Review of Jonathan Jenkins' 'God's Prophetic Spirit'
Jonathan Jenkins' book God's Prophetic Spirit: A Textual Model for Understanding the Promise of the Holy Spirit (Volume 1) is a strange work full of historically unprecedented theological claims. Jenkins covers numerous aspects of the Holy Spirit, but for the sake of brevity I'd like to highlight three I felt were most relevant and shocking. First, Jenkins claims the Holy Spirit only works through miraculous prophesy and that he has never worked in a non-prophetic or non-miraculous way [3]. Second, he claims Joel 2:28-29, as cited by Peter in Acts, is the most important passage in the Bible for interpreting the Holy Spirit's work, and he claims this passage limits all of the Holy Spirit's activity with man to "prophesy, visions, and dreams" (everything about the Spirit can only fall into one of those categories) [4]. Third, the Holy Spirit's work with man ended when the last book of the Bible was inspired and completed, and this date corresponds with God's destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 [5].
To be frank, God's Prophetic Spirit is the most logically nonsensical book I've ever read (and I've read many). The three ideas I chose to highlight in the above paragraph, and numerous others I won't mention, are incredibly strange and have never before been advocated in Christianity's 2,000 year history [6].
Jenkins explains his motivations for writing in the preface. He admits that he's never felt God's Spirit work in his life, claims he's never received help from God in his fight against sin, and asserts that no prayer ever helped him deliver a better sermon [7]. Jenkins expresses his disdain for charismatic, subjective, mystical, and Calvinistic interpretations of the Spirit's work and expresses his hope to counter them by reinterpreting the Spirit as no longer active in today's world [8].
This review is a deconstruction of Jenkins' book. I have six main criticisms. First, Jenkins himself demolishes his own claim that the Holy Spirit only works through prophecy by analyzing Bible passages that deal with the numerous other ways in which the Spirit has worked with man. Second, Joel 2 does not limit the Holy Spirit's New Testament work, and this is proven in Acts 2. Third, the Holy Spirit's work did not end with the Bible or in AD 70. Fourth, Jenkin's logic constitutes a form of belated deism in which God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have been totally absent from the world for the last two millennia. Fifth, a significant amount of Jenkin's ideas about the Holy Spirit are based upon a pragmatism fallacy. Sixth, Jenkins effectively divides the Christian dispensation into two dispensations and, ironically, renders the Bible of limited use to modern Christians.
DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT ONLY WORK PROPHETICALLY?
Jenkins claims throughout his book's 236 pages that the Holy Spirit only works prophetically, that his only interactions with man were prophetic, and that his one mission was prophetic. He named his book "God’s Prophetic Spirit." However, it only takes a few pages of reading his verse by verse analysis, where he claims to cover every Bible passage about the Spirit, before his foundational argument collapses.
Jenkins unwittingly highlights numerous alternative ways in which the Holy Spirit has worked with man. I've counted 28 non-prophetic interaction styles. These include: giving tailoring skills [9], giving construction skills [10], giving artistic skills [11], overseeing leadership appointments/proficiency [12], giving intelligence [13], giving wisdom [14], giving prowess in war [15], helping Sampson kill a lion [16], inspiring a variety of emotions [17], transporting people from one place to another [18], giving personal guidance [19], generally empowering [20], giving people better counseling skills [21], enforcing justice [22], giving rest [23], helping people avoid sin [24], giving and sustaining life [25], bonding couples in marriage [26], impregnating Mary [27], giving personal revelations [28], giving the gift of tongues [29], giving the gift of healing [30], helping people teach [31], helping people sing [32], helping people pray [33], helping people with administration [34], helping people serve [35], and fostering unity [36].
Despite individually interacting with Bible passages that discuss each of these ways in which the Holy Spirit non-prophetically works with man, Jenkins reasserts countless times that the Holy Spirit only works prophetically. The way Jenkins justifies this astounding tendency is by redefining the word "prophesy" to mean literally anything the Holy Spirit does [37]. This redefinition, however, is never clearly explained and the reader is left bewildered at Jenkins' non-stop, acceleratingly bizarre claims that all 28 of these interaction styles are "prophesy."
Why does Jenkins want to redefine prophesy like this? He's motivated by his belief that prophesy ends with the coming of the Bible [38], and he believes that if he can prove this then the charismatic view of the Holy Spirit's work will be discredited.
ARE JOEL 2'S "PROPHECIES, DREAMS, & VISIONS" THE ONLY WAY THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN WORK?
Perhaps Jenkins' most bizarre claim is that all Holy Spirit work must be reinterpreted through the lens of Joel 2. Jenkins writes that the Holy Spirit could not have helped early Christians do anything more than prophesy, have visions, and dream dreams because Joel 2 is the only Old Testament passage used in the New Testament to describe the work of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Jenkins claims that God could not have done more than he formerly prophesied he would do, God can never exceed the expectations set by a prophecy, so the Holy Spirit's work must be totally summed up in Joel 2.
I was incredibly confused by Jenkins' logic the first time I read the book, and I kept rereading the relevant sentences because I was certain I must have missed the logic behind them. I eventually discovered, however, that this idea is just as nonsensical as it initially appears. It's difficult to fathom how Jenkins could have imagined such a strange hermeneutic (much less written an entire book defending it).
Again, however, Jenkins ends up discrediting his own idea by citing the Bible. How can it be that the Holy Spirit's work in the New Testament was limited to "prophesy, visions, and dreams" if Peter cited Joel 2 on Pentecost in the context of the apostles speaking in tongues? Joel said nothing about speaking in tongues, and so in the very center of Jenkins' primary proof text is a glaring contradiction that he's never able to reconcile.
The contradictions don't stop in Acts 2, however. In another chapter, Jenkins claims that the Holy Spirit was necessary in the early church because the early Christians didn't have the Bible to guide them. In making this claim, he points to verses about the role of the Spirit in helping Christians sing, pray, and perform leadership roles. Jenkins himself writes that the Spirit did more than "prophecy, visions, and dreams" in the New Testament era. How is this reconciled? It never is, he just changes language and gaslights everyone into assuming it makes sense.
Jenkins continues to forcefully claim that the Holy Spirit's only work is prophetic even after all this, and he eventually constructs entire chapters on logical assumptions arising from this weird idea. It's a sad example of building houses on sand.
DID THE HOLY SPIRIT’S WORK END WITH THE BIBLE?
Jenkins needs the Holy Spirit's work to end with the Bible because if it continued beyond that point then his case against the charismatics and Pentecostals wouldn't be as strong. Jenkins also knows that because his entire book is justified as a "textual approach" he needs at least some Biblical evidence for this claim [39].
Jenkins writes that the Bible is "the perfect" mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 and thus "when the perfect comes" prophecy will pass away [40]. It suddenly becomes clear why Jenkins has so desperately crammed every single work of the Holy Spirit into the prophecy category. He knew that his only chance of textually proving that the Holy Spirit retired after the completion of the Bible was 1 Corinthians 13:8-12, and since Paul only mentioned prophecy, tongues, and knowledge Jenkins needs to organize his whole subject matter into one of those categories in order to ensure that it dissipated within his desired time frame.
1 Corinthians 13:8-12 is an oft cited passage within the Churches of Christ. The question "what is 'the perfect?'" is a highly relevant one. If "the perfect" is the Bible, then Paul's prediction that prophesy, knowledge, and tongues would cease when it arrived must be very general. At least one apostle was still living after the Bible was finished, and it's almost certain that many hundreds of prophetically gifted people were still alive whom the apostles had laid hands on.
The way that Jenkins deals with the above problem is by claiming that all prophetic and miraculous gifts ended in AD 70 after the temple was destroyed [41]. This is an extraordinary claim given that the Apostle John was still alive for another three decades after this date. Did John suddenly lose all his apostolic power after the temple was destroyed? Furthermore, how did John write the book of Revelation? Early church history and modern scholars agree that Revelation wasn't written until at least a decade after AD 70, so how was Revelation written if the Holy Spirit had abandoned humanity so long before it came into existence? Considerably more could be said to refute this particular claim by Jenkins, but I imagine his view is such a strange fringe opinion that it doesn't yet deserve serious attention.
JENKINS' THEORIES CONSTITUTE BELATED DEISM
Jenkins very specifically formulates his idea that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have all fulfilled their roles in the work of salvation. He writes that the Holy Spirit's role was one of completion, and if the Holy Spirit finished his work among men then we should probably assume Jenkins means for us to believe that the Father and Son have also removed themselves from the human scene. Jenkins compares this retirement from humanity with God resting on the seventh day of creation [42].
Jenkins doesn't believe that the Holy Spirit intercedes for Christians during prayer because he claims that Romans 8:26-27 only applied to the pre-Biblical Christians who didn't have access to the completed revelation and thus still needed the Spirit's direct guidance [43].
I fail to see how Jenkins' logic differs much from deism, given that he doesn't believe God helps or interacts with man in any way. Jenkins' ideas appear to constitute a form of belated deism in which God abandons creation after the Bible was finished rather than after Genesis 1 [44]. Jenkins himself states in his book's preface that he doesn't believe prayer can help one overcome sin or preach, so the reader has every reason to assume Jenkins is a functional deist and that he's encouraging us to follow him into this worldview.
If the Church of Christ follows Jenkins' theology into deism it will have divorced itself from all forms of historical Christianity. Modern Christians are far worse off than anyone who lived under the patriarchal or Mosaic covenant if we don't have the Holy Spirit or even the ability to pray.
JENKINS SUBSCRIBES TO A PRAGMATISM FALLACY
Another line of Jenkins' argument is based on what I call the "pragmatism fallacy" [45]. I've heard this line of thinking from numerous members of the Churches of Christ who argue against any form of spiritual activity in the modern world. The fallacy is often communicated like this: "The Holy Spirit doesn't work today because the Bible has been completed and that means he has no reason to work today." Jenkins is not the only person to make extensive use of this fallacy, and I have talked to many others who use it regularly.
What's wrong with the pragmatism fallacy? Firstly, how exactly does the existence of the Bible limit the Spirit's ability to work? Has the Spirit been sucked up and trapped inside it? The Bible must be the only book in existence that prevents its writer from ever communicating again. Authors don't stop talking after writing a book, they don't say "Well, read my book because it's my only statement on the matter." Authors often talk more after writing books than they do before. Secondly, the pragmatism fallacy assumes that the Holy Spirit only works in efficient or reductionist ways, that make sense to us. In other words, if we can't see the need for the Holy Spirit to work outside the Bible then we assume that our logical assumption about that lack of need is also shared by the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, we are God's children and God seeks to interact with us just like parents seek to interact with their children. It might be technically efficient for parents to simply throw a rule book at their kids and tell them to carry out certain productive activities every day, but no parent considers that kind of interaction to be a true relationship. Why are we assuming that God treats us like machines, and that he uploaded Biblical programming into us and then ran away?
We should stop thinking about efficiency and what God "needs to do." It's odd to imagine that for thousands of years God wanted to interact with us in direct ways, but then after Jesus came he just dropped a book in our laps, clocked out, and started withdrawing retirement stipends.
JENKINS CREATES A NEW CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION
Most of us who were raised in the Church of Christ tend to think of biblical history in three dispensations: the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian. Jenkins,' however, inadvertently divides the Christian dispensation into two eras: the "Holy Spirit era" and the "Bible era" [46].
The problem with this division is that the Bible was written entirely within the Holy Spirit era, and all its contents are directed towards groups of people who lived within an enchanted world where the Holy Spirit was active and working. This leaves modern Christians in the twenty first century stuck in the Bible era with a Bible that has almost nothing instructive to say to us because it was written to people operating in a different spiritual era.
Jenkins inadvertently alludes to this when he argues that Ephesians 5:18-19 is about a Spirit guided worship assembly with a categorically different kind of singing than what we practice today [47]. He also reduces the Bible's usefulness by reinterpreting several other passages that modern Christians have long assumed are applicable to us, among these are those related to spiritual gifts and church talents (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12-14, and Ephesians 4). According to Jenkins, spiritual gifts were all miraculous and prophetic and no longer given to us today. If the Holy Spirit has no role in the Bible era church then modern Christians have no clear instructive text from which to model our lives. We live in a dispensation without any revelation. Ironically, Jenkins claims the Bible is the Holy Spirit's crowning achievement, but then he inadvertently renders that crowning achievement of limited relevance to twenty first century Christians.
CONCLUSION
Nobody in Christian history has ever believed the weird ideas Jenkins advocates. Jenkins himself contradicts his own conclusions numerous times throughout the book. I can honestly say, as an avid reader, that this is the worst book I've ever read.
The Holy Spirit helped people throughout biblical history in a variety of ways depending on their specific needs. Many, if not most, of the ways he helped people are still needed today and cannot be replaced by the Bible. Personal guidance, emotional inspiration, and spiritual strength are needed by every single Christian every single day. Millions of modern Christians pray for help around the clock and around the globe. If the Holy Spirit can no longer personally help us then we're worse off than our Old Testament predecessors. Jenkins is trying to drag us dangerously close to deism, and if we don’t reject him we'll find ourselves incapable of praying for help.
NOTES
[1] I was motivated to review this book after Travis Main, operator of the Church of Christ Articles blog, began recommending Jonathan Jenkin's book. I later discovered that Main has written his own six-part online series denying the modern work of the Holy Spirit.
[2] All page references are taken from the 2014 print edition of the book published by Digital Bible Study Books (Houston/Atlanta). The pages listed below are not exhaustive.
[3] Pages 1, 3, 10, 25-26 (and countless other places)
[4] Pages 40, 45-46, 64, 73, 77, 78, 79, 90
[5] Pages 139, 151, 236
[6] I have a history degree and attended a Church of Christ college and graduate school. I have never encountered anything in church history prior to the Enlightenment (1700s) suggesting that any branch of Christianity denied the modern work of the Holy Spirit in some form.
[7] Pages IX, X, 128
[8] Pages X, 4, 59
[9] Page 10
[10] Page 11
[11] Page 11
[12] Pages 14, 18, 47
[13] Page 11, 26
[14] Pages 14, 29
[15] Pages 15-16
[16] Page 16
[17] Pages 17, 44, 56
[18] Pages 19-20, 34
[19] Pages 24, 49
[20] Pages 27, 34-35
[21] Page 29
[22] Pages 30-31, 36
[23] Page 33
[24] Page 35
[25] Pages 36-37
[26] Page 44
[27] Page 54
[28] Page 55
[29] Pages 72, 89, 117, 119
[30] Page 117
[31] Page 117
[32] Page 122
[33] Page 123
[34] Page 124
[35] Page 124
[36] Page 125
[37] Page 4
[38] Pages 109, 134, 137, 231
[39] Page 2
[40] Pages 135, 137
[41] Jenkins claims that Jesus' "Day of the Lord" was in AD 70 and that the prophecies about his return in Matthew 25 are about this event (or something to that effect). See pages 139, 151, 152, 236.
[42] Pages 231-234
[43] Page 124
[44] Pages 227-228, 231, 234
[45] Pages 1, 40, 107, 126, 128, 175
[46] Pages 117, 124, 227-228
[47] Page 122