A well-known charismatic preacher and founder of an international prayer ministry had been accused of sexual misconduct. He would tell a woman that God had shown him, in a prophetic dream, that his wife would die and that he would marry her afterward. The pastor had told other women, individually, the same “prophetic dream”—and his grooming worked with each one. That is, until he got exposed and expelled.
I know that our own Seventh-day Adventist Church, at times, has had to deal with fallen ministers, of course. But if an Adventist preacher tried such a ploy—“God showed me in a prophetic dream that my wife is going to die and that I will marry you afterward”—I seriously doubt most Adventist women would fall for it.
What do I mean?
However much (or little) people know about my background, most don’t know that before I joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I was in the charismatics. Right after my new birth I met Adventists and charismatics, but fellowshipped, at first, mostly with the charismatics (the Adventists and their rabbit food just seemed so strange to this hard-core carnivore). From day one, then, I was thrust into the charismatic ether: the supposed tongues, the prophecies, the signs and wonders, the healings, and whatnot. At every worship service those with a prophetic word, arms swaying in the air, would declare such things as “I see a might army, the Lord’s army, marching across the land.” Too green to know any better, I went right along with it all until they kicked me out.[i] (Only one month in Christianity, and already booted from my first church.)
Holy laughter?
Maintaining some charismatic friends and acquaintances, I have lightly tailed the movement over the decades. And though I’m not judging anyone’s sincerity or love of God, charismatic phenomena such as the “Toronto Blessing”—when people in church broke out into massive bouts of laughter, sometimes for hours on end, with so many doing it at once that the preachers couldn’t preach above the hysteria at times, all of which was deemed from the Holy Spirit and spawned numerous “revivals”—such events as this have only consolidated my skepticism. And their “prophetic words” over the decades, especially their political prophetic words (often no more reliable than secular pollsters) speak for themselves. Recently, though, one prophet secured her bona fides among the charismatic faithful when she claimed that God showed her—one week before election day—that Trump would win in 2024. What an astonishing prediction!
It’s going to take something radically different than “prophetic” messages about cancer-curing cheeseburgers or Jesuit hitmen stalking Adventist church potlucks to change my mind on this one.
My point with all this, though, is to talk specifically, not about charismatics, but about Adventists. Early in my studying with them, the Adventists showed me Revelation 12:17—“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” And of course: “And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’ ” (Rev. 19:10). Though it took time, I came to equate the “spirit of prophecy” with the ministry of Ellen G. White, a position that I have maintained since.
Over the years, voices in the church, if not openly challenging that interpretation (though some do), have argued that our identifying “the spirit of prophecy” with her ministry alone is too narrow. Yes, it applies to Ellen White, but we shouldn’t limit it to only her, sentiments like that. They could, in principle, be right. After all, we are not Cessationists, those who believe that the spiritual gifts, tongues, healing, prophecy, miracles, and so forth ceased after the apostolic age. James White opens volume 1 of The Spirit of Prophecy with a good defense of the gifts continuing.
So, yes, the “Spirit of prophecy” depicted in Revelation 19:10 could be manifested in ways other than through what God did with Ellen White. But my questions are: How? And with whom? And how could we know, anyway?
Prophets among us?
I remember many of our own Adventist “prophets” with their “prophetic messages” that I have encountered in 41 years at the General Conference (GC). Each one—without exception—was loon stuff. One came to the office and warned that if we didn’t do what he said, a black cloud would engulf the GC in total darkness until we relented. Or those bearing “the Spirit of prophecy” who warned about an earthquake that would level Loma Linda University by the end of the year (this was in the 1990s). Or the woman who said that, through the “Spirit of prophecy,” God showed her that the Holy Spirit was female. Or my favorite: claiming the prophetic gift, this woman said that God had shown her in vision that the Jesuits had murdered GC men by poisoning them at potlucks and then replaced them with exact doubles. When asked about how their wives responded (William has been looking a bit odd these days), the “prophetess” said that their marriages were so bad that the wives never noticed. (I’m not kidding.)
Over the decades, too, how many self-proclaimed Adventist prophets have set dates for assorted and sundry end-time events, usually the Sunday law? Every date, surprise of surprises, has failed.
But such craziness is, I hate to say it, common charismatic fare. Putting aside the holy laughter, or the animal noises, or the tongues, or the “supernatural healings,” or the being “slain in the spirit,” or the oil miraculously flowing out of Bibles, or the gold dust supernaturally appearing on faces and hands during worship services—besides all this, there are prophecies and prophesizing galore among them. Over the decades how many thousands and thousands of “prophetic words” have been uttered, from the mundane (the-mighty-army-marching stuff), to failed political declarations (the Democrats will abolish Christianity by 2021), to the “prophetic word” about the next Middle East war, to the prophet who claimed that a cheeseburger from McDonald’s would cure cancer (if prayed over properly), or to the one who prophesized that God would anoint dogs to preach the gospel, or the one who said God showed him in vision Jesus and the disciples eating tacos in heaven—and on and on and on and on . . . .
In principle, yes
Any wonder that, immersed in a culture with such nonstop prophecies and prophesying, some women would fall for a lecherous preacher’s “prophetic dream”? Whatever the issues in our church, most Adventists aren’t going to fall for something like that (though some did believe the “prophet” who claimed that the Jesuits were knocking off us GC folks, so I don’t know . . .).
In principle, then, yes, the “Spirit of prophecy” doesn’t necessarily mean Ellen White’s ministry only. But, precisely because of what goes on in the name of prophecy (see above)—in contrast to all that we know about the message, the ministry, and the life of Ellen White—I unabashedly identify “the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10) with her writings, and her writings alone. And it’s going to take something radically different than “prophetic” messages about cancer-curing cheeseburgers or Jesuit hitmen stalking Adventist church potlucks to change my mind on this one.
[i] I had the gall to challenge them on the tongues, so I got the boot.
