Our Bible Reading

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 19, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 37.

Our Bible Reading

The Gift of Prophecy

1. What is the first of the spiritual gifts?

And God hath set some in the church, first apostles. 1 Cor. 12:28.

NOTE.—Therefore, these gifts belong there. He has not placed these gifts there to be removed. All that God placed there were needed, and there is no reason to be found why they should be taken away. The very first in importance is "apostle." An "apostle" means one who is sent. First of all, God must send His messenger with His message. He wins souls to God; and after the souls are won, then follow other gifts. Sometimes the apostle combines more than one gift in himself. Such did the apostle Paul.

2. What is the second gift?

And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily PROPHETS. 1 Cor. 12:28.

And He gave some, apostles; and some, PROPHETS. Eph. 4:11.

NOTE.—If we will read the context, we will find that the prophet and the apostle are classed with other gifts which all recognize as belonging to the church, such as teachers, evangelists, pastors. There is no more reason why one should be set aside than the other.

3. What illustration have we of a prophet?

And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh. Ex. 7:1, 2.

NOTE.—A prophet of God is one who speaks for God, one who stands between God and the people, and who bears God's message uncorrupted. This is emphasized in Ex. 4:15, 16, the Lord's instruction to Moses: "And thou shalt speak unto him [Aaron], and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God." Moses was God's prophet speaking for God, Aaron speaking for Moses. Thus God's prophets are mouthpieces for Him.

4. What is said of the way God reveals Himself to His prophets?

Hear now My words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. Num. 12:6.

NOTE.—Yet there are other ways in which the Lord has impressed His servants. Prophecy is sometimes used in the sense of teaching, as well as in the sense of revelation. God reveals much, sometimes, in the vision. He afterward impresses that even upon His prophet, or His servant, that he may give it to the people. There were two persons who received instruction directly from the mouth of the Lord. One was Moses. "With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches." Num. 12:8. The other was our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom Moses was a type.

5. What is God's object in sending prophets to His people?

Prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. 1 Cor. 14:22, 3.

6. With what is it always connected?

Where there is NO VISION, the people PERISH: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Prov. 29:18.

If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. John 14:15, 16.

7. Should we receive every prophecy without question?

Despise not PROPHESYINGS. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thess. 5:20, 21.

NOTE.—God would not have us accept the message of every one. There are false prophets and false christs in the world. He Himself warns of these. Therefore would He have His people careful about accepting the message of one who claims to be the prophet of God. He would not have us despise prophesying, or utterly ignore it; but He would have us test it, and the true test is given in Isa. 8:20: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." God's law is His great standard of character. It is God's witness through all the ages of what is true. Jesus said: "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7:22, 23. Iniquity is lawlessness, the breaking of God's law. So it matters not what the prophet himself may prophesy, or how remarkable may be his manifestations, if he prophesy contrary to God's law, he is not a true prophet. God's witness is against him. Therefore the bestowal of the prophetic gift in the church is always when God's law is regarded, or there would be no test as to the genuineness of the gift. If a church has no perfect standard, she has no means by which to determine whether her teachers are true or false. It was for this very reason that God spoke His law from Mount Sinai with His own voice—the great Shepherd's voice to His sheep, by which the voice of every pretended shepherd in the world could be tested. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." The prophet whose teaching leads us away from God's Word, and leads us to trust in the prophet himself, we may set down as a false prophet. The true prophet will ever bring the soul back to the Word of God, and His Word will be seen to be in harmony with truth and righteousness.

8. What indications, among others, have we in the New Testament of the perpetuity of the prophetic gift?

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. Acts 2:17.

We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. And the same man had FOUR DAUGHTERS, virgins, WHICH DID PROPHESY. Acts 21:8, 9.

9. What instruction have we as to the time when that gift will cease in the church?

Whether there be PROPHECIES, THEY shall FAIL; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But WHEN that which is PERFECT IS COME, then that which is in part shall be done away. 1 Cor. 13:8-10.

NOTE.—Still the church sees and knows in part. The perfect has not yet come; prophesying is yet needed.

10. What promise have we concerning the remnant church?

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. Rev. 12:17.

Worship God: for the TESTIMONY OF JESUS is the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. Rev. 19:10.

NOTE.—By comparing the above texts with Rev. 22:9, it will be seen that where the angel uses "the spirit of prophecy" in the one case, he uses "the prophets" in the other. The spirit of prophecy is the grasping of that supernatural power by which God gives His prophecy to His children. The remnant of the seed of the woman is the very last of her seed, or the remnant church; and it is declared that this remnant church keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. A part of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ is to place His spiritual gifts in His church: He "hath set some in the church." "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men," and the gifts which He gave were to be used until He should return again. And among these gifts were those of apostleship, and prophet, and teacher, and evangelist. (See Eph. 4:8-13.) These gifts were to persist until our Lord should come. But the church wandered away from Christ, wandered away from His law, turned from obedience to His commandments. Consequently, the prophetic gift departed from her. But in the last days, with the restoration of His holy law in the church and in the hearts of His people, there is restored again the gift of prophecy, to lead, to warn, to admonish, to edify, to bring His people back to the Word. And therefore, as that gift is confirmed in the hearts of God's children, and when it is so confirmed, His church will "come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 1:6, 7.