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Good morning.

At Davos on Tuesday, President Donald Trump was in a theological mood. He assured his audience that he was ‘committed to conserving the majesty of God’s creation’, but at the same time he rejected the view of those he termed ‘the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse’ – meaning, it seems, those who warn that we are but a few steps away from environmental disaster.

I doubt that President Trump will ever present himself for a theology seminar in Cambridge, but if he did, there would be a number of ‘talking points’ as they like to say on Fox News. One might have to do with the difference between prophetic and apocalyptic literature, which for all their similarities, can nonetheless be broadly distinguished. What they have in common is that both claim to disclose something about God’s purposes for the world – but while prophecy generally expects the fulfilment of those purposes within history, apocalyptic literature looks beyond and outside history for that fulfilment.

Prophecy hopes that if we listen to what God is telling us here and now, we can get back on track; apocalyptic voices tend to think that we have run out of track and have reached the end of the line – or the end of history – and that only a dramatic cosmic upheaval can save us.

Apart from thinking that we should plant more trees, President Trump proposed business as usual – and flatly rejected the voices of those who say we urgently need to get back on the very last bit of track and restore stability to the environment, and that if we don’t, an apocalyptic end to history is just round the corner. Well, the Bible itself knows very well that not all prophets are true prophets – and in the Bible some prophets even claim they are commanded to prophesy against other prophets. Naming and shaming false prophets is a perfectly proper task then - though it probably needs to proceed on a more solid basis than simply not Iiking a claimed prophet’s message.

However that may be, the key Biblical perspective on prophesy which I would want to impress upon Mr Trump in our imagined seminar – and indeed on anyone else powerful, rich and influential who might care to join us - is this. When in the book of Amos God recounts the good things he has done for his people, he mentions that he has brought them up out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and settled them in the promised land – and, furthermore, that he ‘raised up some of your sons as prophets’. Salvation from slavery, being guided through the wilderness, and receiving a homeland – all very great benefits to be sure. But mentioned immediately alongside them there is the gift of those, raised up as prophets, who try to speak God’s often critical word to the powerful. To those in power, prophets – whether young or old, men or women - can doubtless seem like irritants - but that’s in the job description, and they are, in truth, a blessing.

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