Your ShelfYour Projects

Visions and Prophecy

6%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 24.

Read the full edition

Visions and Prophecy.

By George Ide Butler

HAVE THEY BEEN MANIFESTED AMONG SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS.
(Continued.)
We next notice the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and its connection with the prophecy of Joel. Acts 2: 15–21. The prophecy of Joel is here quoted by the apostle Peter. When the Spirit of God was poured out in such a wonderful manner, some of these gifts, which were manifested by means of its agency, began at once to be seen, and ever will be seen where it is powerfully present. Like many of those living at the present day when witnessing exhibitions of the Spirit’s presence, the bystanders began to mock. But Peter stood up at once, and said, “These are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come; and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
We have no question but this is a plain prophecy of the whole Christian dispensation. In the Scriptures, the Mosaic age is compared to the light of the moon while the gospel age is compared to that of the sun, Rev. 12: 1; 2 Cor. 3: 8;—the latter greatly exceeding that of the former. In the former, spiritual gifts certainly existed at intervals throughout its duration. It would be very illogical, to say the least, to suppose that God would only grant these for a very limited portion of the latter.
In what did the glory of either dispensation consist? We answer, In the special and gracious manifestations of God’s Spirit, showing his love to fallen man and his readiness to enlighten and save them. The prophet informs us here that this age is to be honored by an outpouring of the Spirit greatly exceeding any ordinary manifestation. He brings in the signs of the end in connection with this statement, speaking of the darkening of the sun and moon and falling of the stars, events which the Scriptures plainly inform us will take place just before the second coming of Christ (Matt. 24: 29; Rev. 6: 12, 13; Isa. 13: 10), showing that this prophecy embraces the whole Christian dispensation.
Some undertake to confine this promise of the outpouring of the Spirit to the day of Pentecost because the apostle says, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” referring to the exhibition witnessed upon that particular occasion. Does the apostle mean to say that what the prophet Joel says was all fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, or only that the exhibition given then was a part of it? In either case, Peter’s words would be true. Was it a fact that Joel’s prophecy was entirely fulfilled on the day of Pentecost? It could not be so. There is not the slightest hint that anybody had visions that day or that old men dreamed dreams in the midst of the confusion there. And we know there was no darkening of the sun there, nor of the moon, and no wonders in heaven; blood, fire, or vapour of smoke. It must extend further, for the prophecy could not have been confined there when it is said that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This refers to the whole Christian dispensation.
Again, the prophecy relates to the “last days.” In no true sense could the day of Pentecost be called the “last days.” The last days must include more than that one day. And if the expression “this is that” could be applied to any other exhibition of spiritual gifts than that particular instance, it might with equal propriety be referred to others in any age after. Neither could the term “last days” be confined to the apostolic age if we exclude the days which have come since that time; for the last days must include the last day, just as the last leaves of a book must include the very last in order to be a correct expression. We are therefore forced to the conclusion that this prophecy relates to the whole Christian dispensation and contains a glorious promise of great spiritual blessings all through it. And we are therefore authorized to believe that “daughters” as well as “sons” will prophesy or have visions when the proper conditions are met, even till the time when the signs of the last day are given.
Having now fully proved that spiritual gifts were designed to continue through the whole Christian dispensation we will next prove that they will be manifested in the last church just previous to Christ’s second coming.
The twelfth chapter of Revelation is generally admitted to be a prophecy of the true church of Jesus Christ during the gospel age. The chapter commences with the symbol of a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, about to be delivered of a man child who was to rule all nations. The child when born was caught up to God and to his throne. A dragon stood before the woman to devour the child. The woman after this fled into the wilderness, where she remained twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days, or literal years.
This woman must evidently be a symbol of the gospel church. This was a symbol often used by the prophets in the old dispensation—a pure woman representing a pure church, and a corrupt woman, an impure church. This symbol is used in other places in this manner in this same book of Revelation. The light of the sun with which this woman was clothed doubtless means the gospel light while that of the moon refers to that dispensation which had just passed; viz., the Mosaic. The twelve stars symbolize the twelve apostles. The great dragon represents the Roman Empire, which, in the person of Herod, a Roman governor, stood ready to put Jesus to death upon his birth. The child caught up to God plainly refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. The fleeing into the wilderness signifies the withdrawal of the true church away from public gaze, into a retired, obscure position, where it was largely lost sight of, while the man of sin, the Catholic power, reared itself up in its place apparently in the very temple of God, claiming to be the only true church of Christ, persecuting those whom it was pleased to call heretics with sword and fagot.
This state of things continued through the Dark Ages till the Reformation was reached, the devil sending forth a flood of persecution to destroy the woman—the true church, but the “earth helped the woman.” That doubtless refers to the aid received by the reformers from the governments of the earth which enabled the reformation to increase until the papacy was humbled. Verse 17 reads as follows: “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.”
In this verse, we evidently have a prophecy of the last church that will be on the earth when Christ comes.
The expression, “remnant of her seed,” is positive proof of this. And as the Bible plainly teaches that God’s people will be looking for Christ when his coming is due, we necessarily conclude that these will be Adventists.
GEO. I. BUTLER.
(To be Continued.)