This morning the Pastor at the church that I currently attend was teaching from Ephesians chapter 4 and specifically on the nature of spiritual gifts and their use in the church. Before he could make his plea for unity in the church and a spirit of volunteerism in the use of our gifts, he had to clarify what gifts "still exist" as opposed to those that God only gave for the "initial" formation of the church or for the "completion of the cannon of scripture." So, in just a few short minutes, he consigned all those in the body of Christ given a prophetic gift to the classification of "liar," "false prophet," or "deluded nut" whose only purpose in the body of Christ is to clean floors, bathrooms, and windows.
While I don't mind doing such work and have done so for most of my life, being good at it was never a spiritual gift nor did it ever engage one.
The thousands of us who have actually received prophetic gifts and have manifested "sign" gifts, are defined by the largest part of the church as non-existent,(so much for unity.)
We find in scripture, in the Old testament, mention of "the school of the prophets" which has been non-existent for so long that we have no idea what was taught or why. It occurred to me that, given the fact that their are many people who manifest gifts that the church leadership refuses to even believe in, there remains a necessity for examining the proper use of these non-existent (non-recognized gifts) and a place to educate those that have them, on their lawful application (Balaam was a true prophet that taught the Midianites how to stumble the Israelites with attractive temptation, because God would not permit him to curse them and he wanted the money of the Midianite rulers.)
Since this is a Christian web site and since the only prophecy we can be sure of comes from Christians, it seemed like a good idea to start an informal school of the prophets right here. I know that many faithful Christians would tend to oppose the idea because of their own doctrinal positions on the gifts of the Spirit, but even they are a benefit to such an endeavor as they help to keep people honest (when they aren't trying to smack them down or labeling them heretics.)
What I intend to do here is examine what the scripture has to say about the prophets and prophecy in a topical way, beginning in the book of Genesis and ending with the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. While anecdotal information is often useful to our understanding, that which contradicts scripture would be problematic to say the least, so we'll try to make all argument from scripture and if we do find something which seems contradictory we will have to examine it in light of God's revealed purposes in scripture, the gospel, and the person of our Lord revealed in Jesus the Son of God.
This is sure to be controversial, but I think that we may proceed as a group effort to define the gifts and scope of prophecy to the edification, unification, and maturation, of the church at large. I've begun my own study of the topic with respect to God's use of dreams and that is where I'll begin on-topic discussion:
The first time that my search engine finds the word "dream" used in scripture is in Genesis 20:2-7 and in describing the dream of Abimelech king of Gerar (a gentile). This passage is the first that I find clearly identifying prophecy (God speaking to a man with a warning) in the content of a dream. In Genesis 15:12-21, where we find the Lord making a covenant with Abraham, we are told about Abraham falling into a deep sleep, so it would seem that part of Abraham's experience with God on that occasion was in his dreams, but the scripture isn't clear as to what was dream and what was a waking experience, so I will start my discussion with Genesis chapter 20.
While I don't mind doing such work and have done so for most of my life, being good at it was never a spiritual gift nor did it ever engage one.
The thousands of us who have actually received prophetic gifts and have manifested "sign" gifts, are defined by the largest part of the church as non-existent,(so much for unity.)
We find in scripture, in the Old testament, mention of "the school of the prophets" which has been non-existent for so long that we have no idea what was taught or why. It occurred to me that, given the fact that their are many people who manifest gifts that the church leadership refuses to even believe in, there remains a necessity for examining the proper use of these non-existent (non-recognized gifts) and a place to educate those that have them, on their lawful application (Balaam was a true prophet that taught the Midianites how to stumble the Israelites with attractive temptation, because God would not permit him to curse them and he wanted the money of the Midianite rulers.)
Since this is a Christian web site and since the only prophecy we can be sure of comes from Christians, it seemed like a good idea to start an informal school of the prophets right here. I know that many faithful Christians would tend to oppose the idea because of their own doctrinal positions on the gifts of the Spirit, but even they are a benefit to such an endeavor as they help to keep people honest (when they aren't trying to smack them down or labeling them heretics.)
What I intend to do here is examine what the scripture has to say about the prophets and prophecy in a topical way, beginning in the book of Genesis and ending with the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. While anecdotal information is often useful to our understanding, that which contradicts scripture would be problematic to say the least, so we'll try to make all argument from scripture and if we do find something which seems contradictory we will have to examine it in light of God's revealed purposes in scripture, the gospel, and the person of our Lord revealed in Jesus the Son of God.
This is sure to be controversial, but I think that we may proceed as a group effort to define the gifts and scope of prophecy to the edification, unification, and maturation, of the church at large. I've begun my own study of the topic with respect to God's use of dreams and that is where I'll begin on-topic discussion:
The first time that my search engine finds the word "dream" used in scripture is in Genesis 20:2-7 and in describing the dream of Abimelech king of Gerar (a gentile). This passage is the first that I find clearly identifying prophecy (God speaking to a man with a warning) in the content of a dream. In Genesis 15:12-21, where we find the Lord making a covenant with Abraham, we are told about Abraham falling into a deep sleep, so it would seem that part of Abraham's experience with God on that occasion was in his dreams, but the scripture isn't clear as to what was dream and what was a waking experience, so I will start my discussion with Genesis chapter 20.