I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
The verse exposes people who rush with urgency to teach and prophesy in God's name when He has neither sent them nor spoken to them. Their confidence and earnestness, apparent devotion and inspiration, freedom in speaking and praying, activity and apparent success do not prove that God has called or commissioned them. Their messages come from themselves out of an imagined or deceived mind, misusing Scripture and mixing truth with error under a show of holiness, and satanic power can aid the deception so that some predictions come true while failures are hidden or explained away. By contrast true messengers stand in God's counsel and speak His words, presenting His truth and warning to turn people from evil in a devotional, self-sacrificing and burden-bearing life. Therefore supposed revelations, dreams and teachings must be tested by counsel and fruit and not heeded if unsent, for unsent work scatters and confuses rather than gathering and building up.
Unsent Prophets Exposed
The verse exposes prophets who claim authority to speak for God and run with urgency to prophesy and teach, yet God has neither sent them nor spoken to them. Their self-originated visions, assurances, and claims to have truth or new prophetic light and to deliver visions or divine inspiration do not prove divine authority, and their confident teaching that misuses Scripture and leads into error is to be rejected rather than followed. This includes those who claim a message calling Seventh-day Adventists Babylon and urging departure, whose claim to be sent is false and whose message lacks God's authority.
Confidence, earnestness, apparent devotion and inspiration, freedom in prayer and exhortation, activity, and apparent success do not prove divine calling or commission. A claim to minister, confident claims to have the truth, work done under an appearance of truth, and labor that has not been tested by its fruit are no evidence that God sent or called the worker. Even earnest, devoted appearance without God's credentials leaves the message without divine authority.
Even when some receive truth through unsent teachers, that response does not validate them or bring them into God's favor. Their converts generally rise no higher than those who taught them, and the same lack that marked their teachers is seen in them.
Their messages originate with themselves from an imagined or deceived mind, misuse Scripture, and mix truth with error and deception under an appearance of truth and holiness, using both rebuke and flattery to deceive. False dreams and visions can closely imitate genuine revelations, and false visions and rebukes followed by flattery can lead people to receive the message as divine. This pattern applies to the manifestations associated with Anna Phillips, which mix truth with error, arise from imagination or deception, and are not a work God set in motion. Such self-originated assurances mislead people rather than turn them from evil.
Satanic agencies can inspire such deception, so that some predictions come true while failures are concealed or explained away. That partial fulfillment does not make visions genuine. Failed predictions and misleading fruits expose them as not from God, and a message that lacks God's credentials and deceives people is not from Him.
By contrast, true messengers stand in God's counsel, bring His words, present His truth and warning, and turn people from evil. Faithful ministers are sent to present God's truth and warning, while professed watchmen who fail to receive the warning and give it to others and who resist truth oppose God's work. True sent men are devotional, self-sacrificing, godly men who understand their business and go about doing good because they know God has called them, who feel the worth of souls and will bear burdens and responsibilities.
Testing and Rejecting Them
Supposed revelations, dreams, and visions are not to be accepted or presented as from God until they have been tested and proved by counsel and by fruit, and they are not to be heeded, received, endorsed, or allowed to deceive. A claim to minister, freedom in prayer and exhortation, and activity under an appearance of truth do not prove that God sent or called the worker or that the message came from Him. Those who proclaim messages without being sent or spoken to by God speak from themselves, and their self-originated visions and assurances mislead rather than turn people from evil, while true messengers stand in God's counsel and bring His words to the people.
Untested and unsent teaching drives people to extremes, errors in judgment and faith, hasty actions, and confusion, misuses Scripture, and discredits genuine prophetic messages. Confident claims to have the truth do not make such voices trustworthy, and God's people are warned not to follow them into error. In Ohio this meant instruction that led people to extremes and to errors in judgment and faith whose full result could not yet be understood, instead of humbly teaching the commandments and letting truth do its work.
Unsent workers scatter and confuse rather than gather in and build up, and even when a few receive truth through them, those converts generally rise no higher than their teachers and show the same lack. Success does not depend on having a large number of ministers but on having a few proven, self-sacrificing, godly men who feel the burden and sacredness of the work, understand their business, go about doing good, feel the worth of souls, and bear burdens and responsibilities. Those entering the field must first give full proof of ministry and earn a reputation even through trials and privations, rather than being accepted and flattered before they are proved or show good fruit, since otherwise faithful ministers must spend nearly all their time correcting their wrong influence. Willingness or opportunity to help, or entering the field at the call of brethren rather than of the Lord, does not prove that God has called a person to teach or travel as His messenger.
The verse rejects the claim that Seventh-day Adventists are Babylon and that the loud cry calls God's people out of her to leave; those running with that message have no divine commission, their claim to be sent is false, their message is darkness rather than truth, and it is to be rejected and not received or endorsed. It likewise applies to a woman claiming to have received the Holy Spirit and to bear a message though the Lord had not sent her, to a self-exalting claimant of a commission from the Lord who misleads others, and to the manifestations associated with Anna Phillips, where claims to the Spirit or to prophecy arising from an imagined or deceived mind mix truth with error and use false visions and rebukes followed by flattery to deceive people into receiving the message as divine. Running to deliver a message does not prove the message is from God, and such a self-appointed messenger can mislead others.
The verse also applies to disorderly and unfaithful ministers. Around Boston and nearby some ran ahead of their appointed place and confusion followed that observing God's order would have prevented, leaving the church healthy instead of troubled. Professed watchmen who fail to receive the warning and give it to others are unfaithful, and by resisting truth and discouraging those who proclaim it they oppose God's work, in contrast to faithful ministers sent to present God's truth and warning. Such men as S. W. Rhodes and G. W. Holt in Ohio professed to be sent of God whom God never sent, and unsent ministers curse the cause, since the success and progress of a church depend very much on first impressions and first instruction. Their work destroys their own influence in one state, leaves a desolated field behind, and moves to a new field where their course is unknown and where for that reason they can do most harm. Instead of teaching in a humble spirit they mix overbearing commands with the commandments, are severe, exacting, censorious, peevish, fretful and abusive, lead people to look more to each other than to God and to watch failings of brethren and sisters, cause some to turn away disgusted from truth altogether, and throw others into constant agitation and fear that they cannot please God.
The verse exposes people who rush with urgency to teach and prophesy in God's name when He has neither sent them nor spoken to them. Their confidence and earnestness, apparent devotion and inspiration, freedom in speaking and praying, activity and apparent success do not prove that God has called or commissioned them. Their messages come from themselves out of an imagined or deceived mind, misusing Scripture and mixing truth with error under a show of holiness, and satanic power can aid the deception so that some predictions come true while failures are hidden or explained away. By contrast true messengers stand in God's counsel and speak His words, presenting His truth and warning to turn people from evil in a devotional, self-sacrificing and burden-bearing life. Therefore supposed revelations, dreams and teachings must be tested by counsel and fruit and not heeded if unsent, for unsent work scatters and confuses rather than gathering and building up.
Unsent Prophets Exposed
The verse exposes prophets who claim authority to speak for God and run with urgency to prophesy and teach, yet God has neither sent them nor spoken to them. Their self-originated visions, assurances, and claims to have truth or new prophetic light and to deliver visions or divine inspiration do not prove divine authority, and their confident teaching that misuses Scripture and leads into error is to be rejected rather than followed. This includes those who claim a message calling Seventh-day Adventists Babylon and urging departure, whose claim to be sent is false and whose message lacks God's authority.
Confidence, earnestness, apparent devotion and inspiration, freedom in prayer and exhortation, activity, and apparent success do not prove divine calling or commission. A claim to minister, confident claims to have the truth, work done under an appearance of truth, and labor that has not been tested by its fruit are no evidence that God sent or called the worker. Even earnest, devoted appearance without God's credentials leaves the message without divine authority.
Even when some receive truth through unsent teachers, that response does not validate them or bring them into God's favor. Their converts generally rise no higher than those who taught them, and the same lack that marked their teachers is seen in them.
Their messages originate with themselves from an imagined or deceived mind, misuse Scripture, and mix truth with error and deception under an appearance of truth and holiness, using both rebuke and flattery to deceive. False dreams and visions can closely imitate genuine revelations, and false visions and rebukes followed by flattery can lead people to receive the message as divine. This pattern applies to the manifestations associated with Anna Phillips, which mix truth with error, arise from imagination or deception, and are not a work God set in motion. Such self-originated assurances mislead people rather than turn them from evil.
Satanic agencies can inspire such deception, so that some predictions come true while failures are concealed or explained away. That partial fulfillment does not make visions genuine. Failed predictions and misleading fruits expose them as not from God, and a message that lacks God's credentials and deceives people is not from Him.
By contrast, true messengers stand in God's counsel, bring His words, present His truth and warning, and turn people from evil. Faithful ministers are sent to present God's truth and warning, while professed watchmen who fail to receive the warning and give it to others and who resist truth oppose God's work. True sent men are devotional, self-sacrificing, godly men who understand their business and go about doing good because they know God has called them, who feel the worth of souls and will bear burdens and responsibilities.
Testing and Rejecting Them
Supposed revelations, dreams, and visions are not to be accepted or presented as from God until they have been tested and proved by counsel and by fruit, and they are not to be heeded, received, endorsed, or allowed to deceive. A claim to minister, freedom in prayer and exhortation, and activity under an appearance of truth do not prove that God sent or called the worker or that the message came from Him. Those who proclaim messages without being sent or spoken to by God speak from themselves, and their self-originated visions and assurances mislead rather than turn people from evil, while true messengers stand in God's counsel and bring His words to the people.
Untested and unsent teaching drives people to extremes, errors in judgment and faith, hasty actions, and confusion, misuses Scripture, and discredits genuine prophetic messages. Confident claims to have the truth do not make such voices trustworthy, and God's people are warned not to follow them into error. In Ohio this meant instruction that led people to extremes and to errors in judgment and faith whose full result could not yet be understood, instead of humbly teaching the commandments and letting truth do its work.
Unsent workers scatter and confuse rather than gather in and build up, and even when a few receive truth through them, those converts generally rise no higher than their teachers and show the same lack. Success does not depend on having a large number of ministers but on having a few proven, self-sacrificing, godly men who feel the burden and sacredness of the work, understand their business, go about doing good, feel the worth of souls, and bear burdens and responsibilities. Those entering the field must first give full proof of ministry and earn a reputation even through trials and privations, rather than being accepted and flattered before they are proved or show good fruit, since otherwise faithful ministers must spend nearly all their time correcting their wrong influence. Willingness or opportunity to help, or entering the field at the call of brethren rather than of the Lord, does not prove that God has called a person to teach or travel as His messenger.
The verse rejects the claim that Seventh-day Adventists are Babylon and that the loud cry calls God's people out of her to leave; those running with that message have no divine commission, their claim to be sent is false, their message is darkness rather than truth, and it is to be rejected and not received or endorsed. It likewise applies to a woman claiming to have received the Holy Spirit and to bear a message though the Lord had not sent her, to a self-exalting claimant of a commission from the Lord who misleads others, and to the manifestations associated with Anna Phillips, where claims to the Spirit or to prophecy arising from an imagined or deceived mind mix truth with error and use false visions and rebukes followed by flattery to deceive people into receiving the message as divine. Running to deliver a message does not prove the message is from God, and such a self-appointed messenger can mislead others.
The verse also applies to disorderly and unfaithful ministers. Around Boston and nearby some ran ahead of their appointed place and confusion followed that observing God's order would have prevented, leaving the church healthy instead of troubled. Professed watchmen who fail to receive the warning and give it to others are unfaithful, and by resisting truth and discouraging those who proclaim it they oppose God's work, in contrast to faithful ministers sent to present God's truth and warning. Such men as S. W. Rhodes and G. W. Holt in Ohio professed to be sent of God whom God never sent, and unsent ministers curse the cause, since the success and progress of a church depend very much on first impressions and first instruction. Their work destroys their own influence in one state, leaves a desolated field behind, and moves to a new field where their course is unknown and where for that reason they can do most harm. Instead of teaching in a humble spirit they mix overbearing commands with the commandments, are severe, exacting, censorious, peevish, fretful and abusive, lead people to look more to each other than to God and to watch failings of brethren and sisters, cause some to turn away disgusted from truth altogether, and throw others into constant agitation and fear that they cannot please God.