SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS have through all their history unhesitatingly pointed to the prophetic gift manifested in the work and life of Ellen G. White as an evidence that the work of the Advent Movement is a fulfillment of prophecy. We sincerely believe that the words of Revelation 12:17--"the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"--apply to the group of people who have adopted the name Seventh-day Adventist. These words of the prophecy were explained to John by an angel later, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).

The Christian church in general has been well admonished through the years by Christ's warning, "There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matthew 24:24). But so intent have men been on guarding against false prophets that they have overlooked the implication in the words of Christ that there must be true prophets as well as false or the warning would have been against all prophets. It may therefore come as a surprise to some devout Christian people to discover that there are Bible-believing Christians of the conservative order who claim that the gift of prophecy has been manifested in our own day and age. We believe that all open-minded Christians will be pleased to examine the facts and weigh the evidences adduced to support such a claim and come to their own conclusions. We invite you to such an examination of the claims set forth by Seventh-day Adventists regarding the prophetic gift in their church.

This small book will afford space for only the merest outline of facts and experiences in our history, serving to picture the wondrously helpful and constructive side of the working of this special gift in the everyday development and progress of our cause.

For that matter, other spiritual gifts bestowed upon the New Testament church have also been in evidence.

Of these gifts for service, left by Christ for His church, the apostle Paul wrote:

"When he ascended up on high, he . . . gave gifts unto men. . . . He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:8-12).

To "edify" is to "build up," and so the Revised Version renders it: "Unto the building up of the body of Christ," the church. The story of the Advent Movement bears witness to the presence of these gifts building solidly on the gospel foundation. True men of God, called from all walks of life in those days of 1844 and onward, had these gifts in evidence among them. In no other way can we account for the wise hearted, sure way in which they built in the pioneering days. Those years were times of stress and confusion in the religious world, and all manner of curious and eccentric and often fanatical cults were springing up. By the gifts bestowed--of apostleship and teaching of the Spirit of Prophecy--the early workers laid down a system of truth, drawn from the word of Holy Writ, that we stand for today in all the world.

Let an outside observer tell it. Some years ago the president of the International Association of Christian Workers wrote a book on erroneous cults and isms of the day. Someone asked him why he had not included Seventh-day Adventists in the survey. He replied:

"There are no fundamental grounds of disagreement between the organized church of Jesus Christ and the Seventh-day Adventist. . . . On all the cardinal doctrines of the Bible-- the miraculous conception, the virgin birth, the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the deity of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the second coming, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the infallible Bible--the Seventh-day Adventist rings true as steel."--DR. J. E. BROWN, In the Cult Kingdom--, PP. 5, 6.

Our pioneers, from earliest times, built on the foundation of Christ and Holy Scripture a structure of truth that meets the universal spiritual needs of all mankind, and stands foursquare against all the winds of error that can ever blow.

And these gifts led our early builders to lay plans of organization for service that stand in principle to this day, needing only adaptation and expansion to meet a growth which the pioneers never conceived of in those first years. The Spirit, through whom came these gifts to the church, surely equipped those early workmen.

Observers looking on from without, even in the beginnings of our development, felt that there was something remarkable about the work and efficiency of this small people.

For instance, in the year 1884 one of our workers, traveling by train in a Western State, fell into conversation with a bishop of one of the great churches, and with the editor of a newspaper, with whom the bishop was traveling. The bishop, at the close of the interview, said to his editor friend:

"The Seventh-day Adventists are the greatest marvel of development of the last forty years. With all the opposition imaginable, with the most unpopular doctrines, in spite of all difficulties, this people have grown out of nothing and poverty to be one of the most successful in making themselves felt all over the earth; and their cause is onward in spite of everything."--quoted in The Review and Herald, Dec. 9, 1884.

Yet in 1884 our work had only begun to look toward the wide world. Beyond North America and Europe we then had no work. But this discerning administrator of religious activities saw that the movement had within it the elements of vigorous, successful growth. Years later, I recall, two officials of another church called at our General Conference office in Washington, D.C., to get information and material for the study of our plan of work and organization, which, they felt, had given this small people an efficiency in service beyond the ordinary.

We know well enough that the power and efficiency are not in any plan that can be set down on paper. The results come from preaching the message of "the everlasting gospel" which the prophet John, in the Revelation, saw carried to all nations as the hour of God's judgment came. That gospel is still "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." But along with the laying hold of the great system of Bible truth, Seventh-day Adventists from earliest times recognized the importance of the spiritual gifts which Christ left with His church. Among these was the gift of prophecy, "the spirit of prophecy," as the Revelation names it in connection with the foretelling of last-day developments in the gospel work.

During the days of 1844, when the Seventh-day Adventist Church had its rise, this gift of prophecy appeared. Observers outside our church have often borne tribute to the strong upbuilding character of this special gift in the work of Seventh-day Adventists. But only those who have lived with the ministry of this gift, and observed its working from within, can ever know how strong and ever fresh and constant and sure that gift of prophecy has been from the times of 1844 until today. And so it must ever be; for it is a spiritual gift, the ministry of which continues. In messages of inspiration and instruction and counsel, covering in manifold detail every phase of this closing gospel movement, this gift is a factor that still works powerfully in building up the cause of God in all the four quarters of the earth.