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The Gift of Prophecy

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    The Wholistic Nature of Humanity

    Biblical anthropology has been the subject of numerous studies. 3See, e.g., Hans Walter Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament (London: SCM, 1974); John W. Rogerson, Anthropology and the Old Testament, The Biblical Seminar (Sheffield: JSOT, 1984); Bernard Lang, ed., Anthropological Approaches to the Old Testament, Issues in Religion and Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985); Antonio Rodríguez Carmona, “El Hombre En El Judaísmo,” Estudios Bíblicos 57 (1999): 589-611; Robert A. di Vito, “Old Testament Anthropology and the Construction of Personal Identity,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 61 (2000): 217-238; Bernd Janowski, “Der Mensch Im Alten Israel. Grundfragen Alttestamentlicher Anthropologie,” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 102 (2005): 143-175; Gerald A. Klingbeil, “Between ‘I’ and ‘We’: The Anthropology of the Hebrew Bible and Its Importance for a 21st-Century Ecclesiology,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 19 (2009): 319-339; Annette Schellenberg, Der Mensch, das Bild Gottes? Zum Gedanken einer Sonderstellung des Menschen im Alten Testament und in den weiteren altorientalischen Quellen, Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments 101 (Zurich: TVZ, 2011). In this research we presuppose the biblical understanding of the wholistic nature of human beings, as reflected in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. 4See Norman R. Gulley, Systematic Theology: Creation, Christ, Salvation (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 2012), 109-116.GOP 141.1

    Opposed to dualism is biblical monism, the position according to which all expressions of the inner life depend on the whole of human nature, including the organic system. The components of a human being function as a unit. There is no separable soul or spirit capable of conscious existence apart from the body. 5Aecio E. Cairus, “The Doctrine of Man,” in Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, ed. Raoul Dederen; Commentary Reference Series 12 (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald®, 2000), 212.GOP 141.2

    As humans we were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26, 27). 6In earlier research it was argued that the capacity to speak and express complex emotions in language was part and parcel of having been created in the image of God. Cf. Gerald A. Klingbeil, “ ‘He Spoke and It Was’: Human Language, Divine Creation, and the imago Dei,” Horizons in Biblical Theology 36, no. 1 (2014): 42-59, esp. 45-49. Since we are made in God’s image, we could assume that our emotions are in some way reflective of God’s emotions, even though ours are subject to sin while His are not. We do not believe in the duality of human beings, separating a body from an independent soul. Instead, we argue for a wholistic view of a human being where emotions are an integral part of the overall existence. 7Cairus, 205-232. From the outset it would be important to reiterate the obvious: prophets were and are people who brought all of their personhood into their prophetic office. However, before we look at the emotional involvement of the prophets in their ministry and writings, it is important to try to find a working definition of the word emotion.GOP 141.3