The Duration of Prophecy: How Long Will Prophecy Be Used in the Church? (Part 2) by Wayne A. Grudem
(b) Clearly not all miracles in the New Testament church were done by the apostles. James 5:14-15 indicates that James expected some instances of healing to occur through “the elders of the church,” not through the apostles. Galatians 3:5 implies that Christ was the one who presently, in the absence of the apostle Paul, “works miracles” among the Galatian churches. And Philip and Stephen, both non-apostles, had miracles done by or through them as well (Acts 6:8, 15; 7:55-56; 8:7, 13, 39).
(c) Whatever we may think about the restriction of some “miraculous” gifts or “sign” gifts to the apostles, the gift of prophecy simply cannot be put in that category. The New Testament gives us evidence that the gift of prophecy was clearly not restricted to the apostles, but was used by ordinary believers in Corinth (1 Cor. 12–14); in Antioch (Acts 11:28; 13:1; 15:32); in Tyre (Acts 21:4); in Caesarea (Acts 21:9, 10-11); in Jerusalem (Acts 11:28; 21:10); in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 5:19-21); probably in Ephesus (see Acts 19:6; Eph. 4:11); and probably in many other cities as well (Acts 20:23; and note that Eph. 4:11 and Acts 2:17-18 speak not of any local church but of the church in general).
So prophecy was not restricted to or limited to the apostles, and should not be thought of as some kind of unique “sign-gift” which would be used only by the apostles. It was given for the use and benefit of the whole church.
5. “It is a historical fact that prophecy did cease early in the history of the church”
(a) First, we must object that the premise just stated is very doubtful on historical grounds.13 There were people claiming to be prophets or to prophesy throughout the history of the early church—the problem was that too often they misunderstood their gift, or others misunderstood it, so that their utterances were (mistakenly) treated as actual words of God. Sometimes they would be tolerated, sometimes they were too much of a threat to the established leadership of the churches and they would begin splinter groups with several followers—tragically, no longer under the restraining and evaluating authority of the established church.
Whatever we may think about the restriction of some “miraculous” gifts or “sign” gifts to the apostles, the gift of prophecy simply cannot be put in that category.
On this first point, one additional comment is in order. If we assume that this study is correct in seeing New Testament congregational prophecy as based on a “revelation” from the Holy Spirit yet not possessing the authority of God’s own words, it must still be admitted that such a careful understanding of prophecy is one which might easily be blurred or forgotten. It would eventually be very easy, then, for more and more Christian prophets, whether for good or ill motives, to begin to claim not only that they had received a “revelation” from God or Christ, but also that they spoke with absolute divine authority in their words. This was in fact apparently what happened, at least in Montanism and probably in many other cases as well. Of course, if these prophets began to promote heretical ideas, the reaction of the rest of the church would eventually be to drive them out altogether. Someone who claims absolute divine authority would eventually be either accepted or rejected; he could not be merely tolerated.
Category: Spirit, Summer 2001
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