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

Insights from Modern Church History (A.D. 1830-1980)

as an Apostolic Church to witness for some thing above another, we wit ness to the unassailable truth that we are a standing Body that is an evi dence of the existence and value of the prophetic ministry." 9 Another interesting quote by Williams is given by I.Howells: "In a wit ness to the prophetic manifestations which were new at the beginning of the century, Pastor D.P.Williams said: 'When prophecy began, after the 1904-5 revival, I asked myself if I could trust it or would it be seen to be only a rotten bridge.At the beginning I walked dubiously on the bridge, but there came the moment, after having proved the prophecy, that I could have jumped on the bridge! It was not rotten but safe'.His great faith in prophecy was a proved faith.And this was the experience of Paul in the early church." 10 Worsfold gives this glowing comment: "Some of the prophecies com ing through Jones Williams, in particular, had a profundity that can only be described as awesome.It must be said that under the ministry of the restored apostleship (especially that of D.P.Williams) the restored office and ministry of the NT prophet in the church matured and soon became a powerful, penetrating, spiritual force that was later felt around the world in the pioneering and developing years of the Apostolic Church." 11 - 2. Prophecies are not infallible. It is essential to maintain the testing of prophecy and prophets. The dynamic nature of prophecy lends itself to an air of infallibility.In the excitement and rush of activity associated with the beginning of a new religious movement, the blessing of God is often interpreted to mean that all that is said and done is right.After all, would God be blessing us so much if what we are doing and believing is not right? In the beginning of the AFC, adherents kept a strong belief in prophetic infallibility.Three quotes from Worsfold bear this out: "In this matter, the Apostolic Faith Church was in serious error in equat ing the interpretation of tongues and prophetic utterance with the Word of God and of also giving all utterance a life of its own." 12 "The subject of the gifts of the Holy Ghost was carefully examined by Hutchinson [founder of the AFC].His article on this subject must have been amongst the earliest published this century in Great Britain.He took the view that the gifts of the Holy Spirit cannot be contaminated by the human spirit.From this premise stemmed the once universal Pentecostal teaching that the operation of spiritual gifts is a one hundred percent supernatural exercise.This view is no longer general among classical Pen tecostals as they have come to see that it actually denies the cooperation of man with God-denies that he is the Lord's instrument in manifesting spiritual phenomena." 13 "Regrettably, Hutchinson-Dennis equated the prophetic words given in their movement with the Word of God....It is to be regretted that the • 278