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

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

love for the Scriptures, evangelism and missions, and a personal rela tionship with God in Jesus. 1 Combining all the peoples in the world who have come into this strong common bond of conviction-the Holy Spirit is active in the Church!­ we discover a surging tide of 540 million charismatic Christians! 2 Lyle E. Schaller, a leading contemporary church renewal expert, says, "From this observer's perspective the most significant development on the American religious scene during the past half century was the emergence of the Charismatic Renewal Movement during the 1960s." 3 Much could be said on this exciting subject,4 but we are focusing on prophecy, a vital part of New Testament Christianity. The charismatic renewal has reactivated in today's Christians a worldwide conviction that God does indeed speak in our time. P. D. Hacken makes this comment: "What is new within the mainline churches with the advent of CR is not the occurrence of any of these gifts, but the expectation that they are cur rently available and the conviction that the gifts as a whole form an intrin sic part of God's equipment of each local church for its mission." 5 In 1980 a remarkable three-volume set of books was published. Called Presence, Power, Praise and edited by Catholic scholar Kilian McDon nell, this trilogy draws together an astounding 104 documents on the charismatic renewal. These documents were initially published by the his toric churches and classical Pentecostal denominations between 1960 and 1980, and they illustrate the relationship of these denominations to the renewal. McDonnell says in the opening remarks of his introduction: "The charismatic renewal is a prophetic renewal movement. To a large degree its prophetic protest and its renewal goals are directed to the churches. Directly or indirectly those in the movement are saying 'the churches need renewal.' How do the churches react to this implied criticism? What does the renewal offer which so many in the churches find compelling?" 6 The many documents quoted are vitally concerned with the activity of the Holy Spirit in today's churches. Several activities attracted the stud ied attention of the various denominational groups, including speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Spirit, the baptism in the Spirit, worship, and maintaining balance between structure and freedom. Since prophecy is one of the primary gifts and manifestations taking place, it receives some mention in the documents. I thought it would be of interest to quote, without comment, some of the denominational statements about prophecy. The following excerpts from McDonnell's trilogy should give a feel for the reaction that has taken place in the historic churches as well as in the Pentecostal and charismatic renewal. • 304