CONCLUSION

The question may arise, What need have we of the gift of prophecy? We have the Old Testament, the words of Christ and His apostles, and the Revelation. Did not Christ forbid more prophesying when He said, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18)? We reply, Should the Lord bestow the gift of prophecy upon a person for the instruction and guidance of His people, it would not be an addition to the book of Revelation.PGGC 31.2

After the Lord had spoken from Sinai, and given the law to His people, with statutes and judgments, they might have said, We have the Lord’s word now, and do not need prophets. The Lord knew best; and as we have seen, He multiplied visions and similitudes by His prophets for the instruction of that people. This did not add to nor take from that already given them; but it did show them where they were led astray by circumstances peculiar to their time. These revelations shed also a clearer luster on the truths they had already received, and made bright the light relating to the promised Messiah and His glory.PGGC 31.3

With the subject of the gifts opened before us in the Scriptures, with the fact so plainly manifest that the gift of prophecy is to be connected with the last work of God’s people in probationary time, and with rules placed in our hands by which to test such gifts, is it not important that the mind be divested of prejudice, not “despising” such a gift, but, on the contrary, looking for a work of this character that is to be developed in these last days?PGGC 32.1