The Spirit of Prophecy
Once, man walked with God in Eden. With open face he
beheld the glory of the Lord, and talked with God, and Christ,
and angels, in paradise, without a dimming vail between. Man
fell from his moral rectitude and innocency, and was driven from
the garden, from the tree of life, and from the visible presence
of the Lord and His holy angels. Moral darkness, like the pall
of death, has since cast its shadows everywhere, and everywhere
the blight and mildew of sin has been seen. And amid the general
gloom and moral wretchedness, man has wandered from the gates
of paradise for nearly six thousand years, subject to sickness,
pain, sorrow, tears, and death. He has also been subject to the
temptations and wiles of the devil, so much so that it is the sad
history of man, throughout the entire period of his fallen state,
that Satan has reigned with almost universal sway.
When all was lost in Adam, and the shades of night darkened
the moral heavens, there soon appeared the star of hope in Christ,
and with it there was established a means of communication
between God and man. In his fallen state, man could not converse
face to face with God, and with Christ, and with angels, as when
in his Eden purity. But through the ministration of holy angels
could the great God speak to him in dreams and in visions. “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.
The manifestation of the spirit of prophecy was designed for
all dispensations. The Sacred Record nowhere restricts it to any
particular period of time, from the fall to the final restitution. The
Bible recognizes its manifestation alike in
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the patriarchal age, in the Jewish age, and in the Christian age.
Through this medium God communed with holy men of old.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied; and so extensive was
the range of his prophetic vision, and so minute, that he could
look down over long ages, and describe the coming of the Lord,
and the execution of the last judgment upon the ungodly. Jude,
Verses 14, 15.
God spake to his prophets in the Jewish dispensation in
visions and in dreams, and opened before them the great things
of the future, especially those connected with the first advent
of Christ to suffer for sinners, and his second appearing in
glory to destroy his enemies, and complete the redemption of
his people. If the spirit of prophecy nearly disappeared from
the Jewish church for a few centuries toward the close of that
dispensation, on account of the corruptions in that church, it
re-appeared at its close to usher in the messiah. Zacharias, the
father of John the Baptist, “was filled with the Holy Spirit, and
prophesied.” Simeon, a just and devout man, who was “waiting
for the consolation of Israel,” came by the Spirit into the temple,
and prophesied of Jesus as “a light to lighten the gentiles, and the
glory of Israel.” And Anna, a prophetess, “spake of him to all
them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” And there was no
greater prophet than John, who was chosen of God to introduce
to Israel “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”
The Christian age commenced with the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, and the manifestation of various spiritual gifts.
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Among these was the gift of prophecy. After commissioning his
disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel, Jesus
says to them, “And these signs shall follow them that believe: In
my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new
tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them; they