I am going to begin a series entitled: “Misconceptions.” In this series I’ll be dealing with topics such as prophecy, suffering, fruit, worship and hopefully more. The aim of this series is simply to help people reestablish a more accurate and biblically based understanding of certain doctrines and practices that have had a tendency to become skewed and misconceived. The teaching and application of a misconceived doctrine can have disastrous consequences, so it is vital that we continually engage in biblical scrutiny of our practices.

As with all posts, the writing is from within the Pentecostal tradition, and the misconceptions dealt with are those which, in my opinion, have arisen from experience within this tradition. Also, in keeping with the vision and direction of The Project, this post and subsequent ones seek not to criticize and condemn, but to build up and encourage the church through a genuine and honest engagement with difficult yet important issues.

I will begin the series with the issue of “prophecy.” We are beginning to see an exponential growth in Pentecostal churches around the world, and this growth is in large part due to the charismatic nature of the church experience. Members are drawn into a dynamic experience that is infused with energy and passion. We are seeing a marked increase in the functioning of spiritual giftings, and an expectation like never before of the manifestation of “signs and wonders.”

This is a great thing. God is moving in unique ways in dynamic ministries and gifted individuals all throughout the planet. Unfortunately however, we have let down our biblical guard and allowed free-reign to anyone who credit their deeds to God. In the excitement and hype of it all, we have come to believe almost anything and are reluctant to question things that ought to be scrutinized. One of those things is prophecy.

The first thing we should know about prophecy is that the New Testament counterparts to Old Testament prophets are New Testament “apostles.” Old Testament Prophets were able to speak and write with absolute divine authority. If they said “Thus says the Lord,” the words that would follow would indeed be the very words of God, and those words most often became scripture. In the New Testament, these people are apostles, and it is them, and not the prophets who have authority to write the New Testament.

In the release of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the gift of prophecy is distributed, but the authority of prophecy is a lesser authority, no longer the authority of God’s very words. We see the evidence of this in Acts 21:4, and Acts 21:10-11 where Paul disobeyed the words of prophecy, and others were given in error. What we do see though in Thes 5:19-21 is a strong mandate to test everything, including prophecy. Also in 1 Cor 14:29-38, Paul suggests that we sift the good from the bad, and “weigh what is said.”

What we are seeing here is a strict distinction between the old and new prophets, the new failing to have the authority of God’s very words, leaving them wide open for errors of interpretation or even the articulation of merely human words. So where does this leave us? Well, we need to be aware of the fact that prophesies in the church today should be considered as merely human words and not God’s words.

Now, most pastors or leaders would admit these truths (or at least ought to), but in practice, much confusion arises when prophecies are prefaced with the all too familiar phrase of “Thus sayeth the Lord” (a phrase nowhere spoken in the New Testament). This needs to be hastily replaced with “I think the Lord might be saying…” or “It seems to me that the Lord is showing us…” If someone really does think the Lord is bringing something to mind, then this is a far better preface, and if in fact it is truly from the Lord, the Holy Spirit will cause it to be spoken with great power to the hearts of those it was intended for.

To elaborate on what I just said, prophets do actually receive revelations from God, and many times it is precise and extremely valuable to the hearer and to the congregation as a whole. I’ve seen this on many occasions. The problem is, we have seen too many people stand upon the words of a prophet as though it was the uncontestable word of God. This is dangerous. Prophecies, if correct, are simply pieces of an ever-unfolding revelation from God that must always be subject to the authoritative teaching of scripture.

Far too many people make big decisions based on a “word” given by a preacher. We shouldn’t stand on this alone. It will likely always be a confirmation of what we are already reading in scripture, of the wisdom and counsel of our elders, and of the peace that we find in our daily prayer life. I’ve seen much disappointment when people (even leaders) defy commonsense and stubbornly adhere to a word given by an often error-ridden prophet as though it was spoken from the mouth of God himself. On top of that, once they pull out the untouchable “God told me” card it makes it extremely awkward for anyone to question it, ultimately alienating that person from their own support network.

Many pastors and preachers claim they are called to build this or that, and embark upon this or that. Some claims are legitimate, some are not. In our ignorance we have unquestionably consented of all of these claims (some of which are outrageous) and deemed them immune to criticism. They are not. Prophecies must always be judged with great strictness. The Danny Nalliahs and other provocateurs have falsely predicted one too many elections, and its time that we subject them to the scrutiny that is befitting of them.

Finally, we must understand that there is a big difference between prophecy and teaching. Teaching (the explanation or application of scripture; or a repetition and explanation of apostolic instructions) was the tradition to which Paul instructed the Thessalonians (2 Thess 2:15) to hold firm to, not prophecy. Also, it was teachers, not prophets who gave leadership and direction to the early church. We have basically seen a reversal of these whereby the prophetic surpasses teaching not only in popularity, but also hierarchy of importance.

As the Pentecostal and charismatic church movement continues to embrace a deeper, and sometimes more obscure, spiritual precedent, we must simultaneously be ready to “test everything” (Thes 5:19-21). We must learn and be willing to keep those who operate in the realm of the prophetic to account, and to understand its rightful place in the church, as a valuable function, but also a human interpretation that is not immune from our responsibility to evaluate and test such things.