INCREASING emphasis is being placed upon prophecy in the current charismatic movement. Ecstatic "prophesying" brief out bursts of praise or advice in a known language is coming to be widely accepted as a manifestation of the New Testament gift of prophecy.
The New Testament church was a continuation of the religious community of Israel, and the concepts of "prophet" and "prophesying" carried over into the early church with little change, with the possible exception of increase in activity. In the inter-testament period there had been no manifestation of the gift (1 Maccabees 4:46; 9:27; 14:41), but both the Baptist (Matt. 14:5; Luke 20:6) and Jesus (Matt. 21:11, 46; Luke 7:16; 24:19; John 7:52) were by a very large number of their hearers accepted as prophets, and beginning with Zacharias, Simeon, and Anna at the time of the birth of Christ, there are many, such as Agabus (Acts 11:27, 28), Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen (Acts 13:1), Judas, Silas (Acts 15:32), Philip's daughters (Acts 21:9), and the apostles John (Rev. 10:10; 22:9) and Paul (2 Cor. 12:1-7; Eph. 3:3-6) who are specifically mentioned or recognized in the New Testament records as prophets.
The word "prophet" occurs about 150 times in the New Testament. As these words are applied equally and without, distinction to gifted persons in both Old and New Testament times, before and after Pentecost, there appears to be no ground for considering them to refer to different activities. An examination of the actual evidence confirms this continuity of meaning, and makes it clear that Paul's tactful discussion of the irregularities in the Corinthian congregation has led some to a lowered concept of prophesy and prophesying in the same way as it has led some to a confused concept of the New Testament gift of tongues.
In the New Testament records the apostles are on more than one occasion bracketed with the Old Testament prophets (Eph. 2:20; 2 Peter 3:2). And they are similarly specially bracketed with the prophets of New Testament times (Eph. 3:5). The gift of prophecy was considered as second only to the gift of apostleship (1 Cor. 12:28, 29; Eph. 4:11), which often included prophecy (Acts 5:1-4; 2 Cor. 12:1-7; Rev. 10:10; 21:9). Bible prophesying was no minor activity, and deserves careful examination to determine its nature and mode of operation.
The Bible Prophet
The root meaning of προφητης (prophet), "one who speaks for" another, is a natural basis for the classical meaning "an interpreter of the will of a god." While it is by no means true that classical Greek always provides precise expression for Hebrew meanings, in this instance it is excellent. Exodus 7:1, 2 illustrates this well: Aaron was Moses' "prophet" in the same way as Moses was the prophet of Jehovah. And Jesus of Nazareth was that "Prophet" fore told by Moses (Deut. 18:15; John 7:40) because like Moses He received instruction from God, which He relayed to the people and frequently repeated to them (Deut. 18:16-19; John 8:26-28).
Because the Hebrew prophets and the great New Testament writers were pre-eminently expositors of the will of God, it be came popular two generations ago to define prophesying entirely by the accepted meaning of προφητεια "speaking for God, interpreting His will to others, publicly expounding or preaching His words" and tacitly to limit New Testament prophesying to mere "preaching."
On the other hand, in the Hebrew Old Testament the customary words for prophet and "prophesying" are nabi and naba, apparently from a root meaning "to flow forth." On this basis some Old Testament scholars have long tended to define the act of prophesying as a kind of frenzied speech similar to that found among heathen peoples.
In contemporary charismatic circles prophesying is more and more being considered as an immediate inspiration flowing out in of stream of unpremeditated ideas and words.
But going beyond mere word study to consider the reported experience of the Bible prophets, it is evident that prophesying is an experience involving much more of the divine element than either expository preaching or ecstatic utterance. The exposition is usually not so much the result of study of the written Word as of apprehension of the directly revealed will of God.
In support of this it may be noted that although the prophet Daniel had carefully studied the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah, he was at a loss to understand the divine will until he had himself received a direct revelation (Dan. 9:1-3, 21-23; 10:1).
The apostle Paul similarly distinguishes between his knowledge due to application and that due to revelation (Gal. 1:14-16; Eph. 3: 3-5). The utterance of prophecy is usually not so much the result of an overwhelming supernatural impulse as of the thoughtful digestion of ideas supernaturally conveyed to the intellect by means of visual or verbal symbols given some time previous to the utterance.
The rather detailed accounts of their experiences given by Jeremiah and Ezekiel make it clear that their "prophesying" consisted of measured utterances of their own words, describing what they had seen and heard in previous visions.
Jeremiah was told "to prophesy" at the eastern gate of the city (Jer. 19:2, 14). The message had been given him beforehand (verses 1-13). Later he summarized this message in the court of the Temple. This repetition is also called prophesying (verses 14, 15; chap. 20:1). Similar instances may be found by comparing Jeremiah 25:30 with verses 1-33 and Jeremiah 26:12 with verses 1-16.
Like the Old Testament Jeremiah who had prophesied the same things over and over for twenty-three years, the New Testament Paul indicates that he had been repeating certain truths for nineteen years, since they were first given him by revelation (Jer. 25:1-3; Eph. 3:1-5; 2 Cor. 12:1-7, allowing five years between the second letter to Corinth and the Ephesian Epistle).
In Ezekiel, where naba is used thirty times, the prophet says he was given his words beforehand. Note the repeated formula, "Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord . . ." (Eze. 6:2, 3; 13:2, 3; 13:17, 18; 21:2, 3; 21:9; 21:28; 25:2, 3; 28:21, 22; 29:2, 3; 30:2; 34:2; 35:2, 3; 36:2, 3; 38:2, 3; 38:14; 39:1). In other words, the prophet is not usually inspired to pour out a flow of unpremeditated words, but thoughtfully presents, perhaps for years, the messages given him in vision.
All this gives point to the dictum of Amos, "The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3:8), and also makes more full of meaning the words of the Lord concerning true prophets and false: "If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream" (Num. 12:6). "I am against them that prophesy false dreams" (Jer. 23:32). "I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied" (verse 21).
Thus when Peter says the prediction of Joel finds fulfillment in the Christian church, we are led to conclude that when the Holy Spirit is truly poured out on His people in the gift of prophecy they will deliver messages based upon information given them in inspired visions, and not as a rule stand up and speak out something that comes to them on the spur of the moment (Acts 2:17, 18).
Inspired Speech
It is true that there is an immediate inspiration of the prophet at the moment of speech, for when "prophecy" came "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21), but this is not the whole or even the chief part of their inspiration. Only in exceptional instances were the prophets ever moved to say things they had not previously come to understand from instruction given them.
The few examples of such immediate inspiration would include the Baptist, who had received previous information about the identity and mission of Christ and had been given a sign by which to recognize Him (John 1:26-34), but who apparently had never thought of Him as "the Lamb of God" until these words came to him as he spoke (The Desire of Ages, p. 112). In the same way the aged Simeon, who knew from previous revelations that he would live to see the Lord's Messiah, and had come to the Temple under the inward impression of the Spirit, may have prophesied under immediate inspiration when he spoke words of blessing to Joseph and Mary (Luke 2:25-35; The Desire of Ages, p. 55).
Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, may seem to be another instance, but he had long months of dumbness in which to ponder the revelation that had been made to him in the Temple. These thoughts were doubtless the basis of the inspired "prophecy" he made concerning his son's mission when his tongue was loosed and the Holy Spirit rested upon him (Luke 1:67-79; The Desire of Ages, p. 100). But the Hebrew couplets in which his "prophecy" was couched, like the song of Moses at the Red Sea, the benedictory curses of Balaam, and the Psalms of David, reveal the conscious care with which they moulded into suitable literary form the truths that had been revealed to them.
With Zacharias as with "the sweet psalmist of Israel" when he said, "the Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue" (2 Sam. 23:1, 2), it must be true that God selected the topic and moved him to compose, but it must not be supposed that the vocabulary, sentence structure, and metrical variations were the work of the Holy Spirit. The blessings of Zacharias and the Psalms of David are the Word of God, but they are not the words of God.
Similarly, in the metrical parables of Balaam and in John's elaborately structured book of Revelation, the prophet "saw the vision of the Almighty" and "bare record of the word of God . . . and of all things that he saw" while "in the Spirit" (Num. 24:2, 4; Rev. 1:2, 10). Both of these prophets in part repeat the precise words given them to speak (Num. 23:5, 16; Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18), but they also passed on to us in their own words a great deal that had been shown to them of the history of God's people down to the close of time (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 447; The Acts of the Apostles, p. 571).
In those few instances where not only the guidance to speak but also an actual revelation came at the very time of speaking, it seems usually to have come as an addition to or completion of revelations previously given. This may have been true of Balaam's third message. It was true of Sim eon's blessing, and of John the Baptist's designation of Jesus as "the Lamb of God." It seems also to have been the case when Jacob blessed his sons shortly be fore his death (Gen. 49). "Often and anxiously he had thought of their future. . . . Now as his children waited to receive his last blessing, the Spirit of Inspiration rested upon him, and before him in prophetic vision the future of his descendants was unfolded." --Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 35.
Thus when Paul writes to the Corinthians and urges those who prophesy to keep their desire to speak under strict control, although he does seem to imply that a revelation might occur while the prophet is seated in meeting, his instructions make it very clear that he takes it for granted, as in his own experience (Eph. 3:3-6; 2 Cor. 12:1-8), that revelation and prophesying are not concomitant, arising and flowing out at once, but that the revelation comes first, and the prophesying is entirely under the control of the prophet and can be framed into words at such place and time as seems appropriate (1 Cor. 14:29- 33).
Singing in the Spirit
According to both the Old and New Testaments, "prophesying" could also include singing in the Spirit. The song of Moses was not only composed in Hebrew poetic meter, it was sung. Many of the psalms of David were deliberately composed to be sung and accompanied by instrumental music. Twenty-four groups of singers and musicians came on duty at the Temple twice a year for one week each. And both the choir of singers and the orchestra of instrumentalists under the direction of Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their successors "prophesied" (naba) when they gave these renderings of the inspired songs of David and Asaph (1 Chron. 25:1-3).
A generation earlier in the schools established by Samuel "the Spirit of God was manifested in prophecy and sacred song." --Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 594. Among the earnest-minded students in these schools singing together was one of the ways they prophesied. It evidently had not previously been to the liking of Saul to join in the hymn singing of these more religious young men. But like young people converted today, the complete inward change of attitude produced by the Holy Spirit led him to join heartily in their songs of praise as well as to speak out his new sentiments (1 Sam. 10:5, 6, 10, 11; Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 610).
In the eager enthusiasm of the Corinthian congregation "every one" had "a psalm" or "a doctrine" or "a tongue" or "a revelation" (1 Cor. 14:26). What a Christian congregation to belong to! Apparently, everyone took as active a part as possible. They composed and sang psalms and prophesied in accordance with the revelations they had been given.
The situation in Corinth needed controlling, for obviously there was some exhibitionism, and some strange elements were creeping in, but amidst the childish and the counterfeit there seems to have been the genuine manifestation of the spirit of prophecy (1 Cor. 14:19-23; 12:1-3). The Holy Spirit was guiding them into all truth (John 16:13). The members had a living connection with heaven. They received revelations edifying to the church or helpful to individuals (1 Cor. 14:3, 4, 23, 24). But their words of knowledge were not expressed in mindless crooning or in impulsive outbursts. In poetry and prose these members prophesied one to another in speech and song.
Because in giving his counsel to the Corinthians, Paul mentions "singing with the spirit," some today have added to ecstatic tongues not only ecstatic prophesying but also ecstatic singing and even ecstatic laughter, the one a simultaneous congregational crooning without words, the other an uncontrolled fit of loud laughter that suddenly comes upon one. These exercises are called "singing in the spirit" and "laughing in the Spirit." But here again is a conscious modeling of experience after what is supposed to have happened at Corinth. Actually, there is no evidence at all to sustain their exercises, except that Paul, in seeking to persuade the Corinthians to conduct their meetings in an edifying way remarks that whether they speak or sing, pray, or praise, they should do it so as to be understood (verses 12-19).
How then shall we define or describe Bible prophesying? According to the large number of examples we have in the Sacred Word, prophesying is the solemn delivery to others of a message directly given by God. This message comes to the prophet by inward revelation, usually in a vision or divinely given dream, often in the form of scenes and symbols, sometimes in a specific verbal communication. And the prophet, as occasion offers, often on several occasions and in varied re marks, delivers his understanding of the revealed will of God in whatever literary form is suited to his own capability and the effective conveying of the message.
