Hi Doves,Thank you all for the replies.
Mike,
I agree with you on the contrast between OT and NT prophecy. An OT "prophet" held the anointed position I've heard referred to as Office of the Prophet. If we assume most if not all God's messages to these key prophets were documented in the Bible then it is safe to say that messages were not given very often, given the "lifespan" of the prophet and the amount of actual prophetic words. More often than not the messages were some form of warning which may or may include a conditional component aimed at repentance, hence these OT prophets weren't very popular with the political crowd. This is in contrast with those prophets of today who predict only blessings (remember exhortation to the church is another gift) and have the ear of Capitol Hill.
At Pentecost IMHO the prophet's role as understood in the OT was instead redistributed throughout the body of Christ through the Spiritual Gift of a Word of Wisdom. A Gift of a Word of Wisdom as I understand it is what we usually describe in the vernacular as - foretelling of a future event. On the other hand the Gift of Prophecy is for exhortation and building up of the body. My husband has the Gift of a Word of Wisdom and Gift of Prophecy. When he receives a message it is very obvious - exact words are given and the message is relatively short and direct. He sweats, his heart starts beating rapidly and he gets very weak in the knees. It doesn't happen real often, but when it does there's no mistake in his mind that it is from the Lord. If the word is for someone else he will ask whether or not to share and sometimes further confirmation (of course in an attitude of respect for the Lord/Holy Spirit). I'm not implying that everyone will experience this, but I do know that OT prophets often shook before the Lord. That is, there was some very real/tangible physical connection accompanying the spiritual gifting of the moment so as to provide divine assurance.
Marie,
I agree we should test "prophecy" against the Word. When you get down to thinking about it we have a contradiction between what Ezekiel and Daniel prophesied and what today's prosperity prophets forecast. That is if you see Israel as the hands of God's prophetic time piece and acknowledge that the stage is set for these OT prophecies to be soon fulfilled before us . Ezekiel and Daniel have flawless track records so I'll continue to "tune in " to what they have to say. Incidentally I read Joel Rosenberg's book Epicenter and it is quite a good read on the imminency of Ezekiel 38-39.
Mariel,
That 1988 "prophecy" wasn't really a prophetic word, but rather the result of eschatology (study of Biblical prophecy). In fact I'm holding a copy of the book Edgar Whisenant wrote entitled " 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988", if that's what you are referring to. He gave many mathematical reasons/ formulas why the Feast of Trumpets in 1988 was a plausible year. Whisenant has a tech background and is an intelligent analyst, but unfortunately he wasn't right in the end. As long as it was portrayed as a mathematically plausible year and not a prophecy with "thus saith the Lord " credentials - I've no major problems with it. However I kept the book because it is a decent reference for various formulas. In any event I lost a bit of respect for his work when he tried to re-publish a book with 1989 as the year! I was a Doctoral student up at University of Wisconsin - Madison (very anti-God campus incidentally) at the time and I had to do a lot of damage recovery on behalf of the faith where my laboratory colleagues were concerned because of this book. I didn't discuss the book with any non-Christian friends, but unfortunately many learned about it from the front page news!
In Christ,
Sandy
Sandra Curtis
email: sandy.curtis@tx.rr.com