The Abiding Gift of Prophecy

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Paramount Need in the Last Days

If ever in the course of the race man needed divine guidance, it is surely in these last days, when all the forces of iniquity have broken loose to confuse and to ruin, when the secular world has gone materialist, and the religious world has turned to modernistic teachings. If ever in history the church needed to have divine guidance, that time was reached at the crisis hour of the advent movement, just following the disappointment of 1844, and throughout the decades following. Far-reaching were the issues; but adequate was God’s guidance. AGP 371.3

The last conflict comes over allegiance to God, and reaches its consummation in our day. The perfect law of God, with its Sabbath seal, is the object of Satan’s hatred, and he would swing the world to his side in the conflict. The full salvation provided through faith in Christ is equally the object of his relentless attempts to deny His incarnation, His atoning death, His priestly ministry, and His imminent return in power and glory. AGP 371.4

Satan’s wrath is focused on God’s remnant church, the supreme object of divine love and guidance. This church will finally stand as the sole defender of God’s trampled law, to which are joined the full provisions of redemption. Not only is the church as a whole the object of the evil one’s attack, but the individual member as well is harassed, because of maintaining the integrity of the law and the gospel. Through injecting AGP 371.5

doubt, carelessness, defiance, or repudiation, Satan likewise seeks to turn allegiance from the counsels of the gift of prophecy. Hence the three great issues at stake in this last hour are as clearly and sharply defined as inspiration can disclose them. But these have all become confused in the beliefs and practices among the masses of Christendom. AGP 372.1

But now, in bringing this volume to a close, the question of individual and church relationship to God’s gift stands forth as of supreme importance. My closing words are therefore a plea for the recognition and heeding of this divine provision for the counsel of the church. They are an appeal to the church to keep these matters ever in mind, and to follow them faithfully in practice. AGP 372.2