Comments on: Stroud: 1 Samuel 14

By: Bloke

Bloke — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:10:38 +0000

I don’t think the NT necessarily implies that you should announce that a prophecy is good or bad within five minutes of it being given — unless it’s promoting something obviously unbiblical. All of us should try to weigh any prophecies that we hear, as well as being in a church where responsible leadership is doing the same.

The type of prophecy described in the blog post above is quite unusual and falls less into the 1 Corinthians 14 category, being more of an Acts 11:28 (or 21:10) style event. In either case, 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 applies. Of course, it is easy to feel cynical about some prophecy. I do, at times, which is why knowing that the Bible takes precedence, and that the same
Bible seems to anticipate our skepticism and reminds us that “we know in part and we prophesy in part” is so helpful.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:31:39 +0000

I’m not going to get in to the Prophecy debate – my questions are genuine, and I think there are big issues about what prophecy is and how it is used.

I think it was PJ Smyth who gave a prophetic word about the Father’s love for the Son – yes it was great, a scripture drenched monologue.

—–

Hi Hilton,
I understand your concerns over being critical and potentially unhelpful. But I was genuinely disappointed that the leader of New Frontiers UK could give such an un-grounded address. I’m here to give an outsiders opinion, and I was disappointed. All my other posts, from Stephen Van Rhyn, Mark Driscoll and PJ Smyth will be entirely positive!!

By: Hilton Mundell

Hilton Mundell — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:12:57 +0000

It is always very easy to comment on what is going on and to pick holes in things, perhaps we should be careful with our words and of being critical of a brother. Who knows who will read what we say, and maybe our words might cause someone to stumble in their faith…
Just my 2 cents worth!

By: John Bryant

John Bryant — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:04:39 +0000

Hey Bloke, thanks for your response, but if a prophetic word is from God then surely it is worth taking the time in the meeting to work out whether it is or isn’t. At TOAM8 there were apparently about 5000 people in the main sessions would they be told the result of the weighing of the prophetic word lest they take it to heart and find later that it was false which could be damaging to someone’s faith (depending on the content of the prophetic word).

About the negative prophecy you mention, the sceptic in me would want to ask could that same prophecy have been made by a non-Christian economist? My guess is probably. And I would mention again what I said earlier I believe that the nature of Biblical prophecy is more about being a channel of revelation about God than about predicting the future.

A quote from Mark Driscoll on his blog “Yesterday, for example, a pastor from Africa shared a prophetic word about the Father’s love for Jesus his Son and it was incredibly biblically rooted and emotionally moving”.

I didn’t hear this particular prophecy but from Driscoll’s description it sounds far more genuine compared to the ones I heard given, rather than being a vague future prediction it is an explanation of something of the character of God and was “Biblically rooted” which couldn’t really be said of the other two “prophetic words”

By: Bloke

Bloke — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:33:57 +0000

Who says the prophecy given in the meeting won’t be weighed? You can’t necessarily stop proceedings and have a ‘prophecy weighing’ session on the spot — but it can and should happen as part of the fabric of charismatic life.

Here’s a relevant Terry Virgo quote (from his blog):

“The Scriptures tell us to test all things and we need to bring them to the plumbline of the Bible rather than abandon all previous knowledge accumulated by submission to the Scripture’s revelation”

He also reported a negative prophecy a while back (about a coming economic downturn). This was last year, before the credit crunch or oil price problems.

By: John Bryant

John Bryant — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:56:49 +0000

I echo those concerns about prophecy and that “prophecy” in particular, another concern I had was that there was no testing as Scripture appears to command, too often I think people get all excited about anything that is seemingly spiritual or super-natural cos it must be from God but there is a whole spirit-world opposed to God, which is not a condemnation but a call to be careful.

God communicates clearly through the Scriptures and has told us that He does so, He can speak through prophecy but surely we must exercise godly discernment.

Another thing that has just occurred to me, the purpose of prophecy in the Scriptures was not so much predicting the future (though that obviously happens) but about revelation of God, covenant enforcement and picking up on your point about “prophecies” always being positive, many prophecies in the OT were rebukes of God’s people calling for repentance.