A New Way of Thinking of an Old Thing

I've been a Seventh-day Adventist since birth--and I've been a baptized member for nine of my 22 years.  For all those years I've heard my pastors, teachers, and parents say "Jesus is coming again!" or "Jesus is coming soon!"

I've sung all the songs, watched the lectures, taken the classes, and visited all the Adventist Historical sites.  I am the perfect, stereotypical Adventist.  The date October 22 has always had an ominous ring to it, though nothing bad has ever happened to me on it.

Then today in my Old Testament Studies class, I was given a new way to look at this date.  October 22nd wasn't the Great Disappointment, as all of us in the church call it.  It was the Great Anticipation.  Our ancestors believed that Jesus was going to come back to earth, to take them out of this sin sick world.  

October 23rd was the day of disappointment.  When the clock stuck midnight on that cold morning the hopes of many were crushed.  Hiram Edson said, "We wept and wept until the day dawn."  Many of these early Adventists left the movement.  They had been disappointed several times earlier, and this was the final straw.  

But the reason I know that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is on a mission sent from God is this: we still exist.  We shouldn't.  Everyone should have given up after October 22, 1844, but they didn't.  In December of 1844 William Miller wrote in the Midnight Cry, "I have set my mind on another time, and here I mean to stand until God gives me more light.  And that [the time God gives me more light] is today, Today, and TODAY until He comes."

In the days surrounding the Disappointment God's truth was given to many, and shared with all who would listen.  They had the right day, but the wrong event.  Jesus wasn't supposed to come to earth that day, but instead was to enter the Most Holy Place in Heaven to act as our Lawyer.

F. E. Beldon's song says it best:

We know not the hour of the Master's appearing;
But signs all foretell that the moment is nearing
When He shall return--'tis the promise most cheering--
But we know not the hour.

He will come, [He will come]
Let us watch and be ready
He will come, [He will come]d
Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!
He will come in the clouds of His Father's bright glory
But we know not the hour.

We don't know when Christ will return, but that doesn't matter.  We know THAT He will come, and that's all that matters.  

Father, we know that Your Son has promised to come back to this earth to take us to Heaven to live with You there.  May that coming be soon, but more importantly, may we be ready for His coming.  This is my prayer for all those who read this.  I pray this in the name of Jesus--He who came to earth, died as a the substitution for our death penalty, rose again on the third day, and is now in Heaven as our advocate.  Amen.