(This is actually a response to a comment on the previous post. I had to do it this way because Blogger is insisting that my response is over the character limit for comments, although several character counters all indicate it is under the limit. So I've given up and am posting it here.)

Ramone, thanks for starting this discussion. I'm glad you observed that this post focused exclusively on the OT, because I should have made a note on the context. It was a distillation of a paper I wrote for a class on the Hebrew Prophets. So that's why there isn't anything about the New Testament idea of prophecy. I absolutely do agree, however, that Christ must be the center of all Christian thought and practice--including our theology of prophecy. (As an aside, good golly do I wish more of my community--Seventh-day Adventists of all stripes--did more thinking about prophecy like you do on your blog. Could clear up a lot of confusion. Of course, knowing the church, it would lead to more confusion and problems, God love 'em all.) I’m working on a post about biblical interpretation and the centrality of Christ…that is, I would be, if I can pull myself away from the sweet dual addiction of Skyrim and Gears of War Horde mode.

At the same time that I affirm Christ as the perfect and unsurpassed revelation of God, I also think that Christians need to read the Old Testament on its own terms. The way that I grew up reading the prophets was literally reading Christ into the text of the OT. "Isn't it cool how these ancient prophets foretold the coming of Christ?" While that's good and orthodox, I think it's also risky or even problematic.

When I read the Bible, it strikes me just how much the message and mission of Jesus lean on the OT. In my own quest to understand Jesus's mission, it’s been helpful to read Jesus through the prophets as much as I read the prophets through Jesus. I'm speaking exclusively in and to my own context here, but it is waaaay too easy for contemporary Christians to think that the message of Jesus was "God loves you and if you believe in Jesus you'll go to heaven forever." Jesus saw his mission straight out of the prophets--to proclaim liberty to captives, break yokes and overturn oppression. And I find that reading the prophets--in their own words and contexts--helps give me a picture of what the "kingdom of God" looks like in this world.

For example, Jesus demonstrates repeatedly in the gospels, "Love your enemies." But I look around, again at my own community (comfortable, First-World Seventh-day Adventists) and I have to think, "Well, if this is what we're teaching, why are we doing such a terrible job living it?" And I do think that it would be helpful if we taught and preached from Isaiah, not only for the prophecies about the Messiah, but how the message of the prophet helps us understand just what Christ meant. To me, "Love your enemies" becomes a lot more real when one reads the words, "Assyria and Egypt will be a third along with Israel, and God will call all of you, My People." Christians aren't just obligated to love "enemies" like the crusty old neighbor or some bully at school--"enemies" means the people for whom you feel deep animosity, even with good reason. In Isaiah, we've got the big bad on the doorstep (Assyria) and the historical big bad lurking around (Egypt). I've come to believe that if my church is serious about being "God's people," we'd better get serious about seeing Muslims (contemporary big bad) and Roman Catholics (historical big bad) as God's own. And while I suppose that one could come to that conclusion from Jesus's statement "Love your enemies," Isaiah comes up, kicks you right in the mouth, and says, "Hey jackass, that's from God, those folks you're talking smack about are his kids too." And maybe I'm being judgmental, but I think that contemporary American Christianity needs the Holy Spirit to kick in the mouth, ‘cause we ain’t getting the message.

So that's a lot of words to say that yeah, I sure am glad that we have the revelation of Jesus Christ--and his revelation of God is my first and last, my beginning and end. But I sure do love them Hebrew prophets too.