The ABIDING GIFT of PROPHECY

333 Pages·2003·0.68 MB·English

The ABIDING GIFT of PROPHECY
By
Arthur Grosvenor Daniells
p. 3, par. 1, [GIFT].
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
OMAHA, NEBRASKA
CRISTOBAL, CANAL ZONE
PORTLAND, OREGON
p. 3, par. 2, [GIFT].
Copyright, 1936, by Pacific Press Publishing Association
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Author's Foreword
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For a third of a century it has been my privilege to present, with increasing
fullness, certain of the evidences centering in the theme of this book, “The Abiding
Gift of Prophecy.” Particularly is this true of those features treated in the early and
latter sections, dealing, first, with the Biblical evidences concerning the
continuance of spiritual gifts, but more especially of their latter-day bestowal upon
the remnant church. For years, ministerial groups and General Conference
Councils have gone on record asking that these studies be placed in book form.
This was duly promised by the author, and the work has been pursued with much
pleasure and satisfaction.
p. 5, par. 2, [GIFT].
This volume deals with but one theme—The Abiding Gift of Prophecy. That
prophetic gift has been God's chosen method of revealing Himself to the human
race after man had been ruined through sin. Before being estranged from God by
this blighting, alien curse, he had free and open access to the presence of his
Creator. But after the fall this open way was closed. Since then, an obscuring veil
has separated man from the presence of God.
p. 5, par. 3, [GIFT].
Only through men chosen and called by His sovereign will has God clearly
disclosed His purposes and fully revealed the future. The bestowal of the prophetic
gift upon an individual has made that person a prophet. The operation of this gift,
therefore, is wholly planned and utilized by the Lord Himself. Concerning those
whom He calls to the prophetic office, He says: “Hear now My words: If there be a
prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and
will speak unto him in a dream.” Num. 12:6.
p. 5, par. 4, [GIFT].
At the birth of John the Baptist, the prophetic power of the Spirit came upon his
father Zacharias. Being “filled with the Holy Ghost,” he “prophesied, saying,
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people.”
In the midst of an outburst of joy over the advent of the long-expected Messiah, “to
give knowledge of salvation” by the remission of sins through faith in His name,
Zacharias testifies that God had spoken “by the mouth of His holy prophets, which
have been since the world began.” Luke 1:67-70. This most expressive and
significant statement of the early bestowal and continuance of the prophetic gift
was repeated by the apostle Peter, who declared that God “hath spoken by the
mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”
Acts 3:21. p. 6, par. 1, [GIFT].
This prophetic gift bestowed was to abide with the church from Adam to the
second advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when He comes to take His
redeemed people to Paradise. It did not cease with the apostles, but is traceable
through the centuries to the last days of human history, just before the return of our
Lord. When that supreme event of the ages shall occur, then—and not until then—
shall come to pass that which is spoken of by the apostle Paul:
p. 6, par. 2, [GIFT].
“Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away;
whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be
done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is
perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.” 1 Cor. 13: 8-10, A. R. V.
The tracing of the manifestations of this gracious gift through the ages has been a
fascinating and most enlightening study. As may be surmised, it has required a vast
amount of research. For much of this, and for the critical reading and improvement
of the manuscript, I am greatly indebted to a number of my friends who have been
deeply interested in the production of this volume. Arthur Grosvenor Daniells.
Huntington Park, California, March 3, 1935.
p. 6, par. 3, [GIFT].
Introduction
Long has the church awaited the coming of this volume, and long has it been
needed. Dealing, as it does, in a unique and larger way with the divine provision
for the abiding of the gift of prophecy in God's true church in all ages and
dispensations, it presents a full-rounded survey of the most misunderstood and
maligned of the three great identifying marks of the true church of the last days.
These are “the commandments of God,” “the faith of Jesus,” and “the spirit of
prophecy.” It is this remnant church which completes the arrested Reformation of
the sixteenth century, which restores the fullness of apostolic faith and practice,
and which, significantly enough, is to have as one of its distinguishing
characteristics, the manifestation of the promised gifts of the Spirit.
p. 9, par. 1, [GIFT].
The church has greatly needed this book, not only for the uniqueness and largeness
of its concept, but for the comprehensiveness and adequacy of its treatment. It has
needed it for the soundness and saneness of its conclusions, and for the
reasonableness and winsomeness of its approach. Serious misconceptions have
obtained, in the minds of many, concerning all spiritual gifts, but especially as
regards the gift of prophecy. Crude and distorted concepts have been formed and
fostered by others. Deceptive counterfeits have appeared to simulate and harass the
true bestowals, thus to bring the whole divine provision into doubt and disrepute.
It is truly refreshing, therefore, to have a presentation so conspicuous for
soundness and balance. These basic qualities have been happily blended with
unswerving loyalty to the word of truth, and fidelity to the facts of record.
Dignified, chaste, scholarly, and Biblical,—these are terms that may fitly describe
this presentation, destined, I believe, to be a classic in its field.
p. 9, par. 2, [GIFT].
This volume lifts the gift of prophecy wholly above the strange, weird, and
fantastic, and presents it as God's chosen, revealed, established, and uniform
method of communicating with the people of His choice on earth, separated as they
have been from His presence, since the fall of man, by that dreadful thing—sin.
p.
10, par. 1, [GIFT].
As the supreme claim to our acceptance of this gift, the author presents the
character and content of the prophetic messages themselves. The internal evidence
is set forth as the determining factor, subject to definite and well-defined moral
tests. Physical phenomena—which may, or may not, accompany the giving of
visions and revelations from God—may serve at times to arrest attention and to
convince the beholder. These unquestionably have their time and place in the
manifestation of the gift to the church, especially in the early exercise of the gift,
before there are written records or a body of literature prepared and authorized by
the chosen instrument. But when such appear as the fruitage of the gift, these then
become, logically and inevitably, the supreme test of validity, and the criteria of
truth or falsity.
p. 10, par. 2, [GIFT].
The material phenomena, Satan can and has duplicated in connection with false
prophets, to the harassing and bewilderment of those who would judge chiefly by
the physical tests. But neither man nor devil can simulate the exalted purity, the
truth, and the consistency of the genuine, marked as it is by harmony with historic
and scientific fact, fidelity to the principles of truth, the dictates of conscience, and
the mandates of common sense,—and, to crown all, insight into both the secrets of
human hearts and the wisdom and foreknowledge of God. The author has given us
satisfying evidence on the basis of these determining factors, particularly as relates
to the manifestation of this gift in the last days.
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It is this high concept that at once removes the gift in the remnant church from the
realm of something new and strange; something heretofore unknown or
inoperative, and therefore difficult for the conservative and the incredulous to
receive. Such a comprehensive view takes away that instinctive and otherwise
inevitable hesitancy about presenting the evidence of the latter-day manifestation
of the gift to a materialistic and scoffing world. It banishes that very natural
inclination to keep it in the background because of the odium that commonly
attaches to the name and thought of “prophet” in these skeptical and unspiritual—
albeit professedly advanced and highly enlightened—days.
p. 10, par. 4, [GIFT].
One of the distinct contributions of this volume is the section spanning the
centuries between the death of the apostles and the gracious bestowal of the
prophetic gift upon the remnant church. No one, so far as I am aware, has before
attempted so comprehensive a survey. The presentation here given is not offered as
an exhaustive and final statement, but rather as an introduction. It is designed to
establish, upon evidence, the fundamental principle and attested fact of the
continuance of the prophetic gift beyond the death of the apostles through the
present as well as all other ages and dispensations since the fall of man.
p. 11, par. 1,
[GIFT].
The fundamental premise of the writer is incontrovertible—that when sin had
broken direct communion between heaven and earth, God gave the prophetic gift
to men, vouchsafing it to His church, and that gift has never been permanently
withdrawn since its bestowal. There have, of course, been intervals when no
prophetic voice was heard. But this, as well as the other spiritual gifts, has
reappeared periodically through the centuries, to direct in crises, to instruct and to
warn, and at times to predict, as God might elect and as the church might need.
p. 11,
par. 2, [GIFT].
Now a word as to the fitness of the author for preparing this work. No one has been
better qualified by close and unique relationship both to the remnant church at
large, and to the one whom God chose to be His special messenger and mouthpiece
in these closing days of human history. For fifty years a minister in the Seventh-
day Adventist Church, he was for twenty-one years president of our General
Conference. And the time of his world leadership of the advent movement included
the period not only of laying the foundations for its great expansion, but also the
time of certain of its greatest crises. It embraced, likewise, the consummating years
of Ellen G. White's wonderful witness to the advent movement, together with the
cessation of her life activities in the sleep of death,—though her writings live on,
and speak forth increasingly the marvelous messages she was commissioned to
impart to the remnant church.
p. 11, par. 3, [GIFT].
The author's personal acquaintance with Mrs. White covered the last twenty-eight
years of her life, which ended in 1915. For the last twenty-three years of this
time—while he was president, first of the Australasian Conference and then of the
General Conference—there existed, because of the official relationships involved,
a close and continuous contact that afforded every opportunity of knowing her life,
her character, and her work.
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The episodes set forth by the author as illustrative of the conspicuous and
satisfying evidence of this divine gift in the remnant church have been drawn from
this large background of personal contact and observation, but have never before
been written out in comprehensive form. The early incidents of Mrs. White's life,
already available in print, are not stressed in this volume, but rather those larger,
later experiences in which mighty issues were involved, and in some instances
wherein the very destiny of the denomination was at stake. These consequently
form an invaluable record for our learning and admonition, and they constitute
incontrovertible evidence for the confirmation of our faith.
p. 12, par. 2, [GIFT].
Brought forth in the sunset of the author's life, this volume embodies the matured
conclusions of long and effective study, strengthened by decades of oral
presentation on every continent, and ripened by recent years of intensive review
and research. Though profound as to principles involved, it is simple in style and
direct in statement, as befits a theme of such lofty character. This treatise has
attached to it, therefore, a maturity of appeal and a weight of utterance that is most
satisfying. It is bequeathed as a sacred legacy to the church so greatly beloved by
our veteran leader, and in whose ministry he so long and fruitfully served. It is sent
forth with his benediction to bless and to enlighten, to comfort and to strengthen,
the church of God's tender choice and care. LeRoy Edwin Froom. Los Angeles,
California, February 24, 1935.
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CHAPTER I
The Prophetic Gift Bestowed
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The gift of prophecy is one of God's choicest gifts to the human family. Indeed, it
ranks next to the supreme gift of His only-begotten Son and of His Holy Spirit to a
world estranged and separated by sin.
p. 15, par. 2, [GIFT].
But the giving of His Son made necessary the bestowal of another gift—the gift of
prophecy. This was imperative. It was required as a medium of communication
through which the Lord might tell a lost, perishing world why He gave His only
Son. Through this channel—the prophetic gift—God has held communion with
man since the fall. By this method of communication He has ever given messages
of information, guidance, warning, and entreaty to the entire human family.
p. 15, par.
3, [GIFT].
In doing this the Lord has mercifully lifted the curtain that separates His world of
light from our world of darkness. Through the opening thus made, the glorious
light of His sinless world pours into our world enshrouded in moral darkness. The
coming in of that light has brought the new vision, the new hope, and the
transformed life God purposed in the giving of His Son.
p. 15, par. 4, [GIFT].
The revelations that have come from God to men through the prophetic gift have,
in part at least, been recorded and preserved for the benefit of the whole world
through all time. It has made possible the Bible—that sacred and divine record
bearing the name, “The word of God.”
p. 15, par. 5, [GIFT].
The Marvelous Origin of Man
That Inspired Record throws a flood of light on all that we behold—above, below,
and around us. It takes us back to the beginning. It reveals the origin of things—of
our world, of the human race, and of that mysterious disorder we call sin. It sheds a
floodlight on the meaning of the present situation in which we find ourselves. It
foretells the future to the end of time.
p. 16, par. 1, [GIFT].
In the Inspired Word there is given a brief, rational account of the origin of man
and the beginning of the history of the human family,—indeed, the only authentic
and satisfactory account that men possess. The opening statement reads:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Gen. 1:1.
p. 16, par. 2, [GIFT].
Then follows the record of creation week. The account of the sixth day of that
week describes the origin of man: “So God created man in His own image, in the
image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” Gen. 1:27.
p. 16,
par. 3, [GIFT].
According to this Inspired Word, man was created by Him who made the myriads
of mighty worlds that fill the universe. As related to this world, man was the
crowning work of the Creator, grander, nobler, and more marvelous than all else
that God had created. Endowed with perfect physical, intellectual, moral, and
spiritual qualities, he occupied the highest place in the world over which he was
given dominion by his Maker.
p. 16, par. 4, [GIFT].
Adam and his companion, Eve, were, before the intrusion of sin, honored and
blessed with free, direct association with their Creator and other members of the
heavenly family. They were permitted to behold the glory of God, and to hold
communion with Him “without a dimming veil between.” In this close association
with their Creator, it is but reasonable to believe that they received from Him the
information they needed regarding His great purpose in creation, also their
relationship to their Creator and to the world in which they were placed.
p. 16, par. 5,
[GIFT].
The Beginning of Human History
“The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man
whom He had formed.” Gen. 2:8.
p. 16, par. 6, [GIFT].
This perfect man and woman were placed in a perfect environment, with the most
alluring and glorious possibilities. Paradise was their home. They were to be the
parents of the human family. They were to have dominion over the whole earth,
and it was to be a glorious dominion. In it there was to be not one inharmonious
note. There was to be no sin; hence the dire results of sin as we know them
today—disease, pain, suffering, sorrow, and death—would be unknown. The earth
was to be filled with a sinless race, and everything in that realm was to give joy to
the inhabitants throughout all eternity.
p. 16, par. 7, [GIFT].
“God's first man, then, was perfect; he was put in a perfect environment and he had
perfect fellowship with God. Harmony reigned within himself, within all his
relationships both with the inferior creatures beneath him and with the sovereign
Creator above him. There was everything within and without his life to foster
complete submission to the sovereignty of God and perfect obedience to His
will.”—“Life on the Highest Plane,” Ruth Paxson, Vol. I, p. 38. New York:
Fleming H. Revell Company, 1928.
p. 17, par. 1, [GIFT].
The Tragic Entry of Sin
Such was the wonderful future that the Lord planned for the human family. But our
first parents tragically failed to appreciate their glorious prospect. There, in their
Paradise home, in the possession and enjoyment of all that God had bestowed upon
them, they proved untrue to Him. They gave a listening ear to the base insinuations
of one who had become the archenemy of their beneficent Creator. Yielding to the
influence and suggestions of that enemy, they disobeyed the command of God.
Their sin had brought a terrible tragedy upon the world.
p. 17, par. 2, [GIFT].
After they had sinned, Adam and Eve “heard the voice of the Lord God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day.”
p. 17, par. 2, [GIFT].
“And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
p. 17, par.
3, [GIFT].
“And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid.”
p. 17, par. 4, [GIFT].
“And the Lord God said, … What is this that thou hast done?”
p. 17, par. 5, [GIFT].
“And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast … eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy
sake.”
p. 17, par. 6, [GIFT].
“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden.” Gen. 3:8-10,
13, 17, 23.
p. 17, par. 7, [GIFT].
Thus “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” “By one man's
disobedience many were made sinners.” “Death reigned from Adam to Moses.”
Rom. 5:12, 19, 14.
p. 17, par. 8, [GIFT].
This wrongdoing brought incalculable woe upon Adam and Eve. They lost the
sweet, satisfying innocence that had been theirs. They lost the beautiful garment of
the righteousness of God, which had clothed them. The virus of sin entered their
hearts, and they were “filled with all unrighteousness.” Rom. 1:29. All the deadly
evil into which the human race has plunged during six thousand years existed in
embryo at that fatal hour of disobedience, ready to give birth to the mightiest effort
possible for the defeat of the divine purpose.
p. 18, par. 1, [GIFT].
“The fall of man filled all heaven with sorrow. The world that God had made was
blighted with the curse of sin, and inhabited by beings doomed to misery and
death. There appeared no escape for those who had transgressed the law. Angels
ceased their songs of praise. Throughout the heavenly courts there was mourning
for the ruin that sin had wrought.”—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” p. 63.
p. 18, par. 2,
[GIFT].
“That,” writes J. W. Westphal, “was the gloomiest hour this world has ever seen.
Never has there been a moment since when the star of hope has not been shining to
pierce even the midnight darkness. But at that moment there was not one ray of
light to cheer the bewildered, sinful, grief-stricken pair. They had experienced the
first pangs of death, and although much was still hidden, they well knew that in the
course they had taken there was no hope of relief. Separated from God, they had no
rest. They had become one with the archenemy of God.”
p. 18, par. 3, [GIFT].
The Banishment From Eden
To Adam and Eve the situation was dark, tragic, unsolvable. A great change had
taken place in man himself, and this involved a change in his environment, in his
relationship to God, and in his communication with his Maker. Sin tragically
terminated the personal association and open communion with God that had been
granted to the first pair. It became the veil which separated man from God. This
separation was inevitable, for of the Creator it is said: “Thou art of purer eyes than
to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” Hab. 1:13. Plainly it is declared to
fallen man: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid His face from you.” Isa. 59:2.
p. 18, par. 4, [GIFT].
Man must now be separated from direct fellowship with his heavenly, sinless
associates. He can no longer dwell in the presence of God, or remain in Paradise.
“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden…. And He
placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Gen. 3:23, 24.
p. 19, par. 1,
[GIFT].
“In humility and unutterable sadness they bade farewell to their beautiful home,
and went forth to dwell upon the earth, where rested the curse of sin.”—
“Patriarchs and Prophets,” p. 61.
p. 19, par. 2, [GIFT].
A Ray of Light and Hope
But this grief-stricken pair were not banished from their Eden home without a ray
of light and hope. Before they were sent forth, they, with Satan, were summoned
before the Lord to hear the terrible sentence that must be declared. But in the
sentence that God pronounced upon Satan, who had wrought their ruin, they heard
these cheering words: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her Seed; it [He] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
His heel.” Gen. 3:15.
p. 19, par. 3, [GIFT].
“To man the first intimation of redemption was communicated in the sentence
pronounced upon Satan in the garden…. This sentence, uttered in the hearing of
our first parents, was to them a promise.”—Id., pp. 65, 66.
p. 19, par. 4, [GIFT].
This brief foretelling of a great conflict between Christ and Satan, and the promise
of the ultimate, absolute triumph of Christ and the utter defeat of Satan, must have
assuaged somewhat the grief of Adam and Eve as they left forever their once
happy home. Yes, there was light and hope in that prophecy, in that promise. In
His abounding mercy and infinite wisdom God had provided the solution of the
terrible problem that disobedience had created. God had decided upon a plan by
which mankind could be redeemed from the very worst that sin could bring upon
the race. This was dimly revealed in the sentence pronounced upon the malign
instigator of evil.
p. 19, par. 5, [GIFT].
To effect the reconciliation of man to God, to redeem him from the curse of sin,
and to restore him to the Paradise home from which he was banished, was a plan
which had long been determined upon, and that plan was now announced to the
tempter in the hearing of the guilty pair. Satan might indeed bruise Christ's heel,
but Christ would bruise the serpent's head. He would ultimately put an end to sin in
its entirety.
p. 20, par. 1, [GIFT].
Here a momentous question presses for answer. How could God be true to His
righteous law, and yet justify its transgressors?
p. 20, par. 2, [GIFT].