J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 9, 1914

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

By John Norton Loughborough

The Second Advent Movement — No. 1

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

“Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” Heb. 10: 32-39.

HERE we have the experience of the apostolic church linked with that of the church waiting for Christ’s second coming. This, because there is a similarity in the experiences of the two. The commission to the apostles was, “As ye go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matt. 10: 7. Concerning their work, note this interesting comment:—

“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 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 anticipation 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 Dan. 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 upon the cross of Calvary. . . .

“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.”—“Great Controversy,” edition 1911, pages 345, 346.

In the recorded public prayer of Christ we have his approval of the work of the apostles, in these words: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.” John 17: 6-8.

We have seen how the Lord used the disciples to give a timely and true message, and yet they met with a disappointment in their expectations because of their misconception of how what they heralded was to be accomplished. Those who first gave the message of the second advent were disappointed in their expectations for a similar reason. The message they claimed to be giving is found in Rev. 14: 6, 7, symbolized by an angel who had “the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.”

The very event which they proclaimed—the judgment—did come, but not in harmony with their conceptions concerning it. For centuries the idea of the church, both Protestant and Catholic, was that the judgment would be introduced by the second coming of Christ. When William Miller made a statement of the “order of events in the judgment,”

it was not new with him; but he simply voiced the sentiment of the religious world, in stating,—

“1. He [God] has appointed a day of judgment.

“2. The judgment follows the resurrection.

“3. His saints are raised and judged at the second coming of Christ.”

From many lines of prophetic fulfillment, the Adventists could show that the coming of Christ was at the door; and if they could find the definite period of time leading to the close of Christ’s priestly work, and the opening of the judgment, they supposed it would be the actual time of his second coming. How they found this period, and their disappointment, will appear in further study.