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.