Answering questions and criticisms from my prophecy article (Part 2)

Approximate Reading Time: 11 minutes

(This article also includes a podcast discussion. Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen on your Apple or Google podcast app.)

(If you haven’t yet, check out Part 1 of this discussion)

Due to the length of this article, I’m splitting it into two parts and adding a table of contents below so you know where to find a specific question you may have:

Part 1:

• Why did I originally write the article?
• Shouldn’t we just pray for truth? What about my experience/feeling about prophecy?
• Am I just being judgmental?
• Am I confusing the difference between OT and NT prophecy? Is prophecy wrong if it doesn’t contradict the Bible? 
• Why not take a “wait and see” approach?
• Am I confusing dreams and prophecy?

Part 2:

• What about Acts 2:17?
• Aren’t we supposed to expect supernatural gifts? 
• Am I just a right-wing Democrat?
• Am I telling people not to be prepared?
• Personal thoughts on the article and its reception
• Conclusion

What about Acts 2:17?

And it shall be in the last days,’ God says,
‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
And your young men shall see visions,
And your old men shall dream dreams; (Acts 2:17)

There’s really a lot to unpack with this question. If you haven’t yet, check out my article and podcast episode on how to read and understand the Bible, because the method I talk about there is an important part of how we need to read this verse. Then, go read everything surrounding this verse – don’t just pull an understanding from what appears to be said in verse 17, but go read the entire chapter of Acts 2. 

I’m going to give my answer in a rapid-fire form, but I’d encourage you to check the podcast version of this “questions and criticisms” article to hear a more thorough breakdown.

Context, the answer to “Why does the Bible say this?” is critical here. This single verse is often interpreted to mean “Shortly before the Rapture, people will have prophecies, dreams, and visions.” But is that what’s really being said here?

Here are some things we need to consider about this verse.

1. Peter is quoting a portion of a prophecy from the book of Joel 2:28-32, an Old Testament prophet.
2. He’s saying this in response to what’s happening. The Holy Spirit had just been poured out during Pentecost, and He was allowing people to perform wonders as a sign of this (v. 1-4). The people around them heard the gospel in their own language (v. 5-12), but others thought these people were drunk (v. 13). 
3. Peter then stands up and starts explaining that these people aren’t drunk, but are proof that God is fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy (v. 14-16)
4. Peter then goes on to quote the entire prophecy from Joel, which says much more than simply verse 17. 
5. Verses 18-21 continue what Joel said. In addition to dreams and prophecy, the last days will include:
   • wonders in the sky 
   • signs on the earth
   • blood, fire, vapor of smoke
   • the sun will be turned into darkness
   • the moon will be turned into blood

6. All of this will happen before the “great and glorious day of the Lord” comes (v. 20)

7. Peter then goes on to explain Jesus Christ, including His death/burial/resurrection (v. 22-36)

8. Hearing this, the people fall under conviction and want to know what to do (v. 37)

9. Then, Peter gives them the gospel, and around 3,000 people repent of their sin and believe in Christ (v. 38-41)

10. People devote themselves to learning more about their new faith, and we see a glimpse of what this particular group of people looked like as they grew in Christ and continued preaching the gospel (v. 42-47)

That’s a lot, but all of it matters for understanding Acts 2:17. Again, in rapid-fire fashion, here are some observations we can make. However, I’d encourage you to work through Acts 2 on your own and see how this “proof verse” fits into a larger context.

First, these signs were given at a very specific time, immediately when the Holy Spirit was poured out on believers. At this particular moment, the prophecy of Joel served as evidence that the “Comforter” Christ spoke of in John 14:16 had, indeed, arrived.

Second, “last days” is easily misunderstood, and probably where we fall into the greatest error in our interpretation. We easily read “last days” with a very specific view of the end times – what we’d know as a “dispensational eschatology,” more popularly known as believing there will be a Rapture, literal anti-Christ, 7 years of tribulation, a literal thousand year reign of Christ, etc.

However, the Bible makes a distinction between “last days” and what we would call “the Last Day,” also known as the Day of the Lord. When we confuse the two, it’s easy to go astray with how we interpret other parts of the Bible.

For example, 2 Timothy 3:1-5 talks about the sin of people in the last days. Yet as we read it, we realize that this sin has been just as prevalent since the days of the Apostles.

James 5:1-3 talks about how the foolish people in his audience were laying up treasure for themselves in the last days.

And of course, Hebrews 1:1-2 says that although He spoke to people in the past through the prophets, “in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son.” In other words, the writer of Hebrews says that they were in the last days 2,000 years ago.

Let’s go back to the prophecy quoted in Acts 2:21, but let’s interpret the “last days” as the period of the church – from 2,000 years ago until Christ’s glorious return. With that bigger understanding in mind, we see that we should expect a few things within that time frame. 

Yes, we should expect prophecies, visions, and dreams, just as we saw in the New Testament. We should also expect the sun to be darkened and the moon to turn to blood. These two are mentioned in the exact same time frame, and because of that we notice something interesting: The sun hasn’t been darkened for 2,000 years.

In other words, we understand that everything else in Joel’s prophecy will happen at a certain point in time. These things aren’t meant to be everlasting, but instead will occur at some point before the Day of the Lord.

So how do we explain Acts 2:17 if prophets are no longer active today? By realizing that these things did happen, but that they weren’t meant to be a non-stop occurrence. Just like a darkened sun and blood moon are only meant to happen for a brief period of time, we can understand that prophecies/visions/dreams are likewise things that were meant to happen in these last days, but that doesn’t mean they will always be around in the last days.

Aren’t we supposed to expect supernatural gifts?

1 Corinthians 12-14 often makes us assume that supernatural gifts are a natural part of the Christian life. I’d encourage you to go read the chapter 13 yourself, which is only 13 verses, then come back to this discussion.

Much of what we believe about prophecy will often come down to how we understand 1 Corinthians 13:10. But first, we need to see how Paul leads up to this.

In chapter 12, Paul discusses how gifts are used to build up the body of Christ. In 13:1-3, Paul then goes on to list a number of specific ways people build the body, including:

• Tongues
• Prophecy
• Special knowledge 
• Faith
• Giving to the poor
• Suffering persecution

In all of these, Paul’s primary point is that none of these matter if they aren’t motivated by a love for Jesus Christ and His people. He goes on to explain what love is, and then in verse 8 he compares unending love with 3 things that will end: prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. Verses 9 and 10 detail that these 3 specific things are temporary, limited, and partial. They are incomplete, and will be done away with when they’ve served their purpose. 

So what is this “perfect” thing that will replace tongues, prophecy, and special knowledge? When we consider what each of these did, we can see what they were trying to accomplish, and what “perfect” thing might come along to replace them.

Tongues was for giving the gospel to people in their own language. Remember that Acts 2 was the first emergence of Christianity, and this small group of thousands of people would be God’s means of spreading the message of Christ all across the world. And while today we have missionaries who devote years to learning a foreign language or translating Bibles, people back then didn’t have that luxury. So, for a time, God allowed listeners to hear the gospel in a language not known by the speaker.

Prophecy, as I said in my article, was for delivering a direct message from God. In a New Testament context, this was most likely prophecies directed at a local church, with the Holy Spirit directly communicating the will or teachings of God through a person gifted with prophecy. Again, this was important because the church didn’t have the practical books of the New Testament that explained things like marriage, church offices, etc. So rather than have everyone wait around for Paul’s letters to be distributed around the world, God spoke directly through His people.

Finally, I understand this “knowledge” to be a special knowledge that goes far beyond intelligence. Remember that people back then only had the Old Testament, so not everyone had our benefit of having the “shadows” in the Old Testament explained in Christ. I believe this knowledge had something to do with that – a Spirit-given understanding of how the gospel of Jesus Christ can clearly be seen in the Old Testament for people who needed to understand the Christian life while not having a New Testament to teach them. Again, this was something the church desperately needed, but due to growing pains they didn’t have access to the gospels of the letters of the Apostles. 

There’s a common thread that runs through these 3 things that will be replaced – each of them is a limited version of what the complete New Testament would do. In this collection of inspired writings from the Apostles, we have the gospel clearly laid out and able to be read by anyone. We have the truth of Christ and our life in Him clearly explained. And thanks to Paul, we have all the information we need to see why the Old Testament is fulfilled in our perfect Savior.

So should the church expect supernatural gifts? Yes, absolutely. 2,000 years ago, when God used them as a temporary means until He completed the New Testament, supernatural gifts seemed rather expected. Yet as more of the Apostles writings started circulating, we see less and less mention of the supernatural. We even see apostles getting sick and relying on natural means for healing, rather than using the gift of healing.

All of this seems to be because of one specific thing: this “perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13 seems to be talking about the complete Bible. It perfectly and completely fills the role that supernatural gifts filled for a time. And while supernatural gifts are certainly exciting and add a sense of wonder to our faith, the reality is that everything we need is found in God’s word. We don’t need prophecy because God’s word is absolutely sufficient for everything we need to know.

So, just like with Acts 2:17, we need to understand the when and why of what we’re reading before we apply it to our lives.

Am I just a right-wing Democrat?

There’s not much to say here. Go read my series on abortion (part 1 starts here), homosexuality (one on Galatians and another on sharing the gospel with homosexuals), and my thoughts on whether churches should get involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. 

I understand that my criticism of mixing loyalty to the Republican party with our faith will, perhaps ironically, make people assume I’m a Democrat. Yet there’s little that Democrats will probably agree with me about. So what’s the deal?

As I make clear in my article about faith and politics, I believe our allegiance is to Jesus Christ above all else. In America, we have the joy of extended God’s grace to the people around us by voting on laws that best reflect His goodness. But there’s a difference between voting in line with a political party and being a part of it. For me, I will absolutely criticize any belief that isn’t in line with God’s word, and will praise a belief that lines up with it. I don’t care what side of the aisle it’s from – I stand with Christ, not a political party.

Am I telling people not to be prepared?

I’ll admit, I only expected my usual 10 people to read my original article. Thus, I didn’t add any warnings or reminders to it because my regular readers know where I’d stand on that. However, I received some great criticism about how people may take the meaning of my article and walk away thinking they don’t need to think about the imminent return of Christ, nor pay attention to what’s happening around them.

Thus, I wrote an addendum to my article. If you were one of the earlier readers, I’d recommend you scroll to the end of the article and strongly consider what I encourage there. 

Personal thoughts on the article and its reception

At the end of my podcast version of this article, I share some thoughts on this whole experience. I don’t want to type it all out here, so check out the show notes of the podcast episode to skip to this portion if you’re interested in hearing about all of that.

Conclusion

As I said, I plan on this being the last I talk about Dana Coverstone until God decides otherwise. I’ve heard that his popularity is growing, and he’s received even more dreams, so I’m sure there’s plenty that could be said. However, I’m not interested in covering a specific person’s claims of prophecy any more than I’m interested in covering a specific false teacher or political leader.

The goal of this ministry is to equip you to think about every area of the Christian life with a biblical worldview. I hope, more than anything, that you have a better understanding of what you believe about prophecy so that you know how to respond to anyone’s claims. Even if you don’t agree with my conclusions, I hope that I’ve at least driven into God’s word so that you not only understand my beliefs, but you understand why you can read the same things and come to a different conclusion. 

Keep seeking truth in God’s word. Make your emotions, experiences, and traditions line up with His word first, rather than forcing the Bible to agree with what you hope is true. Keep praying for wisdom and know that God will give it to you through His wonderful gift of the Old and New Testaments. Trust that the Bible is sufficient for every ounce of truth you need as you keep moving onward in your faith toward maturity in Christ.