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NEW TESTAMENT
PROPHETS DIFFER
And yet we find that the
Church is
"founded ON the
apostles AND THE
PROPHETS, Jesus Christ
being the chief corner-
stone."
I want you to get this.
Now I have to go back to Ephe-
sians the 2nd chapter to pick
up that scripture that fits in
right here; and, to understand
this, we need to know all of
that.
Yet you only find, let's see,
about four prophets mentioned
in the New Testament. One
was an elderly woman past 80
years of age who picked up the
infant child Jesus, took Him in
her arms and blessed Him as
just a little infant, and then
went on and apparently died
soon. Nothing more was heard
of her at all.
There was a prophet by the
name of Agabus; and God
spoke to him and used him to
carry a message to one of the
apostles (to Paul) and telling
Paul that God sent a message
to him that if he went on to
Jerusalem, where he proposed
to go, that he would get into
trouble in Jerusalem. Well,
Agabus told Paul.
Now Paul didn't doubt that,
but Paul went on anyway; and
he did get in trouble. A great
deal of trouble! That's why he
appealed finally on to Caesar,
and later went on his very
perilous trip to Rome. He had a
shipwreck on the way at one of
the places where we are going
to have a Feast of Tabernacles
this year, the Island of Malta,
just south of Italy in the Medi-
terranean Sea; and we'll have a
Feast site there this year. So
that's a rather historic place.
Anyway, there were two other
prophets at least to whom God
revealed that they should lay
hands on Barnabas and Saul
and anoint them as apostles
and send them as apostles to
the Gentiles. Now they did
that, but they didn't contribute
any doctrine or any belief to
the Church.
They didn't have an adminis-
trative position in running the
Church or administering the
affairs of the Church in any
way. Not ANY of those four
prophets {8} did. So there were
no New Testament prophets
that had anything to do with
being founders of the founda-
tion of the Church. So it refers
to the OLD Testament proph-
ets.
Now every one of these Old
Testament prophets is quoted
in the New Testament, and
they ARE a part of the founda-
tion of the doctrines and of the
belief of the Church. The
WHOLE of Ezekiel and the
WHOLE of Daniel were written
FOR THE CHURCH and were
NEVER given to the people of
Israel while they were a nation.
They were written after Israel
and Judah were both slaves in
captivity, and were not a
nation; and they were not ever
proclaimed to Israel and Judah
under the Old Testament.
How important is Daniel to the
book of Revelation? How
important is Ezekiel to under-
standing many of these other
prophecies and knowing the
things WE need to know in our
time? Yet those books never
were given to Israel or Judah
while they were a nation, and
there was no way for one of
them as a slave to get his
writings to the rest of them
who were scattered here and
there as slaves. So it is good
Island of Malta
32
Philadelphia Remnant Jul/ Aug/ Sept 2013