God's purpose in providing and bestowing the prophetic gift is to re-establish and maintain communication with man, who had been estranged and separated from Him through sin. This gift operates through prophets, and by means of visions, dreams, inspiration, revelation, and prophecy. The product is a divine message from God to the human family. The great Book called the "Word of God" (Heb. 4:12), the "Holy Scriptures" (Rom. 1:2), came to mankind through the operation of the prophetic gift. 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21.
The prophetic gift is not the message or the gospel; neither is it the Bible; rather it is the method, or way, by which the divine message comes from God to man. It is an essential and inseparable part of the great plan of redemption. Therefore the gift dates back to the day when the Lord resumed communication with Adam after his banishment from Eden.
This gift has never been withdrawn; it still remains God's gift to the human family. Through this channel He has been revealing Himself and giving His messages to the world ever since our first parents left their Eden home. There have been periods, some short and some long, when the gift has not been manifested in "open vision" (1 Sam. 3:1), but the gift has never been permanently withdrawn. At such times as God has deemed best, the manifestation of the gift has reappeared, and through the medium of visions and dreams prophets have brought divine messages to the Lord's needy people.
In the operation of the prophetic gift the Lord must call the prophet; He must give the vision or speak through the dream; He must impart the inspiration, and make the revelation of His divine will and purpose. This He promised He would do, and centuries later He said: "I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets." Hosea 12:10.
It is freely acknowledged that while the meaning of the statements regarding this plan of communication are plain, the varied and manifold processes of the plan are somewhat difficult for the mind to grasp. Just how God makes Himself known to the prophet in a vision and speaks to him in a dream, is one of the many mysteries in the great plan of redemption. Yet He does this with the greatest clearness and certitude to the prophet; and the genuineness of the revelation thus made is attested by an abundance of reliable evidence.
That the operation of the method used is mysterious and beyond the grasp of the human mind, is no proof that the revelations are not made just as the prophet claims. The world is full of mysteries. Everywhere we behold effects, the causes of which we do not understand and cannot explain. The incarnation and the resurrection of the Son of God, who had created the worlds, are baffling mysteries to our finite minds; yet our hope of redemption is built upon them. So, also, the operation of the prophetic gift, though a great mystery, is a glorious fact.
The call to the prophetic office, the character and responsibilities of the prophet, the visions, dreams, inspiration, revelation, and authority of the messages revealed, are all questions of vital importance and deep interest. Says one:
"The importance of this subject cannot well be overestimated, for a proper conception of it is necessary to a clear understanding of the very basis of Christianity. This fact has been so fully recognized that Christian scholars in all ages have found this a profitable and an almost inexhaustible field for research."—"The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia and Scriptural Dictionary," p. 1391.
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