Seventh-Day Adventist Eschatology: The Great Disappointment

[BLESSED BEYOND BELIEF]

Seventh-Day Adventist Eschatology: The Great Disappointment

By Dr. David R. Reagan


Bible prophecy has always been important to Seventh-Day Adventists, more so than you would find among mainline Christian groups, even Evangelicals. The SDA church was founded on Bible prophecy, and its phenomenal growth during the 20th Century was based on an emphasis on Bible prophecy.

The Millerite Movement of the 1840's gave birth to the Seventh-Day Adventists. The Movement was generated by a false prophecy made by William Miller, a Baptist pastor, that Jesus would return in 1844.

Compounding the Error

When this prophecy failed to materialize — an event that came to be called "The Great Disappointment" — a small group of Millerite diehards decided to rescue the prophecy by spiritualizing it. They argued that William Miller had set the right date but had prophesied the wrong event! Instead of returning to earth on the prescribed date, Jesus had instead entered the Holy of Holies in Heaven to begin a second aspect of His atoning work called "the investigative judgment." This process, which continues to this day, involves an evaluation of the sins and works of each believer to determine their eternal destiny.

Thus, one false prophecy led to another which provided the foundation for the establishment of the Seventh-Day Adventists. One analyst has expressed it this way: "The Great Disappointment led to the Great Cover-up." [1]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BAGgqkcuYU8/TnNlmZGQKnI/AAAAAAAAJTc/Xq18wCcWFEE/s200/ellen_white.jpg

The Source


All the fundamental concepts of the SDA scheme of end time events were developed by Ellen G. White and are contained in her book, The Great Controversy (1888). [2] Since she is revered by the SDA as a prophet of God, no one has dared to tinker with what she wrote. Accordingly, when you write to the SDA today requesting information about Bible prophecy, you will not receive a summary written by any modern day author. Rather, you will be sent a copy of a brief booklet entitled The Final Events of Bible Prophecy. [3] This booklet is nothing but a compilation of relevant chapters from The Great Controversy.

Ellen White's writings are not easy going. She was a longwinded writer with a tendency to preach and chase rabbits. Her writings are thus disjointed and difficult to consolidate into a timeline of events.

Fortunately, the essence of her end time concepts has been boiled down by Doug Batchelor, the SDA spokesman for the "Amazing Facts" television program. He has summarized the concepts in a video that is also named "The Final Events of Bible Prophecy." [4] To date, hundreds of thousands of copies of this very high-tech, spectacular video production have been distributed worldwide.

In the next part of this series on what the Seventh-Day Adventists believe concerning the end times, we'll look at how they define those coming periods and events.


Endnotes

[1] John Ecob, booklet entitled Seventh-Day Adventism Weighed and Found Wanting (Marayong, Australia: Herald of Hope Magazine, 2004).
[2] Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, first published in 1888. Now available from Remnant Publications in Coldwater, MI (1997).
[3] E. G. White, The Final Events of Bible Prophecy, (Amazing Facts, 2004).
[4] Doug Batchelor, "The Final Events of Bible Prophecy," a video produced by Amazing Facts Ministry, Roseville, CA (2004).

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[Sing4Him]

Seventh-Day Adventist Eschatology: Basic Concepts
By Dr. David R. Reagan
Lamb & Lion Ministries

(note: this is false teaching)

The following are how the Seventh-Day Adventists would define various coming end time periods and events.

The End Times - The end times leading up to the soon return of Jesus began in 1844 when Jesus entered the Holy of Holies in Heaven and began His investigative judgment of the sins and works of believers. When this work is finished, the Rapture will occur.


The Tribulation - In the end times, the United States will align with the Vatican in a conspiracy to impose Sunday worship upon the world. This will lead to a terrible persecution of Sabbath keepers. The "crowning act" during this time will occur when Satan impersonates Jesus and declares Sunday to be the official Sabbath. The papacy is portrayed as the Antichrist; Protestant Christianity is the False Prophet; the United States is the enforcer; and the period of persecution will constitute the Great Tribulation which will culminate in the Battle of Armageddon between the true believers and the Sunday-keepers who have taken the Mark of the Beast.

The Rapture - At this point, Jesus will appear in the heavens. All eyes will see Him. The righteous dead will be resurrected, the living saints will be caught up, and all the redeemed will return to Heaven with Jesus. Before returning to Heaven, Jesus will pour out the wrath of God on the nations, all the wicked will be killed, and the earth will be totally devastated.

The Millennium - The saved will spend the next 1,000 years in Heaven with the Lord. The sins of the redeemed will be placed upon Satan, and he and his angels will be banished to the desolate earth where they will wander for the next thousand years. Meanwhile, during this time in Heaven, the redeemed will judge the lost, reviewing their deeds to determine their degrees of punishment.

The Second Coming - At the end of the Millennium, Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives. The redeemed will return with Him, but they will descend inside the New Jerusalem. Jesus will command the wicked to rise from the dead. Satan will then rally these people to revolt against Jesus and His saints. They will march against the New Jerusalem. Fire will engulf the earth while the redeemed are protected inside the New Jerusalem. The wicked will have their judgments pronounced and will then be thrown into the Lake of Fire where they will experience degrees of punishment and then suffer destruction.

The Eternal State - Out of the fiery inferno will come a New Earth, purified by fire. God will then recreate the earth in beauty and perfection. The redeemed will live in the presence of God on this New Earth eternally.

In the next part of this series on what the Seventh-Day Adventists believe concerning the end times, we'll analyze in more detail how they view the Tribulation.

[Sing4Him]

Seventh-Day Adventist Eschatology: The Tribulation
By Dr. David R. Reagan
Lamb & Lion Ministries



The following is an analysis of how the Seventh-Day Adventists view the Tribulation.

The Investigative Judgment — The SDA's cornerstone doctrine of investigative judgment is both unbiblical and anti-biblical. The doctrine is unbiblical because there is no true biblical basis for it. It is anti-biblical because it denies the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. It is also downright silly in nature because it assumes that Jesus, who is omniscient, must take 160+ years (and counting) to evaluate and judge the works and sins of all believers.

The Tribulation — There are actually two concepts of the Tribulation that can be found in SDA literature. One is the concept that the Tribulation started in 1844 when the "apostate Protestants" began to persecute Adventists. This persecution, of course, intensified (supposedly) when Adventists began to emphasize the essentiality of Sabbath-keeping. The other concept of the Tribulation is that it will be a period of intense persecution that will immediately precede the Lord's return. Doug Batchelor says he thinks it will last no longer than two months. [5] During this period of time, the United States and the Vatican will be unified in forcing the observance of Sunday worldwide as the proper day of worship.

Both views are unbiblical. The Bible clearly teaches that the Tribulation will be a period of seven years during which time God will pour out His wrath, first on rebellious Gentile nations (Revelation 6-11), and then on the nation of Israel (Revelation 12:13-17). The period will begin when the Antichrist signs a covenant that will guarantee peace in the Middle East (Daniel 9:27). It will end seven years later when a great remnant of the Jews accepts Jesus as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10 and Romans 9:27-28; 11:25-29).

The concept of the U.S. allying itself with the Vatican to force Sunday-worship upon the world is downright ludicrous. This is one of Ellen White's most flagrant false prophecies. Since the time she wrote this prophecy in the 19th Century, the U.S. has abolished all Sunday observance laws (often referred to as "Blue Laws"), and the country has become increasingly secular and pagan.

Her scriptural justification for this weird prophecy is a good example of the SDA's tendency toward nonsensical interpretations. She asserted that chapters 12 and 13 of Revelation teach that the Antichrist (the papacy) would dominate the world for 1,260 days before suffering a fatal wound. She converted the days into years (without any textual authority for doing so) and then decided that the ending point to the 1,260 years was 1798 because that was the year when, during the French Revolution, a French general conquered Rome and took Pope Pius VI captive. She then counted backward 1,260 years and proclaimed that the era of papal dominance over the nations of Europe began in the year 538 AD.

Notice that the first thing she did was to violate her own rule that a prophetic year always equals 360 days. This was a rule that had been laid down by William Miller in calculating the date of the Lord's return, and that rule had been accepted by all Adventists.

The second problem with her calculations is that nothing significant happened in the year 538 AD. The reigning bishop of Rome at that time was Vigilius who never exercised any secular reigning power. Papal power over Western secular governments began during the reign of Gregory the Great who was bishop of Rome from 590 to 604 AD. This is the period of time that is generally recognized by historians as the beginning of the papacy. [6]

A third problem with Ellen White's calculations is that the papal setback of 1798 was not the first in Vatican history. During the time period she identified, there were at least 20 anti-popes who set themselves up in opposition to the reigning pope, and there was a period of 70 years, from 1309 to 1378, when the papacy was actually moved to Avignon, France.

The fourth problem with Ellen White's calculations is that 1798 did not even begin to mark the end of papal influence worldwide. On the contrary, during the 20th Century the papacy was solidified in its power and authority and continues to this day to exercise great authority among the nations of the world. SDA apologists usually respond to the modern day resurgence of the Catholic Church as the healing of the "fatal wound" that is referred to in Revelation 13:3. But this prophecy refers either to a wound experienced by the Antichrist or to the revival of the Roman Empire in the end times.

Finally, the prophecies in Revelation 12 and 13 have absolutely nothing to do with the papacy. They simply declare that the Antichrist (a person) will focus his demonic efforts on the annihilation of the Jewish people during the last 1,260 days of the Tribulation.

So, why did Ellen White conjure us such a bizarre interpretation? Because she wanted to use it as a basis for asserting that the second beast of Revelation 13 was the United States! Here's how her reasoning went: Since the power of the first beast waned in 1798, the rise of the second beast (Revelation 13:11ff) must have occurred at that time, and the only candidate on the world scene was the United States which was rising to power at that exact time. Thus, the second beast of Revelation 13 is always portrayed in SDA literature as a bison with either an American flag or a map of the U.S. in the background. This, to say the least, is a reckless interpretation of Scripture, particularly when you consider the fact that Revelation 13:11 specifically states that the second beast "had two horns like a lamb." Somehow, the lamb became a bison which represented the United States!

In the next part of this series on what the Seventh-Day Adventists believe concerning the end times, we'll analyze how they view other key eschatalogical events.


Endnotes

[5] Doug Batchelor, Anything but Secret! a booklet published by Amazing Facts Ministry (2004), page 22.
[6] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, volume IV (Eerdmans Publishing, 1989), page 212.

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