Seventh Day Adventist

The Pen of Inspiration – The Advent Faith

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Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” [Hebrews 10:38; James 2:20, 24.]

Needed Preparation

We profess to be pilgrims and strangers on earth, journeying to a better country, even an heavenly. If we are indeed but sojourners here, traveling to a land where none but the holy can dwell, we shall make it our first business to become acquainted with that country; we shall make diligent inquiry as to the preparation needed, the manners and character which we must have, in order to become citizens there. Jesus, the King of that land, is pure and holy. He has commanded his followers, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” [1 Peter 1:16.] If we are hereafter to associate with Christ and sinless angels, we must here obtain a fitness for such society.

This is our work,—our all-important work. Every other consideration is of minor consequence. Our conversation, our deportment, our every act, should be such as to convince our family, our neighbors, and the world, that we expect soon to remove to a better country. More than this, our godly example should keep ever before their minds the preparation needed by all who would enter that blessed home. Our acts must correspond with our faith, and faith will then be made perfect. We should not engage in the work of preparation merely as a duty, a necessity, but as a privilege which we are happy in accepting. Those whose faith is daily confirmed and strengthened by their works, will become acquainted with self-denial in restricting appetite, controlling ambitious desires, bringing every thought and feeling into harmony with the divine will. They will beware lest they be brought into the bondage of sin by conforming to a worldly standard, and thus, before many witnesses, denying their faith.

Land of Canaan

The land to which we are traveling is in every sense far more attractive than was the land of Canaan to the children of Israel. They were led by the hand of God. Christ himself gave them a description of the country in which they were to find a home; for he wished to place before them every incentive to press on with hope and courage. They were brought where they could look over into the land of Canaan, and behold its pleasant landscapes, its wooded hills and fertile fields, and were permitted to eat of its rich fruit. But at the same time the difficulties to be encountered were not concealed from them. There was earnest effort before them if they possessed the land. They had need of courage and constant faith. If they would trust in God, his presence and power would be with them, and would at last bring them off victorious over all their enemies. But they become discouraged as the spies tell them of giants, warlike nations, and high-walled cities, which they must encounter. They doubt, hesitate, and propose to go back to Egypt. By their unbelief they doom themselves to suffering, humiliation, and defeat, and at last die in the wilderness.

What stayed their progress just in sight of the goodly land? The difficulties before them were not so great as they had previously encountered. The great obstacle was in themselves. It was their own willful unbelief that turned them back. They were unwilling to risk anything upon the promises of God. The land was good; but the giants were mighty, and the walls of the cities high. They lost sight of the great advantages to be gained in possessing Canaan. They ceased conversing about the good land and its blessings, and permitted their minds to dwell upon the trials and difficulties lying between them and the desired haven.

The more they conversed upon these things, the greater the difficulties appeared, and the more determined their opinion that the conditions imposed upon them were such as they could not meet; that the Lord was unreasonable and severe with them. Satan presented matters before them in the worst light, and they felt that they were an abused people. They appealed to their own sympathies, and forgot the wondrous works of God in their behalf. They lost faith in God at the very time when it should have been strongest. When the Lord was about to manifest to them his great power and goodness, to make his name glorious in the earth, and exalt his people as a nation favored and honored of Heaven, they became discouraged. They knew that whenever they had trusted in God he had mightily wrought for them. Yet their unbelief strengthened into rebellion; their own perverse wills obstructed the way, making walls before them higher than had been built by their enemies.

The history of the children of Israel is written as a warning to us, “upon whom the ends of the world are come.” [1 Corinthians 10:11.] We are standing, as it were, upon the very borders of the heavenly Canaan. We may, if we will, look over on the other side, and behold the attractions of the goodly land. If we have faith in the promises of God, we shall show in conversation and in deportment that we are not living for this world, but are making it our first business to prepare for that holy land.

Dangers and Difficulties

The dangers and difficulties before us are increasing as we near the heavenly rest. Satan is filled with deadly hatred against all who are seeking to gain the land which was once his home. His envy has lost none of its bitterness since he was excluded from the brightness and glory of Heaven. Before his fall an enemy to Christ, seeking to rob him of his honor and glory, he is no less his enemy now. He has determined to take the world captive. He sees that his time is short, that a mightier than he will soon take away his power, and he will make one last mighty effort against Christ and his church.

Now is the time for the friends of Jesus to be decided, faithful, and valiant for the Captain of their salvation. Now is the time to show who are the true Calebs, who will not deny that the walls are high, the giants mighty, but who believe that this very fact will make the victory more glorious. There are great difficulties and trials before us. It will require strong courage and persevering effort to go forward. But all now depends on our faith in the Captain who has led us safely thus far. Shall we let unbelief come in now? Shall we weakly yield to distrust and fear? Shall we compromise with the world, and turn away from the heavenly Canaan? Shall we make extensive plans for this life, as did the inhabitants of the old world, planting, building, marrying, and giving in marriage?

Prophecies Fulfilled

The solemn message for this time has a certain sound which we all should heed. The signs of the times tell us that the end of all things is at hand. Prophecies fulfilled have become facts of history, clearly defining our position. We are standing upon the verge of the eternal world. Because iniquity abounds, the love of many is waxing cold. Instead of this, love for God, love for purity, truth, and holiness, should be increasing in our hearts. The increase of wickedness around us should awaken in us more earnest zeal and stronger determination. The faith of God’s true people, manifested, as was Noah’s, by their works, should stand as a beacon of warning to the world. If our works do not correspond with our profession, we present to the world a false light, and thus lure them on to destruction.

Our Lord forewarned his people that iniquity would abound in the last days, and would have a paralyzing influence upon true godliness. Wickedness is seen and heard and felt all around us. It seems to permeate the very atmosphere, and affects the faith and love of God’s professed people. It is difficult to hold fast Christian integrity. The fact is, much which is current in our day as Christianity is indebted for its very existence to the absence of persecution. When the test of fiery trial comes, a great proportion of these who profess the faith will show that their religion was hollow formalism. Instead of being strengthened and confirmed by opposition, their faith grows feeble and becomes extinct.

Days of Peril

The days in which we live are days of peril. Carelessness, levity, love of pleasure and selfish gratification, are seen in the lives of very many professed Christians. Is this the time for Seventh-day Adventists to lose their faith and grow cold and formal? God forbid! Shall we turn traitor at the very moment when God would be most glorified by our steadfast adherence to principle? Shall we turn from the heavenly attractions now, when we can almost see the glories on the other shore? We are living in the most important period of earth’s history. By maintaining our allegiance to God, we may bear the noblest testimony for Christ and the truth.

The true Christian will cling to the promises of God more firmly now than ever before. His heart is where he has laid up his treasure—in Heaven. When right principles are despised and forsaken, then the true and loyal will show their warmest zeal and deepest love; then they will stand most firmly for truth, unpopular though it be. The true soldier will be ready to fight the battles of the Lord when his enemies appear strongest; and it is then that the victory will be most complete and triumphant.

Take Heed

Brethren and sisters of like precious faith, shall we give heed to the last warning message? Is this a time to use the Lord’s money in ministering to our pride and ambition?—a time to add land to land, or to build grand houses for ourselves and our children?—a time to lay up our treasures and fix our affections here? The Lord is coming. In his great mercy he has delivered us from the darkness of error, and has permitted the bright beams of truth to shine into our souls. We should manifest our gratitude by so reflecting the light from Heaven, in our words and works, that others may be led to believe the truths we advocate. Let us beware that we be not swept away by the current of worldliness, thus saying to unbelievers, “The time is not. Be not alarmed. My Lord delayeth his coming.” Let us be consistent; let our works correspond with our profession of faith.

Review and Herald, November 29, 1881.

Prophecies on God’s Church in the End Time, Part I

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As we read the Three Angels’ Messages, we see that they are for all people, for every nation in the world. What is important for Germany is important for America also, and for all the other countries of the world. Therefore, I want to present the issues we are facing in Germany today, and you need to decide if you have the same problems in your part of the world too.

The end time is marked with a terrible situation, as has never before been. God has given specific guidance for His people during this time through the Spirit of Prophecy. We need to look very closely at it, and study the statements God gave for the time of Ellen White, herself, and the statements that apply specifically for us in our time. In this study, we must be very careful to use all of her statements in the place and time she made them. She made statements that had not such a significant meaning as for our time. In our time, these statements have a much deeper meaning and importance. She wrote, “Every jot and tittle is essential and must appear at an opportune time.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 57.

Jesus had much to tell His disciples, and He said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” John 16:12. So it is with the Advent people. Ellen White had many things to tell us, and we need to find out what she had for us personally, in a special sense, as a people of the end time. We need to understand the visions she had, such as the one when she saw the Adventist people traveling on a small path to the heavenly Jerusalem, as recorded in Early Writings, 14–16:

“While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, ‘Look again, and look a little higher.’ At this I raised my eyes, and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the beginning of the path, which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet so that they might not stumble. If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising His glorious right arm, and from His arm came a light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted, ‘Alleluia!’ Others rashly denied the light behind them and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below. Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses’ did when he came down from Mount Sinai.

“The 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious star containing Jesus’ new name. At our happy, holy state the wicked were enraged, and would rush violently up to lay hands on us to thrust us into prison, when we would stretch forth the hand in the name of the Lord, and they would fall helpless to the ground. Then it was that the synagogue of Satan knew that God had loved us who could wash one another’s feet and salute the brethren with a holy kiss, and they worshiped at our feet.

“Soon our eyes were drawn to the east, for a small black cloud had appeared, about half as large as a man’s hand, which we all knew was the sign of the Son of man. We all in solemn silence gazed on the cloud as it drew nearer and became lighter, glorious, and still more glorious, till it was a great white cloud. The bottom appeared like fire; a rainbow was over the cloud, while around it were ten thousand angels, singing a most lovely song; and upon it sat the Son of man. His hair was white and curly and lay on His shoulders; and upon His head were many crowns. His feet had the appearance of fire; in His right hand was a sharp sickle; in His left, a silver trumpet. His eyes were as a flame of fire, which searched His children through and through.”

While Mrs. White did not look upon the Adventists of her time in this vision, she identifies that the Adventists were living right before the coming of Christ. It is true that Ellen White believed she would be among the 144,000, but God had a different plan.

Midnight Cry

A hundred years have passed since this vision when God put words in her mouth to show us what we, in the future, should expect before Christ can come back to receive us. This quotation shows plainly that the people in the end time, just before the coming of Christ, will walk with Him in the light of the Midnight Cry. Do you know what the Midnight Cry is? Do you know that the parallel is the ten virgins? The five foolish virgins expected the Lord to come, just as did the five wise virgins. The difference between the groups is that one group had not enough oil in their lamps. Their lamps went out, and they knew that they could not go to the bridegroom without light.

What is this light? This is the message that God’s people need to give to the world, and this lamp needs to burn until Christ comes. There were people in those days that did not just fall asleep physically, but this group was asleep spiritually. This is a very deadly sleep.

The Midnight Cry is a call to move toward the Lord. Did the Adventists of the first generation need to come out? From where did they come out? From what did they need to come out?

We are also called to come out, but we really do not know what it means to come out. We think it means that we just have to separate from some apostate church. That is an important and necessary step, but that is not all of it. In the future, we will see and experience what it means to come out.

Maybe some of us will say, as Mrs. White wrote, “It could not have been God who led us this far.” What will happen to them? They will fall from the path to the evil and dark world below them.

144,000

The 144,000 are spoken of in this vision. A large group will go away from the 144,000. Do we see this happening today?

The 144,000 will meet the Lord. They will all have been sealed and perfectly united. That does not only mean united in some organization. I am doubtful that it at all refers to an organizational structure. This union refers to a spiritual union.

This little company of 144,000 is described in Early Writings, 88, 89: “I asked the angel if there were none left. He bade me look in an opposite direction, and I saw a little company traveling a narrow pathway. All seemed to be firmly united, bound together by the truth, in bundles, or companies. Said the angel, ‘The third angel is binding, or sealing, them in bundles for the heavenly garner.’ This little company looked careworn, as if they had passed through severe trials and conflicts. And it appeared as if the sun had just risen from behind a cloud and shone upon their countenances, causing them to look triumphant, as if their victories were nearly won.”

Loud Cry

Ellen White wrote that the Loud Cry from the first Adventist generation will be repeated, just as the fall of Babylon will be repeated, in a special sense. “The message of the fall of Babylon, as given by the second angel, is repeated, with the additional mention of the corruptions which have been entering the churches since 1844.” Ibid., 277. Ellen White speaks of the total fall of Babylon. In her time, the Catholic Church had been a fallen church already, and the majority of the Protestant churches had been falling. The call came to the faithful children of God, “Come out of her.” This call to the faithful church of God will be repeated in a special sense, even though this call has been given since 1844.

“The glory of God rested upon the patient, waiting saints, and they fearlessly gave the last solemn warning, proclaiming the fall of Babylon and calling upon God’s people to come out of her that they might escape her fearful doom.

“The light that was shed upon the waiting ones penetrated everywhere, and those in the churches who had any light, who had not heard and rejected the three messages, obeyed the call and left the fallen churches. Many had come to years of accountability since these messages had been given, and the light shone upon them, and they were privileged to choose life or death. Some chose life and took their stand with those who were looking for their Lord and keeping all His commandments. The third message was to do its work; all were to be tested upon it, and the precious ones were to be called out from the religious bodies. A compelling power moved the honest, while the manifestation of the power of God brought a fear and restraint upon their unbelieving relatives and friends so that they dared not, neither had they the power to, hinder those who felt the work of the Spirit of God upon them.” Ibid., 277, 278.

Come Out

It had been shown to Mrs. White that when the churches in her day were founded, they were pure, but later on they collected many defilements. To those churches the call of God goes, “Come out of them, my people.”

“Babylon is said to be ‘the mother of harlots.’ By her daughters must be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. The message of Revelation 14, announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days; therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Furthermore, in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation the people of God are called upon to come out of Babylon. According to this scripture, many of God’s people must still be in Babylon. And in what religious bodies are the greater part of the followers of Christ now to be found? Without doubt, in the various churches professing the Protestant faith. At the time of their rise these churches took a noble stand for God and the truth, and His blessing was with them. Even the unbelieving world was constrained to acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of the principles of the gospel.” The Great Controversy, 382, 383. [Emphasis in original.]

This call, “Come out of her, My people,” is the same call which the angel from Revelation 18 brings to the world in calling the faithful from the apostate churches to unite them with Himself. This angel is not some heavenly being. Ellen White said that this angel should be you—you and me. We shall give the call, “Come out of her, My people.” (See The Great Controversy, 611; Testimonies, vol. 5, 383.)

Complete Fall

What makes this fall of Babylon complete? “Revelation 18 points to the time when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 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.” The Great Controversy, 390.

What church has accepted the Three Angels’ Messages? Yes, the Seventh-day Adventist Church. No other church has accepted these messages. Then, if just this one church has accepted all of these messages, what church can be spoken of as rejecting these messages?

Mrs. White further states that the result of rejecting the Three Angels’ Messages means that a spirit of lies will control those churches. This spirit of lies is described in 11 Thessalonians 2:12. “When those that ‘believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness’ (11 Thessalonians 2:12), 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’ (Revelation 18:4).” Ibid.

Are there lies among the Seventh-day Adventists which may be a mark of this satanic spirit of lies? God warned His people through Ellen White very severely. God warned His people before the lies of Satan came, and here we have some quotations that contain those warnings. God warns His people of their unification with the world. God warns beforehand of the lie that we have a great influence on the people of the world if we link up with them. When God says that we are in danger of becoming a synagogue of Satan, He is warning us of devilish controversy—a controversy with the world, a controversy with the other churches.

In his lies, Satan suggests that, “If you link yourselves with the world, you will have more advantages. Maybe you could hinder the persecution somehow.” Whoever is following those lies is directly following Satan. We cannot say we have not been warned.

Church with Great Light

In Testimonies, vol. 8, 249, Ellen White speaks of the Seventh-day Adventists. She describes this church that has received great light, but she also tells about the defiled condition in which they are. She describes it as a church that did not heed the call of God.

“ ‘Because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.’ ‘God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,’ ‘because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,’ ‘but had pleasure in unrighteousness.’ Isaiah 66:3, 4; 11 Thessalonians 2:11, 10, 12.”

God called, “Come out of her, My people,” but they connected themselves with the churches from which they were supposed to come out. They did what was evil before His eyes. Therefore, God shall send them strong delusions that they shall believe a lie. Again it is talking about Seventh-day Adventists.

“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 fulfillment 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.’ [Revelation 14:8.] 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.’ 11 Thessalonians 2:9–11. 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 fulfillment of Revelation 14:8 is yet future.” The Great Controversy, 389, 390. [Emphasis in original.]

Before the coming of Christ, a condition will be reached as described with the union of the church with the world, all over the world, throughout Christendom. Not until this union of the church with the world, throughout all of Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be complete. And only when the fall of Babylon is complete will the second Loud Cry come—this special loud cry which is given in all churches, including the last church which God has on earth.

No Unity with World

“The world must not be introduced into the church, and married to the church, forming a bond of unity. Through this means the church will become indeed corrupt.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 265.

The ecumenical bonds have different names in the different parts of the world. In Germany, it is called the Workshop of Christian Churches. Regardless what the name may be, they all are the same bond with Satan. Through these bonds, the church will indeed be defiled, corrupted, as stated in Revelation 18.

Small Company

This little group which has been described, this small end-time church, is found and sealed through the third angel. They are going on a narrow path and are bound in groups through the truth—the truth which is believed and lived, as shown in the third angel’s message.

In Matthew 7:13, 14, Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

How many will find the strait gate? The last generation which will meet Jesus—144,000. Is it a large number? Can you calculate how many would be from your area? In Berlin, we once calculated that there might be 10 or 12 people who would possibly be part of this number. We know what that means. We have to make such an effort to be among that number. It will cost all our energy; even though we will not be among the 144,000 because of our strength, it will cost all of our effort to get eternal life.

Parallel Development

How does God view the Advent movement? “The Lord has bestowed great blessings upon His church. Justice demands that she return these talents with usury. As the treasures of truth committed to her keeping have increased, her obligations have increased. But instead of improving upon these gifts and going forward unto perfection, she has fallen away from that which she had attained in her earlier experience. The change in her spiritual state has come gradually and almost imperceptibly. As she began to seek the praise and friendship of the world, her faith diminished, her zeal grew languid, her fervent devotion gave place to dead formality. Every advance step toward the world was a step away from God. As pride and worldly ambition have been cherished, the spirit of Christ has departed, and emulation, dissension, and strife have come in to distract and weaken the church.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 240, 241.

There is a parallel development of the modern angel and ancient Israel just before the coming of Christ. Ellen White wrote: “We want to understand the time in which we live. We do not half understand it. We do not half take it in. My heart trembles in me when I think of what a foe we have to meet, and how poorly we are prepared to meet him. The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, have been presented before me again and again to illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the second coming of Christ—how the enemy sought every occasion to take control of the minds of the Jews, and today he is seeking to blind the minds of God’s servants, that they may not be able to discern the precious truth.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 406.

“The alliances made by the Israelites with their heathen neighbors resulted in the loss of their identity as God’s peculiar people. They became leavened by the evil practises [sic] of those with whom they formed forbidden alliances. Affiliation with worldlings caused them to lose their first love, and their zeal for God’s service. The advantages they sold themselves to gain, brought only disappointment, and caused the loss of many souls.

“The experience of Israel will be the experience of all who go to the world for strength, turning away from the living God. Those who forsake the mighty One, the source of all strength, and affiliate with worldlings, placing on them their dependence, become weak in moral power, as are those in whom they trust.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, 1155, 1156. Those who are trying to come together with the other churches for a worldly advantage are exactly the fulfillment of this prophecy, of this danger.

“Satan’s snares are laid for us as verily as they were laid for the children of Israel just prior to their entrance into the land of Canaan. We are repeating the history of that people.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 160.

To be continued . . .

Dr. Korinth is a physician living in Berlin, Germany. He is very active in speading the Three Angels’ Messages throughout Europe. He and his family have a printing press in their home and have had tracts translated in most of the different European languages. He is a promoter of home churches and is very interested in working with other historic Seventh-day Adventist groups worldwide. He may be contacted by e-mail at: hkorinth@mefag.de.

If the Foundations be Destroyed, Part III

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In this article, we will study the departure from truth, especially about the coming of the antichrist and how it has come into the ranks of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. You may think that it could never happen, but it is happening, and the devil is preparing Seventh-day Adventists to take the mark of the beast, which is going to come upon those who have not overcome all sin. You see, you and I can know all these truths; we can know all doctrine and all theology, but unless we have overcome all sin, the devil will overcome us. We can know it all, but if we do not have victory in our lives, that means the devil has a foothold there. He can introduce subjects and doctrines of devils into our minds.

In Part I of this series [February 2006], we learned from Psalm 11:3 that if the foundations be destroyed, the righteous must stick to the original foundation. We must not get off that foundation or leave it. The apostle Paul warned the believers not to be laying any other foundation than that which had already been laid. (1 Corinthians 3:10, 11.)

Which Coming?

From The Signs of the Times, February 10, 1898, we read from Ellen White’s article, “Christ and the Pharisees,” that “The priests and elders made great professions of piety. They claimed to be looking eagerly for the promised Messiah, and apparently they were waiting with anxious expectancy for the call to the great supper, when they would immediately go in. They were proclaiming everywhere the great events that were to take place when the King of the Jews should come. They boasted constantly of how He was to conquer their enemies, and set up His own kingdom. But they applied to His first advent the prophecies relating to His second coming, and when He did come, they knew Him not.”

How successful was this deception? Do you realize that even the disciples were still asking Jesus when He was about to ascend into heaven, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6. This thought had so permeated the minds of the people that many Jews perished. They did not know Him because they had applied the prophecies of His Second Coming to His first coming.

With such great former success, the devil has introduced the same thought within the Christian world today. This probably ranks as one of the top deceptions of the Christian age, along with Sunday keeping and spiritualism. This idea has been reversed by the devil by applying the prophecies of Jesus’ first coming to his Second Coming. How has he done this?

Second Coming Divided

Read Daniel 9:27: “. . . in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate.” This one week of prophecy that belongs to Jesus’ ministry has been applied to the seven years of an end time secret rapture, to the coming of antichrist, and to the glorious coming. Jesus’ Second Coming has been divided into two parts. It is believed that this antichrist is going to be a single individual who will come and stop the sacrificing in the temple that the Jews have made in Jerusalem and make a covenant with them. Have you ever wondered what Jews who have accepted Jesus and believe they are the 144,000 evangelists that are to go out and spread the gospel once again to the ones who did not accept it the first time would be doing sacrificing in a temple? The connections have not been made! So the prophecies that we are talking about here have been reversed by the devil.

Christian Edwardson wrote: “So great a hold did the conviction that the Papacy was the antichrist gain upon the minds of men, that Rome at last saw she must stir herself and try by putting forth other systems of interpretation to counteract the identification of the Papacy with the antichrist.” Christian Edwardson, Facts of Faith, Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tennessee, 1943, 201. This occurred during the time of the Council of Trent. This was called the counter-Reformation period. It was during the sixteenth century, at the height of the Reformation. The Catholic Church was losing many of its converts. It wanted to reverse this trend, so other systems of interpretation were introduced.

“Accordingly, towards the close of the century of the Reformation, two of her most learned doctors set themselves to the task. Each endeavoring by different means to accomplish the same end; namely, that of diverting men’s minds from perceiving the fulfillment of the prophecies of the antichrist in the papal system. The Jesuit Alcasar devoted himself to bringing into prominence the Preterist method of interpretation.” Ibid. That is, they believed that the antichrist arose before Jesus came or that it applied to Nero.

On the other hand, the Jesuit Ribera tried to set aside the application of these prophecies to the papal power by bringing out the futurist system, which asserts that these prophecies refer properly not to the career of the papacy but to that of some future supernatural individual. Note the words, “who is yet to appear and to continue in power for three and one-half years.” All of this comes from Daniel 9.

Thus, as Alfred says, that Jesuit Ribera, about 1850, may be regarded as the founder of the futurist system in modern times. It is a matter for deep regret that those Protestants who hold and advocate the futurist system at the present day are, for the most part, really playing into the hands of Rome in helping to screen the papacy from detection as the antichrist.

Futurism or Preterism

Has this been successful within Protestantism? Absolutely! Perhaps a brief study of history would be useful. Francisco Ribera founded the futurist system of the antichrist arising in the future. This has been the most successful one of all, as we just read. Alcazar had the preterist view, in which he applied the antichrist to Nero and some to Antiochus Epiphanies before the coming of Christ. Both of these prophecies were to accomplish the same end, and that was to divert the people from studying that the papacy was the antichrist. Both of these prophecies accomplished this, but the most widely believed was Ribera’s interpretation. The belief systems are called preterism and futurism, and they apply the last seven years of Daniel 9:27 to an end-time prophecy.

Many Christians today are looking into the future for some supernatural individual to arise and for a temple to be rebuilt. Then the antichrist will come and stop the sacrificing during the middle of the seven-year period, which applied to Christ. It is an abomination!

Toward the end of the 1700s, a Jesuit priest by the name of Manuel Lacunza wrote a book entitled The Coming of the Glorious Messiah. (Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, 2000.) He was from South America, so he wrote in Spanish under the pen name of Ben-Ezra.

Ellen White wrote about Lacunza as a person who began to search the Scriptures about the coming of Christ but did not have all the truth. “In South America, in the midst of barbarism and priest-craft, Lacunza, a Spaniard and a Jesuit, found his way to the Scriptures and thus received the truth of Christ’s speedy return. Impelled to give the warning, yet desiring to escape the censures of Rome, he published his views under the assumed name of ‘Rabbi Ben-Ezra,’ representing himself as a converted Jew. Lacunza lived in the eighteenth century, but it was about 1825 that his book, having found its way to London, was translated into the English language. Its publication served to deepen the interest already awakening in England in the subject of the second advent.” The Great Controversy, 363.

Future Antichrist

In this book, The Coming of the Glorious Messiah, Lacunza asserts that the antichrist is going to arise in the future. John Edward Irvin obtained a copy of Manuel Lacunza’s book in London and translated it. As he was translating it, he grasped this theory that the antichrist was going to arise in the future.

Following are some excerpts from the translation of the book. “That there shall be an antichrist and he shall be revealed and publicly declare toward the last times in that he shall commit in the world the greatest evils making formal war against Christ and all that pertains to him. These are three certain things of which no Christian can doubt.” Ben-Ezra, vol. I, Pt. II, Phenomenon III, 259.

Here is another excerpt: “According to all the signs given in the Holy Scriptures and others not equivocally offered to us by time which is want to be in the best interpreter of the prophecies the antichrist or the counter-Christ, with whom we stand threatened in the times immediate, upon the coming of the Lord is nothing but a moral body composed of innumerable individuals, divers in themselves but all morally united and animated with one common spirit and against the Lord and against his Christ.” Ibid., 260. Notice those words, it is “composed of innumerable individuals.”

Theories Accepted

Now, there are other people. For example, Margaret McDonald was a 15-year-old in John Edward Irvin’s church who started having visions of a secret rapture. She then started proclaiming that this secret rapture was going to happen and started studying John Edward Irvin’s books. John Darby then grasped Margaret McDonald’s visions and began publishing them and proclaiming about the antichrist arising in the future. Then Cyrus Schofield, who edited and annotated the Schofield Bible, included all the notes of Darby and McDonald in his edition of the Bible and introduced it into the Protestant theological seminaries, such as the Dallas Theological Seminary and the Moody Bible Institute.

By the early 1900s, people had already been introduced to these theories. Well-known theologians such as LaHaye and Jenkins attended these seminaries and grasped these theories. You perhaps recognize that LaHaye and Jenkins wrote the Left Behind book series that has sold more than 65 million copies. The theory propagated in their books is being permeated throughout all of Christendom, and now it has even come into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There is no doubt that this teaching, which is pretty fundamental, is a fallacy.

Fallacy

Following are statements from an article entitled “Who is the Antichrist?” which appeared in the June 1999 issue of The Signs of the Times (Pacific Press Publishing Association, Nampa, Idaho). As you read through the statements, consider whether or not you detect anything wrong in the statements.

“Since the whole idea of antichrist comes out of the New Testament, it seems best to go to the Bible for the answer to our question.” What is wrong with that statement? Where in the Bible do we first discover mention of the antichrist? In the Old Testament, in Daniel 7! So there is something seriously wrong with this quote.

I was just a baby Christian when I started studying this subject, but when I began reading through this article, I was certain there was something wrong, because I had studied Daniel 7 where the antichrist is revealed. In fact, this chapter has more pertinent information that is not found anywhere else in the Bible, especially verse 25, where it says that he “shall intend to change times and law.”

Look at this next quote: “And he told us that the appearance of these false Christs will be a sign of the nearness of the Second Coming, making it clear that these antichrists will especially be an end-time phenomenon.” It is almost a mimic writing of what we read in Lacunza’s writings. Now, is this an end-time phenomenon?

A Historical View

How could you prove from the Bible that our understanding of the antichrist has already come, has been here, has ruled, and is with us today? Turn to Daniel 7. We may know these prophecies by heart, but the Bible says that we need to give an answer. We need to have a biblical reason for what we are doing, what we are saying, and what we are teaching.

In Daniel 7, there is something that is repeated three times, and when God repeats something, He most certainly is trying to make a point. Teachers use this method to teach their students; it is called repeat and enlarge. In Daniel 7, the little horn as the antichrist is described; then notice the pattern of repeating in verses 8, 20, and 24: “I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, [were] eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.” “And the ten horns that [were] on its head, and the other [horn] which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance [was] greater than his fellows.” “The ten horns [are] ten kings [Who] shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first [ones], And shall subdue three kings.” What is repeated in those texts? The three horns. What is so significant about those three horns? Those three horns tell exactly when the antichrist would arise! How do we know that?

What were the three horns? Well, the horns represent earthly powers or kingdoms. The first one to fall were the Heruli in a.d. 493; the second were the Vandals in a.d. 534; and, lastly, were the Ostrogoths in a.d. 538. You will certainly recognize the significance of the a.d. 538 date, as it marked the beginning of the 1260 year prophecy. That date is being attacked in Adventism today by theologians.

The a.d. 538 date also marked a very significant change in the papacy. I have read from several different sources that at that time the popes were no longer just men of the church, but were men of secular power. The popes were considered to be men of the state.

In 11 Thessalonians 2:3, 4, we are told: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for [that Day will not come] unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” This is the Papacy; is it not? This is what Paul predicted.

But, notice verse 7: “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” To what time period does this refer? to the days of the apostles, to the pagan Roman Empire in Daniel 8. How are the pagan Roman Empire and the papal Roman Empire described in this chapter? They are described the same as in chapter 7, as a little horn. Both pagan and papal Rome are described as a little horn. It is the antichrist system, because the papal system is but Christianized paganism. That is all it is.

Paul says that the mystery of iniquity is already at work; “only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.” Verse 7, last part. We know that is paganism. Paganism was taken away, and papal power took its place. It was just a transition. Many say that the papacy is baptized paganism.

Who/What is Antichrist?

Returning to the 1999 The Signs of the Times article, consider this quote: “And it is clear from the context of 11 Thessalonians 2:1-12 that Paul’s antichrist would appear just before the Second Coming of Jesus.” That is exactly what Lacunza and the Jesuit Priest Ribera had taught and introduced to Christendom today. Remember that the apostle Paul said, “Let no one deceive you by any means.” There has to come a falling away first.

Here is another quote: “However, Paul departs from Jesus and John in two important ways. First, his antichrist is a single individual¾a ‘lawless one.’ Second, Jesus and John’s antichrists were apostate Christians¾that is, ‘ordinary human beings.’ ” The Signs of the Times, June 1999. Is the antichrist a single individual or a system? It is the papal system, and each head of that system is the lawless one.

“As the storm [persecution] approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter enemies of their former brethren. When Sabbathkeepers are brought before the courts to answer for their faith, these apostates are the most efficient agents of Satan to misrepresent and accuse them, and by false reports and insinuations to stir up the rulers against them.” The Great Controversy, 608.

Exposing the Papacy

Does the third angel’s message expose the papacy? It does. God warned us not to worship the image or the beast or receive his mark. Why is the devil introducing this into Adventism? Will it have the same effect that it had on Protestantism? People of today do not know who the antichrist is. I have asked Seventh-day Adventists to tell me who he is, and they tell me it is the devil. When the devil hears that, he surely laughs and cheers. He loves to be called the antichrist, because then the papacy is not detected.

So much pressure is going to come upon us. Those who continue to preach the gospel message are going to become so unpopular that many will succumb to the pressure. We will see an abandonment of all of these principles of Seventh-day Adventism all over the world. There are going to be only a few left proclaiming this truth.

Pray daily that we will be part of that group. Jesus has given us the commission to take the gospel, which includes exposing this antichrist system, to the entire world. May He help us to stand firm when those about us are abandoning the truth¾even His professed people. May we not succumb to any pressure, but stand firm and continue to proclaim these truths until probation closes.

To be continued . . .

Pastor Mike Bauler serves as pastor of the Historic Message Church in Portland, Oregon. He may be contacted by e-mail at: mbauler@earthlink.net.

Ask For the Old Paths

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Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” Jeremiah 6:16.

What are these “old paths” for which Jeremiah told us to ask? Some doubters might quibble that the Israelites never reached the condition that God wanted them to attain. They might further argue that these “old paths” contained some pretty bad history. We could think of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; Zimri; Miriam and Aaron’s jealousy; and the golden calf—to name just a few of the problems.

Are these errors and departure from truth the “old paths” for which the Lord is telling us to ask? No, the text itself explains for what we are to look. “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.” The qualifier is “the good way.”

The old path of truth must be walked on again. On this path lies the only way to victory for the church of God. Today we are calling to Christians across the land and around the world to return to the old paths of truth that God has committed to Seventh-day Adventists—the path that James and Ellen White walked on, and J. N. Andrews, Benjamin Wilkinson, F. C. Gilbert, Julius Gilbert White, Edward Sutherland, and a host of others. The old historic pathway is the truth as expressed in the Law of God. It contains the truth of the Three Angels’ Messages, the heavenly sanctuary, the Sabbath, the state of the dead, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the investigative judgment. Those who are walking on the “old paths” are teaching the old truths. This is why we are “Historic” Seventh-day Adventists. The pioneers did not reach the end of the path. They did not receive the latter rain—but they were on the right pathway.

Yes, as a people, there have been some bad experiences in our history. There was Canright, Conradi, the 1888 Conference at Minneapolis, and Desmond Ford, to name just a few. Is that the history we are talking about when we say “Historic” Seventh-day Adventists? Hardly! Jeremiah 6:16 gives us the context, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.”

We will never attain to the full condition that God would have us reach or receive the latter rain and give the loud cry of warning to a perishing world until we first return to walking on the “old paths.”

One of the conditions that God has set before us as a people is to be of one heart and one mind. But my heart feels sad to think of the lack of unity among the independent ministries. Why is it this way when we are trying to walk on the “old paths?” My mind turned to the greatness and power of our kind heavenly Father. It gives me peace to remember that our Almighty God has everything in control. Each truly Historic Seventh-day Adventist minister and worker giving the Three Angels’ Messages must go forward with greater power under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with godly counsel. God will help and support each one of His workers. He is even working out His plans right now in the midst of shaking and turmoil. We must stay close to Him.

We must not let anything stop us from giving the third angel’s message. We will be held accountable for the message of truth that God has given us to give to the world. Fellow travelers on the bloodstained pathway do not give up because of the lack of unity. Pray in earnest, as if your life depended on it, that you can help the cause of God to triumph. We often do not understand what God is accomplishing. We do not see things as He does. He is leading a people on a path cast up high above the world. It is the “old path,” the historic path of truth. But, friends, we must climb to higher ground and go farther on the path than any group of people have ever gone before. We may make mistakes as we climb, but God never makes mistakes. We may slip and fall, but the truth will triumph. At Steps to Life, we are in earnest prayer that the Lord will show us just what course to pursue as we seek to work in every way we can with those who are giving the Three Angels’ Messages. “There is not a single instance in which God has hidden His face from the supplication of His people. When every other resource failed, He was a present help in every emergency.” This Day With God, 194.

“Brethren and sisters, look up; you who are tried, tempted, and discouraged, look up. Let no weary, halting, sin-oppressed soul become faint-hearted. The promises of God that come down along the lines to our times assure you that heaven can be reached if you will continue to climb. It is ever safe to look up; it is fatal to look down. If you look down, the earth reels and sways beneath you; nothing is sure. But heaven above you is calm and steady, and there is divine aid for every climber. The hand of the Infinite is reaching over the battlements of heaven to grasp yours in its strong embrace. The mighty Helper is nigh to bless, lift up, and encourage the most erring, the most sinful, if they will look to Him by faith. But the sinner must look up; he must see the glory of God above the shining ladder, and the angels ascending and descending with messages of mercy.” Review and Herald, February 17, 1885.

Sometimes the ground under our feet seems to be shaking to cause us to look up to heaven. But as the earth seems to be shaking, keep on giving the Three Angels’ Messages. Stay on the “old path.” The devil would like us to be so shaken up that we stop the work that God has given us to do. Remember that God is working out His purposes in the darkest of days. “We are prone to look to our fellow men for sympathy and uplifting, instead of looking to Jesus. In His mercy and faithfulness God often permits those in whom we place confidence to fail us, in order that we may learn the folly of trusting in man and making flesh our arm. Let us trust fully, humbly, unselfishly in God. He knows the sorrows that we feel to the depths of our being, but which we cannot express. When all things seem dark and unexplainable, remember the words of Christ, ‘What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.’ John 13:7.” The Ministry of Healing, 486, 487.

One of the great hindrances to our advancement along the path is the justification of self. The wise man said, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.” Proverbs 21:2. We become so confident that we are right that when others do not see things in the same way as we do, we are certain that they are wrong. It then becomes very natural, when they fail to support us, to view them as actively seeking our destruction—they must be “attacking” us. We then attribute to them pride, selfishness, pettiness, evil surmising, and various other negative motives. Eventually, we reason that since God has been leading us and we are therefore right (righteous), for anyone to attack us is tantamount to an attack upon God Himself, when the truth of the matter is that we are often merely seeking to justify our own position. “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.” It is a fearful thing for individuals or organizations to unconsciously occupy the place of God in presuming to dictate to others what their responsibilities and duties are.

What are we to do when this happens? The apostle John once asked Jesus a question about a similar situation. “Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in My name, that can lightly speak evil of Me. For he that is not against us is on our part.” Mark 9:38–40. Even if others are not in agreement with us, it is not our place to fault them for doing the work that they believe they are called of the Lord to do. If we can humbly pray and wait upon the Lord to work things out, we may find that we are receiving the very education that the Lord designs for us to have. Let us not be too quick to say that those who are not working closely with our plans are evil or that they are arrayed against us.

In every controversy, precious souls are lost. While in humility and waiting upon the Lord to subdue our natures, we do not need to let disagreements turn into controversies. “The difficulties we have to encounter may be very much lessened by that meekness which hides itself in Christ. If we possess the humility of our Master, we shall rise above the slights, the rebuffs, the annoyances, to which we are daily exposed, and they will cease to cast a gloom over the spirit.” The Desire of Ages, 301. If we would only do this, Jesus would then become the Lord and Master of all.

There will yet be a people who will answer the prayer of Christ recorded by the apostle John, “That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:21. We may have confidence that the Lord is working to purify a people who will fulfill this prayer, though at the present time we can only view the end result by the eye of faith. It will most assuredly happen because the Word of God is sure and steadfast.

“As trials thicken around us, both separation and unity will be seen in our ranks. Some who are now ready to take up weapons of warfare will in times of real peril make it manifest that they have not built upon the solid rock; they will yield to temptation. Those who have had great light and precious privileges, but have not improved them, will, under one pretext or another, go out from us. Not having received the love of the truth, they will be taken in the delusions of the enemy; they will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and will depart from the faith. But, on the other hand, when the storm of persecution really breaks upon us, the true sheep will hear the true Shepherd’s voice. Self-denying efforts will be put forth to save the lost, and many who have strayed from the fold will come back to follow the great Shepherd. The people of God will draw together and present to the enemy a united front. In view of the common peril, strife for supremacy will cease; there will be no disputing as to who shall be accounted greatest. No one of the true believers will say: ‘I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas.’ [I Corinthians 1:12.] The testimony of one and all will be: ‘I cleave unto Christ; I rejoice in Him as my personal Saviour.’ ” Testimonies, vol. 6, 400, 401.

Gwen Reeves is a mother of five and lives in Kettle Falls, Washington. She can be contacted at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

Seventh Day Adventist Roots — The Parting of the Ways

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Following the Great Disappointment on October 22, 1844, opposition arose against the preaching of the advent message and against those proclaiming it. Most of the churches refused to admit the ministers that were preaching the coming of Christ. “Thus the impressive Millerite movement came to its tragic close, so far as its original form is concerned. The great stream ceased its onward flow and was dissipated, to use the figure aptly employed by Nichol (F. D.), like a river absorbed in the torrid sands of the desert. Here is his graphic portrayal.

” ‘The erstwhile fast-moving stream poured out over an arid, uncharted waste. The scorching sun of disappointment beat down, and the burning winds of ridicule swept in from every side. The river suddenly lost its velocity. There was no momentum to cut a clearly marked channel in this new, parched land. Sun and wind quickly began to play havoc with this directionless body of water, now spread thinly over a wide area. While a central stream of what had once been an impressive river, was more or less well defined, there were many lesser streams, which often ended in miniature dead seas, where stagnation and evaporation soon did their work. Indeed, no small part of the once large river, when evaporated under the scorching sun of disappointment, was finally returned to the sources from whence it came, the other rivers in the religious world.’ ” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 827.

Following the Disappointment, the leaders were concerned over the confusion of opinions that became prevalent. I. E. Jones describes the confusion at that time: “Our brethren this way are catching at every conceivable hypothesis to reconcile the movement of the tenth [day of the seventh month, or October 22] . . .But supremely ridiculous, painful and dangerous, as is this state of things among ourselves, it is not as much so as the ranks of our opponents present. Who can think of the endless diversity of opinion among them on the prophecies and atonement, free will, baptism, conversion, and every Bible truth; and not say in view of his temptations to leave this [Advent] cause, ‘To whom shall we go?’ . . . Oh, I sigh, for home. Home; sweet home. But, patience my soul.” Ibid., 828.

William Miller was very perturbed by the discord that existed among the various factions that grew out of the Millerite Movement. He said, “I must confess I am pained at heart, to see the battle we are now in . . . after having silenced our common enemy . . . Every [Adventist] paper which has come into my hands recently is full of fight, and that too against our friends.” Ibid.

He was openly opposed to all the various “new theories” that had arisen in an attempt to explain the Disappointment. He denied the application of the parable of the “Midnight Cry” to the seventh month movement and stated that that was not a fulfillment of the prophecy.

“The controversy as to whether the seventh-month movement was the logical and legitimate climax of the Millerite message, or whether it was a tragic mistake, hinged on what came to be known as the ‘shut door’ doctrine. The seventh-month movement, it will be remembered, was based on two premises: (1) The typical cleansing of the ancient sanctuary on the Day of Atonement, on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month; and (2) the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, who, after passing the expected time of the wedding, fell asleep and were roused at midnight by the cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh!’ The wise virgins, who are ready to meet the coming bridegroom, enter with him into the wedding, where the door is shut after them. But the foolish ones, who failed to use their opportunity to be ready, then find themselves outside.” Ibid., 829.

In midsummer, of 1844, the cry went forth at “midnight” that the Bridegroom was to come, not in 1843, but in the seventh month of 1844. The cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of the 2300 years was to occur on the tenth day of the seventh month—the day when the sanctuary was cleansed in ancient Israel’s time. At the close of the 2300 years and the passing of the tenth day of the seventh month there were two courses open to those who refused to be discouraged by the passing of the time. Either the message containing the “midnight cry” was a delusion and the time a mistake or, the period had ended but the anticipated event was wrong.

After 1844, those that rejected the “Midnight Cry” message decided that the time was a mistake, the seventh-month a blunder and concluded that the “Midnight Cry” and the “Shut door” were still future. They said that “if the parable of the Bridegroom was yet to be fulfilled in the second advent, at a future ending of the 2300 days, they would be right in saying that the Bridegroom had not come and the door of the parable had not yet been shut. But if the time calculation had been correct —if the 2300 days had really ended in October, 1844—and the ‘Midnight Cry’ of the seventh month had been the true climax of the God-given message of a great prophetic movement, then those who held this view must necessarily believe that the parable of the virgins and the prophetic Day of Atonement had been fulfilled and that the ‘door’ of the parable—whatever it might be—had been ‘shut.’ ” Ibid., 830.

The Millerites taught that the door of the parable meant that the door of salvation would be closed at the Second Coming of Christ, when everyone would either be ready or lost. After the Disappointment, Miller and others thought that their work for the world was ended and that they were now in the tarrying time—a few days or months—until Christ should come.

In 1840, Himes and Litch had taught that after the sixth vial and trumpet ended, when the seventh trumpet sounded, the mystery of God was to be finished, the time of grace would end and probation’s door would be shut. Miller agreed with this interpretation, but added that there would be a little time to separate the good from the bad. Miller stated: “We have done our work in warning sinners, and in trying to awake a formal church. God, in His providence has shut the door; we can only stir one another up to be patient; and be diligent to make our calling and election sure.” Ibid., 831.

As time passed, this view was abandoned by the Millerites. Himes had never, since the Disappointment, believed that their work for the world had come to an end. Miller, along with some other leaders, soon came to be of the same opinion. The controversy over the “shut door” increased so dramatically that the leaders of the Millerite movement decided to convene a conference in Albany, New York, to attempt to resolve the conflicting views. The conference unanimously passed a report listing ten principles similar to the “Fundamental Principles” published in the Millerite papers, upon which they could unite. They opposed: “(1) The postmillennialists’ dream of world conversion before the advent. (2) The ‘Judaizing doctrine’ of the restoration of the literal Jews as a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. (3) Any of the new tests advocated by various minority groups.” Ibid., 834.

But their attempt for unity was not altogether successful, and the Millerite movement was split into three groups.

The first group included J. V. Himes and others that repudiated the “shut door” and denied the validity of the seventh-month movement and that Christ’s coming was imminent. Having rejected all the views, which had made them a part of the Advent movement, they had no reason to exist and so soon, the group faded out of the picture. Litch also refused to accept the “shut door” idea and eventually broke with the Adventist groups and became a Futurist. The second group was concentrated in Maine and New York and they took extreme views stating that all probation had closed and the doom of the world was fixed. That the 2300 days were fulfilled in 1844 and the door was shut on Christ’s mediatorial work and no one else could be saved. Only those who had entered with Christ on October 22 would be saved.

The third group was smaller than the first group but soon far surpassed them in numbers. They believed and taught the validity of the seventhmonth movement and adopted Edson’s view of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary as an explanation of the Disappointment. They rejected the idea of the “shut door” (meaning the close of probation) and continued to preach the soon coming of Christ to all that would listen.

“This group, holding to the validity of the 1844 movement as a fulfillment of prophecy, saw in the Disappointment a test of those who were willing to make every sacrifice to be ready to meet their Lord, and then to hold their faith in the face of bitter disappointment. They insisted that the working of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of the participants in that movement had been proof that the Lord was in it; and consequently they felt that those who declared it all a mistake were repudiating the leading of God, and murmuring against the path in which He had led them.” Ibid., 841.

It was out of this third group that the Seventh-day Adventist Church developed. Joseph Bates, who had played a prominent role in the Millerite Movement, James White, a Millerite evangelist, Hiram Edson and others were prominent leaders. They rejected both formalism and fanaticism and became the nucleus of the Sabbatarian Adventists.

“Three key teachings, each developing independently, began to characterize the group which erelong became the Sabbatarian Adventists. And these features came to be regarded by them as interrelated in what they believed to be the prophetic charter of their mission. These three were: (1) The sanctuary, as embracing the special, or final ministry of Christ in the holy of holies of the heavenly sanctuary, thus giving new meaning to the message, ‘the hour of God’s judgment is come’ (2) the Sabbath, that is, observance of the seventh day, as involved in the keeping of the ‘commandments of God,’ and (3) the Spirit of Prophecy, or the ‘testimony of Jesus,’ to be manifest in the ‘remnant’ church, or last segment of God’s church of the centuries.” Ibid., 844, 845.

These three beliefs developed in various places. Hiram Edson and his group, after study in western New York, began to preach the sanctuary phase. Joseph Bates and others began to proclaim the Sabbath in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In Maine, Ellen Harmon’s experience and influence established confidence in God’s past leadership and in His future guidance in the Advent Movement. These three groups eventually united.

“These three primary teachings—the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and the Spirit of Prophecy, along with the old basic, established, and fundamentally evangelical positions, as well as immortality only in Christ and the foundational Adventist teachings on the second advent and the Bible prophecies —formed the basis for the emergence of a new theological system, balanced in form and Scriptural in emphasis. Slowly the doctrinal framework of the Sabbatarian Adventists took definite shape. Their convictions were crystallizing as the thinking of different leaders began to be published in 1846 and 1847—the writings of Hiram Edson, O. R. L. Crosier, and F. B. Hahn, Joseph Bates, James White, and Ellen Harmon.

“As this merging of views began to take place, and the adherents of the Edson view of the sanctuary and the Bates view of the seventh-day Sabbath first began to coalesce, there was as yet no semblance of an organization, much less of an emerging denomination. But in this way, in three separate places in three different States, and all by the close of 1844, these three distinctive teachings that were to become major doctrinal features, in a distinctive Sabbatarian Adventist setting and movement, now reached out and touched each other.” Ibid., 848–850.

“A series of six Sabbath conferences, held in 1848, with an aggregate of several hundred in attendance, was the next step. Here these three distinctive features, with their already established positions, began to be forged into a single unified body of belief. And before long the essentials of an integrated system of evangelical, doctrinal, and prophetic truth were developed as held by Seventh-day Adventists around the world.” Ibid., 850, 851.

God was leading His remnant people.

 

Seventh Day Adventist Roots, part 7

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Joseph Bates, the next personality in our list of four prominent men to associate with the Millerite movement, was born in 1792, in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. His parents were members of the Congregational Church. His father had been a captain in the Revolutionary War. At the age of fifteen, Bates took to the sea, sailing for Europe as cabin boy. He had many thrilling experiences while at sea, including surviving a collision with an iceberg; being commandeered as a gunner on the HMS Rodney, serving on blockade duty in the war between England and France; spending two and a half years as a prisoner of war and finally returning home after a six year absence. Bates married Prudence Nye, in 1818, and continued his work on ocean going vessels, rising to the rank of captain.

On his first trip as captain, he forbade anyone to drink “ardent spirits” aboard ship. On the next trip he determined to stop drinking, and later gave up smoking. In 1826, his wife placed a New Testament in his trunk. This turned out to be the beginning of a spiritual awakening for him. When one of his crewmembers became sick, Bates became anxious and, after a struggle, he began to pray. The death of the crewmember and his own responsibility, as captain, for the funeral service, brought him closer to God. At this point, he surrendered his life to Christ and began to study the Bible and pray every day. When he arrived home, Bates was baptized, and, in 1827, joined the New Bedford Christian Church, the church to which his wife belonged. The minister that baptized him refused to join Bates in his fight against liquor. With the help of the Congregationalist minister in Fairhaven he formed the Fairhaven Temperance Society. At this point, Bates gave up the use of tea and coffee.

Joseph Bates had strong convictions. While aboard ship, he gathered his crew and read them the rules for the voyage. These rules included prohibiting the use of intoxicants, swearing or washing of clothes on Sunday and the mandatory attendance at daily worship. Two of the crew were converted on the voyage. In 1826, he retired from sea service with a comfortable fortune. He turned his energies to serious church work and reform movements, always taking the side of the oppressed. Over the next few years, Bates formed a number of reform movements, each time losing some friends. In the face of opposition, he formed an antislavery society. He planned for a manual training school and, to provide labor, he planted three mulberry orchards to produce silk for market.

In 1839, a ministerial friend invited him to attend a lecture on the Second Advent. When Bates heard the message he exclaimed, “That is the truth.” He and Joshua Himes had been associated in various reform activities. Now Himes also became interested in Miller’s views on the Second Advent. Shortly after obtaining a copy of Miller’s Lectures, Bates fully accepted their teaching regarding premillennialism as the most important reform for that time.

As a member of the authorizing committee for the first General Conference, at Boston, in 1841, Bates invited Miller to hold a series of meetings in Fairhaven. He soon after became an active and successful Millerite minister. He was chosen chairman of the conference that authorized the production of lithographs of Fitch’s “1843 Chart,” and approved the conducting of campmeetings that were very successful.

Opposition to the advent message soon developed among the members of the Fairhaven Christian Church, leading him to withdraw from its membership. “In 1843 he sold his home, and most of his other real estate, and prepared to go where needed to herald the Second Coming of Christ. He had a burden to go down to the slaveholding States of the South, where other lecturers had been driven out by hostile inhabitants. Bates was warned that he would probably be killed because of his well-known abolitionist principles. Undeterred, he went into Maryland and preached to large numbers, H. S. Gurney, baritone singer, accompanying him. Their success aroused resentment and opposition, and a fiery Methodist class leader threatened to have them ridden out of town on a rail. Bates made the instant but telling rejoinder, ‘If you will put a saddle on it, we would rather ride than walk.’ This nimble reply disconcerted the man, and Bates continued: ‘You must not think that we have come six hundred miles through the ice and snow, at our own expense to give you the Midnight Cry, without first sitting down and counting the cost. And now, if the Lord has no more for us to do, we had as lief [gladly] lie at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay as anywhere else until the Lord comes. But if He has any more work for us to do, you can’t touch us.’

“The Baltimore Patriot learned of the episode and after relating the story, said significantly: ‘The crush of matter and the wreck of worlds would be nothing to such men.’ In another incident in a little Maryland town, Bates made this reply: ‘Yes, Judge, I am an abolitionist, and have come to get your slaves and you too! As to getting your slaves from you, we have no such intention, for if you should give us all you have (and I was informed he owned quite a number), we should not know what to do with them. We teach that Christ is coming, and we want you all saved.’ ” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 548.

On the journey home, by boat, Bates hung up the prophetic chart, sang an advent hymn and gave a lecture on the coming crisis. When they transferred to a train he continued lecturing. He visited a number of islands along the coast of Massachusetts and many were converted to the Second Advent faith.

By 1848, Bates had accepted the Sabbath and was instrumental in the proclamation of that message. He held key positions all through the Advent Movement from 1840 on. He wrote a short history of the advent cause from 1840 –1847 titled, Second Advent Way Marks and High Heaps, the first of its kind.

“Bates pioneering spirit led him west to Michigan in 1849, where, in time, he gathered a company of converts in Jackson. In 1852, he went on to Battle Creek. Arriving early in the morning, and asking the postmaster for the name of the most honest man in town, he was directed to a Presbyterian by the name of David Hewitt. Bates was soon rapping on Hewitt’s door, telling him that he had some important Bible truth for him. The Hewitts became the first converts in Battle Creek, and their home the meeting place for a growing group.

“That episode was characteristic of Bates. He would go where there were no believers, secure a schoolhouse, hall, church, or even a home, hang up his chart, and preach the new-found light on the prophecies, and churches would come into being. When, in 1860, the Sabbatarian Adventists met in conference to effect their first organization, Bates, in the chair guided the conference.

“Bates played a prominent part in the ‘Sabbath Conferences,’ which began in 1848, and helped to give shape to the infant SDA movement. He, together with White, Edson, Pierce, Andrews, and others, studied out the doctrines from the Bible. In fact Joseph Bates, with James White, was widely recognized as cofounder of the SDA denomination.” Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 108, 109.

 

Joshua Himes—Energetic Leader

 

The fourth in our list of ministerial associates close to William Miller is Joshua V. Himes. “Judged by any standard of measurement, Joshua Vaughan Himes (1805-1895) was a remarkable character. Courageous, versatile, and a born leader, he was the great publicist, promoter, and organizer of the Millerite movement. While he was a power in the pulpit, he was an even greater power in the editorial chair. He was a really remarkable publisher, with the knack of knowing how to appeal to the public. His daring and his swiftness of action are illustrated by the speed with which he produced the first copy of the Signs of the Times. After Miller’s first suggestion, coupled with his own conviction of its need, it was under way within one week, starting from nothing.

“He had business acumen and organizational ability to a marked degree—managing conferences and giant campmeetings, as well as evangelistic and revival meetings, and keeping a great publishing and distribution project going smoothly and without needless duplication. Under his guidance the best publishing facilities the country afforded were enlisted to send forth the advent message. It was perhaps not too much to say that his was a feat unequaled in the annals of American church history, or of any other land so far as we know.” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 549, 550.

Himes was born in Rhode Island. His father wanted him to attend Brown University, but, because of a financial crisis in the family, Joshua went to New Bedford to learn a trade. His conversion

occurred in 1823 and he joined the First Christian Church. His ability as an evangelist quickly surfaced and he felt called to preach. He was invited to begin holding meetings in various schoolhouses and soon was holding many types of revival meetings.

In 1825, Himes began his life work in the ministry and began to preach in Plymouth. Eventually, he was appointed evangelist by the Massachusetts Christian Conference. He raised up a church of 125 at Fall River and he was soon called to become pastor of the First Christian Church of Boston. He resigned in 1837 to organize and build the Second Christian Church, with its Chardon Street Chapel. The Advent message first came to him in that chapel.

Being a reformer at heart, Himes was constantly crusading against the evils of his day. He was an assistant to William Lloyd Garrison in the battle against slavery, and it was in this chapel that Garrison’s New England Antislavery Society was initiated. He promoted a manual labor school and was a cofounder of the Peace Society, for the prevention of war. The Chardon Street Chapel became the center for many kinds of reform meetings.

On November 12, 1839, a conference of Christian Connection ministers was convened in Exeter. The day before, William Miller began a series of meetings, and out of curiosity the conference adjourned to go listen to Miller and asked him every sort of question. Himes was among the group. “Greatly impressed with Miller’s humble yet effective answers to the many pointed and sometimes tricky questions put to him, Himes invited him to hold a series of meetings in his own church in Boston. Miller accepted, and that eventful day marked a turning point in both lives and launched a new epoch in the advent cause and movement.” Ibid., 551.

“Himes combined deep spirituality and strict integrity with a true instinct for popular presentation. He was just thirty-five, pleasant and genial, neat in dress, and possessed of a charming personality. He was the embodiment of energy, and had marked initiative. And his entire manner begot confidence and gave assurance of his honesty and sincerity. He was dignified in bearing, but was ever a restless and energetic promoter of some cause in which he believed. Miller stayed in Hime’s home while giving his first series of lectures in Boston. Here they had many talks about Miller’s position on the second advent and on the millennium and the prophecies related thereto.” Ibid., 552.

Himes was convinced of the general points and felt a burden to get the premillennial truth before the public. He asked Miller why he had not preached in the larger cities. Miller replied that he had not been invited but that he would go wherever he was invited to preach. Himes told Miller to prepare for a great campaign, that the doors would be opened in every state east of the Mississippi. This prediction was literally fulfilled far beyond Miller’s expectations.

Feeling the need for a publication to get his views before the public and to shield him from abusive stories circulated, Miller conveyed this to Himes who immediately agreed to start the Signs of the Times. The next week (February 28, 1840), without any subscribers and only one-dollar, Himes produced the first edition.

Believers in the advent received the paper with joy while opponents were alarmed. At the outset it was a forum for both believers and opponents to voice their opinions. With the passing of time the paper was restricted to the presentation of the positions of the Adventists.

Himes published two more editions of Miller’s Lectures and was henceforth in charge of the publication and distribution of Advent literature. Among his publications were charts, pamphlets, books, tracts, songbooks, broadsides and handbills. In order to acquaint New York City with the message of the advent, Himes began publishing the Midnight Cry in connection with an evangelistic series. Ten thousand copies each day were printed and distributed in the city. When the meetings closed, the publication continued as a weekly.

“Himes was noblehearted, generous, and selfdenying. The funds accruing from the publication venture were turned to the spread of the tidings of the second advent. He traveled some twenty thousand miles, giving a lecture a day much of the time, and held some five thousand meetings, including a remarkable series of all-day camp meetings. In many ways Himes was the leading figure in the Millerite movement—a human dynamo of energy, ever pushing the cause of publishing and preaching, organizing the various enterprises connected with the movement. Although Miller was the actual leader, he delegated much authority to Himes, who had his complete confidence. The relationship between the two was like that of father and son. Of this fellowship Himes touchingly said: ‘We had rather be associated with such a man as William Miller, and stand with him in gloom or glory, in the cause of the living God, than to be associated with his enemies, and enjoy all the honors of this world.’ ” Ibid., 554.

 

SDA Roots, part 6

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We pause in our perusal of the history of the rise of the Advent Movement to take a look at four men that unreservedly gave themselves to the propagation of the Second Advent message in 1838. We will consider their “backgrounds, talents, training, standing and diverse religious affiliations.” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 528.

The first of this quartet of men is Dr. Josiah Litch (1809–1886). Litch was a well-known minister in the New England Methodist Conference. He was born in Higham, Massachusetts, and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at his conversion, at the age of 17.

Near the beginning of 1838 he received a copy of Miller’s Lectures with the request that he read it and render his opinion on the truth of what it advocated. Litch disagreed with the notion of setting a time for Christ’s coming. He at first refused to read the book. However, to please his friend and to satisfy his own curiosity to discover what evidences could be summoned to support such a doctrine, Litch read the book.

The more he read the more he was convinced of the solid foundation of Miller’s position. He felt that if all the evidences Miller presented in that book were true then he, Litch, had a responsibility to also preach the messages Miller had been giving around New England and elsewhere. Being fully persuaded, of the truth of Miller’s position, he decided to present the truth as he saw it, at any cost to himself.

Litch was studious and keen of mind and immediately began to write on the theme of the Second Coming. His first product was a forty-eight page synopsis of Miller’s views entitled Midnight Cry, or a Review of Mr. Miller’s Lectures on the Second Coming of Christ, About A.D. 1843. A wide distribution of this work resulted in bringing in many friends to the Advent cause. Wherever he went, Litch preached the imminent return of Christ. Throughout New England, Litch was one of only two ministers closely identified with Miller. The other was Charles Fitch who, for a time, had taken his stand with Miller. However, shortly thereafter, he returned to his former views that there would be a temporal millenium before Christ’s coming.

In April of 1838, Litch produced a two hundred-page book entitled The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ About A.D. 1843. Because so many of the prophecies had been fulfilled, he declared, in the preface, his belief in the certainties of prophecy and that the prediction of the Second Coming would be fulfilled in due time. During this same year “He prepared articles for the public print on the subject of the seven trumpets of the Revelation. He took the unqualified position that the sixth trumpet would cease to sound and the Ottoman power would fall on the 11th day of August, 1840, and that that would demonstrate to the world that a day in symbolic prophecy represents a year of literal time.” The Great Second Advent Movement, 129.

The fulfillment of the prediction “intensified the interest of the people to hear upon the subject of fulfilled and fulfilling prophecy. Dr. Litch said that within a few months, after August 11, 1840, he had received letters from more than one thousand prominent infidels, some of them leaders of infidel clubs, in which they stated that they had given up the battle against the Bible, and had accepted it as God’s revelation to man. Some of these were fully converted to God, and a number of them became able speakers in the great second advent movement.” Ibid., 132.

It was not until 1839, in Lowell, Massachusetts, that Litch first met Miller personally. He was on the Committee of Arrangements for the first general conference that was held in October of 1840. He was one of the leading speakers at that convocation as well as in subsequent general conferences.

“In June, 1841, Litch attended the Methodist Episcopal Conference at Providence, Rhode Island. Here he was closely interrogated by the presiding bishops as to his relation to the Millerite teachings. After Litch had expounded his convictions, the bishop asked, ‘Do you think that is Methodism?’ Litch replied, ‘I do. At least it is not contrary to the articles of the Methodist Episcopal Church.’ After considerable discussion the conference also came to the conclusion that Litch held nothing contrary to Methodism, though he had at points gone beyond it. They granted his request to ‘locate’, that is, to retire from the itinerant ministry. This allowed him to devote most of his time to preaching the second advent.” The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers, 532.

Litch came to the conclusion that he had to divorce himself from the Methodist ministry that he had carried on for eight years and utilize all his energies in the advent movement. He soon became one of the leading editors of the Millerite paper, The Signs of the Times. He continued traveling and lecturing and was Miller’s companion on his trips to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and New York. Eventually he resided in Philadelphia where he became the leading Millerite representative.

Next in our list of ministers, that became closely associated with the Millerite movement is Charles Fitch who lived from 1805–October 14, 1844. He was born in Hampton, Connecticut. After graduating from Brown University, Fitch was ordained to the Congregational ministry and served at Abington, Connecticut, Warren, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut, successively. In 1836 he went to the Marlboro Congregational Chapel in Boston, and later to Newark, New Jersey, and Haverhill, Massachusetts. Fitch’s greatest contribution was made at Cleveland, Ohio, after he became the western proponent of the advent message. His other interests included his membership in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

He was a strong opponent to slavery as revealed by a pamphlet he produced entitled, Slaveholding Weighed in the Balance of Truth, and Its Comparative Guilt Illustrated. In it he stated, “Every man has a tongue, and he can use it; he has influence, and he can exert it; he has moral power, and he can put it forth. Up my friends and do your duty, to deliver the spoils out of the hands of the oppressor, lest the fire of God’s fury kindle ere long upon you.” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 534.

In 1838, while he was pastor of the Marlboro Street Congregational Church in Boston, he was given a copy of Miller’s Lectures, containing his views on the Second Advent. Fitch wrote to Miller, in March, confessing his “overwhelming interest such as I never felt in any other book except the Bible.” Ibid. After carefully studying the book and comparing the message with Scripture, Fitch stated that he came to believe in the correctness of Miller’s views. On March 4 he preached two sermons on the Second Advent, creating a deep interest among his hearers. He proposed to present the whole subject of the Second Advent to a meeting of the Ministerial Association on March 6. He secured a dozen copies of Miller’s Lectures for distribution stating, “I trust that I may thereby do something to spread the truth.” Ibid.

The Association’s reaction was so negative and accompanied with so much searing ridicule and contempt that Fitch lost confidence in the advent message and he lapsed into his former views of the world’s conversion.

But his mind could not rest. He thirsted for truth and longed for holiness of life. While serving as pastor of the Free Presbyterian Church of Newark, New Jersey, in 1839, he wrote his Views of Sanctification. This was his statement of faith and he stressed sanctification by divine grace through Scripture. This prompted the appointment of a committee by the presbytery to counsel Fitch on his views on perfection. This meeting resulted in the passage of a Resolution of Censure, declaring his views to be a dangerous error and asking him to preach his views no more. Fitch replied in a Letter to the Newark Presbytery in 1840, wherein he November 1998 31 defended his views. He stated that “‘I cannot regard your admonition,’ and offered his reasons.” Ibid.

“After years of unsatisfactory living, he had found, personally and experimentally, the enabling grace of Christ. He had learned the secret of reckoning himself dead to sin. The world had lost its charm, and his heart was filled with joy. He had entered into a new life—and supported his position with an imposing array of texts. He took this stand, he adds, ‘in view of an approaching judgment.’ Then he avers, ‘If you still adhere to that opinion, I must consider myself as no longer of your number.’ The presbytery must do to him as they think our Lord requires. This he soon followed with his Reasons for Withdrawing From the Newark Presbytery, the title page adding, ‘By Charles Fitch, Pastor of the Free Presbyterian Church, Newark.’ The Preface states that he felt called to preach the ‘blessed doctrine of sanctification by faith in Christ.’ He recognized that if he did not withdraw he would be excommunicated. So he states, ‘I do hereby withdraw from you.’ Thus he bade adieu to his Presbyterian brethren.” Ibid.

When Fitch explained his perplexities to Litch the latter said, “What you need is the doctrine of the second advent to put with the doctrine of holiness.” Fitch again studied Miller’s teachings comparing them with the Bible while studying all other available writings on the subject of the Second Advent. After pursuing this course of study for a time and reviewing the Lord’s leading since leaving Brown University, he brought all this before the Lord in fasting and prayer. He stated:

“When Dear Bro. Litch named the second advent, I went to the Lord; I read my Bible, and all the works that I could obtain. I possessed myself of all the evidences in the case that I could; and then with fasting and prayer I laid them and myself with my all before the Lord, desiring only that the Blessed Spirit might guide me into all truth. I felt that I had no will of my own, and wished only to know the will of my Saviour. Light seemed breaking in upon my mind, ray after ray, and I found myself more and and more unable to resist the conviction that it was indeed the truth, that the coming of the blessed Saviour was at the door.” Ibid., 537.

Having made his decision, Fitch threw all his energies into the proclamation of the advent message. He now found doors opening wide on every hand as he joined Miller, Litch and soon Himes, along with a steadily growing number of Adventist preachers.

“And now so soon as I was ready to come out on the Second Advent, the door before me was thrown wide open, and I have been wholly unable for the last 8 months to meet one half the calls which I have received. Wherever I have been God has been with me. Since the first of Dec. last, I have preached as often as every day and about sixty times besides. I have been in all the New England States, congregations have been large in all places. Wherever I have been I have preached holiness. My usual practice has been to preach on Holiness in the afternoon, and on the Second Advent in the evening. I have seen saints sanctified and sinners led to Christ.” Ibid.

While some rejected the message and turned against Fitch, many others accepted the advent truth. Among them were Dr. and Mrs. W. C. Palmer that wrote many advent hymns, including, Watch Ye Saints, number 549 in the old Church Hymnal.

One of Fitch’s most notable productions, at least as far as Seventh-day Adventists are concerned, was his famous “1843” prophetic chart (1842) with the able assistance of Apollos Hale, who usually attended Fitch’s church.

Fitch presented his chart to the Boston General Conference in May, chaired by Joseph Bates. Plans were laid to proclaim the “Midnight Cry” more vigorously. Three hundred copies were authorized for use by the Adventist preachers.

Fitch received more calls to preach than he could fill. Wherever he spoke, large crowds gathered to hear him. The following is his own description of a typical speaking trip: “I reached this place(Montpelier) at about half past twelve o’clock on Wednesday. I had then preached thirteen times in a week, and attended many prayer meetings and then at the end of it instead of taking rest I had had a most fatiguing ride of 75 miles. A meeting however was appointed for me here on the evening of my arrival. Accordingly I went to bed, and after sleeping two hours and a half, I arose exceedingly refreshed, and preached in the evening. The audience was tolerable for numbers—though by no means such as I had left at Claremont. Yesterday I preached twice, and the audience in the evening was much increased. The spirit of the Lord was present, and truth had power.” Ibid., 540.

Toward the end of 1842, Fitch carried the advent message to Cleveland, Ohio, and to Oberlin College near Cleveland. He reveals how the faculty reacted to his messages: “I have never seen the glorious truths of the Bible, teaching the kingdom and coming of Christ, met with more determined opposition, contempt and scorn, than they have been by the Oberlin Faculty; and never, in all my life have I felt such anguish at my heart’s core, or shed such bitter, burning tears as I have at their rejection of the Word of the Lord.” Ibid., 541.

In the spring of 1843, Fitch preached a sermon entitled, “Come Out of Her My People.” He “contended that Babylon was no longer limited to the Roman Catholic Church, as held back in Protestant Reformation days, but now included also the great body of Protestant Christendom. He maintained that, by their rejection of the light of the advent, both branches of Christendom had

fallen from the high estate of pure Christianity. Protestantism was either cold to the doctrine of the second advent or had spiritualized it away.” Ibid., 544.

“But Fitch did not have much longer to live and labor. He was in Buffalo, New York, in October, 1844, when a large number of new believers requested baptism. Others had not yet fully made up their minds. Arrangements were made, and the company who were ready went with him to the lake shore and were baptized in the chilly autumn water. A cold wind was blowing as Fitch started for home in his wet garments—for they had no protective baptismal robes or waterproof waders in those days. But just then he was met by another company of tardy candidates, on their way to the lake, who similarly desired baptism. So, cold as he was, Fitch went back with them and immersed them. And then came a belated third company who had at last made their decision. At their request he turned back a second time, and baptized them also. But Fitch was seriously chilled.

“Ill as he was from the effects of this prolonged exposure, he nevertheless rode several miles the next day in the cold wind to meet another appointment. This proved too much for him, and he was stricken down with fatal illness, doubtless pneumonia, which speedily brought on his death at the early age of thirty-nine. His last triumphant words on October 14, shortly before the day of expectation, were, ‘I believe in the promises of God.’ It may confidently be said that none of the Adventist preachers were more widely loved than Charles Fitch. Couragous and resourceful, helpful and hopeful, he interpreted the love of God in word and deed, in the light of the second advent, to the thousands to whom he ministered.” Ibid., 545.

Next month we will consider the other two prominent Second Advent preachers: Joseph Bates and Joshua V. Himes.

 

Ask the Pastor – Return to Which Roots?

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Question:

Certain individuals have told me that we need to come back to the teachings of the pioneers of the Adventist movement. These same people have also started teaching that Jesus was created, that there is not the person of the Holy Spirit, and that we need to call Jesus and Jehovah God by their Hebrew names. Can you help me work through these things?

Answer:

First of all, when studying a passage or statement, we must always look at the context surrounding it. These individuals who are saying that we need to get back to what the pioneers taught are, for the most part, over-reacting, because there has been so much apostasy taking place in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They are over-correcting in an effort to keep from being a part of the apostasy. Such individuals think that if they return all the way to what the pioneers taught, they will be safe. But such is not always the case.

If we go back into the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we will find that many things were being taught in its early years, which had not been thoroughly studied. True understanding developed with further study over time. One prime example of this would be the eating of swine’s flesh. “If God requires His people to abstain from swine’s flesh, He will convict them on the matter. He is just as willing to show His honest children their duty, as to show their duty to individuals upon whom He has not laid the burden of His work. If it is the duty of the church to abstain from swine’s flesh, God will discover it to more than two or three. He will teach His church their duty.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 207 [written 1858]. “God has given you light and knowledge, which you have professed to believe came direct from Him, instructing you to deny appetite. You know that the use of swine’s flesh is contrary to His express command, given not because He wished to especially show His authority, but because it would be injurious to those who should eat it.” Ibid., vol. 2, 96 [written 1868].

Just because something was taught at one time in the Seventh-day Adventist Church by the pioneers, does not mean that it is forever settled. The Bible says, in Proverbs 4:18, “The path of the just [is] as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” The pioneers, who were searching and searching for truth, found it, because they gathered more and more light as they studied from the Word. Those who did not continue to study, guided by the Holy Spirit, were left in darkness. (See Proverbs 4:19.)

Many things about which the pioneers wrote and believed at some point in time, and which are being picked up and used by Seventh-day Adventists today, are like the statement quoted above from volume one of the Testimonies. More light has come, changing the understanding on these matters. Some pioneers may have believed in the calling of God by His Hebrew name, that Jesus was created, and the no-personhood Holy Spirit ideas, but light has replaced darkness on these subjects. We should not go back and pick up these errors and begin preaching them today, as, with continued prayer and study, additional enlightenment has been given.

Those who did not keep pace with the light, as it was leading forward, went off on many and varied tangents. Many people today who have not been able to understand the process of how truth developed have, as a result, gone off on their own tangents, regardless of what clarification the light has made on variant issues.

It is not enough to be historic in our beliefs. We must also, through the study of the Word, receive the truth as it developed.

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life. If you have a question you would like Pastor Mike to answer, e-mail it to: landmarks@stepstolife.org, or mail it to: LandMarks, Steps to Life, P. O. Box 782828, Wichita, KS 67278.

Ask the Pastor – Avoid Erroneous Teaching

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Question:

I have lived in the Netherlands for about five years. I am from the Netherlands Antilles. I have studied the book, None Dare Call it Apostasy [Part 1 by Dr. John J. Grosboll, Part 11 by Dr. Ralph Larson], and I have seen many of the things cited in the book happen in the church where I am a member. My question is: Do I have to keep going to this church, or should I study at home with my children and my brother and sister so that we can follow God the way He wants us to follow?

Answer:

You have asked a very basic and fundamental question that has come up in many Seventh-day Adventists’ minds. It is a very delicate and sensitive question. To answer such a question, in a way not in line with denominational policy, can create a great deal of prejudice, because it can be viewed as disloyalty. But we need to be honest and truthful to the Word and to God and not just pleasers of men.

With the many and varied doctrines which are floating through Adventism today both in the structure and in historic circles, it can be spiritually dangerous for us to attend meetings where we can be snared and caught off our guard and led astray. God never requires us to go into a place of danger unless He Himself directly requires this of us. If God requires us to go into a place where error is being taught, then it is His responsibility to protect us from suffering harm. But if we go on our own, then we could face serious consequences. If that place of danger is attending a church where spiritual harm lurks, then it is pretty certain that God would have us to go somewhere else so that we do not receive spiritual damage.

I want to share two quotations from the pen of Ellen White which might help us to focus on this issue.

“We can not afford to separate ourselves from Jesus for a single hour. Without Him we are in danger of being overcome of Satan, who is ever watching to suggest doubt, unbelief, and error. The world is flooded with error; it meets us on every hand. It is taught from the sacred desk, and lurks in theology, in literature, in philosophy, in science. Error perverts the judgment and opens the door to temptation, and through its influence Satan seeks to turn hearts from the truth; but an intelligent love for the truth sanctifies the receiver, and keeps him from the enemy’s deceptive snares.” The Signs of the Times, November 7, 1896.

“God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness.” Early Writings, 125.

It becomes apparent that this can be a very serious matter. Each and every person must study the issues that they are confronted with in their church attendance and make their own decisions, but they must examine closely and carefully, so they are not deceived and caught in a snare from which there may be no escape.

Pastor Mike Baugher is Associate Speaker for Steps to Life. If you have a question you would like Pastor Mike to answer, e-mail it to: landmarks@stepstolife.org, or mail it to: LandMarks, Steps to Life, P. O. Box 782828, Wichita, KS 67278.

SDA Roots, part 2

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In the previous article, two major events were noted that are important to the student of Bible prophecy. First was the taking of the pope prisoner by the French army and the second was the discovery of the Rosetta stone which confirmed the authenticity of the ancient Bible records.

“So the very people who thought to exterminate the Bible were, all unconsciously to themselves, used to bring about a fulfillment of prophecy in taking away the dominion of the papacy at the end of the 1260 years, and also discovered the key to the very writings which confirm the truthfulness of the Scriptures they tried so hard to destroy.” The Great Second Advent Movement, 8, by J. N. Loughborough.

Before 1798, expositors of Bible prophecy knew the beginning date for the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 but did not see the connection between the seventy weeks and the 2300 days of chapter 8. As a result they did not have a beginning date for the 2300 days.

“As this knowledge was ‘sealed up’ until the Lord’s appointed time came for its opening up to the understanding of His people, so just as truly when the ‘time of the end’ came, many were to ‘run to and fro’ through the Scriptures, searching out these things.” Ibid., 85.

“Nothing in this old earth is more powerful than a prophetic truth whose time has come. When Rome was ruling the Western world, a large group of contemporary students of prophecy recognized and proclaimed the identity and fate of the fourth prophetic world empire. When Rome was in process of tenfold division, another cluster of expositors left the written record of their perception, and their fears, of the coming Antichrist. When the papal Little Horn had unveiled its real character and identity, a great host of Reformers in many lands gave their witness to this advancing and then present fulfillment of prophecy—so powerfully that it brought on the Counter Reformation with its clever counter system of interpretation. When the 1260 years were ending, this solemn fact was also proclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic as then in process of fulfillment, while men awaited the next great event.

“And now when the judgment hour was approaching, with the ending of prophetic time, and the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary and the imminence of the advent had come, suddenly the witness was heard in different continents and many lands, giving startlingly similar testimony and exposition of prophecy thereon.” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3, 741, 742.

The following is a list of some of those who arrived at basically the same conclusions regarding the 2300 days, about the same time: William Miller, New York; A. J. Krupp, Pennsylvania; David Mcgregor, Maine; Edward Irving, England; A. Mason, Scotland; L. H. Kelber, Stuttgart, Germany; Laucunza, Spain; Hentzepeter, Holland; Rau, Bavaria; and there were many more.

“Is it not a wonderful coincidence that so many writers, without any knowledge of one another, came to the same conclusion about the same time?” Midnight Cry, June 15, 1842.

 

Decline in Europe

 

The momentum of the proclamation of the 2300-day prophecy in England and Europe declined rapidly due to the serious divergences as well as the similarities among the expositors of that prophecy. This resulted in the breakdown of the great Advent Awakening. But with the loss of momentum in the Old World there developed a rapid advance of it in America. The heralds of the advent in Europe failed to go on to perfection but they supplied the literature for those in America that did proclaim with “a loud voice” the message of the imminent appearing of Christ.

“Around the turn of the century [1800], during and following the world-shaking events and repercussions of the French Revolution, there was an unprecedented general turning to Bible prophecy on the part of an impressive number of thoughtful students of the Word among all leading Protestant faiths. And where one sermon on the theme was published, many more were evidently given orally, without ever getting into print. It seemed as if men had entered a new epoch in searching the pages of the two leading books of prophecy—Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelation in the New—the one obviously the complement of the other.

“It was as though a baffling seal of mystery and restricted understanding of its latter portions had at last been broken. As men of all persuasions on both sides of the Atlantic began poring over these pages as never before, comparing part with part and checking them with history, light began to dawn on certain heretofore mysterious symbols, and greater understanding came on some of its cryptic phrases concerning the last events of the age. And this investigation continued with increasing momentum for several decades.” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4, 56.

There were five major factors leading to the decline in the Old World.

  1. There was a diversity of opinion regarding the number 2300. Is it 2300 or 2400?
  2. Did the 2300 years end in 1844 or 1867? (Assuming that the 1260 and 1335 years had the same starting date).
  3. There was a wide diversity of view as to the cleansing of the sanctuary. Some believed it meant the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, among other views.
  4. The “judgments” of God to be poured out upon the Papacy and Mohammedanism was the message to be proclaimed.
  5. The Catholic Futurist and Preterist counterinterpretations broke the unity of the Protestant’s interpretation when some of them accepted the Catholic view.

When the early expectations of the advent in 1843 did not materialize, certain rationalistic theologians denied that the prophecies connected with this event were inspired. They further stated that the little horn was Antiochus Epiphanes. Rationalistic higher criticism was introduced to lead people away from the truth regarding the authenticity of the Scriptures and this led to the breakdown of the historical school of interpretation in the Old World. By turning men’s minds away from the Scriptures, Satan attempted to negate the great Second Advent message, so that people would be lulled to sleep and ultimately lost.

Following the events that brought in “the time of the end,” the prophecies of Daniel that had been previously sealed were now opened to the minds of those proclaiming the nearness of Christ’s Second Coming. The extent of the quest and activity of these pious men was without a parallel in history. Books and sermons began to pour from them with which nothing could be compared in sheer numbers. This was recognized as a sign of the times and was considered to be a fulfillment of prophecy.

 

Signs of the Times Discerned

 

“The signs of the times, the obvious nearness to the end, and the second coming of Christ to wind up human affairs and vindicate the right and punish wrong, as well as the imminent introduction of the millennium—these were the themes that men studied and upon which they wrote and discoursed most earnestly. Again and again they were led to record their conviction that they were manifestly entering the final epoch in the affairs of mankind.” Ibid., 58.

In Matthew 24, Jesus referred to the great tribulation that should be shortened. (This was accomplished in part by the decree of Maria Theresa and the Acts of Toleration, in France [1773-1776] to save the church in the wilderness from extinction.) He also said that signs (the dark day, the falling of the stars) would follow, indicating the nearness of His coming.

Then Jesus said, “Now learn a parable of the figtree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:32–35.

Here we are brought to the time for this parable and the judgment hour message of Revelation 14:6, 7, to be proclaimed to the world. The time had arrived to arouse the world to the fact that Jesus’ coming was at the door.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century many expositors were proclaiming that the time of the end had arrived. There was definite interest in both the Old and New World in the prophesied signs of the nearness of the Second Advent and millenium.

There was general acceptance that under the sixth seal (Revelation 6:12–17) three events would occur in sequence—a great earthquake, a dark day and a unique falling of the stars. These were to be tokens of the approaching advent.

 

World Events Influence Proclamation

 

“There are transition hours in the course of world events when history seems to change its fundamental course, when it takes on an acceleration, a significance, and a direction previously unknown, as a new concept or revolutionary idea moves mankind forward to new attainments. However, the greatest advances connected with these transition times have not always been merely mechanical or material. Oftentimes they have been intellectual and spiritual, though at times all these factors have converged, as at the opening decade of the eighteenth and the early decades of the nineteenth century.

“It was a time characterized by new and heretofore undiscovered forces, by a new understanding of the times, by the rechanneling of pent-up energies; by new concepts of the world, of power, of society, of freedom, of progress; also often by a new sense of spiritual responsibility, and by new convictions of divine destiny. And strange as it may at first seem, these concepts were to a surprising degree derived from a profound conviction that the destined hour of fulfillment of a great prophetic time and truth, long foretold in Holy Writ, had now come.” Ibid., 82.

Professor K. S. Latourette, of Yale University, lists a number of factors that deeply influenced the religious developments of the nineteenth century. 1. Man’s increased knowledge of the physical universe, which both helped and hindered Christianity. For some, it caused them to believe the Bible to be obsolete and to remove God out of the individual’s experience. 2. The invention of machinery, steamship, railroad and telegraph made possible the more rapid spread of Christianity. This brought about the Industrial Revolution that drastically changed society. 3. Rationalism, Romanticism and the beginnings of evolution all occurred during this period. 4. Nationalism was on the increase. 5. The unprecedented worldwide spread of Christianity by increased immigration of large segments of people from the Old World to the New as well as within the Old.

“Prophecy was the motivating force in much of the religious thought and activity of America in the opening decades of the nineteenth century, according to history professor Oliver W. Elsbee, of Bucknell University. The common conviction held by religious leaders of various denominations regarding the prophetic significance of the time in which they were living, was expressed in pamphlets, periodical articles, and books, as well as in sermons preached before church groups or missionary societies.” Ibid., 85.

By 1833, “The Lord was raising up His messengers or ministers in various parts of the world, who from 1833 to 1834 sounded the cry of Christ’s coming near, ‘even at the doors;’ and these taught the parable of the fig-tree, pointing to these signs of His coming, even as He had instructed them to do. This message, either by the living teacher or through the agency of the printed page, went to every missionary station in the world, and to every seaport on the earth.” The Great Second Advent Movement, 98.

 

Similarities to the Reformation

 

The spread of the interest in and proclamation of the 2300 days and the Second Advent may be compared with the rise of the Reformation in the sixteenth century.

“Germany did not communicate the truth to Switzerland, nor Switzerland to France, nor France to England. All these countries received it from God, just as one part of the world does not transmit the light to another part; but the same shining globe communicates it directly to all the earth. Christ, the day spring from on high, infinitely exalted above all mankind, was, at the period of the Reformation, as at the establishment of Christianity, the divine fire which gave life to the world. In the sixteenth century, one and the same doctrine was at once established in the homes and churches of the most distant and diversified nations. The reason is, that the same Spirit was everywhere at work producing the same faith . . .

“The advent proclamation arose in a similar manner to that above traced in the Reformation. Men were moved out simultaneously in more than four times as many parts of the world, with no knowledge of, or any communication of sentiment with, one another, and began the proclamation of the same Scripture truths, not simply in four nations of the earth, but to the whole civilized world.” Ibid., 99, 100.

In His time and in His manner the God of heaven will carry out His plan for the proclamation of the Gospel of Salvation to a sin-sick world. Men may cause delay because they do not desire to do as the Lord asks them, but nevertheless someone will obey the Divine commands. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14.

In the next article we will take a look at some of the leading men, around the world as well as in America, who were responsible for the development of the Second Advent Movement, leading up to 1844, that swelled to a great crescendo in America.