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

The Apostolic Church of Great Britain

Apostolic Faith Church failed to settle on biblical criteria to test the prophetic inspiration coming in their midst." 1 4 While the AFC may in the beginning have regarded prophecy as infal lible, John Hewitt questions whether this carried over into the AC. He pointed out to me that while great respect was given to prophetic utter ance-people responding to the word, to the extent of traveling across the sea-there was always a sense of safety because the prophetic word was being tested by the apostleship.I.Howells makes this emphatic state ment: "We do not believe in the infallibility of prophets and prophecy.... Allow me ... [to quote] W.R.Thomas: 'Prophets are not infallible but rarely do true prophets make a mistake'.Nevertheless the possibility exists and for this reason prophecy must be judged." 15 Prophetic movements tend to be so enraptured with the concepts of the apostolic and prophetic-and, of course, the exciting manifestations of the present move of the Spirit-that the balancing ministry of the teacher is lacking.In our day, happily, we have available the insightful research necessary to safeguard these attitudes. The differences and similarities between Old and New Testament prophets (see chapter 11) are now more clearly understood.Also, the infallibility of the Scripture given by prophecy is seen more clearly today as on a higher level than congregational prophecy, which is meant only to edify, comfort and exhort. 16 We will address the subject of testing prophecy in chapter 20.But the fact that prophecy given in the early churches had to be evaluated should be argument enough that we must not assume prophetic infallibility.Some times a young movement feels it will compromise the divine authenticity of its message by subjecting its doctrine and prophetic activities to care ful scrutiny.Actually just the opposite is true! An excellent statement by Cecil M. Robeck Jr.capsulates the attitude of the early Church about those who prophesied: "If they were willing to submit themselves to test ing, they established their authority to speak, but if they were unwilling to submit to such testing, they were not to be given any credibility." 17 3. Although prophecy is spontaneous and inspirational in nature, it nevertheless functions best in a congregational setting that has govern mental order. In this area the Apostolics seemed to have learned an impor tant truth, which was seriously neglected in the early days of the mani festations at Edward Irving's church in London (which we looked at in the last chapter). W. A. C. Rowe's One Lord One Faith is an excellent book that gives great insight on the "doctrine as fundamentally, and universally held by the Apostolic Church fellowship." 18 The subject of spiritual gifts, and the gift of prophecy in particular, is given strong emphasis and shows the wise approach that was sought in the proliferating congregations.One theme 279.