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

Christ's Continuing Voice in the Church

diately worried about false prophets. On the contrary, it seems to me that we should pray for prophecy! The problem now is an absence of prophets. It seems that the Holy Spirit is raising up prophets in our midst. We should be attentive. The community can judge the worth of prophecy after it hap pens, but let it happen first." 21 Every thoughtful, responsible leader I know who believes in the gifts of the Spirit for today also believes that prophecy should be evaluated, tested and examined. 22 This is the strength and safeguard of the Church as false prophets proliferate in these last days. Let's reclaim the vibrant, positive belief in spiritual gifts and their operation that the early Chris tians had! They were confident that the same God who gave gifts to His children would give them adequate insight to exercise them. Gordon Fee wisely counsels that "the antidote for abuse is proper use." 23 It is encouraging to see material now appearing that treats spiritual gifts in a personal, positive way. A noticeable handicap that has confronted commentators in the past has been a lack of practical, personal experi ence. William Barclay, the brilliant Scottish Presbyterian scholar, con fessed while commenting on prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14: "This chap ter is very difficult to understand because it deals with a phenomenon which, for most of us, is outside our experience." 24 Dedicated scholarship will miss or overlook certain insights when denied the experience of the activity being discussed. Mark Cartledge brings out this very point in a thought-provoking article for Themelios: Usually the interpreter's understanding of what the NT has to say influ ences how the contemporary phenomenon is perceived. With the NT as a starting point, it is possible to beg the question with respect to contempo rary experience. This is the danger that all interpreters face, and could suc cumb to. The lack of academic material inevitably contributes to this prob lem. The material which scholars present as relating to modern experience is often the better quality of popular literature, but nevertheless the selec tion is often small and possibly unrepresentative. If there is a central weak ness in the scholarship considering this question, it lies on the contempo rary side, in contrast to their NT discussion. 25 My participation in prophetic activity during the past fifty years has been both joyful and educational. We do need the scholar's insight of the biblical text, but we must also have meaningful contemporary experience and pastoral application. Let's be wary of the dangers yet appreciative of • 240 A Proper Perspective