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Seventh Day Adventist History
The Great Advent Awakening
Many Awakened. In the early 1800s, independent
of one another, men and women throughout the world began to restudy the
prophecies of Daniel. At that time, the little horn power ( the apostate
religious system) had reigned for 1260 years from 538 to 1798. At the very end
of this time period, Daniel became the topic of biblical scholarship and
personal devotion. In the early 1800s, Manuel de Lacunza, a Catholic priest in
South America wrote under the pen name of Juan Josafa Ben-Ezra. As this godly
man began to study the prophecies pointing to the time of the end, he came to
believe that Jesus was coming very, very soon. Edward Irving of England came to
the conclusion that the prophecies of Daniel pointed to the time of the end.
Johann Bengel, in Germany, almost simultaneously came to the same conclusion and
became a preacher of the second coming.
Dr. Joseph Wolf. Around this
same time, Dr. Joseph Wolf, a Jew converted to Christianity, believed that
Christ was coming in the early 1800s. As Joseph had learned about Jesus, he knew
that this was no ordinary man. He read the fifty third chapter of Isaiah which
told of Christ's coming as a "lamb to the slaughter." When he asked
his father about it, he was told to never read it again. That was not good
enough for Joseph. He later became a Christian. He then became a
"missionary to the world" and traveled throughout Asia proclaiming the
second coming of Jesus. 300 ministers in the Church of England and 600
nonconformist ministers preached the second coming in England. In Sweden,
Denmark, and Norway, the public preaching of the word was outlawed just after
1800. What did God do? He inspired child preachers by the hundreds to proclaim
the soon coming of Jesus.
So at the end of the 1260 years of Daniel 12:7, a renewed interest in the second
coming of Christ swept Europe and was felt in the farthest missionary outposts
in Asia and Africa.
William Miller - A man in the
United States by the name of William Miller had studied the prophecies of Daniel
from 1816 to 1831. He began proclaiming that Jesus was coming soon. Miller was
born in 1782 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and grew up in Hampton, N.Y. His
parents were Baptists but, through his reading in the local library, he
gradually drifted towards Deism. (Deists are skeptics. They believe that God
wound up the world like a big clock, then walked off to watch it tick. They
pictured God like a landlord who owns a house, but wanting nothing to do with it
anymore, lets the house run down.)
In the Battle of Plattsburg during the war of 1812, William Miller witnessed
what he perceived to be supernatural intervention by a Higher Power on behalf of
the beleaguered and greatly outnumbered U.S. forces. That challenged his Deistic
notions that God was a distant Being who cared not for humans and did not
involve Himself in their affairs. He also saw a number of his friends killed.
Following the war, he settled down as a farmer and began to reevaluate his
belief system. As he pondered the Deist's belief of no hope after death, he
became terribly disheartened. Listen to his own words recorded in Great
Controversy, pages 318, 319.
Annihilation was a cold and chilling thought, and
accountability was sure destruction to all. The heavens were as brass over my
head, and the earth as iron under my feet. Eternity-what was it? And death-
why was it? The more I reasoned, the further I was from demonstration. The
more I thought, the more scattered were my conclusions. I tried to stop
thinking, but my thoughts would not be controlled. I was truly wretched, but
did not understand the cause. I murmured and complained, but knew not how or
where to find the right. I mourned, but without hope...Suddenly...the
character of a Saviour was vividly impressed upon my mind.
William Miller was converted to Jesus Christ. He then set out
to challenge his skeptical friends. He was driven to study the Bible with a
scientific zeal. His study took him on a 15- year voyage into God's Word. Miller
thought it best to dispense with commentaries. Reading verse by verse with the
Bible as its own interpreter (like Lacunza, Bengel, Edward Irving, and Joseph
Wolf), he discovered that the end was at hand. The impact of his discovery would
soon shake the religious world.
What is the Sanctuary? ...
Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
Miller had accepted the popular assumption that the sanctuary was the world.
Thus, he deduced that the cleansing of the sanctuary must be the cleansing of
the world by fire at the second coming. As he traced the 2300 day/ year
prophecy, he saw certain events that would take place along the way. He
discovered the prediction of the Christ's baptism in A.D. 27, his crucifixion in
A.D. 31, and the gospel to the Gentiles in A.D. 34. As he extended the 2300
years down through the ages, he eventually concluded that 2300 day/year prophecy
ended in 1844. He reasoned that since Jesus was baptized in A.D. 27 and died in
A.D. 31, exactly fulfilling the prophecy, then the sanctuary's cleansing must
also be fulfilled literally in 1844. So, accepting the popular view of the
sanctuary, he believed the earth would be cleansed by fire in 1844 with the
second coming of Christ. Others all over the world like Joseph Wolf, William
Davis of South Carolina, and Alexander Campbell, almost simultaneously reached
the same conclusion on their own. As Miller came to his conclusion, the thought
pressed upon his mind again and again by the Holy Spirit, "Go tell it to
the world." But he was farmer and he thought, "I can't tell it. I'm
not eloquent. I can't preach." But the weighty sense of responsibility kept
coming to his mind, "Go tell it to the world."
Sharing with Friends. At first Miller shared it
with a few friends, but for the most part kept it to himself. However, he had no
peace as the Scriptural injunction kept coming to his mind, "If you do not
tell it, you are accountable. Their blood will be on your head. Watchman, give
the message." Miller was overwhelmed. One day as this conviction was heavy
upon him, Miller went to a grove to pray. In prayer, he made a sort of deal with
God. "Oh, God," he prayed, "I am but a farmer. I have not desire
to preach, yet I sense Your convicting power. I am surrendered to Your will. If
you open the opportunity, I am willing." Relieved, he returned to the house
thinking that, since no one would approach him, he was off the proverbial hook.
He was quite certain the matter was now settled.
The Farmer Begins To Preach
Invited to Preach. A short
time later, however, he heard a knock on the door. "Uncle Bill! Uncle Bill!
Dad wants you to come to Dresden to preach." Miller was shocked but true to
his word, Miller went. In this first meeting, 13 entire families accepted Jesus
Christ. From 1831-1844, Miller preached to thousands of people in the United
States. The Advent movement grew like wild fire. Methodists, Baptists,
Episcopalians, Catholics, and Lutherans accepted the message. In the vilest
cities and the smallest villages the call went out, "Jesus is coming! The
sanctuary is to be cleansed! Christ is coming in 1844!" Of course the
skeptics and scoffers said, "No man knows the day or the hour." Miller
answered, "I'm not announcing the day or the hour. On the basis of prophecy
we are pointing out the year." So it was that the second- advent movement
continued to grow.
Great Meetings. As the Millerites were forced
out of the popular, world-loving churches of the day, they decided to meet in
tents. In the years shortly before 1844, as many as 500,000 attended 125
Millerite meetings in tents. As they saw the widespread opposition to the
teaching of the Bible and the second coming of Jesus, the Millerites began to
preach for the first time the that the popular churches were Babylon (Revelation
18:4).
Date Setting. At
first, based on the Jewish calendar, the Millerties believed that Jesus would
come between the spring of 1843 and 1844. That time came and went. Many cast
aside their faith in the Bible and prophecy. At an Exeter, N.H. camp meeting on
August 12, 1844, many studied anew the prophecies and the ancient sanctuary
service. A man by the name of Samuel Sn
ow
discovered that the cleansing of the sanctuary occurred on the tenth day of the
seventh Jewish month. Using the ancient Jewish calendar, he discovered that the
Jewish religious year began in April. He also discovered that the tenth day of
the seventh month would occur on October 22, 1844. This new insight spread and
50,000 new converts joined the ranks of the Millerites. Miller himself was
reluctant to accept such a precise date; but shortly before October 22, he too
accepted it.
Although we know that Miller was wrong about the event, we do know he was right
about the date. Imagine that little group of Millerites on the evening of
October 22. Their all-consuming passion was to meet Jesus in peace. "Jesus
is coming! Jesus is coming!" the message echoed and reechoed through New
England and the world. Hundreds and thousands believed that Jesus would return
that day. The message was so powerful that saloons were turned into meeting
halls. People who had wronged their neighbors made things right. On the
microfilm record of the Providence, Rhode Island Journal an amazing add appeared
on the front page.
If I owe anybody any money as a result of my business dealings
and if I've not been faithful in paying it, please let me know so I can pay up
my debts, because Jesus is coming October 22, 1844, and I want to ascend in
the cloud and go with Him.
The Great Disappointment
So that night many gathered in the groves and fields in prayer to await the
return of their Lord. The hours ticked by. At last midnight came, but Jesus
didn't come. What was sweet at first suddenly became bitter. The sweet prophecy
of Daniel's little book was now the source of a great disappointment. Many had
sold their homes and failed to bring in the harvest from the fields. Every hope
was centered in the soon return of Jesus. That night, many spent the entire
night in bitter weeping and returned the next morning to their villages to meet
the jeers and laughter of their neighbors.
Hiram Edson wrote recalling the experience said,
"Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such
a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that
the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and
wept, till the day dawn. I mused in my own heart, saying, My advent experience
has been the richest and brightest of all my Christian experiences. If this
had proved a failure, what was the rest of my Christian experiences worth? Has
the Bible proved a failure? Is there no God, no heaven, no golden home city,
no paradise? Is all this but a cunningly devised fable? Is there no reality to
our fondest hope and expectation of these things? And thus we had something to
grieve and weep over, if all our fond hopes were lost." Incomplete
Manuscript of Hiram Edson.
The Heavenly Sanctuary Recognized
In the Corn field. The following morning, Edson
and a few others went to a barn to pray. After prayer, he was walking home
through a corn field with O.R.L Crosier when he looked up and suddenly realized
that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not the earthly, but the heavenly
sanctuary. He saw that on October 22, 1844 Jesus left the Holy Place in the
heavenly sanctuary and entered the Most Holy Place to begin his second and last
phase of ministry. Suddenly the prophecies came into sharp focus in his mind. He
wrote,
"It has been vividly impressed upon my mind that the
sanctuary to be cleansed by fire is not the earth, but it is the heavenly
sanctuary."
How many sanctuaries?. They
went home and studied their Bibles again. They now studied the subject of the
sanctuary. How many sanctuaries are there? Two - one on earth and the other in
heaven. They discovered that the earthly is a kind of model of the heavenly. And
since the earthly sanctuary was destroyed in 70 A.D. by Titus, the only
sanctuary that could be cleansed in 1844 is in heaven. They discovered that the
cleansing of the sanctuary prefigured a special work of judgment in heaven to
determine the reward of the righteous and to remove the record of sins from the
heavenly records. They discovered that they were living in the time called by
John the Revelator "the hour of God's judgment."
Disappointment. The Great Disappointment of
1844 was very much like the previous great disappointment of A.D. 31. Jesus'
followers thought He would set up His kingdom on earth. Instead, He was killed.
That night after the crucifixion, they were utterly disappointed. Then Jesus
arose and their false views were corrected. Arising from the ashes of
disappointment after Christ?s ascension, the New Testament church pointed men
and women to the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus Christ entered the Holy Place to
minister on their behalf. Likewise, after the persecution of the little horn,
Jesus started a end-time movement from the ashes of the disappointment of 1844.
Correcting their misconceptions, they discovered that Jesus had entered the Most
Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary. They also discovered that, like the New
Testament church, they must point men and women to the heavenly sanctuary where
Jesus Christ had begun another phase of ministry in the heavenly judgment.
A Bitter Sweet Experience. As they read the
tenth chapter of Revelation, they were amazed to discover that this chapter
perfectly marked their experience. Just as John had said, the experience was
"sweet" at first then "bitter." They were certainly
disappointed when Jesus didn't come. Now, they wondered, was the movement based
on the prophecies of Daniel and pointing to the second coming going to die? Was
it to become fragmented? What would happen to those Lutherans, Methodists,
Baptists, Catholics, and Episcopalians who had expected Jesus' second coming in
1844.
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A
Summary Of Adventist History
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In just a
century and a half the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown from a
handful of individuals, who carefully studied the Bible in their
search for truth, to a world-wide community of over eight million
members and millions of others who regard the Adventist Church their
spiritual home. Doctrinally, Seventh-day Adventists are heirs of the
interfaith Millerite movement of the 1840s. Although the name
"Seventh-day Adventist" was chosen in 1860, the denomination
was not officially organized until Ma y 21, 1863, when the movement
included some 125 churches and 3,500 members.
Between 1831
and 1844, William Miller--a Baptist preacher and former army captain
in the War of 1812--launched the "great second advent
awakening" which eventually spread throughout most of the
Christian world. Based on his study of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14,
Miller calculated that Jesus would return to earth sometime between
1843 and 1844. Others within the movement calculated a specific date
of October 22, 1844. When Jesus did not appear, Miller's followers
experienced what became to be called "the great
Disappointment."
Most of the
thousands who had joined the movement, left it, in deep
disillusionment. A few, however, went back to their Bibles to find why
they had been disappointed. Soon they concluded that the October 22
date had indeed been correct. They became convinced that the Bible
prophecy predicted not that Jesus would return to earth in 1844, but
that He would begin at that time a special ministry in heaven for His
followers. They still looked for Jesus to come soon, however, as do
Seventh-day Adventists yet today.
From this
small group who refused to give up after the "great
disappointment" arose several leaders who built the foundation of
what would become the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Standing out among
these leaders were a young couple--James and Ellen
G. White -- and a retired sea captain named Joseph Bates.
This small
nucleus of "adventists" began to grow -- mainly in the New
England states of America, where Miller's movement had begun. Ellen
G. White, a mere teenager at the time of the "great
Disappointment," grew into a gifted author, speaker and
administrator, who would become and remain the trusted spiritual
counselor of the Adventist family for more than seventy years until
her death in 1915. Early Adventists came to believe -- as have
Adventists ever since -- that she enjoyed God's special guidance as
she wrote her counsels to the growing body of believers.
In 1860, at
Battle Creek Michigan, the loosely knit congregations of Adventists
chose the name Seventh-day Adventist and in 1863 formally organized a
church body with a membership of 3,500. At first, work was largely
confined to North America until 1864 when Michael Belina Czechowski
sailed for Europe and established Adventist companies there. Ten years
later, in 1874 the Church's first missionary, J. N. Andrews, was sent
to Switzerland. Africa was penetrated briefly in 1879 when Dr. H. P.
Ribton, an early convert in Italy, moved to Egypt and opened a school,
but the project ended when riots broke out in the vicinity.
The first
non-Protestant Christian country entered was Russia, where an
Adventist minister went in 1886. On October 20, 1890, the schooner
Pitcairn was launched at San Francisco and was soon engaged in
carrying missionaries to the Pacific Islands. Seventh-day Adventist
workers first entered non-Christian countries in 1894 -- Gold Coast
(Ghana), West Africa, and Matabeleland, South Africa. The same year
saw missionaries entering South America, and in 1896 there were
representatives in Japan. The Church now has established work in 209
countries.
The
publication and distribution of literature were major factors in the
growth of the Advent movement. The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
(now the Adventist Review), general church paper, was launched in
Paris, Maine, in 1850; the Youth's Instructor in Rochester, New York,
in 1852; and the Signs of the Times in Oakland, California, in 1874.
The first denominational publishing house at Battle Creek, Michigan,
began operating in 1855 and was duly incorporated in 1861 under the
name of Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association.
The Health
Reform Institute, later known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium, opened
its doors in 1866, and missionary society work was organized on a
statewide basis in 1870. The first of the Church's worldwide network
of schools was established in 1872, and 1877 saw the formation of
statewide Sabbath school associations. In 1903, the denominational
headquarters was moved from Battle Creek, Michigan, to Washington,
D.C., and in 1989 to Silver Spring, Maryland, where it continues to
form the nerve center of ever-expanding work.
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