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Lecture 4 Gift and Remnant

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7 views53 pages

Lecture 4 Gift and Remnant

Uploaded by

Abigail Madrid
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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THE GIFT OF

PROPHECY AND
GOD’S REMNANT
CHURCH
“And the dragon was enraged with
the woman, and he went to make
war with the rest of her offspring,
who keep the commandments of
God and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17,
NKJV).
Remnant
God’s faithful remnant was not
always a visible remnant.
• What do the symbols in Revelation 12
represent?
• What events in history can be seen as
a fulfillment of this chapter?
• What is the meaning of the phrases
“the testimony of Jesus” and “the
spirit of prophecy”?
Good Versus Evil: Act 1
Read Revelation 12:1–6.
What’s happening here?
• John sees a dazzling
sight—a pregnant
woman, “clothed with
the sun, with the
moon under her feet,”
and wearing a crown
of 12 stars (Rev 12:1).
• He calls the
appearance a “great
sign” indicating that
the woman is more
than a mere woman.
• She is a symbol for the
church or for God’s
faithful people (see Isa.
54:5, 6; 2 Cor 11:2).
• The woman’s dazzling
appearance links her to
Jesus, the Sun of
Righteousness (Mal 4:2,
Rev 1:16).
The woman flees from
the dragon into the
wilderness, where she is
taken care of by God for
1,260 days (Rev 12:6).
What is this talking about, and
what do the 1,260 days
symbolize? Dan 7:25, Rev.
12:14, 13:5.
• First, the whole section is filled with symbols
that aren’t taken literally, so why should the
time element be taken literally, as well?
• Second, the various time phrases used in Daniel
and Revelation—“time and times and half a
time” (Dan. 7:25, 12:7, Rev. 12:14, NKJV),
“forty-two months” (Rev. 11:2, 13:5, NKJV), and
“one thousand two hundred and sixty days”
(Rev. 11:3, 12:6, NKJV)— are not the natural
way of expressing a literal three and one-half
Good Versus Evil: Act 2
Revelation 12:13–17 picks up the story
from verse 6 and describes in symbolic
terms the persecution of the Christian
church, first by the Roman Empire and
later by the apostate Roman Church.
What do the symbols
here represent?
“Then from his mouth the
serpent spewed water
like a river, to overtake
the woman and sweep
her away with the
torrent” (Rev 12:15-
16,NIV).
“But the earth helped the
woman by opening its
mouth and swallowing the
river that the dragon had
spewed out of his mouth”
(Rev 12:16, NIV).
In 1620, the first pilgrims
arrived in America.
The new continent America
swallowed up the persecuting
Satan is angry with a
particular group
called “the rest of
her offspring” (NKJV)
or “the remnant of
her seed” (KJV).
• Read carefully Rev 12:17.
• What is the first identifying mark of
this special remnant?
• How do the following texts help us
under-stand what “the
commandments of God” mean?
Matt. 24:20, Rom. 3:31, Eph. 6:1,
James 2:9–11, 1 John 3:4.
This end-time remnant will
be distinguished by the
fact that it keeps the
commandments of God.
The Testimony of Jesus
What is the meaning of
the phrase “the
testimony of Jesus” in
the following texts? Rev.
1:2, 9; 19:10; 20:4, NIV.
TWO GRAMMATICALLY POSSIBLE
EXPLANATIONS

• The first view interprets “the testimony


of Jesus” as man’s witness for Christ
(NEB, RSV).
• The second view understands “the
testimony of Jesus” as the self-
revelation of Jesus— His own testimony
• A study of the word testimony in John’s
writings indicates that each time it
appears in the same grammatical
construction as in Revelation, it always
refers to Jesus’ own testimony (John 1:19;
3:11, 32, 33; 5:31).
• The idea of witnessing about somebody in
John’s writings consistently is expressed
by a different grammatical construction.
Jesus’ testimony
about Himself
is the testimony that Jesus gives
about Himself.
Every text in the book of
Revelation where the
phrase “testimony of
Jesus” appears always
refers to Jesus’ own
testimony.
The Spirit of Prophecy
• Rev 19:10: “For the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
• In all of Scripture the phrase
“spirit of prophecy” appears
only in this text.
• What does it mean? 1 Cor. 12:8–
10, 28; Eph. 4:11.
• The closest parallel to the phrase
“spirit of prophecy” in the Bible is
found in 1 Cor 12:8–10.
• There Paul refers to the Holy Spirit,
who gives the gift of prophecy
among other gifts (charismata), and
the person who receives this gift is
called a prophet.
• Just as in 1 Cor 12:28, those who
have the gift of prophecy (verse
10 of the same chapter) are
called prophets—in Rev 22:8, 9
those who have the spirit of
prophecy (Rev 19:10) are also
called prophets.
“And I fell at his
feet to worship
him. But he said to
me, ‘See that you
do not do that! I
am your fellow
servant, and of
your brethren who
have the
testimony of Jesus.
Worship God! For
the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit
of prophecy’” (Rev.
19:10, NKJV).
“I fell down to worship
before the feet of the
angel who showed me
these things. Then he
said to me, ‘See that
you do not do that. For
I am your fellow
servant, and of your
brethren the prophets,
and of those who keep
the words of this book.
Worship God’ ” (Rev.
• Rev 19:10: the brethren are
identified by the phrase “who
hold to [have] the testimony of
Jesus” (NIV).
• Rev 22:9: the brethren are called
simply “prophets.”
If the Protestant
principle of
interpreting scripture
by scripture means
anything, this
comparison must lead
to the conclusion that
“the spirit of
prophecy” in Rev
19:10 is the prophetic
gift, which is given not
to church members in
general but only to
those who have been
“According to the parallel 22:9 the
brothers referred to are not believers
in general, but the prophets. . . . If
they have the marturia Iesou [the
testimony of Jesus], they have the
spirit of prophecy, i.e., they are
prophets.”—Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament , vol 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1967), 501.
The Remnant Church
• We understand that in Rev 12:17 “the
rest of her offspring” (NKJV) refers to
God’s visible remnant church that can be
recognized by two specific
characteristics: (1) they “keep the
commandments of God” as God has
given them on Mount Sinai, including the
Sabbath commandment, and (2) they
“have the testimony of Jesus Christ,”
• The Sabbath-keeping Adventist movement,
from even before its organization in 1863,
always has claimed these identifying signs
for itself.
• As Adventists we proclaim the Ten
Commandments, including the seventh-day
Sabbath; and we believe that as a church
we have the testimony of Jesus; that is, that
God manifested Himself in the life and work
• Thus, the SDA Church is not just one
church among many.
• It is a church prophetically foreseen.
• God has called this church into
existence for a very specific purpose
—to proclaim the three angels’
messages to a dying world.
• As SDAs, we believe that we are
members of God’s remnant church.
• This identification with the remnant
church does not accord us an
exclusive status with God.
• We can be part of this corporate
remnant and still be lost.
• Salvation is not guaranteed through
membership in any church.
• We are saved as individuals, not as
a church.
• It’s a great privilege and
responsibility, being part of this
church, because we have a sacred
calling; but being a member of this
church no more guarantees
“One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is
prophecy. This gift is an identifying
mark of the remnant church and was
manifested in the ministry of Ellen G.
White—the Lord’s messenger. Her
writings are a continuing and
authoritative source of truth which
provide for the church comfort,
guidance, instruction, and correction.
They also make clear that the Bible is
the standard by which all teaching
and experience must be tested.”—
Seventh-day Adventists Believe . . .
(2nd ed.,) (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press,
2005), 247.
• A study of the idea of the remnant in
the Old Testament reveals a few
interesting characteristics.
• Perhaps the most important one is
that all through the Bible, the
remnant were those who were living
with more light than others. Noah
had the light about the coming
flood.
• The nation of Israel was worshiping
the Lord in the sanctuary, while their
pagan neighbors were sacrificing
children on their altars or bowing
down to statues of cats and bulls and
other animals.
• In short, the idea of the remnant had
more to do with a revelation of truth
and of God’s character than with the
• Being part of the remnant means only
that you have great light, and with that
light comes important responsibilities.
• It does not mean you automatically have
salvation; nor does it mean that those
who aren’t part of the remnant are lost.
• It’s an unfortunate fact of sacred history
that many of those who were part of
God’s remnant not only failed to live up
to the light they were given but

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