It is sad you failed to quote the rest - the test.
I didn't quote the rest because the letter was written was specifically in counter to docetism (prevalent in Ephesus at that time) however, it was never intended to be an epistle describing the only possible heresy.
It was written to its time, place and audience, but that doesn't mean we can't draw
from it in other situations, when we ourselves must counter other heresies.
You are now speaking blasphemy.
I'm sorry if you have never experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is anything but demonic. .
I have experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, that is why I can confidently answer you right now. What I am saying is not "blasphemous", it's true.
I repeat, the Baptism that some people are today experiencing is demonic in nature.
Please repent so you can eat your words, just like I had to when I was an unbelieving ignorant faithless Cessationist
Your comment here is a personal attack, one that is full of hate.
I am not "unbelieving" nor am I "ignorant" nor can I be called "faithless" by any stretch of the imagination.
Since this hate and venom you spew forth as if it were from God seems to set the tone of the conversation, I will only make one reply to you, and put you on ignore after I'm finished with the reply.
I believe that will be helpful, to prevent my participation in a discussion that is sure to devolve, instead of edify.
---------------------------------------------------------
Mornings are better for me. So good morning!
The New Testament counterpoints to the Old Testament prophets are the Apostles.
The Old Testament prophets of God had an amazing responsibility. They were able to speak and write words that had absolute authority. They could say "Thus says the Lord" and the words that followed were the very words of God and those words which the prophets spoke were written down as scripture for all time. Read Numbers 22:38, Deuteronomy 18:18-20, Jeremiah 1:9, Ezekiel 2:7. Therefore, to believe or disbelieve or disobey a prophet's words was to disbelieve or disobey God. Read Deuteronomy 18:19, 1 Samuel 8:7, 1 Kings 20:36 and more.
In the New Testament, there were also people who spoke and wrote God's very words and had them recorded in scripture, but Jesus uses a new term for them which is Apostles. The Apostles are the New Testament counterpoint to the prophets of old. ( 1 Corinthians 2:13, 2 Corinthians 13:3, Galatian 1:8-9, Galatians 1:11-12, Thessalonians 2:13, Thessalonians 4:8, Thessalonians 4:15, 2 Peter 3:2) It is now the Apostles, not the prophets, who have the authority to write the words of New Testament Scripture.
When they want to establish their authority they never appeal to the title prophet, but rather call themselves apostles.
By New Testament times, the word prophet didn't have the same meaning as "one who speaks the very words of God" to the common person, rather, it meant one who speaks on the basis of some external influence, usually a spiritual one of some kind.
Titus 1:12 uses the word in this very sense where Paul quotes the Greek pagan poet Epimenides:
One of themselves a prophet of their own, said "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons"
The soldiers who beat Jesus also used the word prophet in this way when they blindfold Jesus and demand "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?" (Luke 22:64)
They don't mean speak words of absolute divine authority but tell us something that has been revealed to you.
In Helmut Kramers article in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament he concludes that tjhsge Greek word for prophet "simply expresses the formal function Iif declaring, proclaiming, making known." yet because "every prophet declares something which is not his own" the greek word for herald "is the closest synonym".
Of course, there were times the words prophet and prophecy were sometimes used of the of the Apostles in contexts that emphasized the external spiritual influence from the Holy Spirit under which they spoke (Ephesians 2:20, Ephesians 3:5, Revelation 1:3, Revelation 22:7) but this was not the ordinary terminology used for the Apostles nor did the terms prophet and prophecy imply divine authority for their speech or their writing.
Much more commonly, the terms prophet or prophecy were used of ordinary Christians who spoke not with absolute divine authority but simply to report something that God had laid on their hearts or brought to their mind.
Their are many indications that this more ordinary gift of prophecy had authority less than that of the Bible and even less than that if recognized Bible teaching in the early church.
In Acts 21:4 we read of the disciples of Tyre: "Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem" this obviously seems to be a reference to prophecy, yet, Paul disobeyed. He never would have done this if prophecy contained God's very word and had authority equal to scripture.
In Acts 21:10-11, Agabus prophesied that the Jews in Jerusalem would bind Paul and "deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles" a prediction that while nearly correct, had inaccuracies in detail that would have called into question any Old Testament prophet such as it was Romans not the Jews that bound Paul and rather than delivering him voluntarily the Jews tried to kill him and he had to be rescued by force.
On the other hand, this can be explained by Agabus having a vision where he saw Paul as a prisoner of the Romans surrounded by an angry mob of Jews. His own interpretation of such a vision would end with exactly what he said which is exactly the kind of New Testament congregational prophecy mentioned here - reporting something that God has spontaneously brought to mind.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 Paul tells them "Do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast to what is good."
If the Thessalonians thought prophesy was equal to God's word in authority he never would have needed to tell them not to despise prophesying because Paul said they "received" and "accepted" God's word "with joy from the Holy Spirit." (1 Thessalonians 1:6, 1 Thessalonians 2:13) but when Paul tells them to test everything it must refer to the article prophecying. So here Paul us telling you that prophecy includes somethings that are good and somethings that are not good which is why he tells them to "Hold fast to what is good). This is something that
never could have been said of Old Testament prophets, or the teachings of a New Testament Apostle.
In addition, at the end of their lives, the New Testament Apostles solved the problem of successors not by encouraging Christians to listen to the prophets, but by pointing to the Scriptures.
Paul, at the end of His life, emphasizes "rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15) and the "God-Breathed" character of "scripture" for "teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16)
Jude urges his readers to "contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3) Peter, at the end of his life encourages people to "pay attention" to Scripture, which is like "a lamp shining in a dark place" 2 Peter 1:19-20 and reminds them of the teaching of the Apostle Paul "in all his letters"
In no case do we read of exhortations to give heed to the prophets in your churches yet there were certainly many prophets prophecying in many local congregations at that time and later. It seems those prophets did not have authority equal to the Apostles, the conclusion is that prophecies today are not "the words of God" either.
Prophecy in the Bible was God spontaneously bringing something to mind so that the person prophesying would report it in their own words. (1 Corinthians 14:30 here the word revelation is used in the broader sense meaning communication from God that does not result in written scripture or words with equal weight to written Scripture)
The above came from Wayne Grudems book Systematic Theology pages 1050-1055, but shortened and at times in my own words for any who would like to study this topic.
My words below:
Prophecy still exists today, but as Paul said we must test everything and hold only to that which is good, weighing everything against scripture and knowing we have only to follow scripture in authority.
Prophesy has a place, but the way charismatics use it, trying to give it scriptural authority the Bible doesn't give it, not weighing it against scripture and not testing the Spirit is wrong, unbiblical and at times is used by demonic forces to lead people astray.
