Mark 6:4 “But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”
As with the ministry gift of the apostle, there are also various classes of the ministry gift of the prophet. As we will see in this section, there are three classes within the ministry gift of the New Testament prophet. We have already seen that the Lord Jesus Christ heads up each ministry gift category, and in each category He is in a class of His own. In the scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus refers to Himself as a prophet, and as such He is the pre-eminent prophet in the church. And so we see that the first class of prophet in the church is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:20 “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.”
After Jesus, we then have a class of prophets which are classified as foundational prophets. And so the foundational prophets would be the second class of prophets in the church. As with the foundational apostles that we looked at in the previous section, the foundational prophets were also used by the Lord to communicate New Testament doctrine as it was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. The above quoted passage of scripture refers to the church being built on the foundation of both the apostles and the prophets. The foundation referred to in this passage is the New Testament doctrine taught to the church by His prophets, and the prophets referred to in this passage are both the old and new covenant prophets used by the Lord to write the scriptures in both the Old and the New Testament.
Ephesians 3:1-5 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles-- (2) if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, (3) how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, (4) by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), (5) which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us that New Testament doctrine was revealed to two of the Lord’s ministry gifts, i.e. apostles and prophets. And so it is for this reason that certain prophets in the early church were classified as foundational prophets. In the previous section we listed the foundational apostles that had their writings included in the New Testament. Nevertheless the following prophets also had their writings included in the New Testament, and were thus responsible for laying the foundation doctrines of the church. The prophet Mark (Gospel), and the prophet Luke (Gospel and book of Acts). We know that Mark was a prophet because he ministered with both Barnabas and Paul (Acts 13:5), and when Paul and Barnabas separated their ministries Paul took Silas the prophet (Acts 15:32) while Barnabas took Mark, thus implying that Mark was also a prophet (Acts 15:36-41). Although Luke was a physician (Colossians 4:14), we know that Luke was also a prophet, because Paul classified him in the same category as Mark (Philemon 1:24).
Galatians 1:11-17 “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. (12) For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. … (15) But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, (16) to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, (17) nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.”
We have already discussed the apostle Paul in the previous section as being a foundational apostle in the church. Nevertheless with regards to Paul, it is important to note that although when he wrote his letters he was already an apostle, the revelation that he received from the Lord regarding the doctrines of the church was received while he stood in the office of the prophet. For as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, Paul received his revelation of the gospel when he went down to Arabia just after he was saved. At that time Paul stood in the office of prophet, and only later did the Holy Spirit move him into the office of apostle (Acts 13:1-2). Scripture does not reveal to us just how many foundational prophets there were in the church at that time, but just as we have seen that there were other foundational apostles in the church, there must also have been other foundational prophets in the church. Once the New Testament had been established in the written form that we have today however, the need for this class of prophet no longer existed. And so this class of prophet is no longer found in the church today.
Michael E.B. Maher
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