Inspiration/Revelation: What It Is and How It Works

Part II: Infallibility: Does the True Prophet Ever Err?

By Roger W. Coon

GOAL STATEMENT

This continuing education study material is intended to serve as a refresher course for class­room teachers who are called upon in religion courses to explain the methodology God employed in communicating His divine truths and expecta­tions to human beings alienated from His presence because of their sinful condition. For other teachers, this continuing education course may serve to strengthen their commitment as Seventh­day Adventist church members to the work of one believed to have been God's most recent prophet, Ellen G. White, in a day when her prophetic gift and contribution to this church are being increas­ingly questioned and challenged.

• Approved by the North American Division Office of Edu­cation for 0.5 Continuing Education Units Credit or 5 contact hours.

Associate Secretary, Ellen G. White Estate

General Conference of SDA

VOL. 44, NO. 2, DECEMBER, 1981-JANUARY, 1982

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying Part II of this continuing educa­tion minicourse, you should be able to do the following:

1.

2.

3.

Differentiate between the two prevailing theories (the so-called "strait-jacket" and "intervention" theories) concerning the essence of the "more sureness" of prophetic utterance, and know the advantage or disadvantage of each.

Understand the two ways in which the Berean Christians in Paul's day were said to be "more noble" than their counterparts in Thessalonica, and the consequent implications for practicing Christians today.

Understand the importance of the proper method of validating spiritual truth (and the equal but opposite danger of using wrong methods).

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speed, translator. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press). Copy­right © 1923, 1948 by The University of Chicago.

" Rene Noorbergen, Ellen G. White: Prophel of Destiny (New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1972), p. 21. (italics sup­plied unless otherwise indicated.)

" Tesfimonies, vol. 5, p. 747. " The Greaf Confroversy Be/ween Christ and Salan, p. vii. " Ibid., p. vii. " Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 37. '° Ibid., p. 416. " Ibid., p. 20. " Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers

(Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Assn., 1944), p. 376. " , The Story of Patriarchs and Prophets (Mountain

View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Assn., 1958), p. 354. '° Robert W. Olson, IOI Questions on the Sanctuary and on Ellen

White (Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1981), p. 52). " Isaiah 41 :8. See also James 2:23. " Spirit of Prophecy, vol. I, p. 98. " Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 37. " "Plagiarism Found in Prophet Books" by John Dart, Los Angeles

Times, October 23, 1980, pp. I, 3, 21. 25 See Olson, op. cit. "Deuteronomy 4:9, 8:19, 28:1, 2, 13-15; cf. also Zechariah 6:15. " Walter Rea is one such, and he lists the "failed" prediction of 1856

as "White Lie" No. 8 of a total of 18 such alleged "White Lies," in an address to the Association of Adventist Forums, San Diego, Calif., on February 14, 1981: see transcript pp. 14, 15.

" For an excellent and extremely helpful treatment of the subject, see "The Role of Israel in Old Testament Prophecy," Seventh-day Adven­t isl Bible Commentary, vol. 4, pp. 25-38.

" For additional examples of the conditional element in Biblical prophecies, see LeRoy Edwin Froom, Movement of Destiny (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assn., 1971), pp. 573, 574.

'° J. N. Loughborough letter, from Sanitarium, Calif., Aug. 28, 1918. " For a comprehensive view of several such statements by Ellen

White, see Froom, op. cit., pp. 583-588; and Robert W. Olson, The Crisis Ahead (Angwin, Calif.: Pacific Union College Bookstore, 1976), pp. 75-78.

"Ms. 4, 1883; published in Evangelism, pp. 695, 696, and Selec1ed Messages, Book 1, p. 68.

"Ellen G. White, Ms. 107, 1909: cited in T. Housel Jemison, A

Prophet Among You (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Assn., 1955), pp. 394, 395.

"This letter, written from Sanitarium, Calif., on June 14, 1906, was subsequently published in The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, August 30, 1906, p. 8. Cited in Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 24-28. For a helpful consideration of "How Much Was Inspired?", see Jemi­son, op. cit., pp. 394-406.

" The Great Controversy (1911 ed.), p. 272. For a fuller account of this question, see Arthur L. White, The Ellen G. White Writings (Wash­ington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assn., 1973), pp. 31-34.

"Review and Herald, October 30, 1913, p. 3. Arthur L. White dis­cusses this question at length in Inspiration and the Ellen G. While Wrifings, a reprint of 11 articles from the Adventist Review of 1978 and 1979.

" Ellen G. White, Life Sketches of Ellen G. White (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Assn., 1915), p. 235; and Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 297.

" Spirifual Gifts, Book 2, p. 295. 39 Ibid., p. iv. 30 Ibid., p. iii.

" Ibid., p. 12, 14. " Testimonies, vol. I, p. 14; and Life Sketches, p. 20. " Testimonies, vol. I, p. 21; and Life Sketches, p. 26. " Letter 339, 1904, p. 2. " Letter 353, 1906, p. I. " Incidentally, these two chapters, which were written by two dif­

ferent Biblical authors, are almost word-for-word accounts of the same event; yet neither indicates the source of his data-an interesting situa­tion in the light of the current controversy over a modern prophet's "copying" from other sources!

" The chronological events of this experience are told in Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White: Messenger to !he Remnant (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assn., 1969), pp. 34-36.

" Arthur Grovesnor Daniells, The Abiding Gift of Prophecy (Moun-tain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Assn., 1936), pp. 322-329.

" Tesfimonies, vol. 6, p. 217. " Letter 162, 1902; cited in Daniells, op. cit., pp. 326, 327. " Letter 208, 1902; cited in Ibid., p. 327. " Testimonies, vol. I, p. 563. " Ibid., p. 486. " Ibid., p. 559. " Ibid., pp. 563, 564. "Review and Herald, December II, 1883, p. 778.

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