A Common MISUSE of the New Testament Gift of Prophecy

I've been listening to some interesting podcasts on modern cults. And almost without exception, the main way that most cults start is that their founder(s) claim to have a prophetic gifting and receive revelation - through dreams, visions, and even trances. 

The #1 problem always is that their revelation is "new" and the most common narrative is that NO ONE has ever had the insights they have as to the times in which they were living (or that we are now living in). They have "new insights" into the meaning of passages of Scripture that no one has ever had before - most notably insights into the meaning of passages in the Book of Revelation. 

Some of these cults depart so far from Historic Christianity that the vast majority of Christians are not fooled by their aberrant doctrines and deception. I think of the "New Heaven and New Earth Cult" and "The World Mission Society Church of God" as two perfect examples of NON-CHRISTIAN cults that have abused a so-called "gift of prophecy" to bring 'new light' onto the meaning of Scriptural passages. 

I am however more concerned with Christians who are misusing the Gift of Prophecy than I am with these mind-control cults.

It was the UNIVERSAL belief of the early church that the Apostles ALONE had the authority to establish and define doctrine. In the Old Testament, such authority also rested with prophets such as Daniel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. In the New Testament that authority was not given/extended to New Testament prophets (i.e. Agabus in Acts 11:28). We don't find Agabus or other named NT prophets writing epistles that are contained in our New Testaments. That authority rested UNIQUELY with New Testament Apostles - such as the Disciples, the Apostle Paul, etc. 

The role of the New Testament prophet was quite different - we see the gift of Prophecy (and other revelatory, prophetic gifts) in use in the New Testament, but it was NEVER for the establishment and/or defining of doctrine UNLESS it was through an Apostle himself. For example, the Apostle John received the Book of Revelation prophetically (including visions and angelic encounters). But what makes the book authoritative and included in the NT Canon of Scripture is that is came from an APOSTLE, not from a New Testament prophet.

Why is this important? Because today, there are charismatic Christians who believe they are receiving prophetic revelation that somehow clarifies and/or even defines doctrine. Some argue that they have received new insights/understanding and/or interpretations into Scriptural passages that were somehow not understood until their time.

This is NOT a proper use of the New Testament gift of prophecy. And NO PROPHETS today (and I believe in the NT gift of prophecy and existence of prophets in today's church, like an Agabus) are receiving revelation from God that is somehow adding to the Apostolic faith and understanding of the Scriptures. 

The faith was deposited IN FULL by the Apostles in the 1st Century. Jude says it best - "Contend earnestly for THE FAITH THAT WAS ONCE FOR ALL DELIVERED to the saints. 

The Christians that were the disciples of the Apostles themselves and their spiritual descendants ALL understood that they received a DEPOSIT and that their mandate was to guard it, to teach it and to make sure that it isn't added to, subtracted from and/or corrupted. 

Don't believe me? Let me quote the greatest theologian/apologist of the 2nd Century, Irenaeus of Lyon, a spiritual grandson of the Apostle John.

He wrote this in AD180 - "For the [Christian] faith is ever one and the same. So he who is able to teach at great length regarding it makes no addition to it. Nor does he who can say but little, diminish it".

Elsewhere he writes, "...there is one and the same life-giving [Christian] faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth."

One further Ireneaus quote should suffice to illustrate the fact that the church believed that the Apostles gave them a complete deposit. 

He adds, "It is not necessary to seek the truth among others, for it is easy to obtain it from the Church. For the apostles lodged in her hands most abundantly all things pertaining to the truth—just like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank. Therefore, every man who wants to can draw from her the water of life."   

Why was the doctrine of Sola Scriptura so central to the Protestant Reformation? Because it is in the New Testament Scriptures that we have the Apostolic Deposit. The intent of Sola Scriptura was to get Christians to discard things that were NOT Apostolic. Not from the Apostles. Things that had been ADDED to the faith (or subtracted from it).

As church history progressed, doctrines were added and/or changed. 

We do know what the church believed in AD100 or AD200 with regards to particular doctrines. Did they have disagreements? Yes, but where we can be sure we have the Apostolic faith/understanding of something is where we find that they ALL believed the same thing. For example, NO CHRISTIANS denied the full deity of Jesus. They all believed He was God. None of them denied that He died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice. None of them denied His virgin birth. All of them believed marriage was between one man and one woman. No one believed that homosexuality was not sin. No one believed abortion wasn't murder. We know what they believed, we know how they lived and how they worshipped. When there were differences of opinion (for example, some believed that the Jewish Temple would one day literally be rebuilt and others thought that it would not), the earliest Christians would say so. Where they were in universal agreement, we can confidently assert that we have the Apostolic understanding on a matter! 

What were some of the changes that crept in? Changes that no Christians believed in the beginning. 

The earliest Christian understanding was of a literal Millennial Kingdom wherein Christ would reign for 1000 years on Earth after His 2nd Coming gave way to Amillennialism, popularized by Augustine in the 5th Century. They ALL believed in a coming "Great Tribulation" and an Antichrist figure that would precede the 2nd coming of Christ. Nobody held a different view. Some of the details were debated, which were often about the "timing" of such things, but as for the general narrative, it was all the same. Today we have Partial Preterists (a position invented ironically by the Jesuits in the Middle Ages) and other eschatological interpretations that the earliest Christians knew nothing about!

The universal Apostolic understanding that Christ died for the whole world and that mankind had the ability to freely accept and/or reject God's offer of salvation in Christ, gave way to Augustine's novelties of mankind being depraved to such a degree that he was unable to respond to God and that only the "Elect", that God had selected would be saved. It was only Gnostic heretics that taught such an idea before Augustine. These doctrines were picked up by Luther and Calvin and millions of Christians believe and teach these things as if they were the Apostolic understanding and yet they were unknown until AD412 (the latest scholarly assessment as to when Augustine began to teach them).

Later Christians added icons to their faith and practice which was in direct violation of what the earliest Christians believed and practiced. They did NOT use images in worship and were condemned by the surrounding pagans for not doing so. I would add here that praying to the saints was also an accretion. The primitive church understood that the saints who had died in the Lord were praying for us, but they didn't ask them for that prayer. And God forbid that they would have ever prayed TO them! You cannot find a single shred of evidence for anything like the use of icons and/or the later cult of the saints that developed. Total perversions of the Apostolic Faith!

And throughout Church History 'mystics' arose who in the name of the gift of prophecy brought new insights, new interpretations, and/or new understandings of the Apostolic faith. They will often claim that they are only "recovering" something that was lost. Which sounds good, but when their new revelations/understandings are contradicted by the entire Early Church, they aren't recovering anything. They are "adding to" a faith that was complete upon its deposit by the Apostles. 

The New Testament gift of prophecy and the presence of prophets has never been for the purpose of "new revelation" with regard to doctrine and/or Biblical interpretation. That was limited to the 1st Century apostles and to them alone. 

New Testament prophets received knowledge of future events, things that believers needed to be warned about or aware of. They revealed the secrets of people's hearts. They encouraged. They edified. They consoled. They helped discern direction and timing. They had visions and dreams. But what they never have had, were new doctrines and/or new interpretations of the Apostles' writings that no one has had before. This is a cultic use of prophecy. This is how false teachings have been introduced - I am thinking here of new revelations that the Christian Scientists believe were given to their founder Mary Baker Eddy. Or the new revelations given to the founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, Ellen White. 

Tragically, many modern charismatics are following prophetic voices who have been articulating and/or defining doctrine and do so citing the authority of the revelation(s) they have received. Some of it can be harmless, but in other cases, it has become serious false teaching and practice. 

My safeguard is this - if it wasn't being taught, believed, and practiced in AD100 or AD200, then it isn't part of the Apostolic faith. Some things, like for example, Sunday School, have been a positive development and I don't believe in any way violates the Apostolic deposit. But when I listen to my charismatic friends who claim to be endlessly taking trips to heaven, translocating to different parts of the world, and even traveling to other planets "in the Spirit", they are actually dabbling in dangerous areas, areas where they are prone to serious demonic deception, and are in fact "adding to" and thereby corrupting the faith once for all delivered to the saints.