Understanding Ellen White

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Chapter Sixteen - The Gift of Prophecy and Contemporary Ideas

Gerhard Pfandl

After sin entered this world, the gift of prophecy became an important means of communication between God and humanity. From Abraham, the first man to be called a prophet (Gen. 20:7), to Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, there is a long line of faithful messengers of the Lord who guided, counseled, and frequently rebuked and admonished the Israelites and their kings (1 Sam. 13:13, 14; 1 Kings 18:21; Mal. 3:8, 9). Following a four- hundred-year interval, the prophetic gift appeared again within Judaism in New Testament times (Luke 2:25-32, 36-38; Matt. 3:1-3) and later in the Christian church (Acts 13:1; 15:32; 21:9; 1 Cor. 14:29-32). UEGW 228.1