Prophets and Prophetic Ministry Today

In my last post, I posted about some reasons I have for continuing Apostolic ministry in the Church.  Today, I thought I would tackle the ministry of the Prophet.  I believe that the Prophetic ministry continues today and is a vital ministry of the Church.

I believe that there is a vast and very important difference between Prophets under the Old
Covenant, and those of the New Covenant. Generally speaking, when one speaks of "the
Prophets", one is speaking of those men who wrote the prophetic books of the OT (Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, Obadiah, et al..) as well as those whose stories are told in the historical books (Elijah and Elisha for example). It is true though that there were other
prophetically gifted people in the Old Testament period (1 Samuel 10:9-11; 1 Kings 22:7,8; 2 Kings 2:3-7; 6:1).

However, this Old Covenant Prophetic Ministry has come to an end. In fact, it came to an end with John the Baptist. Jesus said of John the Baptist that "all the prophets and law prophesied until John" (Matthew 11:13). The writer of Hebrews is even more explicit:
"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the
prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all
things, through whom also He made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:1,2 NKJV).

It is because of these passages that I completely and totally deny that Muhammad was a
prophet of God. I similarly deny that Joseph Smith was a true prophet (that and the substance of their false prophecies and doctrines). They were false prophets.

It is clear that when one speaks to a Muslim or a Mormon that their conceptions of Prophets is Old Covenant based (or close enough to it in the case of Muslims). I have lost count of how many times a Mormon has quoted Amos 3:7 to me; "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets." Hebrews 1:1,2 thoroughly destroys his argument. It was true during the Old Covenant that God did nothing unless he revealed it to the Prophets, but now in the New Covenant age, Jesus Christ is the final Prophet.

But with all of that said, it is obvious that the New Testament holds out the function/gift of the Prophet for ordinary believers. What should we make of this?

I am convinced that while the gift of Prophecy itself is similar in substance from Old Covenant to New Covenant, the purpose and function of the Prophet has changed drastically. Old Covenant Prophets wrote Scripture, prophesied to nations, and spoke for God in the most absolute sense. This function has now been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and by extension, the New Testament writers (Hebrews 1:1,2).

By contrast, New Covenant Prophets (like the other Ephesians 4 Ministries) are for:
"the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." (Ephesians 4:12-16 NKJV)

The upshot to all of this is that while I am in functional agreement with some Continuationists of the Reformed variety (Wayne Grudem, John Piper, Sam Storms, et al...), I would nuance it differently. As for some points of application, I think a few things:

1. I am very skeptical of prophetic ministries who seem to specialize in prophesying the
outcomes of elections, the rise and fall of governments, the cosmic purposes of God for this
generation, etc... There may be some place for that (Acts 11:28), but even in those rare
occasions, it is for the purpose of spurring believers on to good works.

2. First John 4:1-6 is primarily about evaluating the truth or error of Prophetic ministry. I think this because John instructs his readers to "test the spirits" and warns his readers, not of false teachers, but of false prophets (though John does elsewhere warns of false teachers). Similarly, Christ Himself also warns of false prophets (Matthew 7:15-20; 24:24).

3. Even though OT and NT Prophets are different in function, I think we can still learn about
effective prophecy from the OT Prophets. I think one especially good example is courage in
prophesying hard things in the midst of the fear of man (1 Kings 22).

4. Because of the vastly important differences between Old Covenant and New Covenant Prophets, we can consistently and confidently make use of this valuable ministry, while safely denying the positions of the cults (most notably the Mormons).

Again, like my last post on Apostles, there is more that could be said, but I hope this is helpful.