Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)
1968-06-01 / 2. szám
HOP VoX XX Special Number 1968 No 2- 57 -(07699) time in which the actual message of God was uttered, it went through a historical development in which we not only rote the abiding .unity as .to the essence of the ministry but also the most varied forms in which the prophets, both in the Old and the New Testamente, discharged their God-given task. The right Biblical orientation, as experience shows, is very important in order to have the right concepticn of the Church's prophetic ministry today. This orientation, in some instances, means a rather unilateral attention to the Old Testamart* Hence it will be of special significanoe that we are going to devote special attention to New Testament prophecy and, above all, to the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ, A/ Prophetic Ministry in the Old Testament Prophetic ministry was God^a gift to Israel by means of which God*s people was enabled to perceive the will of the God of history in the changing historical epochs and social situations» 58) Prom the phenomenological point of view, ' prophecy in Israel was from the beginning a gift of grace and a ministry based thereon with a claim to be heard in the historical situations of public life and with a responsibility for the political life of the people» A peculiar trait of the Old Testament prophey was the so-called "concentrating extasy"59) in the state of which the prophetic personality, with complete openness toward God and in the full possession of his mental faculties, was enabled to perceive the message of Yahweh far the national community of Israel and, in some cases, for the peoples of the world. With the exception of a single period of early prophecy (fron the Xlth century, B0C, , when mass extasy spread like a wildfire in the whole Mediterranean area, cf»; 1 Samuel 10), the ministry of Yahweh,s prophets, sharply distinguished frem the cases of mystical and unconscious extasy, was marked by the phenomenon of the so-called "concentrating extasy" ard by a certain openness to the problems of public life0 The full development of prophecy and the beginning of classical prophecy can be traced back to the period in which the people of Israel underwent a vast social transformation»60 j With the dissolution cf the tribal organization of society, the high priestly, military, landowning and merchant aristocracy cane into being, while the great masses of the people lepsed into poverty» The historical decisions of public life were not made in accord with the will cf God but in compliance with dynastic and class interests* This was the great opportunity for the prophetic ministry 0 a) Prophecy as Social Act in the Old Testament The prophet proclaimed ard applied the laws of God's kingly rule to worship, social life, history, ard to the relations of the nations to each other* The prophet took up the fight against the religious institutions which had become ends in themselves» It is necessary to emphasize that the prophets
