Posted on 08/06/2016 6:11:39 AM PDT by metmom
"If I have the gift of prophecy . . . but do not have love, I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:2).
Love motivated God to communicate with fallen humanity. That must be your motivation too.
The word prophecy as used in 1 Corinthians 13:2 is the ability to publicly proclaim God's truth accurately and authoritatively. It's a greater gift than tongues because tongues were given as a sign to unbelieving Israel in the first century (1 Cor. 14:21-22), whereas prophecy instructs and edifies believers throughout the centuries. Paul said, "one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation [and] edifies the church (1 Cor. 14:3-4).
Prophecy has two aspects: revelation and reiteration. When an Old or New Testament prophet received new information directly from God, that was revelation. Whenever that information was repeated through preaching or teaching, it was reiteration. For example, the sermons of Peter and Paul combine new revelation with a reiteration of Old Testament truth. That's a common element in New Testament preaching.
With the close of the New Testament canon, direct revelation from God ceased. All preaching and teaching today is reiteration. New Testament prophets policed one another to ensure that every prophecy was truly from God (1 Cor. 14:32). Today, Scripture itself is the standard by which we test someone's message. As the prophet Isaiah said, "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no [light]" (Isa. 8:20).
Paul is saying 1 Corinthians 13:2, "If I have the ability to speak direct revelation from God, or to reiterate divine truth forcefully and dramatically, but lack love, my ministry is meaningless." In its broadest sense, that principle applies to every believer because we all are proclaimers of God's Word. You might not teach a class or preach a sermon, but whenever you tell someone about Christ or share a biblical principle, you're reiterating divine truth. That's why you must always speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Then the Holy Spirit can empower your words to minister to others.
Suggestions for Prayer
Ask God to help you guard your words so that everything you say will be clothed in His love.
For Further Study
Read Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and 18:20-22.
What tests did Moses give for determining false prophets? What punishment did false prophets receive?
Except of course never forget that the Son makes things new, and He means NEW. The resulting scene is one that “proper religious people” might not even be able to predict. If even the super righteous Job needed a plunge into tragedy and then a rise back to doubled fortunes to get a proper point of view, I don’t think that we can except ourselves either.
Oh, I am a (mostly gospel, but some secular) song writer. And I care deeply about what Christ has undertaken to do in my life that I could never ever deserve, but Christ did not care that I did not deserve it. But I don’t teach in schools, and my most advanced degree is a master of computer science, with no formal theology degree. What theology I know is a combination of (mostly bible) church and a “school of hard knocks.” I write computer software for a living. Maybe one day I might write or do something that will succeed in teaching someone to the good about the benefits of God.
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-levy-6/almightylove
We may again have a pattern here. The assembly of the witness of our modern Holy Bible made special supernatural witnesses of the kind common in the early church less necessary, but it never utterly banished them. The purpose, perhaps, was to focus on the main godly theme of agape. A church that was forever chiefly about external supernatural displays, would miss the point. But we are still weak, still sinners, and an augmented message may still be needed from time to time by way of special lessons to teach us what we need to know under special circumstances. I am loath to frown upon the “charismatic churches” just because that is their style; it may be that these people need exactly that kind of witness to believe. And panning them broadly may violate the attitude of agape that God wants us to take. Someone that we have panned unmercifully might not be too willing to hear a message to the good.
And so the perfect could be prefigured by the completion of the bible canon, but actually realized by the physical second arrival of Christ.
I would posit that the “constant prayer” can’t be artificially forced, that it ought to be an answer of the soul to the copious promises and intents and thoughts of God. Think about those things, and then you’ll discover yourself talking to the Lord about them, in particular situations as well as in general, and that is the constant prayer He wants.
Early in my life as a believer I tried to make such prayer happen “just because it should” and that didn’t fly very well. My soul needed to see the merit of God in action. Funny how that happened to Job in the bible, too. That was probably the earliest written book in the canon. One could build up a great fortune and think it merited by one’s own efforts. But to see it all go bust, and then to get a lesson in God’s amazing providence to the point that one’s chatter about what one has earned simply goes silent, and then to gain by that providence — this will inspire prayers of supplication and gratitude by its sheer merit. God deserved this recognition; I didn’t.
I enjoy your perspective. I also enjoy writing songs.
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
The beast is the false Christ, are you saying, when forced to choose between the true Christ and the false one, and you choose to take the false Christ's mark upon you, choosing to worship the false Christ instead of the true Christ, and yet you will be saved?
No amount of theological gerrymandering can change the obvious intent of this passage.
I don’t believe the antichrist will be Muslim, quite the opposite, he defeats them.
In prophecy, he is depicted as a warrior going forth to battle (the white horse/first seal). Defeating Islamic terrorism in a great battle, he will be hailed a hero by the world. Jews will see him as their Messiah.
As to Christians, those superficial in the prophetic scriptures, will think him to be a wonderful hero also. And due to their various interpretations of who they believe the antichrist to be, some, most notably the dispensationalists, will believe it impossible for him to be the antichrist.
Once ensconced in the temple at Jerusalem, he will demand an image be made of himself, and a mark imposed on those who believe he is a false Christ, NOT the Messiah. And that, my dear friend, is where the Rev. 14:9-11 passage I posted, and John MacArthur’s interpretation of it comes to the fore.
The key may be in the tense of the verb “worship” in 14:9.
There is action that ceases after a while, and then there is action that continues forever and ever. Pretty sure the latter is being used here in the Greek.
This is why a different fate could apply to different tenses in the situations.
English can hide details that the Greek reveals.
Is this where you and MacArthur are coming from, based on the Greek, Christians will be saved if they take the mark of the beast?
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