My previous blog, written in the form of
a public letter to Dr. Paul Dhinakaran about his failed prophecy, elicited
interesting responses. Intriguingly, a few well-meaning Christians were not as critical as I
was about that failed prophecy.
Some urged me to wait for a longer
time. The prophecy, they contended, would be fulfilled if only we were to give it more time.
Others pointed out a few prophecies
from the Bible that were supposedly
erroneous and used those prophecies to validate this failed prophecy.
My
understanding of the term prophecy is defined by this verse, “Above all, you
must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own
interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will,
but prophets, though human, spoke from
God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21, NIV,
Emphasis Mine).
Furthermore, my understanding of God
complicates my position on (any failed) prophecy. As a classical theist, I
subscribe to a position that God is the absolutely
metaphysically ultimate reality and HE is immutable or changeless. Hence, God must be impassible (HE cannot be affected by anything external in the
created order).
A word of caution would serve us well before we
proceed any further. We should be unambiguously clear that our stand on
prophecy does not determine our salvation. In other words, we could be poles
apart on our comprehension of the gift of prophecy in the local church; yet, I
believe our growth in Christ could be unimpeded.
So we come back to our question, how
do some Christians tolerate failed prophecy?
Wayne Grudem’s exemplary work on Systematic Theology offers an
interesting perspective. He begins by defining prophecy as “telling something that God has spontaneously
brought to mind.” Do note that Grudem does not define the gift of prophecy
as “predicting the future” or as “proclaiming a word from the Lord.”
He goes on to add that the terms prophet and prophecy were used of ordinary Christians, who spoke not with
absolute divine authority but simply to report something that God had laid on
their hearts or brought to their minds.
This ordinary gift of prophecy had a
lesser authority than the Bible in the New Testament and even less than that of
recognized Bible teaching in the early church. Grudem refers to the prophecy
referred in Acts 21:4, Acts 21:10-11, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21, and 1
Corinthians 14: 29-38, as a case in point.
Furthermore, in the New Testament,
prophets from the local church spoke with less authority than the New Testament
apostles or the Scripture. Nowhere does the New Testament command us to “obey the
words of the Lord through your prophets.” So Grudem comes to the conclusion
that the prophecies of today need not necessarily be construed as “the words of
God.”
The Charismatic churches accord much
importance to prophecies today. Grudem refers to the Charismatic teachers who
believe that contemporary prophecy is not equal to Scripture in authority.
Grudem writes, “Though some will speak of prophecy as being the “word of God”
for today, there is almost uniform testimony from all sections of the charismatic movement that prophecy is imperfect and impure, and will contain
elements that are not to be obeyed or trusted. For example, Bruce Yocum, the
author of a widely used charismatic book on prophecy, writes, “Prophecy can be
impure — our own thoughts or ideas can get mixed into the message we receive —
whether we receive the words directly or only receive a sense of the message.”
However, complications arise when
contemporary prophets preface their prophecies with the common Old Testament
phrase, “Thus says the Lord.” Grudem asserts that even though it gives an impression that the words that follow this phrase are God’s very words, the
charismatic spokesmen would not want to claim it for every part of their
prophecies.
So those Christians who hold to a
similar position (as cited above) could tolerate a failed prophecy. Whereas
Christians who believe that prophecies are the very words of God, especially if
it is prefaced by phrases similar to “Thus says the Lord…” cannot tolerate a
failed prophecy.
But whatever be our position on the contentious topic of prophecy; even if we believe in Cessationism (the doctrine that spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, and healing
ceased with the apostolic age.), please note that we can agree to disagree and
yet, remain as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Endnotes:
Wayne Grudem’s
quotes are taken from his work Systematic
Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Inter-Varsity Press, England.
