Reproving sin
The entrance of sin into this world through the fall of our first parents led the whole human race into sin (Romans 5:12; 3:23). To remedy the situation, Christ came and died on the cross (John 3:16; Romans 5:10). Before He returned to heaven, He promised to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. “When he is come,” Christ said, “he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8, KJV).GP 69.6
No one enjoys being reproved for sins committed, yet prophets, as well as ministers today, are called upon to reprove sin in the church. Ellen White said this was one of the most difficult assignments she received. To reprove private sins was for her a most “disagreeable work” (LS 177). However, “I was shown,” she wrote, “that God has laid this work upon us” (3T 259). Yet, she knew that “some will not listen to caution or reproof” (RH Supplement, 1881).GP 70.1
The sad result of this kind of attitude is seen in the story of Stephen Smith and an unread testimony. In 1850, Smith and his wife accepted the Adventist message. Smith loved the Sabbath, but he was prone to being led astray by people who claimed to have new light, and he was opposed to Ellen White and her visions. So he left the church.GP 70.2
Mrs. White received a vision that revealed what Smith’s life would be like if he persisted in the course he was following. She wrote out a letter telling what she had seen and appealing to him to turn from his waywardness. When Smith received the letter, he feared that it was a testimony of reproof, so without opening it, he tucked it deep in a trunk. For twenty-eight years that testimony lay at the bottom of the trunk, unopened and unread.GP 70.3
Although Smith had left the church, his wife remained faithful. She continued to receive the Review and Herald, and one day, twenty-seven years after Smith had turned from the church, he picked up a copy of that magazine and read an article Ellen White had written. Finding that her article spoke to his heart, he continued to read her articles each week, and he began to soften.GP 70.4
During the following year (1885), Elder Eugene Farnsworth held revival meetings in Washington, New Hampshire, not too far from the Smith home. Smith had known Eugene as a lad and had seen him grow up, so he decided to attend the meetings. Upon hearing Farnsworth’s messages, he gave his heart to the Lord again. Then he remembered the letter Ellen White had written to him twenty-eight years before. He pulled it out of the trunk, opened it, and in it read a description of his life during the past twenty-eight years—with all the bitterness and disappointments he had experienced.GP 70.5
The next Sabbath Smith told his story to the church members gathered to worship. He said, ” ‘I received a testimony myself twenty-eight years ago. I took it home and locked it up in my trunk, and I never read it till last Thursday. . . . Every word of the testimony for me is true, and I accept it. And I have come to that place where I finally believe they [Ellen White’s testimonies] all are of God, and if I had heeded the one God sent to me as well as the rest, it would have changed the whole course of my life, and I should have been a very different man.’ “ GP 71.1
How much better this man’s life could have been if he had listened to the counsel and admonition of the Lord’s servant! Reproving sin is a mark of a true prophet—something God inspires the prophet to do for our benefit.GP 71.2