The Visions---Objections Answered.
SEVENTH-DAY Adventists believe in the gifts of the Spirit. They believe that the varied operations of the Spirit of God, having been once expressly set in the church, 1 Cor. xii, Eph. iv, were designed to continue therein to the end, because they are not limited, and God has never withdrawn them from the church; just as they believed that the original blessing placed in the beginning upon the seventh day, is there still, because God never has withdrawn it, nor placed it upon any other day. To them, the doctrine of Spiritual Gifts, as set forth in the chapters referred to, is as much a special doctrine of Revelation, as is the Sabbath, the Sanctuary, the State of the Dead, or the Second Advent. Taking the Scriptures to be in deed and in truth the word of God, they cannot reject it. They can as easily explain away the Sabbath, Baptism, and the Lord's supper, as the doctrine of Spiritual Gifts, and hence believe that to reject it, is to be guilty of error, and that to receive it, is essential to the unity of the faith. In addition to this theoretical view of the subject, and in addition to the ordinary operations of the Spirit of God, they believe that they have in their midst a special manifestation, answering to one at least of these gifts which have been placed in the Christian church. This is found in the visions, as published in the works entitled, Experience and Views, Testimonies to the Church, and Spiritual Gifts, Vols. I--IV. Every test which can be brought to bear upon such manifestations, proves these genuine. The evidence which supports them, internal and external, is conclusive. They agree with the word of God, and with themselves. They are given, unless those best qualified to judge are invariably deceived, when the Spirit of God is especially present. They are free from the disgusting contortions and grimaces which attend the counterfeit manifestations of Spiritualism. Calm, dignified, impressive, they commend themselves to every beholder, as the very opposite of that which is false or fanatical. The instrument is herself above jugglery or deceit. The influence is not mesmeric; for this people, reprobating the use of that agency, studiously refuse to learn the principles of its application, or to have aught to do with its practical workings; besides, the hallucinations of a mesmerized subject embrace only such facts and scenes as previously exist in the mind of the mesmerizing power; but the visions take cognizance of persons and things, and bring to light facts known, not only by no person present, but not even by the one through whom the visions are given. They are not the effect of disease; for no disease has ever yet been known to have the effect of repeatedly suspending the functions of the lungs, heart, muscles, and every bodily sense, from fifteen to one hundred and eighty minutes, while in obedience to some influence which evidently had supreme possession of the mind, and in obedience to that alone, the eyes would see, the lips speak, and the limbs move. Further, their fruit is such as to show that the source from which they spring, is the opposite of evil. They tend to the purest morality. They discountenance every vice, and exhort to the practice of every virtue. They point out the perils through which we are to pass to the kingdom. They reveal the devices of Satan. They warn us against his snares. They have nipped in the bud, scheme after scheme of fanaticism which the enemy has tried to foist into our midst. They have exposed hidden iniquity, brought to light concealed wrongs, and laid bare the evil motives of the false-hearted. They have warded off dangers from the cause of truth upon every hand. They have aroused and re-aroused us to greater consecration to God, more zealous efforts for holiness of heart, and greater diligence in the cause and service of our Master. They lead us to Christ. Like the Bible, they set him forth as the only hope and only Saviour of mankind. They portray before us in living characters, his holy life and his godly example, and with irresistible appeals, they urge us to follow in his steps. They lead us to the Bible. They set forth that book, as the inspired and unalterable word of God. They exhort us to take that word as the man of our counsel, and the rule of our faith and practice. And with a compelling power, they entreat us to study long and diligently its pages, and become familiar with its teaching, for it is to judge us in the last day. They have brought comfort and consolation to many hearts. They have strengthened the weak, encouraged the feeble, raised up the despondent. They have brought order out of confusion, made crooked places straight, and thrown light on what was dark and obscure. And no person with an unprejudiced mind, can read their stirring appeals for a pure and lofty morality, their exaltation of God and the Saviour, their denunciations of every evil, and their exhortations to everything that is holy and of good report, without being compelled to say, "These are not the words of him that hath a devil." Negatively, they have never been known to counsel evil or devise wickedness. No instance can be found in which they have lowered the standard of morality. No one of their adherents has ever been led by them into paths of transgression and sin. They do not lead men to serve God less faithfully or to love him less fervently. They do not lead to any of the works of the flesh, nor make less devoted and faithful Christians of those who believe them. In not a single instance can any of the charges here mentioned, be sustained against them; and concerning them we may emphatically ask the question which Pilate put to the Jews in reference to the Saviour, "Why, what evil hath he done?" Yet with all this array of good fruit which they are able to present, with all this innocency of any charge of evil that can be brought against them, they everywhere encounter the bitterest opposition. They are the object of the blindest prejudice, the intensest hate, and most malignant bitterness. Worldlings and formal professors of all denominations, join in one general outcry against them of vituperation and abuse. Many will go a long distance out of their way for the purpose of giving them an uncalled-for and malicious thrust. And false-hearted brethren in our own ranks make them the butt of their first attacks, as they launch off into apostasy and rebellion. Why is all this? Whence all this war against that of which no evil can be said? From the example of Cain who slew his brother, of the Jews who clamored for the blood of the innocent Saviour, of the infidel who storms with passion at the very name of Jesus, and from the principle of the carnal heart which is at enmity with everything that is holy and spiritual, we leave the reader to answer. Some of those who so strenuously oppose the visions, have a series of objections which they offer in justification of their course. In these objections, they everywhere betray a consciousness of a painful scarcity of material; and hence there is throughout a labored effort to make the most of every little point that can be seized upon, and present it in a greatly magnified or perverted light. And finding even these limited, to make their objections appear respectable as to numbers, they go still further, and finding acts in the course of individuals which they construe to be contrary to the testimony of the visions, they incorporate them in as objections to the visions themselves! With this class of objections, of course we have nothing to do, in answering objections to the visions. Though every believer in them should grossly violate their teaching, it would have no bearing whatever on the question of their authenticity. OBJECTION I. The Bible and the Bible Alone. The first and most general objection, and the one which contains the most specious fallacy, is the cry of "The Bible and the Bible Alone" as opposed to the visions. We do not receive the visions, say they; we have no need of them; the Bible is a sufficient rule of faith. We stand upon the Bible and the Bible alone. Such10declarations, in connection with outspoken denunciations of the visions, are most effectually calculated to warp the judgment of the unguarded, and fasten upon their minds the impression that to receive the visions is to reject the Bible, and to cling to the Bible is to discard the visions. A greater fallacy never existed. Look at the fields which they respectively occupy. The Bible is able to make us wise unto salvation, and thoroughly furnish us unto all good works. Do the visions propose to invade this field, and erect a new standard, and give us another rule of faith and practice? Nothing of the kind. On the contrary, they are ever in harmony with the word, and ever refer to that as the test and standard. To the law and the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. But by taking our stand on the Bible, and the Bible alone, we bind ourselves to receive all that it teaches, and to acknowledge every agency which it assures us that God has placed in the Christian church. Now the Bible has something to say on the subject of visions. It tells us that the present dispensation is the "dispensation of the Spirit." It assures us that during this time, the Comforter, or Spirit of truth, would be with the true church to lead them into all truth. The prophecy to be fulfilled during the same time, is given us in these words: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." It tells us that this Spirit has certain distinct and definite channels through which it will operate; and that under its influence there will be "manifestations of wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, divers kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues." 1 Cor. xii, 8--10. And hence when the prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit in this dispensation is announced, it is immediately added, "And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." "And also," continues Joel, "upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit," and Peter adds, as if it were an unfailing consequent, "And they shall prophesy." Acts ii, 16--18. Here are set before us the operations of the Spirit of God, and in these it is declared that the daughters as well as the sons, the handmaids as well as the servants, are to participate. In making us wise unto salvation, and thoroughly furnishing us unto all good works, the Bible is thus careful to instruct us as to the place which the Spirit of God is designed to fill, and the part which it is to act. It declares that the means by which the saints are to be perfected, the work of the ministry performed, and the body of Christ edified, till we all come into the unity of the faith, are these various operations of the Spirit of God, in connection with the word. Now is there any such thing as standing upon the Bible and the Bible alone, and yet rejecting these agencies? There certainly is not. Those who reject these things, and deny that God has made any provision for the instruction of his people in these days through the gifts of visions or prophecy in the church, just so far depart from their doctrine of the Bible and the Bible alone, and deny the Bible itself. If any should say that they do not deny the doctrine of spiritual gifts as a Bible theory, but do not believe that the manifestations we now have are genuine, then this objection of the Bible and the Bible alone, is abandoned as opposed to the visions, and objections against them must be based on other grounds. Inasmuch as the Bible expressly provides for visions, no objection can be raised against any visions on the ground of the Bible and the Bible alone. It is all a fallacy. The only ground upon which any of them can be rejected, is to bring them to the word, the test, and show that their characteristics are not such as were to attend the genuine manifestations. And of this test we invite an application to the visions received among Seventh-day Adventists. OBJ. 2. Adding to the Bible. It is objected again to the visions that they are an addition to the word of God, and hence come under the fearful denunciation of Rev. xxii, 18, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Those who raise this objection, place themselves under obligation to show that the visions are an addition to the word of God; an obligation which they have never discharged. Whenever they will carefully consider the language, they will see that it has reference to the book of Revelation alone. That book was given when the mystery of iniquity was already at work. A time of apostasy and forgery was immediately to succeed. And it was to guard the purity of this book that this caution was given. Whoever should endeavor to foist in sentiments of his own into the book of Revelation, and palm them off upon the people as a part of the Revelation itself, he should be subject to the plagues written therein. And on the contrary, whoever should attempt to suppress any part of the testimony which God had placed therein as his genuine word, his name should be likewise taken from the book of life. But any subsequent instruction given by the Lord to his people through visions, dreams, tongues, or any of the operations of his Spirit, would no more be an addition to the book of Revelation, than the Revelation was an addition to the book of Daniel. If any think it would, they will please account for the fact, in harmony with their view, that the Gospel of John was written by inspiration at a later date than the book of Revelation; for this is a fact which can be most conclusively proved. In harmony with the principle here advocated, we are expressly told in some of Paul's instruction which has undoubted reference to the last days, not to despise prophesyings, which does not mean the prophecies, but prophesying, or the exercise of the gift of prophecy, in the present tense. 1 Thess. v, 20. OBJ. 3. Limited Extent of the Gifts. If these are genuine gifts of the Spirit, the question is asked, why are they not more extensive? why are they confined to one person, and that one a woman? To which we answer that it cannot be that the prophecy given by Joel, and repeated by Peter, was intended to allot to each division of the human race, male and female, those gifts, and none others, which they were respectively to enjoy. And inasmuch as both males and females are mentioned in the prophecy, we understand that all the different operations of the Spirit there mentioned, are to be exercised by them indiscriminately. Hence there is no prohibition against young women's seeing visions, in the fact that the prophecy says that young men shall see them, nor against young men's having dreams because it says old men are to have them. These both are among the means by which God sometimes sees fit to communicate prophetic knowledge, and in which both the sons and daughters are to participate; for your sons and your daughters, says the record, shall prophesy. In regard to the limited extent of the visions, it is certainly nothing against their authenticity, that they are as yet confined to one individual. It is certainly a great advance over years preceding the proclamation of the Advent doctrine, that we have them at all. And if, in addition to this, we find that the people of God have been in exactly the same circumstances before, then certainly we ought not to regard this state of things as involving any difficulty over which there is occasion to stumble. We refer then to the time of Deborah, the prophetess, Judg. iv, 4, the only one through whom God at that time communicated instruction to his people; for they inquired of her; and that one a woman. See also a parallel case in the time of Huldah the prophetess. 2 Kings xxii, 14. But those who object to the visions because now given through a woman, whereas the prophecy speaks of young men seeing them, may not all be aware that the first manifestations of this kind in connection with the Advent movement, were given to a young man. A person by the name of Foss, in the State of Maine, had visions at an earlier date than any of Sr. White's. But he refused to heed the instruction given him by the Spirit of the Lord, to go forth and make known what had been shown to him---refused to such a degree as to set up his will in the most positive manner that he would not do it. His feelings thereupon sinking to the very verge of despair, he concluded he would do anything rather than continue in that state of mind. But it was then too late. For when he attempted to relate what had been shown him, at a meeting appointed by himself for the purpose, he was unable, even with the most violent effort, to articulate a word. Since then the visions have been given through Sr. White, who, under a sense of the fearful responsibility resting upon her, has tried to make them known in faithfulness to whomsoever they might concern, meeting the scorn, hatred, and opposition that has always fallen to the lot of persons of such a calling, and oftentimes, even from the very ones from whom she was entitled to receive sympathy and support.