Its Latest Designation by John O. Corliss

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 3, 1911

Its Latest Designation

By John O. Corliss

Tracings of the Prophetic Gift—No. 13

Its Latest Designation

J. O. CORLISS

It is at least reasonable to suppose that inasmuch as the prophetic gift was necessary for the guidance of Israel through emergency cases, under which they seriously wavered, it ought, in justice, to be continued among God’s people as long as the same besetments remain. He who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, ought never to abandon a relief work which he himself has set in motion, and which ever proved efficient to all who availed themselves of its attributes.

Although a long interval of years passed between the last known Old Testament prophet, and the appearance of the promised Messiah, he proceeded early in his mission to show that he did not intend to overthrow the established order of things. He was careful to put his hearers on guard in this respect. Said he: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matt. 5:17.

So far was Christ from desiring to abolish either the law or the prophets, that he made it plain that his sole mission was to perpetuate both, and so fill up the vacuity produced by the iniquitous course of the Jews. Instead of his words being uttered to replace any part of the law or of the prophetic gift, these were rather intended to sanction and enforce both. The reason for this is obvious. As, after the voice from heaven proclaimed the law on Sinai expressing the will of Jehovah, it was heard no more after the same manner, but was echoed through the prophets pointing out men’s hidden defects in relation to the already written word; so, after the direct voice of Christ should cease in the earth, prophets were to continue as prompters to careless ones, and thus restore men to communion with high Heaven.

Were the prophetic gift to cease before the work of Christ for sinners was done, one thing would be lacking in the final test of men’s righteousness. According to the statement of the inspired apostle, every one who is finally justified must have his righteousness witnessed, or testified to, by both the law and the prophets (Rom. 3:19-22); not alone by one prophet, but by the prophets; that is, by them all. This is reasonable, too, when we know that men of olden times were measured up to the law’s requirements, not as viewed by the judgment of erring minds, but by the voice of the inspired prophets. Why should not the same provision for correctly viewing the law’s requirement be made for the latest generations, who have inherited the moral weaknesses of their sin-benighted ancestors?

In such an arrangement no material change need mark the work of God for destitute man. As the testimony borne by the prophets of patriarchal days was not their own, so holy exhortations to virtue in later generations must also savor of the divine afflatus. The first-named searched out the way of salvation for men, and bore positive testimony in relation to it by the Spirit of Christ, which animated them. 1 Peter 1:10, 11. Their words were therefore but the testimony of Christ borne through them. It was this “testimony of Jesus” through the prophets of old which pointed out so clearly in advance the sufferings that the Saviour must endure in the flesh, and the infinite glory to follow his earthly ministry. It was this same “testimony” which confirmed the early Christians in the divine mission of Christ (1 Cor. 1:6), because they saw in Christ an exact fulfilment of what the prophets had written concerning him.

When upon the isle of Patmos, the revelator saw visions of God, as did the early prophets before him. As the future glory of Christ with his redeemed at the marriage supper was flashed from heaven upon the moving panoramic scroll, the ecstatic sight so overcame the transported seer that he fell in worshipful attitude at the feet of the angel who was in attendance. The angel at once forbade his action, saying that he was but John’s fellow servant, as he was also of all the brethren who have the “testimony of Jesus.” Then, as if to prevent all misunderstanding regarding the “brethren” referred to, he added: “Worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit [life] of prophecy.” Rev. 19:10.

The life, or power, of prophecy is therefore the testimony of the living Christ. No other sort of prophetic utterance can move the benumbed soul to genuine moral action. The testimony of Christ, however, though delivered through one of his earth-chosen, can and will call to life the deadened faculties of men, because the life of Christ is thus sent forth to impart its own warming impulse of power to the needy one. In this way to receive the words of a true prophet, is to receive Christ, because the prophet simply brings forward the “testimony of Jesus.” John 13:20.

The conclusions here set forth are not new. To those whose minds have not been concerned with the subject, they may appear remote and unrelated to the divine plan; but the prophetic Word itself reveals that in earth’s closing scenes a people will come to the front who have the “testimony of Jesus Christ” in conjunction with the “commandments of God.” Rev. 12:17. The same text clearly sets forth also that this peculiar people will be an undesirable nation in the eyes of opposing forces.

The reason for these two elements becoming a distinguishing mark of God’s remnant people, and the hateful opposition they engender, ought to be clearly traceable in the Sacred Scriptures. Let us see. It is quite certain that in the great judgment, men’s characters will be measured by the law of God, not in the light of men’s faulty views of righteousness, but according to the infinite mind of Jehovah himself. Rom. 2:12-16. To meet one’s life record thus while moving among men, and subject to daily temptation, as those must be who see the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God” (2 Thess. 1:7-10), means that one must have direct communication with Heaven regarding his attitude toward God’s requirements, if he is prepared to pass the supreme test of the judgment. It could not be that the love of God would permit such to be deprived of special direction from him, concerning the status to be obtained, after having given his only begotten Son to die in their behalf.

It must be evident to candid minds that any who, at such time, are indifferent to the moral claims of God’s law, can not expect prophetic admonitions to direct them into harmony with the will of Jehovah, since they do not even care to have their minds normally engaged in the study of its requirements. It is, therefore, clear that the prophetic gift could not well be granted to any people but those who desire to know the exceeding breadth of that wondrous law which contains the concrete expression of the infinite mind.

So, then, the virtue of God’s compact rule of human conduct can be discovered and maintained only by the aid of Heaven’s voice, leading the partially sin-wrecked mind away from its natural environments to higher conceptions of life engagement. The relation of the Lord’s subjects to the divine messenger who brings God’s words to settle the doubt of duty, is well illustrated by the address of the king of Israel to Elisha the prophet. Not knowing whether it was right to smite the prophet’s enemies, suddenly discovered, the king said: “My father, shall I smite them?” 2 Kings 6:21.

It is evident from this that the king, believing that the prophet represented God, spoke to him in the name of the exalted Character for whom he believed him to stand. This could not have been, had not the voice of the prophet expressed the magnified will of God hidden

beneath the exterior of the written Word, which really was but the voice and of God adapted to the moral need of select man’s sin-clouded mind. Without the prophet at hand to direct the king in his emergency, he might have been guided by sheer impulse, and so have committed a grievous wrong. This case makes clear the sense of the statement that “where there is no vision, the people perish,” or, as expressed in the Danish Version, “become reinless.” This is to say that without prophetic visions the people are without a proper director. This is made more emphatic by the rest of the text: “But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Prov. 29:18. Reading the two parts of the text together, the thought is conveyed that prophetic visions are necessary to point out to men the natural lapses from the law’s requirements, which men do not observe from their own unaided view-point.

Mountain View, Cal.