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

The Importance of Prophecy

Revelation 19:10 is complemented by Revelation 22:6, which shows clearly that God controls the inspiration of the prophets: "He said to me, 'These words are faithful and true'; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must shortly take place...." The God who is to be worshiped initiates in the hearts of His people the desire to worship Him.As the Church worships, the Person of Jesus is testified to among them (Hebrews 2:12), and they in turn are imbued with the spirit of prophecy.The Churchthereby preservesJesus' own pres ent salvation testimony, which brings current application to His recorded words. The viewpoint of Wayne Grudem gained widespread acclaim through the 1988 publication of his book, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Tes tament and Today. 19 Espoused by the Vineyard and other "Third Wave " groups, this approach attempts to mediate a middle-of-the-road position between the cessationist stand and an extreme charismatic position that accepts contemporary prophecy as fully authoritative.His critics say Gru dem "has stirred up a hornets' nest of discussion on the gifts." 20 A Bible scholar with impeccable credentials and a heart for the Church, Grudem affirms that prophecy does continue, but he argues that two forms of New Testament prophecy coexisted: congregational prophecy, in which peo ple shared the thoughts that God brought to their minds; and apostolic prophecy, as the words written in the New Testament.Grudem considers the first nonauthoritative and the second authoritative. Some feel that the questions raised by this modified approach to prophecy "threaten to become, if they have not done so already, a major storm center in New Testament theology and church worship." 21 Grudem explains his modification: "I am asking that charismatics go on using the gift of prophecy, but that they stop calling it 'a word from the Lord'­ simply because that label makes it sound exactly like the Bible in author ity, and leads to much misunderstanding....On the other side, I am ask ing those in the cessationist camp to give serious thought to the possibility that prophecy in ordinary New Testament churches was not equal to Scrip ture in authority, but was simply a very human-and sometimes partially mistaken-report of something the Holy Spirit brought to someone's mind." 22 This, I think, is a significant insight.I do not fully agree but am truly grateful for this breakthrough book that has raised prophetic conscious ness throughout the Church world.My problem lies in Grudem's con 30 3. A Mediated Approach