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

Did Prophecy Cease-or Does It Continue?

The text of both Testaments was inspired prophetically by God's Spirit. In addition, a unique, common prophetic ministry was taught and expe rienced in the New Testament that, because of possible fallibility, required testing and approval. Such prophecy, properly handled, is not just sub jective but wonderfully edifying to the church body. Although it can be one hundred percent accurate, it is not considered canonical. Later I will emphasize that prophecy, along with every other spiritual manifestation, is subject to and evaluated by the supreme standard: the canonized Scripture given by divine revelation to the prophets and apos tles. The Bible text is exalted over local prophecy, which can never sub stitute for or add to apostolic doctrine and Scripture. Personally, I do not want my theology to depend on experience rather than Scripture. The thought that a spiritual experience can alone validate itself is repugnant to me. Certainly personal experience is important, but prophecy is safeguarded by the sanctified biblical thinking of the rest of the local church-and above all by the written Word of God. This view has already been argued successfully elsewhere, 18 so I will content myself with continuing to scatter convincing illustrations of prophecy throughout this book as we proceed, and let Jack Deere strike forcefully at the heart of the cessationist argument: There is one basic reason why Bible-believing Christians do not believe in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit today.It is simply this: they have not seen them.Their tradition, of course, supports their lack of belief, but their tradition would have no chance of success if it were not coupled with their lack of experience of the miraculous....No cessationist writer that I am aware of tries to make his case on Scripture alone.All of thesewritersappeal both to Scripture and to either present or past history to support their case. It often goes unnoticed that this appeal to history, either past or present, is actually an argument from experience, or better, an argument from the lack of experience. 19 Answer 3: Historical Evidence Exists for Miraculous Gifts

Answer 4: Proper Use Invalidates Misuse

Prophecy is sometimes misused, and the approach of a new millennium causes more doomsday prophets to arise. 20 But I like this positive attitude by Joseph Hogan: "As soon as we speak of prophets, people are imme 239.