The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

I. God’s Established Channel of Communication

1. ROLE OF THE PROPHET IN THE PLAN OF GOD

Through past ages God had often spoken through men whom He inspired with divine messages. The call to the prophetic office came not by human appointment but from God, and it came with convincing power and authority directly to the individual chosen. (Hebrews 5:4; 2 Peter 1:11.) The messenger was, in earlier times, called a “seer” (1 Samuel 9:9)—one who sees things beyond natural sight, often in a vision or a dream from God (Numbers 12:6). Sometimes he was designated as a messenger (2 Chronicles 36:15), and sometimes a watchman (Ezekiel 3:17). But more often he was called a “prophet”—not merely a foreteller—, as we generally use the word today, but a forth-teller, or a forteller—a spokesman for God. These prophets, called from all walks of life, were moral and religious teachers. They were often reformers and counselors and spiritual guides, as well as predictors of immediate or distant future events. ¹ Some, like Elisha, worked miracles; others, like John the Baptist, did not. But moved of God (2 Peter 1:21), they all delivered messages from God, not their own. To Hosea God said, “I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.” (Hosea 12:10.) PFF4 964.3

Thus the purposes of God may be revealed to the prophet by vision, dream, oral communication, or otherwise. ² PFF4 965.1

2. THE BIBLE THE SUPREME PRODUCT OF PROPHECY

The supreme manifestation of God’s inspired revelation to man is found in that unrivaled book called the Word of God. (Hebrews 4:12.) We are told that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16), and that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21). It was Moses, the early prophet, who received and delivered the matchless Decalogue, written by the “finger of God” (Deuteronomy 9:10), the principles of which underlie the moral laws of all civilized nations. Through him also was given the Mosaic ceremonial law for Israel, which typified in advance, through the yearly round of sacrifices, the atoning death of Christ-the all-sufficient Sacrifice for a lost world-and foreshadowed His ministry in the heavens above as man’s great High Priest, ending with the final eradication of sin from the universe. PFF4 965.2

It was through the prophetic gift that God repeatedly recalled the backsliding children of Israel during their national existence-reproved, admonished, pleaded, foretold their apostasy and dispersion, promised the Redeemer and Messiah to come, and pointed forward to the “last things” of the world’s history and the glorious kingdom of God. There was Joel, stressing the “day of the Lord”; Isaiah, pressing on the Messianic prophecies; Micah, foretelling Messiah’s birthplace; Zephaniah, also on the “day of the Lord”; Jeremiah, on the coming desolation; Habakkuk, on the triumph of righteousness, and others. ³ And of course Daniel, the inspired forecaster, deals, as has been seen throughout these four volumes, with the sweeping span of the ages-closing with the “time of the end.” And in and through them all the second advent of Christ in great power and glory is ever the climax, the goal, the consummation of all prophetic outlines and utterances ⁴ PFF4 966.1

Then, linked inseparably with the Old Testament penmen, come the apostolic, or New Testament, writers, who give the inspired record of Christ, the supreme Prophet and Fulfiller of prophecy, and the recital of the early days of the infant Christian church. ⁵ And then there are prophets of the last things-Paul, Peter, and finally John, the beloved apostle, who closes the Book of God with the Apocalypse, the most amazing cluster of prophecies of all time-the full complement of the book of Daniel.’ ⁶ The realization that the Bible, the express product of the gift of prophecy, is, next to Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit, God’s best gift to man, lifts the gift of prophecy out of the realm of some strange vagary onto the highest plane in the operation of the marvelous plan of redemption. PFF4 966.2

3. A NORMAL CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION

Prophecy, given through instruments of God’s own choosing, has there forebeen a normal, customary channel for instruction, warning, and guidance. The genuine bestowal of the gift of prophecy is consequently a benediction, a heartening assurance of close connection between God and His people. Prophecy was thus given to the Christian church along with other gifts of the Spirit, such asapostles, teachers, helpers, administrators. (1 Corinthians 12:28, R.S.V.) But the prophetic gift was clearly not confined to the apostles or restricted to the Bible writers. In the early Christian church there were Agabus and other unnamed prophets (Acts 11:27, 28; 21:10, 11), certain prophets at Antioch (Acts 12:1), Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32), and the four daughters of Philip the evangelist (Acts 21:9). PFF4 967.1

4. GOD’S METHOD OF PROPHETIC REVELATION

God chose patriarchs, priests, apostles, laymen, and women as well as men, to receive instruction they were to give to the people. The divine method is illustrated in the call of Jeremiah and of Amos: PFF4 967.2

“The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, ... I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.... Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.... Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.” Jeremiah 1:4-9. PFF4 967.3

“I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.” Amos 7:14, 15. PFF4 967.4

Some prophets and prophetesses delivered oral messages that were rarely recorded, if at all-such as Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), Asaph (2 Chronicles 29:30), Heman (1 Chronicles 25:6), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14), Micaiah (2 Chronicles 18:6, 7), Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:1), Eliezer (2 Chronicles 20:37), Oded (2 Chronicles 28:9), and certain unnamed prophets (Judges 6:8 ff.; 1 Samuel 2:27 ff.; 2 Chronicles 25:7-10). Then there were various other prophets who wrote messages but whose writings were not included in the Sacred Canon—such as the book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18), of Nathan the prophet (2 Samuel 7:2 ff.; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 2:29), of Gad the seer (2 Samuel 24:11; 1 Chronicles 29:29), of the prophet Iddo (2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15), of Jehu (2 Chronicles 20:34), of Ahijah (2 Chronicles 9:29), and Shemaiah (2 Chronicles 12:15). Of their writings little is known, and they evidently had only a local or temporary application. Yet they are recognized as prophets. ⁷ PFF4 967.5

As noted, God’s established method of communication with His appointed prophets of old was often through visions and dreams. (Numbers 12:6.) This included night visions or dreams, through which the prophets received what they solemnly avowed to be direct revelations from God (as in the prophetic symbols of Daniel 7), as well as public visions given in the presence of others. Some of these were accompanied by certain physical phenomena. PFF4 968.1

For example, Daniel—whose prophecies, received through such revelations, form the basis for much of the investigation recorded in these four volumes—describes his experiences in vision. There was first the loss and then the renewal of physical strength, and there was “no breath” in him. (Daniel 10:7-11, 15-19.) In this particular case an angel, after strengthening the prophet, delivered an oral message. Elsewhere somewhat the same initial effect is mentioned of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:28). Paul (Acts 9:4), and John (Revelation 1:17). And in another case still another detail is referred to-the prophet is described as falling down, having his eyes open. (Numbers 24:2-4, 15, 16.) So real were Paul’s “visions and revelations” that he did not know whether he was “in the body” or “out of the body,” when he seemed to be taken up to heaven. (2 Corinthians 12:1-4.) PFF4 968.2

Paul mentions hearing things unlawful to utter. John’s visions in the Revelation are mostly pictorial-scenes vividly enacted which he afterward described. Daniel’s revelations were sometimes given verbally by an angel (Daniel 10), and sometimes pictorially (Daniel 7). Isaiah and Ezekiel received both types, but some prophets seem to have had only verbal messages. PFF4 968.3

Students of prophetism have discussed these various aspects of revelation. But skeptics, ever prone to deny the supernatural in Christianity, have constantly attempted to explain away the visions described of Bible prophets, asserting that such phenomena were merely the artifice of fanatics, ecstatics, epileptics, or trance mediums, or were the result of hysteria, the product of hallucination or of some other nervous disorder, or were accounts written after the occurrences-anything except the simple admission that men were functioning as the prophets of God. ⁸ PFF4 969.1

5. Loss OF PROPHETIC GIFT FROM THE CHURCH

But as the early church lost her first love, while ecclesiastical machinery multiplied and dogma crystallized into creeds, then the early faith and power declined. And simultaneously, the gift of prophecy faded. False manifestations threw discredit on the true (1 Corinthians 14:26-29), and men turned more and more to the authority of the developing Catholic Church, in which the pope came finally to be regarded as God’s mouthpiece and was eventually declared infallible when speaking officially on faith and morals. ⁹ J. C. Lambert names the same two causes which “gradually led to the elimination of the prophetic ministry”: false prophets and— PFF4 969.2

“the growing importance of the official ministry, which begins to claim the functions previously accorded to the prophets alone.... Into the hands of the official class all power in the Church gradually passed, and ... the prophet in the distinctive NT sense disappears entirely from the Catholic Church, while the ministry of office takes the place of the ministry of inspiration.” ¹⁰ 970 PFF4 969.3

In the Reformation the inevitable “lunatic fringe,” as at Zwichau, exhibited enough fanatical “prophets” to drive the main Protestant bodies into rejecting as fanatical and spurious any and all claims to the prophetic gift, and into contending that such belonged only to the Old Testament and apostolic ages. And indeed, down to this day their alarm has often been justified by the claims of those whose alleged revelations have been totally out of harmony with the tests given in the Word of God and often in conflict with reason and fact. Witness the Irvingites in England (discussed in Volume III), and in America the Mormons, Spiritualists, and Shakers. PFF4 970.1

6. RESTORATION OF GIFT IN LAST DAYS EXPECTED

Now the early Sabbatarian Adventists understood that the Bible predicts Satan’s counterfeit miracles in the last days. (2 Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 16:14.) On the other hand, they could not escape the conviction that the Scriptures indicated that the gift of prophecy was likewise to be, vouchsafed to the last-day “remnant” church. They noted that Jesus warned against false prophets among the signs preceding His second coming. (Matthew 24:24.) Would He not have warned against all prophets, they reasoned, if there was to be no true prophecy at that time? And they noted that Christ specifically told how to distinguish true from false prophets—“by their fruits” (Matthew 7:10); that John warned the church to “try the spirits, whether they are of God,” because of many false prophets (1 John 4:1); and that Paul admonished to “despise not prophesyings,” but to sift the true from the false (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22).” ¹¹ PFF4 970.2

Further, they believed that they constituted the predicted “remnant” of Revelation 12:17, characterized by the keeping of the “commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” and having the “testimony of Jesus,” which is defined as “the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10.) ¹² So they came to regard the restoration of the prophetic gift as part of God’s plan for His last-day “remnant” people, definitely associated with the restoration of the Sabbath of the “commandments of God.” PFF4 970.3

They found this association of prophecy with the law of God appearing repeatedly in the Bible: “Where there is no 1 vision [“prophecy,” R.S.V.], the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (Proverbs 29:18.) “The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.” (Lamentations 2:9; cf. Ezekiel 7:26.) And the Lord refused to give Ezekiel a message, because Israel had “despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.” (Ezekiel 20:3, 16.) Only a clear understanding of the historic and prophetic New Testament background of the gift of prophecy could dispel that instinctive and otherwise inevitable hesitancy cherished by a materialistic modern age concerning any last-day manifestation of the gift of prophecy. PFF4 971.1

The genuineness of any modern manifestation of the prophetic gift would, it was recognized, have to be demonstrated by meeting the clear Biblical tests, rigidly applied. And the four sure Biblical tests by which it would be checked were recognized as (1) conformity “to the law and to the testimony”(Isaiah 8:20), (2) fidelity to the verities of the faith (Deuteronomy 13:1-5, ¹³ (3) wholesome character of the fruits they bring forth (1 John 4:1-3; Matthew 7:10), and (4) fulfillment of its predictions(Deuteronomy 18:20-22). In addition, six other evidences may be listed as aids in testing the gift: (1) The practical nature of the counsels given, (2) the timeliness of their application, (3) their high spiritual plane, (4) the way in which they are received and delivered, (5) the certainty of the message conveyed, and (6) independence of outside influences.” ¹⁴ PFF4 971.2

The early Sabbatarian Adventists came to be satisfied that, in harmony with the predictions and specifications of the Bible, the gift of prophecy had now been manifested in the Advent Movement in the work of Ellen G. White (nee Harmon). They did not consider her as their founder or as the originator of their distinctive doctrines, as we have seen, ¹⁵ but as one chosen of God to help keep their feet on the solid rock of Scripture—the true Protestant position. And they did not make faith in her writings a test of church membership. ¹⁶ PFF4 972.1

They asserted that the counsels thus received did not in any way add to or supersede the Bible, but were always to be tested by the Scriptures; that they were given to guard against error and fanaticism, to expose sin and correct wrong, to sound danger signals when there was peril of going astray, to bring about unity, and to help keep their feet on the solid pathway of Scripture, and moving straight forward toward the kingdom. They always insisted that the writings given through the Spirit of prophecy” ¹⁷ should never be considered either a part of, or an addition to, the canon of Scripture, which all understood was closed with the apostolic book of Revelation. There was no deviation from this position. PFF4 972.2

7. RELATION OF SPIRIT OF PROPHECY TO BIBLE

The matter of this relationship was so vital to the Adventists that amplification here is desirable. The classic early statements of the relationship of the spiritual gifts, or the Spirit of prophecy, to the Bible are given by James White, who, with Joseph Bates, was widely recognized as the cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. He stated: PFF4 972.3

“The Bible is our lamp, our guide. It is our rule of faith, and practice: still there is no reason why God may not give special revelations to lead the erring to God, and his living word.” ¹⁸ And two years later, in 1851, he declared: PFF4 972.4

“The gifts of the Spirit should all have their proper places. The Bible is an everlasting rock. It is our rule of faith and practice. In it the man of God is ‘throughly furnished unto all good works.’ If every member of the church of Christ was holy, harmless, and separate from sinners, and searched the Holy Scriptures diligently and with much prayer for duty, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, we think, they would be able to learn their whole duty in ‘all good works.’ Thus ‘the man of God may be perfect.’ But as the reverse exists, and ever has existed, God in much mercy has pitied the weakness of his people, and has set the gifts in the gospel church to correct our errors, and to lead us to his Living Word. Paul says that they are for the ‘perfecting of the saints,’ ‘till we all come in the unity of the faith.’—The extreme necessity of the church in its imperfect state is God’s opportunity to manifest the gifts of the Spirit. PFF4 973.1

“Every Christian is therefore in duty bound to take the Bible as a perfect rule of faith and duty. He should pray fervently to be aided by the Holy Spirit in searching the Scriptures for the whole truth, and for his whole duty. He is not at liberty to turn from them to learn his duty through any of the gifts. We say that the very moment he does, he places the gifts in a wrong place, and takes an extremely dangerous position. The Word should be in front, and the eye of the church should be placed upon it, as the rule to walk by, and the fountain ot wisdom, from which to learn duty in ‘all good works.’ But if a portion of the church err from the truths of the Bible, and become weak, and sickly, and the flock become scattered, so that it seems necessary for God to employ the” gifts of the Spirit to correct, revive and heal the erring, we should let him work.” ¹⁹ PFF4 973.2

Ellen White herself always exalted the Bible as the source of revealed truth, the guidebook to holiness, the handbook of true devotion, and the word of the living God for her own life. Her relation to that Word, and that of her writings, is consistently expressed: PFF4 973.3

“I recommend to you, dear reader, the word of God as the rule of your faith and practice. By that word we are to be judged. God has, in that word, promised to give visions in the ‘LAST DAYS;’ not for a new rule of faith, but for the comfort of his people, and to correct those who err from Bible truth.” ²⁰ PFF4 973.4

“The word of God is sufficient to enlighten the most beclouded mind, and may be understood by those who have any desire to understand it. But notwithstanding all this, some who profess to make the word of God their study, are found living in direct opposition to its plainest teachings. Then, to leave men and women without excuse, God gives plain and pointed testimonies, bringing them back to the word that they have neglected to follow.” ²¹ PFF4 974.1

“The Testimonies are not to belittle the word of God, but to exalt it, and attract minds to it, that the beautiful simplicity of truth may impress all.” ²² PFF4 974.2

8. MEANING OF THE TERM “SPIRIT OF PROPHECY.”

The “spirit of prophecy,” of Revelation 19:10, may be defined basically as the Holy Spirit speaking, or prophesying, through a prophet of God’s choosing, as had been His accustomed procedure through all past communication with His church. Thus it was both in Old Testament times ²³ and in apostolic days. ²⁴ And so the Sabbatarian Adventists came to understand that it was again to be found in the last days, in the remnant portion, or final segment, of the Christian church. The Spirit of prophecy, they held, was destined to appear for the special guidance of the church of the latter times. PFF4 974.3

This larger over-all picture of God’s designated mode of communication with man was, they held, clearly the intent of the apostle John. He himself was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos for having, and giving utterance to, the “testimony of Jesus” in his day (Revelation 1:2, 9), which he explicitly declared to be identical with the “spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). ²⁵ And the book of Revelation, penned by the apostle, was the preeminent exhibition of the “testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 1:1.) PFF4 974.4

The Apocalypse stands as the climax of prophetic revelation, being given not only to disclose the conflict of the ages, but in a special sense to pilot the remnant church through the final scenes of earth’s climactic hour. The book, or prophecy, of Revelation would therefore be the special object of concern and study by the remnant church—as it portrays the rise and development of the Second Advent Movement, its authorizing mandate and message, and its destined triumph. (Revelation 14:6-12.) And the last appearance of the Spirit of prophecy, they reasoned, is to be at the time appointed in inseparable connection with the revival of the keeping of the commandments of God and the restoration of the original faith of Jesus. PFF4 975.1

9. AIDS AS A MAGNIFYING GLASS ASSISTS

These early Sabbatarian Adventists held the Bible to be basic, unique, and complete, their sole rule of faith and practice. What they spoke of as “the Spirit of prophecy” counsels, they regarded primarily as an aid to a fuller, clearer understanding of the Bible. They aptly likened those counsels to a magnifying glass that brings out, not something new, but details that otherwise might be missed by the unaided human eye. Ellen White herself called them “a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light [the Bible].” ²⁶ PFF4 975.2

So they accepted these counsels because they believed them to meet the Biblical specifications for the Spirit of prophecy predicted for the last days, and to be in fundamental accord with the spirit and the express teachings of the Bible. They constantly claimed that the writings were ever to be judged by the Word, and any doctrine or moral teaching therein that is contrary to, or in conflict with, the Bible, was to be rejected. ²⁷ Moreover, every distinctive Bible truth constituting the body of belief of the Sabbatarian Adventists was, they main- rained, derived directly from diligent and prayerful study of the Scriptures themselves. No single major doctrine was ever initially received through the Spirit of prophecy. The doctrines were simply confirmed by the gift, or the concept broadened, or erroneous ideas pointed out. All their cardinal beliefs were based on, and in turn were preached from, the Bible alone. So it was that James and Ellen White, and all other Adventist pioneers, ever insisted that the Spirit of prophecy was not a substitute for either personal or group Bible study. And the Seventh-day Adventist denomination holds the same position today on the primacy of the Bible. ²⁸ PFF4 975.3

Before discussing further the relation of Ellen G. White to the emerging group who were to become the Seventh-day Adventists, it will be well to sketch the life of this remarkable woman. PFF4 976.1