Either you will discuss or not... Who is your present prophet? How is your primary prophet better than the Watchtower or LDS prophets?
Hi Yodas_Prodigy,
What in the world? It's like you're not listening or something.
Why would I want to address this issue when you are not yet settled on the fact that the Bible endorses a continuity in the gift of prophecy? If in your mind you have already concluded that the gift of prophecy cannot exist after the advent of Jesus (even though I've shown that it did), then what makes you think it would be beneficial to jump to dialoging about contemporary prophets whom you have already predetermined to be false?
I would love to answer your questions, but can we first acknowledge what the Bible teaches about the continuity of the spiritual gift of prophecy?
I will say this though. SDAs are not like Mormons (or Catholics) in their idea of having an unbroken chain of prophets. That's not a biblical concept.
IMHO, The office of the prophet changed after Christ and the Apostles...
Your opinion matters not if it's not based upon the word of God. The fact is the word of God doesn't correlate with your opinion.
You still have not answered how you handle Hebrews 1:1-2.... [I handle it using 1 Corinthians 12:28-31 and 14:1]
I'm not sure why this isn't sinking in for you. What I said previously in response to this was: "If prophecy came to an end with the advent of Jesus then there would be no prophets/prophecy after Jesus. That's an
ipso facto. For you to adjust your premise to now allow for prophets under the premise you set up is disingenuous. Either the gift of prophecy came to an end with the advent of Jesus or it didn't. The fact is it didn't."
You've adjusted your premise to allow for prophets in a New Testament construct. But above you are attempting to mitigate the impact of your adjustment by claiming (sans any biblical evidence) that "the office of the prophet changed after Christ and the Apostles." Let's see the evidence for this assertion. Any evidence.
In 1 Corinthians 12:28-31 Paul writes, "
God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second PROPHETS, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts." God has placed PROPHETS "in the church." That goes totally contrary to your reductionist philosophy.
Paul says to
eagerly desire the greater gifts. What are
his top three? The
second gift is "
Prophets." Based on what biblical text(s) do you get to countermand Paul's admonition to desire the greater gifts? There is nothing biblically for you to point to in order to overturn this obvious imperative. So far all I'm seeing from you is a baseless assertion that "the office of the prophet changed after Christ and the Apostles." Nice touch adding the apostles into your revised position.
In 1 Corinthians 14:1 Paul goes on to say, "
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy." Again, how are you going to eagerly desire a gift which immediately came to an end? That's absurd. If you believe that any of the gifts of the Spirit remain, then logically you should not divest yourself of any of the others--"especially prophecy"!
Quite honestly, so far, the SDA have ducked and have been less than willing to be open about what they believe... I have been upfront with how I understand prophets during the time of Christ and after the Apostles... [Again, nice touch adjusting your position to include the time of the apostles. A rigid reading of Hebrews 1:1-2 would not allow you to do this. If you were "honestly" handling this issue would you not frankly admit you overplayed this text?]
I don't know how "honest" this is since you've been dancing around my responses to the issues you've raised and acting like your question hasn't been addressed. Your responses have been dismissive assertions based on what appears to be biased opinion. To claim anyone other than yourself is ducking is disingenuous.
Christ was the last one to speak, including his Apostles, with authority and power... No one after that was given those special powers,,,
It's really quite impressive how you can feel so empowered to make these sweeping statements without any sort of biblical support.
The apostles were not the only ones who attained the title of prophet. This too is a disingenuous assertion since I already noted two named prophets (Judas and Silas) who were not apostles. How about a third named prophet who also was not an apostle?
After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
So, even though you've adjusted your position to include the apostles, it isn't enough cuz the examples I'm supplying are electrifying
I pray this helps.