Preaching vs. Prophecy

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Homer
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Joined: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:08 pm

Preaching vs. Prophecy

Post by Homer » Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:47 am

Found this statement in a long summary of arguments regarding the role of women in the assembly:
In light of Acts 15:30-32 and I Corinthians 14, “a prophet is someone who speaks for an extended period of time in the context of the gathered body of believers, proclaiming words that exhort, strengthen, comfort, edify, and teach…. prophecy and preaching do overlap to a high degree, more than many have realized.” Dr. Ken Cukrowski
Comments anyone?
Last edited by Homer on Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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steve
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Re: Preaching vs. Prophcy

Post by steve » Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:18 pm

He may be right, but I am not sure how he knows that the prophet speaks "for an extended period of time." That is not apparent in the case of Agabus, the only New Testament prophet for whom we have any recorded specimens of his ministry (Acts 11:27-28; 21:10ff).

It is true that the Old Testament prophets engaged in what we would today call "preaching" as well as in "predicting." If a New Testament person who is filled with the Spirit is speaking as directed by that Spirit, one might justly call that activity "prophesying" since the Spirit that inspires the speech is the Spirit of prophecy.

On the other hand, every Spirit-filled person is supposed to speak (1 Peter 4:11) and pray (Ephesians 6:18/ Jude 20) as the Spirit directs, but the activity of "prophesying" is treated, in Scripture, as distinct from "preaching," "teaching," "exhorting," "evangelizing," etc. It seems that "prophecy" is a distinctive activity or gift that is not regarded as an umbrella term for all verbal ministry.

I also have believed for a long time that, in Scripture, "preaching" has little or nothing to do with the ministry to the saints. It is not, as far as I can tell, an activity to be done in the church. The word "preaching," when not found by itself, is usually modified by such words as "repentance," "the gospel," "Jesus Christ," "the word of the Lord," or "the kingdom of God." Such preaching seems always to be directed primarily to unbelievers, and is apparently synonymous with evangelism. It is a "proclamation" of the message that Jesus is Lord and that He calls all men to repent and swear loyalty to Him (a message hardly necessary to announce to Christians). Thus, we do not read of anyone "preaching" at a regular church service (since the attendees would generally be assumed to be believers), though I find one ambiguous case of the ad hoc gathering, in Acts 20:7-9, which may have been a combination church service and evangelistic gathering.

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