3: PROPHECY UNDER THE NEW COVENANT

Having surveyed the topic of the prophets and their role in the Old Testament, and the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ, we are now going to look at the concept of prophecy in the New Testament Scriptures, and in the New Testament church.

THE MODERN CONTROVERSY

(1) The growth of the charismatic and neo-Pentecostal movement over the past two decades has placed the whole question of spiritual gifts and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit on the church's agenda. There is a sense, in which the church owes a debt to the charismatic movement for this; there was a danger of us becoming aridly intellectual and forgetting that intellectualism in and of itself cannot solve the church's problems. Paul may reason and Apollos may counter-reason, but it is God who gives the blessing. Prophecy features highly within the context of the spiritual gifts -- the charismata -- which God bestowed upon his infant New Testament church, and the role and meaning of New Testament prophecy is, therefore, an all-important question.

Neil Babcox, who was first a charismatic pastor in Illinois before leaving the movement has written a book called My search for charismatic reality (Wakeman Trust, 1985). He confesses that his difficulty in the charismatic movement was with the concept of prophecy rather than tongues. He asked someone what prophecy was, to which he received the answer "Prophesying is like interpreting a message in tongues -- only there are no tongues ... You know, like speaking in tongues, only in English!" Babcox worked out that his guide was trying to tell him that prophecy is a supernatural utterance given by the Holy Spirit in the native language of the speaker. His testimony is interesting -- when he began to prophesy, he says, it was traumatic, then it became romantic, then it became ludicrous. He saw himself first as standing in the presence of God, which is an awesome experience for anyone. He then saw himself in the line of the great prophets, and the ritual took on a romantic edge, but then saw himself as uttering nothing more than his own impressions and intuitions, which he admits could never be authenticated as prophecy.

One feels that Babcox's testimony could be repeated. Once the initial euphoria over speaking in tongues or uttering a prophecy is over, many charismatics fall into a routine that soon becomes emptied of substance. Today's novelty is always tomorrow's tradition. There is a great need for the church to recover a biblical sense of the genuine prophetic gift.

(2) It is no less important because we stand at the edge of the new millennium, with all the hype about massive domes, entering the twenty-first century, and so on. We could simply ignore the coming of Y2K, and prepare to pass into another year. But it is not as simple as that. The prophets of doom who believe the coming of January 1st 2000 could herald the end of civilisation as we know it, painting a doomsday scenario, have conveyed their message effectively to a lot of people. Christians want to know how to respond.

Some of you may have read Mark Kellner's article "Y2K: A Secular Apocalypse" in Christianity Today (January 11, 1999). Let me read the first paragraph:

"A year from now, on January 1, 2000, Thomas L. Clark plans to be somewhere other than in his Chicago home. A member of the Forest Preserve Bible Church, Clark is stocking up on food, has a handmill for grinding grain into flour, and will decamp to the wilderness in advance of the first day of next year. That is when he, and many other Christians, believe a computer bug will trigger a major breakdown of our societal infrastructure...."

Kellner goes on to point out how some Christian fiction, most notably the 'Left Behind' novels by Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins has fuelled concern among Christians. These novels have a premillenial theology behind them, and paint a firghtening picture that merges well with some secular concerns over the so-called millennium bug (the apparent problem of computers being unable to recognise the meaning of '00' in the dating of the year 2000, and perhaps bringing computer-dependent businesses and enterprises crashing to the ground). Some big-name preachers have also cashed in on this. Kellner continues:

"While the question of whether technical catastrophes will come as the year 2000 dawns is the focal point for speculation, prophetic references often accompany the rhetoric in Christian circles. For example, Falwell ... predicted God's wrath on January 1, 2000. 'He may be preparing to confound our language, to jam our communications, scatter our efforts, and judge us for our sin and rebellion against his lordship'..."

In the midst of this kind of impassioned and speculative talk, it is important for us to appreciate the reality of what Scripture teaches concerning the future, and to know the prophetic message of the New Testament so that we can preach it with conviction and with vigour. We believe in a God who will keep his world until he is ready to come with power and to judge mankind.

I want in the last of our studies in biblical prophecy to look at three general themes:

The prophetic gift in the early church

The prophetic word for the present church

The prophetic hope for the future church

(1) THE PROPHETIC GIFT IN THE EARLY CHURCH

The situation of the early church was not an easy one. The apostles had much to face and to contend with as they sought to obey the great commission and to make disciples of all nations. They had been promised the Holy Spirit to lead them into the truth. Christ had said that he would empower them for the task of evangelism and of ministry, and he would be with them even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). He supplied the church, his body, with gifts she needed for the prosecution of that work and the fulfilment of that responsibility. Paul explains to the Ephesian believers how this gifting and equipping of the church was accomplished:

Ephesians 4:8, 11,12 Therefore He says, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men ... And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God...

The gift of prophecy is placed by Paul here between apostles and evangelists. There are several considerations regarding it:

(1) The gift of prophecy is the gift of the risen Lord to his church. The ascension is the fulfilment of a prophecy, and it is the giving of the Spirit of prophecy. Jesus captured captivity -- took the power of darkness and bound it, and gave the Spirit of liberty and freedom to his own church. It is impossible for us to register the momentous event that Pentecost was. The disciples were filled with a new power, anointed in a remarkable way and equipped for ministry. Just as Jesus, who possessed the fulness of the Spirit was nonetheless (or perhaps we ought to say because of it he was...) anointed for public ministry and service, so to the infant New Testament church was anointed and equipped for service in the world. Pentecost was a coronation gift -- the token that Jesus, who had been made a little lower than the angels, was now crowned with glory and with honour. It was also an infant baptism -- the baptism of the church of the New Covenant in its infancy, in anticipation of the great work ahead of her. It is that equipping that we need more and more. Prophecy in the New Testament is the token of Christ's great achievement in being elevated to the throne of the universe.

(2) The second point is that the gift of prophecy underlines the essential unity of the church. That may appear a contradiction, since the gifts of the Holy Spirit were given discriminately, and not to all (a fact which many charismatics ignore in their claim that all Christians should be able to speak in tongues). Some were given to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists ... for the work of the ministry. There is one work. The church is one body, with one mission. Just as Jesus' work was one, with the roles of Prophet, Priest and King all contributing to that work, so the church's work is one.She may fulfill that work in many departments and by many means and across many denominations and many areas of service, but she is doing one work. Christ has what we shall never have in this world -- one church , serving him. The unity of the church is not threatened by the diversity of the gifts; indeed, it is underlined by it.

(3) The third point is that prophecy was fundamental for the growing New Testament church. Just as the apostles were essential (as eye-witnesses of the risen Lord), so prophets were necessary as continuing means by which the revelation was communicated until the canon of Scripture was closed. We will examine the question of cessationism (have the spiritual gifts ceased?) versus continuationism (do the spiritual gifts continue?) , but the point I want to make about New Testament prophecy is a basic one -- the last word was spoken when Jesus came, yet the revelation of Christ was not completed. God's self-disclosure was still ongoing. For that revelation it was necessary that the prophetic voice still be heard.

(4) A fourth point made in this passage is that of the temporaneousness of the gifts. Whatever we understand by the New Testament's emphasis on perfection, the gift is given UNTIL we come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. I will argue that the perfection which brought several of these gifts to an end was the closure of the canon of Scripture and the finality of God's revelation. But however you understand it, it is clear that the prophetic gift, like the apostolic gift was understood by Paul to have been for a clearly defined and clearly limited moment.

Acts 2:17-19 This was also the burden of Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, when he laboured to explain the phenomenon of the tongue-speaking in terms of the prophecy of Joel, who had prophesied that the Spirit would be poured out, in consequence of which,

"Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions; Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants i will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon in to blood before the coming of the great and notable day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved".

Again we note here the fact that Pentecost was both fulfilment and initiator of prophecy. This was the poured out Spirit, just as Joel had said. But more than this - the people so empowered and enabled would themselves prophesy (mentioned twice, in verse 17 and 18). O. Palmer Robertson calls this the "preparation principle" -- "In order to assure proper contextual comprehension, God carefully guarded the entry of his truth into the world" ('Tongues: sign of covenantal curse and blessing', Westminster Theological Journal, 38.1 (1975), p43).

The context of Joel's prophecy is the coming of the day of the Lord, the day when God would work among the inhabitants of the earth. In his commentary on Joel, James Montgomery Boice reminds us that this is the first point in Joel's book where spiritual, as opposed to natural, blessings are promised.

Joel says "and it shall come to pass afterward...", which Luke obviously sees now as being fulfilled. The significance lies in the universal emphasis - it is implied that all of God's people, sons and daughters would prophesy, a fulfilment, perhaps of the wish expressed by Moses in Numbers 11:29 when he said 'Would that all of God's people were prophets!'. There is to be the outpouring, the prophesying and the signs and wonders in the Heavens. F.F. Bruce, in his commentary on Acts, suggests that the natural (or supernatural) phenomena around the death of Christ fulfilled these aspects of Joel's prophecy, which were to occur before the coming of the great day of the Lord. When Christ died, darkness fell over the earth, perhaps, as Bruce suggests, the moon that night glowed blood-red, and now the day of the Lord has come, with its effusion of blessing - the outpouring of the Spirit.

Again, the unity of the church is highlighted. All would minister for God and, in a sense, prophesy. Boice looks at the instances in Acts where we are told that men were filled with the Spirit, and he notes that the consequence was that they began to speak of Jesus, just as the disciples did here. In fact, I think it is possible to understand Joel's prophecy to have been fulfilled of those who were gathered in Jerusalem. The Spirit was poured out, and all upon whom he was poured out prophesied, in the sense of testifying to the power of the risen Lord. There was new revelation given as Peter preached Christ, and the Gospel brought light into darkness.

The reference to menservants and maidservants is interesting; the idea of the servant/stranger is written into the covenant. Just as the older covenant always included 'the stranger that is within your gates', so the new covenant gospel blessing is for the stranger. This is remarkably clear on the day of Pentecost, when many strangers were brought into the covenant community as a result of Jesus being revealed through the preaching of the Gospel. The blessing of the covenant is to be extended beyond the physical boundaries of Israel, to those who have no blood tie with the patriarchs, yet who are still the heirs of the promise and the recipients of the blessing.

Several prophets are named in the book of Acts, thus shedding light on the significance of Joel's prophecy for the New Testament age.

(1) AGABUS (11:27-28; 21:10). He prophesied that there was to be a great famine, with the result that disciples organised the sending of relief to the churches in Judea. The gift of prophecy was exercised here in an important context, and the revelation from God led directly to works of charity and mercy to other parts of the church. In Chapter 21, Agabus bound himself with Paul's girdle as a prophecy regarding the way he would be bound at Jerusalem. Far from being able to prevent his journeying to Jerusalem, this only encouraged Paul further to go where Jesus was sending him. Like the prophets in the Old Testament, this prophet spoke by both word and symbolic action.

(2) JUDAS AND SILAS (15:32). The Assembly at Jerusalem sent them as part of a delegation to the churches of the Gentiles. At Antioch they exhorted the people, since they were prophets. They were recognised as those who communicated the word of God for the instruction and edification of the church.

(3) THE DAUGHTERS OF PHILIP (21:9). Philip had four daughters who prophesied. They were vehicles of God's revelation, but how, or in what capacity, we cannot say. Their names appear in a passage from Eusebius in the 3rd century, who cites them from an earlier source as highly esteemed informants regarding the early church.

(4) THOSE IN THE CHURCH AT ANTIOCH (13:1) -- "certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius, Manaen and Saul". It is interesting that Saul refers to himself as an apostle rather than a prophet; but clearly those who wrote the New Testament epistles exercised a prophetic ministry in that God spoke infallible and authoritative revelation through them.

The recent Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (IVP, 1998) summarises: "The term prophet appears fourteen other times in the NT in reference to contemporary prophets, usually in the plural, suggesting that prophecy was a common part of the experience of early Christians" (p667). This was the inauguration of the New Age, the commencement of the kingdom life which God was to give His people in Christ until the end of time. There is, of course, a clear connection between the tongues and the prophecies. It was God's prophets who spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost.

For a clear understanding of the gift of prophecy we must turn to 1 Corinthians 12-14 and Paul's great treatment of spiritual gifts. I urge you to study it fully and to get to grips with it; it is an important aspect of Pauline doctrine. Many useful commentaries written on these passages; two which I have found helpful are Peter Naylor 1 Corinthians in the Welwyn Student Commentary Series, published by Evangelical Press, and Rowland Ward (PCEA), Blessed by the Presence of the Spirit: the Authentic Charismatic Church.

1 Corinthians 12-14

Paul states at the outset that he does not wish the Corinthian believers to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. Obviously some were, just as they were ignorant concerning other matters of faith and life, doctrine and practice. Part of the ignorance focussed upon the authentication of being spiritually gifted. What is the test of our being Spirit-filled? The great test of all our experience is (v3) that we call Jesus Lord. That is the supreme test. It is not whether we speak in tongues or prophesy, but whether our hearts and minds have yielded to the sovereignty of God in Christ.

The one Holy Spirit distributes gifts to the church, with the result that there is both unity and diversity in the church. This is consistent with the other key New Testament passages on the gifts as we have seen. Among the gifts listed in verses 8-10 are the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits, tongues and their interpretation. For the good of the church (v28) God set in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healers, helps, administrators and tongue-speakers.

Peter Naylor picks up on prophecy and reminds us of its four characteristics:

(1) it was inerrant ("The Old Testament prophets of the Lord were never mistaken" -- p234). The same holds good for the New Testament prophets.

(2) It was authoritative.

(3) It was always predictive. Naylor says that every prophecy had a reference to future events. That is true, but we must never think of prophecy as primarily predictive, but only incidentally so. Prophecy was first, a revelation from God. If it was predictive, that was the reason why.

(4) It always unfolded something more about the plan of redemption in Christ. Naylor refers to 12:2, which suggests that the Corinthians still had much to lose of the former influences of idolatry.

Like the human body, which is the analogy Paul uses here, the church has many members, all of whom need each other. None of them can work in isolation. Gifts are not to be despised but to be acknowledged and put to use. Only in this way can the body function. Chapter 12 is taken up with the application of this illustration to the church. We cannot all be prophets, any more than the members of our bodies can all be hands.

Interestingly, before moving on to a detailed examination of the gifts, Paul stops in chapter 13 to consider the primacy of love. No amount of gifts, however eminent and startling, can take the place of love. Prophecy is mentioned three times:

Verse 2 -- the gift of prophecy is nothing without love. It is possible to prophesy and not to have the love of Christ in our hearts. Did Jesus not say that on the day of judgement many will claim prophecy as their ticket into Heaven (Matthew 7:22)? Yet Jesus will say that he never knew them. He does not doubt their claim, nor question what they did. But he does remind us that what matters is our relationship to him. You can love him and never prophesy; you can prophesy and never love him. The relationship to him, and not the work for him, is the fundamental thing. If our prophecies are full of envy, pride, self-glory and malice, they are not of the Spirit of the Gospel. The love that characterises the people of God is not provoked, but suffers long and is kind.

Verse 8 -- unlike love, prophecies will fail. The gift given for edification in the early New Testament church is temporary in application. Again, there is no indication of when the prophecy will cease, but cease it will. Daniel promised that Messiah would seal the vision and prophecy, and Paul promises that such will indeed be the case. The charismata -- the spiritual gifts - will cease. The contrast is a clear one, between what is suited for a particular moment and what is suited for all eternity. Hodge says of love here that "It is not designed and adapted, as are the gifts under consideration, merely to the present state of existence, but to our future and immortal state of being" (Commentary on 1 Corinthians). John MacArthur, in his commentary, also highlights the contrast in the verbs used here. Prophecy and knowledge are said to 'be done away' -- katargeo, to render inoperative, inactive. They belong to a category of action at present which will no longer obtain. Tongues, will cease, stop, come to an end. In both cases, there is an emphasis on the cessation of the prophetic gift.

Verse 9 -- we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect comes, what is in part is done away with. The difference between knowledge through prophecy and knowledge which is complete is contrasted as the difference between childhood and maturity, a very powerful contrast indeed. What is the perfection referred to? John F. Macarthur details what it cannot be -- the headings of his commentary at this point are -- the perfect is not the completion of Scripture, the perfect is not the rapture, the perfect is not the maturing church, the perfect is not the second coming, the perfect is the eternal state. Most commentators seem to apply the doctrine of the text in this way. But our principle of exegesis is surely that the Bible has one meaning but many applications. What the text argues is that the partial gives way to the perfect. The meaning is clear -- prophecy is partial, and will give way to the perfect. That one meaning has many applications. It is true of the Old Testament -- the prophecies were partial, and were done away in the sense of being completely fulfilled in Christ. It is true in the New Testament too. The prophetic gift is done away, because of the perfection of the canon of Scripture. And all gifts suited to our existence here in the body will be done away with because there is something better, fuller and more permanent awaiting.

When Paul wrote these words, the gift of prophecy in the early church was vital for God's continuing revelation of himself in the Gospel. But there is a movement from infancy to maturity on the part of the church even in this world. The revelation is now complete. That which is partial is now unnecessary. Far from it being a sign of maturity to be able to prophesy today, it is a sign of immaturity -- the maturity belongs to the closed canon of Scripture, not to the partial and ongoing 'revelation' through these spiritual gifts.

Chapter 14 -- desire especially to prophesy (v1). Paul demonstrates that prophecy is a greater gift than tongues, because it edifies the whole body of believers (v4). Paul may be sarcastic here in v4, because of the tendency to glory in the gift. Prophecy he understood as a gift whose purpose was to build up and encourage. The whole argument of the passage is that God communicates through words and human language. Different languages were a sign of judgement (Genesis 11) on sin. But grace did much more abound, and all the damage sin inflicted is now dealt with definitively through the Spirit in the Gospel. The trumpet must sound effectively; the message must be understood (v19 -- "I would rather speak five words with my understanding ... than ten thousand words in a tongue").

Verse 22 -- tongues are a sign to unbelievers, but prophecy to believers. In other words, despite the similarities, a difference of purpose is clearly emphasised here. Verse 23 -- tongues offends the unbeliever. Prophecy calls to faith and repentance. That is what took place at Pentecost. The Gospel was turning away from Israel towards the ends of the earth. People heard the apostles and said 'They are drunk'. The tongues accompanied and attested God's movement towards the Gentiles. O. Palmer Robertson, in the article already mentioned, puts it like this -- "Tongues provided signal support to the foundational structure of Christianity" (WTJ, 35.1, p53). The signal is no longer necessary since the turning has been accomplished. As covenantal sign, it is no longer necessary, since the thing signified has now been fulfilled.

Prophecy calls to faith in Christ. In verses 24-5 Paul reminds the Corinthians that it is the prophecy that will be blessed, and will lead to true conversion. As happened on the day of Pentecost, when the truth of God's salvation in Christ was proclaimed, men would hear of Jesus and be saved.

Verses 26-40 provide rules for the conduct of Christian worship and order in the church. The general principle is in verse 40. The shambles of moder charis-mania is something far removed from apostolic practice. Decency and order are the hallmarks of living worship of the living God. Whatever the prophets may think they have, v32 lays down that their spirits are subject to the prophets. In other words, as in the Old Testament, there is verification and authentication. There is a standard by which every self-proclaimed prophet can be judged -- the light of Scripture and the voice of God speaking therein.

Verse 29 states that the prophecy is to be judged, but the women are to be silent. Does this contradict 11:5 where women prophesy with their heads covered as a symbol of their submission (v10 -- because of the angels)? No; the scenario seems to be that some women did indeed prophesy, but they were not permitted to evaluate the prophecy -- that was something they were to do at home. It was legitimate for them at this point in the church's experience to sing, pray and exercise these supernatural charismatic gifts. Clearly, however, as the pastoral epistles confirm, the females were not permitted to intrude on roles of leadership within the believing community. This is an example of the spirits of the prophets being subject to the prophets. The role of women in the church is enhanced, and not diminished, by the delimiting of their spheres of labour and influence in this way.

Wayne Grudem

Evangelicalism has been influenced in some quarters by Wayne Grudem's work in this area. Grudem did his doctoral research in the area of the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians, and Kingsway publications (Kingsway have been very sympathetic to pro-charismatic literature) have recently re-published his book The Gift of Prophecy. Grudem's Systematic Theology (IVP) is a superb piece of work, eminently readable and written in a devotional style, which is not often the case in large works on theology. I prefer his discussion on the gifts of the Spirit there to his work The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today. Grudem argues in The Gift of Prophecy that this gift is valid today. He says that in Corinth, and the early New Testament church, the gift was a partial source of knowledge of God as the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak. Grudem argues that "If we are to see the gift of prophecy functioning in our churches today, we must first believe that it is possible that God would give us such 'revelations' from time to time, and, second, we must allow ourselves to be receptive to such influences from the Holy Spirit, especially at times of prayer and worship" (p132).

Grudem is saying something very valid here. He is reminding us of the continued work of the Holy Spirit, planting thoughts spontaneously in our minds. The history of Scottish Highland Christianity is replete with stories of men and women who had "the secret of the Lord", and who believed that the Spirit communicated in such ways with them. But I do not believe that this is the same as New Testament prophecy. It is one thing for a New Testament prophet to speak as the mouthpiece of God -- that was the extraordinary work of the Spirit - and quite another for the Spirit to take the things of Christ and reveal them to us in the ordinary operations of grace.

Grudem is very fair in the discussions in his Systematic Theology. He writes in one place:

"So I wonder if there may be room for more joint theological reflection in this area. Charismatics need to realise that cessationists are sceptical about the scope and frequency of such 'illumination', whether it is right to call it New Testament prophecy, whether it really does have value for the church, and whether it should be sought after. And cessationists need to realise that there own highly developed and carefully formulated doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture in guidance is not usually shared or even understood by much of evangelicalism." (p1042).

I have already written on this in an article entitled "Word and Spirit" in Foundations, Issue 39 (1997). In that article I asked:

"how does the dynamic, gospel-age, last days ministry of the Holy Spirit relate to the written, closed-canon text of sacred Scripture? [how do we balance sola scriptura with the continued work of the Holy Spirit?]. The need to address this question of the interface between the sufficiency of Scripture and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit is seen not least in the wave of Charismatic and neo-Pentecostal thinking what has to such a large extent substituted biblical theology with personal experience. At the other extreme is much of our own experience of doctrinal orthodoxy which knows little of real Holy Spirit power" (p2).

We must allow that the perfect has come. The revelation is complete. What we await from Heaven now is not continued prophecy and ongoing revelation, but the power that will bring the truth home to hearts and lives.

(2) THE PROPHETIC WORD FOR THE PRESENT CHURCH

In spite of this, or perhaps I should say because of it, I would still maintain that we are called to exercise a prophetic and charismatic ministry in the world. This I base on three assertions:

(1) We have a word from God

The prophets of the Old and New Testaments received a word from God. That was what characterised them as prophets. They did not speak what they thought, but what they heard. All their insights were borrowed. They all came by revelation. We find ourselves now in the same position. The Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us in its opening chapter that the method of revelation may have changed and some of God's former ways of communicating may have ceased. But the revelation remains inerrant, authoritative and infallible. It also has the condition now of finality.

This has been the classical Reformed position on the exercise of spiritual gifts in the church. R.L. Dabney argues thus: "When at first the twelve unknown men stood up before a world all unbelieving to claim belief for the astounding fact, a miraculous support of their credibility was absolutely needed ... But now this species of support to the great central facts was no longer necessary ... Man now had the completed Scriptures with their self-evidencing light, and the witness of the Spirit in the called ... Finally, miracles, if they became ordinary, would cease to be miracles ... "

(Discussion, Vol. 2 pp236-7).

Calvin reminds us that "prophecy at the present day is simply the right understanding of Scripture and the particular gift of expounding it" (Quoted in Calvin's Wisdom, p273 [on Rom 12:6]). As the prophets spoke with authority they spoke with conviction. The church must also speak the things that it has heard, and do so with conviction. The world can easily detect a lack of conviction; it can see through hypocrisy and sham. But it will listen when a man stands on Scripture and says "Thus says the Lord!". As John Angell James wrote in his work An Earnest Ministry (1847): "No alteration of subject ... can be called for now, to meet the advancing state of society, since the gospel is intended and adapted to be God's instrument for the salvation of man, in all ages of the world, in all countries, and in all states of society" (p62). The reason is simple: the one covenant of grace remains God's revealed purpose of salvation. To that the prophets of old bore witness, and to that the prophetic ministries of our pulpits must still bear witness.

(2) We have a word that focuses on Jesus Christ

The prophets under the old covenant anticipated his coming. The prophets under the new proclaimed his coming. The Spirit of God does not speak of himself, but of the Saviour and of his power to save. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, ferrying them, carrying them so that the revelation was conveyed to them. At that time, THE SPIRIT OF JESUS WAS THE TESTIMONY OF PROPHECY.

But now, as John reminds us at Revelation 19:10, THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS IS THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. Now Christ has come. Now the true prophecy is the prophecy which testifies to him and to his power to save.

(3) We have a word that embraces the whole of God's activity in history.

It is a word that can look critically at the world and at the church. We can see both embraced within the covenant of grace. There is a unity to history. It is a covenantal unity. History is not compartmentalised into dispensations. It is the stage of God's great drama of redemption. He is God, over all, blessed for ever. We are to call our generation to the realisation that God is alive and well and calling the nations to account. That is what the prophets did in their age and it is what we must do in ours. We are to throw the Bible's light out upon every question. The issue is -- what saith the Lord? That is as valid today as ever it was.

(3) THE PROPHETIC HOPE FOR THE FUTURE CHURCH

So, with millennium hype and fever, what is our message for the future? What is our hope? John saw it clearly in his vision in Revelation. The only passage that deals with the millennium -- with a thousand year reign of Jesus -- in the Bible is in Revelation 20, yet many people speak as if this is the great theological issue. Whole churches and denominations have been formed on the basis of their understanding of this one passage. Theology is evaluated in terms of whether it is pre-millennial, post-millennial or a-millennial. Pre-millennialism believes in a return of Jesus followed by a literal thousand year reign. Post-millennialism believes in the thousand-year reign followed by the second coming. A-millennialism argues that the concept of a thousand-year reign is highly symbolic.

The golden rule for interpreting Scripture is to interpret the obscure passages in the light of the clear ones. The prophetic word of the church contains predictive elements. We believe in the future. We believe in an opportunity to repent until Jesus comes or calls. He came once for sin; he will come again without sin to judge living and dead and take his people home. Much will happen on earth during these termini. The Gospel will spread, there will be times of blessing and times of barrenness, fat years and lean years. Men will always combine against Jehovah and his anointed, but God will never be without witnesses. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the coming of the Son of Man. The world will be doing its thing, and will be interrupted when Jesus does His.

Where does the millennium fit into this? It doesn't -- not literally. Revelation is of the nature of visionary prophetic literature, enacting dramas which are other-worldly in order to show us that there are unseen forces shaping our lives. We cannot interpret passages like Revelation 20 literally. The Book of Revelation is not published as a diary of events. It is not a chronologically ordered sequence of events. John saw things happening in vision which were shown to him in a particular order, but their order in the vision need not correspond with their literal order in time.

To argue for absolute literalism when dealing with this kind of apocalyptic material is to make a mockery of the Bible. This kind of literalism leads to absurdity. You end up turning bread into stones (W.J. Grier The Momentous Event). Do we really expect to see Ezekiel's wheels within wheel's, or Daniel's many-bodied beasts? Similarly here, if the millennium is literal, is the angel's key, or chain? Where are Gog and Magog? We must handle this material carefully, and we must do so in terms of the clearer passages of the Bible.

Instead of asking about the chronological sequence, we must ask about the main events and emphases of the vision. What does this millennium, this perfect round number of years highlight for us in John's vision? I believe that the millennium is a round number which signifies the period we are living in now, the last days, the inter-advental period, between the two comings of Jesus Christ. In this period, according to the Bible, certain things are to be believed by the church:

1) The authority of Jesus

Jesus is the angel with the key. He is the messenger of the covenant, in whose hands are the keys of hell and of death. All authority and power is given him (Matthew 28:18). Our prophetic hope during this millenial, inter-advental reign of Jesus is that the power is his. No mere man governs the universe. It is under the Lordship of Christ, and one day will acknowledge that Lordship. All Gospel work, preaching, mission and service, is engaged in precisely because of what Jesus is. He is governor over all, and rules sovereignly upon the throne of the universe.

2) The custody of Satan

Satan is chained. To be sure, he has a little strength, but in the cross Christ triumphed over him, and made a public spectacle of him. It was to destroy the works of the devil he came, and it is as victor he comes forth. The devil is a bound foe. Like the lions in Pilgrim's Progress, the enemy of the Gospel has been bound by a chain. Did not Jesus say that he saw Satan fall as lightning out of heaven (Luke 10:18)? He may be the prince of the power of the air, but his days are numbered and his dominion is threatened. He knows that he will be judged one day and cast into the lake of fire. Hell, after all, was prepared for him, and will rise up to meet him at his coming. While the church believes in a personal devil, it believes in a defeated devil, and believes that the supremacy belongs to Jesus Christ.

3) The prosperity of the Gospel

Satan deceives the nations no more. He did once. The prophets were sent to Israel and Judah, and the rest of the world was blinded in darkness and heathenism. Now the role is reversed. Now blindness has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in. But Satan deceives no more on this scale. The Gospel prospers. Men leave their idols to serve the living God and to wait for his son from Heaven. And at last even the Jews will see him and mourn for him whom they pierced.

4) The security of the Church

The church which bled and died for the cause is now with Jesus (v4). Part of that church will live with him when he comes again (v5a). Now John explains the first resurrection (v5bff). What is this? It is the new life given to God's people in Christ, those who have been spiritually resurrected to new life in Christ. They shall not be touched by the second death, whatever the first death does to them. And despite the deception that still goes on in the experience of those who do not believe, the ultimate security of the Church is guaranteed. She shall have the victory.

That has been the prophetic word in every age and generation. God will not give his glory to any other, nor his praise to graven images. He will come again, and his people will see him face to face.

Let us then go forward into the 21st century, proclaiming the prophetic word, and seeking to make Christ known in every are of living.

"we know in part and we prophesy in part .. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known".