Well, so much for Keith's dream thread....
AFM&MH, I notice you're carefully ignoring Paul's specific instructions re prophecy in all your proof texting. What does that verse I cited mean to you? While you're at it, let me know what you think about this one:
Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge.
Sorry Andrew, I wasn’t trying to ignore these verses, I got side tracked.
It was not my intent to proof text. In fact, I wanted to copy and paste whole chapters to give the context. However, that would be a post that would multiple pages long that nobody would want to or bother to read (and I don’t blame them lol). I listed the chapters and verses there so that the context can be looked at by whoever wants to. I’ve always understood proof texting to be the twisting of individual passages without regard to their context. I have tried to make points from the verses that are consistent with their context. If simply using specific passages without including all the surrounding verses is proof texting, then the writer of Hebrews uses a lot of proof texting. If I have twisted the meaning of some of these verses please show me where, so that I will not be in error.
Ok, to the verses you mentioned. They come from the same chapter.
1 Corinthians 14:3,29 KJV
[3] But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
[29] Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
I don’t think that the prophecy refered to here is one and the same with what i was responding to eternaldreamer about. He was speaking of divine revelation in the form of a dream and stated the following:
“The purpose of ANY prophecy should be encouraging and exhorting us. If you are feeling/reading negative criticism/threats/condemnation into any aspect of your prophetic dream, that's either the enemy or your own human fears putting a spin on it. But the Holy Spirit does not speak to us in fear, but in the fruits of theSpirit.” Eternaldreamer
However, in Revelation, Jesus says things to the churches that would be reasonably taken as criticisms, threats, and condemnations.
The verses that are being used as proof texts here are not really in the same category. These are people standing up and speaking the word of God, not in the sense of telling the future, but simply speaking the word of God. Prophecy in the sense of telling the future is judged by whether or not what is spoken comes to pass. If it doesn’t come to pass, that is a false prophet. In the sense that someone is speaking the word of the Lord as in proclaiming the scriptures and their meaning. Then that would be judged by comparing it to scripture. As Keith pointed out we must take into account when and to whom this was written. At the time, the canon of scripture was not completed and was still being written and as such was being authenticated by the signs and wonders of the Apostles. The word of God was still being written and as it was in times past when large potions of scripture where written, it was accompanied by miracles and signs and wonders. When someone stands up and speakes the word of the Lord today, we compare it to scripture, not our feelings.