The TRUTH book Volume 1 (PDF) - For My People Ministry

Appendix EÁngel Manuel Rodríguez’s LetterTHE DREAMS OF BROTHER ERNIE KNOLLBrother Ernie Knoll claims to be having dreams from God. He was alocal church elder and supposedly has identified himself as an ordainedpastor. His local church did not re-elect him as church elder in part becauseof his dreams. There is little on his webpage about the history of hisexperiences with the dreams. Based on the little we know he at first did notsee himself as a prophet. He was having vivid dreams for which heprovided his own interpretations. At some point an angel interpreter wasintroduced in his dreams and guided and interpreted the dreams for him.Consequently he claimed to be receiving revelations from the Lord, that isto say he became a prophet. It is very difficult to evaluate such claims.Church members should not accept them based on the fact that the personis having dreams and that he is also claiming that an angel is involved.There are several things that we should keep in mind as we examine theevidence.First, Brother Ernie states that he wanted God to communicate with him.This was something that he cherished in his heart. This is a little strangeand lends itself to different interpretations. But perhaps what is moreimportant is that we hardly find in the Bible a person who was eager to be aprophet. When called to the prophetic ministry those persons were notinitially delighted. Very often their first reaction was to resist the divinecall. This was also the case with Ellen G. White. This interest in being aprophet may have had some psychological impact on his experiences.Second, his dreams deal with different topics but are not of deepsignificance for the church. A number of them are about his ministry andserve to encourage him to continue to do what he is doing. In others hedeals with the health message, worship, the Lord’s Supper, the coming ofdestruction, and the need for reformation in the church—he particularlymentions the Adventist Book Centers. In one of the dreams, the KJV wasidentified as the Bible version that we should use. As I read that, Iwondered about Bible versions in other languages. Why should the Lordlimit Himself to one language? In some cases it is very difficult to find thepurpose or the message of a dream.Third, in many of the dreams Brother Ernie is the center of interest orthey are about him. For instance, he dreams he is in heaven sitting at a largetable. While there he begins to think about the sins he committed while onearth. I tried to find a message in the dream but I could not. It was about theburden of sin that he was still carrying while in heaven. To me this is arather strange situation.Fourth, he makes a great effort to demonstrate that he has thecharacteristics of a true prophet as found in the Bible. Therefore, BrotherErnie includes in the narratives of his dreams passages from the Bible andstatements from the Spirit of Prophecy that support the message of his