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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Justin Torossian

The Gift of Prophecy - When and Why

I was raised in the town of Angwin, which is where Pacific Union College is located.

Angwin, California, just about 10 minutes from Elm Savin, Ellen White's last home.

If you haven't been yet, make sure that you make it out.

And you will be touched and blessed to walk where angels have walked.

I had the privilege of growing up there, spending much of my time as a child there.

My grandparents gave tours of Elm Saven while I was growing up.

So when our cousins came and we had family get-togethers, it was there on the same grounds as Ellen White's last home.

You know, as was mentioned, I'm the youth pastor currently at the Fresno Central Church.

Our senior pastor, Stephen Boer, is going to be with you next weekend.

And when we found out and I was telling him, yeah, I'm going down to Advent Hope this weekend, he said, ah, you're preparing the way for me.

I said, yeah, kind of like John the Baptist, right?

So you'll be blessed to have Pastor Bohr with you next week.

I wanted to start by saying that I have a heritage of which I am very proud.

And that heritage is spoken about in John 1.12.

It says there that as many as believed on Jesus' name, to them he gave the right to be called the children of God.

You have that heritage of which to be proud of as well, amen?

In addition to this, I am the great, great, great grandson of James and Ellen White.

And as we know, God is no respecter of persons, and I am no different than you when it comes to, yes, anything really.

But it's a privilege to be related to 2 individuals who God used in a mighty way to begin this movement that is really a movement, not just a church, but a movement to usher in the second coming of Jesus.

And this evening, as we look through history and through what the Bible has to say to us about the gift of prophecy through time, I believe with all of my heart that you're going to be blessed.

And not only that, my prayer is that you'll be motivated to share the things that you have learned or the things that maybe you've been reminded of with those who you come in contact with.

Tonight, our message is entitled the gift of prophecy when and why.

Tomorrow morning's message will be called when stones cry out.

In that message I'm going to be sharing quite a few stories from non Adventists who are speaking very highly of Ellen White.

And you're most definitely not going to want to miss this message.

Tomorrow afternoon at 3.30, we're going to be addressing some of the accusations that there are against the spirit of prophecy and God's last day church.

We're going to be tackling some of the major accusations that are out there and floating around on these various anti-Ellen White websites.

Then we'll be closing with my favorite message.

And in our last message, Ellen, the woman behind the ministry, we will be taking a look at what Ellen White was like as a person.

Oftentimes we read her writings and we forget that she was more than a messenger of the Lord.

She was a grandmother, she was a loving mother, and she was a wife.

There are Some great stories that you're going to be able to hear.

In fact, you're going to learn about Ellen White's sense of humor.

Not many people realize that Ellen White did have a good sense of humor.

And tomorrow afternoon's messages are going to be specifically about what she was like as a person, the woman behind the ministry.

Before we begin and dive into our message this evening, I'd like to invite you to bow your heads with me for a word of prayer.

Our Father in Heaven, Lord, we come before you tonight and we thank you in advance.

We thank you in advance because we know that you are present here tonight and you have something to say to each 1 of us.

We pray that you would open the ears of our hearts.

We pray that you would open our hearts to receive the message that you have for us.

May your angels be present and we pray that you would speak to each of us just what we need to hear for this evening.

Thank you so much for the gift of prophecy, this wonderful gift that you have given to mankind.

Bless us now we pray, and may we hear you speak from on high, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

In order to answer our first question of when the gift of prophecy was given, We have to go back in history, all the way back until Creation Week actually, where Adam and Eve were created.

And let me ask you, you're all Bible students and you all know this very well, what was the condition of the perfect world?

What were some of the things, the characteristics of our world when it was in its perfection?

There was no pain, no sorrow, no death, no tears.

But most importantly, as our brother said, there was face-to-face communication with God.

The Bible says in Genesis 3 verse 8, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

Now, We know that this did not last, unfortunately.

Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And when they did, when they failed in their obedience to God, the Bible says in Romans 5, verse 12, that sin and death entered into the planet.

They were banished from Eden according to Genesis 3, verse 24.

And there was no more direct communication with God.

There was no more face-to-face communication with him.

The Bible says in Isaiah 59, verse 2, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you.

Sin caused separation between mankind and our creator.

Well God had a dilemma on his hands because he wasn't going to leave mankind in the dumps of sin, so to speak.

But he had a plan, the plan of salvation, the plan that the Bible tells us was conceived before the world began.

The pact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit entered into, that if man chose to sin, Christ would come and give his life for the fallen race.

This plan of salvation, God had to communicate to Adam and Eve somehow, but the question was, how would he communicate the plan of redemption to them?

How was he going to instruct them when he could no longer speak to them face to face?

The Bible tells us in Numbers 12, verse 6, that God had a plan and that plan was to use the gift of prophecy.

This was written years after but it explains to us saying, hear now my words.

Numbers 12 verse 6, hear now my words 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.

God gave man the gift of prophecy so that he could explain what the plan of redemption was.

The gift of prophecy was established and actually exists to help man understand and accept Jesus' sacrifice.

The gift of prophecy was established, it was given and exists ultimately to help man understand the plan of redemption.

In its deepest sense, The gift of prophecy is all about Jesus Christ.

The gift of prophecy and the message of Christ and his redemption are 1.

This is why the Bible calls the gift of prophecy the testimony of Jesus.

First of all, because the gift of prophecy, when God speaks through a prophet, it is as if Jesus himself has spoken those words in person.

Secondly, the Bible calls the gift of prophecy the testimony of Jesus in Revelation 19 verse 10, because when a prophet speaks a message, whether it be warning, reproof, correction, instruction, it is always to point an individual to Christ.

This is why the Bible says that the gift of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.