What is the difference, if any, between Old Testament and New Testament prophecy?
Hi readers, I’m back. No, really this time. And, due to some comments by a reader, I want to clarify the purpose and audience of this ongoing discussion about prophecy. It is primarily for continuationists—for those who do believe the gifts are active in the Church today—and who want to discuss how exactly prophecy/prophetic ministry works today.
I have some ideas on the topic of prophecy, but I’m still figuring some things out (or figuring out how to articulate them) and am interested in hearing your perspectives. I trust my regular readers to stay on track with the discussion. If you’ve never commented before, feel free to join in the discussion if you would like to contribute.
So. The primary focus of this post’s discussion is about the difference, if there is a difference, between Old Testament and New Testament prophecy. I think there is a difference. To give you one clue, this topic is based off a question I asked in my original prophecy post: “Is there a difference between the position/calling of a prophet and the spirit of prophecy?”
Go to it, readers. Is there a difference between prophecy under each covenant? (Include Scripture references in your answers.) I’ll chime in later.
hey all. i am in agreement with jarrod. cause i am jarrod. but any way. all those examples are great an stuff but they dont adress the issue at all. we know the testimomy of jesus wa s 100% right. we know Paul was 100% right. we have no evidence of philips daughters giving prophesy or the out come of said words. we only know that they were prophets. the question still remains do new testement prophets get to slide on a 40% error curve ? or do they have to be on the up an up battin 100. jen it is good to post here again. i hope you had an excellent new year and a merry Christmas. now i will patiently await moderation.
Hey Jarrod! Good to see you back. Cute kid, by the way.
Yours, I’m guessing? How old?
I am an expert at procrastinating, so I haven’t done much work on the prophecy project yet (I do have an outline … heh), but I have been thinking about prophecy on and off and the accuracy rate is pretty much at the forefront of my thoughts. I keep thinking that the position of prophet wasn’t abolished by the new covenant and so people who the L-rd has commissioned as prophets must be consistent and accurate. I’m not sure about the percentage of accuracy though. More on that later, I hope.
hey jenn. yeah she is mine. she is 13 months old. listen do you know anything about a guy named ernie gruen and a report he made in the late 80s early 90s. its about the kcp. it has been thought that he recanted the things he had written but it turns out that is not true. the only reason i bring it up is because it has great bearing on this disscussion. do you know what i am talking about ?
i just read your post on ihop/cult part 3. well i have been blessed by our talk over the last while. and i guess we wont be dialouging any more. and well i wish you well my friend. if you ever want to see what i am up to please check the blog at http://thegreycoats.wordpress.com/
I wasn’t writing specifically to you, my friend! We can certainly continue to talk. I just meant I wouldn’t accept any new commenters who seem to have a vendetta against IHOP. You, I know, are a reasonable man and you challenge me in good ways.
I do enjoy talking about prophecy. I will tell you when an area of our conversation is feeling more and more like IHOP apologetics to me.
Ernie Gruen could easily veer into that territory. This is all I have heard: Mike Bickle felt like the L-rd told him not to make a big deal out of any controversy, so he didn’t and still doesn’t mention Ernie Gruen very often (and never by name). As far as I know Ernie did fully retract what he said and is even friends with Mike now. There is a two-post blog on WordPress that was apparently written by Ernie’s grandson, but the author never responds to comments on it, so I don’t know if it’s legit or what. I really don’t know much about Ernie Gruen othewise, and am not here to defend or accuse him in any way.
oh…the reason i asked was that i had heard that gruen had retracted his report as well. But i was wrong. a friend of mine emailed him and he said it was a lie he never apologised and would not. anyway the reason i brought this up is most certainly not to get into a seep apologetic discussion. only to say . the report is worth the read if it is true. i am glad that you werent writting specifically about me. i enjoy our dialog’s tone and attitude. i dont find it many other places. any way i hope you are blessed today. oh and if you dont post this i wont mind if gruen will get you into places you dont want to be then i wont bring him up again. peace
Ok, since there hasn’t been any posts on this since Jan. I guess I can take it any direction I want.
From the original string of posts from another topic: the evidence for prophets training is in I Sam. 19 where the reference in v. 19 & 20 to the propets being there with Samuel presiding over them seems to point to this being a school.
The other evidence for this is extra biblical. It has to do with the priesthood. (This also addresses the assertion that John the Baptist didn’t train.) A child of a priestly line absolutely would be trained. Their training would last 30yrs in fact. (Kinda provokes some implications about Jesus and how we view His ministry & thus our Christianity) Many of the prophets were listed in the bible were priests. This is seen with the seers during the time of David and his tabernacle. It was during this time many of the Psalms were written, and I would say they are pretty prophetic.
John the Baptist was a priest. His father was a priest. So according to how Jewish society was set up it is likely John followed in the footsteps of his father and trained to be a priest as well. It is highly unlikely John was sent into the wilderness as a child to be raised by wolves, and wham he shows up at the Jordan bathing hole to start a ministry.
Also, Samuel was trained as well. This training was explicitly seen when he kept going into Eli asking him what he wanted when Samuel was hearing God. Eli tells him on the 3rd time to answer the Lord. Eli telling Samuel what to do was training.
It is my opinoin that we have missed A LOT because we haven’t been raised in a Jewish culture and/or trained in historic Jewish culture.
JZ