The Authority of the Prophets

Sabbath School Class—Life as Discovery and Hope

http://ssclassnotes.blogspot.com 

February 21, 2009
Larry R Evans 

Introduction 

Hardly a week goes by without the news telling us that a compromise has been worked out between different parties whether they be political, organizational or religious. Is it possible to have both authority and a compromise?  How do we relate to different voices with different messages claiming to speak words of counsel, warning or instruction for the church today?  Do they have authority to speak?  What gives someone authority and when should we listen?  These are not new questions but how we go about answering them is critical.  How do we use the Bible, Ellen White or any other inspired writing when counsel or thoughts seem to be contradictive?  Not all answers will be found in this week’s study but hopefully we will find a foundation from which we can draw some helpful principles. 

Reflective Quiz

1.      Rejecting the words or counsel of a prophet is the same as rejecting Christ.  True  [Isa 5:1-6:9; Matt 21:33-46]

Isa 5:4

4 What more could have been done for my vineyard

than I have done for it?

When I looked for good grapes,

why did it yield only bad? (NIV) 

Matt 21:33-39

33 "Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35 "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said.

38 "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. (NIV)

2.    There are no consequences for disobeying God if what is done is done out of ignorance.  False  [Acts 17:30; 2 Ki 22:10-13; Jer 36:22-31]

Acts 17:29-30

29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (NIV) 

2 Kings 22:11-13

11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: 13 "Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us." (NIV) 

Jer 36:14-25

 15 They said to him, "Sit down, please, and read it to us."

So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, "We must report all these words to the king." 17 Then they asked Baruch, "Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?" 

18 "Yes," Baruch replied, "he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll." 

19 Then the officials said to Baruch, "You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don't let anyone know where you are." 

20 After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. 21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. 22 It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. 24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. (NIV)

3.    The spoken word, not just the written word, has played a significant role throughout redemptive history.  True  [Jer 38:1-4; Jn 3:1-10; Acts 16:25-34]

• E.g. The experience of Jesus teaching Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-10)
• The experience of Paul and Silas in prison (Acts 16:25-34

4.    The Bible gives support to prophecies not found in the Bible.  True  [2 Chron 9:29]

2 Chron 9:29

29 As for the other events of Solomon's reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat? (NIV)

 5.   Once a manuscript is determined to be authentic and inspired it is added to the Bible’s appendix. False  [Jn 21:25]

John 21:25

25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (NIV) 

When it comes to the writings of Ellen White Seventh-day Adventists do not believe they are an addition to the canon of sacred Scriptures.

6.    Inspired writings outside the Bible should be minimized as a safety precaution to protect from false teachings.  False  [1 Thess 5:19; 1 Cor 5:9-11]

1 Thess 5:19-21

19 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. (NIV)

7.    Seventh-day Adventists do not believe that the writings of Ellen White may be used as the basis of doctrine.  True

Robert W Olson, retiring as secretary of the Ellen G. White Estate wrote:  “We cannot use Ellen White as the determinative arbiter of what Scripture means.  If we do that, then she is the final authority and Scripture is ot.  Scripture must be permitted to interpret itself. . . I think that there were time when she was an exegete, but those instances are extremely rare. I think usually she was a homiletician.  She used Scripture as an evangelist would.” (Ministry Dec. 1990,p. 17)  George W. Reid, director of the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference affirms that the traditional Adventist principle of interpretation of Scripture “did not use her [Ellen White’s] statements to determine the final meaning of the Bible.” [“Another Look at Adventist Methods of Bible Interpretation,” in Adventists Affirm 10:1, Spring 1996, p.51]. This point is also made by Ellen White herself:  “The Testimonies of Sister White should not be carried to the front.  God’s Word is the unerring standard. . . Let all prove their positions from the Scriptures and substantiate every point they claim as truth from the revealed Word of God.”  Ellen G White in Evangelism, p.256.  Having said that, however, caution flags should be seen when individual interpretations are diametrically opposed to her writings.  This is where the counsel of many biblical students must be sought.  There are many winds of doctrine blowing some to and fro and can easily become accepted because of their sensational or practical appeal.

8.    Seventh-day Adventists believe that it is wrong to see more in a biblical text as far as meaning is concerned than what Ellen White has expressed. False

Conclusion

We must be careful and not attribute authority to biblical or modern day prophets.  Any authority rests first in God. A true prophet’s authority is a derived authority. It is God who makes words, thoughts, dreams and prophecies authoritative.  He is at the center and from that center God works through various means to convey vital messages which relay His divine plan to a fallen world. Once we’ve established God as the center of all authority, it is imperative that we not limit Him in the way he wishes to communicate His plan.  Conventional reasoning can put undo limitations upon God’s sovereignty. If God chooses to work through specific individuals as His spokespersons then we must be careful to listen carefully to what He is saying through them.  It then becomes important to test prophetic messages against the baseline of all authority—God’s revealed word.  In so doing we must not “quench the Spirit” but neither must we forget that we are in the midst of a cosmic battle with Satan using deception to turn the world to himself and away from allegiance to God.  The biblical admonition to test the spirits is still very relevant but so is the counsel “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt.” (1 Thess 5:19,20)