Pastor John, in the last podcast episode, in episode 214, you addressed recent allegations claiming that while you are open to prophecy in tongues today, you don't seem necessarily convinced enough to advocate that others pursue these gifts themselves. You corrected that, and you said that there are very good exegetical reasons for your confidence.

Explain those reasons for us here. Right. What I said was, in 1 Corinthians 14, 39, it says, "Earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues." And I said, "I think that is a command that we should still obey today, and that I try to, and my way of understanding prophecy is not as infallible, Scripture-level, authoritative speaking," which is, I think, the way John MacArthur would take it and other folks.

I take it as something that God spontaneously brings to mind in the moment, and because we are fallible in the way we perceive it, and the way we think about it, and the way we speak it, it does not carry that same level of infallible, Scripture-level authority. And here are some reasons for why I think that's true, and why I think it's still valid today.

1 Thessalonians 5, 19, "Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test all things, hold fast to what is good." Now that text is different from 1 John 4, 1, where it says, "Test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." There, you test a person to see if he's a false prophet, and you hold fast to the true one.

Here, you test words or prophecies, and you hold fast to the ones that are good. Test all things, and hold fast to what is good. You're not choosing between people here, it seems to me, you're choosing between what they say, which you would not do if they spoke with infallible, inerrant, Scripture-quality authority.

The issue here is that some in the church are despising, not the prophets, but the prophecies. Now why would that be, I ask? And my answer is probably because they are sometimes wacko. Despise is a very strong word. Paul says, "Don't despise." So somebody in the church at Thessalonica is saying, "Look, you told us that prophecy is a gift from God.

Frankly, we're not liking what we're hearing because it's stupid, it's weird. They're saying things that are off the wall, and so they're tending to despise them." And Paul seems to be trying to keep the people from throwing the baby of true prophecies out with the bathwater of weird ones.

So that's my first observation from 1 Thessalonians 5, 19-21. Here's the second one. Every man who prays or prophesies—this is 1 Corinthians 11, 4—every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, and every wife or woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.

Now, I don't see how women prophesying in the assembly fits with an infallible scripture-level authority when Paul forbids that kind of authority to be exercised over men by women in the church in 1 Timothy 2, 12. Instead, the picture here seems much more spontaneous and mutual, as is described in 1 Corinthians 14, 3.

The one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding, their encouragement, their consolation. Now that would just make sense if God brought to the mind of a woman, say, in a gathering, a small group gathering, something she felt would be incredibly helpful to somebody, as long as she does it in a way that is culturally appropriate, that she's not undermining the authority of the men—I think that's what the head stuff is all about—then she's free to do that.

This is what men and women do in smaller worship settings, and the gift of prophecy would be when God does that, when he brings something to mind with an extraordinary timeliness or suitableness, and exerts the power for upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. So the fact that women are encouraged to do this, and yet women are told not to exercise authority over men, says to me, we've got something else going on here besides what others say are Scripture-level authority.

And here's a third one, just the last one. And there are others, but "Love never ends," this is 1 Corinthians 13, "as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For now we know in part, and we prophesy in part," that's a very crucial statement, "we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes," as though the prophecies were not that, "when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now we see in a mirror dimly. Then face to face, now I know in part, then I'll know fully, even as I have been fully known." Now what's he talking about there?

The future in view here, I think, is manifestly when Christ comes. When the perfect comes, in the time of adulthood, when he's not speaking like a child anymore, the time of seeing face to face, not in a mirror anymore, but rather knowing fully, even as I have been fully known.

That's not any time in this age. That's the end of the age, when we will know fully, even as we have been fully known. So that's when the gift of prophecy stops. So this text is a pretty clear argument, I think, that the gift of prophecy in tongues will continue until Jesus comes back.

It seems to me that the reason they pass away, it says, is precisely because they're imperfect. They're not scripture-level authority, because verse 9 says, "ekmerus prophetuomen." That's the Greek. "We prophesy ekmerus." We prophesy in part, just like a little child trying to reason and think and talk. And when he grows up and becomes a man in the age to come, he won't need that kind of help anymore.

So those are three reasons that I would say that the gift of prophecy is here until Jesus comes, and that it doesn't mean the kind of scripture-level, inerrant, infallible, authoritative speech that some take it to mean. Yes, excellent. Well said. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.

Email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. Visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening. 1 1 1 1 1 1