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Understanding Ellen White

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    The book of Revelation

    The book of Revelation, written by the apostle John, focuses on John’s role as a prophet. The “words of this prophecy” are to be obeyed (Rev. 1:3). Their authority is so unquestionable that not a word is to be added or subtracted (Rev. 22:18, 19). The author of the book lays no claim to apostleship, although he could have. It is as a New Testament prophet that he presents his work. A crucial passage in this regard is Revelation 19:10. There it is stated that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Revelation 19:10 must be understood in the light of 22:9 and its context.UEGW 23.2

    The parallel between Revelation 19:10 and Revelation 22:9 clearly indicates that the prophets are those who inherently possess the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit behind all prophecy (Rev. 19:10). 26The additional phrase in Revelation 22:9, “and of those who keep the words of this book,” is not grammatically connected to the “brothers” of John, who are called prophets in Revelation 22:9 and have the testimony of Jesus (spirit of prophecy) in Revelation 19:10. It merely reemphasizes that the angel is not worthy of worship, not by John himself, not by any other prophet like John, not even by the lowliest of John’s readers. This fits in perfectly with Ephesians, where the substance of the revelation received by the New Testament apostles and prophets was Christ’s proclamation of peace (Eph. 2:17) and the “mystery of Christ” (Eph. 3:4). Clearly, like the apostle, the testimony of the prophet is a witness to Christ. According to Revelation, while the apostle is an eyewitness to the earthly Christ event, the prophet is an eyewitness of the glorified Christ. And as Christ is the Word of God, the prophet speaks with authority just as the apostle does.UEGW 23.3

    Such prophecy was not to cease but was to continue into the future (Rev. 10:11; 11:3, 6, 10). 27It is interesting to note that all of our three key words—prophet, prophecy, and prophesy—are applied to the work of the two witnesses in Revelation 11. In these passages the word testimony is once again connected to the work of the prophet (verses 3, 10). So for John, the kind of gift he had received from God was not limited to his time, but also would be manifested afterward as well.UEGW 24.1

    Revelation 12:17 extends the gift of prophecy all the way to the end of time. After portraying in symbols the Christ event and the fate of God’s people through history, chapter 12 concludes with a statement that the remnant just before the closing crisis of earth’s history will have the testimony of Jesus. This phrase is an exact verbal parallel to Revelation 19:10, which is equated with the prophets of Revelation 22:9. In addition to this, Revelation 1:2 portrays the testimony of Jesus as what John “saw” not what John “wrote.” The testimony of Jesus in Revelation 1:2 is the visionary, prophetic gift that John received from God. Revelation 12:17 indicates that such a visionary, prophetic gift would return in the time of the end-time remnant. Though few scholars have noted these parallels, they are too striking to be coincidental.UEGW 24.2

    Thus Revelation underlines four ideas that concern our topic: (1) The New Testament prophet is a counterpart of those in the Old Testament (Rev. 22:9, cf. Luke 11:47-50). (2) The inspiration authority of the true New Testament prophet is the same as that of the apostle. (3) The prophet as well as the apostle is an eyewitness of Christ. (4) This gift does not cease with the canon but is to be expected again at the end of earth’s history.UEGW 24.3

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