The Design of God in the Gift of Prophecy, and Its Revival in the Last Days
By GEO. I. BUTLER
THROUGH the gift of prophecy God from time to time communicated with chosen persons, instructing, encouraging, enlightening, and greatly assisting all willing to be saved by the means God has instituted. The Bible alone furnishes us the true record of God’s merciful interference in human affairs to save fallen man. That holy record has been the principal agency through which God has wrought, bringing light and truth to guide poor, lost man through the perils of this world. That blessed volume came to us through visions and revelations from God; in other words, through the spirit of prophecy. The revelation through John, Christ’s beloved disciple, as we say, closes the canon of inspiration about the end of the first century of the Christian dispensation. That century was a wonderful era. It abounded in visions and revelations from the God of heaven. In it the whole world heard the blessed gospel preached. Paul says, in Col. 1:23, that it “was preached to every creature which is under heaven;” but it is evident that comparatively few fully accepted6it, though no doubt it continued to be preached by many God-fearing men, and believers continued to come into the churches. One great fact stands out very prominently: the gifts of the Spirit rapidly ceased. The church wandered farther and farther from God. By the third century the apostasy was quite fully developed. The pure doctrines of the apostolic church were corrupted. The church itself became worldly and began to persecute. The great apostasy was complete. After ten centuries of the Dark Ages, in which the Papacy was dominant, the light began to break, and the great Protestant Reformation dawned upon the religious world. Great Reformers appeared and proclaimed many important truths. The art of printing was invented and perfected by pious men, largely for the purpose of multiplying copies of the Scriptures, which previously had to be written out by hand. The bringing of the Scriptures to the common people was the greatest agency in their enlightenment. But after centuries of the existence of Protestant churches, it must be evident that the reformation from the errors of the great apostasy was only a reform in part. One sad evidence of this is the existence of a large number of sects, differing in their religious views and doctrines, and in many cases antagonistic to one another. All cannot be true; and we cannot be sure that any one of them has all the truths of the Bible. For example, practically all of them have brought with them the pagano-papal Sunday Sabbath, and as churches they strenuously contend for it, while the fact stands out prominently that not a single text of the Holy Scriptures can be found intimating that the first day of the week became a holy day, in the place of the seventh day of God’s appointment. The Catholic Church claims to have made the change, to have substituted the first day of the week for the seventh-day Sabbath, and defies the Protestant world to prove from the Scriptures that Sunday is the Sabbath. And history corroborates this claim of the Catholic Church. History also furnishes evidence that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was brought into the church directly from the heathen world, and there are other doctrines held by Protestants which were derived from the same source. The Scriptures clearly teach that we are living in the last days. Overwhelming proof is being given to the world that the very last days of time have been reached, and that Christ’s second advent is soon to awaken this drowsy world. The Protestant churches have rejected this doctrine. They hold that the world is to be converted before Christ can come. This present awful war, the most terrible ever seen in human history, ought to awaken men, and show them the folly of this peace-and-safety cry. The condition of the religious world today is very sad. Of earth’s sixteen hundred million people, about ten hundred million are pagans. Of professed Christians a very large majority are Roman Catholics or Greek Catholics; and the Protestant world is divided into a large number of sects differing greatly in belief. It is safe to say that of its ministry a very large majority do not accept the entire Bible as inspired. A large number do not accept the Mosaic record of creation. Modern critics discount the flood, and even the existence of Abraham and the record of the exodus. Indeed, comparatively few of the Protestant ministers believe the Bible to be the word of God. The Protestant world is far from accepting the Bible as a book of authority in religious doctrine. All sects are being permeated with skepticism. Ages have passed since heavenly visions of inspiration have been seen in the professed Christian world; and this condition is the terrible result. Under the high pressure of modern revivalists, multitudes are being received into the Protestant churches, with no Scriptural evidence of genuine Christian conversion. Christ is soon coming; but who are preparing for that event? In this sad condition of the religious world today, is there not great need of a true prophet of the Lord, one who has genuine visions from the Lord of heaven? Would it be possible without such an agency to prepare a people for the coming of the Master to gather his people and save them? Every wind of doctrine is blowing in our world. Never were times so perilous. Great Babylon is fallen, and spiritual lethargy is everywhere. Christ left a united body of believers when he ascended, and he will find a united people when he comes to translate his living saints. But they can never become a united people in this degenerate age without special spiritual help from God. From the very beginning of the proclamation of the last warning message, the third angel’s message of Rev. 14:9-12, there has been connected with it the spirit of prophecy. In proof of this let us examine briefly Revelation 12: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” Verses 1, 2, 5. In this scripture the inspired John gives a symbolic account of the first advent of our Saviour. The woman is the true church of Christ; the moon represents the Jewish church in the past dispensation; the crown, the twelve apostles; and the last event mentioned, Christ’s ascension to the Father. In connection with this another symbolic representation is presented, that of Satan as a great red dragon ready to destroy the man child, evidently referring to the Roman power seeking to destroy Christ very soon after he was born. See Matthew 2. In many scriptures a woman is a symbol of a church. “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” Rev. 12:6. This period of twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days means twelve hundred and sixty years, from A. D. 538 to 1798, during which time the Papacy had the supremacy. This period includes what is called the Dark Ages. The Catholic Church ruled the world, practically speaking. During the latter part of this period that church was greatly crippled by the Reformation in its power to persecute. In 1798 Berthier, the French general, captured Rome, and carried the Pope into exile in France, where he died; then for about two years there was no pope. During the long period of twelve hundred and sixty years the true church of God was largely hidden from view; this was the wilderness state of the church. The true people of God were called heretics by the ruling power, the Papacy, and multitudes of them were martyrs, the Catholic power preaching crusades against them and seeking every chance to destroy them from the earth. The Protestant Reformation greatly checked this work of the Papacy. In the latter part of the twelve-hundred-and-sixty-year period, persecution nearly ceased. This relief from persecution is referred to in the last portion of the chapter as follows: “The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” Verse 16. That is, the Protestant powers of earth held these persecutions in check so that in these latter days the true gospel principles might be freely preached. Now we come down to the final work of the true church on earth. “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Verse 17. We can draw no other conclusion from this language than this: The remnant church is the last true church on earth. This prophecy begins at the first advent of Christ, and includes his birth, his crown of twelve apostles, his ascension to his Father, this long period of twelve hundred and sixty years of persecution, the relief through the help of the Protestant earthly governments toward the close of that period, and ends with the remnant church. The remnant of a piece of goods is the little remaining after the larger part has been used up. Webster gives the meaning of remnant as follows: “That which remains after a part is removed, destroyed, used up. Webster gives the meaning of tion; . . . a fragment.” The remnant church is the church living when Christ comes. No other is to follow it. What characteristics distinguish this remnant church? The first is, it keeps the commandments of God. It keeps them all. Jesus says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. The strength of a chain depends on each link. If one link is broken, the chain is broken. So with the law of ten commandments. All ten are kept by this remnant church. If all ten are kept, then7the fourth precept is kept, as well as the other nine. That precept says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” We look around, and, behold, almost all the churches of Christendom are trampling under their feet every week this true Sabbath of the Lord of the universe. They have chosen another day, of which not one verse in the whole Bible has a single word indicative of its being kept as the Sabbath. Isn’t this strange, yea, astonishing? But away down here in the closing days of time, the prophetic eyes sees a little remnant church which keeps holy the day that the God of heaven commanded to be kept. But there is a little variation, at least in the wording of the scriptures, concerning the remnant church and the one brought to view in the third angel’s message. The latter says “the faith of Jesus;” the former says “the testimony of Jesus Christ.” What can “the testimony of Jesus Christ” be? We dare not pretend to answer on our own authority merely. We will give the Scripture definition in the place of the word itself. We have this definition in Rev. 19:10: “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” When we have the true definition of any word and put that definition in the place of the word itself, we always get the true sense. Let us do this in the case under consideration. “The dragon was wroth with the woman [the true church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the spirit of prophecy.” The prophet of God sees away down in the end of time a little remnant church that is peculiar, that is different from all the multitude of churches about her; for this one little remnant church that is peculiar, that is ten commandments and have the spirit of prophecy. Such a church will be, yea, must be, found; for God said there would be such a people in the last church on earth.