Prophecy
"Prophecy is the ability to speak for God. It’s not merely foretelling, though some of that is included; it is forth-telling. It is speaking the Word of God."
-Adrian Rogers
PASTORS/TEACHERS
Prescriptive
"Forth-telling"
Exposition of God's already-revealed Word for the growth of the Church
PROPHETS
Predictive
"Foretelling"
Future Events,
God's Will,
Possible Judgment
Prophet- prophetes- "a proclaimer or expounder of divine matters or concerns that could not ordinarily be known except by special revelation." -BDAG
"Prophets," in partnership with "Apostles"
"Foundation" - Eph. 2:20
Revealers of Church Doctrine - Eph. 3:5
Gifts to the Body of Christ - Eph. 4:11
"The Biblical category of prophecy seems to me to involve inerrancy and trustworthy authority, which modern-day prophets do not have and rarely even claim. When they do claim prophetic status, it seems to me that they often want the authority of the prophetic category without the corresponding responsibility."
Gerry Breshears, “The Body of Christ: Prophet, Priest or King,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 37, no. 1 (1994): 20
"Grudem argues that the apostles and prophets are identical here. This is important to his view of NT prophecy: on the one hand, he holds to a high view of scripture, viz., that the autographs are inerrant; on the other hand, he believes that non-apostolic prophets both in the early church and today mixed error with truth."
Grudem defines "prophecy as "an unreliable human speech act in response to a revelation from the Holy Spirit."
-Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today (Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1988), 95.
Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 284–285.
The very nature of the Bible's accuracy shows that prophecy must be inerrant. Otherwise, we cannot trust the Scriptures.
"Historical data set forth in the original writings are inerrant, and prophecy not only discloses the oncoming events of the future, but provides unfailing assurance that all that is predicted will be executed by the sovereign and therefore irresistible competency of God. Thus has the divine authority of the Scriptures been demonstrated in the grand array of predictions already fulfilled, and thus it will be demonstrated in the plenary realization of all that is yet unfulfilled."
Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 103.