------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Notes on "An Evaluation of Claims to the Charismatic Gifts" by Douglas Judisch ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Judisch notes the term "charismatic gifts" is not found in the NT. Rather, the term is simply the plural "charisma" ("gifts"), a word used not only of the supernatural gifts such as tongues, prophecies, and miracles - the "supernatural" gifts - but also of redemption, the pastoral office, and continence. Therefore, Judisch actually prefers the term "prophetic gifts," which he defines to include tongues, the interpretation of tongues, the word of knowldedge, and the discernment of spirits, as well as actual prophecy. He accepts prophecy as meaning delivery of words taught by God (and therefore capable of including a predictive element, although not necessarily so), not as merely "teaching." "Healing by demand" is also included, because it was often used as an authenticating sign of God's prophets in the OT. (pg. 13) Judisch's thesis is that it is contrary to the word of God to claim prophetic gifts in the postapostolic era. (pg. 15) He supports this in five ways: I. The Means of Authentication Judisch demonstrates through 13 theses that words represented as being from God can be authenticated only by an apostle or somebody personally sanctioned by an apostle. Since that is not possible today, modern instances of the prophetic gifts cannot be authenticated. The only authentic revelation from God we now have is the Scriptures, since these are the words of the apostles and those who were sanctioned by them. Along the way in this chapter, Judisch notes that the office of the prophet is not carried over unchanged from the OT into the NT, any more than were the offices of king and priest. In relation to this, "supernatural signs are not to be its means of authentication." Judisch notes that we are warned several places in the New Testament that false prophets would come with lying signs and wonders. (pg. 24) II. The Means of Distribution Judisch shows that in the scriptures only the apostles could bestow the prophetic gifts. This is demonstrated in, among other places, Acts 8 where Philip (the evangelist, not the apostle) preached the Word and brought salvation to the Samaritans, but only the apostles could bring, through the laying on of their hands, the Spirit in His role as the giver of the prophetic gifts. He also uses Hebrews 2:3-4 - ...how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? He points out that the Greek for "was confirmed" is aorist indicative, which denotes completed past action, and that the present participle "bearing witness" is therefore also referring to events in the past, since the grammar demands the action referred to must be contemporaneous with the main verb. Note that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are explicitly classed with the signs and wonders that bore witness to the truth of the salvation preached by the apostles. The conclusion is that the apostles ("us who heard him") were "the single medium for the distribution of the prophetic gifts." III. The Purpose of the Prophetic Gifts Judisch states the purpose of signs and wonders, including of the prophetic gifts, was "to prove the authority of the apostles as the infallible teachers whose oral and written instruction was to serve, together with that of the prophets whom they confirmed, as the foundation of the New Testament church (Eph. 2:19-20)." (pg. 35) IV. The Explicit Testimony of Paul 1 Corinthians 13 is used to show that the prophetic gifts were to pass away. Judisch now believes (he did not use to) that the "that which is perfect" that is referred to in chapter 13 is the completion of revelation through the writings of the apostles. Using the Greek of the passage, Judisch shows that instead of "that which is perfect," the translation of the Greek term "to teleion" to be preferred is "the complete thing;" just as the better translation of "that which is in part" is "the piecemeal thing." Tongues and prophecy in the apostolic era were merely piecemeal revelations which are not needed now that Christians have all of the apostolic revelation in the scriptures. Judisch gives three good reasons why "that which is perfect" probably is not meant to refer to our perfect knowledge of Christ given only when we enter heaven: 1) It is foreign to the text. 2) It destroys the contrast between the "piecemeal" things and the "complete" thing. The "piecemeal" things must be some constituent part of the "complete" thing. 3) "Verse 13 makes the point that while prophecies, tongues, and prophetic knowledge will disappear, faith, hope, and love go on. Paul cannot be thinking then of a contrast between this life and the life to come. For although love will go on into eternity, faith and hope will not." (pg. 47) V. The Explicit Testimony of Daniel. Judisch, who is a professor of Old Testament exegesis at Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, by the way, uses Daniel 9:24-27 to show that after the Messiah has come, prophecy is sealed up:    Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.    Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.    And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.    And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. VI. The Implicit Testimony of Zechariah Another Old Testament passage is used to show that "prophecy was not to continue indefinitely in the messianic age," Zechariah 13:2-6 -    And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.    And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.    And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:    But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.    And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.