Tell It to the World t Part I By C. Mervyn Maxwell Objectives and test materials by Joe Engelkemier GOAL The purpose of this study is to explore God's 3. Describe how Adventists discovered that leadings during the early development of the Sev­ the sanctuary to be cleansed is in heaven enth-day Adventist Church in order that we may rather than on earth. possess and share an ever-increasing confidence in Christ. 4. Explain how early Adventists discovered what Jesus is now doing for us in heaven. OBJECTIVES When you have completed your study of the 5. Identify the key emphasis in each of the information presented here, you should be able to: three angel's messages. 6. Explain how early Adventists began 1. Recognize the wide influence of the keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. Millerite movement. 7. Describe what it means to proclaim the 2. Explain how the Millerites arrived at the Sabbath "more fully." precise date of October 22, 1844, for predicting Christ's coming. 8. Summarize the results of the Bible-study conferences of 1848. • Approved by the North American Division Office of 9. Describe the development of the Adven­ Education for 0.5 Continuing Education Units Credit or 5 con­ tist Review. tact hours. C. Mervyn Maxwell is Professor of Church History, Seventh­ t The following material is adapted and abridged, with the day Adventist Theological Seminary, Berrien Springs, Mich­ publisher's permission, from Tell It to the World by C. Mervyn igan. Joe Engelkemier is Editor, North American Division Maxwell (Mountain View, California: Pacific Press Publishing Bible Textbook Program, K-12. Association, 1977), representing about one-fourth of the book. VOL. 43, NO. 3, FEBRUARY-MARCH, 1981 17 10. Explain how Sabbath-keeping Adventists ing took its place. "I told the Lord I was diffident developed an understanding of the inves­ and had not the necessary qualifications." tigative phase of the preadvent judg­ Miller filled an increasingly active role in his ment. local church. He paid closer attention to the con­ version of sinners. And he shared his convictions 11. Summarize why the sanctuary truth is about the coming of Christ with acquaintances "the foundation of our faith." and correspondents. But nothing could satisfy the persistent inner call to preach. By August, 1831, The Second-Advent Awakening after thirteen years of procrastination, the burden on his soul seemed suddenly insupportable. Seventh-day Adventists regard themselves as a "Go and tell it to the world. dynamic movement commissioned to bear a vital "I have appointed you a watchman. Tell it to and highly relevant message to the world during the world!" the current generation. Their roots strike deep into The story of Miller's vow, made on this occa­ the great intercontinental second-advent awaken­ sion, to go and preach if someone would send him ing of the first half of the nineteenth century. an invitation to do so, and of how such an invi­ In the United States, the most prominent leader tation arrived within an hour, much to Miller's of the second-advent awakening was William dismay, and of his subsequent struggle and sur­ Miller. After his conversion in 1816, an intense render-and of his notable success in winning desire to understand the Bible led him to lay aside souls to Christ during his very first series-is so all helps except marginal references and Cruden 's well known as not to need repeating here. We are Concordance and conduct for himself a systematic impressed that Miller preached on the 2300-day study of the Bible, beginning with the first verse of prophecy not because he wanted to (for he most Genesis 1. certainly did not want to) but because he had ines­ Letting the Bible speak for itself, he found that capable reason to believe that God very much most of the problems that had earlier seemed wanted him to. insoluble faded away. Best of all, he found that Jesus, his loving Publishing the Message Friend and Saviour, had promised to come again Right from the start Miller received more invita­ to earth! He found that many other prophetic tions than he could fill. Congregationalists, promises had been fulfilled, so why not this one? Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians vied with each Then one day he came across the text that was to other to draw him away from his farm and into mark him for the rest of his life, Daniel 8:14: their pulpits. To help stanch the demand he "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; published a pamphlet of his sermons at his own then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. " expense. When this only increased the demand by His study intensified dramatically, sometimes widening people's awareness of his work, a printer lasting all day; sometimes all night. Correctly, he published a book of sermons at his expense. determined (using Ezekiel4:6, Daniel 9:24-27, and Other notable leaders who joined Miller other texts) that the 2300 days were 2300 years, included Josiah Litch, a Methodist who had and that they began in 457 B.C. Incorrectly he already become widely known as an interpreter of assumed that the "cleansing of the sanctuary" the prophecies and who accepted Millerism only was the end of the world and the second coming of after he was sure it did not disagree with Christ. In 1818, after two years of undeviating Methodism. He preached widely, published a concentration, he came to the startling conclusion 200-page book on Miller's lectures, and, among that Christ would return "about the year 1843" other things, helped persuade Charles Fitch to join (2300 years after 457 B.C.), and that "in about too. Fitch was a Congregationalist pastor in twenty-five years ... all the affairs of our present Boston, who at one time had been an executive state would be wound up." assistant to the famous evangelist Charles G. Fin­ The end, within twenty-five years? Then others ney. With the aid of Apollos Hale, a well-known must be warned. A voice burned into his soul, Methodist, he developed the "1843 Chart," which "Go and tell it to the world." probably all the lecturers used, showing many For five years Miller brushed the call aside and Bible prophecies converging on 1843. He also vigorously analyzed his position. He was afraid, designed a Daniel 2 image that came apart, he wrote later, "lest by some possibility I should kingdom by kingdom. be in error, and the means of misleading any.'' Besides these outstanding leaders there were More objections occurred to his mind than any of many more. We think of James White, like Himes his opponents brought up later. When years of a minister of the Christian Connection; and of research removed all doubt, fear of public speak- Joseph Bates, also a member of that denomina- 18 THE JOURNAL OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION tion, a layman who was regarded as a minister. time became a source of real courage. In the But no one knows how many helpers there were! month of May, 1844, Josiah Litch published the Contemporary estimates ran from 700 to 2000. Of Advent Shield, a review of God's leading and 174 known ministers, about half were Methodist, teaching thus far in the advent awakening. This, a fourth were Baptist, and the rest included Con­ too, was a source of cheer. gregationalists, Christians, Presbyterians, Episco­ At about this same time, opposition to the palians, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, Quakers, advent hope which had been developing in the and several others. various Protestant denominations reached a It cannot be ovestressed that Miller was not the climax, and Millerites were disfellowshipped. As only leading Millerite! A large company of able, they saw their home churches reject the first thinking men from the major denominations sup­ angel's message of Revelation 14, they recognized ported him, not a few of whom had been blessed that these had become the "fallen" churches of with considerable academic training. It was an "Babylon" predicted by the second angel of that impressive testimonial for the "old farmer." Mil­ chapter. This further contributed to their con­ lerism was a Christ-centered reformation that was fidence that they were a people of prophecy and warmly accepted by many, both laymen and lead­ that God was with them. ers, in the respected churches of the day, and by A few Adventists, notably Samuel Sheffield thousands of infidels, deists, and indifferent souls Snow and his friends, remembered a letter in the restless world outside. William Miller wrote to Signs of the Times on Setting the Time May 3, 1843, in which he showed that just as Jesus died at Passover time in the "first month" (in the Miller's initial calculations carried him down to spring of the Bible's ceremonial year), He might "about the year 1843." In the early part of 1843 perhaps be expected to return on the Day of he published in the New York Tribune an open let­ Atonement in the "seventh month' (in the fall). It ter to Joshua V. Himes, making clear what he was a seed thought destined to bloom. meant by the term. Miller understood that the Bible year 457 B.C. Thus in the summer of 1844 the Millerites saw began in the spring, or, more specifically, on themselves as the virgins in the tarrying time, pro­ March 21, 457, and that therefore the twenty-three claiming and fulfilling both the first and the sec­ hundredth year after it would begin in the spring ond angels' messages. They clung to the promises, of 1843 and end in the spring of 1844.