Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

The Transition from Old to New

In Conclusion

God has spoken to His people in many and various ways throughout history; the way in which He speaks is determined by the covenantal deal ings of the given time frame. One of the most frequent ways has been prophecy, and this form of divine communication-whether in logos dec larations of universal significance or in local church prophecies for cur rent encouragement-has continued throughout the Bible. Obviously prophecy functioned differently after Christ ascended. Now we who are part of the Church Jesus founded seek to have that prophecy, and other spiritual gifts that were a vital part of the early Church, restored to today's church operation. The next chapter opens Part 4, the heart of our discussion on what prophecy in the Church, past and present, is meant to be. All six chap ters of this section advocate that the voice of Jesus continues in the Church in the form of prophecy-not as a substitute for preaching and teaching, which are essential, but as a complement to the ministry of the written Word. Only gradually and after violent struggles was a final release from Judaism attained and did it become recognized in consequence that the Christian society was utterly distinct from and indeed irreconcilable with the Jewish church. 33 Emil Brunner ...Though prophecy was directive in the Old Testament times because God's people did not have the Holy Spirit within them, in New Testament times, prophecy is not to be directive; it is used to confirm what God has already shown someone. 34 Roxanne Brant Since Paul saw prophecy as evidence for the fulfillment of God's escha tological promises, he undoubtedly also saw the New Testament prophets as in the succession of the legitimate prophets of the Old Testament.This explains in part why all such prophecy must be discerned, just as with those in the Old Testament.But the nature of the new prophecy was also under stood to be of a different kind, precisely because of the church's present eschatological existence. A prophet who speaks encouragement to the REFLECTIONS

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