THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY AND THE LAW.
There are gifts of the Spirit of God which have been in active operation in the Christian church throughout the Christian age, such as pastors, teachers, helps, governments, ministries. But some of these gifts have been generally wanting, and if manifest, not generally recognized by the church. Among these is the gift of prophecy. It has ever been the studied effort of Satan to counterfeit the work of God. Like the expert counterfeiter that he is, he will make the counterfeit as near like the genuine as he can and yet retain its essential badness and influence for evil. Whenever God has had the true gift of prophecy in His church, to warn, reprove, instruct, Satan has had his prophets, crying, “Peace, peace.” It has ever been Satan’s effort to deceive people into believing that the law of God and the Spirit of God were antagonistic. The law is set in opposition to the Spirit, and the Spirit to the law, just as if God’s law, God’s rule of moral government, could be against His Spirit! And yet many not possessing the Spirit of God are led to believe this to be true. It is a deception of Satan to destroy souls. Those who have the Spirit are those in whom the “righteousness of the law” is fulfilled. Rom. 8:4. The law is a part of God’s Word, given by the Spirit. “All Scripture is God breathed.” “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” And so we might bring other evidences showing that the law of God is part of the Word of God, given by the Spirit. “For we know that the law is spiritual.” Men, in their inconsistency and blindness, may try to separate God from man, but they can not. They may try to separate the Spirit and the law, but they are as secure in their relation to each other and to God as the throne of the Eternal. It is by the Holy Ghost that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts” (Rom. 5:5), and “this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). Jesus Christ possessed the Spirit in its fulness; and Jesus Christ kept perfectly the law of God. Ps. 40:7, 8. The gift of prophecy was ever manifest among God’s people when His law was exalted. “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Prov. 29:18, R.V. The obvious inference is that he who keeps the law regards the revelations of God by prophetic vision. “The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.” Lam. 2:9. Again: “And when they [the false prophets] shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto the wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them [no light in them].” In reply to those who said, “Have we not prophesied in thy name?” Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity [lawlessness, law-breaking].” Matt. 7:23. The reason is self-evident why God can give instructions through His prophets only when His law is fully recognized as the standard or test of teaching and action. The law is God’s compendium of morality, the sum of all moral precepts. Those who depart from it are left without chart or rudder. If a prophet arises, he is either false or true; and the church without the law can not test his claims by the Bible rule. If his message pleases the natural heart, he is received. If not, he is rejected. The voices of the prophets must be tested by God’s voice. God’s voice was pre-eminently uttered from Sinai. It was pre-eminently written in living characters in the life of Jesus Christ. If the law is the rule of the church, if Jesus Christ is the great Model, all prophets, all doctrines, will be tested by this perfect standard. God’s law thus becomes not only the detector of the counterfeit, but the assurance of the genuine. In the last days the down-trodden law of God, covered with the slime of error, corruption, tradition, and paganism, the fruits of the Dark Ages, as well as perverted by papal teaching, will again be lifted up; the highway of holiness will be restored; and God will by the Spirit of prophecy call the people back to the path of His commandments. That they may not in their ignorance reject His message, He warns them, “Despise not prophesyings” (1 Thess. 5:20); but, that they may know that the voice is His voice, He admonishes, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (verse 21). And the eternal test is the law of the Ten Words of God as revealed through and in Jesus Christ. This building up of the breach in God’s law, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the restoration of its gifts, are necessary to the preparation of His people for His soon-coming. The remnant church will “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,” “the Spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 12:17; 19:10. Keeping the one, she may know the other. “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” And the next event which the prophet sees is Christ coming to gather His own. Rev. 14:12, 14.