EGW Midterm

1 - The test of fulfilled predictions

2 - The Test of Divine Guidance in Times of Crisis in the Advent Movement

3 - The Test of Agreement With the Bible

4 - The Test of the Kind of Fruit Borne in Life and Works

1. Secret things belong to God (Deut. 29:29).

2. God reveals secrets to the prophets (Amos 3:7).

• 3. Unfulfilled predictions made in the name of the Lord are presumptuous; fulfilled predictions demonstrate that the prophet was sent by the Lord (Jer. 28:9).
• 4. Some prophecies are conditional (Jer. 18: 7-10 ).

1. “The Lord shall guide thee continually” (Isa. 58:11).

2. He instructs us in the way we should go (Ps. 32:8).

3. By a prophet the Lord led and guided Israel of old (Hosea 12:13).

1. He will exalt the true God (Deuteronomy 13:1-4).

• 2. He will teach obedience to God's law (2 Chronicles 24:19, 20; Deuteronomy 13:4).
• 3. He will believe and teach that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (1 John 4:2, 3).

4. He will speak as he is inspired by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21).

Matthew 7:15-20 Ye shall know them by their fruit.

• The expression "testimony of Jesus" occurs six times in the book of Revelation (1:2, 9; 12:17; 19:10; 20:4). The first problem which relates to the expression concerns translation.
• Two translations are grammatically possible:
• a. The testimony (witness) about/concerning Jesus (objective genitive) = what Christians witness about Jesus; "who bear testimony to Jesus" (RSV).

b. The testimony (witness) from/by Jesus (subjective genitive) = messages from Jesus to the church.

1 - Visions given in public, and accompanied by the marked physical phenomenon.

2 - Visions given during the hours of the night often referred to as prophetic dreams

3 - Visions given during periods of prayer or writing, unaccompanied by physical phenomena.

- Range from few seconds to few minutes to few hours

- Longest vision was 4 hours

"Such a phonomenal exhibition in connection with the early visions had a Definite place in establishing the confidence of the believers in their divine origin before there was opportunity for the development of fruit by which the claims of the Lord's messenger might be judged.

• -
• a) Seemingly present, she participated in the visionary events

b) She was given broad panoramic views (i.e. scenes of history, Great Controversy over the ages)

c) Visual Scenic Representations (i.e. I saw; I was shown; I was carried back/forward; I was taken etc.

• -
• 1) Angel's explanations
• 2) Conditions at distant institutions
• 3) Vivid view of revealing perils
• 4) Seeing buildings not yet erected
• 5) Symbolic Representations given

1) Oral Presentations (One to one; One to group-sermon)

2) Personal Letters

3) Printed Articles & Books

1) The Judgment Hour (The Midnight cry; Light behind them)

2) 2nd Advent (Light ahead of them)

3) Personal relationship with Jesus (She spoke of having a personal relationship with Jesus)

December, 1844

1) First Vision, December 1844 "The Midnight Cry"

2) February 1845, "Bridegroom's Coming" vision

3) Spring 1845 "New Earth Vision"

4) October 1845 "Time of Trouble Vision"

1) seemed to be rising higher and higher from the earth

2) saw the “Advent people” traveling a high and dangerous path towards the city of New Jerusalem [heaven].

3) Their path was lit from behind by “a bright (light)...which an angel told me was the midnight cry.” (Judgment hour)

4) some of the travelers grew weary and were encouraged by Jesus;

5) others denied the light, the light behind them went out, and they fell “off the path into the dark and wicked world below.”

6) vision continued with a portrayal of Christ’s second coming, (Bright Light ahead of them)

7) following the Advent people entering the New Jerusalem;

8) ended with Ellen White returning to earth feeling lonely, desolate and longing for that “better world.”

"she saw in vision, that we should be disappointed, and that the saints must pass through the "time of Jacob's trouble," which was future"

This vision corrected the false concept of time setting for the group that would eventually become the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In this vision, she saw Jesus walking with her in the New Earth. It was a literal description of the new earth.

It situated Jesus and the Father in the Heavenly Sanctuary and described a transition to the Most Holy Place.

In the Home of Mr. Thayer

Randolph, MA—1845

18½ pounds

for 20-30 minutes

CEV DTW

1) The Community model of inspiration

2) The Encounter model of inspiration

3) The Verbal-Plenary model of inspiration

4) The Dictation model of Inspiration

5) The Thought Model of Inspiration

6) The Whole-person Model of Inspiration

Places the inspiration in the community of believers rather than in the text of Scripture.

(Because of this most theologians rejected it.)

focuses on the personal, subjective encounter between God and humans in ther revelatory experience

and rejects any objective communication of propositional truth.

So The Bible is merely a subjective account or personal testimony of what the Bible writers remember fromthe encounters they've experienced.

(most well-known model of inspiration in evangelical Christianity today)

Term verbal places the focus of inspiration on the text of Scripture with all its verbal relationships,

and the word plenary emphesizes that every part of Scripture in inspired.

takes the verbal-plenary model one step further

by teaching that God actually dictated the words He wanted the biblical writers to write.

(it is the most rigid model of inspiration)

places inspiration in the writer's thoughts rather than in the words he or she writes.

The Spirit of God directs the writer to the thoughts or concepts, and allows the writter's own distinctive personality to come into play in the choice of words and expression.

Thought model of inspiration is most influential in the Adventist Church

provides the best explanation of the variety of modes of inspiration in the Bible.

It accounts for the inspired writers using the best words they could muster to express the divine concepts, even when those words came from noninspired sources.

Ellen White's understanding and explanation of inspiration effectively captured the whole-person dynamic of inspiration found in the Bible.

a divine event in which God discloses Himself to a specifically chosen instrument and conveys to him/her a knowledge of Himself and His will, that human beings couldn't have attained on their own.

It's a vertical work. God to human Beings.

another divine act or divine initiative in which God enables a prophet to receive and to communicate the content of revelation in a trustworthy and authoritive way.

It's a horizontal work- from inspired human to other humans.

Aren't easily separated.

Their connection is in the human agent

the prophet who receives the vision and communicates it to others

a divine act by which God enables any person in a right relationship with Him to come to a correct understanding of that which has been revealed.

A gift from God to aid us in understanding Bible (original Revelation)

Sometimes calle Pastoral-Authority

available to all Christians.

- is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired.

- inspiration acts not on the man's words or his expression but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, is imbued with thoughts.

- The writers of the Bible were God's penmen, not His pen.

- We believe the light given by God to his servants is by the enlightement of the mind, thus imparting the thoughts, and not (except in rare cases) the very words in which the ideas are expressed.

IDVCI

Imperial authoirty -

Delegated Authority -

Veracious Authority -

Circumscribed Prophetic Autority -

Illumination Authority -

The kind that stands at the top of hierchy

As Creator, God is at top

the authority to act, to compel, to have access in virtue of rights granted by imperial authority.

Prophets and Apostles showed by their visions, dreams etc that they spoke for God, that He had delegated to them.

that authority possesed by men, books, or principles which either possess truth or aid in the determination of truth.

(The Bible, as the authoritive, infallible revelation of God's will, dervies its veracious authoiryt from the delegated authority of the apostles and prophets who, in turn, expressed the imperial authority of truth.)

prophetic authority that is subject to limits, and it applies only to the noncanonical and postcanonical prophets.

Ellen white posseesed both delegated and veracious authority, but not to the same degree as the canon of Scripture.

What some call pastoral Authority.

The inward work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind of people who read the Scriptures, bringing understanding and obedience.

This should not be confused with revelation-inspiration given only to the prophets.

"Has Not the Savior Come as the Bridegroom?'