I'm still wondering why we have no messenger today, or prophets today. Actually allow me to rephrase that. Does the SDA church acknowledge that there are other prophes and messengers but refuse to say anything. This can also lead to the sticky situation of if there is\are messengers\prophets that do and have passed the test according to the Bible then what is going on? Is someone holding back? What is the reason for doing so?
God Bless,
Will

But Tom

Asking "is Ellen a prophet" is very different from asking "Can anyone present an argument that the Testimony of Jesus = the Spirit of Prophesy is referring to Ellen White in a way which would be plausible to a non-Adventist?" There have been many prophets troughout bible history and likely many many more of whom we know nothing today but to pick one, Ellen, and say that she is THE Spirit of Prophecy as some SDA have for habbit of doing... The proof of prophethood may be in the pudding but for the other question, Im not sure the pudding is even on the same table that is being searched...

/Thomas

Will

I have to agree with you. It is indeed strange that a movement that talks so much of the spiritual gift of prophecy would only admit one prophet for the past 200 years...

/Thomas

Ellen White herself refered to Jones and Waggoner as "prophets". In a loose sense, a prophet is simply one who has a message of God. The gift of prophecy is the gift of speaking truth. That's the broad sense of the word.

In a more limited sense, there is the office of a prophet who speaks or writes under divine inspiration, and on this point I agree with the SDA church that Ellen White alone has had this gift.

So I'm agreeing with points made on both sides.

But while I believe that Ellen White was divinely inspired, I have no doubt whatsoever that God has many prophets (say small "s" "spirit of prophecy") and we should be open and willing to receive the truth from God's messengers.

There are some characteristics of a true prophet to which we should be attentive:

1) "You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16).

2) "And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him" (Acts 5:32).

We do not claim that Ellen White is the only one who will ever possess the gift of prophecy in the SDA movement. We claim she was the only one up till now. But it seems there will be more people with this gift when the Holy Spirit is poured out in the last days:

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes" (Joel 2:28-31).

Joel 2 is being fulfilled. The gift Ellen White received is not the only gift God has to give out. In Ellen White's lifetime, she herself was positively impacted by gifts the Lord was giving to others.

As far as I know, the latter rain hasn't yet begun and Joel 2 refers to the latter rain.

According to the Spirit of Prophesy, the message of Jones and Waggoner was the beginning of the latter rain. I think she made the statement in 1892.

According to Peter the Apostle, Joel 2 started to be fullfilled during a pentecost celebration some 2000 years ago, if the assumption that Joel 2 is talking about the latter rain, its been raining for close to two thousand years.

The two texts posted about the recognition of a prophet... arent these in a general sence how to recognise any other christian aswell?

/Thomas