NOTE E
We can expand on our definition of culture prophecy, breaking
it out into at least five specific common traits as they appear
in today's prophetic movements:
- Culture prophecy speaks to us about our involvement with
temporal issues, but makes the issues themselves paramount in
our eyes. Though it pays lip service to our eternal hope, its
words do not speak from eternal hope as the ultimate reference
point of our destiny. The cultural prophetic is also blind to
any conditionality regarding how we will appear in the eternal
realm, and takes our entrance into glory for granted as an
assumed eventuality. So it offers no vision, incentive or
practical exhortation toward preparing for immortality or for
completing the bridge to it.
- Culture prophecy is attuned to the spiritual realms with
respect only to their final effect on temporal realm issues.
Therefore culture prophecy is reactive to temporal events and
trends rather than governing of them. The culture and the
unseen powers behind it set the agenda for what is prophesied
and taught. (The prophetic scrambling since the Sept. 11th
attacks in America is a good example. See
Note G.)
- Culture prophecy makes life preserving promises and
warnings without respect to developing the inner hidden life
in God. Whether speaking to churches or to earthly peoples and
governments, it tells people what they must do to be preserved
in this life or to avoid a tragedy, but for no greater reason
than preserving present natural life and keeping it safe for
the next generation. It focuses on developing inner
relationship with God only where that relationship services
the end of keeping cultures, governments and peoples blessed
here and now.
- Culture prophecy speaks to people, both believers and
non-believers, only in context of their natural adamic
identity as families, nations, cities, etc, without
recognizing the futility of these identities or acknowledging
the enmity between new identity in Christ and identity in
Adam, or that identity in Christ transcends all natural
identity. Seeking instead to "identify" with earthly
peoples without grounding reference to the church's unique
separateness from them, it prophesies to the sanctifying
of adamic identity in Christ. Seeing the two as compatible, it
tries to merge them. Culture Prophecy proclaims to the
earth's peoples God's glorification of and pleasure with their
passing cultures, declaring God's great "destiny" for them as
adamic people—even though they are hell-bound, natively
hostile to God and their flesh cannot please God. It really
makes God a respecter of persons and of flesh. (This is
especially prevalent in America and Western countries. More
in Note G.)
- Culture prophecy portrays God's love for man primarily in
terms of divine emotion. Diminishing or excluding the
grounding elements of covenant and authority, it speaks to
man, not the Son, as the center of God's affections and
purposes. It lowers God's love for men to the level of soulish
human love. It can also transfer that love into implied divine
support for human cultural agendas and enterprises. [For
an extensive study of this topic, please refer to the
article The
Mystery of Passionism.]
Not all five of these traits may be present in any single
prophecy. But missing from all culture prophecies is the
paramount belief in and call to losing natural life attraction
and identity toward completing eternal union with Christ.