I count it a blessing to be able to interact with choice individuals who provide me feedback, ask questions, and interact with my responses in my season of life. Following is an email chain just concluded regarding two important issues in our day, prophets in the church and the meaning of the Beatitudes. I am presenting this in raw form due to its timing. As I have the opportunity and resources, I will address both topics more in detail in future articles.
I begin with my latest response. For the beginning of the chain, scroll down to it below.
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Monday, May 15, 2023, 10:06 am
XXXXX,
Thanks for your comments on prophets, etc. My previous interaction with the topic was late last night as I was reading Scripture before falling asleep (something I do once in a while—sleep that is). This morning in my personal study, I am studying the book of Revelation using Hampton Keithley's commentary on bible.org.
Hampton was a personal acquaintance. His wife's sisters witnessed to my wife in high school and were instrumental in her coming to know the Lord way back when. Hampton was a graduate of Dallas Seminary and we both served as adjunct professors at Moody Bible Institute in Spokane at the same time. Hampton was the pastor of a church in Lubbock, Texas prior to returning to Spokane. There was an individual in his church who funded Hampton and Kathy full-time so he and his wife could work establishing bible.org and writing articles for it. (see Special Announcements (Rev 14:1-20) | Bible.org)
Hampton is correct with most of his conclusions. This morning I am studying Rev. 14:13 where Hampton is identifying the voice from heaven. This is what brought my attention back to our conversation about prophets. It also brought to my attention an important discussion regarding the Beatitudes which I am now preparing to address in a new article for my website.
Note Hampton's comments regarding the Fourth Voice:
A fourth voice now comes from heaven (either Christ’s or an angel’s) pronouncing a beatitude and evoking a response from the Spirit of God. Another possibility here is that the voice is that of the Spirit Himself. The last half of the verse would then identify who speaks from heaven. (For the four previous records of a voice from heaven compare 10:4, 8; 11:12 and 14:2).
The principle is that there is a direct communication from God from heaven rather than through angelic messengers. Why? Because of the importance of the message, but more so because God is interested in personally bringing comfort to His own.
This goes to the heart of what I was saying regarding prophets and prophecies in our time. Our email chain will probably be the grist for a new article, Let's Talk About Prophets and Prophecy.
The first article mentioned above on the Beatitudes was prompted by this quote from Hampton:
What John is told to write is a beatitude, a pronouncement of blessing or divine happiness upon those individuals who comply with certain truths or principles of Scripture, but always on the basis of grace. In Scripture a beatitude is always seen as a reversal of man’s viewpoint by setting forth God’s viewpoint, values, priorities and ideas. To the earthling, obeying the beast and worshipping him is more blessed than death; even slavery is better than death. To many unbelievers death is feared, viewed as an unknown, or the end. But to believers, God’s viewpoint and the promises of His Word teach the direct opposite. To accept the beast is to forfeit trusting in Jesus Christ and so to forfeit eternal life. But death is never the end, it is only the beginning. This life is a place of preparation because our choices and works follow us into eternity.
The phrase “the dead who die in the Lord” refers to martyred believers (those who put their trust in Christ and share in His eternal life), those martyred for their stand in Christ. But they are blessed. The beast can kill their physical bodies, but their souls and spirits go immediately to be with the Lord. They will be given resurrected, immortal bodies, and will live in the eternal kingdom of God (Luke 12:4-5).
I have always had a problem with the Beatitudes being taught as instruction on how we are to behave today under the sun. Even those who see it this way have to give the caveat that no one can keep them all. Notice what happens when we understand the context of the Sermon on the Mount.
John the Baptist has been preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is also preaching this message and did so until John was beheaded. (see the various articles where I explain the kingdom of heaven on my website. Use the brown search bar on the right and then ctrl-f on each article to see what I have written.)
The kingdom of heaven was the kingdom Jesus was offering to the Jews in His life on earth. When that bona fide offer was rejected and Jesus turned His face toward Jerusalem and His death on the cross, that offer was withdrawn.
It is this historical context in the progress of God's revelation that is important to interpreting and applying the Beatitudes. These are not instructions on how to live today. To be sure, they do represent God's holy standard for holy living. What Jesus is saying is that since His followers agreed with and longed for the virtues outlined, they will be blessed by their existence in the kingdom of heaven John and He were preparing them to receive. Since the offer of the kingdom was rejected, so were the blessings rejected. Those of us who have long for these blessings still long for them, and once the kingdom of heaven has been established on earth during the millennium, we will experience those blessings.
Your feedback is always appreciated. You are a man after God's own heart. You challenge my thinking which is a beatitude for me in my season of life. I hope this is true for you as well.
God bless, in spite of our living in the period of the Gentiles.
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To read the articles referenced above, see the following:
Introduction and Approach to the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven - Dr. Jerry Back)
Let's Talk About The Kingdom of Heaven - Dr. Jerry Back
Let's Talk About the Church's First Priority - Dr. Jerry Back
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Beginning of the Email Chain
_________
From: XXXXX
Sent: Saturday, May 13, 2023, 5:54:06 PM
To: Jerry Back
Subject: Prophets
An interpreter (from the internet)
- The English word comes from the Greek prophetes (profetes), which signifies in classical Greek one who speaks for another, especially one who speaks for a god, and so interprets his will to man; hence its essential meaning is "an interpreter."
- Illumination:
1Co 14:29 Have two or three prophets speak, and have the others pass judgment.
Inspiration:
1Co 14:30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, then the first one is to keep silent.
XXXXX
From: JERRY BACK
Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2023, 5:27 PM
To: XXXXX
Subject: Re: Prophets
You are correct that prophecy is forthtelling and not just foretelling. But it is conveying a message from God that involves revelation, i.e., God-breathed Scripture. When Moses wrote about creation and the flood, he was not foretelling but forthtelling because he was not there, and it happened in the past. The Holy Spirit was guiding him. When I teach or preach, I am not functioning as a prophet in the biblical sense of the term.
Prophecy ceased with the completion of the canon of Scripture. We need no other revelation until we witness the return of our Lord. That is what Paul meant when he said prophecy and knowledge would be done away with (future passive indicative, that is, something would occur to cause them to no longer be needed).
On the other hand, tongues would cease (future middle indicative, that is they would cease because their very purpose, to convince the unbelieving Jews who were seeking a sign--1 Cor 1:22--that Jesus is the Messiah) and would no longer be available. Jews today must believe God's revelation written down now that the canon is complete. Jew and Gentile believers are on the same footing and come to Christ by God's grace through believing the completed canon. God speaks through His Word (Heb 1:1-2).
When I am preaching and teaching, I am not giving a message directly from God. I am exegeting God's word which is available to anyone willing to read it and study it. To omit the central feature, prophecy is speaking for God, is to cause confusion and has led many astray.
This is what Jeremiah meant when he prophesized, in 32:34, Jesus quoted in Jn 6:45, and John referenced in 1 Jn 2:20. Note the number of times John mentions the believer "knowing" in this short epistle.
When Paul wrote concerning the gift of prophecy, the canon had not yet been completed and there were still well-meaning Jews who needed signs. All that is past. There is no need for the gift of prophecy today.
I hope this helps.