The
Fallacy and Risk Factor Associated With the Appellation:
“Self-Appointed
Prophet”
Joel 2:28 And
it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream
dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Acts 2:17 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:
The Spirit of the Lord has prompted
me to warn of one of the most ignorant and danger fraught of all the attempts
to discredit a person who comes to God’s people with a God-given message of
warning; that is to accuse that person of being a self-appointed prophet if the
message is truth that cannot be disproven. The proper course regarding any
message that comes to God’s people is delineated by the Spirit of Prophecy. One
is to carefully and prayerfully study the message and if it can be proven that
the messenger is errant, that should be pointed out point by point. However, if
the message cannot be proven wrong, the message should be embraced as a warning
from God to His people.
But alas, it is far easier to readily
brand the messenger a self-appointed false prophet! But such a course may lead
to the loss of eternal life by indicting warnings from God and the Holy Spirit
as being false. That is speaking against the Holy Spirit and the Bible says
that is unpardonable sin. After you have branded truth as being false, what
other appeal does God have to send to you? cf. Heb. 6.
Some have determined that if God has
anything to say to them, He can tell them personally. That is an attempt to
tell God that you don’t accept His appointed way of appealing to His people,
for He has told us that some will dream dreams, have visions and prophesy. He
has even told us to “covet to prophesy.” So it is a high offense against the
Holy Spirit when we decide we will accept only what God personally tells us.
I ask you friend, if one has a dream
or a vision and relates that vision, how is he/she self-appointed if such ones
relate what they were shown? Who else would be qualified to relate the dream or
vision? It was a common practice in Jewish Synagogues to ask any man upon
entering if he had a message from the Lord; that if one believed he had a word
from the Lord, he could state it.
Note that many of the prophets in the
Bible begin their treatise with the words: “The Word of the Lord came to
me…” Were such prophets self-appointed because they announced
that they had received word from the Lord? Notice these examples:
1Ch 22:8 But
the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and
hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou
hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
Jer 2:1
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:5 Then
the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Eze 12:17
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Eze 12:26
Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
·
The first concept you should think of when you hear
the words “self appointed prophet” from anyone, is IGNORANCE on the part of any
person(s) who speak those words.
·
The next concept you should think of is WHERE IS
THE PROOF OR DISPROOF of what the prophet (messenger) says? Is the person who
accuses one of being a self-appointed prophet a foolish detractor, or has
he/she followed the instruction of the Spirit of Prophecy as to how to meet a
controverted message coming to God’s people?
·
Does the message of the messenger contradict God’s
Word in the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy?
·
Does the message fulfill all the requirements of
the Weight of Evidence Formula as given by the Spirit of Prophecy, to wit:
Weight of
Evidence Formula: "1. Every
word must have its proper bearing on the subject presented in the Bible 2.
All Scripture is necessary, and may be understood by diligent application and
study 3. Nothing revealed in Scripture can or will be hid from those who ask in
faith, not wavering 4. To understand doctrine, bring all the scriptures
together on the subject you wish to know, then let every word have its proper
influence and if you can
form your theory without a contradiction, you cannot be in error 5. Scripture
must be its own expositor, [interpreter] since it is a rule of itself. If I
depend on a teacher to expound to me, and he should guess at its meaning, or
desire to have it so on account of his sectarian creed, or to be thought wise,
then his guessing, desire, creed, or wisdom is my rule, and not the
Bible." E.G. White, Second Advent Review and Herald, 11-25-84,
pr. 24.
It is an awesome and wonderful freedom and privilege granted by our
God, that we are permitted to form a theory based on all the weight of evidence
and that if our theory does not contradict one word of all the weight of
evidence, we cannot be in error! The Word of God is that all encompassing and
self-protective. That is a marvelous mystery of the Word. Praise the Lord God!
· Carefully
examine the teaching of those who make the accusation “self-appointed prophet”
to see if their teachings meet with the weight of evidence formula test.
· It is all too
easy to generally brand a message or messenger as false. Always ask for POINT
BY POINT REFUTATION OF THE MESSAGE, and if the detractor refuses and/or cannot
do this, you will know that the person is a satanic accuser of the brethren and
that he/she should be avoided as you should avoid speaking to Satan as Eve did,
lest you be led astray by the spirit of Satan and his fallen, devil angels.
· In the case
of Vern Bates and Art Abbott, they do away with about 9/10ths of the Spirit of
Prophecy. Does that meet the weight of evidence formula test? Does that meet
the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy test of truth? Nay! So for YOUR OWN SAKE, I
pray that you can begin to see the fallacy and seriousness of the oft too
carelessly cited appellation “self-appointed prophet!”
· Prophets
(messengers) often make personal mistakes. Jones and Waggoner surely did
because they both ultimately sided with Kellogg’s pantheism. Does that make
their message on righteousness by faith wrong? Do we throw the baby out with
the bathwater? Some very foolish virgins do just that because of some mistakes
made by the weak and erring men and women God appoints as His messengers.
Kellogg,
Jones and Waggoner imbibed gross, unpardonable sin apostasy by embracing
pantheism. However even the faithful amongst God’s appointed messengers are
weak and erring, but they don’t imbibe unpardonable sin apostasy.
Weak and Erring --
"As the Elder Brother of our race He (Christ) knows that the messengers whom
He sees fit to send are WEAK, ERRING men but to all who give themselves wholly
to His service He promises divine aid." E.G. White, Acts of the
Apostles, p. 56.
“On the other
hand, the leaders among God's people are to guard against the danger of condemning
the methods of individual workers who are led by the Lord to do a special work
that but few are fitted to do. Let brethren in
responsibility be slow to criticize movements that are not in perfect harmony
with their methods of labor. Let them never suppose that every plan should
reflect their own personality. Let them not fear to trust another's methods;
for by withholding their confidence from a brother laborer who, with humility
and consecrated zeal, is doing a special work in God's appointed way, they are
retarding the advancement of the Lord's cause.” {9T 259.1}
Education Snobbery
A lot of
Adventists worship at the altar of education. They will not accept anything
from one they believe to be inferior in this area. Many will perish for that
stance of pride. They will scorn and mock the less than perfect grammar and/or
educational attainment of God’s appointed messengers.
“God can and will use those who have not had a thorough education in
the schools of men. A doubt of His power to do this is manifest unbelief; it is
limiting the omnipotent power of the One with whom nothing is impossible. Oh,
for less of this uncalled-for, distrustful caution! It leaves so many forces of
the church unused; it closes up the way so that the Holy Spirit cannot use men;
it keeps in idleness those who are willing and anxious to labor in Christ's
lines; it discourages from entering the work many who would become efficient
laborers together with God if they were given a fair chance.” {9T 259.2}
We had all better be most careful before we
attribute anything associated with the truth to satanic agencies lest we commit
unpardonable sin:
"They [the
Pharisees] attributed to satanic agencies the holy power of God, manifested in
the works of Christ. Thus the Pharisees sinned against the Holy Ghost.
Stubborn, sullen, ironhearted, they
determined to close their eyes to all evidence,
and thus they committed the unpardonable sin." E.G. White, RH Jan. 18,
1898. SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5.
p. 1092.
"Some full and
free confessions were made, and some who had been wavering expressed their
confidence restored. These referred with great feeling to the discourse of
Brother White in the afternoon on the unpardonable sin, and expressed their
great thankfulness that though they had gone far in their opposition to the
work of the Holy Spirit, they
had been kept from that great sin of attributing its operations to the agency
of Satan." Ellen
G. White Volume 2 The Progressive Years 1862-1876, p. 198.
I can promise you
before the Lord God Almighty, that some who will read the words of this
document have committed that great sin of attributing the operations of the
Holy Spirit via my warning message to God’s people to the agency of Satan. We
should beware of ever making that grave mistake of eternal consequence.
“The Lord has shown me
that precious souls are starving, and dying for want of the present,
sealing truth, the meat in due season; and that the swift
messengers should speed on their way, and feed the flock with the present
truth. I heard an Angel say, “speed the swift messengers, speed the swift
messengers; for the case of every soul will soon be
decided, either for Life, or for Death.” {RH September 1,
1849, par. 8}
Note by Ron: I think
of all the precious souls who are indeed starving and dying for the want of the
present, sealing truth of the 9/10ths of the Spirit of Prophecy that
Vern Bates and Art Abbott discard as being altered by SDA leaders! Surely they
have spoken and worked against the Holy Spirit. The Lord has shown me that just
as surely their ignominious fate is sealed.
“I saw that those who
had the means, were required to
help speed those messengers, that God had called
to labor in his cause, and as they went from place to place, they would be safe
from the prevailing pestilence. But
if any went that were not sent of God, they would be in danger of being cut
down by the pestilence; therefore all should earnestly seek for duty,
and be sure and move by the direction of the Holy Spirit.” {RH September 1,
1849, par. 9}
“What we have seen and
heard of the pestilence, is but the beginning of what
we shall see and hear. Soon
the dead and dying will be all around us. I saw that
some will be so hardened, as to even make sport of the judgments of God. Then
the slain of the Lord will be from one end of the earth, to the other; they
will not be lamented, gathered, nor buried; but their ill savor will come up
from the face of the whole earth. Those only who have
the seal of the living God, will be sheltered from the storm of wrath, that
will soon fall on the heads of those who have rejected the truth.” {RH
September 1, 1849, par. 10}
In Hope, {RH September
1, 1849, par. 11}
E. G. White
God will permit those
who are not sent of Him to be cut down by the pestilence. I recall many leaders
of my own age bracket who viciously opposed my warning message from the outset
have long since passed away. They died an early death from cancer. It does not
pay to fight Jerusalem city hall in heaven!
In the name of the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
—rwb