NO CONTINUATION OF PROPHETS IN TODAY'S CHURCH AGE
By: Victor T. Stephens
"People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up."
~ George R.R. Martin
REFUTING TODAY’S NEW PROPHECY (continued)
Let's now examine the third account that non-cessationists use in their efforts to prove fallible "congregational prophecy."
3) "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil." (1 Thess. 5:19-22)
Likened to 1 Corinthians 14:29, non-cessationists allude to this verse to contend that genuine prophecies may contain true and false elements. Although a prophecy may contain errors, we should "hold on to what is good"... meaning the true elements.
Factually, when the Thessalonians received multiple prophecies, they were encouraged to test each individual prophecy for complete accuracy, not parts of each prophecy for bad and good elements. Inaccurate prophecies were considered evil prophecy from false prophets, and thus were rejected.
As I have shown, New Testament prophecies were tested using the same standards as those found in the Old Testament. Old Testament standards of judging prophecy make clear distinctions between true and false prophecies. The notion that authentic prophecy may encompass both true and false components is a foreign concept in Scripture. If any portion of a prophetic message is found in error, it is false and to be repudiated.
In the Bible, there is only one type of prophecy. The hypothesis that there is a second type of prophecy... a fallible prophecy known as "congregational prophecy" is a new and added form of prophecy that parallels Montanism of the late second century. Just as the early church rejected Montanism, the heretical belief in the existence of a non-authoritative "congregational prophecy" must be renounced today. Paul, the apostle, said in 1 Corinthians 4:6:
"Do not go beyond what is written." (1 Cor. 4:6)
CONGREGATIONAL AND PERSONAL PROPHECY FOR EDIFICATION
"But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church." (1 Cor. 14:3-4)
A general conjecture accentuated among many non-cessationists is that New Testament prophets are exclusively called to bring edification to the church rather than inscriptive revelation. On page 52 of his book "Prophets and Personal Prophecy", Dr. Bill Hamon states:
"The office of the prophet is designed and endowed to function in a higher realm of ministry than the Holy Spirit gift of prophecy. This gift of prophecy operates within the saints or a minister for the general upbuilding, encouraging, and comforting of the church (1 Cor. 12:10; 14:3, 4). But the office of prophet is authorized and anointed to do more." (Harmon, Bill, "Prophets and Personal Prophecy," page 52)
Firstly, as I pointed out earlier in this study, prophecy was for the infancy stage of the early church. They did not have the completed canon of Scripture at that point in time. How then would the local churches during Paul's day be encouraged, strengthened, and comforted? Before the completion of the New Testament, prophecy was a revelatory gift that was also used for instructing and uplifting the body of Christ. Let's look at Acts 20:32:
"So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." (Acts 20:32)
Now that the church has received the completed Word of God, the teaching of Scripture can be used for the edification of the church. Numerous passages throughout the Bible can be referenced for the upbuilding of the body of Christ.
Secondly, when Paul states that prophets "speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort," he is saying that these are the effects that result when God's will is spoken in a language known to the congregation. The person who spoke in an unknown tongue only edified himself. By contrast, the person who spoke the prophetic message of God's will edify the church.
Thirdly, edification was not only associated with New Testament prophecy; it was also demonstrated in Old Testament prophecy. Consider the following three passages of Scripture:
The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them. In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded." When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. (1 Chr. 15:1-8)
Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. (Haggai 1:13-15)
"Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them." (Ezra 5:1-2)
As we see from these three scripture references, the roles of New Testament prophets parallel the roles of Old Testament prophets, giving further credence to the fact that New Testament prophecy was a continuation of Old Testament prophecy. It is incongruous and exegetically inconsistent to propose a segregated personal prophecy in the New Testament while acknowledging no such exclusivity within the Old Testament.
The New Testament prophets prophesied in an identical fashion of speaking for God as the prophets in the Old Testament. Therefore, when Peter cited the Old Testament prophet Joel at Pentecost, it is not conceivable that Peter believed that the utterances of New Testament prophets would be placed in a separate class of prophecy for the edification of the Church.
Just as there were no distinctive classes of prophets in the Old Testament who were functionally exclusive to edification, the same fact remains true for prophets in the New Testament. Similarly, just as Old Testament prophets spoke the will of God to ancient Israel ... which eventually became the Old Testament Canon, New Testament prophets spoke God's will for the Church until the completion of the New Testament Canon.
Now, because the prophetic office could also include teaching God's will to the church, there was a commonality between the prophetic gift and the gift of pastor/teacher in the sense that there was an overlap between these two particular gifts. However, one can observe the shift throughout the New Testament in which the prophetic office steadily ceased as Scripture was given to the early church. For example, let's consider 2 Peter 2:1. It says,
"But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you." (2 Peter 2:1)
Take note of the switch from "false prophets" to "false teachers." Reading and teaching the truth from Scripture are the only common qualities that one shares with the prophets of the early church. These two qualities alone, however, fail to qualify one as a prophet in today's church age. To claim that one is a prophet because he brings forth truth already revealed in Scripture is both unwarranted and exegetically impossible to demonstrate.
