Sometimes people tell pastors not to preach on controversial themes in order to keep the peace (which is no peace). I fear we’ve done just that. Because a Gospel-living-Christian is bound to be controversial by definition. After all, they follow a man who was controversial enough to get the electric chair. If our words, actions…
Tag: prophet
Ancient Bible Poetry & Modern Worship Music
There’s an ancient Egyptian story about a bored Pharaoh who called a prophet into his court to entertain him. In order for that prophet to compellingly prove that he was hearing something divine, his words were expected to be “a poetic and well-polished literary form that would represent the speech of the gods” (Marvin A….
One Prophetic Word, Two Opposite Interpretations
This may sound odd, but we can actually hear an authentic word of God and somehow misunderstand or misconstrue it. This is evidenced by an interesting story from Paul’s life towards the end of Acts. On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist…. and…
The Paradox of a Prophet (Pt 6)
Since God can change prophetic words of blessing or judgment based on the free will of human response, we come to realize a strange paradox in the prophet’s job: “a successful prophet is precisely the one who does not see his prophetic word of judgment come to pass.” (Hays, Christopher M. When the Son of Man…
Daniel Learns the Prophetic
What’s intriguing about Daniel is that he didn’t necessarily seem to choose to become a prophet, but rather, was forced into the position by humans and blessed by God along the way. After God had put Israel into exile, King Nebuchadnezzar told his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of…
