It's been almost ten years since I started this thread. Where does the time go? But I thought I'd bring it back to address my latest issue with prophecy.
Over the thirty years I've studied the Bible, I've been under the impression that the "age of prophecy" was over, but when I looked into it recently, this idea looks like human nonsense layered onto the Bible.
In the big picture, my approach is that there is no God and thus no one is or ever was a prophet. So from that standpoint, prophecy in the Bible is human nonsense too. But where did the idea come from (among believers) that prophecy has ended (or that it isn't what it used to be)?
After getting unsatisfying answers everywhere I looked, I realized that there is no biblical warrant for thinking prophecy (as a concept) has ended. Jews and Christians just got tired of hearing prophets, it seems. When Jews canonized the OT, that in itself was a way of saying, "no more prophets." And the same thing happened to Christians. Once the NT canon was more or less fixed (I'd say by the late-second century CE), Christians didn't want to hear any more prophets (like Montanism).
But the NT is full of then-current prophets. Paul mentions them several times, as does Acts (e.g., 15:32: "Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers").
So the idea that prophecy ended (or has been radically toned down) looks like human nonsense to me, created by people in positions to control the OT and NT narratives and stop any new ones.
Over the thirty years I've studied the Bible, I've been under the impression that the "age of prophecy" was over, but when I looked into it recently, this idea looks like human nonsense layered onto the Bible.
In the big picture, my approach is that there is no God and thus no one is or ever was a prophet. So from that standpoint, prophecy in the Bible is human nonsense too. But where did the idea come from (among believers) that prophecy has ended (or that it isn't what it used to be)?
After getting unsatisfying answers everywhere I looked, I realized that there is no biblical warrant for thinking prophecy (as a concept) has ended. Jews and Christians just got tired of hearing prophets, it seems. When Jews canonized the OT, that in itself was a way of saying, "no more prophets." And the same thing happened to Christians. Once the NT canon was more or less fixed (I'd say by the late-second century CE), Christians didn't want to hear any more prophets (like Montanism).
But the NT is full of then-current prophets. Paul mentions them several times, as does Acts (e.g., 15:32: "Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers").
So the idea that prophecy ended (or has been radically toned down) looks like human nonsense to me, created by people in positions to control the OT and NT narratives and stop any new ones.
Statistics: Posted by John2 — Wed May 22, 2024 11:36 am