Miraculous Gifts
Are There Prophets Today? What the Bible Says About Modern Prophecy
Are there prophets today? Compare modern prophecy claims with New Testament prophets, spiritual gifts, apostolic revelation, testing prophets, and 1 Corinthians 13.
Why Christians Disagree
The modern prophecy debate is really a debate about revelation.
Some Christians believe prophecy continues as a spiritual gift and that God may communicate particular messages to individuals or congregations today.
Others believe New Testament prophecy was a revelatory gift associated with the apostolic age and the laying of the church's foundation.
The disagreement cannot be resolved simply by pointing to an experience or by noting that prophecy existed in Acts. The central question is whether the New Testament indicates that the revelatory function was intended to continue after the foundation was complete.
What Must Continue?
The existence of prophets in the first century does not by itself prove prophets must exist in every century.
The New Testament unquestionably contains prophets. Agabus prophesies in Acts. Prophets serve in Antioch. Philip has daughters who prophesy. Prophecy is prominent in Corinth.
But the same New Testament also contains apostles with extraordinary authority, and Christians do not all agree that the apostolic office continues.
The relevant question is therefore not whether a ministry existed, but what purpose it served and whether Scripture places a limit on that purpose.
Agabus is identified as a prophet and predicts a famine.
Luke says Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
The Foundation Argument
Apostles and prophets are placed together at the foundation.
Ephesians 2 says God's household is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Ephesians 3 associates them with revelation of the mystery by the Spirit.
Wood argues that this is architectural language. A foundation performs an indispensable role, but it is laid rather than repeatedly reconstructed.
On this reading, the continuing church depends on the revelation delivered through those foundational messengers rather than on an endless succession of equally inspired apostles and prophets.
The church is pictured as built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone.
Paul Says Prophecy Ends
First Corinthians 13 makes the duration question unavoidable.
Paul explicitly says prophecies will pass away. The dispute concerns when and why.
Continuationist interpretations commonly understand 'the complete' or 'the perfect' as something associated with Christ's return, final maturity, or seeing God face to face.
Who Changed the Church? argues instead that Paul's contrast concerns partial revelation giving way to complete knowledge. Wood connects this with Ephesians 4, Jude 3, and 2 Peter 1:3 and identifies the completed apostolic revelation as the transition point.
Paul states that prophecy will pass away and contrasts partial knowledge with the arrival of what is complete.
What About Ephesians 4?
The word “until” becomes important in Wood's argument.
Ephesians 4 lists apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers as gifts given for equipping and building up the body.
Wood emphasizes Paul's 'until' language and connects the passage with the church reaching unity of faith, mature stature, and full knowledge.
His argument is not that every useful ministry disappears. It is that the revelatory and foundational functions of apostles and prophets reach their intended goal rather than remaining permanently unfinished.
Paul describes ministries given for equipping and building the body until maturity, unity of faith, and knowledge of Christ are reached.
Modern Claims Must Be Tested
The Bible never treats the words “God told me” as sufficient evidence.
Even during the period when genuine prophecy operated, Christians were commanded to test claims.
Jesus warned about false prophets. Paul required prophecy to be weighed. John told Christians not to believe every spirit.
That means a modern claim of divine revelation cannot be exempted from examination merely because the speaker appears sincere, charismatic, accurate on occasion, or spiritually impressive.
Christians are told not to believe every spirit but to test the spirits because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Jesus warns his disciples about false prophets and tells them they will be recognized by their fruits.
A Completed Standard
Wood's alternative to continuing prophecy is not silence but the apostolic word.
Who Changed the Church? does not argue that God left later Christians without guidance. Its thesis is almost the opposite: God completed the foundation so that later generations would possess a stable standard.
Wood repeatedly returns to the faith being delivered, the apostles' teaching being preserved, and Scripture supplying what Christians need for life and godliness.
The practical test therefore changes from 'Who has a new word?' to 'Does this teaching remain inside the apostolic word already given?'
Jude speaks of the faith as having been delivered once for all to the saints.
Peter says God's divine power has given what is needed for life and godliness through knowledge of Christ.
Why It Matters
The New Testament unquestionably records genuine prophets, but it also identifies prophecy as revelation, places prophets with apostles in the church's foundation, and says prophecy would pass away. Christians disagree about when that happened. Who Changed the Church? argues that the revelatory office belonged to the period in which the apostolic deposit was being completed. On that reading, the church does not need a new prophet to recover God's voice; it needs to remain faithful to the voice already delivered through Christ's apostles and prophets.