As The Pioneers Stated It

The pioneers of the advent movement well set forth this restoration of the gift in the introduction to the second part of “Early Writings,” one of the earliest volumes of the advent movement:SPIAM 22.4

“The gift of prophecy was manifested in the church during the Jewish dispensation. If it disappeared for a few centuries, on account of the corrupt state of the church toward the close of that dispensation, it reappeared at its close to usher in the Messiah. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, ‘was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied.’ Simeon, a just and devout man who was ‘waiting for the consolation of Israel,’ came by the Spirit into the temple, and prophesied of Jesus as ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel;’ and Anna, a prophetess, ‘spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.’ And there was no greater prophet than John the Baptist. who was chosen of God to introduce to Israel ‘the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’SPIAM 22.5

“The Christian age commenced with the outpouring of the Spirit, and a great variety of spiritual gifts was manifested among the believers.... Since the great apostasy, these gifts have rarely been manifested; and this is probably the reason why professed Christians generally believe that they were limited to the period of the primitive church. But is it not on account of the errors and unbelief of the church that the gifts have ceased? ...And since a special work of the Spirit was necessary to prepare a people for the first advent of Christ, how much more so for the second.... The apostles’ commission belonged to the Christian age, and embraced the whole of it. Consequently the gifts were lost only through apostasy, and will be revived with the revival of primitive faith and practice.”—Early Writings, 133-135.SPIAM 23.1

And with the reviving of the primitive faith—“the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”—the revival of the gift of the Spirit of prophecy appeared, as foretold in the visions of John on the Isle of Patmos.SPIAM 23.2