The Fruitage of Spiritual Gifts

Foretelling Future Events or Conditions

The Bible term “Spirit of prophecy” is not synonymous with “spirit of prediction.” A prophet is more than a mere predictor. In Old Testament times a prophet was called a seer of things hidden. (1 Samuel 9:9.) He not only foretold the future but also interpreted dreams and dissolved doubts and hard sentences. (Daniel 5:12, margin.) The prophets were in reality teachers. “False prophets” of old were a type of “false teachers” of today. (2 Peter 2:1) However, true prophets did often foretell things along the road ahead. FSG 407.1

We find this, too, in the life and teachings of Mrs. White. She foresaw and predicted many things. There is in her writings, however, no time prophecies of things to come. Some have tried to discover these by explaining her words that some people present at a conference would be alive when Jesus comes. They forget her other words about a special resurrection. She does teach that we are living in the “last days,” and indicates that this present generation is the generation of which Christ declared that is should “not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matthew 24:34. (See The Desire of Ages, 632.) She does not specify when that generation began or how long it will last. FSG 407.2

It should be remembered, too, that in none of the Spirit of prophecy writings do we find symbols of great nations such as we read in the Bible. The fact is that all that the Lord’s messenger wrote about coming events in the world or future experiences of the remnant church is contained within the framework of Bible prophecies and sets forth many details in the fulfillment of Scriptural predictions. These details of error or persecution, however are of decided value for guidance, and will be yet more so in the days ahead. FSG 407.3

The prophetic utterances of the messenger of God were of two kinds. Those who lived or labored with her relate scores of incidents in her life or in the experience of others which she saw and foretold long before they happened. When she went to Europe in 1885 she informed others what she and they would find in our work over there, as the Lord had revealed it to her. The same thing happened after she left for Australia. On the boat she explained to her friends just what they would discover in the first churches they were to visit, things that had not been known. Again and again the same thing happened in America. To retell all these incidents would fill a book. Several of the early veterans have already written of them. The thing worth knowing is that all her predictions of the future or revelations of hidden matters always turned out to be true. FSG 408.1

I remember well a young doctor with a thriving practice and the best of future prospects but who was rather uncertain in the faith. God’s messenger gave him and his wife a testimony that if he left the truth, his medical work would completely fail, apparently through no fault of his and not from any opposition from the medical profession. No one could understand why he failed, but he did, and the last forty years of his life he lived in poverty and did not practice medicine, though a really capable man. FSG 408.2

Adventist ministers and even members owe it to themselves and the church to read these old books and pamphlets that narrate how these many personal predictions were fulfilled. FSG 408.3

Beginning February 10, in the Review of 1885, we find a series of eleven articles called “Advent Experiences,” by G. I. Butler. He stresses fulfillment of predictions by Mrs. White and shows how the remnant church, seeing this, found a stronger faith in the messages from God’s servant. Concluding this he says: “We regard it as a most striking and convincing testimony showing that she must have had special light from God or she could not have made such predictions, which thirty-six years of eventful history have demonstrated as true.”—The Review and Herald, April 28, 1885, page 266. FSG 408.4

Every missionary worker should make a carefully selected list of the predictions found in the Testimonies. Our members need to have their attention called to them. World conditions, especially religious developments, are a running comment on the definite fulfillment of these prophetic utterances. One of her first predictions to be observed by the church was what was foretold about the world-wide spread of Spiritualism. When the “rappings,” as people called the early and obscure fad of the Fox sisters, first began, everybody thought that fake would soon die, and be forgotten, but Mrs. White predicted to all the world that it was the beginning of a mighty delusion, as we now see it to be. FSG 409.1

Another prediction of coming decided events is found in the many pages she has written about the labor unions in America. Though mentioned in Testimonies, volume 7, it was hardly noticed by our people at first, but today we know how clearly the Lord’s messenger was shown the future. Still other prophecies to be noted are the predictions about the growth of the Papacy in America and the movement for Sunday laws and other religious legislation. Another prophecy is the almost innumerable statements concerning a “coming crisis,” “storm relentless in its fury,” etc. FSG 409.2

We are now in that storm. Years back it seemed like exaggeration when we read that someday the “civilized world would become a horde of robbers and assassins; and peace, rest, and happiness would be banished from the earth.”—The Great Controversy, 585. Today, both the press and the radio having told the story of “concentration horrors,” all know that these words have been fulfilled. The vivid account of the unspeakably destructive wars then future is an outstanding illustration of how the Spirit of prophecy writings have predicted and pictured the future. These things were not said in a corner, but were published to all mankind in our regular publications. Thus Mrs. White wrote: FSG 409.3

“The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury, by having repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We shall see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly, and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of earth will be swept away in the fury of the flames. Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent; confusion, collision, and death without a moment’s warning will occur on the great lines of travel.”—The Signs of the Times, April 21, 1890, page 2. FSG 410.1

The fulfillment of these words is known to all. Not only were the Italian, Japanese, and German navies lost, with scores of innocent people on land and sea; but also many, many merchant vessels went down. We thought of this prediction during World War I, but we saw its fulfillment in World War II, and only God knows what future wars will reveal. FSG 410.2

“On one occasion, when in New York City, I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify their owners and builders. Higher and still higher these buildings rose, and in them the most costly material was used.... FSG 410.3

“As these lofty buildings went up, the owners rejoiced with ambitious pride that they had money to use in gratifying self and provoking the envy of their neighbors. Much of the money that they thus invested had been obtained through exaction, through grinding down the poor.... FSG 410.4

“The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire. Men looked at the lofty and supposedly fireproof buildings, and said, ‘They are perfectly safe.’ But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire-engines could do nothing to stay the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines. FSG 410.5

“I am instructed that ... no material can be used in the erection of buildings that will preserve them from destruction when God’s appointed time comes.”—Testimonies for the Church 9:12, 13. FSG 411.1

The book from which this is taken was first printed in 1909. We wondered then what this prediction really meant and how its fulfillment would look, but in September, 1946, when I was in Hamburg, Berlin, and other devastated cities of Europe, I began to understand, and I thought of the following prophecies of what may be even more terrific destruction yet to come. FSG 411.2

“Last Friday morning, just before I awoke, a very impressive scene was presented before me. I seemed to awake from sleep, but was not in my home. From the windows I could behold a terrible conflagration. Great balls of fire were falling upon houses, and from these balls fiery arrows were flying in every direction. It was impossible to check the fires that were kindled, and many places were being destroyed. The terror of the people was indescribable.”—Evangelism, 29. FSG 411.3

“In the visions of the night a very impressive scene passed before me. I saw an immense ball of fire fall among some beautiful mansions, causing their instant destruction. I heard someone say, ‘We knew that the judgments of God were coming upon the earth, but we did not know that they would come so soon.’ Others, with agonized voices, said, ‘You knew! Why then did you not tell us? We did not know.’ On every side I heard similar words of reproach spoken.”—Testimonies for the Church 9:28. FSG 411.4

“Soon grievous troubles will arise among the nations—trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes..” FSG 411.5

“The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose.”—The Review and Herald, November 24, 1904, page 16. FSG 411.6

Some have thought that the expression about “an immense ball of fire” that fell among beautiful mansions referred to the atomic bomb, and they may be right; but when we read “great balls of fire were falling upon houses and from these balls fiery arrows were flying in every direction” we seem to hear men who lived through hours of horror in air raids tell what actually happened. They used almost the very words of the servant of the Lord in telling of these disasters. FSG 411.7