I find much in this Sabbath school lesson with which I am in hearty agreement. However, having correctly defined the biblical meaning of "prophet," the rest of the lesson largely disregards that definition and centers on one aspect only of prophecy, namely the predictive element.

Page 30 of the lesson correctly describes a prophet as one "authorized to speak for another." Genesis 20:7 tells us that Abraham was a prophet, yet his work was not predictive. This is true of most prophets. John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophets, according to Jesus, but his chief message was ethical rather than predictive, though the latter was not neglected.

l Corinthians 14:1, 39, admonishes Christians to covet the gift of prophecy and the context in chapters 12 to 14 shows that the gift of prophecy is to be forever with the church, as certainly as faith, hope, and love, which are described as "abiding." Thus, had Paul been writing this Sabbath School lesson he would have happily incorporated many of the things we find there, but his stress would have been quite different.

A. G. Daniels, one-time president of our church, wrote that during the Reformation "many of the spiritual leaders of the period sincerely believed that the Lord made Himself known to them in visions and spoke to them in dreams." He tell us also his conviction that during the post-Reformation years "the prophetic gift appeared…at divers times and places" (The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, 221, 228).

In the New Testament, prophesying refers less to prediction than to exhortation and explanation of Christian truth. And there is no evidence that this always required visionary phenomena. The following passages should be closely studied if we wish to understand God’s purpose in this gift for our own time: Joel 2:28-30; Acts 2:17,18; l Thessalonians 5: 19–22; Romans 12:6; and l Corinthians 14. According to Paul in l Corinthians 14:1, 39, the gift of prophecy is potentially available to all believers and should be earnestly desired.

It has been traditional among us to view scriptural predictions as applying either to the first or the second advents. See in this lesson the use of Genesis 3:15; Daniel 2; Matthew 24; and Luke 21. However this approach is inadequate. The Bible’s messages had initial meaning for those who first received them, continuing meaning through the ages, and often a consummative meaning for the end of earth’s history. Thus, Genesis 3:15 had its first fulfillment in the conflict between Cain and Abel, a continual application throughout the Old Testament as Israel’s conflicts were recorded, and finally an eschatological meaning both for the first Advent and the second—that is, both for inaugurated and consummated eschatology. Everybody should read the comments of our SDA Bible Commentary on Isaiah 7:14, and its stress on the apotelesmatic meaning of that verse.

For ages, Daniel 2 was understood among the Jews to point to those powers that would threaten and at times almost decimate them before the coming of the Messiah—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Seleucids (particularly the time of Antiochus Epiphanes). Only after the coming of the Romans into Palestine was it recognized that the fourth empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream had a double application.

Those who doubt this testimony of Jewish history should recognize that not only do Daniel’s prophecies each enlarge the preceding one but the final prophecy of Daniel 11–12 revolves chiefly around the tyrannous exploits of the Seleucidae and the final Antichrist typified by him. Thus, Daniel’s last two chapters expand the meaning of Daniel 2. The vicious attacks on Israel and her temple by Antiochus were repeated in a more dreadful manner by Rome, and Revelation chapter 13 points to a consummative fulfillment yet to come.

The quarterly perpetuates an old error when it intimates that the increase of knowledge foretold in Daniel 12:4 points to the multiplying of secular and scientific knowledge of our own day. The verse itself indicates that the knowledge to be increased is to be in the understanding of the sealed book of Daniel.

As for the Olivet sermon, it gives a portrayal of the broad course of history wherever the gospel has been proclaimed. The central eschatological elements of worldly troubles, the offered gospel antidote, religious counterfeits, war on the gospel, and divine judgments—these are the chessmen of the ages.

This great prophecy sketches the future of the church in terms of Christ’s approaching Passion. The body would endure the same afflictions, the same trials, the same antagonisms, as its Head. The key words of the discourse include "hour," "watch," and "betray," the very same words that are prominent in the Gospel chapters of Christ’s last twenty-four hours.

I am grateful that the lesson has pointed us to the great Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 52:13–53:12. Whereas the term servant is applied in earlier passages of Isaiah to Israel itself, and particularly to a righteous remnant of the nation, this passage is a crescendo distinguishing the only "servant" of Yahweh who would do ALL God’s will, the God-Man, the Messiah.

Those who doubt this application should get by interlibrary loan the great book by Christopher R. North, The Suffering Servant in Deutero-Isaiah. North spent forty years studying this passage and his book conclusively shows that the Messianic application is the only one that fits the test. The passage has led countless atheists to Christ and to absolute faith in Holy Writ.

It is true, as the lesson points out, that the fulfillment of Bible prophecy strengthens our faith. But it is even more important to understand that it is the pure in heart who see God, and that only those willing to do all his commandments will enjoy the certainty of joyous assurance in God’s revelation of truth (Matt. 5:8; John 7:17).

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