October 22, 1844 - October 22, 2007

It's become a tradition for me to comment on the significance of October 22 on my blog each year that it passes.

Last week, Joelle and I went to hear the Brahms Requiem with the LA Master Chorale. The original is sung in German but the translation in English revealed to me something I had never noticed. The piece has 7 movements and the second quotes James 5 talking about the early and latter rain. The last movement (the 7th) quotes Rev. 14:13, which says "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." Joelle and I as well as our two friends may have been the only ones in the audience to know that this verse is talking about all those who died in the third angel's message (from henceforth) because it immediately follows the three angels of Rev. 14:6-12. The third angel began to give its message on, you guessed it, October 22, 1844. Thus all those who died in the faith of the third angel's message from Oct. 22, 1844 onward will be resurrected in a special resurrection. Daniel 12 corroborates this. Ellen G. White also does in the Great Controversy. Thus, unbeknownst to Brahms, his closing movement sheds special light on the third angel's message and the special resurrection of those who died giving this message (aka faithful Seventh-day Adventists). This is meaningful to me as my dad passed to his rest on Aug. 12, 2003 and for those of you keeping track, that was four years exactly before my wedding on Aug. 12, 2007. Believe it or not, on Aug. 12, 1844, Samuel Snow gave the powerful message in Exeter, NH setting the date for Oct. 22, 1844 which launched the "Midnight Cry" or seventh month movement phase of the Millerite movement and was a fulfillment of the parable of the bridegroom in Matthew 25. So for me, Aug. 12 is also a very special day for at least 3 reasons: my anniversary of my marriage to Joelle, the anniversary of my father's death, and the anniversary of the launching of the seventh month movement, which EGW says was the most free from human imperfection of any movement in God's church since apostolic times.

Tonight for family worship, we read C. Mervyn Maxwell's account of the great disappointment in his book "Tell It To the World". I was almost moved to tears. As Siegfried Roeske said, in his sermon this past Sabbath at Advent HOPE about the Millerites, before we start criticizing them for their mistake we should look at the lives they lived. They were ready for translation. If Jesus had come that day, many of those who were looking for His appearing would have been ready and that includes William Miller, James and Ellen White, Joseph Bates, Hiram Edson, JN Andrews and others. Those who criticize those pioneers of that time are just as unready for the second coming of Jesus as were the critics of the Millerite message of that time. The critics of that time were critics because they didn't want to see Jesus come, not because they could prove the message wrong. The same is true today. People would be inconvenienced in their pursuit of the worldly gains if Jesus were to come and to interrupt their lives. This shows lack of true love for Jesus. To William Miller and Ellen Harmon (later Ellen White), Jesus was their best friend. How many of us can say that about Jesus today? I'm afraid that for most professed Christians including most SDAs, people say they love Jesus but we don't really show by the time we give Him in our lives. The Millerites gave everything they had because they loved Jesus so much. They were right about the day but wrong about the event. Fortunately, just as Jesus gave light to Cleopas on the road to Emmaus after the great disappointment of the disciples regarding their misunderstanding of His death on the cross and the nature of His mission to earth, so God gave light to Hiram Edson on October 23, 1844 that Jesus had moved to the Most Holy Place for the first time rather than coming out of the Most Holy Place at the end of the day of atonement. October 22 was simply the beginning.

The challenge for us today is to live with the spirit and the power that attended the pioneers. God is waiting for a generation of people who will care about going home and being like Jesus rather than being weighed down by the cares of this world. I hope and pray that my generation will be that generation to finish the work by the grace of God and to vindicate His name and show that it is possible to be just like Jesus at a time in earth's history when we are weaker and more depraved than any other generation that has lived. As Revelation 10 is being fulfilled and the seventh trumpet is sounding, and the mystery of God is being finished (Rev. 10:7), may it truly be said that Christ is in us (Col.1:27) the hope of glory so that the mystery of God (His sanctified character) will live in us and shine forth to the world through us and will lighten the earth with its glory (Rev. 18:1).

Happy October 22, 1844! May we keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus through His grace, love, mercy, and power!

I'm proud to be a Seventh-day Adventist!