The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

II. Disciples’ Disappointment Parallels Their Own

One feature of the conferences was a review of the past. They pondered again the close parallel between the apostolic band and the disappointed advent host of 1844. They re-examined the Disappointment in the light of history, type, and prophecy. They reviewed the study made by Edson and his study group. They saw the remarkable parallel with their own experience: They reiterated the fact that the apostles were commanded, “Go, preach, ... The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 10:7.) But the disciples’ minds were so dominated by the popular concept of Messiah’s coming as a temporal prince, and so imbued with the common expectation of the exaltation of Israel to the throne of universal empire, that they did not sense the real meaning of Christ’s own words, and failed to understand His clear predictions concerning His approaching sufferings and death. PFF4 1027.2

Had not Christ Himself sent them forth with the message, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe”? That commission was based upon the Messianic time prophecy of Daniel 9—the 69 weeks of years reaching to Messiah the prince. So they looked forward with high hopes and eager expectation—though without justification— to His establishment ot the Messianic kingdom at that time in Jerusalem, from whence He would rule as King of kings over all the earth. It was a glowing prospect, and they were to have a vital part therein. PFF4 1027.3

They had earnestly preached their commissioned message to the Jewish nation and had admonished them to repent, though they actually misunderstood and misapplied the vital part of that very message—the actual event to take place. And while they based their time argument rightly on Daniel 9:25, they somehow had not seen that the very next verse called for Messiah to be “cut off.” Their hearts were so set on the glory of an earthly empire and on the conclusiveness and accuracy of the time feature that their eyes were blinded to the actual demands of the prophecy itself. And at the very time that they had expected Him to ascend the throne of David, to their consternation they saw Him seized instead as a malefactor and scourged and put to death on the cross of Golgotha. Their disappointment was inexpressible. PFF4 1028.1

But Christ had indeed come at the exact time and manner foretold by prophecy. The specifications of Scripture had been fulfilled in every detail in His life and ministry. Yet they had met with tragic disappointment as to what was to be accomplished at His first advent, and were cruelly disillusioned over the outcome. Nevertheless, the actual specifications of the prophecy were meticulously fulfilled—and Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and heavenly ministry, though unanticipated by them, and unrecognized at the time, became the very rock upon which the entire hope and faith of the Christian church structure was built. PFF4 1028.2

In the same way the entire group of Sabbatarian Adventists were now more than ever convinced that the early advent movement had given the preliminary message of Revelation 14:6, 7. They had preached the everlasting gospel, and had declared the hour of God’s judgment had come. And the very event they preached-the hour of His judgment—had indeed come, though not at all in the way they had anticipated. For centuries the church had believed that the second advent would immediately precede the judgment. And when Miller presented that as the destined order of last events, it was simply the commonly accepted understanding, the generally received view of the religious world. His argument vas: God has appointed a day of judgment, that judgment follows the resurrection, and the saints are raised and judged at the second advent. So they proclaimed the second advent as at the door. They believed Christ’s priestly ministry in heaven above would cease. And escorted by all the holy angels, He would appear in glory to bless His waiting people, with the judgment somehow attendant. PFF4 1028.3

They had preached the actual consummation of the ages to be at hand. And the nearness of the advent was fundamentally true. The signs of that transcendent event were seen all about them. The outline prophecies had been almost entirely fulfilled—all but the final segments. The scoffers had appeared. But clinging to the popular misconception of the judgment as coming just following the second advent, and still holding that the cleansing of the sanctuary involved the earth being cleansed by fire, they had thought that, when the 2300 years ended, Christ would terminate His work as priest in the holy of holies, or heaven of heavens, and would come to judge the world and purify the earth from sin and sinners-thus cleansing the sanctuary. And that, they had reasoned, would be in immediate connection with His second advent. PFF4 1029.1

They knew that this would take place in the allotted “time of the end,” after the close of the 1260 years of the dominance of the power of the papal Little Horn-or after 1798. And they were familiar with the fact that it Avas shortly after that time that the deep conviction came simultaneously upon the scores of earnest students in Europe and America that the 70 weeks were the first part of the 2300 years, and the interrelated longer period would end about 1843 or 1844-although, as observed, there was sharp division among them as to just what would then happen. PFF4 1029.2

And just as the disciples had clear light and understanding as to the chronological close of the 70 weeks at the first advent, so the Adventists had similarly had reliable knowledge of the time of the terminus of the related 2300 years, as connected with the last events. But as the disciples had declared that “the time is fulfilled,” and that the Messiah was to be manifested to the world as King instead of atoning Sacrifice, so they, while rightly proclaiming the ending of the 2300 years to be in 1844, had similarly declared that Christ would then come as King, instead of entering upon His final Day of Atonement priestly ministry. The parallel was remarkably clear and close. They had both been mistaken as to the event to take place. And their own mistake was apparently no greater than that of the disciples. The judgment must precede the second advent. PFF4 1029.3

The prophecy was true enough, they said. But the cleansing of the sanctuary was in heaven, not on earth. And it had indeed begun. Yet the event forecast was not the advent itself, but the preliminary hour of God’s judgment—a period of time preceding, and leading up to, the advent. This was becoming increasingly clear. PFF4 1030.1