Transcript The Two Great Disappointments

The Two Great
Disappointments
Lesson 41
1
huangjiahui
Understanding the
2,300 days of
Daniel 8:14 does
not have to be
complex like solving
the Rubik’s Cube
2
“No truth is more clearly taught in the Bible than
that God . . . especially directs his servants on
earth in the great movements. . . of the work of
salvation” (The Great Controversy, p. 343).
3
Men are employed by God to accomplish his purposes.
Each worker has a part to play, and each is given a
measure of light, but no man, no matter how honored,
has ever had a full understanding or a perfect
appreciation of the work he is called to do.
4
This is because God’s ways and thoughts are
higher than our ways and thoughts.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
5
“Even the prophets who were favored with the
special illumination of the Spirit did not fully
comprehend the import of the revelations committed
to them. The meaning was to be unfolded from
age to age . . .”
(The Great Controversy, p. 344)
6
While we are to search diligently to understand
the things God has revealed to us, we sometimes
do not understand what we could because we are
blinded by the traditions and false teachings we
have been exposed to and have grown up with.
This happened in the days of Christ, and it
happened in 1844. Both times a terrible
disappointment followed.
7
The disciples believed the idea popular in their
time that the Messiah would be a heavenly prince
who would establish his kingdom on this earth and
who would then exalt the nation of Israel to be the
ruler of the world.
Remember, at this time the Jewish people were
under the control of Rome, and they wanted to be
free from this control and, therefore, longed for a
Messiah who would give them freedom and, also,
elevate them to rulership.
Herod’s Palace
9
Herod’s Temple
10
Pilate’s Judgment Hall
11
James before
Herod Agrippa
12
Because of their mistaken belief, they could not
understand when Jesus told them he would
suffer and die.
In Mark 1:15, Jesus’ words are: “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:
repent ye, and believe the gospel.” When he
said the time was fulfilled, he was referring to
himself in the prophecy in Daniel 9, verses 2427.
13
“The sixty-nine weeks were declared by the
angel to extend to ‘the Messiah the Prince,’
and with high hopes and joyful anticipations
the disciples looked forward to . . .” (The
Great Controversy, p. 345) the Messiah.
They focused on verse 25 and failed to
comprehend the next verse which speaks of
the Messiah being cut off.
14
Jesus sent his disciples out to preach the
words of Mark 1:15--The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and
believe the gospel--but they themselves did not
understand what they preached. They did what
Christ told them to do, but they misunderstood
the meaning of the words they shared.
15
“They performed their duty in presenting to the
Jewish nation the invitation of mercy, and then,
at the very time when they expected to see their
Lord ascend the throne of David, they beheld
Him seized as a malefactor, scourged, derided,
and condemned, and lifted up on the cross of
Calvary. What despair and anguish wrung the
hearts of those disciples . . . (The Great
Controversy, p. 345, 346)!
16
They couldn’t comprehend the words of
Christ foretelling of his death because they
believed the popular opinion that the
Messiah would establish an earthly
kingdom. Because they accepted this
teaching, they were terribly disappointed,
even though they had been in the very
presence of Christ for years.
17
I saw that God sent his angel to move upon the
heart of a farmer [William Miller] who had not
believed the Bible, and led him to search the
prophecies. Angels of God repeatedly visited that
chosen one, and guided his mind, and opened
his understanding to prophecies which had ever
been dark to God’s people. The commencement
of the chain of truth was given him, and he was
led on to search for link after link, until he looked
with wonder and admiration upon the word of
God.
18
He saw there a perfect chain of truth. That Word
which he had regarded as uninspired, now
opened before his vision with beauty and glory.
He saw that one portion of scripture explained
another, and when one portion was closed to his
understanding, he found in another portion of the
Word that which explained it. He regarded the
sacred word of God with joy, and with the deepest
respect and awe. {1SG 128.1}
19
“Like the first disciples, William Miller and his
associates did not, themselves, fully
comprehend the import of the message which
they bore. Errors that had been long
established in the church prevented them from
arriving at a correct interpretation of an
important point in the prophecy. Therefore,
though they proclaimed the message which
God had committed to them to be given to the
world, yet through a misapprehension of its
meaning they suffered disappointment”
(The Great Controversy, pp. 351, 352).
20
“In common with the rest of the Christian
world, Adventists then held that the earth,
or some portion of it, was the sanctuary.
They understood that the cleansing of the
sanctuary was the purification of the earth
by the fires of the last great day, and that
this would take place at the second
advent. Hence the conclusion that Christ
would return to the earth in 1844” (Great
Controversy p. 409).
21
“Yet God accomplished His own beneficent
purpose in permitting the warning of the
judgment to be given just as it was. The
great day was at hand, and in His providence
the people were brought to a test of a definite
time, in order to reveal to them what was in
their hearts. The message was designed for
the testing and purification of the church”
(The Great Controversy, p. 353).
22
“The professed to love the Saviour; now
they were to prove their love. Were they
ready to renounce their worldly hopes and
ambitions and welcome with joy the advent
of their Lord? The message was designed
to enable them to discern their true spiritual
state; it was sent in mercy to arouse them
to seek the Lord with repentance and
humiliation”
(The Great Controversy, p. 353)
23
“The disappointment also, though the result of
their own misapprehension of the message
which they gave, was to be overruled for
good. It would test the hearts of those who
had professed to receive the warning. . . .
would they rashly give up their experience . . .
? How many had moved from fear, or from
impulse and excitement . . .”
(The Great Controversy, pp. 353, 354)?
24
“This test would reveal the strength of those
who with real faith had obeyed what they
believed to be the teaching of the word and
the Spirit of God. It would teach them, as only
such an experience could, the danger of
accepting the theories and interpretations of
men, instead of making the Bible its own
interpreter”
(The Great Controversy, p. 354).
25
The fruits of the advent movement, the spirit of
humility and heart searching, of renouncing of
the world and reformation of life, which had
attended the work, testified that it was of God.
They dared not deny that the power of the Holy
Spirit had witnessed to the preaching of the
second advent, and they could detect no error
in their reckoning of the prophetic periods. The
ablest of their opponents had not succeeded in
overthrowing their system of prophetic
interpretation”
(The Great Controversy, p. 405).
26
They could not consent, without Bible evidence, to
renounce positions which had been reached through
earnest, prayerful study of the Scriptures, by minds
enlightened by the Spirit of God and hearts burning
with its living power; positions which had withstood
the most searching criticisms and the most bitter
opposition of popular religious teachers and worldlywise men, and which had stood firm against the
combined forces of learning and eloquence . . .”
(The Great Controversy, pp. 405, 406).
27
They studied for many months after the
disappointment and learned more about the earthly
and the heavenly sanctuaries. The heavenly was
the pattern for the earthly:
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places
made with hands, which are the figures of the true
. . .” (Hebrews 9:24).
28
So, the question of the sanctuary is solved--it
is the heavenly sanctuary--but what is the
cleansing of the sanctuary?
29
It was not long after the passing of the time in 1844 that my first vision was
given me. I was visiting a dear sister in Christ, whose heart was knit with mine;
five of us, all women, were kneeling quietly at the family altar. While we were
praying, the power of God came upon me as I had never felt it before. I seemed to
be surrounded with light, and to be rising higher and higher from the earth. I
turned to look for the advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a
voice said to me: “Look again, and look a little higher.” At this I raised my eyes and
saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the
advent people were traveling toward the city. Behind them, at the beginning of the
path, was a bright light which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light
shone all along the path, that their feet might not stumble. Jesus Himself went just
before His people to lead them forward, and as long as they kept their eyes fixed
on Him, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and said the city was a great
way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would
encourage them by raising His glorious right arm, from which came a light that
waved over the advent band; and they shouted: “Alleluia!” Others rashly denied
the light behind them, and said it was not God that had led them out so far. The
light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they
stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into
the dark and wicked world below. (1T 58)
30
Hiram Edson’s
house and
barn.
31
Soon we heard the voice of God like many
waters, which gave us the day and hour of
Jesus' coming. The living saints, 144,000 in
number, knew and understood the voice, while
the wicked thought it was thunder and an
earthquake. (1T 59)
32
Soon our eyes were drawn to the east, for a small black cloud
had appeared, about half as large as a man's hand, which we all
knew was the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence we all
gazed on the cloud as it drew nearer, and became lighter, glorious,
and still more glorious, till it was a great white cloud. The bottom
appeared like fire; a rainbow was over the cloud, while around it
were ten thousand angels, singing a most lovely song; and upon it
sat the Son of man. His hair was white and curly and lay on His
shoulders, and upon His head were many crowns. His feet had the
appearance of fire; in His right hand was a sharp sickle, in His left
a silver trumpet. His eyes were as a flame of fire, which searched
His children through and through. (1T 60)
33
In the Review & Herald of December 14,
1939, Associate Editor W. A. Spicer wrote
an article about the disappointment. The
next ten slides are from his article.
34
Years ago, in western New York, an elderly sister in the faith told me her memories of October
22, in her father’s family. She was then but a little girl. But graven in her memory was the scene
of that day that father and mother, while doing the necessary things in the home, spent the day in
devotion and singing and waiting. No work in the field was undertaken. At last the day was
ending—and the Saviour had not come. The father was sitting in a chair by the door. The little
girl was playing on the lawn. Just as the sun was sinking, its last rays lighted up a little cloud on
the distant horizon. The cloud shone like silver and burnished gold. “Father rose to his feet,” she
told me, “with face lighted with joy. ‘O, praise the Lord,’ he cried, clapping his hands, ‘our
Saviour is coming.’ ” The preparations to meet eternity had all been made. These believers were
ready; their sins were confessed and their wrongs were made right. This father did not have to
attend to these things of getting ready when he saw that shining cloud. He had before that heard
the admonition, “Be ye therefore ready.” It is a lesson for us today as the time of probation
hastens by, someday to end “suddenly.” The disappointment of those waiting ones in 1844 was
indeed bitter. The cleansing of the sanctuary, which was to take place at the end of the prophetic
period, meant to them the coming of Christ to earth to cleanse it from sinful things. The earth
was the sanctuary, they thought. After 1844 they knew not what to think next. Although the
multitudes gave up, a firm body of disappointed second advent believers were waiting and
praying for light that would explain the experience. With the light on the heavenly sanctuary, the
explanation came.
35
Hiram Edson, farmer preacher, leader of a group of early
Adventists in western New York, was the brother who first
caught the light that the sanctuary to be cleansed was the
heavenly sanctuary. He wrote out the experience some years
later, and the story was preserved by his daughter, Mrs. O. V.
Cross, of Florida. In the REVIEW of June 23, 1921, a portion
of his manuscript was reprinted. Here is his testimony to the
coming of the light. Speaking first of the great disappointment,
he wrote:
36
“Our expectations were raised high, and thus we looked for our
coming Lord until the clock tolled twelve at midnight. The day had
then passed, and our disappointment had become a certainty. Our
fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of
weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that
the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We
wept and wept, till the day dawned. . . .
37
“I mused in my heart, saying: ‘My advent experience
has been the brightest of all my Christian experience.
Has the Bible proved a failure? Is there no God in
heaven, no golden city, no Paradise? Is all this but a
cunningly devised fable? Is there no reality to our
fondest hopes and expectations?’ . . .
38
“I began to feel there might be light and help for
us in our distress. I said to some of the brethren:
‘Let us go to the barn.’ We entered the granary, shut
the doors about us, and bowed before the Lord. We
prayed earnestly, for we felt our necessity. We continued
in earnest prayer until the witness of the Spirit
was given that our prayers were accepted, and that
light should be given—our disappointment explained,
made clear and satisfactory.
39
“After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, ‘Let us go to see
and encourage some of our brethren.’ We started, and while
passing through a large field, I was stopped about midway in the
field. Heaven seemed open to my view, and I saw distinctly and
clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the most
holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to this earth on the tenth
day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, He, for
the first time, entered on that day into the second apartment of
that sanctuary, and that He had a work to perform in the most
holy place before coming to the earth; that He came to the
marriage, or in other words, to the Ancient of days, to receive a
kingdom, dominion, and glory; and that we must wait for His
return from the wedding.”—Review and Herald, June 23, 1921.
40
41
42
43
44
Hiram Edson studied this question. Two close friends joined him. . . .
The whole matter was plain. Christ had come to that service in the
most holy above, as the time came in 1844. Their mistake was
explained. The prophecy had been fulfilled. They had looked to this
earth instead of to the most holy place above. There in heaven above,
the judgment hour had come, the time of cleansing the sanctuary
records, as described in Daniel 7:10, 13. This was light. It must be
published to the believers. . . . They agreed to publish it. The matter
was written up in 1845. Early the next year they arranged for it to be
printed in a Cincinnati second advent paper called the Day Star, and it
was published February 7, 1846.
Hiram Edson had to ask his wife for some of her wedding-gift
silverware to pay for this paper. It was sent to many second advent
believers, and Joseph Bates, James White, Ellen Harmon all accepted
the teaching.
45
Horace and Olive Patten wrote this letter to James White when they learned
about Jesus going in the the most holy place in 1844, and he published it in
the Review:
“O that we could tell you with what joy and
gratitude we received the true light on the cleansing
of the sanctuary! No one could be clearer than we
were that the days ended in 1844. In our darkness we
have secretly longed for something that would more
fully explain the past mighty move, and the fulfillment
of this scripture, ‘then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’
Think then of our joy, after waiting near seven long
years in ignorance, to learn that our great High
Priest did exactly fulfill the types on the tenth day of
the seventh month, and entered the most holy place,
in the true sanctuary above.”—Review and Herald,
March 2, 1852.
46
And to this day [1939], in remotest corners of the
earth, the light of the sanctuary truth is gladdening
hearts. Away in the island of Bougainville,
in the Solomon group, east of New Guinea, Brother
Tutty found this truth shaping island lives. He
wrote of a visit to one remote outpost:
“While there I was handed two bags full of native
food as tithe. I asked Rongupitu, the teacher, ‘What
have you been teaching them?’ He replied, ‘The
sanctuary, and showed me his drawing on a board.”
47
“It is interesting to get this picture of the island
teacher, only recently out of heathenism, using a
board and chalk to make real to his hearers the
blessed work of Jesus our high priest in the
heavenly sanctuary.
In 1844 the Sabbath truth first came to the little
group of Adventists in Washington, New Hampshire.
In 1844 the light on the sanctuary in heaven
came first to a group of Adventist believers near
Port Gibson, New York.
Now we see these key truths, in the days of
1846 and 1847, drawing together the men whom
God had called to lead out in the first days of this
advent movement.”
(W. A. Spicer, R & H, December 14, 1939)
48
The next slide come from an article by
W. A. Spicer in the Australasian Record
of August 12, 1940:
49
Thus it was, on October 23, the morning after the disappointment, that Hiram Edson,
bewildered, but trusting, was on his way to visit neighbouring brethren, hoping to
encourage them. On the way through the cornfield, with a companion a little ahead,
Edson knelt behind a shock of corn to pray again for light. There it was that, like a
message from heaven, came the conviction, “The sanctuary to be cleansed is in heaven.”
He stood, looking up, and wondering greatly. His companion turned to see why he had
dropped behind. J. N. Loughborough, who had often talked with Edson, tells how these
words, “The sanctuary is in heaven,” thrilled the man. All of them had thought this earth
to be the sanctuary to which Christ was to come at the end of the 2300 years. Now, like
a message from heaven, it rang in Edson’s heart and mind, “The sanctuary is in heaven!”
J. N. Loughborough wrote:— “He repeated this to his companion, and said, ‘What does
that mean?’ They hastened home, determined to seek light on this matter from the
Scriptures. There they prayed the Lord to guide them to the portions that would give
light on the subject. Brother Edson said he let his Bible drop on the table to see where it
would open. It opened between the eighth and ninth chapters of Hebrews. As they began
to read, Brother Edson said, ‘I suppose I have read that a hundred times, but it never
appeared to me as it does now. The sanctuary is in heaven, and Christ has gone in to
cleanse it!’ They then made a careful study of the sanctuary, Crosier writing out the
points as they studied.”— Review and Herald, September 15, 1921. Thus came to us
that great doctrine of the sanctuary and its cleansing—the light coming first to an
earnest farmer brother.
50
Hiram Edson
Sister Edson
51