Spirit of Prophecy

For most Christians, this topic seems to be of little importance. Prophecy in our day is considered non-existant in most denominations, and as for the ones that do claim this gift, are viewed by the other denominations as having false gifts. The Mormons claim of Joseph Smith as a prophet is widely rejected amoung christians. The Pentacostals claim that members commonly gain this gift soon after being baptized, is also widely rejected throughout christianity due to the trivial nature of their so called prophetic messages. Ellen White may be responsible for the most contraversial of the claims of prophesy. Christian leaders commonly take opportunity to undermine her claims frequently on the radio and in christian literature.

So then why do we even bother discussing this topic? Well if you read what the Bible says on this topic , it is obvious that as christians it is actually our duty to test anyone claiming to be a prophet or apostle. Consider this message to the church of Ephesus:

Here is another order from John:

Jesus also cautioned us in the gospels about false prophets:

As you can see, God is concerned that we not be deceived by false prophets. Well since there seems to be little prophecy in the new testament times, perhaps we should just play it safe, and ignore any claim of prophecy altogether. Unfortunately it is not that easy. If we were to do that, we would also be disobeying a clear order in the new testament:

So as you can see, it is important that we not only test false prophets , but that make sure not to miss the words of God's true prophets. This means that as Christians, we are required test every claim. This by no means means relying on something you heard your pastor, or something you heard on the radio.

 

CHARACTER OF TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS

In dealing with this subject, we must first consider what exactly a Biblical prophet is. In the old testament, prophets were described has having dreams and visions. They were servants of God conveying messages from God. Although they did have visions and dreams, their main purpose was to rebuke and warn God's people.

As you read about them in the old testament you will discover that they were very holy people. The prophet Daniel, for example, is described as living a very holy life. Although this does not mean that their personal lives are perfect. One story in the Bible actually details how one prophet lied to another prophet, tricking him into disobeying his instructions from God.

One might assume that prophets are sort of all knowing. But looking at the story of daniel, who was a very significant prophet, indicates otherwise. As you read the book of Daniel you will notice that on many occasions, he received visions from God, but had absolutely no idea what the visions meant. From the very first vision that King Nebukanezzar received, he was fully dependant on God for its enterpretations. The False prophets had built their reputation upon allways being able to enterpret drams and visions. When faced with an actual vision from God, they were completely stumped. What this indicates is an ironic point that is quite contrary to what we would expect. If a prophet can allways enterpret visions, he is probably a false prophet. In other words, false prophets produce false visions, allways accompanied with their own personal enterpretation, while true prophets receive true visions and unless God allows, receive no enterpretation.
As you read Daniel, you notice statements like "I Daniel was troulbed, as I did not understand the vision." Sometimes the angel Gabriel was sent to offer enterpretations while other times he was told to "seal up the vision for it refers to many days in the future."

 

What is another characteric of a true or false prophet?;

Notice here that false prophets are well liked. As you read in the old testament, prophets often had the task of bearing bad news, or reproof from God. As a result they were thrown in prison and even into pits of fesces, while others were sawn in half. False prophets would prophesy messages that peoples and kings wanted to hear.

If you take the time to read through Ellen White, you will notice times where she would say one thing, then soon after state that God had shown her she was in error. A false prophet would do the exact opposite, and claim that God had endorsed their opinion, rather than facing the humiliation of being wrong.

On many occasions, she received visions, yet didn't claim to know the enterpretation of the vision. Another aspect you will notice throughout her writings is when she was asked about a particular topic or passage of prophecy, she would respond that she had no light on that topic. Again this is shows character of a true prophet. She would also stress over and over how she wished that God's people were better able to discern truth for themselves. At one point, she even stated that she would rather die, than have to relay anymore messages of rebuke to the church.

 

Issues with Ellen White

Having looked into her myself, I have found that the issues with Ellen White tend to come from how people misunderstood her and used her incorrectly, rather than with her. Combined with this, She is unfairly scrutinized by critics.

These issues seem to be interelated. When young adventist christians first discover Ellen White, they tend to delveinto her as they discover her deep insight into the Bible. Having not discovered such substance from their previous christian experience, or not learnt how to discern truth from the Bbible themsleves, they sometimes become reliant on her for a period. After hopefully a short time they learn to discern truths from Bible without her help. Saddly though, this is sometimes not the case. Although a minority, there are enough individuals who lean towards a legalistic mentality, where they are unable to experience the effect that following God's law provides. This effect is that your mentality actually ellevates, just as proverbs says, "God gives wisdom to the simple." When a person does not progress in understanding the wisdom behind God's Law, their religion more resembles the Pharisees. Unfortunately it is the persistance of these monority in the church that have left a bad taste mouths of many people. Many people have left the church after being subjected to these types. Christians in other denominations, developed jaded views of Ellen White and the Adventist church from their brief dealings with these people.

 

This has often caused a dominoe effect, where because of how Ellen White has been portrayed incorrectly, people feel threatened by her. When you stop and think about it, its quite strange how someone who dedicated their entire life, from the age of 14 on, to serving christians around the world would receive such intense criticism. But as you look into human nature, it becomes appears to be an unevidable outcome. Anyone being told essentially that according to Ellen White, they are a sinner, is going to respond defensively. In addition to this, her backing of the seventh day Sabbath as a salvational issue, has put the entire sunday keeping christian community on the defensive against her.

 

 

As an Adventist who believes that God can teach anyone to undertand the mysteries of the Bible, I have both benifited and been restrained by the influence of Ellen White. Again, the challenge of this article is to make it for both all christians, not just adventists.

The Benefits of Ellen White are obvious. If you have taken the time to read her insite into prophecy, as well as any of her other writings, she clearly offers a huge advantage to us as christians who study her works.On the other hand, many of her writings were from a perspective of the late 1800's and some have even taken out of context to allign with the churche's views on prophecy.

The main issue though, is how people see a prophet. In the church people often say... "according to the spirit of prophecy we know this..."" Then there are these one; "yes she said there would be more light, but why would it contradict her light," or "you can't pick and choose with her, either she's a prophet or she isn't."

Remember the old testament story of the lying prophet and the disobedient prophet? And how Daniel recieved visions but did not understand them? Or how about the story of the stubborn prophet Balem. The unfortunate assumption is that because Ellen White'swas a prophet, her life must be prefect and that every word proceeding from her mouth was the word or God.

Consider this. Joseph Bates first shared with her about the sabbath. Her response was that he was in error. The next day she then said "I was shown that I was in error." Notice those words "I was shown." This is the most important thing you need to know when discerning the message of a prophet.

How about this example. you may say, according to the spirit of prophecy, we know that the 144,000 those who live to the end and are translated.

have you ever read this quote?

"I saw that she [Mrs. Hastings, who had just died] was sealed and would come up at the voice of God and stand upon the earth, and would be with the 144,000. I saw we need not mourn for her; she would rest in the time of trouble."--Letter 10, 1850 (2SM 263).

Notice those words again.. "I saw"

Another example. you may say, especially if you are a mainstream adventist evangelist. "we know according to the spirit of prophecy that the trumpets were symbolic of the fall of the roman empire."

Have you read Ellen White's vision called "great balls of fire?'

 

"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." –9T 28 (1909).

In all her writings, she never offered any explanation as to the meaning of this vision. Ironically it sounds exactly like is what is being described in the first trumpet of Revelation.

 

another example. the 6th seal was fullfilled by events occuring from 1750 to 1830. Have you read Ellen White's first vision concerning the 2nd coming? It describes these same events, the same ones listed in the gospel prohecies about the sun stars and earthquake.

 

CONCLUSION