The Second Advent Movement by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 22, 1914

The Second Advent Movement

By John Norton Loughborough

— No. 13

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no." Deut. 8: 2. For the safety of Israel it was needful for them to remember their experience and how the Lord had wrought for them. Moses warned them: "Lest . . . when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Deut. 8: 12-14. In after times, when they departed from the Lord, the reason assigned was, "They forgat God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea." Ps. 106: 21, 22.

Of the Lord's leading of his ancient people we are told: "Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10: 11. To Seventh-day Adventists the word has come: "We have nothing to fear from the future, except we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and his teaching in the past."—Mrs. E. G. White, in South African Missionary, Feb. 20, 1912.

This being so, it may be well for us to look at the way the Lord established this commandment-keeping people and connected with them an instrumentality to guide and instruct them all the way along. Those accepting this message saw that, according to Ezekiel 20, the Lord was to plead with his people, in "the wilderness of the people," like as he pleaded with Israel in the land of Egypt, and would cause them to "pass under the rod" (the same as the "reed" in Rev. 11: 1), and bring them "into the bond [seal] of the covenant." Eze. 20: 35-37. The church was in the wilderness state for 1260 years (Rev. 12: 6, 14), but, according to Solomon's Song, she is

to come out of the wilderness, leaning on the arm of her Beloved, "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Song of Solomon 6: 10.

If the final deliverance of God's people is to be after the manner of their deliverance from Egypt, the gift of prophecy must be connected with it; for "by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved." Hosea 12: 13. According to Paul's testimony the church waiting for Christ's coming is to come behind in no gift, and that because the testimony of Christ was confirmed among them. See 1 Cor. 1: 6, 7. By the teaching of the angel who placed John in vision on the isle of Patmos, we learn that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Rev. 19: 10. And the "remnant" church, after the 1260 years of tribulation, was to meet warfare from Satan because she kept the commandments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus Christ.

By the prophecy of Joel we learn that those with whom should be salvation when the Lord shall come are "the remnant whom the Lord shall call." Joel 2: 32. The apostle Paul, addressing those who shall be "children of light," so that the day of the Lord shall not come upon them "as a thief in the night," exhorts them in these words: "Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. 5: 20, 21), showing that with that people would be true manifestations of the gift of prophecy. That this is the true interpretation of the language is evident from the Greek lexicons. Greenfield and Parkhurst define the Greek word prophetaias, here rendered prophesying, "the exercise of the gift of prophecy," and each refers to 1 Thess. 5: 20, 21, as an illustration of the use of the word.

As there had been heavenly visions connected with the first angel's message and the midnight cry, under William Foy in 1842, in the children's preaching in Sweden in 1843, and with William Foy and Hazen Foss in 1844, it was not hard to accept the manifestation through Sister Ellen Harmon in 1845. The gifts of the Spirit are "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying [building up] of the body of Christ." Eph. 4: 12. Of the gift of prophecy it is said, "Prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe." 1 Cor. 14: 22.

In full accord with this, as the gift began to be manifest in Sister Harmon in 1845, she was directed to those believers in the past movement in Maine and in near-by States, exhorting them to hold fast their faith in the past movement, for all would soon be made plain, and to hold themselves in readiness to receive light that would come to them, as there was a third message to be given. Meanwhile Brother Bates was laboring in Massachusetts and other States, introducing the light respecting "the ark of his testimony," the Sabbath, and the third angel's message.

In August, 1846, Elder James White married Sister Ellen Harmon. In September of that year, at Topsham, Maine, Sister White had her great vision of the planets and the opening in the constellation Orion. Brother Bates was present, and this vision fully satisfied him that her visions were from the Lord — a true gift of prophecy, to be connected with the work of the third angel's message. From that period their labors were united in giving the third angel's message to all who would hear it. There was, however, such a prejudice with the masses against the advent movement that they would not admit in their minds a possibility of any explanation of the past. This also was permitted of the Lord; for it was his purpose that the disappointed ones should be searched out and have opportunity to hear and receive, if they would, the light of the third angel's message.

Lodi, Cal.