The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

III. Typical Millerite Messages at This Time

The heartthrob of the addresses at these conferences can still be felt, even in their printed form a century later. They were both convincingly logical and earnestly persuasive. Henry Jones’s lecture on “The Nature and Events of Christ’s Second Coming,” at the Lowell Conference, is an example. First, he shows that Christ’s second coming is not the death of the individual. It is not the conversion of the individual, not the periodic spiritual awakenings that come to the church, not the setting up of the church, not the destruction of Jerusalem, and most emphatically not a temporal millennium. Christ will come the second time as soon as the gospel has been preached in all the world as a witness, and not before. He will come personally and visibly, in the clouds of heaven. His coming will be seen as the lightning’s flash that shines from east to west. He will not keep silence, and a tempestuous fire will devour before Him. He will come with vengeance, to gather all nations before Him and execute judgment upon the ungodly. PFF4 585.2

The concurrent events are the resurrection of the dead, followed by the millennium and the final conflagration, and at last the new heavens and the new earth. There can be no millennium until Christ comes, Jones insists, no conversion oL the world first, no antecedent return of the unbelieving Jews, no return of Christ until the gospel is preached everywhere first, and the church is first awakened, like the virgins in the parable. But worldly business will go on “as usual” until Christ comes. ⁵ In his continuing second address, on “The Signs of Christ’s Second Coming, ‘Quickly,’” Jones stresses the telltale recentness of the new and popular postmillennial theory, and remarks: PFF4 586.1

“It seems from a retrospect of the past, only for a short time, that the theory of a long paradisiacal state of the church in this world, to authorize the delay of the Lord’s coming, or to hedge up its way, has gained, perhaps, ninety-nine hundredths of its present popularity within the last century, and that it may be considered as the fruitful source, or legitimate parent, of the multiplied and gross evils which have since made havoc of the faith of the church.” ⁶ PFF4 586.2

Jones stresses the “great signs from heaven” to be seen shortly before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes—celestial harbingers, such as the “darkening of the sun, in the year 1780,” commonly called the “dark day,” and the subsequent “showers of meteors,” as in the early morning hours of November 13, 1833, when the very stars of heaven appeared to be falling to the earth, as the fruit of a tree when shaken off violently, and was so recognized at the very time. ⁷ The foretold deceptions have come to pass. The predicted spiritual darkness is here. The deceptions from peace and war arguments have appeared. The foretold abominations are now seen, along with the scattered power of the church. The predicted inquiry on prophecy has undeniably arisen—the searching question, “Watchman, what of the night?” and the ringing answer given, “Behold, the morning cometh.” The foretold “Midnight Cry” is now being extensively heard, and the last-day scoffers have appeared just as forecast. PFF4 586.3

It was expository preaching, heavily buttressed with Scripture. It produced conviction and led to decision. Men were definitely turned from darkness to light, and from sin to righteousness, as well as persuaded on premillennialism. PFF4 587.1