This question is just part of a long list of queries from my Adventist friend Butz Rodelas. It also took me a long time to answer and I thought I would gradually post these questions to keep the readers from being bored because of their length. Later I will also publish the full version in an e-book format that anyone can download. Butz Rodelas’ questions are interesting and challenging, the kind of question that I waited for a long time, so I prefer to have my answers detailed and well documented for the benefit of those who are Adventist thinkers who have passion for truth. Let’s begin with his question about the gift of prophecy in the Christian church.
#1. BUTZ RODELAS:
And in addition act 2:17 says “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.” So if this is the case then how can Jesus be the last prophet if a prophet is being the spokesperson of God? Are you saying that NOBODY after Jesus will become the spokesperson of God? Are you limiting God’s power to use people after Jesus time to become His spokesperson?
RESPONSE:
Acts 2:17 is quoted from Joel 2:28-29. Even this passage does not support the SDA interpretation. First, the text said that God would pour out His Spirit on “all flesh” not just a few selected individuals like Ellen White who served as a sole prophet for the SDA church for its more than 160 years of existence. Second, those Spirit-filled prophets will be composed of “sons” (plural) and “daughters” (plural) or both “young men” (plural) and “old men” (plural). Third, according to the SDA Bible Commentary, the fulfillment of this prophecy includes speaking in tongues.
“This special pouring out of the Spirit results in the display of supernatural gifts, such as prophesying. On the day of Pentecost, when the apostles “were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues” (Acts 2:4), Peter asserted that “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (v. 16).[i]”
Unfortunately, this cannot be fulfilled by the SDA church because they believe that speaking in tongues ceased its function after the closing of the canon of the New Testament. This is another classic example of the SDA’s selective use of the Scriptures.
We find the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy in Acts chapter 2 during the Feast of Pentecost. This event results in the inauguration of the New Testament church. We find that when the Spirit was poured out among the early believers gathering that time, many had received the gift, not just one individual as in the case of Ellen White who monopolized the gift of the Spirit!
Acts 2:3-4 (NIV)
“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
The verse is evident, “ALL OF THEM were filled with the Holy Spirit” this was the exact words as told by prophet Joel “That I will pour out of My Spirit on ALL FLESH.” The SDA Fundamental Beliefs also agree that the New Testament gift of prophecy can be available to everyone.
“The New Testament gives prophecy a prominent place among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, once ranking it first and twice second among the ministries most useful to the church (see Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11). It encourages believers to desire especially this gift (1 Cor. 14:1, 39).[ii]“
Unfortunately, this encouragement was opposed by Ellen White in 1894. That time she wrote a letter of rebuke to A.T. Jones who approved and encouraged a certain Anna Philips who claimed to be an Adventist prophet. Ellen White wrote:
“As the report has been quite widely circulated that Sister White has endorsed what has been written and circulated as revelations from God to Miss Anna Phillips, I feel that it is my duty to speak. I have not endorsed these productions… A sister, in a letter to her friends, speaks with much enthusiasm of a statement by Brother Jones that Sister White has seen that the time has come when, if we hold the right relation to God, all can have the gift of prophecy to the same extent as do those who are now having visions. Where is the authority for this statement? I must believe that the sister failed to understand Brother Jones, for I cannot think that he made the statement. The writer continues: “Brother Jones said last night that is the case, not that God will speak to all for the benefit of everyone else, but to each for his own benefit, and this will fulfill the prophecy of Joel.[iii]”
The SDAs now got a big problem with this. How can the SDAs apply the fulfillment of this text to Ellen White alone? I read from their history that after Ellen White’s death in 1915, few individuals are claiming the right to be her successor, but none of them was able to make it.
As to bro, Rodelas’ question, “Are you saying that NOBODY after Jesus will become the spokesperson of God?” my answer is yes no we don’t need another prophet to write an additional Scriptures. After the closing of the canon of the Scriptures, we don’t need further inspired word of God with absolute divine authority, unless brother Rodelas would admit that the canon of the Scriptures is still open. It would be a real problem if I denied the gift of prophecy in the Christian church throughout history. I am not a cessationist who claims that the gift of prophecy had ceased after the New Testament.
My position is that the meaning of the word “prophet” has changed, so this term has a range of meaning in the New Testament time. Dr. Grudem said,
“Because of this wide range of meanings, one thing is clear: The word “prophet” would not automatically suggest “one who speaks with absolute divine authority” or “one who speaks the very words of God.” That was not the sense of the word in its everyday use in the Greek-speaking world.[iv]”
The following factors can observe this fact:
- Jesus chooses the term “apostle” rather than “prophets” to designate those who had the authority to write Scripture.
- The event described in Acts 2 was a fulfillment of Joel 2:28-29. The gift of prophecy was WIDELY distributed to God’s people at Pentecost not only just to only a few selected individuals like in the Old Testament times.
- The Greek word “prophetes” at the time of the New Testament “generally did not have the sense “one who speaks God’s very words” but rather “one who speaks based on some external influence” (often a spiritual influence of some kind), or even just “spokesman.” Titus 1:12 uses the word in this sense, where Paul quotes the pagan Greek poet Epimenides: “One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.[v]“
- The gift of prophecy in the New Testament did not carry the same quality as Scripture, and it was available to any ordinary Christians not just to selected few (Acts 21:4, 10-11; 1 Thess. 5:19-21; 1 Cor. 14:1, 29-38). If the prophecy in the New Testament does not contain God’s very words, then what is it? In what sense is it from God? Dr. Grudem adds,“Paul indicates that God could bring something spontaneously to mind so that the person prophesying would report it in his or her own words. Paul calls this a “revelation”: “If a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged” (1 Cor. 14:30-31, RSV). Here he uses the word “revelation” in a broader sense than the technical way theologians have used it to speak of the words of Scripture—but the New Testament elsewhere uses the terms “reveal” and “revelation” in this broader sense of communication from God which does not result in written Scripture or words equal to written Scripture in authority (see Matt. 11:27; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 1:17; Phil. 3:15).[vi] “
- Even Ellen White broaden the sense of the term “prophet” to those who not so directly inspired by God.
“In the highest sense, the prophet was one who spoke by direct inspiration, communicating to the people the messages he had received from God. But the name was given also to those who, though not so directly inspired, were divinely called to instruct the people in the works and ways of God. For the training of such a class of teachers, Samuel, by the Lord’s direction, established the schools of the prophets.[vii]“
Considering all the points I mentioned here, SDAs theory of the gift of prophecy through Ellen White finds no biblical support at all. The Old Testament gifts of prophecy are available to only a selected few individuals chosen by God to write the very words of God under inspiration. While in the New Testament, the gift of prophecy is available to any ordinary Christians, and it contains only a spontaneous revelation for the moment but not considered as the very word of God with the quality of Scripture.
We also discovered that for Ellen White, the term “Prophet” could refer to people who are not so divinely inspired like the major prophets introduced in the Old Testament. Jesus as God-Man continuously functions today as Prophet, Priest, and soon to be our most awaited King. He is the last Prophet in the sense that He gave humanity the ultimate message needed for our salvation as an authoritative word of God recorded in the New Testament.
Endnotes:
[i] Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1977). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 4, p. 946). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
[ii] Ministerial Association of Seventh-Day Adventists. Seventh-day Adventists believe: a Biblical exposition of 27 fundamental doctrines. Potomac Adventist Book Center, 1988. 218
[iii] White, Ellen Gould Harmon, Letters and Manuscripts Vol. 9 (1894) par.6-7
[iv] Excerpt from Wayne Grudem. “The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today.” Apple Books.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] White, Ellen Gould Harmon. Education. Pacific Press Publishing Company, 1903. 46
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