Episode Transcript
Welcome to God's. Last message to the world. Presented by Dr.
Allan Lindsay. This is an eight part series showing the certainty of Bible prophecy. The accurate fulfillment of past prophecies give confidence in those that are yet to be fulfilled.
This presentation is entitled Jesus is Coming Soon. Hello, and welcome again to the fourth presentation in our series dealing with the last message to go to the world. God sending a message to the world.
And that very important subject is the theme for these eight presentations altogether. We're so happy to welcome those of you who are in the studio and those who, wherever you live, around the world. We are glad that you have tuned in to this presentation today.
You may remember that we should always commence with prayer. So let us bow heads in a word of prayer. Dear loving Father, we thank you, Lord, for the confidence that we can have in opening Your Word.
It is the word of truth. It's the word that leads us to eternal life if we but believe. And before we commence today, we ask for the One who is sent to guide us into truth, the Holy Spirit.
May he be present not only here, but in each heart of those who are listening. And we ask this in Jesus'precious name. Amen.
In the first three presentations of this series, we set up a chart that describes the events outlined in Bible prophecy of what would happen in the time of the end. Now, that's an unusual expression, but it's found in the Scriptures, and it refers to the period of time from 1798 until the second coming of Jesus. And during that time, the Bible already has predicted.
And I want you to notice that word it's foretold in the future what's going to happen in the world as we lead up to the second coming of Jesus and these events, as you can see on the screen, first of all, we have dealt with Daniel's book being closed until the time of the end. We found that the time of the end began at the end of that prophetic time period that you see on the screen of 1260 day years. And when that year came, 1798, that's the beginning of the time of the end.
Now, those are all features that the Bible has predicted. Today we're going to begin to look at how the events that we've seen in that chart during the last three presentations are all going to be miraculously and marvelously fulfilled. Because today we're going to go back and we need to go back to France.
It's the 1790s, the time of the Great Deluge or the French Revolution. France was involved in a terrible period of time. The people were rising up against their rulers, with thousands of people executed with the guillotine.
The country's rebellion against God actually reached its zenith, its its pinnacle, in 1793, because in that year, they led King Louis XVI to the guillotine himself. And that terrible time not only brought an end to the life of the king, but it brought an end to religion in France, because in 1793, the National Assembly of France abolished the worship of God, bibles were burned, and all religion was formally abolished. In their rebellious zeal, the French government was determined also to abolish the power and the authority of the Church of Rome.
And as a result, that power had to be brought to judgment in the estimation of the French. So, in a very dramatic fulfillment, the 1260 years of supremacy was brought to an end. And at that particular time, some very dramatic events occurred.
In that year, on February 10, 1798, right on time, I say again under orders from the French government, general Bergier entered Rome. And on February the 15th, he came to the Sistine Chapel. And there on that day, the Pope, Pope Pius VI, was receiving congratulations, because it happened to be the day when they were celebrating his anniversary as Pope of the Roman Church.
Here he was sitting in the Sistine Chapel. You see it there in a yellow circle, very closely connected to St. Peter's Square there on the right hand side of the picture.
But on that particular day, the Pope, as I said, was in the Sistine Chapel. And there's the outside of the building. Very impressive.
It's been there for a long time, the Sistine Chapel. In fact, it's in that chapel where they elect the new popes. Every time a new Pope is elected, they come to the Sistine Chapel, and there they will find it.
And inside it is a beautiful building. Some of you may have stood inside that building I have and looked up at its impressive ceiling paintings by Michelangelo, the famous painter, portraying various scenes in the Bible. But as I stood there looking up at that ceiling, and there's a picture of some of Michelangelo's beautiful paintings, I was amazed to see that he painted one particular person.
Michelangelo painted Daniel on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and when he painted it, he could never have imagined that right underneath that painting, in 1798, one of Daniel's most impressive prophecies would be fulfilled, because there he is right there, painted with a book in his hand. Daniel is written on the bottom of the painting. Very significant in the light of what happened there at that time.
Well, sometime later, I had the opportunity of walking down the Vatican Museum, and I was amazed to find, painted above a doorway in the museum, a painting commemorating, if that's the right word I should use, the time when General Betier was capturing the Pope and taking him prisoner. He went across to France, and in 1799, he died. The following year, Pope Pius VI died as a prisoner in France, and Napoleon had said, There will be no more Popes elected.
Well, Napoleon was not a student of Bible prophecy, as we will see about a century later, Joseph Rickabee, who was a Jesuit priest, observed about the events of 1798. Half of Europe thought that with the Pope, the papacy was dead. The time of the end had begun 1798.
If the Book of Daniel was to be opened up in the time of the end, we would expect that after 1798 that there would be a great awakening of interest in the Book of Daniel that was predicted. Today we're looking at the marvelous story of how history has been fulfilled. Because did anything happen after 1798 in their interest in the Book of Daniel? True to the prediction, the events that had happened in Rome with the capture of the Pope, and they declared that the Papal States were abolished, he'd lost his authority over the nations of Europe.
That was what had happened in 1798. Is there anything to indicate that after that, Bible scholars began to look at the Book of Daniel? They saw that Daniel seven that recorded the 1260 years had been fulfilled. And so they began a period of great study.
And I find this amazing and marvelous that at that time they began to see so many events that were now being fulfilled. I'm going to put on the screen a chart. Now, you won't be able to see the details of the chart except for something that I want to point out to you, because this is a chart of the old world interpreters who began to look at the Book of Daniel.
Now, even though you can't see probably the individual horizontal lines, because each of those lines represents some Bible scholar student, somebody who was interested in studying the Book of Daniel, the line represents their lifeline, if I could describe it that way. But I want you to notice that there are two heavy vertical lines on that chart. At the top of the vertical line on the left is the year 1798.
At the top of the horizontal line on the right is the year 1844. Now, what I find very interesting in looking at this chart is that on those horizontal lines, you'll notice that there are some little black dots. And those little black dots represent a pamphlet or a book or some kind of published material where those authors listed there have written on the book of Daniel.
Now, if I was to ask you, could you see any little black dots on the left of 1798? I think if you could see it more clearly, there's just one. But if you could see all the black dots and you'll notice them as you go toward the bottom of the screen, there are many black dots, all indicating, I say again, something that was published, a pamphlet or a book or something like that on the book of Daniel. Why do we see so many black dots in the middle on the left? Only about one, and it peters off even after 1844.
Dear friends, I believe that as you're looking at that chart, you are looking at a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, because the book of Daniel was to be opened up. It was to be unsealed after the time of the end. What was their focus after 1798? They began to just to be realized that not only was there a time prophecy in Daniel seven, they only had to turn their pages of their Bible over one page, and there is the longest time prophecy in the Bible.
And they began to study Daniel eight. What is this longest time prophecy in Daniel eight? Verse 14. We've looked at it in our previous presentations.
We see this prophecy for and he said to me, for 2300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed. In our discussion of this prophecy in our previous presentations, we saw that the highest angel in heaven was sent down to Daniel to explain this very prophecy, the 2300 days or years is. And we read about that in the next verse.
Then it happened when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning of the vision, that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai that's a river, who called and said, gabriel, make this man understand the vision. And now notice what follows.
So he came near where I stood, and when he came, I was afraid and fell on my face. But he said to me, understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end. In that last expression, we read there that the vision of the 2300 years would be fulfilled in the time of the end, sometime after 1798.
Well, we need to look today a little bit more at that, because what happened in history after the events of 1798, scholars began to look at this 2300 year prophecy. And with the approaching end of this longest time prophecy given to Daniel, I'm encouraged, as I consider, that God raised up a whole army, as it were, of prophetic interpreters to witness its fulfillment. You know, somebody has said that there is nothing more powerful than a prophetic truth whose time has come.
Never, and I use that word wisely, dear friends, never in the history of prophetic interpretation was there such a chorus of voices as those proclaiming the imminent fulfillment of the 2300 year prophecy. Scholars leading men of the age from practically every religious persuasion. You may not have heard of Dr.
Froome, who has written a monumental work of four volumes that he called The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, dealing with the history of prophetic understanding over the previous 2000 years. And he lists listen to this 132 scholars between 18, 18, 44 who were studying the prophecy of the 2300 years. And with remarkable unanimity, they pointed to the fulfillment in the 1840s.
I want you to look at some statements that dr. Froome has made concerning these distinguished expositors that is, the people who were beginning to see and study the 2300 year prophecy concerning these distinguished expositors. They were scattered over Europe, the British Isles, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Northern Africa and even India.
Not to mention Dr. Joseph Wolf who traveled all over Asia and Asia Minor and parts of Africa as well as Europe and the United States. And these men were all noticed proclaiming the same the prophecy of the 2300 years and agreeing in the time when it would be fulfilled sometime in the 1840s.
And notice, Dr. Froom continues, these men were among the leading clergymen, theologians, educators, editors, college presidents, physicians, statesmen barristers, and military men of the time and were of every religious persuasion anglican, Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Christian Disciple, and even including a Roman Catholic. I want you to begin to see that there's something significant happening.
But remember, as we've discovered, this was all foretold as going to happen in the future. In the time of the end, Dr. Froome continues, the approaching terminus that is, the approaching date at the end of the 2300 years had a far wider, more numerous and noteworthy body of heralding expositors than any previous fulfillment.
And, he continues, it was the most widespread prophetic message ever heralded to men up to that time. This is nothing that's hidden in a corner, dear friends, god is working. He had predicted this would happen, and now we're beginning to see the amazing fulfillment of this time.
One of the many scores of these Bible students was an unassuming man by the name of William Miller. The chart that you're now seeing on the screen is a chart of 88 men who were speaking about the 2300 year prophecy. God is working here.
Something significant is happening. And the one that's underlined in yellow there on the chart is this man, William Miller, number 77. And it's his story that I want to tell you about this morning because of its significance.
William Miller was a Baptist, and he lived in the state of New York. And he was the man who responded to God's call to lead the greatest movement emphasizing the soon coming of Jesus in the history of the world. Let's have a look at this man, william Miller, born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1782 to Christian parents.
And when he was four years of age, his family moved to Low Hampton in the state of New York. Now, you might see a little arrow there in that map and that's pointing to Hampton or Low Hampton, as it was called, right on the border between the state of Vermont and that large state in the white, the state of New York. And it was here that William Miller spent most of his life, soon after his marriage in 1803 to his wife Lucy, they moved to Polkney in the state of Vermont, just over the border.
And here this young Christian couple came under the influence of people in the village who were Deists. Now, Deism, which is you could almost call it a religion, deism had developed from the French Revolution, and this is in the early 18 hundreds, the 1790s, of course, for the French Revolution, and he became a Deist. Now, you may not know what a Deist believes, so let me put it on the screen for you.
A theist and a deist. There are two words that are closely to each other, but a theist, a Deist, rather, is from the Latin word for God, DEOs. And a deist believes in a God who set the world under law.
He created the world, put it under law, the law of gravity and all the other laws that govern our world. But notice the difference. He then withdrew from planet Earth with no more interest in its affairs.
That's what deists believed. And therefore, if you're a Deist, for a Deist, there is no Bible, because why would a God who's gone to the edge of the universe bother to write anything that's going to be helpful for the people on a planet that he's got no more interest in? Not only would there be no more Bible needed, but you don't believe in prayer if you're a Deist, because this God is so far away, he's not interested in the affairs that you're facing on Earth. Then, too, if you're a Deist, there is no Savior, because why would this God ever personally visit a planet where he had no more interest? And finally, dear friends, if you're a Deist, there's no resurrection.
And it was this religion of deism that young William Miller and his wife accepted. They gave up their Christian faith, and that was a very significant time in his life. Well, he came to New York State and here he built this home.
It's still standing today, and you can visit it. And I've had the pleasure and the privilege of visiting this home constructed by this man, William Miller. And that's the back view of his home.
But what we need to know about it, because it's good news from now on. In 1816, William Miller, when he was 34 years of age, was reconverted. He came back to realize the great and wonderful truths of salvation.
And he writes about it in this way. And I want you to notice what he says. I was constrained to admit, rather reluctantly at the beginning that the Scriptures must be now, remember what I said about the Bible.
And when you're a Deist, the Scriptures must be a revelation from God. They became my delight. And in Jesus I found a friend.
The Scriptures, which before were dark and contradictory, now became the lamp to my feet and a light to my path. The Bible now became my chief study. And I can truly say and keep this in mind with all I'm about to tell you.
I searched it with great delight, I found the half was never told me. He says that was his experience. And here when I had the privilege of visiting William Miller's study, it was here that he spent, after coming to that conclusion in 1816, the next two years, sometimes studying right through the night, taking the Bible that he had now come fallen in love with to search what the Bible really teaches.
He went right through the Bible, examining every text, and the only other book he ever used was a concordance to show him other texts in the Bible that mentioned the word that he was now studying in the Scriptures. He was earnestly searching for truth. And as he studied, he came, and I'm going to leave these three with you three very significant conclusions.
What were they? First of all, the post millennial view. Now, that probably needs a little explanation. The postmillennial view is referring to the belief that was widely held among Protestant Christians in America in the early 18 hundreds that taught that the second coming of Jesus would come at the end of the millennium.
Now, that word millennium is referring to the thousand years that are mentioned in the Book of Revelation, chapter 20. If you want to follow it up a little bit more. The post millennial view that Jesus was coming a thousand years at the end of the millennium and the Gospel was going to be preached during the millennium to the world, and God's kingdom would be established on the Earth.
Notice the ideas that are part of this post millennial view. Most Christians believed that at the time, in the early 18 hundreds. And that helps me to understand how startling they found Miller's view, because Miller realized that this post millennial view was wrong, that the coming of Christ would come before the millennium, not at the end.
And so Christians in those days, particularly in America, were saying, well, we're almost living at the beginning of the millennium, but if Jesus is not coming till the end of the millennium, the coming of Jesus is a thousand years off. But Miller found that that view was wrong, that the millennium that was introduced by the coming of Jesus, that the second coming of Christ would take place at the beginning of the millennium, not at the other end. That was a startling conclusion.
But then there was something else that he taught, and that is that the 2300 days that we've noticed in Daniel 814 represented 2300 years to be fulfilled. Miller worked out about 1843 or 1844. You know, friends, it surprises me, but in these days, when communication between people is so easy and we can pick up newspapers and go to the web and computers, et cetera.
But in those days, when the communication wasn't so good, miller never realized that there were you remember that chart 88 people who were studying the 2300 years as well. He never realized that he thought he was the only one in the world coming to the conclusions that he was coming to. And what was the third conclusion he came to? That the cleansing of the sanctuary.
Now, what do we mean by that? Do you remember the text, under 2300 years, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed? He had to say, well, what's the cleansing of the sanctuary? He did what he had honestly and earnestly done before when he came across a word that he couldn't understand, took his concordance and looked up the word sanctuary and looked up at all the verses in the Bible, probably you and I have never done that, that mentioned the word sanctuary to discover what it meant. And he discovered that there were seven things in the Bible that could be described as being associated with the sanctuary. Five of them he dismissed because he said, those things can't be cleansed unto 2300 days or years, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
And he accepted two, which pointed him to the fact that he believed the earth was going to be cleansed by fire at the second coming of Jesus. Now, that was an incorrect conclusion, but that's what he believed. And we find that Miller came back to his home, and there in his study, the more he studied, the more he was convinced that it was true, because as he looked at what the Bible taught, he examined for the next five years every possible objection to his conclusions.
People afterwards who went to his meetings, and they had a question time, they never found that they could ask a question of William Miller, that he couldn't give an answer from the Scriptures. And for five years, he went over every text that he thought contradicted what his conclusions were. And then for the next nine years, he continued on.
And the longer he delayed, the longer and the heavier became rather, the convictions. If Jesus is coming in round 18, 43, 44, I've got to tell the world but he felt he was too old to preach. He was just a farmer.
He'd never been to a theology school. And the more he delayed trying to justify himself, the more he was convicted. You must tell the world and finally, in August 1831, he made a bargain with God.
You know, dear friends, it's a bit dangerous to make bargains with God. God has the habit of keeping his side of the bargain. And what was his bargain? He was now 49 years of age, and he said, if anyone invites me to preach, Lord, I'll go.
I'll go. Quite confident that the Lord could not use a 49 year old preacher. I don't know.
And you know, dear friends, history tells us that within half an hour of that bargain, there was a knock at the door of his home. And he saw there his 16 year old nephew, Irving Guilford, and he was inviting him to preach at his father's church. In Dresden, about 25 km away, and to tell the people what you've been studying about the soon coming of Jesus.
Well, his little daughter Lucy tells us that she never forgot that day she saw her father go to the back door of the house, slam the door and walk across towards the maple grove just opposite the back door of the house. I have walked over that field into that maple grove. And that day Miller went right into the maple grove and he knelt in prayer, wrestling with God.
For one whole hour, dear friends, he wrestled with God. But somebody has said he went into that grove a farmer, and he came out a preacher. He came out a preacher.
From 1832 to 1844, William Miller preached some 3200 sermons. In 1833, he had been granted a license by the Baptist Church, and there it is to preach. And he took advantage of that license and began to preach.
And between 1832, as I said, he preached 3200 sermons in more than 500 villages and cities of the eastern United States. Sometimes he preached to eight to 10,000 people. Soon hundreds of ministers joined him.
Estimates vary that from 700, some historians even say up to 2000 ministers of various denominations convinced that what Miller was preaching was biblical and true. In England, there were some 700 Anglican clergymen proclaiming the event as well. After 1840, they began to conduct large public rallies along the Eastern Seaboard.
Because America was not as it is today, with so many states westward, california was not yet hardly invented. They set up 125 camp meetings that attracted up to 10,000 people. It's estimated that one in every 35 Americans attended one of the Millerite meetings on the screen.
And I've taken this from a newspaper. At the time, they erected the largest tent ever erected in America. Up to that time.
It was a tent that could seat 4000 people. And soon they found it too small and they had to put a splice across the tent so that another 2000 could be fitted in 6000 people. And even that proved too small.
They began to publish a series of journals, magazines. Over 30 of these journals were published and they released what one historian has said was an unprecedented media blitz. The world needed to be warned that Jesus was coming.
Soon it's estimated that some 5 million pieces of literature were published to tell the world Jesus is coming. And the world had to be warned. Initially, dear friends, miller set the date as 1843.
But he didn't realize that when you cross BC to Ad time, there is no year zero. It's BC. Three BC.
Two BC. One. One Ad.
One, two Ad. Three Ad. And that meant when he realized that he had to adjust it to 1844.
And eventually in August 1844, a date was set in 1844 based upon what they thought was biblical evidence. In the Book of Leviticus, chapter 16, a chapter that describes one of the seven annual Jewish feasts. And many Christians today and then certainly believe that these seven feasts, when you really begin to look at them, they point to significant events in the life and ministry of Jesus.
And of all these seven feasts, the most solemn of them was the day of Atonement. On that day, the ancient Jewish sanctuary was cleansed listen to my words was cleansed of the sins that had been confessed during the previous year. It was held on the 10th day of the 7th Jewish month, which in the year 1844, because they said, well, they went to the leading Jewish scholars of the time and said, when is the 10th day of the 7th Jewish month in 1844? And they received the answer from the Karate Jews it's October 22, 1844.
It was concluded then that on this day, jesus would complete the cleansing work in heaven and return to the earth. On October 22, 1844, the effect of this announcement upon the whole movement was electrifying. I want you to notice a statement by Joshua Hines.
This man was the leading what should I call him? The public relations officer for the Millerite movement, a Godly minister. And he wrote this talking about that 7th month movement, the 10th day of the 7th month, when they realized from scripture that October 22 was this date. Notice what he says.
In the 7th month movement, there seemed to be an irresistible power which prostrated all before it. Its message reached hearts in different and distant places almost simultaneously, and in a manner which can be accounted for only on the supposition that God was in it. It produced everywhere the most deep searching of heart please notice this.
And humiliation of soul before the God of high heaven. We could but exclaim, said Joshua Heims, what were we that we should resist God? What were we that we should resist God? Well, many who participated in that movement later testified that of all the religious movements since the days of the apostles, none have been more free of human perfection and Satan's deceptions than was that of the autumn of 1844, autumn in the Northern hemisphere. Even many years later, they spoke of their convictions that the movement was blessed by God.
As the expected day drew near, dear friends, more than 150,000 waited for Jesus to come. Now, some scholars, I notice, put the number much higher than that, but I've taken the lowest estimate. 150,000 people were waiting for Jesus to come.
And I was interested to sort of work it out that when you compare that number to the population at that time and blow that number up, to compare it with the population of America today, it means that there would be one and a half million people waiting for Jesus to come. It was the greatest second coming, second advent movement since apostolic days, the second coming of Jesus. I don't know whether you've.
Ever tried to imagine what the Second Coming was like, dear friends, or would be like when Jesus returns? You know, the Bible tells me that he's coming, not just on his own, but he's coming with all the angels in heaven. And the Bible tells me that there are 10,000 times 10,000 angels in heaven, plus many more. That's 100 million.
We speak rather glibly about the Second Coming, but when we think of what it will like, what will be like, no wonder they look forward to it. Not only, of course, because of its glory and appearance, but what a sweet, sweet experience it was going to be where there'd be no more pain, no more sickness, no more of those things of earth that brought us unhappiness and suffering. The meeting with loved ones that had died.
They were going to be resurrected when they saw Jesus coming. What a day. But above all else, I guess what meant most to them was that they were going to see Jesus in the clouds.
What a time to be alive. And as the day approached, shops were closed. At camp meetings, sins were confessed.
Large sums of money were donated so the poor could repay their debts. Their harvests were abandoned. Many were baptized.
They wanted to be ready for Jesus to come. Hundreds of thousands of copies of those journals were published in the last three weeks. Just before that date, on October the 19th, the presses stopped.
The speakers all returned to their homes. And I want to ask you a question this morning that if I could prove to you that Jesus was coming next Tuesday, how would you spend the days between now and next Tuesday? Obviously, you cannot answer me, but I'd like you to think about that question, because as Tuesday, October 22, 1844 dawned, the scattered believers, those tens of thousands of people who believed that Jesus was coming, they waited in companies, some large companies, some very small. They waited in tabernacles, in churches, in their private homes with friends.
And in low Hampton, William Miller's wife and his eight children waited in his home. If I could take you to the home today, just shortly, a short distance away, behind that maple grove where Miller prade, you remember, is a large outcrop of limestone rock. It's interesting that the American Historical Society has called this rock Ascension Rock, after what it was expected to happen that day, that when Jesus appeared in the clouds, then they would ascend to meet the Lord in the air.
And I've often tried to imagine how those people felt during the morning. Maybe he's coming in the afternoon. They went through the afternoon.
I'm sure they sang and prayed, and then the evening came. And as the hours went by, until the clock told twelve at midnight, they still waited. But then, of course, when the clock did toll twelve, jesus had not appeared.
And their disappointment, and I know this is an understatement, my friends. But their disappointment must have been intense, bitterly intense. How could they manage to pick up the pieces and still believe in God and in His Word after such a great disappointment? Do you remember our chart? Just as prophecy had predicted, the Book of Daniel had been opened in the time of the end.
A message unsealing. The 2300 year prophecy had been preached in the time of the end. And out of that message, they believed they should warn the world that Jesus was coming and soon to be replaced by the Kingdom of God, as Revelation Ten had said.
Though they didn't understand Revelation Ten at the time, god's mystery of gathering all the peoples into one great family was about to happen. This message had been sweet to hear, dear friends, so very, very sweet. Jesus was coming.
But do you remember in Revelation Ten, the Bible predicts that that sweet experience would become a very bitter one? Do you remember how we looked in one of our last presentations? How John, the writer of the Book of Revelation, had been told to go and eat the little Book of Daniel? And it tells us there in Revelation Ten that when he ate it, it was sweet in his mouth. But when digestion had started and it went into his stomach, it says it was a bitter experience. A bitter experience.
Why hadn't Jesus come? Think about it. Today we look back and we see Miller's great mistake. He was wrong, terribly wrong about the event that would happen at the end of the 2300 years.
But Miller was right in a lot of the things that he said, and I want to put just three of them on the screen for you to see. Miller was right, first of all, in preaching the soon coming of Jesus before the millennium. After all, do you know that the second coming of Jesus is mentioned 300 times in the New Testament? It's mentioned there.
It's Bible truth. Jesus one day is going to come back to this world. And when you look at the Bible writers, many of them preached about the soon coming of Jesus.
So Miller was in good company. But then, too, Miller was right in urging people to prepare for Jesus return. After all, Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 24, be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man is going to come.
So Miller was in good company again in preaching the importance of being ready for the coming of Jesus. But then to number three, he was right in stating that the 2300 days represented 2300 years. Many, many Bible scholars, apart from Miller at the time, agreed in the day for a year principle of interpreting Bible prophecy.
And many of them believed that he was right in stating that it reached into the 1840s. Dear friends, as I look back upon those days, miller never realized that he was a most important link in God's great plan to raise up out of that great disappointment a people who would take to the world god's last message that God is ever going to send to this world. To prepare them to prepare the world for the coming the coming of Jesus.
I've got a map here to show you on the screen. It's a map showing the location of William Miller's home, ascension Rock, that we just looked at, the little chapel that is just in front of Ascension Rock, and not far away, the cemetery where William Miller is buried. When I visited this area, I wanted to go and see the resting place of this great man of God.
And certainly there you can see the grave of William Miller. Next to it is Lucy, his wife. And I was interested as I stood there looking at his gravestone, that there on the top, as you can see, there seems to be an open Bible.
And as I drew near and took the photograph of what was there in that open Bible, I noticed that on the left hand side and you could almost predict this, couldn't you? Was Daniel? Eight, verse 14. And he said unto me, unto 2300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed written on his gravestone. Well, today, dear friends, we are more than 175 years removed from the day of that bitter disappointment.
But we are that many years closer to the coming of Jesus. And the signs that we are seeing in the world today are shouting to us that his coming is hastening quickly. The return of Jesus is the greatest event that this world will ever see.
And I want to remind you this morning, and those of you who are listening, that it will decide the eternal destiny of everyone hearing my voice today. My question I want to leave on your hearts this morning is to each of you, are you ready for Jesus to come? Being ready is not just having our names in the church books. Being ready is not just having a position of responsibility in the church.
Being ready is not just being a respected member in our community. Being ready is not just attending church every week. Being ready is not giving money to help the poor and the disadvantaged.
What does being ready, as Jesus said, you remember, be ye also ready for an AR that you don't expect Jesus is going to come. It means, dear friends, recognizing that all of us listening to My voice, all of us here today are sinners. It means recognizing that you have sinned and that you believe that Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty for your sins.
It means believing that Jesus has forgiven every sin that you've ever committed. It means that Jesus will give you in return his righteousness, his perfect life to be credited, as it were, to you. It means giving your life over to Jesus, accepting him as your savior and Lord and getting to really know Jesus as a friend.
When I think about it, I have met many Christians in my life, but who have said to me that they felt they did not know Jesus. Think about this. You know, the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached is known as the Sermon on the Mount.
And at the end of that sermon, he preached some very sobering words. And I want you to notice them as they're found in Matthew chapter seven and verses 21 to 23, jesus said this not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Notice that there are people today who speak to Jesus, and they might even call him Lord.
But not everybody who just uses the word Lord, Lord when they're talking about Jesus, they're not going to be going to automatically go into the kingdom. But Jesus said, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. And then Jesus went on to say these words many will say to me.
Notice that many will say to me in that day, lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, preached in Your name? Have we not cast out demons in Your name? Have we not done many wonders in Your name? These people, I guess we could say, were professing Christians. They called Jesus Lord. They had been preaching in Jesus name.
They had cast out demons in Jesus name, and they had then done many miracles, as it were. Many wonders in Jesus name. You would think that such people would inherit God's kingdom and be ready to meet Jesus when he comes.
But I want you to notice the very next verse. And then I, Jesus, will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
Those people were not thinking that they were practicing lawlessness. No law. Lawlessness.
They were doing things in Jesus'name. They were preaching in his name. They honored the name of Jesus, evidently.
But Jesus has to say to them, I never knew you. And I would suggest, dear friends, that Jesus could only say those words if they didn't know Jesus. My friends, what will Jesus say to you when he returns? Will he say to you, I never knew you.
You never took the time to get to know me. Are you getting to know Jesus? In John chapter 17 and verse three, jesus was giving his last prayer to his father before he died. And in that prayer, Jesus said these words and this is eternal life.
This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is eternal life that they might know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Dear friends, if you have not made this decision, can I urge you today to consider that if you should die tonight, would you know that you would be ready to meet Jesus? I want to suggest there is no more important question that you should think about and be sure of your answer.
Jesus is still coming. Before that great event, God is going to send a message, his last message to the world. And we're going to talk about that over the next few presentations.
And he's doing that because he loves you. He loves every one of you in my hearing, my hearing of my voice. And he wants you to be with Him in his kingdom.
You know, after the disappointment, william Miller built a little chapel just behind Ascension Rock, where they had waited to see Jesus that day. It's a beautiful little building. I've gone into that building and thought so much of William Miller being at that pulpit and preaching to the small group of people who were still holding on as he was, to the fact that Jesus was coming soon.
And at the end, you'll notice he had printed at the time, appointed from the Book of Daniel, chapter eight, the end shall Be. Well, that was the little chapel. And as he stood there often I believe that this statement that he made just after the disappointment is something that is true.
Brethren, hold fast. Let no man take your crown. I have fixed my mind on another time, and here I mean to stand until God gives me more light.
And that is today. Today until he comes and I see Him for whom my soul yearns. In our next presentation, dear friends, we're going to answer the question why didn't Jesus come? Could God have really been in a movement that ended so bitterly as it did? Or was that great movement his appointment to do much greater things for his people? Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear loving Father, as we've considered the past and seen that great movement rise up in fulfillment of Bible prophecy that focused upon Jesus and his coming, we are saddened by their disappointment, but we are gladdened by the fact that Jesus is soon to come. And that promise is sure help all who hear My voice to be ready for that day is My prayer. In Jesus precious name.
Amen. You've been listening to God's last message to the world, a production of 3ABN Australia television, presented by Dr. Allan Lindsay.
For more information, visit GLM.3abnaustralia.org au.
