THE ‘PROPHETIC MINISTRY’ OF THE CHURCH
No one will dispute that the Church has a “prophetic” role, or that the Christian ministry has a “prophetic” responsibility.
But there is serious debate at the present time whether either the Church or the individual minister has a “prophetic” ministry other than that already made final by the Early Church and the first century apostles.
In the strict sense of the word, there is no such thing as “prophetic” preaching today. No minister can stand in his pulpit and say, I have a new revelation from the Lord. He can only recognize the authority of Old and New Testament writers who spoke, by inspiration of God, His message. It is the duty of ministers today to apply revealed truth, not to assume the role of prophets themselves.
A study of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles indicates that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, crucified, dead and raised again, was the message of that era.
The Early Church was surrounded by social evils. Slavery, debauchery, drunkenness, political oppression, and dishonesty were all rampant.
But the “prophetic preaching” of the apostles was Jesus Christ and him crucified. They pointed men to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of those that believe in him. They affirmed the historical accuracy and divine inspiration of the Old Testament writers and showed that the coming of Christ was worked out in the councils of eternity and foretold by the prophets of old.
There is little evidence that the early apostles were concerned with social engineering. They knew that the Gospel message, faithfully proclaimed, carried with it the blessing, power, and fruitage of the Holy Spirit. Their concern was with the message of personal redemption. Redeemed men, they believed, would meet head-on the social evils of every generation and work out solutions at the personal level in the light of the love of Christ.
Their attitude was a far cry from the “prophetic ministry” of the Church about which we hear so much today. Too often we are presented with an ethic without the dynamic to make that ethic a reality. Constantly we hear unregenerate men being challenged to live like Christians! How repeatedly are we told about the symptoms of the disease without adequate diagnosis of the disease itself. What emphasis there is on social evils without corresponding emphasis on the cleansing blood of Calvary.
Peter and John showed in their preaching and personal lives the evidence of a transforming faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. They affirmed: “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard,” and the things had to do with redemption, not reformation.
Confronted with the evils by which they were surrounded, they preached the one thing that could bring about change.
My writing is a plea for a “prophetic” message and ministry that will place things in their proper perspective and logical order. The hearts of men must be changed before they can live as Christians; redemption must ride over reform.
Dr. Hugh Thompson Kerr has said: “We are sent not to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not the social order but the new birth; not an organization but a new creation; not democracy but the Gospel; not civilization but Christ. We are ambassadors, not diplomats.”
Somewhere along the line Protestantism has been led astray. The emphasis has been changed; ethic has been preached without the dynamic; the Gospel of Christian principles has been substituted for the Christ who makes such principles possible.
The diversion is found in new concepts of evangelism, missions, Christian education, and churchmanship. At the heart of the matter is an unbelievably clever philosophy of the Bible that takes from it its full integrity and authority; a method of “interpretation” that bewilders and beclouds; a substitution of ideas for facts, and of a God who works through events without there existing, they believe, any accurate record of those events.
But the question will be asked: Did not the prophets of old denounce the social sins of their times? Did not Nathan denounce David’s wickedness? Did not Hosea, Amos, and the other prophets inveigh against the social evils rampant in a people who had left God?
Yes. They spoke, as God inspired them to speak, of evils committed against fellow men because the people had left their God. They preached the judgment of God and also his love and forgiveness.
Between the prophetic preaching of the prophets of old and the “prophetic” preaching of today there are important differences. Men, inspired by God, preached personal righteousness in the light of God’s holiness, the sinfulness of man in the light of God’s judgment, and personal and national forgiveness in the light of divine mercy predicated on repentance. Here redemption was the key to reform; social reformation was no end in itself.
In the early days the Church was spoken of as a place where the Word was proclaimed, the Ordinances observed, and discipline administered. This is not the picture of twentieth century Protestantism. Only too often the Word is questioned, and the Ordinances and Sacraments are ritualized, while discipline is never heard of.
In both the Old and New Testaments there is found prophetic preaching which embodies a burning plea for righteousness at the personal as well as at the national level. Sin is never minimized, nor is it explained away; it is regarded for what it is—an offense against a holy God.
In such teaching and preaching there is no place where the right of God to act is questioned; nor is there ever an intimation that those who spoke for God spoke except at his behest and with his authority.
The question of “interpretation,” particularly of a form of “interpretation” which denies stated facts and construes them to mean something different, is never raised.
The prophetic affirmation, “Thus saith the Lord” carried conviction then, and it does the same today.
Ours is a time for prayer that within the Church there may be a revival of true Christianity. Once let the Church be set on fire and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and we shall begin to see marvelous changes in our social order, because Christians go out to act as “salt” and “light.”
Without a genuine revival within the Church, however, we are in grave danger of having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.
L. NELSON BELL
