Prophecies -Tuesdays with Timothy #10

1 Timothy 1:18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

Timothy had a lot of people pulling for him. He was well beloved by the brethren and there were high hopes for him and his future(Acts 16:2). He trained and traveled with the Apostle Paul and was prepared by the church before being sent out on his own. Timothy grew up in a context where he knew the Bible, was saved, and in the ministry at an early age. So he had a whole lot going for him by way of support and providence. There is something else in Timothy's calling that is interesting which is the prophesies that concerned his ministry.

There are two ways that the prophecies about Timothy are generally interpreted and it depends on what you do about the word prophecies as to the interpretation. I think there is some sentimentality to the reading of the prophecies of Timothy wanting to apply what happen with his ministry to pastors today. Since Timothy is a pastoral epistle, we have to determine if these prophecies were unique for him during the time of the particular sign gifts or if is something we as pastors today need to apply to ourselves. This is actually an important issue for the church in regards to the ordaining of elders and pastors. There are many good brothers who fall on both sides of the fence on this interpretation, and I plan on planting my feet firmly on the green pasture side in this post.

The word translated "prophecies" is defined by Thayer as "a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; esp. by foretelling future events".  Vine says it "signifies the speaking forth the mind and counsel of God." It is the telling forth of things that cannot naturally be known but only revealed by God. So far, so good.  But here is where things get sticky.

There is a broader sense of the word prophecy that can include declaring what God has already revealed in divine inspiration. A common phrase that is bandied about is having "a prophetic voice", usually in regards to the culture at large. If I were to preach about the coming judgment of God, I could speak in a "prophetic voice" by saying that judgment has come upon America and her only hope is repentance. This isn't seen in the newspapers but based upon the inspired Word of God in Romans 1. I did not receive direct revelation from God about the future of our nation, but I can speak inspired revelation and be authoritative in declaring God's judgment just as much as a minor prophet would have done. I can emphatically declare this country under God's judgment by speaking God's Word and doing so in the prophetic sense of "speaking the mind of God".  Prophecy in this context is declaring God's Word --the word was not given to the preacher prophetically, given from the inspired author.

What's the problem, you might ask? How can there even be a fence, let alone have two sides to come down on? Many well-respected men believe that Timothy's prophesies include the hopes and aspirations the church had for Timothy, predicting he would be a mighty man of God. This interpretation requires broadening the definition of the word to mean something other than what the word does actually mean.  But this interpretation does allow for the prophesies to be applied to men today at their ordination. This gives us two categories of prophecies. Tier 1 prophesy is fallible and is in the realm of predictions. Tier two prophesy is in the realm of infallibility like found in scripture.  But this creates an unheard of category of "fallible prophesy" in which the prophetic word may or may not be true. A fallible prophecy, in the Biblical sense, cannot exist. It's either from God or not. If it is from God, it cannot be wrong.

 I believe we must take the ministry of Timothy as unique and not lower the meaning of the word prophecies. Timothy was called and predicted to have a unique and profitable ministry. The tools that the apostle equips Timothy within these two epistles are not the tools of a unique office but that of the office of pastor. Paul and Barnabas also had prophetic calls to the ministry (Acts 13:2) so this was not something unheard of in early churches. God had given people a real prophetic word about Timothy. God actually gave them information about Timothy that could not be discerned from nature. These prophesies were real, but we are told they will cease (I Cor. 13:8).

This is also evidenced, I believe, in the fact that Paul instructs Timothy on how he is to ordain elders in the churches. There is no instruction in the pastoral epistles on waiting for the voice of prophecy to come to one prior to the laying on of hands. Nor is there instruction on how to act upon such prophesy, nor how to deal with the inevitable situation where one "desires the work" but has not received a prophetic call. Timothy's job was to train up men for the pastorate (2 Timothy 2:2) so that would be relevant information for him to have.

Let's not go further than the scripture goes. The fact that this was unique in the life of Timothy takes nothing away from the ministry today, nor does it take away the authority of the office of pastor today.  When the gift was given to Timothy, the prophecy was not preaching a message about the ministry before Timothy was ordained (1 Timothy 4:14). I don't claim to understand everything that happened with Timothy or to understand how he was prophesied and what the prophesy entailed. I do think it is a stretch to say that this prophecy was anything other than a true and real word from God about this particular man and his particular ministry.