Please send people who may benefit from reading articles on this site links to the articles; together, we can enlighten souls and bring more converts into Christ's Kingdom.
Rich Kelsey
Better, but now you are implying that you are the sole holder of salvation.
Please send people who may benefit from reading articles on this site links to the articles; together, we can enlighten souls and bring more converts into Christ's Kingdom.
Rich Kelsey
Better, but now you are implying that you are the sole holder of salvation.
Actually, Simon has a point. (Um...Simon? If you want to be taken seriously, lose some of the attitude in your tone, though.)
Rich...How about "Please send people who may benefit from reading articles on this site links to the articles; together, we can enlighten souls."
I think that anyone can be enlightened. The ultimate process of converting to Christ's kingdom can follow many different paths, depending on the individual. Folks may be enlightened, and, ultimately be closer to Christ, but allow them that freedom. Or, in Simon's case, perhaps the freedom to disregard what you are offering.
liz3564 wrote:Rich...How about "Please send people who may benefit from reading articles on this site links to the articles; together, we can enlighten souls."
Liz, that actually put a smile on my face.
Yea, we can do that! These articles have been a joint effort. Just about a week ago one person PMd me and I took her suggestions and changed a few things, along with a paragraph she wrote and put it right in the article.
Hoops thought I should re-word something and I ended up cutting the section. That is the easy way to go. Now, you have contributed.
liz3564 wrote:Rich...How about "Please send people who may benefit from reading articles on this site links to the articles; together, we can enlighten souls."
Liz, that actually put a smile on my face.
Yea, we can do that! These articles have been a joint effort. Just about a week ago one person PMd me and I took her suggestions and changed a few things, along with a paragraph she wrote and put it right in the article.
Hoops thought I should re-word something and I ended up cutting the section. That is the easy way to go. Now, you have contributed.
Envision life in America during the late 17th through early 18th Centuries:
• One day the sun refused to shine. • That night the moon turned to blood. • Then, stars fell from the sky.
These were the days of awe and wonder. People were perplexed by the strange heavenly signs. No one could remember anything like this happening before; neither did they understand the underlying science involved.
In reality, the dark day and red moon were caused by large forest fires, thick fog, and cloud cover. It turned out that the stars falling were actually, “a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle…” This phenomenon occurs every 33 years. Yet, sometimes the meteor storm is more spectacular than at other times. As the earth passed through the tail of the comet; people saw what appeared to be stars falling.
Ministers were quick to connect the signs in the heavens with prophecies in the Bible; insisting the end of the world was near. Bible scholars had determined that, as of 1799, six of Revelation’s seven trumpets had already sounded; and, the rapture of the church would occur during the sounding of the seventh.
William Miller, believing there was little time left, searched the scriptures looking for answers. What Miller found is having repercussions in the world to this day!
William Miller (1782–1849), Founder of a Movement that Branched Into the Seventh Day Adventists:
Miller made it into the history books by predicting the year Jesus Christ would return and the end of the world would come.
Miller said,
"My principles in brief, are, that Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify, and take possession of the same, with all the saints, sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844."
The expected return of Jesus Christ became known as “the Advent” or “the Second Advent.” Miller claimed that he discovered the “time” through a study of Daniel 8:14[xx], along with corresponding verses in Revelation.
Miller came to believe it was his obligation to
“Go and tell the world of their danger.”
That is exactly what he did. On the second Sunday of August 1831, Miller started his public speaking ministry. The crowd that heard him became ecstatic. A huge tent was made. Soon Miller and his associates were preaching hell-and-damnation sermons to large audiences. They used the fear of Christ’s imminent return to stir people up to the point of conversion. During the twelve years that Miller proclaimed “the message of the hour,” he stated that he personally had given over four thousand lectures.
A Small Slip-Up:
Initially, William Miller taught publicly that sometime between March 21, 1843, to March 21, 1844, a great trumpet from heaven would sound, Jesus Christ would catch up the faithful, and the wicked would be destroyed by fire. In this manner Miller believed that the sanctuary, spoken of in Daniel would be cleansed:
"And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed..." (Daniel 8:14, KJV)
Miller taught that the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14 was the earth.
Then, March 21st passed without the anticipated results. Obviously, there had been a slip-up. The wicked made it though the “Time” without a hitch. The righteous followers still firmly on the ground were greatly disappointed.
Adventist leaders tried to make sense out this disappointment. They reasoned that Christ’s Second Coming is an event clearly prophesied in scripture; therefore, many of them came to believe that since it did not occur at the time they first expected; surely it would happen soon thereafter.
Multitudes still held firm to the idea that they were living in the time of the end; and, that the Kingdom Christ spoke would soon be ushered in. One of Miller’s associates, Samuel Snow, pored over the prophecy in Daniel once more, looking for an explanation as to why the Advent had not come to pass. Snow soon figured that Miller was off by one year in his calculations. He believed that from the beginning of the decree spoken of in Daniel to rebuild Jerusalem to 1843, only 2,299 years would have passed.
Evidently Miller’s math was wrong; 1843 ended up being one year shy of the 2,300 years needed to fulfill Daniel’s prophecy. Snow was now certain that Christ would return on October 22, 1844, at midnight. Miller eventually endorsed this new date.
On the Road Again:
“As this new light spread among the Adventist believers, it seemed there was an irresistible power attending its proclamation . . . It swept over the land with the velocity of a tornado and it reached hearts in different and distant places almost simultaneously, and in a manner which can be accounted for only on the supposition that God was in it.”
Miller and Snow claimed:
“There is no possibility of a mistake in this time.”
They warned the unbelieving,
“Those who reject this light will be lost.”
To the uninitiated, the signs of Christ’s coming were too plain to be doubted. Magazines were printed, heralding the coming of Christ. Newspaper reporters attended and covered Adventists’ speaking engagements. Fifteen hundred Millerites traveled across the United States, going from town to town, proclaiming “the Advent near.”
When October 22nd came, the Millerites watched and prayed. With white ascension robes on, many stood upon rooftops, anticipating a heavenly ride. As the midnight hour approached, the faithful were at peace with God. They spent the last hours in quiet solitude. Softly praying. Waiting. Resting. Standing on the brink of eternity. The summer was over; the harvest was in the barns. It was time for the laborers to reap their rewards. Now was the time to flee from Egypt and enter Canaan’s land.
Now was the time.
Nothing happened on October 22nd, 1844. For the faithful, heavy depression set in. This day was perhaps the greatest disappointment to befall the church in the history of the New Dispensation. Fifty thousand of Miller’s followers had found it impossible to stay in fellowship with their former congregations. They left those churches when their peers failed to accept William Miller’s delusion. These fifty thousand now had to face the truth. They hadn’t been taken into glory. The wicked still weren’t destroyed by fire. One by one they retreated from their housetops and places of worship and went to bed.
Miller penned a letter for the faithful:
“Brethren hold fast; let no man take your crown. I have fixed my mind on another time, and here I mean to stand until God gives me more light, and that is today, today, and today, until he comes.”
Could a movement that spanned twelve years and had over fifty thousand believers be wrong? The faithful had been living in a revival-like atmosphere for years. Many had quit their jobs and given all of their possessions to nonbelievers in the days before October 22 as a testimony to their faith. In the days following the Great Disappointment, the unwavering followers were convinced that this was merely the final test. Surely something significant happened on October 22, 1844?
Shut Door Doctrine:
In the weeks and months following the Great Disappointment of 1844, Miller thought the reason why so many people had not received his message, was because deep in their hearts they hated the thought of Christ appearing.
Miller explained:
“We have done our work in warning sinners, and in trying to awake a formal church. God, in his providence has shut the door; we can only stir one another up to be patient; and be diligent to make our calling and election sure. We are now living in the time specified by Malachi 3:18, also Daniel 12:10, Rev. 22:10-12. In this passage we cannot help but see that a little while before Christ should come, there would be a separation between the just and unjust, the righteous and wicked, between those who love his appearing, and those who hate it” (William Miller, letter of Nov. 18, 1844, quoted in The Advent Herald, Dec. 11, 1844, p. 142).
Then, in August of 1845 Miller apologized, admitting he was wrong about the October 22nd 1844 date. He went so far as to denounce the movement, and he no longer had any part in it: “I have no confidence in any of the new theories that have grown out of that seventh month movement, viz., that Christ then came as the Bridegroom, that the door of mercy was closed, that there is no salvation for sinners, that the seventh trumpet then sounded, or that it was a fulfillment of prophecy in any sense.” (William Miller, Apology and Defense (August, 1845), p. 28)
Before Miller walked away from the Adventist’s Movement, he and his associates had taught that probation would close a short time before the Second Advent:
"I am strong in the opinion that the next will be the last Lord's day sinners will ever have in probation. And within ten or fifteen days from thence, they will see Him whom they have hated and despised, to their shame and everlasting contempt" (Letter from William Miller to Elder J. V. Himes, October 6, 1844).