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

Christ's Continuing Voice in the Church

(some among the bishops) branded the prophecies as false because of a perceived lack of conscious control by the prophets. Geoffrey W. Bromiley comments: "The element of new revelation seems in the last analysis to have been the main cause of offense in the church at large. No objection is raised against prophesying as such, only against an extravagant (and possibly pagan) style and then against the claim to be advancing new truth." 28 It was a major test for the Church of the hour. That which apparently had begun as a genuine work of the Holy Spirit began to go astray and even become unscriptural. The bishops felt threatened by the new prophetic voice that did not seek their confirmation. The Montanists, for their side, refused to have their teaching tested and their prophets and prophetesses exorcised by unspiritual bishops, declaring their sub mission to God alone. All the leading bishops of Asia Minor finally declared against Montanism, despite some sympathy in the Western Church. 29 Each side could have benefited much from the insights of the other. The manner of prophesying that occurred in the Montanist churches, for instance, could and should have been tempered and adjusted. The false concept of the New Jerusalem being set up in Pepuza, a town of Phry gia, should have been judged. The bishops in turn needed to accept the challenge to their worldliness and seek fresh spiritual renewal. Both sides should have remained one Church, seeking solutions with prayer and humility. But the prophet and his oracles gave way to the bishop and his authority. The prophetic movement of the day, because of its unwill ingness to submit, was ostracized from the rest of the Body of Christ. According to Clifford Hill: "If the bishops had been prepared to deal with the Montanists according to the teaching of the New Testament the split need never have occurred and prophetic revelation could have been not simply contained, but used to continue to pour spiritual life and energy into the church to counter the deadening effects of institu tionalisation." 30 Paul Tillich observes that the victory of the Christian Church over Mon tanism really resulted in loss: This loss is visible in four ways: (1) the canon was victorious against the possibility of new revelations. The solution of the Fourth Gospel that there will be new insights, always standing under the criticism of the Christ, was at least reduced in power and meaning. (2) The traditional hierarchy was confirmed against the prophetic spirit. This meant that the prophetic spirit was more or less excluded from the organized church and had to flee into sectarian movements. (3) Eschatology became less significant than it had • 254