The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

Joseph Wolff’s Labors

It may be well at this point to call attention to facts respecting the extent of the advent proclamation:— GSAM 101.2

“In 1831 Joseph Wolff, D.D., was sent as a missionary from Great Britain to labor among the Jews of Palestine. He, according to his journals, down to the year 1845, proclaimed the Lord’s speedy advent in Palestine, Egypt, on the shores of the Red Sea, Mesopotamia, the Crimea, Persia, Georgia, throughout the Ottoman Empire, in Greece, Arabia, Turkey, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Cashmere, Hindostan, Thibet, in Holland, Scotland, Ireland, at Constantinople, Jerusalem, St. Helena, also on shipboard in the Mediterranean, and in New York City, to all denominations. He declares that he has preached among Jews, Turks, Mohammedans, Parsees, Hindoos, Chaldeans, Yesedes, Syrians, Sabeans, to pashas sheiks, shahs, the kings of Organtsh and Bokhara, the queen of Greece, etc.” ⁹ GSAM 101.3

In Yemen, the region inhabited by the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law, Joseph Wolff saw a book of which he thus speaks: “The Arabs of this place have a book called ‘Seera,’ which treats of ‘The Second Coming of Christ, and His Reign in Glory!’ ” ¹⁰ GSAM 101.4

In Yemen he spent six days with the Rechabites, of whom he says: “They drink no wine, plant no vineyards, sow no seed, live in tents, and remember the words of Jonadab the son of Rechab. With them were children of Israel, of the tribe of Dan, who reside near Terim in Hatramawt, who expect, in common with the children of Rechab, the speedy arrival of the Messiah in the clouds of heaven.” GSAM 102.1

We see, from the above, that in those fourteen years, Wolff himself had proclaimed the news of Christ’s coming at the doors, in more than twenty different nations. During the same time the doctrine was extensively agitated in Germany, particularly in the South among the Moravians. GSAM 102.2