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Ellen G. White: The Early Years: 1827-1862 (vol. 1)

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A Test of True Character

She added: 1BIO 48.2

We fully believed that God, in His wisdom, designed that His people should meet with a disappointment, which was well calculated to reveal hearts and develop the true characters of those who had professed to look for and rejoice in the coming of the Lord. Those who embraced the first angel's message (see Revelation 14:6, 7) through fear of the wrath of God's judgments, not because they loved the truth and desired an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, now appeared in their true light.—Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 186.

An interesting point is that scholars, even those who had no confidence in the near advent of Christ, saw no flaw in the reckoning of the prophecy. Ellen White noted this: 1BIO 48.3

The mistake made in reckoning the prophetic periods was not at once discovered even by learned men who opposed the views of those who were looking for Christ's coming. These profound scholars declared that Mr. Miller was right in his calculation of the time, though they disputed him in regard to the event that would crown that period. But they, and the waiting people of God, were in common error on the question of time.—Ibid. 1BIO 48.4

Ardently the believers had proclaimed what they understood to be the message of the first angel of Revelation: “The hour of his judgment is come” (verse 7). The Bible contained most assuring prophecies concerning the second advent of Christ, foremost of which was given by Jesus Himself: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2, 3). 1BIO 48.5

Some of these promises seemed linked with the judgment. Basic was the prophecy of Daniel 8:14: “Unto two thousand three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” They thought this earth to be the sanctuary; it would be cleansed by fire at the second advent of Christ. 1BIO 49.1

When April 21, 1844, passed—the time first thought to be the end of the 2300 days—and Jesus did not come, the believers checked and rechecked the basis of their reckoning. Ellen White explained this: 1BIO 49.2

Calculation of the time was so simple and plain that even the children could understand it. From the date of the decree of the king of Persia, found in Ezra 7, which was given in 457 before Christ, the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14 must terminate with 1843. Accordingly we looked to the end of this year for the coming of the Lord. We were sadly disappointed when the year entirely passed away and the Saviour had not come. 1BIO 49.3

It was not at first perceived that if the decree did not go forth at the beginning of the year 457 B.C., the 2300 years would not be completed at the close of 1843. But it was ascertained that the decree was given near the close of the year 457 B.C., and therefore the prophetic period must reach to the fall of the year 1844. Therefore the vision of time did not tarry, though it had seemed to do so. We learned to rest upon the language of the prophet, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”—Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 185, 186. 1BIO 49.4

The surety of the Word of God, and the many evidences of the work of the Spirit of God through the proclamation of the coming Advent, provided compelling reasons for holding on to cherished and seemingly certain hopes. 1BIO 49.5

The early Adventists who had been firmly established in the joyous message of the soon-coming Christ to this earth now saw that there was a “tarrying time” they had overlooked; this proved to be a “sad and unlooked-for surprise.” 1BIO 49.6