If You Dont Know Prophecy You Not Saved
One Strike and Yous're Out?
Past Dr. Craig Keener
If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD just the affair does non take place or prove true, it is a discussion that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not exist frightened by information technology. (NRSV) - Deut. 18:22
In the New Testament, we recognize that even in small house churches, like those in Corinth, prophecies had to be evaluated each week (1 Cor 14:29). That suggests that those prophecies remained fallible and not all of them passed muster in all their details.
But how does that foursquare with Sometime Attestation teaching about stoning a prophet if their word doesn't come up to pass? Some debate for a radical difference betwixt Old and New Testament prophecy. But we should recollect that non all prophecies in OT times, just similar not all prophecies in NT times, automatically qualified for inclusion in the Bible, even if they were past true prophets. We don't hear the prophecies of the truthful prophets whom Jezebel killed, or of the hundred whom Obadiah hid in a cavern (ane Kgs 18:4).
Prophecy in Corinth, where the believers were just 2 or three years sometime in the Lord, had to get vetted through a process of peer review. In the OT, senior prophets often mentored junior prophets, probably supervising their prophesying (one Sam 19:20; 2 Kgs 2:3-seven; 4:38). That is, there was also a process of review every bit younger prophets were maturing. (It was considered noteworthy when a prophet arose like Samuel, none of whose words failed—one Sam 3:19; or Moses, who talked with God face to face—Num 12:6-viii.)
Words coming to pass was one measure, only equally we shall see, it was notthe decisive criterion for prophecy. Prophets were false fifty-fifty if their words came to pass, if they sought to pb God'southward people to worship other gods (Deut 13:1-v); if they spoke "rebellion" against the Lord (13:5). The passage most executing a prophet who speaks something that does not come up to pass (eighteen: xx-22) contrasts in context with the true prophet similar Moses (18:15-nineteen). The prophet to which it refers is a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods or speaks presumptuously what God has not said (eighteen:20, 22).
But does this refer to stoning a prophet whoidea God was speaking and misunderstood him or made a mistake on some signal? The Hebrew word translated "presumptuously" means "rebelliously." As in the argument above, information technology refers to someone seeking to lead us away from the Lord. If information technology actually referred to anyone who makes a mistake in speaking for the Lord then it would dominion out Nathan, who had to right himself (2 Sam seven:ii-5). If it refers to anyone whose word does non come to pass it would dominion out Jonah, who prophesied judgment simply the judgment was averted past the people's repentance (Jon 3:4). Jeremiah teaches that in fact most prophecies are conditional (Jer 8:five-10). God sometimes lets true prophets know when conditions accept inverse and judgment is delayed (ane Kgs 21:29).
Israel's history, however, does not requite united states of america much indication of true prophets who prophesiedpublicly and spoke what was not truly the discussion of the Lord. After being mentored by senior prophets, by the fourth dimension that newer prophets were speaking, they seem to accept been adequately mature in their prophetic calling. Prophecies in local congregations must be evaluated, only a prophet who prophesies wrongly on a massive national scale seems to be at nigh an exception in the OT. So while an fault might not always make a person a simulated prophet who prophesiesrebellion against God, it is even so serious business. True prophecy is well-nigh honoring God and revealing his heart.
Of course, we are non called to stone even genuinelysimulated prophets today. In the New Testament, the OT capital punishment is transmuted to excommunication (Deut thirteen:five and parallels in 1 Cor 5:xiii). If a person has prophesied falsely, even publicly, but is not leading us toward other gods or counseling rebellion against the Lord, some field of study may be in society, allowing for a time of seeking where they got information technology wrong. If a person has prophesied and their words come up to pass ordon't come to pass, but theyare prophesying rebelliously against God's true message, then the full discipline of putting them exterior the church is in social club. Nosotros merely need to be pretty sure we get information technology right before exercising that full discipline, which is quite serious (Matt 18:fifteen-17; 1 Cor 5:5; 1 Tim one:20).
As for executing people—happily, that'due south not our business as the church building. If people got executed today for all the things that Old Testament law commanded, nosotros might non have many people left. Every bit Christians, we are chosen to bring life and restoration. Then keep your stones for your rock garden. Just nosotros practice need to take prophecy seriously. On the local level, we grow and mature as all-time as nosotros tin can. Earlier nosotros say definitively, "the Lord says," we'd better be pretty certain we're right. (It's safer to say, "This is what I feel similar the Lord is saying.") The same is actually the case for teachers, when we say, "The Bible says," among those for whom "The Bible says" = "The Lord says." And before going public on a massive scale, prophets (and teachers) should have a pretty good rail tape of hearing God (and the Bible) rightly.
This article was reprinted with permission from https://craigkeener.com .
Dr. Craig Keener did his Ph.D. piece of work in New Testament and Christian Origins at Knuckles University and is known for his piece of work equally a New Testament scholar on Bible groundwork (commentaries on the New Testament in its early Jewish and Greco-Roman settings). Well over a million of his thirty-plus books are in apportionment and have won xiii national and international awards.
Source: https://www.christianunion.org/the-magazine/3047-when-prophecy-doesn%E2%80%99t-come-to-pass
0 Response to "If You Dont Know Prophecy You Not Saved"
Post a Comment