Analysis of O. Palmer Robertson´s Writings Regarding The Old Testament Prophets and Their crutial Role in Leading Mankind Towards God

A “biblical guide to resolving personal conflict”, this, in a nutshell is what “The Peace Maker” is all about. In this critical book review I will be taking topics from the book and giving the reader my personal views on how I either reacted or related to the topics covered. My goal for this paper is to give the reader a non-biased opinion of “The Peace Maker”, which was published by Baker Books in June of 2004.

The prophets are difficult to interpret mainly due to misunderstandings about their function and form (Fee/Stuart p182). Most dictionaries define the word “prophecy”as ‘foretelling or prediction of what is to come. Using the prophets in this way is highly discerning, for less than 2% of OT prophecy is messianic; less than 5% describes the new covenant age and less than 1% concerns future events (Fee/Stuart p182). The prophets usually announced the immediate future of Judah, Israel and the surrounding nations, rather than our future. Those events were forthcoming for them but past for us (Fee/Stuart p182). The primary function of prophets as a spokesperson was to speak for God to their own contemporaries. Of the hundreds of prophets in

First, what must be looked at is who is a prophet and what is a prophet’s message. A prophet is an Israelite called on by God to express in poetic form the vision of God, His kingdom, the messianic age of peace, the work of the Holy Spirit, a new community of people, and the transformation of creation and humanity (VanGemeren 16). One example of a prophet is Amos, where the feeling of prophetic sense of an inner compulsion, “Surly the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7-8).

Dr. Desmond Alexander is a well know author of books on biblical theology and is senior lecturer in Biblical Studies at Union Theological College and associate

A prophet's message is always spoken in the name of God. A prophet never introduces his message with the words "thus says Amos" or "thus says Isaiah." Rather, the messenger formula that appears in the text is always, "Thus says the LORD Yahweh". The message is thus the most important thing about the prophet, not the prophet himself or herself. This may be why prophets rarely mention specific names or dates that could draw the people away from the central core of the message. In addition, the prophet’s message is spoken on behalf of God (God’s words), each prophet has distinctive style/rhetoric, the message is centered on the present or near future, the prophet uses images that relate to the people to whom they are addressing. When the prophet operated within wisdom tradition, the message was given in the form of a parable or proverb (2 Sam. 12: 1- 15). In the case of a miracle story (2 Kings 4:1-7), the prophet operates as a divine representative and patron. In pronouncing a covenant lawsuit the prophet functions as a member of the divine assembly (1 Kings 22:10- 17). The often elaborate oracles against the nations place the prophet in the position of a divinely

To fully understand the meaning behind his sermons and predictions we must first look at what a prophet is and what he holds true.

The group of Prophetic Books are divided into the minor prophets and major prophets. The major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are listed first, but not because their messages are more important but that they are longer. The twelve minor prophets are from Hosea through Malachi are writings shorter in length written in shorter in length and follow one by one. The main role for the prophets is to “speak for God” on the issues of the

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main themes of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The main themes of Isaiah are: (1) Son’s Names as Signs. (2) Servant. (3) Holy One of Israel. (4) Redeemer. (5) Eschatology. The main themes of Jeremiah are: (1) God’s Policy with Nations. (2) New Covenant. (3) False Prophets.

The Christ of the Covenants demonstrates the relationship between five covenants God instigated with Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and David in the Old Testament, and how they are reflected in Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection in the New Testament. In answering four basic questions, I discovered this main idea to be true time and time again. Robertson exhibits his vast knowledge of the subject with a concisely structured index outlining one clear point for the entire novel.

John H. Walton’s Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible is broken up into fourteen chapters. Those fourteen chapters are each part of one of five sections. This book also contains over twenty historical images. Before the introduction, the author gives readers a full appendix of all images used in this published work. The author then gives his acknowledgements followed by a list of abbreviations.

Dennis Bratcher provides insight on the ethics of the prophets in his article entitled Social Ethics in the Prophets. In this article Bratcher gives the reader some general information regarding the prophets before discussing in greater detail the theological foundation of the prophets and social ethics as it pertains to the prophets. Today, we understand that the torah and the prophetic traditions existed side by side in Israel’s religious life. They were both expressions of what the people had come to understand about God and how they should respond to God.

Isaiah came during a pivotal time in history. The world was changing rapidly and life was on the edge of prosperity and ruin, as it is today. In this uncertain time Isaiah was called by God to deliver a message of warning, comfort, and deliverance. Christians view the prophecies of Isaiah as a projection of the coming of Jesus Christ. Isaiah spoke of divine judgment and the promises of God through the Prince of Peace. Isaiah’s message of the future King was very meticulous. He describes how Christ will come, Christ’s character and Christ’s purpose. In this paper I will dissect Isaiah’s prophecies in the Old Testament and reference them to the events of Christ in the New Testament.

The Prophetic Imagination compiled by Brueggemann, demonstrates both the validity of and complexity involved in dealing with prophetic word to the Church. This text examines the witness of the prophets toward the nation of Israel. Brueggemann’s book contains seven chapters, along with the last section of Notes which includes a brief summary on each chapter. Walter Brueggemann wrote the preface. Brueggemann particularly focused on monarchy and applies his critique towards the contemporary stage the church finds itself. He identifies that Jesus fulfilled his role as the sacrifice and passed the ministry of the Kingdom to the church. He believes and strongly argues towards a ‘prophetic ministry’ requiring by a ‘prophetic imagination’ in order to create and nurture another consciousness, which leads to and nurtures an alternative community. Brueggemann views the drastic break Israel took from Egypt through Moses’ connection with God as the framing consideration of this alternative consciousness and community. He sees the drift in the Israelite community toward the monarchy as a reversal of the liberating act of God in their past, or a shift toward a pre-Exodus perception. The task of the prophet, at this point, was to constantly restore and nurture the way of thinking defined by Moses and the Exodus. Brueggemann describes ‘prophetic ministry’ as being characterized by critique and energizing. The critique is not pointing fingers at what we disagree with, rather

To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It

The Old Testament ends with the Minor Prophets. These prophets provided insight on many issues the Jews were facing. All of the prophets had the same ideas of a warning of impending judgment because of the nations’ sinfulness, the coming judgment, a call for repentance, and a promise of future deliverance of God’s grace. Idolatry, social injustice and religious ritualism are three issues that the prophets emphasized on in their teachings and can be inspired in the minds and hearts of believers today. The prophets’ teachings are just as important today as they were in the past. The teachings about God, the way man lived, social issues, and religious rituals are all relevant in the today’s society.