When I first met my husband-to-be, it was like a dream come true. We met on a missions trip. He was kind, considerate, actively serving in the church, spiritually mature, and handsome, too. Our friendship grew quickly and within months we were meeting with the elders to get their blessing on our engagement, which they gladly gave. My parents even consulted with mutual friends as to his character as a Christian, and he passed with flying colors. But to top that, he confided to me that he received a prophetic word from God promising him a special blessing on this marriage. Who could resist that? I was in a different place theologically at the time, so I did not see extra-scriptural revelation as a problem. Rather I felt humbled and honored to be the person whom God choose to fulfill His promise to my future husband. This all but guaranteed to my mind that we would have a happy marriage.
…Eventually the truth came to light. He had found my replacement and felt completely justified in pursuing her. She was God’s will. I was not.
I had an unusual situation in my younger years as I met a charming and lovely young lady at church. She was a strong believer and we enjoyed speaking about our faith and attending church. Very soon into our friendship she informed me that God had told her it was His will for her to marry and have six children. I asked her how she could be certain of this. She informed me that she just knew and there was no point questioning it. I told her that I had never received such a message. Eventually we went our separate ways and she married a good man with whom she has had five children. I’m temped to ask her if she got the revelation wrong or if the Almighty changed His mind, but I never ask.
You forgot to count the husband
This post doesn’t make sense or seems to be contradictory, leaving aside the validity of continuing prophecy for the time being, she says that her husband-to-be confided to her
that he received a prophetic word from God promising him a special blessing on this
marriage, OK so far so good, then is she saying that he used this “prophecy” to justify
himself finding her replacement, because this cannot be as the supposed prophecy makes
no mention of a special blessing on another adulterous marriage, so if the prophecy is legit,
which is not what I’m saying, her former husband cannot claim that the prophecy has a
reference to the new relationship any more than Abraham could wish that Ishmael live
before him, he has supposedly disobeyed a directive on one hand & falsely applied it on
another, you should know better Doc, the abuse of a thing doth not make an argument
for its legitimacy or rather illegitimacy.
I think the issue is that he claimed a prophetic blessing on the first marriage and then he ended that supposed divinely blessed marriage for another woman. If God announced that blessing, and God’s direct Word is infallible, then the “prophecy” failed.
If you note the title of the post is a “practical danger,” not the illegitimacy of continuing prophecy. So your point about an abuse of a teaching does not actually refute that this sort of situation is a practical danger that can result of people believe in continuing prophecy. An open door to danger is in fact a way to point out holes in a position if the danger is built into the position with no checks to balance it.
In the early 1970’s my business partner, and a brother in Christ, was in love and trying to decide whether to ask a certain sister in our church to marry him. He went to our pastor and asked him “How do I know if it’s God’s will to marry her?” His simple reply was, which I thought at the time contained wisdom and still do – “Before you get married you don’t know if it’s God’s will. After you get married then you know it is.”
I was once exhorted by a brother with Pentecostal tendencies to consider divorce. I had recently had an argument with my wife and was expressing my grief to this friend and he asked, “what is the Lord telling you?” To which I suspiciously replied, “what are you suggesting?” He said, “well maybe it’s the Lord’s will that you leave her.” I was shocked! I told that the Lord’s word is specific about divorce and he told me to pay no mind to the scripture because “the letter kills.” He implied that the prompting of the spirit supersedes anything the word says.
Talk about the dangers of “continuing prophecy.”
The continuing prophecy guys typically think they are super-human.
The cessationist guys typically think they are sinners.
A CEO-style leader can throw waves of super humans at a mission, and incredible things can happen.
Sign me Ex-Maranatha Campus Ministries.
P.S. The continuing prophecy is way way way more exciting than boring old bible exegesis. Just have an open mike Sunday sometime and see if your members aren’t on the edge of their seats wondering what’s going to happen next.
But I wouldn’t trade stocks based on a word from God.
If you can’t trust your “prophecy” with little things, then how can you trust it with the biggest things?
All right:
The Anabaptist and telepathic aspect of this story is obviously a tragic and hideous creep-fest.
…But the whole thing about getting the elders’ blessing on the engagement is downright cultish.
That made my stomach literally churn more than anything else.
The White Horse Inn is right: we still need a “Modern Reformation.”