I heard something last week that struck me as not right - or it's possible that I misunderstood.
The verse used was Revelation 19:10 which in the NIV reads "At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'"
What was brought up was "For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" with the implication (I believe) that our {believers} testimony to Jesus is our gift of prophecy. And I was going to just agree to disagree with what I heard because - in all honesty - the book of Revelation scares me a little bit. But, I was feeling ambitious, and I opened my Bible up and read the context around the verse and that didn't particularly help me. And because I really don't believe that we all have the gift of prophecy
I went to scripture4all.com and read the broken english word for word translation from the greek, "infront of the him be you seeing! fellow slave breathern the ones having testimony the worship with you. testimony prophecy" Which also didn't help much. So out came the commentaries, different bible translations and re reading of the scripture.
THe New Living Translation provided insight for me "Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and sisters who testify about their faith in Jesus. Worship only God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.”
I also read that the last part of the verse could mean that Jesus' life was a prophetic message, simply meaning that the Gospels (the testimony of Jesus) were written/lived in a spirit of prophecy.
I haven't gotten more personal insight on this verse but I just don't think it is about people giving prophecies of things to come.
5 comments:
Ah, prophecy. I don't think prophecy means the same thing as what it meant to be a prophet in the old testament. At a basic level it's probably the same, but the common view of old testament prophets was "predicting the future". Prophecy can tell the future, but thats not all it is.
When God reveals something to you, when He brings something to your mind, it's called revelation. I think prophecy is the combination of revelation and speaking. When you speak a revelation given to you by God, that is prophecy.
Prophets in the old testament spoke the very word of God, as if it were God Himself speaking. Prophesy spoken today is not the very word of God (1 Corinthians 14:36). It is the description by the person whom God gave the revelation to. The revelation is from God, and when others here it spoken, the revelation they may get is also from God.
We are supposed to test prophesy (1 Thess. 5:20-21). Don't just believe it cuz someone claiming to be a prophet said it. Hear it, and petition God about it. Some of it may be true (hold to what is good). But we should not despise prophecy.
So, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" makes sense. God has revealed to us the atonement of sins through the sacrifice of Jesus, which is the Gospel. When we witness to somebody, when we share the testimony of Jesus, we are speaking of that revelation(which makes it prophecy).
Sometimes we may have, and even be using, many gifts of the Spirit without being fully aware of it. Here is an example of an experience like that in my life.
People today that have a stronger annointing in revelation/prophecy may be called Prophets, but they are not the same as prophets in the old testament. Just like Apostles today are not the same as apostles in the new testament.
That doesn't all sit well with me either. Prophecy is prophecy - God revealing His plans/His words to a person on earth. Anyone who recieves these direct messages from God are prophets. I think that is the same as the OT prophets. The types of messages might be different, but those will be different for each person who recieves messages from God. I think.
God is never changing (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17 - I'm sure there are more, but those were the first ones I found). So if God never changes, He is the same today and he was before Jesus was born, while Jesus was a live, and will be when we are long gone. If God is never changing -then how can His gifts change? See, I really believe that spiritual gifts is God using us to do His work here on earth. So, if we are the vessel thru which God works on earth, and God never changes, then how can his works change?
I don't think that we can change how they are defined b/c that in essence changes the gift, and if the gift is changed, then it ultimately means that something about God has changed.
And why would prophecy be so special as to be the only gift that has changed? what about tongues? or teaching? or the other 20 some odd gifts?
Just something that ran thru my mind.
And with 1 cor 14:36, I think that was paul's way of rebuking/reminding corinth that they were not the only people who had heard the gospels. Just meaning that Corinth is not the first people group to believe - I don't think it relates to prophecy not being the word of GOd. Because then Paul goes on to say that he (paul) is writing as the Lord commands him to.
again - just some thoughts I have
If God is never changing, then how come Adam and Eve had to leave the garden? If God is never changing, why did he flood the earth then declare to never do that again? If God is never changing, how come He said he would destroy a city, but then said He wouldn't destroy the city if 10 righteous people were found there? If God is never changing, how come now His Spirit is available to everyone but it wasn't before? If God is never changing, then how come we don't sacrifice animals?
With all that said, yes, I do agree that God does not change, but that doesn't mean that nothing changes. God's love, His righteousness, His justice, His character does not change. God is good, that does not change.
I agree that God's gifts are for us to carry out His work. Did the Old Testament prophets go to all the nations to spread the gospel? No, because that wasn't their God given work. The purpose of the Old Testament was to point to Jesus, to show the need for what Jesus did. The purpose of the New Testament is to reveal what Jesus has done. If the work is different, should the gifts used to do the work remain the same?
The old testament prophets did not have the complete word of God, the entire Bible as we have it today. The new testament apostles didn't even really have the complete Bible as we have it today. Therefore they were given the gifts and authority to speak and write the very word of God to complete that work. Does a prophet today have the authority to add to the Bible?
I don't even think the gift of prophecy has changed. I said at a basic level it's probably the same: speaking about what God has revealed. Does God need to reveal His law to us through a prophet today? Nope, we got the old testament. Does God need to reveal Jesus and the Gospel, salvation, and His grace to us through a prophet or apostle today? Nope, we got the new testament, and we can have the Holy Spirit so that God can reveal anything to us Himself, not through a prophet. I'm not dismissing prophets or apostles, God gave us the five fold ministry just as He gave us His Spirit. We need to be encouraged and accountable to other believers, but I do think the purpose of prophets and apostles today is different than what it was in the old or new testament.
we should take some time to clarify and focus on what we do agree on. Would you agree with these statements:
Prophecy is communicating what God has revealed.
Prophecy does exist today.
Every believer is capable of prophesying.
Prophesy today can contain error, or be false.
Obviously someone claiming to be a prophet could be false, making their prophecy false, but even true God given revelation can be misinterpreted by the speaker, resulting in prophecy that contains error. That doesn't make them a false prophet, and that doesn't mean we can dismiss whatever prophets say. That just means we should test and get confirmation about what is said.
Prophecy is God speaking to a person about His plans/desire/will, not insights about His Word (I don't know if we agree on that)
Prophecy does exist today - i agree - I also think that prophets exist today
Any believe could speak prophecy BUT not every believer will
So, I don't know how much we really do agree on about this topic
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