her teachings in its place. It was the work of the Reformation to restore
to men the word of God; but is it not too true that in the churches of our
time men are taught to rest their faith upon their creed and the teachings
of their church rather than on the Scriptures? Said Charles Beecher,
speaking of the Protestant churches: “They shrink from any rude word
against creeds with the same sensitiveness with which those holy fathers
would have shrunk from a rude word against the rising veneration of saints
and martyrs which they were fostering.... The Protestant evangelical
denominations have so tied up one another’s hands, and their own, that,
between them all, a man cannot become a preacher at all, anywhere, without
accepting some book besides the Bible.... There is nothing imaginary in
the statement that the creed power is now beginning to prohibit the Bible
as really as Rome did, though in a subtler way.”(641)
When faithful teachers expound the word of God, there arise men of
learning, ministers professing to understand the Scriptures, who denounce
sound doctrine as heresy, and thus turn away inquirers after truth. Were
it not that the world is hopelessly intoxicated with the wine of Babylon,
multitudes would be convicted and converted by the plain, cutting truths
of the word of God. But religious faith appears so confused and
discordant, that the people know not what to believe as truth. The sin of
the world’s impenitence lies at the door of the church.
The second angel’s message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the
summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches
of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most
widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in
the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did
not reach its complete fulfilment in 1844. The churches then experienced a
moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent
message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject
the special truths for this time, they have fallen lower and lower. Not
yet, however, can it be said that “Babylon is fallen, ... because she made
_all nations_ drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” She has
not yet made all nations do this. The spirit of world-conforming and
indifference to the testing truths for our time, exists and has been
gaining ground in churches of the Protestant faith in all the countries of
Christendom; and these churches are included in the solemn and terrible
denunciation of the second angel. But the work of apostasy has not yet
reached its culmination.
The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work
“with _all_ power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness;” and they that “received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved,” will be left to receive “strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie.”(642) Not until this condition shall be
reached, and the union of the church with the world shall be fully
accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be complete.
The change is a progressive one, and the perfect fulfilment of Rev. 14:8
is yet future.
Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and alienation from God that exist
in the churches which constitute Babylon, the great body of Christ’s true
followers are still to be found in their communion. There are many of
these who have never seen the special truths for this time. Not a few are
dissatisfied with their present condition, and are longing for clearer
light. They look in vain for the image of Christ in the churches with
which they are connected. As these bodies depart farther and farther from
the truth, and ally themselves more closely with the world, the difference
between the two classes will widen, and it will finally result in
separation. The time will come when those who love God supremely can no
longer remain in connection with such as are “lovers of pleasures more
than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof.”
Revelation 18 points to the time when, as the result of rejecting the
threefold warning of Rev. 14:6-12, the church will have fully reached the
condition foretold by the second angel, and the people of God still in
Babylon will be called upon to separate from her communion. This message
is the last that will ever be given to the world; and it will accomplish
its work. When those that “believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness,”(643) shall be left to receive strong delusion and to
believe a lie, then the light of truth will shine upon all whose hearts
are open to receive it, and all the children of the Lord that remain in
Babylon will heed the call, “Come out of her, My people.”(644)
22. PROPHECIES FULFILLED.
[Illustration: Chapter header.]
When the time passed at which the Lord’s coming was first expected,—in the
spring of 1844,—those who had looked in faith for His appearing were for a
season involved in doubt and uncertainty. While the world regarded them as
having been utterly defeated, and proved to have been cherishing a
delusion, their source of consolation was still the word of God. Many
continued to search the Scriptures, examining anew the evidences of their
faith, and carefully studying the prophecies to obtain further light. The
Bible testimony in support of their position seemed clear and conclusive.
Signs which could not be mistaken pointed to the coming of Christ as near.
The special blessing of the Lord, both in the conversion of sinners and
the revival of spiritual life among Christians, had testified that the
message was of Heaven. And though the believers could not explain their
disappointment, they felt assured that God had led them in their past
experience.
Interwoven with prophecies which they had regarded as applying to the time
of the second advent, was instruction specially adapted to their state of
uncertainty and suspense, and encouraging them to wait patiently in the
faith that what was now dark to their understanding would in due time be
made plain.
Among these prophecies was that of Hab. 2:1-4: “I will stand upon my
watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say
unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered
me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may
run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at
the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because
it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted
up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”
As early as 1842, the direction given in this prophecy, to “write the
vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it,”
had suggested to Charles Fitch the preparation of a prophetic chart to
illustrate the visions of Daniel and the Revelation. The publication of
this chart was regarded as a fulfilment of the command given by Habakkuk.
No one, however, then noticed that an apparent delay in the accomplishment
of the vision—a tarrying time—is presented in the same prophecy. After the
disappointment, this scripture appeared very significant: “The vision is
yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie:
though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not
tarry.... The just shall live by his _faith_.”
A portion of Ezekiel’s prophecy also was a source of strength and comfort
to believers: “The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, what
is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are
prolonged, and every vision faileth? Tell them therefore, Thus saith the
Lord God, ... The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.... I
will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall
be no more prolonged.” “They of the house of Israel say, The vision that
he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that
are far off. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: There shall
none of My words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken
shall be done.”(645)
The waiting ones rejoiced, believing that He who knows the end from the
beginning had looked down through the ages, and foreseeing their
disappointment, had given them words of courage and hope. Had it not been
for such portions of Scripture, admonishing them to wait with patience,
and to hold fast their confidence in God’s word, their faith would have
failed in that trying hour.
The parable of the ten virgins of Matthew 25 also illustrates the
experience of the Adventist people. In Matthew 24, in answer to the
question of His disciples concerning the sign of His coming and of the end
of the world, Christ had pointed out some of the most important events in
the history of the world and of the church from His first to His second
advent; namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, the great tribulation of the
church under the pagan and papal persecutions, the darkening of the sun
and moon, and the falling of the stars. After this He spoke of His coming
in His kingdom, and related the parable describing the two classes of
servants who look for His appearing. Chapter 25 opens with the words,
“_Then_ shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins.” Here is
brought to view the church living in the last days, the same that is
pointed out in the close of chapter 24. In this parable their experience
is illustrated by the incidents of an Eastern marriage.
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took
their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were
wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and
took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their
lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at
midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to
meet him.”
The coming of Christ, as announced by the first angel’s message, was
understood to be represented by the coming of the bridegroom. The
wide-spread reformation under the proclamation of His soon coming,
answered to the going forth of the virgins. In this parable, as in that of
Matthew 24, two classes are represented. All had taken their lamps, the
Bible, and by its light had gone forth to meet the Bridegroom. But while
“they that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them,” “the
wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” The latter class had
received the grace of God, the regenerating, enlightening power of the
Holy Spirit, which renders His word a lamp to the feet and a light to the
path. In the fear of God they had studied the Scriptures to learn the
truth, and had earnestly sought for purity of heart and life. These had a
personal experience, a faith in God and in His word, which could not be
overthrown by disappointment and delay. Others “took their lamps, and took
no oil with them.” They had moved from impulse. Their fears had been
excited by the solemn message, but they had depended upon the faith of
their brethren, satisfied with the flickering light of good emotions,
without a thorough understanding of the truth, or a genuine work of grace
in the heart. These had gone forth to meet the Lord, full of hope in the
prospect of immediate reward; but they were not prepared for delay and
disappointment. When trials came, their faith failed, and their lights
burned dim.
“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.” By the
tarrying of the bridegroom is represented the passing of the time when the
Lord was expected, the disappointment, and the seeming delay. In this time
of uncertainty, the interest of the superficial and half-hearted soon
began to waver, and their efforts to relax; but those whose faith was
based on a personal knowledge of the Bible, had a rock beneath their feet,
which the waves of disappointment could not wash away. “They all slumbered
and slept;” one class in unconcern and abandonment of their faith, the
other class patiently waiting till clearer light should be given. Yet in
the night of trial the latter seemed to lose, to some extent, their zeal
and devotion. The half-hearted and superficial could no longer lean upon
the faith of their brethren. Each must stand or fall for himself.
About this time, fanaticism began to appear. Some who had professed to be
zealous believers in the message, rejected the word of God as the one
infallible guide, and claiming to be led by the Spirit, gave themselves up
to the control of their own feelings, impressions, and imaginations. There
were some who manifested a blind and bigoted zeal, denouncing all who
would not sanction their course. Their fanatical ideas and exercises met
with no sympathy from the great body of Adventists; yet they served to
bring reproach upon the cause of truth.
Satan was seeking by this means to oppose and destroy the work of God. The
people had been greatly stirred by the Advent Movement, thousands of
sinners had been converted, and faithful men were giving themselves to the
work of proclaiming the truth, even in the tarrying time. The prince of
evil was losing his subjects; and in order to bring reproach upon the
cause of God, he sought to deceive some who professed the faith, and to
drive them to extremes. Then his agents stood ready to seize upon every
error, every failure, every unbecoming act, and hold it up before the
people in the most exaggerated light, to render Adventists and their faith
odious. Thus the greater the number whom he could crowd in to make a
profession of faith in the second advent while his power controlled their
hearts, the greater advantage would he gain by calling attention to them
as representatives of the whole body of believers.
Satan is “the accuser of the brethren,” and it is his spirit that inspires
men to watch for the errors and defects of the Lord’s people, and to hold
them up to notice, while their good deeds are passed by without a mention.
He is always active when God is at work for the salvation of souls. When
the sons of God come to present themselves before the Lord, Satan comes
also among them. In every revival he is ready to bring in those who are
unsanctified in heart and unbalanced in mind. When these have accepted
some points of truth, and gained a place with believers, he works through
them to introduce theories that will deceive the unwary. No man is proved
to be a true Christian because he is found in company with the children of
God, even in the house of worship and around the table of the Lord. Satan
is frequently there upon the most solemn occasions, in the form of those
whom he can use as his agents.
The prince of evil contests every inch of ground over which God’s people
advance in their journey toward the heavenly city. In all the history of
the church, no reformation has been carried forward without encountering
serious obstacles. Thus it was in Paul’s day. Wherever the apostle raised
up a church, there were some who professed to receive the faith, but who
brought in heresies, that, if received, would eventually crowd out the
love of the truth. Luther also suffered great perplexity and distress from
the course of fanatical persons who claimed that God had spoken directly
through them, and who therefore set their own ideas and opinions above the
testimony of the Scriptures. Many who were lacking in faith and
experience, but who had considerable self-sufficiency, and who loved to
hear and tell some new thing, were beguiled by the pretensions of the new
teachers, and they joined the agents of Satan in their work of tearing
down what God had moved Luther to build up. And the Wesleys, and others
who blessed the world by their influence and their faith, encountered at
every step the wiles of Satan in pushing overzealous, unbalanced, and
unsanctified ones into fanaticism of every grade.
William Miller had no sympathy with those influences that led to
fanaticism. He declared, with Luther, that every spirit should be tested
by the word of God. “The devil,” said Miller, “has great power over the
minds of some at the present day. And how shall we know what manner of
spirit they are of? The Bible answers: ‘By their fruits ye shall know
them.’... There are many spirits gone out into the world; and we are
commanded to try the spirits. The spirit that does not cause us to live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, is not the Spirit
of Christ. I am more and more convinced that Satan has much to do in these
wild movements.... Many among us, who pretend to be wholly sanctified, are
following the traditions of men, and apparently are as ignorant of truth
as others who make no such pretensions.”(646) “The spirit of error will
lead us from the truth; and the Spirit of God will lead us into truth.
But, say you, a man may be in an error, and think he has the truth. What
then? We answer, The Spirit and word agree. If a man judges himself by the
word of God, and finds a perfect harmony through the whole word, then he
must believe he has the truth; but if he finds the spirit by which he is
led does not harmonize with the whole tenor of God’s law or book, then let
him walk carefully, lest he be caught in the snare of the devil.”(647) “I
have often obtained more evidence of inward piety from a kindling eye, a
wet cheek, and a choked utterance, than from all the noise in
Christendom.”(648)
In the days of the Reformation its enemies charged all the evils of
fanaticism upon the very ones who were laboring most earnestly against it.
A similar course was pursued by the opposers of the Advent Movement. And
not content with misrepresenting and exaggerating the errors of extremists
and fanatics, they circulated unfavorable reports that had not the
slightest semblance of truth. These persons were actuated by prejudice and
hatred. Their peace was disturbed by the proclamation of Christ at the
door. They feared it might be true, yet hoped it was not, and this was the
secret of their warfare against Adventists and their faith.
The fact that a few fanatics worked their way into the ranks of Adventists
is no more a reason to decide that the movement was not of God, than was
the presence of fanatics and deceivers in the church in Paul’s or Luther’s
day a sufficient excuse for condemning their work. Let the people of God
arouse out of sleep, and begin in earnest the work of repentance and
reformation; let them search the Scriptures to learn the truth as it is in
Jesus; let them make an entire consecration to God, and evidence will not
be wanting that Satan is still active and vigilant. With all possible
deception he will manifest his power, calling to his aid all the fallen
angels of his realm.
It was not the proclamation of the second advent that created fanaticism
and division. These appeared in the summer of 1844, when Adventists were
in a state of doubt and perplexity concerning their real position. The
preaching of the first angel’s message and of the “midnight cry” tended
directly to repress fanaticism and dissension. Those who participated in
these solemn movements were in harmony; their hearts were filled with love
for one another, and for Jesus, whom they expected soon to see. The one
faith, the one blessed hope, lifted them above the control of any human
influence, and proved a shield against the assaults of Satan.
“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at
midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to
meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.”(649) In
the summer of 1844, midway between the time when it had been first thought
that the 2300 days would end, and the autumn of the same year, to which it
was afterward found that they extended, the message was proclaimed in the
very words of Scripture, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!”
That which led to this movement was the discovery that the decree of
Artaxerxes for the restoration of Jerusalem, which formed the
starting-point for the period of the 2300 days, went into effect in the
autumn of the year B.C. 457, and not at the beginning of the year, as had
been formerly believed. Reckoning from the autumn of 457, the 2300 years
terminate in the autumn of 1844.(650)
Arguments drawn from the Old Testament types also pointed to the autumn as
the time when the event represented by the “cleansing of the sanctuary”
must take place. This was made very clear as attention was given to the
manner in which the types relating to the first advent of Christ had been
fulfilled.
The slaying of the Passover lamb was a shadow of the death of Christ. Says
Paul, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”(651) The sheaf of
first-fruits, which at the time of the Passover was waved before the Lord,
was typical of the resurrection of Christ. Paul says, in speaking of the
resurrection of the Lord, and of all His people, “Christ the first-fruits;
afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.”(652) Like the wave-sheaf,
which was the first ripe grain gathered before the harvest, Christ is the
first-fruits of that immortal harvest of redeemed ones that at the future
resurrection shall be gathered into the garner of God.
These types were fulfilled, not only as to the event, but as to the time.
On the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month, the very day and month on
which, for fifteen long centuries, the Passover lamb had been slain,
Christ, having eaten the Passover with His disciples, instituted that
feast which was to commemorate His own death as “the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world.” That same night He was taken by wicked
hands, to be crucified and slain. And as the antitype of the wave-sheaf,
our Lord was raised from the dead on the third day, “the first-fruits of
them that slept,”(653) a sample of all the resurrected just, whose “vile
body” shall be changed, and “fashioned like unto His glorious body.”(654)
In like manner, the types which relate to the second advent must be
fulfilled at the time pointed out in the symbolic service. Under the
Mosaic system, the cleansing of the sanctuary, or the great day of
atonement, occurred on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month,(655)
when the high priest, having made an atonement for all Israel, and thus
removed their sins from the sanctuary, came forth and blessed the people.
So it was believed that Christ, our great High Priest, would appear to
purify the earth by the destruction of sin and sinners, and to bless His
waiting people with immortality. The tenth day of the seventh month, the
great day of atonement, the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary, which
in the year 1844 fell upon the twenty-second of October, was regarded as
the time of the Lord’s coming. This was in harmony with the proofs already
presented, that the 2300 days would terminate in the autumn, and the
conclusion seemed irresistible.
In the parable of Matthew 25 the time of waiting and slumber is followed
by the coming of the bridegroom. This was in accordance with the arguments
just presented, both from prophecy and from the types. They carried strong
conviction of their truthfulness; and the “midnight cry” was heralded by
thousands of believers.
Like a tidal wave the movement swept over the land. From city to city,
from village to village, and into remote country places it went, until the
waiting people of God were fully aroused. Fanaticism disappeared before
this proclamation, like early frost before the rising sun. Believers saw
their doubt and perplexity removed, and hope and courage animated their
hearts. The work was free from those extremes which are ever manifested
when there is human excitement without the controlling influence of the
word and Spirit of God. It was similar in character to those seasons of
humiliation and returning unto the Lord which among ancient Israel
followed messages of reproof from His servants. It bore the
characteristics that mark the work of God in every age. There was little
ecstatic joy, but rather deep searching of heart, confession of sin, and
forsaking of the world. A preparation to meet the Lord was the burden of
agonizing spirits. There was persevering prayer, and unreserved
consecration to God.
Said Miller, in describing that work: “There is no great expression of
joy: that is, as it were, suppressed for a future occasion, when all
heaven and earth will rejoice together with joy unspeakable and full of
glory. There is no shouting: that, too, is reserved for the shout from
heaven. The singers are silent: they are waiting to join the angelic
hosts, the choir from heaven.... There is no clashing of sentiments: all
are of one heart and of one mind.”(656)