Dave Burke

This session looks at the ministry of the Prophets of the Old Testament. We examine why the first Christians believed that God spoke authentically through them. Jesus’ ministry as a prophet is examined and we consider why he replaced the term ‘prophet’ with 'apostle'. Then we will look at his apostles, the equivalent of the Old Testament prophets, and see why we should believe their words are still God’s word for today.

In this session we will think about the status of the so called ‘charismatic’ gifts and ask whether they have ceased to function since the completion of the New Testament cannon. Then we will look specifically at the gift of prophecy: How was it used in the New Testament churches? We will look at prophecy in guiding Christians into God’s will and in public worship. We will see that the NT prophets were not given the same authority as OT prophets. Finally, we will consider how the gift of prophecy should be used in the modern church.

We are going to take a scenic tour through the history of the church to see how different generations of Christians have interpreted the details of the Second Coming. We will pay special attention to the Millennium and Israel. We will see how a popular timetable of these events influences Western governments' foreign policy towards the Middle East. Finally, we will identify the things we can be certain about.