Why I Believe in Mrs. E. G. White

Chapter Thirteen—Mrs. White Looks Into the Future

Most people, when they think of the word prophet, think of someone who is ever and anon peering into the future and making announcements of what is to come. In other words, they think of him as someone who predicts, forecasts. A great many people think that this is quite the sum and substance of the task of one who possesses the gift of the Spirit of prophecy. But this is far from the facts. Actually, when we get right down to the meanings of words, a prophet is one who “speaks for,” that is, for another. Hence, true prophets are those who in a very distinctive, unique way, speak for God in this world. WBEGW 92.1

But speaking for God does not necessarily, or even primarily, imply speaking about things that are to come. Most of the problems of men’s lives, for whom God is ever solicitous, have to do, not with events that lie ahead, but with problems of the immediate present. If we read the Scriptures with this thought in mind, we see them in a new light. Inspired writers of Holy Writ possessed, it is true, the gift of the “spirit of prophecy.” But most of what they wrote and said to men dealt with important, sometimes even hard, grim, problems of the immediate hour. The prophets sought to help men to live day by day in harmony with the will of God—to avoid evil, and to seek for the good. Paul tells us what is the function of the Scriptures, which present the writings of God’s prophets: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). WBEGW 92.2

Actually, only a small part of the prophets’ words in the Bible are predictive in nature. Only two of the sixty-six books of the Bible might be described as quite exclusively concerned with the future. Accordingly, the great majority of Bible writers must be measured, not by predictions and their fulfillment, but by the kind of counsel they offered to men in current situations, plans that they presented for the strengthening and enlarging of the kingdom of God. WBEGW 93.1

This is well illustrated in the life of Mrs. White. Her long ministry of speaking and writing was very largely “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Hence, in large degree, as is true of most Bible writers, her claim to possessing the gift of “the spirit of prophecy” must be measured by the quality and character of her writings and the fruitage of them in the lives of those to whom she ministered and in the organization for which she labored. WBEGW 93.2

However, sprinkled through her writings are some predictions, and we wish now to call attention to certain of these, for they throw further light on the character and nature of her ministry and indeed on her claims to have revelations from God. WBEGW 93.3