Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman (SRSC 12)

Introduction

Discovering the “Prophetic” I have been interested in things “prophetic” for a long time. In my high school years (1971–1974) it was all about end times predictions. Books told us about how Russia and China would function as the “Gog” and “Magog” of Ezekiel and Revelation. Christ was coming soon. We lived accordingly, focusing our efforts on witnessing to as many people as we could to reach them before the rapture and Great Tribulation. In my college years, I discovered the social justice stream. 1 The social justice folks also talked a lot about prophecy, but they were less concerned about the end of the world and more concerned about how we treated each other in the world. And, they took me straight to the prophetic books of the Bible to show me! And then there was the contemplative stream, encouraging me to believe that God would speak

1 See Richard Foster, Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998). In this book, Foster identifies six streams of Christian spirituality.

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