Part of Daniel 8:14 reads “Unto
two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Rather
than reserving the happy ending to what is a temporarily sad story, this brief
commentary will commence with the news that Miller was not wrong about the
significance of the year 1844 (a modification of the prior identification of
1843 as being the date indicated by Daniel). Some selected quotes from the Church Heritage Manual will now be provided
that document the vision that Seventh-day Adventists accept as a very
satisfactory explanation as to why Jesus did not physically return to earth in
1844. These quotes will be prefaced by Psalm 126:5: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
The day of Christ’s return
arrived, but Christ did not appear. To say that the followers of Miller,
including young Ellen Harmon (the future Ellen G. White) were “disappointed” sounds
like an extreme understatement. They were crushed! They were devastated! But
level-headed Hiram Edson had this to say: “There is a God in heaven. He
has made Himself known to us in blessing, in forgiving, in redeeming, and He
will not fail us now. Sometime soon this mystery will be solved.” On the morning of October 23, 1844 (the
proverbial “morning after,” as the Lord was due back on October 22) Edson and
one of his brethren decided to talk a walk through his cornfield. God granted
Edson a vision there. The Heritage Manual
writes: “He seemed to see the sanctuary in heaven, and Christ as
High Priest going from the Holy Place of the sanctuary into the Most Holy. I saw distinctly and clearly, writes
Edson, that instead of our High Priest coming out of the
Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of
the seventh month, at the end of the twenty-three hundred days, He for the
first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary, and that
He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth.
This cleansing of the sanctuary marked the beginning of the investigative
judgment.” William Miller was an assiduous and insightful student of scripture.
He had been right about the date, but misguided as to its manifestation. But all’s
well that ends well. The Bible remains inerrant.
Millerite minister S.S. Snow had
been the man responsible for pinpointing the exact day for Christ’s return,
October 22, 1844. A witness to the reaction of Adventists to the non-events of
that day was pioneer Washington Morse. He had this to say about temporary
setback: “True believers had given up all
for Christ, and had shared His presence as never before. The love of Jesus
filled every soul; and with inexpressible desire they prayed, ‘Come, Lord
Jesus, and come quickly;’ but He did not come. And now, to turn again to the
cares, perplexities, and dangers of life, in full view of jeering and reviling
unbelievers who scoffed as never before, was a terrible trial of faith and patience.”
The “Great Disappointment” resulted in the desertion by most, but not all, of
the followers of William Miller. Miller died in 1849, but his legacy endures,
enshrined in Adventist doctrine.
The 2,300-year prophetic period
that can be found in the book of Daniel is clearly understood, and a
consideration of it is not amenable to extensive commentary, for it is
unambiguous to those accept that a “prophetic day” is equal to a year. This
correspondence is revealed in Numbers 14:34, and also in Ezekiel 4:5-6. Daniel
8:14-17 reads as follows: And he said
unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. And it came to pass, when I, even
I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there
stood before me as the appearance of a man. Now as he was speaking with me, I
was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me
upright. And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last
end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. The “end” was not the
end of the world, but rather (to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill) the beginning of the end.
The work of Uriah Smith (whom I am not, yet I am riding on his coattails at present), Daniel and the Revelation, describes the
heavenly sanctuary. This description is based on its earthly counterpart. Smith
describes the annual cycle of sacrifice that distinguished the earthly
sanctuary, but cites Hebrews 7:25 when writing of the heavenly sanctuary: Instead of being repeated year by year, on
grand cycle is allowed to it, in which it is carried forward and finished
forever (p. 185, 1944 edition). Smith makes an impassioned plea: Reader, do you now see the importance of
this subject? He emphasizes the significance of what occurred in October,
1844: Do you see that if it can be
ascertained when the work of cleansing begins we shall know when salvation’s
last mighty hour has come…
Here is Uriah Smith’s comment
about the “Great Disappointment,” and its effect upon the Advent movement: The disappointment, however, was no evidence
that the Lord was not in the movement, for in the tenth chapter of Revelation
He anticipates this very experience, and in the last verse points His people to
a task of world-wide extent He had yet for them to perform prior to His glorious
appearing, for their work has not yet been finished. “Their work” (yours
and mine) is to share the three angels’ message with the world. Fear God, and give glory to him; for the
hour of his judgment is come…
No comments:
Post a Comment