MORE on the Misuse/Abuse of the New Testament Gift of Prophecy - Seventh-Day Adventism

As I've continued to teach on the New Testament Gift of Prophecy, the issue of modern abuses/misuses of this gift has been an emphasis. And let me be clear, MANY CHARISMATIC Christians have abused/misused this gift, and continue to do so right now. In this blog post, we will show exactly how a well-known church, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA), provides a stellar example of how the gift of prophecy was horribly misused. That being said, many modern SDAs have seemingly moved away from the authority of Ellen G. White's prophecies and I applaud those that have done so. May they also question the doctrinal "novelties" that were introduced by her so-called prophetic revelations!

Note: I believe the prophetic gifts to be ongoing gifts of the Holy Spirit that did not CEASE as Cessationists contend. We see ALL of the revelatory, prophetic gifts in operation in the late first century, the 2nd century, and into the 3rd and 4th centuries. The argument that once we had the Apostle's writings (the New Testament Canon) the gift was no longer needed, is simply a "myth". The Cessationist's ignorance and/or neglect of the undeniable facts of Church history is irresponsible and lacks integrity.

I do sympathize with those that are so appalled by the misuse/abuse of prophecy that they no longer want to be around it. They may not be Cessationists theologically, but they more or less become 'Practical Cessationists'. I know many Charismatics who have allowed the abuse/misuse of prophecy to lead to its disuse. That however is not a Biblical option when the Apostle Paul commands us to seek this gift especially! (1 Cor. 14:1)

ALSO - I am not here referring to prophecies that are wrong on their timing or of those prophecies predicting future events. That is another topic/discussion altogether. These are potential right uses of the gift of prophecy in the New Testament. And yes, people may make mistakes which constitute failed prophecy, but at least is an attempt at one of the correct uses of the prophetic gifts. 

The misuse/abuse I am talking about regards the establishment of and the defining of doctrine. This would include so-called claimed prophetic revelation as to the meaning/interpretation of Biblical passages that NO ONE has seen before. Or of interpretations that contradict the Apostolic understanding/teaching of an issue.  

All of this amounts to a gross misunderstanding of the difference between Old Testament and New Testament prophets. In short, in the Old Testament, prophets were the authority. Their revelation and writings were infallible and authoritative in the life of God's people.

That is NOT the case in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the Apostles had authority and it is to their revelation and teaching that we must submit as infallible and authoritative. New Testament prophets did not establish or define doctrine. It was not to the prophets' teaching that the New Testament Church was devoted to but rather to the Apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42).

In a minute, we will look at how the Seventh-Day Adventists entirely misunderstood and misapplied the Gift of Prophecy with regard to their prophetess Ellen G. White. 

Before that, I am reminded of a well-known modern Charismatic teacher/author who had a prophetic experience that caused him to become a Calvinist after he had formerly been an Arminian (from a Nazarene background). Was his "experience" valid? Was it a right use of the Gift of Prophecy? 

My answer is absolutely not. The doctrines of Calvinism are nowhere to be found in the Early Church and are first formulated by St. Augustine in the early 5th Century (412AD to be exact). Why would God the Holy Spirit inspire someone to embrace a doctrinal understanding that was/is NON-Apostolic. He wouldn't. That is how I can judge/weigh/assess that prophetic experience that was had and dismiss it as wrong. This is exactly what we are commanded to do with New Testament prophetic ministry.

I know of people who were in error, say for example believing that Jesus was not divine, and by revelation, God corrected their error and showed them that Jesus is fully God. Sometimes that was through a dream, a vision, or even an illumination of a Biblical passage that returned the person to the Apostle's doctrine. I remember a Muslim friend I was sharing the Gospel with who said that Jesus was not crucified (Islam's official teaching). I told him that I believed God would reveal the truth to him as I had shown him the New Testament passages. That night, Jesus appeared to him in a dream and said, "Muhammad, I heard you had a question for me"? He replied, "Yes, I do. Were you crucified?". Jesus said, "Yes, I was".  In this case, God was correcting error by revelation, showing a Muslim man what the truth was about Christ's Crucifixion.  

So correcting erroneous teaching is a possible use of prophecy, but that correction is never going to violate and/or contradict the Apostolic faith.

When we turn to Seventh-Day Adventism, we can see that all of the aforementioned misuses of prophecy are found in their beginnings.

They believed that God was giving "new revelation" to Ellen G. White. 

They used her revelations to "define doctrine".

They believed that God was giving "inspired interpretation" of passages of Scripture that contradicted the Apostolic church's understanding.

They began to teach and practice things that contradict explicitly what was taught by the Apostles and their immediate successors. 

Of course, they would contend that much of Ellen G. White's revelations were only correcting errors that had crept into Christianity. The thing is, we can of course test that. We know what the earliest Christians believed and practiced. Did they worship on the Saturday Sabbath (and was Sunday worship the "mark of the beast")? Did they follow Jewish Dietary Laws? Most of the earliest Adventists (up till the 1890s) denied the doctrine of the Trinity. I am not even getting into their "new revelations", i.e. their doctrine of the Investigative Judgement or the new revelations about eating meat that exceeded the Mosaic Law.

Let us look now at what the Seventh-Day Adventists say about the authority of Ellen G. White's prophetic revelations - all of these quotes come from authoritative SDA sources. 

1. ELLEN G. WHITE = APOSTLE PAUL

"I believe that BOTH ELLEN G. WHITE AND THE APOSTLE PAUL WERE TRUE PROPHETS WHO WROTE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. MY REASON FOR BELIEVING IN THE INSPIRATION OF ONE IS IDENTICAL WITH MY REASON FOR BELIEVING IN THE INSPIRATION OF THE OTHER."- Robert Olson, Sec. EGW Estate, as quoted in "What Ellen White Has Meant to Me," p. 165

2. Ellen G. White's revelation/inspiration = Bible

“We believe the revelation and inspiration of both the Bible and Ellen White's writings to be of equal quality. The superintendence of the Holy Spirit was just as careful and thorough in one case as in the other.” - “Ministry Magazine”

Note: There are many SDA quotes where they say that the Bible is their highest authority and that it is considered to be more authoritative than Ellen G. White's revelations, but this quote illustrates that this is 

3. Ellen White = Biblical Prophets, even Old Testament ones.

"ELLEN G. WHITE WAS INSPIRED IN THE SAME SENSE AS WERE THE BIBLE PROPHETS.'' - Kenneth H. Wood, Editor "Review" as quoted in RH 9/4/80, p. 15

4. Ellen White = Same as Old Testament Biblical Prophets

Ellen G. White’s revelations/writings should "be received, the same as were the messages of the prophets of old. As Samuel was a prophet to Israel in his day, as Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel in the days of captivity, as John the Baptist came as a special messenger of the Lord to prepare the way for Christ's appearing, so we believe that Mrs. White was a prophet to the church of Christ today. And the same as the messages of the prophets were received in old days, so her message should be received at present times" Review and Herald, Oct 4, 1928.

5. Ellen G. White’s Writings = authoritative truth source

“One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction…”

SUBSEQUENTLY CHANGED!!!  Watered it down. Obscured things. 

SDA removed - “continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church…”

Changed it to – “Her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide comfort…”

A few further quotes to illustrate that they have Ellen G. White and her revelations in a place of authority that is a violation of the New Testament Gift of prophecy: 

1.    E. E. CLEVELAND: "I believe in the Testimonies. MRS. WHITE'S WRITINGS ARE THE WORLD'S Only Inspired Bible Commentary. They Constitute the most serious challenge to Christian Living That Has Come To The Church Since John's Patmos Revelation..." E. E. Cleveland, At One Time Assoc. Sec., Ministerial Assoc., Gen. Conf. SDA's. As Quoted In "Facts And Com Meets About The Spirit Of Prophecy", P. 14

SDA SABBATH SCHOOL QUARTERLY: "THE BIBLE AND THE WRITINGS OF ELLEN WHITE ARE INERRANT..." -- Feb. 11, 1978, Sabbath School-Quarterly; teacher's Edition, p. 112

LOUIS VENDEN: "I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT HERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DEGREE AND QUALITY DIMENSION OF THE INSPIRATION OF ANY BIBLICAL WRITER AND ELLEN WHITE...I believe that the Desire of Ages, for example, is just as high in quality or degree of inspiration as the Gospel according to Luke...What is the best way to keep it all in perspective and end up with ELLEN WHITE BEING FOR THIS CHURCH WHAT LUKE WAS for his generation and not one whit less in contribution and AUTHORITY." -- Louis Venden, as quoted on a cassette message "The Wilson Committee-Rea On Ellen G. White"

SDA BOOK: "Elder I. H. Evans, the General Conference representative at the conference declared: 'When the statement from Sister White is read, I am sure that the majority of our brethren will feel as we feel tonight - that THE LORD HAS SPOKEN, AND WE WILL OBEY."'- Quoted in "The Invisible Irishman", p. 484, by Merlin Neff

MORRIS VENDEN: "I'd like to take this position, that if you do not believe in the gift of prophecy, based on what the Bible has to say on it, that you don't believe in the Bible ...The primary purpose of the gift of prophecy in relationship to scripture is to confirm Scripture truth. WE TOOK THE POSITION LAST TIME THAT THE GIFT OF PROPHECY HAS EQUAL AUTHORITY WITH THE BIBLE AND EQUAL INSPIRATION WITH THE BIBLE." -- Morris L. Venden, Cassette tape #MY-312 "Church Body Building". Venden was specifically referring to Ellen G. White and the gift of prophecy in the Seventh-day Adventist church.

ELLEN WHITE HAD THAT GIFT AND SHE WAS CANONICAL INSOFAR AS DOCTRINAL INTERPRETATION AUTHORITY IS CONCERNED..." -- Letter from D. A. Delafiel trustee of the EGW Estate, to P. C. Drewer, June 24, 1981. Note: Delafield's letter was tampered with and the phrase that EGW was "canonical insofar as doctrinal interpretation" was deleted. 

PHILIP FOLLETT: "...THE WRITINGS OF ELLEN WHITE ARE INSPIRED IN THE SAME SENSE AS THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED..." -- Taken from cassette tape "What Happened At Glacier View", PUC, August 23, 1980

Mrs. White herself states, "In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own views. They are what God had opened to me in vision-the precious ray of light shining from the throne" (Testimonies Vol.5, p. 67)."If you lessen the confidence of God's people in the testimonies (Mrs. White's visions and dreams) He has sent them, you are rebelling against God" (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 66) "In ancient times God spake to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them by the Testimonies of His Spirit...The Lord has seen fit to give me a view of the need and errors of His people" (EGW, Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 661).

As one can see, they have Ellen G. White in the category of an Old Testament Prophet which is why they for all intents and purposes have her prophetic revelations on the same level as the Bible. They view her revelation and teaching as authoritative and must be obeyed as from the Lord. 

As for some of her revelations that I mentioned earlier. No, Christians did not continue to worship on the Sabbath. Christian worship shifted, during the New Testament, to Sundays, called the Lord's Day. And for her to claim that Sunday worship is the "Mark of the Beast", is not only a Satanic lie, it also contradicts the actual Apostolic understanding of what the Mark of the Beast would be during the Great Tribulation. She is both wrong on the "new revelation" and her commentary on the passage in Revelation (13:18) is contradicted by the personal disciples of the Apostle John, who received and wrote the Book of Revelation.

Christians all worshipped on Sunday from the beginning of the Church. In short, it was not a 4th-century pagan introduction by Constantine to commemorate the worship of the Sun God! 

Christians no longer followed the Mosaic Law. The New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant, the former having passed away and made obsolete (as the Apostle Paul teaches in the Book of Hebrews). 

As for the Trinity, we can see that it was believed from the beginning. The term was first used in AD200 by Tertullian to describe what Christians believed and confessed - that there was one God and that the Father was God, the Son was God and the Holy Spirit was God. Again, it was NOT a 4th-century pagan invention as is the common claim of conspiratorial propaganda. 

In closing, I would urge modern Charismatics to be far more discerning as to the authority they give to prophetic voices in the Church. You MUST weigh/assess/judge every prophetic word! If a prophet (or prophetic person) speaks, we should immediately discard the "revelation" if it is claiming to reveal "new" doctrine, or to define doctrine in such a way as to contradict the Apostolic faith. We are not going to have prophets today unlocking the Book of Revelation and interpreting it in ways that have never been seen before! And let me assure you, it is that book that has been the most abused by 'prophets' throughout Church History. Every Christian cult I know of has abused the Book of Revelation.

I am currently thinking of a well-known modern prophetic voice who is claiming that God has revealed to him "new insights" into the Book of Revelation. I am not talking about the issue of timing either. It is like he is claiming he has received "inspired commentary" and is claiming an interpretation that no one has had before. This my friends is an abuse and to add insult to injury, his views CONTRADICT the universal teachings and understanding of the earliest Christians, including the personal disciples of the Apostles themselves!  That is how I can test and know he is wrong. There is no "new doctrinal revelation" and a genuine prophetic word will NEVER contradict "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3)

Let us pursue the RIGHT & PROPER USE of the prophetic gifts!!!

For such a time as this...