Paul and others often took passages out of context and applied them in ways which resulted in new truth. The book Great Controversy does it repeatedly. Scriptures that describe events that failed to materialize in the past are reapplied to contemporary and/or future events. We also glean principles from passages and apply them to other areas of life. This is what some people refer to as proof-texting. Of course, there are perversions of proof-texting which must be avoided.

Im not sure why denominational affiliation would have anything to do with this question.

Mike, do you have examples where Paul or anyone else of the canonical authors take a text out of its context and use it in a way which is diametrically opposed to the original context?

Vaster,

Tom said, "Truth, regardless of who says it, is authoritative." But suppose the person mixes some truths with some doctrines which are not true (although the person believes sincerely in them), like soul immortality or the secret rapture. I just wanted to know his opinion about whether people from other denominations can be prophets or not.

I guess if only part of the sentence is true, it would not constitute Truth..

Yes, I believe that, too. And this is an important characteristic of a true prophet - that in doctrinal matters his/her statements must be free from error.

Then again, it would be presumptuous to assume that "I" have the one and only correct understanding of Truth. Therefore Pauls advice to make good consideration to the evidence before deciding whether it contains error or not. It might be that "he" is right and "I" am wrong, even if "he" is not SDA..

(Ellen White made doctrinal statements throughout her calling as a prophet. But some things she said in her early years are not congruent with some things she said in her later years. Both cannot be true at the same time. Therefore I cannot agree that a prophet is infallible on doctrinal matters.)

No. I've not received messages from God where He told me to give these messages to others.



It would depend upon how you defined "prophet."



Same answer. If you mean like Ellen White, I'd say no. Light builds on light. I think any modern day prophet, along the lines of Ellen White, would have to build upon her.



This is, of course, a well known latter rain verse. Along the lines Joel is speaking of here, I would expect that there would be prophets in the last days, but along the lines that Ellen White was a prophet, I doubt there will be another one, but this is just a personal opinion; I certainly wouldn't say it's not possible.

Another possibility is that Paul didn't take things out of context, and was expounding existing truth rather than making up new people, and that people who didn't understand what Paul was saying got this confused.



Paul didn't write the Great Controversy. We were talking about Paul. You could give a Great Controversy example if you wish though. It would be interesting to see what you are thinking.



Because the principles apply. This has nothing to do with the proof text method.



Same comment.



What is?



How did Jesus teach? Might that be a good model to follow?

While I would tend to also not expect one like Ellen White, but I see others who I would say have "prophetic insight", whatever that would mean. Wright is one which comes to mind.