J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 23, 1914

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

By John Norton Loughborough

The Second Advent Movement — No. 3

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

A SCRIPTURE which gave great force to the advent movement, especially from 1840 to 1844, was the tenth chapter of Revelation. “I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: . . . and sware by him that liveth forever and ever . . . that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” Rev. 10: 1-7.

The Adventists said: “Here is a message announcing the time for the finishing of the ‘mystery of God.’ That mystery is the gospel, according to Rom. 16: 25, 26; Eph. 3: 8, 9; Col. 1: 27. This proclamation points to the sounding of the seventh angel as the event to follow; and when he sounds, there are voices in heaven saying, ‘The time of the dead, that they should be judged.’”

In 1838 Brother Miller published his lectures in a pamphlet of 204 pages. In that pamphlet he gave an exposition of the seven trumpets, claiming that the first four trumpets had their fulfillment in the wars that broke Western Rome into ten fragments. The fifth he applied to the Turkish “torment” of the Eastern Empire, after the founding of the Ottoman Empire, from July 27, 1299, to July 27, 1449, 150 years—five prophetic months. At this time John Palæologus, the last Greek emperor, died, and Amarath, the Turkish sultan, was storming Constantinople, using firearms, and with a ponderous cannon battering the walls of Constantinople. Very shortly he had possession of the city, “killing” the power which he had formerly “tormented.” His killing of the power was to be for “an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year”—391 years and 15 days, on the ground of a day symbolizing a year, according to the Lord’s explanation. Num. 14: 34; Eze. 4: 6.

“In the year 1840, another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown ‘in A. D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;’ and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: ‘Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years and 15 days commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the eleventh of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe, will be found to be the case.’”

“At the very time specified, Turkey, through her ambassadors, accepted the protection ‘of the allied powers of Europe, and thus placed herself under the control of Christian nations. The event exactly fulfilled the prediction. When it became known, multitudes were convinced of the correctness of the principles of prophetic interpretation adopted by Miller and his associates, and a wonderful impetus was given to the advent movement. Men of learning and position united with Miller, both in preaching and in publishing his views, and from 1840 to 1844 the work rapidly extended.”—“Great Controversy,” edition 1912, pages 334, 335.

Just after the battle of St.-Jean d’Acre, the following appeared in the London Morning Herald: “We [the allies] have dissipated into thin air the prestige that lately invested, as with a halo, the name of Mahommed Ali. We have in all probability destroyed forever the power of that hitherto successful ruler; . . . but have we done aught to restore strength to the Ottoman Empire?—We fear not. We fear the sultan has been reduced to the rank of a mere puppet, and that the sources of the empire’s strength are entirely destroyed.”

When the situation of the Turk became known, the people said: “Turkish independence is gone. The prediction of the prophecy is fulfilled. The year-day theory of prophecy is established.” This resulted in a mighty impetus to the advent movement. Many infidel clubs were broken up. Brother Litch stated that he had received word by letters from more than one thousand infidels who gave up infidelity on the strength of the fulfillment of that prophecy.

Lodi, Cal.