Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents

Heavenly Visions

 - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    THE PLACE OF THE WRITINGS OF THIS GIFT

    Let us note the place of the writings of this gift in the movement. As we extol the helpfulness of the writings of the Spirit of prophecy, opponents have said, “Oh, Adventists have another Bible, the writings of Mrs. White.” No, this [holding up the Holy Scriptures] is the only Bible we have. The faith of the church is founded upon this book. All the spiritual gifts, like the Spirit of prophecy, are gifts to the church whose faith and doctrine are built upon the everlasting foundation of the word of God. This book of Holy Scripture is our one rule of faith. The Lord gathered out just a portion of all that He had given by His prophets of old, to make one complete rule of doctrine. The psalmist described it: “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” Psalm 12:6.HEVI 84.9

    We have in the Bible nothing like all the testimony that was borne by God through the prophets of old. But in the Bible the Lord preserved the writings that were to be the foundation of doctrine-words “purified seven times.”HEVI 84.10

    These writings given us in our day, by inspiration of the Spirit of prophecy, are given to us to lead us into this Book of books, to minister the truths of Holy Scripture to us. That has been the teaching of this denomination from the very first.HEVI 84.11

    When the first little tract that James White, our pioneer leader, ever published came out in 1847, Elder White wrote, “The Bible is a perfect and complete revelation. It is our only rule of faith and practice.”-A word to the Little Flock, 13.HEVI 84.12

    In the first full collection of early testimonies by the Spirit of prophecy, “Early Writings,” it was written: “I recommend to you, dear reader, the word of God as the rule of your faith and practice”-Page 78.HEVI 85.1

    That has been the teaching all the way through.HEVI 85.2

    Well do I remember the last words that Mrs. White ever spoke in the general assembly of the advent people. It was the General Conference in Washington, in 1909. She felt impressed that she was never to meet with the General Conference again in person, and she never did. It was the last day of the meeting. She came to the platform to speak a few words of parting to those delegates gathered from all ends of the earth, representing this advent movement. At the close of her remarks she turned to the pulpit and took from it the Bible that was always lying there. She opened it and held it out with hands trembling with age, and said, “Brethren and sisters, I commend unto you this Book.” She closed the book, laid it down, and walked from the platform. Somehow that last spoken word to the General Conference in assembly seemed symbolic of the whole life, the exercise of this gift through Mrs. White, continually exalting as supreme above all the Holy Scriptures, the living word of God. O, how wonderfully we have seen God working through that gift, the Spirit of prophecy, leading us into the Book, illuminating the truths of God’s Holy Word. It has been a token of the presence of God in the advent movement.HEVI 85.3

    Some people think a prophet would be a very strange kind of person, but this is not the case. You remember, in the epistle of James, we are told that Elijah, that great prophet, was a man of like nature with all of us. And so Mrs. White was just like other mothers in the church. From childhood my memory pictures her among other good mothers in Israel in old Battle Creek. We might see her working about the house singing at the common tasks. Of course, she did not find as much time for home life and household duties as most mothers did. She was always at the call of need in meetings and councils, and ever her pen had to be busy, writing out instruction given her. There was nothing pretentious about her bearing, nothing savoring of the officious. There was no suggestion that she knew about everything. No, she was, of herself, just a good mother in Israel. As a boy, I used to do errands for her. She lived among us as a kindly neighbor.HEVI 85.4

    The leading brethren might come to her seeking counsel, and she might answer, “I have been given no light for you about that. You will have to pray to God, and do your best to follow His guiding.” Again she might say, “Yes I think I have something for you on that.” And turning to her papers or to the journal where she often wrote day by day, setting down instruction perhaps given in the night season, she might find just the help needed by the brethren in their problem. Thus, year after year, through all the seventy years, leaders had evidence that there was a living God in heaven guiding in this movement in a direct and special way through the gift of the Spirit of prophecy. The Review and Herald, January 6, 1938.HEVI 85.5

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents