February 26: THE COMMAND TO PERSEVERE (part 4)

For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, And has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it? . . . In the latter days you will understand it perfectly. Jeremiah 23:18, 20b

We fast-forward to the early decades of the 1800s. A great stir brought fervent revival to the developing west. People perceived that westward expansion and industrialization were accompanied by moral decline. But there was also a righteous pushback: the development of printing methods in recent centuries had made the Bible more available than ever before. Movements for the abolition of slavery and temperance advanced. Church membership increased from 1 in 10 to 8 in 10 among Americans.

Modern advances were coming on more rapidly, and knowledge was increasing (see Daniel 12:4). A growing group of American Bible students became excited at the prospect of Jesus’ second coming. As interest became more widespread, they collectively tripped over the common belief that the sanctuary referred to the earth. With other verses that definitively pointed to the year 1844*, they were convinced that Jesus would return in that year to cleanse the earth by fire. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up… looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10,12).

When He didn’t come, the public humiliation they experienced caused the less committed ones to fall away, whittling the sizeable group down to a few dozen. These admitted that they were wrong regarding the time of His return, for of that day and hour no one knows (Mark 13:32). However, Jesus instructs us to know [when] it is near (v.29). They went back to the Bible for more study. Many within the established Protestant denominations (collectively called Sardis in Revelation 3:1) disfellowshipped these Bible students. A scorned stigma was attached to anyone who looked for the coming of Jesus. Nevertheless, they humbly continued to meet and persevere in a careful search of the Scriptures. The book of Hebrews, especially chapter 9, came into focus, directing them back to the study of the sanctuary and the meaning of each detail in the writings of Moses. Each of its furnishings illustrated an essential facet of Christ’s work for our salvation. In the letters to the churches, Jesus addressed this small group with little strength as the church in Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7).

“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” Revelation 3:8

*1844: see Daniel 9:25 “from the going forth of the command…” which points to the exact timing of Christ on the cross – the fulfillment of the Passover – by counting forward from Ezra 7: the year 457BC. This same beginning date applies to Daniel 8:14 “two thousand three hundred [prophetic] days” – meaning literal years (see Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:6, and Luke 13:32 for examples of the day/year principle in Bible prophecy). This is the Bible’s longest prophecy and points directly to the real-time Day of Atonement which precedes the close of earth’s history.