Ecstatic prophets in Israel and its relevance to the African indigenous churches in Nigeria

Abstract

Prophecy, prophet(s) and prophesying were usual religious and spiritual phenomena in ancient Israel which do pose challenges for the contemporary church. Sending of divine messages or revelation to the covenant people through the chosen spokespersons were part of deity and human transactions. The violent and crazy act of the prophet in the course of relating the messages of the divine has posed certain apprehensions and was often a source of fear in the people. Such manner of display by prophets is often done as a way to authenticate and make their oracles look as though they are original. The methodology employed in this brief study is an exegetical word study of key concepts and words as used in biblical texts and its applicability in African Initiated Churches. The researcher additionally employed a comparative approach on Ancient Israel and African Initiated Churches. The study discovered that in biblical times, ecstatic prophecy at times involved violence, crazy displays and emotional outbursts. Similarly, among the African Initiated Churches such practices are still employed with all the privileges and dangers attached to them. In the process of receiving or/and delivering divine messages, a state of ecstasy might be expressed by the recipients of the messages.