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

14

DID PROPHECY

CEASE-OR DOES

IT CONTINUE?

Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. 1 Corinthians 12:1, NKJV

OVER THE YEARS scholars have attempted to establish sound prin ciples and rules of interpretation to guide Bible students-a science and art we call hermeneutics. Generally these guidelines are helpful, but a biased rule or application produces a faulty theology and alters the per ception of Bible truth. A student approaching the Bible with an anti-supernatural hermeneu tic, for instance, will automatically eliminate the supernatural elements of the Bible, including prophecy. Bultmann and other German theologians carried this approach to the extreme as they "demythologized" the New Testament. Its recorded miracles were not miracles at all, they argued, but merely symbolic stories. This liberal attitude has claimed many unfortu nate disciples today. A more subtle approach is used by some evangelical, ostensibly Bible believing Christians. They freely accept the miracles and spiritual hap penings of Bible days but say such events are not meant for today. This approach is still an anti-supernatural hermeneutic, merely in a different 231.