{"id":30828,"date":"2015-07-09T06:46:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T10:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=30828"},"modified":"2015-07-09T06:46:38","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T10:46:38","slug":"the-prophets-of-our-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html","title":{"rendered":"The Prophets of Our Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often heard people suggest that\u00a0preachers<\/em> are the closest equivalent today to ancient Israel\u2019s prophets. I\u2019ve often viewed that as a problematic stance, since it seems designed to add to the authority of modern preachers, while also ignoring the fact that few such figures today preface their words with \u201cthus says the LORD.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if one reverses the direction of comparison, I\u00a0think it may actually work \u2013 especially if one combines it with Abraham Heschel\u2019s suggestion that prophets are those who believe that God feels about things the way they do \u2013 that their horror at injustice<\/a>, or religious practices, is what God feels about those things.<\/p>\n

Preachers today, whether saying that God will destroy America<\/a> for legalizing same-sex marriage<\/a>, or that God is proud of us, seem to be similar, even if they may not think in those terms. Their stance is that they feel revulsion or pride at what our nation has been doing, and are persuaded that God feels the same.<\/p>\n

Perhaps\u00a0ancient Israel\u2019s prophets and today\u2019s preachers aren\u2019t that different after all. And in both cases, it is easier to\u00a0declare who was right with the benefit of hindsight.<\/p>\n

See also Richard Beck\u2019s thoughts<\/a> on the necessity that\u00a0prophetic voices address the\u00a0spiritual<\/em> and not only the political aspects of injustice.<\/p>\n

Let me end with this image from\u00a0Evolving Perspectives.<\/a>\u00a0It highlights something that I have commented on before<\/a>:\u00a0those who predict divine judgment predict things that happen anyway<\/a>, not things that never happen in a particular area. That too is worth pondering. Gideon doesn\u2019t ask for\u00a0words across the sky as a sign. He asks for something to happen to dew. Just like\u00a0waters are unleashed in the flood, rather than God simply making the wicked vanish. God was thought of as involved in what we call weather and other natural processes. And so even those who claim to believe in the God of the Bible today, do not believe and think about God in the way their ancient forebears did<\/a>. And that itself deserves to be a topic of reflection.<\/p>\n

\"Weather<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians. I\u2019ve often heard people suggest that\u00a0preachers are the closest equivalent today to ancient Israel\u2019s prophets. I\u2019ve often viewed that as a problematic stance, since it seems designed to add to the authority of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[299,550,1004,3044,4005,5201,5990,9642,9646,10727,10924,11656,11715,12052,12084,12166,13600],"class_list":["post-30828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pentecostals","tag-abraham-heschel","tag-america","tag-baptists","tag-empathy","tag-god","tag-injustice","tag-judgment","tag-prophecy","tag-prophets","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-scotus","tag-speaking-in-tongues","tag-spiritual-gifts","tag-sunday-school","tag-supreme-court","tag-sympathy","tag-weather"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Prophets of Our Time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians. I've often heard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Prophets of Our Time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians. I've often heard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-09T10:46:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html\",\"name\":\"The Prophets of Our Time\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-09T10:46:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-07-09T10:46:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians. I've often heard\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Prophets of Our Time\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Prophets of Our Time","description":"We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians. I've often heard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Prophets of Our Time","og_description":"We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians. I've often heard","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2015-07-09T10:46:38+00:00","author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html","name":"The Prophets of Our Time","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-07-09T10:46:38+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-09T10:46:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"We had an interesting discussion of prophecy in my Sunday school class recently, as we continued working our way through 1 Corinthians. I've often heard","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/the-prophets-of-our-time.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Prophets of Our Time"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}