My previous piece pertained to the place of Old Testament prophecy as per Hebrews 1:2-3. The text tells of two eras and means of God’s self-disclosure. There was when God revealed Himself to the Jewish fathers by the prophets. But the writer of Hebrews says that period ended with Christ’s coming. In the last days, God revealed Himself to us through His Son.
Although this is true, it raises a question as to how a text like Acts 2:16-18 fits into this timeline. Did Joel not prophesy an end-time universal outpouring of the Spirit that results in prophetic activity? If so, how could God no longer self-reveal through the office of the prophet as existed in the OT?
My desire in this discourse is to attempt to respond to this dilemma.
The Background and Context of Pentecost
Pentecost commemorated Israel’s crucial moment at Sinai when God covenanted them as His people. After fifty days of wandering in the wilderness, Israel is at the foot of the mountain of God. There, amidst thunder, lightning, trumpet blast, and a thick cloud, God appeared to Israel ‘in fire’ and smoke (Ex 19:16-18). ‘The whole mountain trembled greatly’ (Ex. 19:18).
Fifty days before this moment was the slaughter of the Passover lamb. God had redeemed His people from lifelong slavery in Egypt. Now, God begets them as a nation and gives them His law (Ex 20). The first generation of redeemed Israel experiences this momentous solitary event. The Sinai event is not to be repeated anywhere in Israel’s history. But it is formative for Israel as a people and nation of God and those who saw God’s wonders must tell the future generations of God’s redemption.
Now, fifty days after the death of Christ ‘the Lamb of God’ (Jn 1:29), a renewed Israel is reconstituted as God’s people, this time, in ‘the upper room’ in Jerusalem. The Church is born amidst ‘a rushing wind’ from heaven and ‘divided tongues as of fire.’ It is Pentecost, as the second Sinai moment happens in Acts 2. God has covenanted His people after delivering them. They are now a new nation (1 Pet. 2:9).
The Lord, as He did at first, now gives His law to renewed Israel, but this time, He writes it on their hearts through His Spirit (Acts 2:4, Heb 10:15-16). The result is that the first generation of the covenanted people, the disciples, speak in languages (tongues) of the nations around them (2:5-13). Such showed that what happened had universal significance.
But Pentecost, like Sinai, is unrepeatable. Only the first disciples experience it, and Christ tasks them with teaching the future generations of ‘the mighty works of God’ their Redeemer (2:11). They are ‘witnesses’ (1:8).
Peter’s Interpretation of Joel 2:28-32
The people present at Pentecost are perplexed and puzzled. Some mock. ‘These Galileans must be drunk.’ But Peter preaches, reminding the listeners that God has fulfilled His promise through the prophet Joel. These are the last days (2:17) which correspond to Joel’s ‘afterwards’ (Joel 2:28). God has outpoured His Spirit on renewed Israel, as Joel 2:28-32 said. People are prophesying, as promised. But wait, Peter. What? Prophecy? How exactly is this Pentecost event prophecy?
Well, it seems Peter’s interpretation of end-time prophecy differs from our modern understanding of the same. For Peter, prophecy in the last days is the Spirit-inspired “telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (2:11). It is a spirit-moved testimony, an inspired utterance as a witness to the works and words of the Lord.
Of course, the above understanding does not deny that forth-telling could or did happen in Acts. Yet, to prophesy in Acts 2:17-18 is not necessarily to predict the future. Notice too that rather than see a universal forth-telling or dreams or visions, in the book of Acts we find the opposite. There, only Agabus predicts but does so (on record) twice (11:28, 21:10) in the thirty year span of Acts, during which only three people see visions. Such were: Ananias (once in 9:10), Peter (twice in Acts 10:3, 12:9), and Paul (twice in 16:9, 18:9). The book of Acts records no dream.
That is, the universal spirit of prophecy does not mean that every believer will predict the future. Indeed, that Acts pays little attention to prediction and so much to witnessing clarifies what Joel means. Joel 2:28-32 concerns witnessing to the power of God to save those who call on His Name.
It is no wonder that immediately after citing Joel, Peter turns his attention to the historical life of Jesus (2:22-34). It does seem then that for Peter, ‘prophecy’ encompasses spirit-filled witness to the words and works of Christ our Redeemer.
In Conclusion
From all this follows the fact that the universal prophetic activity of the Spirit does not refer to everyone, or even anyone, telling the future. As John Stott puts it:
If in its essence prophecy is God speaking, God making himself known by his Word, then certainly the Old Testament expectation was that in New Covenant days the knowledge of God would be universal, and the New Testament authors declare that this has been fulfilled through Christ. In this sense, all God’s people are now prophets, just as all are also priests and kings. So Luther understood prophecy here as ‘the knowledge of God through Christ which the Holy Spirit kindles and makes to burn through the word of the gospel’, while Calvin wrote that it ‘signifies simply the rare and excellent gift of understanding’. In fact, it is this universal knowledge of God through Christ by the Spirit, which is the foundation of the universal commission to witness (1:8). Because we know him, we must make him known.
John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts