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This lesson explores the complexity of understanding Daniel 8:14 and the lessons learned from the two great disappointments in history. It emphasizes the need to search diligently for truth and avoid being blinded by false teachings and traditions.
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The Two Great Disappointments Lesson 41
Understanding the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14 does not have to be complex like solving the Rubik’s Cube huangjiahui
“No truth is more clearly taught in the Bible than that God . . . especially directs his servants on earth in the great movements. . . of the work of salvation” (The Great Controversy, p. 343).
Men are employed by God to accomplish his purposes. Each worker has a part to play, and each is given a measure of light, but no man, no matter how honored, has ever had a full understanding or a perfect appreciation of the work he is called to do.
This is because God’s ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts. “For 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” (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
“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 . . .” (The Great Controversy, p. 344)
While we are to search diligently to understand the things God has revealed to us, we sometimes do not understand what we could because we are blinded by the traditions and false teachings we have been exposed to and have grown up with. This happened in the days of Christ, and it happened in 1844. Both times a terrible disappointment followed.
The disciples believed the idea popular in their time that the Messiah would be a heavenly prince who would establish his kingdom on this earth and who would then exalt the nation of Israel to be the ruler of the world. Remember, at this time the Jewish people were under the control of Rome, and they wanted to be free from this control and, therefore, longed for a Messiah who would give them freedom and, also, elevate them to rulership.
James before Herod Agrippa
Because of their mistaken belief, they could not understand when Jesus told them he would suffer and die. In Mark 1:15, Jesus’ words are: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” When he said the time was fulfilled, he was referring to himself in the prophecy in Daniel 9, verses 24-27.
“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 Great Controversy, p. 345) the Messiah. They focused on verse 25 and failed to comprehend the next verse which speaks of the Messiah being cut off.
Jesus sent his disciples out to preach the words of Mark 1:15--The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel--but they themselves did not understand what they preached. They did what Christ told them to do, but they misunderstood the meaning of the words they shared.
“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 . . . (The Great Controversy, p. 345, 346)!
They couldn’t comprehend the words of Christ foretelling of his death because they believed the popular opinion that the Messiah would establish an earthly kingdom. Because they accepted this teaching, they were terribly disappointed, even though they had been in the very presence of Christ for years.
I saw that God sent his angel to move upon the heart of a farmer [William Miller] who had not believed the Bible, and led him to search the prophecies. Angels of God repeatedly visited that chosen one, and guided his mind, and opened his understanding to prophecies which had ever been dark to God’s people. The commencement of the chain of truth was given him, and he was led on to search for link after link, until he looked with wonder and admiration upon the word of God.
He saw there a perfect chain of truth. That Word which he had regarded as uninspired, now opened before his vision with beauty and glory. He saw that one portion of scripture explained another, and when one portion was closed to his understanding, he found in another portion of the Word that which explained it. He regarded the sacred word of God with joy, and with the deepest respect and awe. {1SG 128.1}
“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” (The Great Controversy, pp. 351, 352).
“In common with the rest of the Christian world, Adventists then held that the earth, or some portion of it, was the sanctuary. They understood that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the purification of the earth by the fires of the last great day, and that this would take place at the second advent. Hence the conclusion that Christ would return to the earth in 1844” (Great Controversy p. 409).
“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 a 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” (The Great Controversy, p. 353).
“The 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 Great Controversy, p. 353)
“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. . . . would they rashly give up their experience . . . ? How many had moved from fear, or from impulse and excitement . . .” (The Great Controversy, pp. 353, 354)?
“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” (The Great Controversy, p. 354).
The fruits of the advent movement, the spirit of humility and heart searching, of renouncing of the world and reformation of life, which had attended the work, testified that it was of God. They dared not deny that the power of the Holy Spirit had witnessed to the preaching of the second advent, and they could detect no error in their reckoning of the prophetic periods. The ablest of their opponents had not succeeded in overthrowing their system of prophetic interpretation” (The Great Controversy, p. 405).
They could not consent, without Bible evidence, to renounce positions which had been reached through earnest, prayerful study of the Scriptures, by minds enlightened by the Spirit of God and hearts burning with its living power; positions which had withstood the most searching criticisms and the most bitter opposition of popular religious teachers and worldly-wise men, and which had stood firm against the combined forces of learning and eloquence . . .” (The Great Controversy, pp. 405, 406).
They studied for many months after the disappointment and learned more about the earthly and the heavenly sanctuaries. The heavenly was the pattern for the earthly: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true . . .” (Hebrews 9:24).
So, the question of the sanctuary is solved--it is the heavenly sanctuary--but what is the cleansing of the sanctuary?
It was not long after the passing of the time in 1844 that my first vision was given me. I was visiting a dear sister in Christ, whose heart was knit with mine; five of us, all women, were kneeling quietly at the family altar. While we were praying, the power of God came upon me as I had never felt it before. I seemed to be surrounded with light, and to be rising higher and higher from the earth. I turned to look for the advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me: “Look again, and look a little higher.” At this I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the advent people were traveling toward the city. Behind them, at the beginning of the path, was a bright light which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light shone all along the path, that their feet might not stumble. Jesus Himself went just before His people to lead them forward, and as long as they kept their eyes fixed on Him, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising His glorious right arm, from which came a light that waved over the advent band; and they shouted: “Alleluia!” Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below. (1T 58)
Hiram Edson’s house and barn.
Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus' coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. (1T 59)
Soon our eyes were drawn to the east, for a small black cloud had appeared, about half as large as a man's hand, which we all knew was the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence we all gazed on the cloud as it drew nearer, and became lighter, glorious, and still more glorious, till it was a great white cloud. The bottom appeared like fire; a rainbow was over the cloud, while around it were ten thousand angels, singing a most lovely song; and upon it sat the Son of man. His hair was white and curly and lay on His shoulders, and upon His head were many crowns. His feet had the appearance of fire; in His right hand was a sharp sickle, in His left a silver trumpet. His eyes were as a flame of fire, which searched His children through and through. (1T 60)
In the Review & Herald of December 14, 1939, Associate Editor W. A. Spicer wrote an article about the disappointment. The next ten slides are from his article.
Years ago, in western New York, an elderly sister in the faith told me her memories of October 22, in her father’s family. She was then but a little girl. But graven in her memory was the scene of that day that father and mother, while doing the necessary things in the home, spent the day in devotion and singing and waiting. No work in the field was undertaken. At last the day was ending—and the Saviour had not come. The father was sitting in a chair by the door. The little girl was playing on the lawn. Just as the sun was sinking, its last rays lighted up a little cloud on the distant horizon. The cloud shone like silver and burnished gold. “Father rose to his feet,” she told me, “with face lighted with joy. ‘O, praise the Lord,’ he cried, clapping his hands, ‘our Saviour is coming.’ ” The preparations to meet eternity had all been made. These believers were ready; their sins were confessed and their wrongs were made right. This father did not have to attend to these things of getting ready when he saw that shining cloud. He had before that heard the admonition, “Be ye therefore ready.” It is a lesson for us today as the time of probation hastens by, someday to end “suddenly.” The disappointment of those waiting ones in 1844 was indeed bitter. The cleansing of the sanctuary, which was to take place at the end of the prophetic period, meant to them the coming of Christ to earth to cleanse it from sinful things. The earth was the sanctuary, they thought. After 1844 they knew not what to think next. Although the multitudes gave up, a firm body of disappointed second advent believers were waiting and praying for light that would explain the experience. With the light on the heavenly sanctuary, the explanation came.
Hiram Edson, farmer preacher, leader of a group of early Adventists in western New York, was the brother who first caught the light that the sanctuary to be cleansed was the heavenly sanctuary. He wrote out the experience some years later, and the story was preserved by his daughter, Mrs. O. V. Cross, of Florida. In the REVIEW of June 23, 1921, a portion of his manuscript was reprinted. Here is his testimony to the coming of the light. Speaking first of the great disappointment, he wrote:
“Our expectations were raised high, and thus we looked for our coming Lord until the clock tolled twelve at midnight. The day had then passed, and our disappointment had become a certainty. Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept and wept, till the day dawned. . . .
“I mused in my heart, saying: ‘My advent experience has been the brightest of all my Christian experience. Has the Bible proved a failure? Is there no God in heaven, no golden city, no Paradise? Is all this but a cunningly devised fable? Is there no reality to our fondest hopes and expectations?’ . . .
“I began to feel there might be light and help for us in our distress. I said to some of the brethren: ‘Let us go to the barn.’ We entered the granary, shut the doors about us, and bowed before the Lord. We prayed earnestly, for we felt our necessity. We continued in earnest prayer until the witness of the Spirit was given that our prayers were accepted, and that light should be given—our disappointment explained, made clear and satisfactory.
“After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, ‘Let us go to see and encourage some of our brethren.’ We started, and while passing through a large field, I was stopped about midway in the field. Heaven seemed open to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, He, for the first time, entered on that day into the second apartment of that sanctuary, and that He had a work to perform in the most holy place before coming to the earth; that He came to the marriage, or in other words, to the Ancient of days, to receive a kingdom, dominion, and glory; and that we must wait for His return from the wedding.”—Review and Herald, June 23, 1921.
Hiram Edson studied this question. Two close friends joined him. . . . The whole matter was plain. Christ had come to that service in the most holy above, as the time came in 1844. Their mistake was explained. The prophecy had been fulfilled. They had looked to this earth instead of to the most holy place above. There in heaven above, the judgment hour had come, the time of cleansing the sanctuary records, as described in Daniel 7:10, 13. This was light. It must be published to the believers. . . . They agreed to publish it. The matter was written up in 1845. Early the next year they arranged for it to be printed in a Cincinnati second advent paper called the Day Star, and it was published February 7, 1846. Hiram Edson had to ask his wife for some of her wedding-gift silverware to pay for this paper. It was sent to many second advent believers, and Joseph Bates, James White, Ellen Harmon all accepted the teaching.
Horace and Olive Patten wrote this letter to James White when they learned about Jesus going in the the most holy place in 1844, and he published it in the Review: “O that we could tell you with what joy and gratitude we received the true light on the cleansing of the sanctuary! No one could be clearer than we were that the days ended in 1844. In our darkness we have secretly longed for something that would more fully explain the past mighty move, and the fulfillment of this scripture, ‘then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’ Think then of our joy, after waiting near seven long years in ignorance, to learn that our great High Priest did exactly fulfill the types on the tenth day of the seventh month, and entered the most holy place, in the true sanctuary above.”—Review and Herald, March 2, 1852.
And to this day [1939], in remotest corners of the earth, the light of the sanctuary truth is gladdening hearts. Away in the island of Bougainville, in the Solomon group, east of New Guinea, Brother Tutty found this truth shaping island lives. He wrote of a visit to one remote outpost: “While there I was handed two bags full of native food as tithe. I asked Rongupitu, the teacher, ‘What have you been teaching them?’ He replied, ‘The sanctuary, and showed me his drawing on a board.”
“It is interesting to get this picture of the island teacher, only recently out of heathenism, using a board and chalk to make real to his hearers the blessed work of Jesus our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. In 1844 the Sabbath truth first came to the little group of Adventists in Washington, New Hampshire. In 1844 the light on the sanctuary in heaven came first to a group of Adventist believers near Port Gibson, New York. Now we see these key truths, in the days of 1846 and 1847, drawing together the men whom God had called to lead out in the first days of this advent movement.” (W. A. Spicer, R & H, December 14, 1939)
The next slide come from an article by W. A. Spicer in the Australasian Record of August 12, 1940:
Thus it was, on October 23, the morning after the disappointment, that Hiram Edson, bewildered, but trusting, was on his way to visit neighbouring brethren, hoping to encourage them. On the way through the cornfield, with a companion a little ahead, Edson knelt behind a shock of corn to pray again for light. There it was that, like a message from heaven, came the conviction, “The sanctuary to be cleansed is in heaven.” He stood, looking up, and wondering greatly. His companion turned to see why he had dropped behind. J. N. Loughborough, who had often talked with Edson, tells how these words, “The sanctuary is in heaven,” thrilled the man. All of them had thought this earth to be the sanctuary to which Christ was to come at the end of the 2300 years. Now, like a message from heaven, it rang in Edson’s heart and mind, “The sanctuary is in heaven!” J. N. Loughborough wrote:— “He repeated this to his companion, and said, ‘What does that mean?’ They hastened home, determined to seek light on this matter from the Scriptures. There they prayed the Lord to guide them to the portions that would give light on the subject. Brother Edson said he let his Bible drop on the table to see where it would open. It opened between the eighth and ninth chapters of Hebrews. As they began to read, Brother Edson said, ‘I suppose I have read that a hundred times, but it never appeared to me as it does now. The sanctuary is in heaven, and Christ has gone in to cleanse it!’ They then made a careful study of the sanctuary, Crosier writing out the points as they studied.”— Review and Herald, September 15, 1921. Thus came to us that great doctrine of the sanctuary and its cleansing—the light coming first to an earnest farmer brother.
