Is Adventism a New Thing?
By J. O.
No. From the days of Enoch (see Jude 14, 16) to the age of the Messiah, prophets and holy men spake in the most enraptured tones of the scenes of the last days. Scripture writings abound in prophetic warnings of the final catastrophe, and the victory. Both are held up to the view of all who read the word of God. The New Testament is more clear than the Old on this subject. The revelation is an inspired commentary upon some portions of the prophecy of Daniel; and the words of Christ, in Matt. 24, seem to be brought in still clearer light, in the pages of John's Revelation. Since the close of the canonical writing, good men have borne their unequivocal testimony to the same doctrine. Almost all the best and holiest of the universal church from Polycarp to Luther have borne the most undoubted testimony, to the common belief of the church, in the coming of the Messiah (personally) to the earth in the last days. Very lately, coming in possession of a work written by that learned and devoted minister, Dr. John Owen, a dissenting clergyman, of the English church, in 1636, an author of many valuable works, I was surprised to find an elaborate argument, proving that the decree of Artaxerxes, of Ezra 7, was the true date for the beginning of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, rather than the decree of Cyrus, or Darius. See Ezra chapters 7 and 4. This argument written by Dr. Owen some 200 years since, seemed so much like the writings of Seventh-day Adventists that I could not help comparing them; and placing them side by side, I was more firmly established than ever, if possible, in the truth of our position. Here we have Dr. John Owen, in those stormy times of Cromwell, writing out the very truth which others have produced in our days. Adventism is as old as the Bible.
J. O.