The Gift of Prophecy is a significant book, treasured by many evangelicals as the definitive exegetical statement on the nature and function of the gift of prophecy today. In it, Wayne Grudem takes a mediating position between fundamentalists and charismatics. With the charismatics, Grudem argues that the gift of prophecy should be exercised in the church today. With the fundamentalists, Grudem performs some exegetical wizardry to safeguard the unique authority of scripture.

This book began as Grudem’s doctoral dissertation and has since been updated and expanded. The idea at the heart of his work is that New Testament apostles, not prophets, are heirs to the Old Testament Prophets. This idea was first suggested by David Hill in his 1979 work, New Testament Prophecy. Hill suggested this in order to make sense of Paul. The apostle fulfills Hill’s functional definition of prophecy—he received revelations and felt under compulsion to share them—yet Paul never calls himself a prophet, but rather an apostle. Therefore, New Testament apostles are the functional equivalent of Old Testament prophets. Grudem uses this idea for a different purpose. Grudem’s chief concern seems to be to safeguard the closed canon. New Testament apostles, for Grudem, speak God’s very words which then become scripture. New Testament prophets, on the other hand, speak “merely human words to report something God brings to mind” (51).

In investigating the phenomenon of Charismatic Prophecy for my dissertation, I can say with certainty that almost all pentecostal/charismatic Christians understand the canon of scripture to be closed and that modern prophecy cannot add words of equal authority to the Bible. This is insufficient for Grudem, who must discover a biblical rationale for his view.

Grudem’s work ultimately does damage to those who practice the gift of prophecy today by disconnecting modern ‘prophets’ from their Old Testament roots. In declaring New Testament Apostles the heirs of the Old Testament prophets, he leaves New Testament (and modern day) prophets orphaned.

Gruden, Wayne. The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today. Rev Ed. Crossway, 2000.