The function of the
Prophet has almost invariably been that of recovery. That
implies that his business related to something lost. That
something being absolutely essential to God's full
satisfaction, the dominant note of the Prophet was one of
dissatisfaction. And, there being the additional factor
that, for obvious reasons, the people were not disposed
to go the costly way of God's full purpose, the Prophet
was usually an unpopular person.
But his unpopularity was
no proof of his being wrong or unnecessary, for every
Prophet was eventually vindicated, though with very great
suffering and shame to the people.
If it be true that
prophetic ministry is related to the need for the
recovery of God's full thought as to His people, surely
this is a time of such need! Few honest and thoughtful
people will contend that things are all well with the
Church of Christ today. A brief comparison with the first
years of the Church's life will bring out a vivid
contrast between then and the centuries since.
Take alone the lifetime
of one man - Paul.
In the year 33 A.D. a
few unknown men, looked upon as poor and ignorant, were
associated with one 'Jesus of Nazareth' - which very
designation was despicable in the minds of all reputable
and influential people. These men, after that Jesus had
been crucified, were later found seeking to proclaim His
Lordship and Saviourhood, but were handled hardly by all
official bodies.
In the year that Paul
died - 67-68 A.D. (34 years later) - how did the
matter stand? There were churches in Jerusalem, Nazareth,
Caesarea; Antioch and all Syria; Galatia; Sardis,
Laodicea, Ephesus and all the towns on the West coast
throughout lesser Asia; in Philippi, Thessalonica,
Athens, Corinth, and the chief cities of the islands and
the mainland of Greece; Rome, and the Western Roman
Colonies; and in Alexandria.
The history of generations
of missionary enterprise, tens of thousands of
missionaries, vast sums of money, immense administrative
organizations, and much more on the publicity,
propaganda, and advocacy side, does not compare at all
favourably with the above. We now find ourselves
confronted by the end of the whole system of world
missions and professional missionaries as they have
existed for a very long time, and still the world is
not evangelized.
Is there a reason for
this? We feel - nay, know - that there is. The
explanation is not in a difference in Divine purpose or
Divine willingness to support that purpose. It is in the
difference in apprehension of the basis, way, and object
of the work of God.
Some proof of this is
recognisable in our own time. In much less than the
lifetime of one man in China, churches of a deeply
spiritual character sprang into being all over that land;
four hundred of them in a few years. At the time when
Communism overran that country a movement was in progress
which was not only covering China, but reaching beyond,
and as a result living churches are now found in many
other parts of the Far East. This was for years a
despised, persecuted, and much ostracised work. But since
missionary movements and societies have had to leave the
country this work has gone on, and, although with many
martyrs, is still going on. The man raised up of God lies
in prison, but the work is unarrested.
The same kind of thing
is taking place in India, and in only a very few years of
the life of one God-apprehended man churches of a real
New Testament character have come into being all over the
country and beyond. The opposition is very great, but the
work is of God, and cannot be stopped.
What, again, is the
explanation?
The answer is not to be
found in the realm of zeal or devotion to the salvation
of souls. Rather is it this: that there was at the
beginning the supreme factor of an absolutely original
and new apprehension of Christ and God's eternal purpose
concerning Him. This revelation by the Holy Spirit
came with devastating and revolutionising power to the
Apostles and the Church, and, rather than being a
'tradition handed down from the fathers', a ready-made
system, all set and entered into as such, it was, for
every one of them, as though it had only newly dropped
from heaven - which, in fact, was true.
This movement of God,
brought about by a mighty upheaving of all traditions and
'old' things by a practical experience of the Cross, was
marked by three features: -
(1) Utter heavenliness
and spirituality;
(2) Universality,
involving the negation of all prejudices, exclusiveness
and partiality; and
(3) The utter Lordship
and Headship of Christ directly operating by the
sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.
This was all gathered
into a tremendous and overpowering initial and
progressive realisation of the immense significance of
Christ in the eternal counsels of God, and therefore of
the Church as His Body. Anything that corresponds to the
results which characterized the beginning will - and does
- correspond to the reason, namely, a getting back behind
tradition, the set and established system,
institutionalism, ecclesiasticism, commercialism,
organizationalism, etc., to a virgin, original, new
breaking upon the consciousness of God's full thought
concerning His Son.
To bring into view this full
purpose of God was the essence of the Prophet's
ministry, and will always be so. We may not now speak of
a special class as 'Prophets', but the function may still
be operative, and it is function that matters more than
office.
FOREST HILL, LONDON.
JUNE, 1954.
T. A-S.