First Things put up an article by Peter Leithart that provokes and informs. I may write more later regarding prophets and prophecy – as this has been a focus of my studies this semester. But for now, read this snippet and pick your jaw up from the last sentence:

Far from simplifying prophecy, the Bible greatly complicates it. It’s as easy to denounce from a distance as it is to launch smart bombs from a command center on the other side of the world. Gestures of repudiation cost little, and adding the term prophetic lends an aura of piety to our reputations.

Prophets in the Bible, though, cannot afford gestures. They are called to speak the word of the Lord from within the court, mounting an internal critique. The pressures on Nathan to keep silent after David seized Bathsheba and sent her husband to his death must have been enormous. He could have vented himself in a scathing editorial and then kept his head down. From all appearances, though, Nathan had free access to the court, was a friend of David, and a close adviser. It is said that prophets spoke truth to power, but that goes beyond cliché when we realize that prophets spoke the truth face to face with power, to powerful men and women whom the prophets knew intimately, frequently from their own position of power.

Power corrupts, and it always has. Court prophets were often pusillanimous yes-men like Ahab’s four hundred, who dramatized Ahab’s coming victory over Aram by shaking around iron horns. But power doesn’t always and necessarily corrupt, and the company of priestly and court prophets also included spokesmen of Yahweh. Faithful “insiders” were always a minority, but the biblical picture shows that we can’t tell a true from a false prophet simply by answering the question, Where is the prophet? Not all prophets are in king’s houses, but some are.

Judging by the biblical evidence, though, we are as likely to find a prophet in a presidential Cabinet, at the Hague, or roaming the halls of WCC headquarters as we are in the mountains of Northern Idaho or the deserts of Arabia or the desperate ghettos of Chicago. God is no respecter of persons, and a Karl Rove or a Paul Wolfowitz, as scandalous as the suggestion may be, is as likely to be a prophet as a Jeremiah Wright. 

I was watching Pat Robertson today when he and his wife began praying for healings for people they ‘felt led’ to pray for. They went on to pray for a busted knee, a crushed face, a person coughing up blood. Does anyone know where this kind of prophetic-type praying came from? I would be interesated to hear your thoughts on this. Try not to be too negative about it – talking about Robertson’s other issues. I am concerned about the whole televangelist idea of believing God for healings that can’t be confirmed.

Is this an oxymoron? Ministries like CJ Mahaney’s Sovereign Grace ministry has given viability to what it looks like to be Reformed and Charismatic.

Jeff Purswell of Sovereign Grace Ministries (Dean of the Pastor’s College) gave a talk in which he explains the contours of Sovereign Grace’s stance on the charisma/pneumatology. You can go here and download it for free. If you don’t have an account with them, get a new account and follow the instructions. When you get to the payment instructions, put in the special code “Free Download”. You will be charged $0.00 for the download. Enjoy!

Note: This free download is only free until April 1st.