The work of God presents, from age to age, a striking similarity in every great reformation or religious movement. The principles of God’s dealing with men are ever the same. The important movements of the present have their parallel in those of the past, and the experience of the church in former ages has lessons for our own time.
(HF 214.1)
God by His Holy Spirit especially directs His servants on earth in carrying forward the work of salvation. Men are instruments in the hand of God. To each is granted a measure of light sufficient to enable him to perform the work given him to do. But no man has ever attained to a full understanding of the divine purpose in the work for his own time. Men do not fully comprehend in all its bearing the message which they utter in His name. Even the prophets did not fully comprehend the revelations committed to them. The meaning was to be unfolded from age to age.
(HF 214.2)
Peter says: Of this salvation “the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister.” 1 Peter 1:10-12, italics supplied. What a lesson to the people of God in the Christian age! Those holy men of God “inquired and searched diligently” concerning revelations given for generations yet unborn. What a rebuke to the world-loving indifference which is content to declare that the prophecies cannot be understood.
(HF 214.3)
Not infrequently the minds of even God’s servants are so blinded by tradition and false teaching that they only partially grasp the things revealed in His Word. The disciples of Christ, even when the Saviour was with them, had the popular conception of the Messiah as a temporal prince who was to exalt Israel to universal empire. They could not understand His words foretelling His suffering and death.
(HF 215.1)
Christ had sent them forth with the message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:15. That message was based on the prophecy of Daniel 9. The “sixty-nine weeks” were to extend to “the Messiah the Prince,” and the disciples looked forward to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom at Jerusalem to rule over the whole earth.
(HF 215.2)
They preached the message committed to them, though they misapprehended its meaning. While their announcement was founded on Daniel 9:25, they did not see in the next verse that Messiah was to be “cut off.” Their hearts had been set upon the glory of an earthly empire; this blinded their understanding. At the very time when they expected to see their Lord ascend the throne of David, they beheld Him seized, scourged, derided, and condemned on the cross. What despair and anguish wrung the heart of those disciples!
(HF 215.3)
Christ had come at the exact time foretold. Scripture had been fulfilled in every detail. The Word and the Spirit of God attested the divine commission of His Son. And yet the disciples’ minds were shrouded in doubt. If Jesus had been the true Messiah, would they have been plunged into grief and disappointment? This was the question that tortured their souls during the hopeless hours of that Sabbath between His death and resurrection.
(HF 215.4)
Yet they were not forsaken. “When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.... He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.”“Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.”“I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” Micah 7:8, 9; Psalm 112:4; Isaiah 42:16.
(HF 216.1)
The announcement made by the disciples was correct, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand.” At the expiration of “the time”—the sixty-nine weeks of Daniel 9 which were to extend to the Messiah, “the Anointed One”—Christ had received the anointing of the Spirit after His baptism by John. The “kingdom of God” was not, as they had been taught to believe, an earthly empire. Nor was it that future, immortal kingdom in which “all dominions shall serve and obey him.” Daniel 7:27.
(HF 216.2)
The expression “kingdom of God” designates both the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. The apostle says: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace.” Hebrews 4:16. The existence of a throne implies the existence of a kingdom. Christ uses the expression “the kingdom of heaven” to designate the work of grace upon the hearts of men. So the throne of glory represents the kingdom of glory. Matthew 25:31, 32. This kingdom is yet future. It is not to be set up until the second advent of Christ.
(HF 216.3)
When the Saviour yielded up His life and cried out, “It is finished,” the promise of salvation made to the sinful pair in Eden was ratified. The kingdom of grace, which had before existed by the promise of God, was then established.
(HF 216.4)
Thus the death of Christ—the event which the disciples looked upon as the destruction of their hope—was that which made it forever sure. While it brought a cruel disappointment, it was the proof that their belief had been correct. The event that had filled them with despair opened the door of hope to all God’s faithful ones in all ages.
(HF 216.5)
Intermingled with the pure gold of the disciples’ lave for Jesus was the base alloy of selfish ambitions. Their vision was filled with the throne, the crown, and the glory. Their pride of heart, their thirst for worldly glory, had led them to pass unheeded the Saviour’s words showing the true nature of His kingdom, and pointing forward to His death. These errors resulted in the trial which was permitted for their correction. To the disciples was to be entrusted the glorious gospel of their risen Lord. To prepare them for this work, the experience which seemed so bitter had been permitted.
(HF 217.1)
After His resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples on the way to Emmaus, and, “expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” It was His purpose to fasten their faith upon the “sure word of prophecy” (Luke 24:27; 2 Peter 1:19), not merely by His personal testimony, but by the prophecies of the Old Testament. And as the very first step in imparting this knowledge, Jesus directed the disciples to “Moses and all the prophets” of the Old Testament Scriptures.
(HF 217.2)
In a more complete sense than ever before the disciples had “found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write.” The uncertainty, the despair, gave place to assurance, to unclouded faith. They had passed through the deepest trial possible for them to experience and had seen how the word of God had been triumphantly accomplished. Henceforward what could daunt their faith? In the keenest sorrow they had “strong consolation,” a hope which was as “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” Hebrews 6:18, 19.
(HF 217.3)
Saith the Lord: “My people shall never be ashamed.”“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Joel 2:26; Psalm 30:5. On His resurrection day these disciples met the Saviour, and their hearts burned within them as they listened to His words. Before His ascension, Jesus bade them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,” adding, “Lo, I am with you alway.” Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:20. On the Day of Pentecost the promised Comforter descended, and the souls of the believers thrilled with the conscious presence of their ascended Lord.
(HF 217.4)
The experience of the disciples at the first advent of Christ had its counterpart in the experience of those who proclaimed His second advent. As the disciples preached, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand,” so Miller and his associates proclaimed that the last prophetic period in the Bible was about to expire, that the judgment was at hand, and that the everlasting kingdom was to be ushered in. The preaching of the disciples in regard to time was based on the seventy weeks of Daniel 9. The message given by Miller and his associates announced the termination of the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14, of which the seventy weeks form a part. The preaching of each was based upon the fulfillment of a different portion of the same prophetic period.
(HF 218.1)
Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not fully comprehend the message which they bore. Errors long established in the church prevented a correct interpretation of an important point in the prophecy. Therefore, though they proclaimed the message God had committed to them, yet through a misapprehension of its meaning they suffered disappointment.
(HF 218.2)
Miller adopted the general view that the earth is the “sanctuary,” and he believed that the “cleansing of the sanctuary” represented the purification of the earth by fire at the coming of the Lord. Therefore, the close of the 2300 days, he concluded, revealed the time of the second advent.
(HF 218.3)
The cleansing of the sanctuary was the last service performed by the high priest in the yearly round of ministration. It was the closing work of the atonement—a removal or putting away of sin from Israel. It prefigured the closing work of our High Priest in heaven in the removal or blotting out of the sins of His people which are registered in the heavenly records. This service involves investigation, a work of judgment, and it immediately precedes the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, for when He comes every case has been decided. Says Jesus: “My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12. It is this work of judgment that is announced in the first angel’s message of Revelation 14:7: “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.”
(HF 218.4)
Those who proclaimed this warning gave the right message at the right time. As the disciples were mistaken in regard to the kingdom to be set up at the end of the “seventy weeks,” so Adventists were mistaken in regard to the event to take place at the expiration of the “2300 days.” In both cases popular errors blinded the mind to truth. Both fulfilled the will of God in delivering the message He desired to be given, and both through misapprehension of their message suffered disappointment.
(HF 219.1)
Yet God accomplished His purpose in permitting the warning of judgment to be given as it was. In His providence the message was for the testing and purification of the church. Were their affections set upon this world or upon Christ and heaven? Were they ready to renounce their worldly ambitions and welcome the advent of their Lord?
(HF 219.2)
The disappointment also would test the hearts of those who had professed to receive the warning. Would they rashly give up their experience and cast away their confidence in God’s Word when called to endure the reproach of the world and the test of delay and disappointment? Because they did not immediately understand the dealings of God, would they cast aside truths sustained by the clear testimony of His Word?
(HF 219.3)
This test would teach the danger of accepting the interpretations of men instead of making the Bible its own interpreter. The children of faith would be led to a closer study of the Word, to examine more carefully the foundation of their faith, and to reject everything, however widely accepted by the Christian world, that was not founded upon Scripture.
(HF 220.1)
That which in the hour of trial seemed dark would afterward be made plain. Notwithstanding the trial resulting from their errors, they would learn by a blessed experience that the Lord is “very pitiful, and of tender mercy”; that all His paths “are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” James 5:11; Psalm 25:10.
(HF 220.2)