Our fondest hopes
were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before
We wept, and wept, till the day dawn.
That was Hiram Edsons commentary on the early hours of Oct. 23, 1844. He spoke those words 160 years ago. Do they ring any bells at all for Adventists in 2004?
If youre new in these parts you need to know that the roots of Adventism go back to that Great Disappointment of 1844, when thousands of devout Christians believed that Jesus was going to return on Oct. 22. Daniel 8:14 was the key verse: Unto two thousand three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. The sanctuary was the earth; the cleansing was Jesuss second coming; and the 2,300 days were actually years, taking them to 1843-44. They set the date, waited until midnight, then wept until the sun rose again on the same old earth.
Lets look at all that: the pain and embarrassment, picking up the pieces; and sharpening the focus.
Pain and Embarrassment
If the survivors of the Great Disappointment itself had to weather the mockery of unbelievers, those who have followed them in Adventism have faced quite a different kind of pain: fear and shuddering in the presence of a holy God. But that too is the experience of an older generation. Its foreign territory to most of their children. Can I tell you what its like? Probably not. But at least I should try.
Realizing that the earth itself was not the sanctuary to be cleansed, our Adventist pioneers focused on the only sanctuary left, the one in heaven. And the angel Gabriel himself had told Daniel that the vision of the cleansed sanctuary was for the time of the end (Daniel 8:17). That would mean its for us. Now.
http://www.atoday.com/265.0.html
That was Hiram Edsons commentary on the early hours of Oct. 23, 1844. He spoke those words 160 years ago. Do they ring any bells at all for Adventists in 2004?
If youre new in these parts you need to know that the roots of Adventism go back to that Great Disappointment of 1844, when thousands of devout Christians believed that Jesus was going to return on Oct. 22. Daniel 8:14 was the key verse: Unto two thousand three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. The sanctuary was the earth; the cleansing was Jesuss second coming; and the 2,300 days were actually years, taking them to 1843-44. They set the date, waited until midnight, then wept until the sun rose again on the same old earth.
Lets look at all that: the pain and embarrassment, picking up the pieces; and sharpening the focus.
Pain and Embarrassment
If the survivors of the Great Disappointment itself had to weather the mockery of unbelievers, those who have followed them in Adventism have faced quite a different kind of pain: fear and shuddering in the presence of a holy God. But that too is the experience of an older generation. Its foreign territory to most of their children. Can I tell you what its like? Probably not. But at least I should try.
Realizing that the earth itself was not the sanctuary to be cleansed, our Adventist pioneers focused on the only sanctuary left, the one in heaven. And the angel Gabriel himself had told Daniel that the vision of the cleansed sanctuary was for the time of the end (Daniel 8:17). That would mean its for us. Now.
http://www.atoday.com/265.0.html
