The history of the Church is the history of God’s revelations of Himself to Man. Prophecy, in some form, must co-exist with all history so that God’s will may be known and performed by man. Hence we find prophecy existing in some form in every stage of the history of redemption.
There are three great divisions of this history that are obvious on its surface, in which we will find the form of God’s revelation of Himself to vary with each successive stage. These divisions are the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian dispensations, or developments of the covenant of grace. Each of these is characterised by a distinct and different mode of God's manifestations.
The Patriarchal dispensation may be characterised as – Theophanic; that is, God revealed Himself immediately, by visible appearances, or “theophanies.” The Mosaic as – Theopneustic; that is, God revealing Himself mediately, by inspired men. The Christian dispensation is characterised as – Theologic; that is, God revealing Himself permanently, by inspired writings.
As the dispensations overlap and make the transition gradually from one to the other, so also do these characteristics. But the several dispensations have obviously these characteristics and hence a form of the prophetic gift peculiar to each.
(1) The Patriarchal Dispensation was Theophanic; that is, it was characterised by direct appearances of God (theophanies,) either in bodily form or by immediate visions.
It is a striking fact that we find no miracles wrought by men in the Patriarchal era. All the miracles are wrought by God directly, without any human intervention; and the communications made by God were made by direct utterance, usually.
The theophanic character of the Patriarchal period would make the prophetic gift of rarer occurrence than in the next dispensation, because God would usually speak directly to those whom He would address, and not use the intervention of prophetic men. Hence we do not find the name “prophet” occurring in the whole history of the Patriarchal dispensation, except in a single case (Genesis 20:7) which is only an apparent exception.
(2) The Character of the Mosaic Dispensation was Theopneustic: that is, a revelation of God by inspired men.
Here we first find God begin to draw Himself from direct communication with man, and manifest Himself through living human instrumentalities. He now works miracles, not so much by direct exertions of power as through the agency of Moses, Joshua, and other inspired men. He speaks not directly, but at the request of the people themselves, through the lips of Moses and his successors. Hence also, the majority of those prophets were not writing prophets, but acting prophets. It was not until about one-half of this dispensation had passed that the prophets began to write their prophecies. Even then, the prophets writing was a secondary duty, having reference, as we are expressly told in the New Testament, not to their own age, but to the age that should follow; “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things that are now reported unto you.” (1st Peter 1:12.)
(3) The Christian Dispensation, However is Theologic: that is, a revelation of God by inspired or divine writings.
Hence the will of God is made known in the Christian dispensation not by direct appearances (theophanies,) nor by inspired men; but by divine writings – or the living word, that liveth and abideth forever. It is in this form that prophecy meets us now. Not the prophetic gift, nor the prophetic office, but the prophetic word.
This characteristic of the Christian era furnishes a complete reply to the cavil of the new Infidel school that is rising about “Bibliolatry” – worship of the Bible. The fact which they charge on the Christian world is the very charge that ought to characterise it in view of this feature of the dispensation. To leave the Word and fall back on the revelations of the Spirit, supposed to be granted to inspired men (today) would be to reproduce the essential characteristic of the Mosaic dispensation.
Hence this pretended “advance” in putting the Spirit above the “letter,” as they term it, or the inspired man above the inspired Word (if such man-inspiration were conceded,) would be a retrogression rather than a progression. The present form of prophetic utterance in the inspired word is the only one that can be really universal, and therefore the only one adapted to the final form of the covenant of grace until Christ shall come.