like it’s A.D. 32. However his latest round of objections to Storm’s presentation, sounds to me less like his putting up a vigorous defense than it does trying to wrap his mind around unaccustomed ideas. The fact that he has to dig deep into the Old Testament to back up his sticking points suggests he realizes he’s still driving his father’s Oldsmobile. What are some of these areas?

Prophecy in Church history

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, of all people, cites a few instances of prophetic confrontation from the pulpit, where secrets of the heart were disclosed (1 Cor. 14:25). Patton points out that Spurgeon was nevertheless a Cessationist. No doubt he was, but the “all flesh” of Acts 2:17-18 includes Cessationists as well as Continuationists, though it is arguably more consistent to do so as the latter. I can look back and see instance of hearing God’s voice during my Cessationist days. So can Patton, according to a recent post.

Prophecy in relation to Scripture

Patton also bristles at the idea of fallable prophecy, hung up on a parallel between spoken prophecy and the written Word of God. The notion of “slippage room” between revelation received and prophecy given strike him as akin to a liberal, even “deistic” view of the inspiration of the Scriptures. Deism is an odd label for a view that affirms “manifestations of the Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:7) are “normative” for today. But what Patton voices as an objection is essentially his own restatement of what Storms has been arguing is the nature of post-Pentecost spoken prophecy as contrasted with the Scriptures. Patton gets it, but it makes him uncomfortable. If liberals bring Scripture down to the level of non-Canonical spoken prophecy, it is because they discount the guarantee of 1 Tim. 3:16, which guarantee is given to the Scriptures but never to non-Canonical prophecy.

Prophecy in relation to teaching

It is an odd charge–this “deism” business–in that, as a teacher, his own process of expositing the Scriptures operates virtually identically to Storms’ process interpreting and applying received revelation. The step of “observation” is different, reading the Bible vs. hearing the voice of God afresh, but why from that point is it more “deistic” to grant fallable human input as a possible contaminant of the spoken prophecy than it is in the case of spoken teaching? Because the Spirit should be expected to protect His word? And we shouldn’t have the same expectation in terms of the Spirit’s work of illumination? If anything, the contemporary view of teaching, as a charisma, that it isn’t particularly “supernatural” is more open to the charge of deism than anything suggested by Storms in regard to prophecy.

More than a little disconcerting is the double standard Patton voices, apprehensive against fallability in prophecy as tantamount to outright false prophecy. This in view of the fact that it is to the teachers of the Church that we owe the false doctrine known as Cessationism. For centuries the teachers have pushed out the prophets, leading the body in a rousing chorus of “I have no need of you.” Patton’s sticking point here is that prophecy must be held to a higher standard than teaching–to wit, perfection–on the grounds that prophecy is “claiming new revelation.”

Never mind that the interpreter of Scripture has much less excuse for hearing revelation incorrectly, in that he or she has to do with the established, written, canonical revelation, which has been known and read for centuries, discussed, debated, argued. With two millennia of interpretive tradition, shelves full of commentaries, and three to four years of Seminary training in analyzing texts the teacher has an enormous advantage, prophetic revelation typically being fleeting, faint, indistinct. Prophecy, like its sister gift, teaching, entails skills to be learned. Egad, to view my seminary preaching videos would make stoning seem a mercy. To a large extent the church is only now relearning how to prophesy, a further step in reformation, but we ought to insist on flawlessness–while in the matter of teaching the Body of Christ is so wildly divergent that huge percetages of the exercise of this gift must be pure error?

At any rate New Testament does not share Patton’s higher standard of prophecy than teaching, much the opposite:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (James 3:1)

But with regard to prophecy:

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.” (1 Cor. 14:29-32)

This last sentence, “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” is what gives the slippage room discussed above, and precisely why there is no guarantee of infallability with spoken prophecy. The Scripture is different; it is precertified–God-breathed (1 Tim. 3:16). Even though “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man” and those who prophecy are “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21), the spirit of the prophet remains subject to the prophet, and thus must be weighed. Not so a “prophecy of Scripture” (emphasis mine), which is guaranteed not be a product of “someone’s own interpretation” (ibid. v. 20).

So how is it that Patton the Bible teacher says: “The congregation or students should always be reminded that the teacher is fallible since he or she has not received divine revelation.” (emphasis in original). Really? Um, then what’s that book in your hand, Michael?

Prophecy as encouragement

Patton seems now to appreciates the truth that prophecy is for upbuilding and encouragement (1 Cor. 14:3), and is not just a so-called “sign gift.” Still he is wary of false encouragement: “the ability of a prophecy to encourage is not the test of its veracity.” That is very true, which is why prophecies need to be tested.

Prophecy in New Testament examples

As invaluable as NT precept regarding post-Pentecost prophecy are the Canonical examples of it in the pages of Acts. If post-Pentecost prophecy bore the same authority as Scripture, or as the Old Testament prophet, Paul would have been in violation by continuing to Jerusalem even though “through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.” (Acts 21:4). Patton seems not quite sure what to do with this example.

The oft-cited Agabus example is that the wording of his prophecy was not technically accurate (Acts 21:10). He said it was the Jews who would bind Paul, when in fact it was the Romans. Now is this an “error” in an otherwise legitimate prophecy? It’s a debatable argument. Patton’s response is to point to Peter’s Pentecost sermon in which he says to the Jews “you” crucified Jesus, since of course it was really the Romans. (Acts 2:36). The two instances are not quite parallel. Certainly it was Roman soldiers who drove the nails, but it was in response to the vox populi despite Pilate’s inclination to release Jesus:

And Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” (Mark 15:14).

 

Still, now it’s Patton who is defending the prophet by comparing prophecy with teaching. So maybe this is progress.

Prophecy in the Grudem understanding

Wayne Grudem has been the go-to guy on the view of prophecy that Storms advances, ever since the publication of The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today in 1989, an expansion of his earlier 1982 PhD dissertation The Gift of Prophecy in 1 Corinthians. Patton asks whether anyone has espoused this view prior to Grudem. It is true that novelty is not particulary a recommendation in theology, but in the history of the church the apostolic teaching has frequently had to be rediscovered, and the charge of innovation has not been wanting. That Paul himself had to instruct the church not to despise prophecy (1 Thes. 5:20), does suggest Grudem is on solid ground. At any rate, the appendices of Grudem’s book, at least the revised edition (2000) contain examples of similar understanding from at least as far back as the Puritan era.

The Scriptures are there to be examined, however, and I think that Grudem does little more than present what is there to be read. I don’t know how many studies have been done by those taking prophecy seriously as something to be practiced today. Many if not most studies previous to his had been safely tucked away in Cessationism.

Ultimately, it is the Scriptures that must be the guide in this matter, not tradition. I am pretty sure that if one’s committment is to Cessationism, the statements of Scripture need not prove an insurmountable obstacle. However, I am all the more certain that to one passionate for Biblical truth–as Patton has always shown himself to be–shorn of Cessationist presuppositions, as he seems more and more to be–the Bible will ultimately speak for itself. And if those of us who support non-Canonical prophecy for today are correct, the full thaw will come in time.