[5]
For a third of a century it has been my privilege to present,
with increasing fullness, certain of the evidences centring in the theme of this
book, “The Abiding Gift of Prophecy.” Particularly is this true of those
features treated in the early and latter sections, dealing, first, with the
Biblical evidences concerning the continuance of spiritual gifts, but more
especially of their latter-day bestowal upon the remnant church. For years,
ministerial groups and General Conference Councils have gone on record asking
that these studies be placed in book form. This was duly promised by the author,
and the work has been pursued with much pleasure and satisfaction.
This volume deals with but one theme—The Abiding Gift of
Prophecy. That prophetic gift has been God's chosen method of revealing
Himself to the human race after man had been ruined through sin. Before being
estranged from God by this blighting, alien curse, he had free and open access
to the presence of his Creator. But after the fall this open way was closed.
Since then, an obscuring veil has separated man from the presence of God.
Only through men chosen and called by His sovereign will has
God clearly disclosed His purposes and fully revealed the future. The bestowal
of the prophetic gift upon an individual has made that person a prophet. The
operation of this gift, therefore, is wholly planned and utilized by the Lord
Himself. Concerning those whom He calls to the prophetic office, He says: “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.
At the birth of John the Baptist, the prophetic power of the
Spirit came upon his father Zacharias. Being “filled with the Holy Ghost,” he
“prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited
and redeemed His people.” In the midst of an outburst of joy over the advent of
the long-expected Messiah, “to give knowledge of salvation” by the remission of
sins through faith in His name, Zacharias testifies that God had
[6]
spoken “by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since
the world began.” Luke 1:67-70. This most expressive and significant statement
of the early bestowal and continuance of the prophetic gift was repeated by the
apostle Peter, who declared that God “hath spoken by the mouth of all His
holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:21.
This prophetic gift bestowed was to abide with the church
from Adam to the second advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when He
comes to take His redeemed people to Paradise. It did not cease with the
apostles, but is traceable through the centuries to the last days of human
history, just before the return of our Lord. When that supreme event of the ages
shall occur, then—and not until then—shall come to pass that which is
spoken of by the apostle Paul:
“Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they
shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether
there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we
prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in
part shall be done away.” 1 Cor. 13: 8-10, A. R. V.
The tracing of the manifestations of this gracious gift
through the ages has been a fascinating and most enlightening study. As may be
surmised, it has required a vast amount of research. For much of this, and for
the critical reading and improvement of the manuscript, I am greatly indebted to
a number of my friends who have been deeply interested in the production of this
volume.
Arthur Grosvenor Daniells.
Huntington Park, California,
March 3, 1935.
[9]
Long has the church awaited the coming of this volume, and long
has it been needed. Dealing, as it does, in a unique and larger way with the
divine provision for the abiding of the gift of prophecy in God's true church in
all ages and dispensations, it presents a full-rounded survey of the most
misunderstood and maligned of the three great identifying marks of the true
church of the last days. These are “the commandments of God,” “the faith of
Jesus,” and “the spirit of prophecy.” It is this remnant church which completes
the arrested Reformation of the sixteenth century, which restores the fullness
of apostolic faith and practice, and which, significantly enough, is to have as
one of its distinguishing characteristics, the manifestation of the promised
gifts of the Spirit.
The church has greatly needed this book, not only for the
uniqueness and largeness of its concept, but for the comprehensiveness and
adequacy of its treatment. It has needed it for the soundness and saneness of
its conclusions, and for the reasonableness and winsomeness of its approach.
Serious misconceptions have obtained, in the minds of many, concerning all
spiritual gifts, but especially as regards the gift of prophecy. Crude and
distorted concepts have been formed and fostered by others. Deceptive
counterfeits have appeared to simulate and harass the true bestowals, thus to
bring the whole divine provision into doubt and disrepute.
It is truly refreshing, therefore, to have a presentation so
conspicuous for soundness and balance. These basic qualities have been happily
blended with unswerving loyalty to the word of truth, and fidelity to the facts
of record. Dignified, chaste, scholarly, and Biblical,—these are terms that may
fitly describe this presentation, destined, I believe, to be a classic in its
field.
This volume lifts the gift of prophecy wholly above the
strange, weird, and fantastic, and presents it as God's chosen, revealed,
established, and uniform method of communicating with the people of His choice
on earth, separated as they have
[10]
been from His presence, since the fall of man, by that dreadful
thing—sin.
As the supreme claim to our acceptance of this gift, the
author presents the character and content of the prophetic messages themselves.
The internal evidence is set forth as the determining factor, subject to
definite and well-defined moral tests. Physical phenomena—which may, or may not,
accompany the giving of visions and revelations from God—may serve at times to
arrest attention and to convince the beholder. These unquestionably have their
time and place in the manifestation of the gift to the church, especially in the
early exercise of the gift, before there are written records or a body of
literature prepared and authorized by the chosen instrument. But when such
appear as the fruitage of the gift, these then become, logically and inevitably,
the supreme test of validity, and the criteria of truth or falsity.
The material phenomena, Satan can and has duplicated in
connection with false prophets, to the harassing and bewilderment of those who
would judge chiefly by the physical tests. But neither man nor devil can
simulate the exalted purity, the truth, and the consistency of the genuine,
marked as it is by harmony with historic and scientific fact, fidelity to the
principles of truth, the dictates of conscience, and the mandates of common
sense,—and, to crown all, insight into both the secrets of human hearts and the
wisdom and foreknowledge of God. The author has given us satisfying evidence on
the basis of these determining factors, particularly as relates to the
manifestation of this gift in the last days.
It is this high concept that at once removes the gift in the
remnant church from the realm of something new and strange; something heretofore
unknown or inoperative, and therefore difficult for the conservative and the
incredulous to receive. Such a comprehensive view takes away that instinctive
and otherwise inevitable hesitancy about presenting the evidence of the
latter-day manifestation of the gift to a materialistic and scoffing world. It
banishes that very natural inclination to keep it in the background because of
the odium that commonly attaches to the
[11]
name and thought of “prophet” in these sceptical and
unspiritual—albeit professedly advanced and highly enlightened—days.
One of the distinct contributions of this volume is the
section spanning the centuries between the death of the apostles and the
gracious bestowal of the prophetic gift upon the remnant church. No one, so far
as I am aware, has before attempted so comprehensive a survey. The presentation
here given is not offered as an exhaustive and final statement, but rather as an
introduction. It is designed to establish, upon evidence, the fundamental
principle and attested fact of the continuance of the prophetic gift beyond the
death of the apostles through the present as well as all other ages and
dispensations since the fall of man.
The fundamental premise of the writer is incontrovertible—that
when sin had broken direct communion between heaven and earth, God gave the
prophetic gift to men, vouchsafing it to His church, and that gift has never
been permanently withdrawn since its bestowal. There have, of course, been
intervals when no prophetic voice was heard. But this, as well as the other
spiritual gifts, has reappeared periodically through the centuries, to direct in
crises, to instruct and to warn, and at times to predict, as God might elect and
as the church might need.
Now a word as to the fitness of the author for preparing this
work. No one has been better qualified by close and unique relationship both to
the remnant church at large, and to the one whom God chose to be His special
messenger and mouthpiece in these closing days of human history. For fifty years
a minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he was for twenty-one years
president of our General Conference. And the time of his world leadership of the
advent movement included the period not only of laying the foundations for its
great expansion, but also the time of certain of its greatest crises. It
embraced, likewise, the consummating years of Ellen G. White's wonderful witness
to the advent movement, together with the cessation of her life activities in
the sleep of death,—though her writings live on, and speak forth increasingly
the marvelous messages she was commissioned to impart to the remnant church.
[12]
The author's personal acquaintance with Mrs. White covered
the last twenty-eight years of her life, which ended in 1915. For the last
twenty-three years of this time—while he was president, first of the
Australasian Conference and then of the General Conference—there existed,
because of the official relationships involved, a close and continuous contact
that afforded every opportunity of knowing her life, her character, and her
work.
The episodes set forth by the author as illustrative of the
conspicuous and satisfying evidence of this divine gift in the remnant church
have been drawn from this large background of personal contact and observation,
but have never before been written out in comprehensive form. The early
incidents of Mrs. White's life, already available in print, are not stressed in
this volume, but rather those larger, later experiences in which mighty issues
were involved, and in some instances wherein the very destiny of the
denomination was at stake. These consequently form an invaluable record for our
learning and admonition, and they constitute incontrovertible evidence for the
confirmation of our faith.
Brought forth in the sunset of the author's life, this volume
embodies the matured conclusions of long and effective study, strengthened by
decades of oral presentation on every continent, and ripened by recent years of
intensive review and research. Though profound as to principles involved, it is
simple in style and direct in statement, as befits a theme of such lofty
character. This treatise has attached to it, therefore, a maturity of appeal and
a weight of utterance that is most satisfying. It is bequeathed as a sacred
legacy to the church so greatly beloved by our veteran leader, and in whose
ministry he so long and fruitfully served. It is sent forth with his benediction
to bless and to enlighten, to comfort and to strengthen, the church of God's
tender choice and care.
LeRoy Edwin Froom.
Los Angeles, California,
February 24, 1935.
