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AFCOE Amazing Facts Europe

Joakim Hjortland

The Spirit of Prophecy Matters

So as you heard, my name is Joachim and this name is actually derived from a biblical name, Jehoiakim, and he was 1 of the evil kings of the Bible, actually.

So it's kind of an interesting name to have.

Actually Jehoiakim, he was the guy, just to remind you a little bit, he was the guy that was king in Judah when Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem in 605 BC.

He was also the guy that 1 time we read about in scripture, he took the prophetic message of Jeremiah, God's prophet for his generation, and he took his penknife and he was cutting off different pieces from the scroll of Jeremiah, and he was throwing it into the fire and destroyed the message of the prophet.

And I kind of feel like that I right now want to, on behalf of my namesake, publicly apologize for that really wicked and bad mistake that he did right there.

I don't know how much he would help, but I kind of feel like It's good to do that.

It's also interesting, by the way, talking of Jehoiakim and all of this.

In 2 Chronicles 36, we read something very interesting.

Basically, we read there that a key reason why actually God allowed Israel to be taken or Judah to be taken into captivity was basically that they did not receive the message of the prophets.

Therefore, it says in the end there, he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans.

They failed to receive the messages of the prophets and I think we can learn a very important and very relevant lesson from that very fact so that we don't have to make the same mistake as they did right there.

Anyway so as you might guess I'm not born here in the US.

I'm curious to see, do we have anyone here today, with us here today, that have some heritage from Scandinavia?

Anyone that has some European blood in your veins?

Wow, that's a lot of hands, that's great.

So in other words, with many of you, I'm a family with you in actually a double sense.

Anyway, it's a blessing to be here and I'm looking forward to share tonight.

We are continuing this series, subtitled The Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy.

Truth Matters, the testimony of the spirit of prophecy, or another way, I guess, to describe the spirit of prophecy you could have said, the testimony of the gift of prophecy.

In this context, we are specifically talking about Ellen G.

White, that many of you probably would be familiar with.

If you would not be familiar with Ellen G.

White, I will just give you a short little introduction.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church, she was 1 of our pioneers.

She is a world-renowned author, has been translated to much more than 100 languages, books have been spreading in the millions, and we believe as a Seventieth-day Adventist Church, we believe she had the biblical gift of prophecy.

And there are many reasons why we believe that.

What she says perfectly harmonizes with the Bible.

She passes all the tests of a prophet, her prophecies were fulfilled, she bore good fruit in her life.

There are many compelling reasons, we could have spent many hours looking at that.

We don't have that time tonight, unfortunately, unless you want to stay here very long.

But if you would not be acquainted with Ellen White, I want to encourage you, strongly encourage you, to basically follow the admonition of the Apostle Paul.

He said, Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, test all things, hold fast what is good.

So if you are not quite sure what to think about Ellen White, maybe you don't know about her from before, I would encourage you, check her out.

Pick up 1 of her books and prayfully read it.

It has been a tremendous blessing to millions and millions of people, leading them closer to Jesus.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we do not believe in the Bible and Ellen White.

Rather, as Seventh-day Adventists, we believe in Ellen White because we believe in the Bible, because we believe what the Bible says about the gift of prophecy and how we should expect to see the gift of prophecy in the time on the end, etc., etc., etc.

That's why, when we test her and follow the admonition of Paul, that's why we have concluded that she is indeed inspired and led by the very same spirit.

And you kind of have a privilege here in the US, Like this very state, California, she lived here 15 years of her life before she died in 1915 on my birthday.

So, I don't know why I threw that in there, but anyway.

This is kind of the introduction and we are now getting ready to start our message.

But before we do that, I would like to have 1 more word of prayer.

So I'll invite you just to stand to your feet.

Dear Holy Father, thank you for this day.

Thank you for the opportunity to come together.

And Lord, we pray that you may be guiding what will happen here tonight.

I pray that you may lead my words, Help me to know what to say, what not to say, so that we can get the message you have in store for us here tonight.

I pray that it may inspire us, it may instruct us, you may speak to our minds, that you may speak to our hearts.

And I pray that what we learn here tonight on this important topic may lead us closer to the great plans you have for every single 1 of us here and now on this side of eternity and also true eternity.

Thank you Lord that you will lead, that you will speak, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Listen to an interesting quote here on the screen.

According to another study in the Trans-European Division, that's part of the world where I'm from, less than 60% of members, talking of Seventh-day Adventist members, less than 60% of members wholeheartedly embrace the teaching that LNG.

White was an inspired messenger to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And it goes on to say, furthermore, 25% of the members say that they have never read her writings.

And another approximately 45% read her less than once a month.

That makes a total of just under 70% of the 70 Adventist members in this region who read White's writings less than once a month.

In other words, basically they never read her.

About 70 percent, 7 of 10 Adventists in my division.

Now unfortunately this is not only a problem, this is not only the situation in the TED, in the Trans-European Division, but many parts of the world, many parts of the Western world and this is also a problem here in the US.

Many 70 Adventists do not strongly appreciate and carefully read the writings of Ellen G.

It's not for nothing that her books have been known as the little red books.

But unfortunately, it's not only that we don't read maybe so much that is the problem, it's not only neglect that is the problem, another problem is also confusion on this topic.

There is a quite a large degree of the confusion on this topic.

A Wikipedia article put it in an interesting way, put it like this, 70 Adventist believe church co-founder LNG White was inspired by God as a prophet and is understood to be a manifestation of the New Testament gift of prophecy.

Her inspiration is considered authoritative yet not infallible by church scholars today.

Her works are officially considered to hold a secondary role to the Bible.

I've noticed especially the last part here.

But in practice, so it says basically Adventists believed that Ellen White was a prophet of God.

But then it says in the end here, in practice, there is a wide variation among Adventists as to exactly how much authority should be attributed to her writings.

In other words, there are many different views of how we should relate to her and her writings to that today.

They say, she was a prophet of God, but what she wrote here in this place right here, this was just her own opinion, or this was just a product of her culture.

Or some Adventists would say, she was a prophet, God used her, but we do not really need her today.

As if she was a prophet for that generation, but not for this generation.

Some say, you know, God used her, but we must realize, it's important that we realize that she grew in her understanding.

Like you can't really trust what she wrote in the beginning, you know, she hadn't really gotten it yet.

But in the end of her life, she was much more Christ-centered and all of this, that's what you should read.

As others, they say that, actually, ironically, as other people say that we can't trust what she wrote in the end of her life, because in the end of her life, people like Willie White and Uriah Smith, they were manipulating her writings.

Some people say, but isn't the Bible sufficient?

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The Spirit of Prophecy Matters

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