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

Increased Interest in Prophecy

Charismatic circles also have generated a flurry of writings about the prophetic. More than two dozen of these books and pamphlets, some aca demic and others geared for popular reading, are currently available. All advocate the prophetic ministry in today's Church. In past years the discussion of spiritual gifts has sparked controversy among Bible scholars and Church leaders, especially over glossolalia or speaking in tongues. The focus today has made a surprising shift from speaking in tongues to the gift of prophecy. Two general positions emerge: the continuance school, which affirms that prophecy and spiritual gifts continue today, and the cessationist school, which denies that prophecy and gifts continued beyond the early Church. A climate of intense interest in prophetism now exists because of this confluence of mounting popular attention, spiritual activity, scholarly debate and increasing prominence of various books. Wise counsel is given by John W. Hilber: "The issue is not purely academic but is a matter of serious pastoral concern." 9 Interest in prophecy is not new. Church leaders always have faced the challenge of reconciling the blessed and often unpredictable breath of the Holy Spirit with the Church's secure, nailed-down traditions and stan dards. In fact, all the movements within Christendom can be seen from the perspective of the spirit of prophecy versus institutional order. 10 An unrestrained spirit of prophecy always poses a danger of fanati cism and exclusivism. In contrast, dead institutionalism poses the ever present danger of stifling the breath of God's Spirit. Let us seek the bal ance that will join the strength of the institution (unity, order and stability) to the dynamic of the prophetic (freshness, spontaneity and life). These two forces become a workable team when the approach is changed from "prophecy versus order" to the positive idea of "prophecy and order." A belief in continuing revelation (i.e., God does speak today as well as yesterday) and the validity of prophecy in today's Church need not frus trate us. A harmonious and healthful tension can exist between:

• Biblical teaching; • Popular/contemporary need; • Scholarly/academic insights; • Pastoral/practical concerns.

The Church needs balance rather than polarization! It will prove detri mental to gravitate toward just emotional experience or intellectual ivory towers or programmed efficiency . . . or to an incomplete biblical position.

27