As we continue with our ‘Firm Foundations’ series, this week we consider prophecy in the Old Testament.
The richness of the prophetic biblical voice has oftentimes been reduced to one of a couple of caricatures:
- The prophet as a fortune-teller, a predictor of things to come, often in an ominous tone, or with specific reference to Jesus; or
- Righteous indignation at the status-quo, so prophecy becomes equated with social action.
These two understandings could do worse than hold hands, but there is something deeper at stake in the OT view of prophecy. One theologian put it like this, ‘the task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to…the dominant culture around us.’
The challenging question for us to imagine: where have we become so like our surrounding culture that we’ve lost our Christian distinctiveness?
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