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Chapter Nineteen
Light Through Darkness
The work of God in the earth presents, from age to age,
a striking similarity in every great reformation or
religious movement. The principles of God’s dealing with men
are ever the same. The important movements of the present
have their parallel in those of the past, and the experience of
the church in former ages has lessons of great value for our
own time.
No truth is more clearly taught in the Bible than that God
by His Holy Spirit especially directs His servants on earth
in the great movements for the carrying forward of the work
of salvation. Men are instruments in the hand of God,
employed by Him to accomplish His purposes of grace and
mercy. Each has his part to act; to each is granted a measure
of light, adapted to the necessities of his time, and sufficient
to enable him to perform the work which God has given him
to do. But no man, however honored of Heaven, has ever
attained to a full understanding of the great plan of redemption,
or even to a perfect appreciation of the divine purpose
in the work for his own time. Men do not fully understand
what God would accomplish by the work which He gives
them to do; they do not comprehend, in all its bearings, the
message which they utter in His name.
“Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find
out the Almighty unto perfection?” “My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the
Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts.” “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring
the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the
things that are not yet done.” Job 11:7;
Isaiah 55:8, 9;
46:9, 10.
Even the prophets who were favored with the special
illumination of the Spirit did not fully comprehend the import
of the revelations committed to them. The meaning was
to be unfolded from age to age, as the people of God should
need the instruction therein contained.
Peter, writing of the salvation brought to light through
the gospel, says: Of this salvation “the prophets have inquired
and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of
time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when
it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory
that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto
themselves, but unto us they did minister.”
1 Peter 1:10-12.
Yet while it was not given to the prophets to understand
fully the things revealed to them, they earnestly sought to
obtain all the light which God had been pleased to make
manifest. They “inquired and searched diligently,” “searching
what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which
was in them did signify.” What a lesson to the people of God
in the Christian age, for whose benefit these prophecies were
given to His servants! “Unto whom it was revealed, that not
unto themselves, but unto us they did minister.” Witness
those holy men of God as they “inquired and searched
diligently” concerning revelations given them for generations
that were yet unborn. Contrast their holy zeal with the
listless unconcern with which the favored ones of later ages
treat this gift of Heaven. What a rebuke to the ease-loving,
world-loving indifference which is content to declare that
the prophecies cannot be understood!
Though the finite minds of men are inadequate to enter
into the counsels of the Infinite One, or to understand fully
the working out of His purposes, yet often it is because of
some error or neglect on their own part that they so dimly
comprehend the messages of Heaven. Not infrequently the
minds of the people, and even of God’s servants, are so
blinded by human opinions, the traditions and false teaching
of men, that they are able only partially to grasp the great
things which He has revealed in His word. Thus it was with
the disciples of Christ, even when the Saviour was with them
in person. Their minds had become imbued with the popular
conception of the Messiah as a temporal prince, who was
to exalt Israel to the throne of the universal empire, and
they could not understand the meaning of His words foretelling
His sufferings and death.
Christ Himself had sent them forth with the message:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:
repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
Mark 1:15. That message
was based on the prophecy of Daniel 9. The sixty-nine weeks
were declared by the angel to extend to “the Messiah the
Prince,” and with high hopes and joyful anticipations the
disciples looked forward to the establishment of Messiah’s
kingdom at Jerusalem to rule over the whole earth.
They preached the message which Christ had committed
to them, though they themselves misapprehended its meaning.
While their announcement was founded on
Daniel
9:25, they did not see, in the
next verse of the same chapter,
that Messiah was to be cut off. From their very birth their
hearts had been set upon the anticipated glory of an earthly
empire, and this blinded their understanding alike to the
specifications of the prophecy and to the words of Christ.
They performed their duty in presenting to the Jewish
nation the invitation of mercy, and then, at the very time
when they expected to see their Lord ascend the throne of
David, they beheld Him seized as a malefactor, scourged,
derided, and condemned, and lifted up on the cross of
Calvary. What despair and anguish wrung the hearts of those
disciples during the days while their Lord was sleeping in
the tomb!
Christ had come at the exact time and in the manner foretold
by prophecy. The testimony of Scripture had been
fulfilled in every detail of His ministry. He had preached the
message of salvation, and “His word was with power.” The
hearts of His hearers had witnessed that it was of Heaven.
The word and the Spirit of God attested the divine commission
of His Son.
The disciples still clung with undying affection to their
beloved Master. And yet their minds were shrouded in
uncertainty and doubt. In their anguish they did not then
recall the words of Christ pointing forward to His suffering
and death. If Jesus of Nazareth had been the true Messiah,
would they have been thus plunged in grief and disappointment?
This was the question that tortured their souls while
the Saviour lay in His sepulcher during the hopeless hours
of that Sabbath which intervened between His death and
His resurrection.
Though the night of sorrow gathered dark about these
followers of Jesus, yet were they not forsaken. Saith the
prophet: “When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light
unto me. . . . He will bring me forth to the light, and I
shall behold His righteousness.” “Yea, the darkness hideth
not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness
and the light are both alike to Thee.” God hath spoken:
“Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” “I will
bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them
in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness
light before them, and crooked things straight. These things
will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”
Micah 7:8, 9;
Psalms 139:12;
112:4;
Isaiah 42:16.
The announcement which had been made by the disciples
in the name of the Lord was in every particular correct, and
the events to which it pointed were even then taking place.
“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand,” had
been their message. At the expiration of “the time” —the
sixty-nine weeks of Daniel 9, which were to extend to
the Messiah, “the Anointed One” —Christ had received the
anointing of the Spirit after His baptism by John in Jordan.
And the “kingdom of God” which they had declared to be at
hand was established by the death of Christ. This kingdom
was not, as they had been taught to believe, an earthly
empire. Nor was it that future, immortal kingdom which
shall be set up when “the kingdom and dominion, and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High;” that
everlasting kingdom, in which “all dominions shall serve
and obey Him.”
Daniel 7:27. As used in the Bible, the
expression “kingdom of God” is employed to designate both
the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. The kingdom
of grace is brought to view by Paul in the Epistle to the
Hebrews. After pointing to Christ, the compassionate
intercessor who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,”
the apostle says: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace.”
Hebrews 4:15, 16. The throne of grace represents the kingdom
of grace; for the existence of a throne implies the
existence of a kingdom. In many of His parables Christ uses
the expression “the kingdom of heaven” to designate the
work of divine grace upon the hearts of men.
So the throne of glory represents the kingdom of glory;
and this kingdom is referred to in the Saviour’s words:
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the
holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of
His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations.”
Matthew 25:31, 32. This kingdom is yet future. It is not
to be set up until the second advent of Christ.
The kingdom of grace was instituted immediately after
the fall of man, when a plan was devised for the redemption
of the guilty race. It then existed in the purpose and by the
promise of God; and through faith, men could become its
subjects. Yet it was not actually established until the death of
Christ. Even after entering upon His earthly mission, the
Saviour, wearied with the stubbornness and ingratitude of
men, might have drawn back from the sacrifice of Calvary.
In Gethsemane the cup of woe trembled in His hand. He
might even then have wiped the blood-sweat from His
brow and have left the guilty race to perish in their iniquity.
Had He done this, there could have been no redemption for
fallen men. But when the Saviour yielded up His life, and
with His expiring breath cried out, “It is finished,” then the
fulfillment of the plan of redemption was assured. The
promise of salvation made to the sinful pair in Eden was
ratified. The kingdom of grace, which had before existed
by the promise of God, was then established.
Thus the death of Christ—the very event which the
disciples had looked upon as the final destruction of their hope
—was that which made it forever sure. While it had brought
them a cruel disappointment, it was the climax of proof that
their belief had been correct. The event that had filled them
with mourning and despair was that which opened the door
of hope to every child of Adam, and in which centered the
future life and eternal happiness of all God’s faithful ones
in all the ages.
Purposes of infinite mercy were reaching their fulfillment,
even though the disappointment of the disciples. While their
hearts had been won by the divine grace and power of His
teaching, who “spake as never man spake,” yet intermingled
with the pure gold of their love for Jesus, was the base alloy
of worldly pride and selfish ambitions. Even in the Passover
chamber, at that solemn hour when their Master was
already entering the shadow of Gethsemane, there was “a strife
among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.”
Luke 22:24. Their vision was filled with the throne, the
crown, and the glory, while just before them lay the shame
and agony of the garden, the judgment hall, the cross of
Calvary. It was their pride of heart, their thirst for worldly
glory, that had led them to cling so tenaciously to the false
teaching of their time, and to pass unheeded the Saviour’s
words showing the true nature of His kingdom, and pointing
forward to His agony and death. And these error resulted
in the trial—sharp but needful—which was permitted for
their correction. Though the disciples had mistaken the
meaning of their message, and had failed to realize their
expectations, yet they had preached the warning given them
of God, and the Lord would reward their faith and honor
their obedience. To them was to be entrusted the work of
heralding to all nations the glorious gospel of their risen
Lord. It was to prepare them for this work that the experience
which seemed to them so bitter had been permitted.
After His resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples on
the way to Emmaus, and, “beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning Himself.”
Luke 24:27. The hearts of
the disciples were stirred. Faith was kindled. They were
“begotten again into a lively hope” even before Jesus revealed
Himself to them. It was His purpose to enlighten their
understanding and to fasten their faith upon the “sure word
of prophecy.” He wished the truth to take firm root in their
minds, not merely because it was supported by His personal
testimony, but because of the unquestionable evidence presented
by the symbols and shadows of the typical law, and by
the prophecies of the Old Testament. It was needful for the
followers of Christ to have an intelligent faith, not only in
their own behalf, but that they might carry the knowledge
of Christ to the world. And as the very first step in imparting
this knowledge, Jesus directed the disciples to “Moses and all
the prophets.” Such was the testimony given by the risen
Saviour to the value and importance of the Old Testament
Scriptures.
What a change was wrought in the hearts of the disciples
as they looked once more on the loved countenance of their
Master!
Luke 24:32. In a more complete and perfect sense
than ever before they had “found Him, of whom Moses in
the law, and the prophets, did write.” The uncertainty, the
anguish, the despair, gave place to perfect assurance, to
unclouded faith. What marvel that after His ascension they
“were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.”
The people, knowing only of the Saviour’s ignominious
death, looked to see in their faces the expression of sorrow,
confusion, and defeat; but they saw there gladness and
triumph. What a preparation these disciples had received
for the work before them! They had passed through the
deepest trial which it was possible for them to experience, and
had seen how, when to human vision all was lost, the word
of God had been triumphantly accomplished. Henceforward
what could daunt their faith or chill the ardor of their love?
In the keenest sorrow they had “strong consolation,” a hope
which was as “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”
Hebrews 6:18, 19. They had been witness to the wisdom
and power of God, and they were “persuaded, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature,” would be able to separate
them from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” “In all these things,” they said, “we are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us.”
Romans 8:38, 39, 37.
“The word of the Lord endureth forever.”
1 Peter 1:25. And
“who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
Romans 8:34.
Saith the Lord: “My people shall never be ashamed.”
Joel
2:26. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh
in the morning.”
Psalm 30:5. When on His resurrection
day these disciples met the Saviour, and their hearts burned
within them as they listened to His words; when they looked
upon the head and hands and feet that had been bruised for
them; when, before His ascension, Jesus led them out as
far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands in blessing, bade
them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,” adding,
“Lo, I am with you alway” (Mark 16:15;
Matthew
28:20); when on the Day of Pentecost the promised Comforter
descended and the power from on high was given and
the souls of the believers thrilled with the conscious presence
of their ascended Lord—then, even though, like His, their
pathway led through sacrifice and martyrdom, would they
have exchanged the ministry of the gospel of His grace, with
the “crown of righteousness” to be received at His coming,
for the glory of an earthly throne, which had been the hope
of their earlier discipleship? He who is “able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think,” had granted
them, with the fellowship of His sufferings, the communion
of His joy—the joy of “bringing many sons unto glory,” joy
unspeakable, an “eternal weight of glory,” to which, says
Paul, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” is
“not worthy to be compared.”
The experience of the disciples who preached the “gospel
of the kingdom” at the first advent of Christ, had its counterpart
in the experience of those who proclaimed the message
of His second advent. As the disciples went out preaching,
“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand,” so
Miller and his associates proclaimed that the longest and last
prophetic period brought to view in the Bible was about to
expire, that the judgment was at hand, and the everlasting
kingdom was to be ushered in. The preaching of the disciples
in regard to time was based on the seventy weeks of
Daniel 9. The message given by Miller and his associates
announced the termination of the 2300 days of
Daniel 8:14, of
which the seventy weeks form a part. The preaching of each
was based upon the fulfillment of a different portion of the
same great prophetic period.
Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates
did not, themselves, fully comprehend the import of the
message which they bore. Errors that had been long established
in the church prevented them from arriving at a correct
interpretation of an important point in the prophecy. Therefore,
though they proclaimed the message which God had
committed to them to be given to the world, yet through a
misapprehension of its meaning they suffered disappointment.
In explaining
Daniel 8:14, “Unto two thousand and three
hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” Miller,
as has been stated, adopted the generally received view that
the earth is the sanctuary, and he believed that the cleansing
of the sanctuary represented the purification of the earth by
fire at the coming of the Lord. When, therefore, he found
that the close of the 2300 days was definitely foretold, he
concluded that this revealed the time of the second advent.
His error resulted from accepting the popular view as to
what constitutes the sanctuary.
In the typical system, which was a shadow of the sacrifice
and priesthood of Christ, the cleansing of the sanctuary was
the last service performed by the high priest in the yearly
round of ministration. It was the closing work of the atonement
—a removal or putting away of sin from Israel. It prefigured
the closing work in the ministration of our High
Priest in heaven, in the removal or blotting out of the sins
of His people, which are registered in the heavenly records.
This service involves a work of investigation, a work of judgment;
and it immediately precedes the coming of Christ in
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; for when
He comes, every case has been decided. Says Jesus: “My
reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work
shall be.”
Revelation 22:12. It is this work of judgment,
immediately preceding the second advent, that is announced in
the first angel’s message of
Revelation 14:7: “Fear God, and
give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.”
Those who proclaimed this warning gave the right message
at the right time. But as the early disciples declared,
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,”
based on the prophecy of Daniel 9, while they failed to
perceive that the death of the Messiah was foretold in the same
scripture, so Miller and his associates preached the message
based on
Daniel 8:14 and
Revelation 14:7, and failed to see
that there were still other messages brought to view in Revelation
14, which were also to be given before the advent of
the Lord. As the disciples were mistaken in regard to the
kingdom to be set up at the end of the seventy weeks, so
Adventists were mistaken in regard to the event to take place
at the expiration of the 2300 days. In both cases there was an
acceptance of, or rather an adherence to, popular errors that
blinded the mind to the truth. Both classes fulfilled the will
of God in delivering the message which He desired to be
given, and both, through their own misapprehension of their
message, suffered disappointment.
Yet God accomplished His own beneficent purpose in
permitting the warning of the judgment to be given just as it
was. The great day was at hand, and in His providence the
people were brought to the test of a definite time, in order to
reveal to them what was in their hearts. The message was
designed for the testing and purification of the church. They
were to be led to see whether their affections were set upon
this world or upon Christ and heaven. They professed to love
the Saviour; now they were to prove their love. Were they
ready to renounce their worldly hopes and ambitions, and
welcome with joy the advent of their Lord? The message
was designed to enable them to discern their true spiritual
state; it was sent in mercy to arouse them to seek the Lord
with repentance and humiliation.
The disappointment also, though the result of their own
misapprehension of the message which they gave, was to be
overruled for good. It would test the hearts of those who had
professed to receive the warning. In the face of their
disappointment would they rashly give up their experience and
cast away their confidence in God’s word? or would they, in
prayer and humility, seek to discern where they had failed
to comprehend the significance of the prophecy? How many
had moved from fear, or from impulse and excitement?
How many were halfhearted and unbelieving? Multitudes
professed to love the appearing of the Lord. When called to
endure the scoffs and reproach of the world, and the test of
delay and disappointment, would they renounce the faith?
Because they did not immediately understand the dealings
of God with them, would they cast aside truths sustained by
the clearest testimony of His word?
This test would reveal the strength of those who with real
faith had obeyed what they believed to be the teaching of the
word and the Spirit of God. It would teach them, as only
such an experience could, the danger of accepting the theories
and interpretations of men, instead of making the Bible its
own interpreter. To the children of faith the perplexity and
sorrow resulting from their error would work the needed
correction. They would be led to a closer study of the
prophetic word. They would be taught to examine more carefully
the foundation of their faith, and to reject everything,
however widely accepted by the Christian world, that was
not founded upon the Scriptures of truth.
With these believers, as with the first disciples, that which
in the hour of trial seemed dark to their understanding
would afterward be made plain. When they should see
the “end of the Lord” they would know that, notwithstanding
the trial resulting from their errors, His purposes of love
toward them had been steadily fulfilling. They would learn
by a blessed experience that He is “very pitiful, and of tender
mercy;” that all His paths “are mercy and truth unto such
as keep His covenant and His testimonies.”
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