steps - 4e Ange

The Abiding Gift of Prophecy
Arthur G. Daniells
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Foreword For a third of a century it has been my privilege to present, with
increasing fullness, certain of the evidences centering 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." (Numbers 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 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 Corinthians 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
Humington Park, California,
March 3, 1935 Introduction 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 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 name and
thought of "prophet" in these skeptical 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,