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 the Great Disappointment. His appointment? Hello, and welcome to this program today. Thank you so much for coming.
Those of you who are in the studio and also those around TV land, wherever you may be watching, you're very welcome today, too. This is the fifth in a series of eight programs dealing with God's last message to the world, a most important topic. So let us bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Our loving Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for the gift of life that we share. We thank you for the hope that we have that one day Jesus is going to return. We thank you for all the blessings of life that you've given to us.
And we pray today as we begin this program, for the guidance and the presence of the Holy Spirit. May he be here to help me in all the words I speak and to help those who listen. And we ask this in Jesus wonderful name.
Amen. We concluded our last presentation on a very negative note. I don't think we have any idea today of how that disappointment, when Jesus didn't come on October 22, 1844, how that disappointment affected the people who passed through that experience.
There were many thousands of people who were waiting for Jesus to come on that day. Prophecy had pointed unearringly to the date. They knew 1844 was right.
By what prophecy had predicted, they had experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in their preaching. Tens of thousands of people had been converted and were waiting for Jesus to come, anticipating not only the joy of seeing Jesus, but also the joy of seeing their loved ones who had passed away. But now that sweet anticipation had turned to a most bitter experience.
Reading what one of them later recalled helps us understand the intensity of this disappointment. I want you to notice the words of a young preacher who was there during the preaching because he had joined even though he was only in his 20s, he had joined the preaching of William with William Miller. He was one among the many hundreds of ministers who did.
And he wrote this after the disappointment when Elder Heims, now Elder Himes, was the public relations officer for William Miller. When Elderheims visited Portland, Maine, a few days after the passing of the time and stated that the brethren should prepare for another cold winter because it's October and it's in the Northern Hemisphere, my feelings were almost uncontrollable. I left the place of meeting and I wept like a child.
You know, we must ask the same questions today of that time. They had been so sure, as I said, that prophecy had been fulfilled. But that raised big questions.
Was God leading them in this experience when it came to such a bitter disappointment? Could God have been in a movement that ended so ignominiously, when thousands even lost their faith because of their disappointment? You know, so often God's ways seem perplexing to us, especially when they cause us pain. But God is working because he sees the big picture. He sees the end from the beginning and knows what is best.
I want this morning in introducing this disappointment and how God resolved it to a time when God's people suffered a big disappointment in Bible times. And I'm referring to the experience of the two disciples, followers of Jesus, walking on that road to Emmaus on the day that Jesus rose from the dead. We pick up the story in Luke, chapter 24, and we're going to read the whole story this morning, verses 13 down to 32, because it is such an important story and it's going to throw a lot of light on the disappointment that was suffered in 1844.
So here is verse 13. Now, behold two of them, two of the followers of Jesus were traveling that same day to a village called Emaus. Now, may I remind you again, earlier that morning, Jesus had risen from the dead.
You'll know why I mentioned that and emphasize it in the light of what's going to follow. But Jesus had risen that Sunday morning and now two of his followers were walking on a road to Emmaus, which was about 7 miles from Jerusalem, and they talked together of all these things and now which had happened, of course. So it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself think of what I've just told you, that Jesus himself drew near and went with them, these two but and noticed the but but their eyes were restrained so that they didn't know Him.
So here they are walking along this country road and a stranger comes up and walks with them. And they don't know because something's happened to their eyes. They don't know that this is Jesus that is walking with them.
So let's continue in the next verse. And he said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? Jesus picked up that these two people were sad because of something that had happened in their lives. So what is it? What kind of conversation is it? Notice the answer that they gave then, the one whose name was Cleopas.
Again, can I remind you we only know the name of one of the two and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happened there in these days? Because they were aware. This is Sunday morning. Jesus had died two days before on the Friday.
And they're sad and they're wondering why the stranger is not sad as well. And so it continues in the next verse and he Jesus said unto them what things have know? This is one of my favorite stories in the Gospel of Luke and I think here is Jesus going along with this, what things have happened there in the last couple of days? And he said to them, and so they said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him. Then in the next verse and here I want you to notice the first sentence, but we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel.
I want to stop there. There's the disappointment. He was Jesus walking among us.
We thought he was a prophet and we were hoping that who was going to redeem Israel, but he died. I need to explain something. When Jesus came to this earth, what was believed by the Jewish leaders, and that included Jesus'disciples, was that when the Messiah came to earth, because the Jews had always held the hope that the Messiah would come one day.
And they had seen signs that made them think that maybe Jesus was the Messiah. It was a common belief among the Jewish people that when the Messiah came, he would throw off the Romans who were ruling over them and make Israel the greatest nation on the Earth. And they believed that because they had read texts in the Old Testament that really referred to the second coming of Jesus.
And they thought that if Jesus was the Messiah, he would throw off the Romans and make Israel a great nation. Now that of course suited their national pride as well. And I guess Satan had a plan in doing this.
That because they believed that Jesus didn't fulfill what they believed and therefore they were in the mood to reject Jesus, which of course they did. So keep in mind that was the reason we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel, he was going to lift Israel up and be the great nation in the earth. And then they continued indeed.
Besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes. And certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us.
When they did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels there, reporting what had been heard about what had happened earlier that morning, who said he was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said. But him they did not see.
Then he said to them, look now here's Jesus speaking, oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. And he probably emphasized in all that the prophets have spoken. You've just been reading a selection of Old Testament texts believing that the Messiah was going to be a great king who would throw off the Romans.
But the Old Testament was saying a lot more. Then he said to them, ought not the Christ. And remember, that word, as we've discovered in our earlier presentation, means the Messiah ought not the Messiah, the promised one that you've been hoping to see, to have suffered these things, he'd gone to the cross and to enter into his glory.
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Oh, friends, how much I would love to have heard that Bible study. You notice it says that beginning way back there with the books of Moses and then all the prophets, he told them the text in the Bible concerning Jesus.
Now, I've mentioned to you before that in the Old Testament scholars say that there are some 300 predictions in the Old Testament that pointed to the Messiah. And I'm sure Jesus didn't give them the whole 300, but I'm sure he would have read to them about Isaiah 53, that wonderful chapter there in Isaiah where it says, he was wounded for our transgressions, you remember, and he was bruised for our iniquities. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.
He would have probably pointed out, I'm sure, that prophecy in Daniel which foretold the exact year Jesus would be baptized and then the year that he would be crucified. Exactly. But whatever he said that day, he expounded to them that the Messiah wasn't going to come and be a king and throw off the Romans.
He was going to come as a suffering servant and he would die on a cross. And that was a revelation to those two disciples that day. Then it says, then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone on farther, but they constrained Him, saying, abide with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.
And he went in to stay with them. And it continues now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them, notice what happens, that he took bread and gave it to them. And at that moment the Bible says, then their eyes were opened and they knew who had been walking with them.
They knew who was the one who had given them that Bible study, and he vanished from their sight. I wonder why it was that the Bible says he went in, broke the bread, gave it to them, then their eyes were opened. Why do you think it happened at that very moment? I have a theory, and I think I can back it up in Scripture too, but I think that what happened as he handed the bread to them, what would they have seen? They have seen the marks in his hands from the crucifixion.
Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him. They knew him. Well.
Let's have a look as the story continues, because when we compare or look at their experience, we can ask some questions about why they were disappointed and what had caused their disappointment. Let's have a look at that. First of all, the disciples, if we can ask the question, why were they disappointed? And the answer comes, because Jesus hadn't set up his kingdom as they expected him to remember.
They expected a different picture of the Messiah than the one who had allowed himself to be crucified. Then the question also comes what had caused their disappointment? And the answer, they had misinterpreted the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. Whereas the Bible spoke about the events of the Second Coming that the Jews were focusing on, they hadn't read the rest of the Old Testament carefully enough to see that he was to come and die first.
And then how did Jesus resolve their disappointment? Well, he pointed them to his word. He gave them a Bible study, opened up some of those Old Testament scriptures that pointed to Him coming and dying on a cross, and that made a tremendous difference to their experience. What a wonderful Bible study it must have been.
Of course, as they realized in hearing Jesus speaking, of course, the Messiah had to die, not come as a king. He had to die and he died right on time, just as Daniel predicted. They'd thought that he was going to come as a king, but he had a work to perform in the heavenly sanctuary before he could come and be the leader of the world.
In other words, they hadn't read all those Old Testament scriptures that said about the Messiah and his kingdom. You know, the Bible says a little later on that when they reported back to the disciples in Jerusalem about their experience of walking with Jesus, they said, did not our heart burn within us while he talked to us on the way? I don't know whether you've ever had an experience, dear friends, of the burning heart. You've listened to something from God's Word that has really sort of inspired you and thrilled you.
The experience of the burning heart as he unfolded prophecies to them. Prophecy had been fulfilled. It had pointed unearringly to the last few days in Jerusalem.
But and listen to what I'm about to say, but their interpretation was different. The 69 and a half weeks of Daniel's prophecy that we studied a couple of presentations ago had been exactly fulfilled. The time was right, the timing was right, but the event they thought was to happen was wrong.
And Jesus came and through His Word, corrected their error, brought them through their disappointment, reaffirmed their faith and their confidence, and gave them a message to take to the world. With this experience in our minds, I want to take you back in history. Now to the morning after the disappointment of October 22, 1844.
It's Wednesday, October 23, 1844, and I want you to see on the map the place that I want to take you to. This is the state of New York, and you'll see a blue line across that state, which is a canal that the American people had built in 1825. And it really opened up the whole central part of the United States because people goods that came from Europe could come to New York.
They could go up that river that you can see up to Waterford, then put all their goods on that canal and take it right across the state of New York and empty it down in Buffalo, which is just below Niagara Falls. That was the reason why they couldn't bring their goods into the central part of the United States, because Niagara Falls was there to block them. And there on that canal is a little town called Port Gibson.
And I want to take you there this morning, because in Port Gibson there lived a man called Hiram Edson. He was a Methodist lay preacher, and he'd been converted to the teachings of William Miller, that Jesus was coming in 1844, and he believed that that was right, that that was biblical. And here he shared his new faith.
He couldn't hold it to himself, and he shared his new faith. This is 1843, just before 1844, and about 100 of his neighbors were also looking forward to the coming of Jesus. A short time before the disappointment, those tens of thousands of people who had believed Miller's teachings had taken the name Adventist.
Miller himself was really a little upset when people referred to them as Millerites. He didn't feel that his name should be mentioned in that way. And so, because these people were looking forward to the Second Coming, the advent of Jesus, they took the name Adventists.
On October 22, hiram Edson was among the many people who were disappointed, waiting after waiting for the coming of the Lord. And I want you to notice what he says about that disappointment. We looked for our coming Lord on October 22, until the clock told twelve at midnight.
The day had then passed, he wrote, and our disappointment became a certainty. Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, he says, and then it continues, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. We wept and wept till the day dawn.
Here is this man with those people gathering in that little town of Fort Gibson, describing their experience. We wept and wept through the rest of the night until the day dawned. Jesus had not come.
Had not come. Well, as the sun rose on a new day, Edson tells us, and he writes this in a manuscript, and I've held that manuscript in my hands, the writing of this man as he recalled that experience. He tells us that he suggested to some of his friends that they should go to his barn and meet for earnest prayer.
Why were they praying? You can understand. They wanted the Lord to give them understanding, to tell them why Jesus hadn't come the day before. And Edson tells us that they continued in prayer until the conviction came that their prayers were really answered, heard and accepted, and that God would provide an explanation as to why he hadn't come the day before.
Edson, who was beginning to wonder whether there was a God in heaven because of this bitter disappointment, tells us that they were reassured that truly there is a God in heaven and that his word is true and sure. Well, after their prayer season in the barn, edson and an unknown friend can I say that again? Edson and somebody else we do not know his name or her name decided to go and visit some of their disappointed neighbors and to avoid the mocking neighbors. And I'm not mentioning or dwelling on it, but can you imagine how the world at that time turned against those thousands of Adventists who were looking forward to the coming of Jesus when he didn't come? And to avoid the mocking of their neighbors, they decided to cut across a field.
Both were still thinking about their disappointment over the failure of Jesus to come as a King. They were walking with heavy hearts, so saddened because of their experience. And like the two disciples, one of whose name we know, walking along a country road in disappointment.
So two Adventists, one of whose name we know, were walking along a road in disappointment. The disciples had looked forward to Jesus coming as a King and were disappointed because Jesus didn't come as they expected him to. And the Adventists, they were looking forward to Jesus coming as a king.
But they too were disappointed. Why were the Adventists disappointed? Because Jesus hadn't set up his kingdom as they expected him to. What had caused their disappointment? They had misinterpreted the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus.
How did Jesus resolve their disappointment? He pointed them to his word. Look at that chart that I've put on the screen. How similar it was to that experience of those two followers of Jesus on the day of Jesus'resurrection.
I want to go now to a continuation of Hiram Edson's manuscript that day that he wrote up his experience. And look at what it says. After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, let us go and see and encourage some of our brethren.
We started, and while passing through a large field, I was stopped. About midway of the field, heaven seemed open to my view. Now, let me just stop there.
Was it a vision that Hiram Edson was having? I don't believe so. Hiram Edson later on became a minister in the church and he never later proclaimed to have seen a vision that day. What happened to him? I believe it was a moment of spiritual insight.
The Holy Spirit drew near to him and flooded his mind notice with Scripture. Remember the experience of the walking on the road to Emmaus flooding his mind with Scripture, and what did he see? Look at the rest of the manuscript, and I saw distinctly and clearly, he says, not with his literal eyes, but with the spiritual eyes blessed by the Holy Spirit, that instead of our high priest coming out of the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary, to come to this earth on the 10th day of the 7th month. And remember the 10th day of the 7th month, that was the day of Atonement.
And that year it was October 22. So what he's saying here? That instead of our High Priest coming out of the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth, on October 22, at the end of the 2300 days that he, for the first time, entered on that day, the second apartment, the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary and that he had a work to perform in the most holy before coming to this earth. That was a most important revelation, because here was the explanation of their disappointment.
The sanctuary to be cleansed was not the earth, as William Miller and hundreds of other preachers had said. It was the sanctuary in heaven that was to be cleansed. And this idea seemed like a message from heaven.
It was a wonderful discovery. Their morning prayers were being answered. Jesus was still going to come back, but he had a work to perform in the most holy place of that heavenly sanctuary before his return.
They didn't know then what that work was that would come and had to come from Bible study. What had Bible prophecy predicted? I want you to go back to what we said some presentations ago to that experience in Daniel, in Revelation, rather, chapter ten, where it says here in verse ten. Then I took that's John who's writing the disciple John who's writing the Book of Revelation, I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it.
Now, you might say, what's happening here? Because you remember that he was given the command, go up to the angel who's got a little book in his hand, which we believe was the Book of Daniel, and he was told to eat it. And he says, when I ate it, it was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. And then after that experience, he said to me, you must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues and kings.
What is all that meaning in this amazing prediction? Because that's what it was. It's been written in prophecy in the Book of the of Revelation. We have here the Book of Daniel being opened up in the time of the end.
We have here predicted a message from the book of Daniel, the 2300 Year Prophecy, because that was to reach you, remember, to the time of the end. And here John is invited to receive that little book. When we eat something, we absorb it into our very being.
And when they heard the message out of the little Book of the 2300 Years and they heard that Jesus was going to come, that was very sweet at first, but it turned, and this is predicted 2000 years before it happened, in 1844, when they had eaten it, it became a bitter experience. But notice in this prediction, it also said, you must prophesy again, this is the word spoken to John representing the people who heard that message. Don't think your preaching's over just because you've had this bitter experience.
You've got to preach again. You've been doing some preaching, but now this time you've got to preach. It says to many peoples, nations, tongues and kings, a worldwide message.
You're not stopping preaching in 1844 after a bitter disappointment. God is sovereign and is ruling over everything and you've got to take a message to the world, all that had been predicted in Revelation ten and eleven. But we should also notice verse 19 of Revelation, chapter eleven, because in verse 19 we have these words then the temple of God was opened in heaven and the ark of His Covenant was seen in his temple.
And there were lightnings and noises and thunderings and an earthquake. After that experience where John had been told you must preach again. The very next verse, which is chapter eleven, verse one says that an angel told John to measure the temple in heaven.
That was an amazing revelation too, because it was the temple, the identification of the sanctuary that was the cause of the problem. They had said that the sanctuary or the temple was the earth going to be cleansed by fire. And here in the Book of Revelation, in that amazing prediction, after the sweet experience, the bitter disappointment, told to preach again, what were they to preach about? The next verse says, measure God's temple in heaven.
Look at the sanctuary. When you measure something, you look closely at it, you take its dimensions. Measure the heavenly sanctuary, measure the temple of God in heaven.
And as I said here in verse 19, at the end of that same chapter, we read that when the 7th trumpet is about to sound, that is, in the time of the end, just before the second coming of Christ, the temple in heaven is going to be opened. And the ark of His Covenant was seen in that temple. The ark of his covenant was seen in his temple.
I'm going to explain in a moment just what that really means. Well, now notice, and this is going to surprise you, because a little later on, Hiram Edson wrote another manuscript recalling what came into his mind that morning after that season of prayer and have a look at what he says. My mind was directed to the 10th chapter of Revelation, where I could see the vision had really spoken and didn't lie.
The 7th angel. Look at what he says. The 7th angel had begun to sound.
We had eaten the little book. It had been sweet in our mouth. And then it continues.
It had now become bitter in our belly, embittering our whole being that we had to prophesy again. And that when the 7th angel began to sound. The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.
Notice what this small group of people who had part through the disappointment were beginning to understand. And when they looked back at Revelation Ten, they saw it all had been written to encourage them, no doubt, to hold on, because God was going to do great things to them. Clearly, they'd been wrong in saying that the sanctuary to be cleansed was the earth by fire.
That hadn't happened. But what had happened? Well, the Lord had to gradually open their minds to new truth, and it had to come from God's word. Edson's attention was drawn to the identification of the sanctuary.
It was the heavenly sanctuary, the pattern for which had been shown to Moses long before. But they wanted to be sure about this. So that day, Hiram Edson and that unknown friend, together with Dr.
Hahn and Owen Crozier, a young orphan boy that was with Owen Crozier, hiram Edson decided that they would go back immediately that Wednesday and open up the Scriptures to study the subject of the sanctuary. And what did they find that day? They found that the Bible had taught that when Jesus ascended after his 33 years here on earth, he began his work as our High priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Now, I want you to read that verse that they read that morning.
It's found in Hebrews, chapter eight. And verse one we have we have this is the writer of Hebrews saying to the Hebrew people, the Jewish people, we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. Notice those words we have high priest.
He's now ascended to heaven, and he's ministering for us in the heavenly sanctuary, the true one that the Lord erected and not man. But then, as they continued to study, they noticed that the Bible taught us very clearly that there was a heavenly sanctuary, and that when Moses was told to make the earthly one, he didn't just pull what his ideas were about how to make a temple or a sanctuary in the desert. The Bible tells me that God gave him a pattern of the heavenly sanctuary.
The Bible says it was to be like a miniature copy. It was to be a shadow. In other words, as that you would look at the earthly sanctuary, it would help you to understand what Jesus was going to do in the heavenly sanctuary.
And so they noticed that this sanctuary had two apartments. And here you'll see on the screen that this sanctuary, which was a beautiful building we haven't got time this morning to go into the details, but you'll notice particularly that there were two apartments in the earthly sanctuary. Keep in mind that what we see in the earthly is a little miniature picture, as it were, of the heavenly.
Just as there were two apartments here, the Holy Place and the Most Holy, so that represented two divisions of the work of the High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Then also we have as we look into the sanctuary in the Holy Place, there were seven candlesticks. On the left hand side in this beautiful room where the walls were of gold.
On the right was a little table with twelve loaves of bread. And directly in front of a beautiful curtain at the end was an altar called the Altar of Incense. Only three pieces of furniture.
But I remind you again that this was to represent the heavenly sanctuary and what Jesus would do. Jesus was the light of the world. Jesus was the bread of life.
It was the incense that arose from the Altar of Incense that represented Christ's righteousness, that was mingled with the prayers of God's people. But then, as you went through the curtain, and I should remind you, dear friends, that ordinary people, not even priests, could enter into the second apartment, the Most Holy Place, because there in the Most Holy Place was just one piece of furniture. It was called the ark of his testament.
It was just a golden box. It had a lid on the top of it that was called the Mercy Seat. And inside that box were placed the Ten Commandments, the law of God that God had written with his own finger on tables of stone that was placed under the Mercy seat to teach you and me that God's mercy always is there to cover his broken law.
And on the top of the box there were two golden angels. And in between the two golden angels was an exceedingly bright light. It was called the Shekinah.
The Shekinah glory. It was actually the presence of God in that light between the two cherubim. And that was the only piece of furniture there.
But can you understand, dear friends, that when the High Priest entered into that Most Holy Place, he had to go, having cleansed his own heart, having made everything right between him and God as he entered the Most Holy Place, because there he was facing God. Nobody else, not even the priests, could go into the Most Holy Place. And only the High Priest could go into the Most Holy Place on one day in the year.
And listen carefully when I say he went in to cleanse the sanctuary. Why did the sanctuary need cleansing, the earthly one, I mean. Because that's a picture of what's going to happen in the heavenly, because when you sinned back in those days, you would bring to the priest in the courtyard that area outside the sanctuary.
You would bring a lamb or a goat or some other animal prescribed in Scripture, in the book of Leviticus. And there you would come, and you would place your hands over the head of the lamb or the animal and confess your sin. Not to the priest, but you would confess it quietly as you placed your hand on the head of the animal.
By that action, the sin was being transferred from you, the sinner, to the animal. And then the priest would do something that I find I would have found terribly hard, dear friends, because the priest would hand to me a knife. The priest wouldn't use the knife to kill that animal.
I would have to kill the animal because it was teaching a very important lesson. Remember, the Old Testament sanctuary is a little bit like a visual aid because it pointed to the work that Jesus would do in the heavenly sanctuary once he went back to heaven as our high priest and thereafter killing the lamb. And I can imagine how I would have felt, dear friends, to know that that lamb was dying in my place.
But remember, it's a visual aid to teach the people in the Old Testament the great truths of salvation through Jesus that would be fulfilled in the New. And the priest would then take some of the blood that was dripping and place it on the horns, those little protrubances on the four corners of either the altar outside in the courtyard. Sometimes he would take it into the altar of incense and put the blood there on the horns of that little altar.
By that action, the sins that were being confessed were transferred into the sanctuary. Now, may I hasten to add, the sinner went away that day, forgiven, notice that. But there was a record of confessed sin in the sanctuary.
And that was why once in the year, on that very solemn day, the day of Atonement, the high priest would go through a certain service, which is described in Leviticus chapter 16, and with blood. And notice that the sanctuary was cleansed, still with blood. You might say, Why so much death? Because it was portraying the tremendous sacrifice that God would make one day when his own son would die the most excruciating death on the cross.
That was why, you remember John the Baptist said the day that he saw Jesus coming down the road to be baptized, he pointed to Jesus and he said to his followers, his disciples, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus, of course, was God's lamb. And when he died on the cross.
He was fulfilling all those sacrifices that had been made for over 1500 years in the earthly sanctuary, just as Daniel had predicted. Well, as Hiram Edson studied that day and read all those texts about the earthly sanctuary, he realized that what had happened on October 22 was that the high priest in heaven, Jesus, entered to the most holy place there to cleanse all the sins that God's people had confessed to that point of time. And at the end of that service, the sanctuary was cleansed, restored to its rightful place, and God's character justified in his dealings with sin.
Well, that all happened on, in October 1844, the study. But over eight in 1845 and into 1846, they continued to study the Bible. They were so excited with what they were finding about the sanctuary that finally, in February 7, 1846, they got one of those journals that was still being published that I mentioned, the Day Star it was called.
And they published the results of their findings about the sanctuary. And they sent that magazine with their Bible study to the people, many of them, who had been disappointed as to why Jesus hadn't come. And it brought great, great joy to those disappointed people at that time.
Later, as they thought about their experience, I'm going to put another chart on the screen because I want you, and I think you'll be amazed with what we show you when we look at the disciples. Their message was, the time is fulfilled. You'll read this in Mark chapter one, that after Jesus was baptized, jesus and the other disciples preached, the time is fulfilled.
What time was fulfilled? After Jesus baptism. It was the 69 weeks that we've already studied in our series that was found in Daniel chapter nine. Then it says, their next experience.
They expected the Messiah Christ to set up his kingdom on the earth. That was what was happening in the disciples, looking for an earthly Messiah who would come to the earth and throw off the Romans. But they suffered a great disappointment.
And then what else? Their disappointment was due to their misunderstanding, the meaning of the prophetic word. Think about that. Let me put on the screen now the Adventists experience their message, the time is fulfilled was based upon the 2300 year prophecy.
And that prophecy is found in Daniel chapter eight. They, the Adventists, expected the Messiah Christ to set up his kingdom on the earth. They suffered a great disappointment.
Their disappointment was due to the misunderstanding of the meaning of the prophetic word, misunderstood prophecy. Have a look at what I put on the screen to compare the experience of those early disciples and the Adventists. But that's not all.
Have a look at what continued. Look at the disciples again. Their disappointment was resolved through insight given to two disciples as they traveled on that road.
You know, it amazes me, dear friends, how God uses simple things. People walking on a road, the disciples walking on that road, and what they started as they learned from Jesus about his role. But notice after the disappointment, Jesus ascended to heaven, as we've learned this morning, and he began the first phase of his ministry in the heavenly sanctuary represented by the Holy Place.
But then after that experience, the disciples were told to preach the gospel to all the world in Matthew 28. But now look at the Adventists. Their disappointment was resolved through insight given to two Adventists as they traveled.
After the disappointment, Jesus began the second phase of his ministry in the heavenly sanctuary represented by the Most Holy Place. And what were the Adventists told? We've learned this morning, you must preach again to the whole world. They were told to preach the gospel to all the world in Revelation 14, verses six and seven, which we know today as the first angel's message, the beginning of God's last warning message to the world.
Look at that parallel. I hope this encourages you, as it encourages me that God was in full control. And as the title of our presentation was, you may remember the great disappointment his appointment.
Because while it appeared to be a great disappointment, god was actually appointing a very important day in the history of God's people and laying the foundation for his last message to go to the world. Well, some twelve years of Bible study followed. But slowly the Lord opened before their wandering eyes the great truths of his closing work in that heavenly sanctuary.
And that the cleansing of the sanctuary, listen, included a work of the final judgment of the world. Why? What led them to that conclusion? Well, in their study, they went back to the Book of Daniel, chapter eight, the same chapter that contained that 2300 year prophecy. And they began to notice some very interesting parallels as they studied.
Let's have a look at these parables parallels in Daniel eight. You remember, and we studied this several presentations ago, in that vision, Daniel saw two beasts, a ram representing Medo, Persia, a goat representing Greece. And then what happened afterwards? He saw a horn power, a little horn that represented the kingdom that followed Greece, which was Rome.
But Rome had two phases, and we've touched on this a little earlier. There was the pagan phase of Rome, when there were the emperors of Rome as an empire. But then when that empire went down, it was replaced by papal Rome, still Rome.
And we've talked a bit about that earlier. And then in Daniel eight, the next event, what is it? The cleansing of the sanctuary. And as a result of that cleansing of the sanctuary, the little horn's power would be broken without hand, as it says in Daniel eight.
And when we look at Daniel chapter seven, let's look at it very quickly, because in Daniel chapter seven that we've studied earlier, there was the lion representing Babylon, the Bear Representing Medopersia. Then there was the four headed leopard representing Greece. And then there was the fourth beast.
That was Pagan Rome. But then there was that little horn that came up representing, as we've talked about before the Papal phase that was to continue for 1260 years. And the next great event in Daniel seven the judgment sits and the little horn is his dominion is taken away.
And as they studied those two chapters, they realized that what really happened when the Heavenly Sanctuary was cleansed. And Jesus dad, he had this work in the most holy place that that included the work of the Final Judgment. And why do I say that? Because, dear friends, and I would encourage you to read Daniel Seven After this presentation sometime, because in Daniel Seven After, it talks about the lion and the bear and the leopard and the beast, it has one of the most graphic descriptions of the final heavenly judgment anywhere to be found in Scripture.
And I want you to notice three things that the Bible tells us in Daniel seven about this final judgment that was to begin in the year 1844, the first of this. And I've put the verses there. But we don't have time to read them.
But it's very clear that the judgment that is found in Daniel Seven is happening in heaven while things are happening on the Earth. I say that because there are some people today who believe that the judgment takes place at the second coming of Christ. But not according to the Book of Daniel.
Very clearly. This judgment that John, that Daniel saw is a judgment that is taking place in heaven while things are happening on the Earth. In other words, we can call it a pre advent judgment.
It comes and starts just before the second coming of Christ. But then its purpose the purpose of this judgment is twofold. Number one.
It will judge the little horn power in Daniel seven. Can I just remind you, dear friends, that the little horn power in Daniel Seven is pictured as murdering god's people? It says this little horn power would make war on God's people. And I pointed out tragically when we dealt with this a few presentations ago, that some 50 million people of God's, people who were standing up for the Bible, were cruelly executed and murdered as a result of their stand for God and for their belief and trust in Jesus.
And this power, therefore, needs to be judged. And that's what this is referring to. It would be a judgment on the actions of the little horn.
But then too, also the judgment. And notice this for your encouragement. This judgment will affirm the status of the saints, those who have transferred their sins to the heavenly sanctuary by confession and have received forgiveness and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
We have nothing to fear in the judgment, my friends. Because in this judgment, God looks at us and he doesn't see our sins. He sees Jesus and his righteousness covering us.
That's why the judgment is good news, not bad news for those who trust in Jesus. And then the most wonderful news of all. In verse 13 of chapter seven, it tells us that Jesus is there in the judgment to speak on our behalf.
That is wonderful, wonderful news. Well, as they continued on, they found other texts in the Bible that pointed to the fact that there is a judgment, a judgment on all of us that we must all appear, it says, before the judgment seat of Christ. But Jesus is there to be our advocate.
I want you to notice a wonderful statement that is in a book, a little book called Steps to Christ. This little book was written to show us the steps that we can take to find Jesus. And in that little book, the writer has written this since we are sinful and unholy, we cannot perfectly obey the holy law.
We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But here's the wonderful news. But Christ has made a way of escape for us, and that's for you and for me.
He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now he offers to take our sins and give us his righteousness. But it's what follows that I've put in orange, because I want you to notice this.
If you give yourself to Him and accept Him as your Savior, then sinful as your life may have been. Think about what that means. No matter how much we've sinned, how seriously we have sinned, how long we have sinned, sinful as your life may have been, for his sake, you are accounted righteous.
Notice that not you are righteous, you are treated as being righteous. Why? Because in that last sentence of this wonderful statement, christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God, just as if you had not sinned, sinful as your life may have been, but you are accepted because of what Jesus has done for us, just as if you had never sinned. Oh, what can wash away your sin and mine? Dear friends, in this judgment? The Bible tells me in one john, one, verse seven, that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
All sin. Well, we have dealt today with the explanation of the sanctuary and the disappointment and how what Jesus is doing for us today in this heavenly sanctuary gives us hope because we don't have to fear the judgment. It's good news if you're putting your trust in Jesus, and God will bless us as we do so.
Now, in our next presentation, I've entitled it a Very Precious gift from Jesus that will soon divide the world. A very important topic. And that's in our next presentation.
I hope you will plan to listen in god bless you. Let us have a word of prayer. Our loving Heavenly Father, we have looked back and shared the sorrow of those who passed through that disappointment.
But because of your wonderful grace, you led those people through Your Word into the glorious truths of what Jesus is doing for us in the heavenly sanctuary. Now, there is a work of judgment going on, but we know we don't have to fear so long as we're trusting in Jesus. May the Lord help each one of us to trust in Him and know that we are clothed in his righteousness is my prayer in Jesus 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
