The First Letter To The Corinthians: A Case Study

The first letter to the Corinthians, written by the apostle Paul, contains almost all the necessary elements to understand how the epistolary model of inspiration works. First of all, this letter is a reflection of the feelings of a pastor concerned about his flock. The church in Corinth, founded by Paul, was passing through difficult times. There were problems of divisions among the believers. There were serious moral sins being tolerated in the church. There was the use and indiscriminate abuse of spiritual gifts and, in short, problems similar to those that other communities of believers have faced in the past and continue to confront today.VOTS 72.1

Although the apostle might have received special revelations informing him about the problems in Corinth, in this specific circumstance it was a family of believers, members of the church itself, who brought the information: “My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you” (1 Corinthians 1:11). In this case, the information arrived by “natural,” rather than supernatural means. As we stated in a previous chapter, when a secret circumstance, known only to those involved, is revealed to the prophet, the message immediately takes on a kind of mysterious supernatural “halo.” It is not always like that, however. The prophet may receive information from various sources without that fact weakening in any way the importance of the message that may arrive as a result of that information. In the time of Ellen White, some recipients of counsel or correction accused the messenger of having obtained the information from her husband, her son, or from some other leader and not directly from heaven. They apparently felt that if the message was not surrounded by that supernatural “halo,” the prophet was not dependent on God for an inspired message. They confused the source of the information with the Source of the message. ^{4See Selected Messages 1:26, 27.} The first letter to the Corinthians shows us clearly that the information does not have come to the prophet through supernatural means to make it important. What is important is the message that results from the information received and the capacity of the recipients to accept and acknowledge the counsel.VOTS 72.2