Podcasts about millerites

The arc of Abraham Lincoln's political career existed in the context of the ideologically tumultuous 19th century. From a period of cultural pessimism in the 1840s and 1850s alongside the Millerites' prediction of a Second Coming, this period saw the rise of utopian philosophies, the intwining of slavery and Southern identity, the merging of Manifest Destiny with the concept of free-market opportunity, and a collapse of a common, middle ground. Distinguished historian Orville Vernon Burton joins David M. Rubenstein to paint a portrait of the five decades pivoting around Abraham Lincoln's presidency, and his place within them. Recorded on July 6, 2023

Most SDAs are aware that the judgment commenced in the sanctuary in heaven on October 22, 1844. As we know, the Millerites got the date right, but the event wrong. When they came to understand that the sanctuary would be cleansed on that day, they thought the sanctuary was the earth. But, as God soon showed, it was the sanctuary in heaven. Okay, so we know all of that, but, is there any evidence of there ever being a cleansing of the sanctuary on earth? For more study, see: "Do You Know About the Judgment of the Living?" https://youtu.be/ZHfjOCjnMm0?si=w66FUqa5SXY0Izne "The Two Phases of the Pre-Advent Judgment" https://traffic.libsyn.com/branchsabbathschool/SS2022Q4W13_judgment.mp3 "The Judgment and the Harvest," https://www.bdsda.com/the-judgment-and-the-harvest/ 2024 Sabbath School, Quarter 1: Psalms – Week 6, "I will Arise" A Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School Lesson.  www.bdsda.com Email us bdsdalit@gmail.com for comments and study requests     

In Season 1 Vicki and Shawn found that many of the cults were inspired by the Millerites. In this Bonus Episode, we delve into this old school cult to see how they inspired others. 

Jesus, the glory of God and the glory of Israel, is also the ultimate prophet who proclaimed God’s judgment on the nation for its sins and rejection of Him. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 13. You can also refer to Matthew 24. I'm going to be leaning on both of the chapters but mostly walking through Mark 13, as we begin to look at a topic that theologians call eschatology or the study of end times or last things. In 1925, the American poet TS Eliot wrote his masterpiece entitled The Hollow Men. It was a reflection of his generally gloomy outlook on the direction of human history after the devastation of World War I. That terrible so-called “War to End All Wars” left permanent scars in the minds and hearts of many. Pictures of bleak battlefields that were stripped of all trees, all vegetation, all life, looking more like a moonscape which had been pounded by artillery for years. Deep craters, mud and death everywhere. TS Eliot looked at that, he looked at human history and he wondered bleakly where it was all heading. In the poem he spoke of men with heads filled with straw, men without eyes groping through a valley with dying stars, in which little by little all energy just seems to leak out or drain out slowly from the universe until nothing is left. The poem ended famously with these words, “this is the way the world ends.” “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.” That's TS Eliot's opinion or poetic prophecy. But it's just, in my opinion, another example of the fascination that human beings have with where this is all heading. Where are we going in all of this and more specifically with the conceptions of the end of the world? Doomsday scenarios, apocalyptic visions, dystopian societies clawing out some existence on a dying planet after World War III has wiped out most of the human race or some other such thing. It says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “God has set eternity in the hearts of men, but they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” We have a sense of a movement towards something but we don't know what it is. We can't figure out where we've come from. We don't really understand the history that leads up to this, and we don't know ... even James says, what's going to happen tomorrow? But we have a fascination in it. We're interested in it. In our culture, especially movie makers cash in on this kind of thing. They depict earth in its final stage after some thermonuclear holocaust, like in the movie “Planet of the Apes” or “Dr. Strangelove” or others. Or perhaps a pandemic which wipes out all of earth's population, such as in the movie “I Am Legend.” Or some kind of ecological disaster, climate change, global warming, or some kind of solar flares like in “2012” or “The Day After Tomorrow.” Or a blight that kills all vegetation except corn, that’s “Interstellar.” Or even alien invasions, that's “The War of the Worlds”, or conquest by artificial intelligence robots, “The Matrix." I'm sure I've missed a few of the ways that the world ends. How exactly will the world end and how will we know when it's coming? Is there anything we can do about it? These are questions that burn in the hearts of normal people, and they burned in the hearts of the disciples of Jesus as well. These are the questions that Jesus Christ seeks to answer in Mark 13 and also Matthew 24 and 25. One of the key issues He brings up is, what are the signs by which we can see the impending end of the world as it approaches? Jesus amazingly begins, in the account we're going to look at today, Mark 13: 1-13, by talking about things that will happen commonplace in every generation and are no certain signs of the immediate end of the world. But in the midst of it ... as we're going to talk about next week more especially, is the central purpose of history, the unfolding of history, and that is the proclamation of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The unfolding of uncertain signs that are true in every generation is a matrix or a canvas on which the painting, the masterpiece of the spread of the Gospel ... or what we call the external journey, goes on. Today we begin a fascinating and vital journey into true prophecy, not the prophecy of movie makers or of American poets, but the prophecy that flows from the mind of God. The only one who really knows the future is the sovereign God who decrees it. God is sovereign and therefore when He tells us what's going to happen, we need to listen. I. Christ’s Shocking Prediction It begins with Christ's shocking prediction there in Jerusalem, in Mark 13:2; "Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." We need to understand the significance of this moment. We get it more clearly in the Gospel of Matthew, at the end of Matthew 23 and on into 24. As Jesus has finished his words of judgment, his seven woes on the scribes and Pharisees and condemns them, then the glory leaves the temple. In the Old Covenant, the glory cloud represented the presence of God, the special presence of the omnipresent God with his people, the Jews. God's glory cloud entered the tabernacle when Moses had finished constructing it. The glory cloud entered the tabernacle and filled it, symbolizing the special presence of God there in the tabernacle. So also, centuries later when Solomon completed the construction of his temple, the glory cloud entered the temple and filled it. But sadly, tragically, when the Jews forsook the true God, the only God, for idols and did this over centuries, the glory cloud departed from the temple. Ezekiel saw it in Ezekiel chapter 10, "He beheld the glory," called sometimes the “Shekhinah” glory. You're not going to see that word but it just means the dwelling glory of God. The dwelling glory departing the temple because of Israel's great wickedness and idolatry, the glory leaving the temple. That rendered the temple really nothing more than a empty or desolate pile of stones, which then the Gentiles were about to flood in and destroy, the Gentiles being the Babylonians at that point. In the kindness of God, a remnant of Jews ... a very small remnant compared to the original population that entered the Promised Land, 42,000 came back and were given permission by their Gentile overlords to rebuild a smaller version of the temple, which they did. The story is told in Haggai and also in Ezra and Nehemiah. But now in Matthew 23 and 24 the true glory of God, the dwelling glory, the incarnate glory of God leaves the temple. He walks out because the Jews have officially rejected him from being their Messiah. In Matthew 23, seven times He says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites." He condemns them. They are spiritual leaders and representatives of the Jewish nation. Jesus said in Matthew 23, "They sit in Moses's seat so you must obey them." They do represent the law of God, but they were deeply corrupted men. They were whitewashed tombs that looked beautiful on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. As Jesus says in Mark 12, "They devour widows' houses and for show make lengthy prayers." That's who they were. It culminates with these devastating words in Matthew 23:37-39, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you, how often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is left to you desolate." This is an incredibly important statement. Behold, look, your house is left to you desolate ... an important word. "I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” In Matthew 24:1 and also in Mark 13, Jesus then left the temple, He walks out. It's not just the actions, it's the words and what He says, "Your house is left desolate. It's empty because I'm walking out. I'm not coming back until you say, 'Blessed is he comes in the name of the Lord.'" So out He goes, it's a hugely significant moment in redemptive history. Jesus is the ultimate prophet from God. He is the one who has been sent. After all these other servants have been sent and have been mistreated and killed, then the the absentee owner of the vineyard sends His son. But they reject him and they are conspiring to kill him, so therefore Jesus is leaving. He's departing and Israel's house, the temple is going to be left desolate. That is vacant, empty, stripped of glory. Why? Because He is leaving and He is the incarnate glory of God. Hebrews 1:3, “the Son is the radiance of God's glory in the exact representation of His being.” The glory cloud symbolizes Jesus. Jesus is the glory of Israel. He's the glory of God, and He's leaving because of Israel's wicked unbelief. They had rejected Jesus. They would officially do it at his trial. But they had already made the decision that if anyone declared that Jesus was the Messiah, they'd be cast out of the synagogue [John 9]. They've rejected him and out He goes. The glory departed the temple. Indeed, Jerusalem itself will be nothing more spiritually than an empty, vacant set of piles of stone, ready again for the Gentiles to come in and destroy. That's what's going on. At this moment the disciples who frequently weren't on message ... Do you get that sense? They're frequently just missing what's happening. They represent us. They come up at that moment, and one of them in particular just can't get over how beautiful the temple is. Look at verse 1, “As Jesus was leaving the temple one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.’" This is really remarkably poor timing but it’s significant as well. Herod's temple was indeed an impressive temple. Some of those stones were truly massive. Josephus, the contemporary Jewish historian a generation later from Jesus, tells us that some of the stones were as large as 45 feet long, 12 feet high and 18 feet in width. That's a single stone. Approximately 1.5 million pounds, astonishing. Furthermore, the building itself was lavishly beautiful. King Herod was a vicious, wicked tyrant. He was the one that ordered the slaughter of the newborns in order to kill Jesus after He was born. He's just a terribly wicked man. But he thought to ingratiate himself to his people by adorning the temple with stones of marble and with a lot of gold and other glitter. It was rather a very impressive building. Human beings in general marvel at human achievement. We get blown away by what humans can do and humans can do amazing things, created in the image of God. But from the Tower of Babel, then through Nebuchadnezzar gloating over Babylon ... “this great Babylon that I've built for my own glory and display of my splendor”, et cetera, we are drawn in and amazed at human achievements. God is not. Stephen says in Acts 7, quoting the scripture, “God says, ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things and so they came into being?’" God's not impressed. God instead yearns for a people characterized by brokenhearted humility and faith and repentance. That's what He's yearning for, and the Jews did not have it. So Jesus makes this shocking prediction, verses 1-2, “As Jesus was leaving the temple one of his disciples said to him, “'Look teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.’ ‘Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus, ‘Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down.’" "God …yearns for a people characterized by brokenhearted humility and faith and repentance." Jesus frequently used object lessons, pointing to things, “Look at it”. But this is very much the topic. They were the ones calling his attention to the stones, to the temple, that's what they're talking about. “Do you see them? Look at all these great buildings.” I don't know whether his hand swept over the temple complex itself or the entire city. As you know historically, the whole thing was going to be destroyed, not just the temple. So it could be He was talking about the entire city of Jerusalem, as He wept over Jerusalem, as He lamented over Jerusalem, but specifically the topic there was the temple. Either way, these words would have been shocking to these Jewish disciples. Every stone placed on top of another will be toppled down. This entire place will be leveled. It's going to be raised. Humanity in pride builds upward and goes lofty and high. Like in Isaiah 2, these lofty towers and these cedars of Lebanon and all this rising up, it's just a symbol of human pride. Like the Tower of Babel, God casts it downward. This is nothing less than the prediction of the total destruction, not just of the temple I believe but of the entire city of Jerusalem. That prediction would be fulfilled a generation later in 70 AD. Josephus, a contemporary at that time, a Jewish historian, tells the story of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. It was the decisive event of the first Jewish-Roman war. It was followed by the fall of Masada three years later in 73 AD. The Roman Army was led by the future Emperor Titus. It besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by zealous Jewish defenders, zealots, since the year 66 AD. For four years they had held out. Jerusalem is notoriously difficult to conquer, very difficult, it was easy to defend. Therefore frequently what would happen is, when the Gentiles like the Babylonians or the Romans would finally topple the city, they would be so filled with rage at how difficult it had been that they took it out on the defenders and on the city and that's what they did. Despite the fact that Titus wanted the temple preserved, they didn't. They burned it to the ground and they were determined, the Romans were, filled with rage, to remove even foundation stones so that it couldn't even be seen that there'd ever been a city there. The Romans did this kind of thing. It's the fulfillment of Jesus's words, just vindicating him as an accurate and faithful prophet of God. The spiritual significance is this, Israel had rejected God, so God had rejected Israel. Ezekiel 16 poignantly portrays a spiritual marriage between God and Jerusalem, his love relationship with Jerusalem and through Jerusalem, the people of Israel. But they had betrayed that love and had been spiritually unfaithful to God, spiritually adulterous through idolatry and wickedness. Despite his incredible patience, He swore that He would level it by means of a Gentile nation. This is his regular pattern. He said it in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, before Israel even entered the Promised Land, "I'm going to make you angry by those who are not a nation. I'll make you envious by a nation without understanding." He's clearly predicting Gentile destruction of the Jews if they do not keep the laws of God. Again and again, that's what God did. He would raise up Gentile armies who would come in and trample his people. In this case it was the Romans. He would pour out wrath on the Jewish nation and it began what Jesus called “the times of the Gentiles.” Luke 21:24, “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” We're in those times now, “the times of the Gentiles.” What does that mean? It's a shift in the focus of God. First, God would give up the Jewish nation to Gentile armies to be trampled by the Romans. Then He would pour out his grace and mercy on the elect among the Gentiles all over the world to the ends of the earth, and rescue them from every tribe and language and people and nation. He would graft them into a cultivated olive tree, a Jewish olive tree, deriving nourishing spiritual sap from the patriarchs from the Jewish heritage, so we become sons and daughters of Abraham. Meanwhile, Israel would be experiencing a hardening in part; in every generation, some Jews believing in Jesus, but for the most part not. Until we're told a mystery at the end of time when God will turn the Jews back to himself through faith in Christ and be saved, so all Israel will be saved. That's the whole story of “the times of the Gentiles”, and part of it includes Gentile domination of the city of Jerusalem. This is the prediction of “the times of the Gentiles”, the destruction of the temple. It is also spiritually significant because it signals absolutely the end of animal sacrifice and the end of the Jews' ability to perform the Old Covenant. It's physically impossible for them to do. The destruction of the temple clearly means an end to animal sacrifice. The Old Covenant has come to an end, and now Jesus's death on the cross fulfilled the animal sacrificial system. Once He died on the cross, Hebrews 8:13 says that that old system, that Old Covenantal system was obsolete and aging and would soon disappear. The writer, writing clearly before the destruction of the temple is predicting, I believe there and in Hebrews 8:13, the destruction of the temple, It would disappear, you wouldn't see it at all. The moment Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, signaling the end of animal sacrifice. The Jews should have known at that point, the priests should have all repented and come to Christ. There would have been no need for the temple to be destroyed. It would have been a Christian church. It would have been a symbol of the Old Covenant animal sacrificial system that has now been fulfilled in Jesus. But they had, through unbelief and hardness of heart, reestablished animal sacrifice, sewed up the curtain that was torn in two from top to bottom, reestablished all that. So God had to shut it down, and He did it by the Romans. "The destruction of the temple clearly means an end to animal sacrifice. The Old Covenant has come to an end, and now Jesus's death on the cross fulfilled the animal sacrificial system." The Jews cannot obey the law of Moses. Please do not say there is a spiritualized Judaism in which the animal sacrifice is not important. How could anyone ever say that? Read the first five books of Moses. There's an entire book, Leviticus, devoted to animal sacrifice from beginning to end. It is essential to the Jewish religion and it cannot be done. Even more later when the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock there, one of their sacred pilgrimage sites at the end of the 7th century. So Jesus makes the prediction, "Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." [Mark 13:3-4] II. The Stunned Questions We have this stunned questions by the disciples in private. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?" That's a simpler version of the more extended question he asks in Matthew 24:3, "When will this happen?" This being, not one stone left on another. "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" It's asked in private on the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley. They're up on the mountain, they can look down over the temple. I'm sure they could look down over the city of Jerusalem when they're sitting there privately. The disciples must have certainly been stunned and troubled by Jesus's prediction. They still fully expected that Jesus, the son of David, would just be another David, and that He would reign on a physical throne in Jerusalem and that animal sacrifice would continue, because they really didn't understand the need for his own blood to be shed for their sins—that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin that was waiting for the incarnate son of God to die. It was essential for their salvation. They didn't understand that. They were picturing Jesus in a palace of cedar, on a throne of gold, ruling over the Gentile nations. The idea that those Gentile nations would gain military ascendancy over Jerusalem and destroy it, would have been anathema to them. They would have hated it. They didn't understand any of these things. The key inner circle, Peter, John, James and Andrew, approached Jesus privately while He's sitting on the Mount of Olives. This probably was very wise. If the population in general had heard what Jesus was teaching here, they would not have taken it well. They're coming privately and they're asking for an explanation. Undoubtedly they could look down over the temple and over Jerusalem while this is going on. Because it's on the Mount of Olives, some scholars call this the Olivet Discourse, especially the longer version in Matthew 24 and 25, or sometimes the Little Apocalypse. In Matthew's Gospel, these three questions and Jesus's answer to them are woven together in a rather complex tapestry. What are the three questions? Question number one, "When will this happen?" Namely, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. Number two, "What will be the sign of your coming?" The word “coming” is “parousia,” meaning the Second Coming of Christ, which they could not have fully understood. But certainly the parables Jesus tells in Matthew 24 and 25 will prepare them for the parousia, the coming. He also must have already been teaching, though I'm sure they didn't understand, "What will be the sign of your coming?" Then of the end of the age, the question of the end of the world. These are the three questions in Matthew 24:3. It's not as clear in Mark 13, but they're woven together. The complexity of Mark 13 and of Matthew 24 and 25 is to try to figure out what He's talking about at any moment. Is He talking about the destruction of Jerusalem? Is He talking about the end of the age? Is He talking about the Second Coming? What is He talking about and how do we understand that? As they go on, the questions go much bigger than just the destruction of the temple. They're thinking about everything. "Where is all this heading? If the temple gets destroyed, what's next? Where are we heading?" Jesus's answer I do believe does include the events connected with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans. But it goes beyond and extends to the entire age, right to the end of the world. So therefore I believe aspects of what Jesus says in Matthew 24 and in Mark 13 have yet to be fulfilled. They're still in front of us. For me an interpretive key on eschatology from Matthew 24:37 is, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the son of man.” If I could just keep it simple; as it was, so it will be. We get recurring themes. You get the theme of the holy place like the tabernacle, the temple destroyed, rebuilt, and then this recurring theme, the abomination of desolation, which we'll talk about in the new year. On the teaching on the Antichrist, in 1 John 2:18 it says, “You have heard the Antichrist is coming and even now many Antichrists have come.” What that means is, there's lots of lesser Antichrists that come that do dress rehearsals of the final Antichrist. But there is an Antichrist coming, so that's what I would say. Also the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD is a foretaste of a final and full destruction that is yet to come. III. The Warning Against Spiritual Deception Jesus begins his answer in verses 5-6. He begins with a warning against spiritual deception. In verses 5-6 Jesus answered, "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name claiming I am he and will deceive many." The danger in every era is false teachers and false Christs. It's the single greatest threat to the church, greater than worldliness, greater than persecution, is false doctrine. So false teachers are going to come in every generation. One of the great hallmarks of many ... not all but many cult leaders is eschatological focus, a sense of the imminent end of the world and that they themselves are the key leader that God has sent for the people at this end of the world time. It's happened again and again and again. It's a fascinating study of these kinds of cult leaders that claim themselves the key leader and that the end is imminent. The Zwickau Prophets during the Reformation were like that. The Millerites in the 19th century, they led into the Jehovah's Witnesses that made predictions of the end of the world that did not come true. The Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas and all that, making all of these kinds of ... It happens again and again and Jesus warns. He doubles down in verses 21 and 22, "At that time if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or look, there he is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible." We'll talk more about that in time. I'm not getting to that today. I am mentioning it because it connects with this idea of false teachers that come and give false doctrine, and that culminates in the Antichrist himself who will be able to work great signs and wonders. He’s called the “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11. The Antichrist was coming, the final one. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie. He allows the Antichrist to work miracles. Jesus says, "To deceive even the elect, if that were possible." But it's not possible because you are forewarned in the scripture. You're told ahead of time this is going to happen, so you're ready. You should take this seriously, this idea of a world leader who can do signs and wonders and miracles. Get ready and tell your children and tell your grandchildren ... and if you live long enough, tell your great-grandchildren so they'll be ready. Because there will be a generation whose eternal salvation depends on knowing these truths. Forewarned is forearmed, Mark 13:23, “So be on your guard, I've told you everything ahead of time. Now we have the convulsions of a hate-filled dying world in verses seven and eight. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.” IV. The Convulsions of a Hate-Filled, Dying World Here we have the wickedness of humanity continuing and unfolding, wars and rumors of wars, empires rising and falling. Human beings, with no love for God and no love for each other, violating overtly the two Great Commandments, will continue to hate and plunder and kill each other. That's human history and to some degree you could argue it's one of the reasons for history. We wanted an education at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is what evil looks like. God is drawing it out and showing it to us, so we can see how awful it is. Then He mentions the physical convulsions of planet Earth, ecological disasters. He calls it famines and earthquakes. After Adam's sin, God cursed the ground because of him. It would produce thorns and thistles for him. We know from Romans 8 and from personal experience that the curse went beyond just the harvest of thorns and thistles from the ground. It extends to every area of physical life here on earth. Romans 8:20-22 makes it plain that God has cursed planet Earth because of human sin. Earth's ecology, God subjected the Earth's ecology to cycles of death and destruction and vanity. Earthquakes and famines that Jesus mentions, are just evidences of God's curse on the Earth. In every generation earthquakes and famines ... and other natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, mudslides, plagues, et cetera, display that the natural order has been cursed because of human sin. It's going to continue and Jesus says vaguely, "In various places." It's just going to happen in various places. He's not trying to be specific. He's saying, this is what life's going to be like. It's going to continue like this. These are what I would call non-specific signs. Is there any generation since Jesus in which there weren't famines and earthquakes and nations rising against nation and wars and rumors of wars? Every generation, there's no specificity to it. It's just general, but that's what life's going to be like. Jesus calls them the beginning of birth pains. He uses this language in John 16, also Romans 8:22 says, “The creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Jesus talked about the anguish of his own disciples. The anguish they would have when they would see him arrested, beaten and crucified but then on the third day raised to life, He likens it to birth pains. In John 16:21-22, "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So it is with you. Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you'll rejoice and no one will take away your joy." That's talking about his own resurrection, which is a foretaste of the New Heaven and New Earth that's coming, but the process before is birth pains. Jesus says this, "All of the rending and convulsion of planet earth is the beginning of birth pains but the end is yet to come," He's saying. Now, that is very hopeful, isn't it? If you look at John 16, Jesus says, "It's going to be painful for a while, but after that you're going to have joy and no one will take away your joy.” Lasting eternal undimmed joy will never happen in this world but it will happen in the world to come, where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying in pain. That's what Jesus's resurrection is pointing toward. In the meantime, there is the convulsions and the pain of labor, giving birth to something joyful afterwards. "Lasting eternal undimmed joy will never happen in this world but it will happen in the world to come, where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying in pain. That's what Jesus's resurrection is pointing toward." V. The Costly Growth of a Living Kingdom In the middle of all of this is, the real point of it all, and that is the costly growth of the kingdom of God. History has a purpose and the purpose is the salvation of sinners out of every tribe and language and people and nation. That's the reason for all of it. Wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, that's just the matrix of it or the blank canvas on which the real masterpiece is being painted. What is that real masterpiece? It is the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth, saving people for all eternity. Look what He says about that costly growth of a living kingdom. Mark 13: 10 is the thesis verse. We're going to spend a whole week on it, God willing, next week, verse 10, “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.” It's amazing this word “gospel", right in the midst of all this darkness and sorrow and misery, is good news. The good news is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the gospel. Jesus is the good news. Salvation through faith in Christ is the gospel. It is the good news. This good news must be preached to all nations in the midst of all these convulsions. The entire Gospel of Mark has been about understanding that gospel, that good news. Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or about Jesus Christ, the son of God.” These prophecies that Christ gives here in Mark 13 are incredibly sad and heavy and dark. "Not one stone left on another. Every one of them thrown down. Wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes in various places, sorrow, destruction and death." Yet, Jesus hopefully calls them birth pains and what's being birthed is a perfect people of God redeemed from every tribe, language and people and nation through the blood of Christ, through faith in Christ, and a new heaven and new earth, which will be drawn out of this present cosmos through fire ... Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3, into perfection. That's what we're heading toward. Mark 13:10 is the centerpiece of all this, the kingdom of Christ is going to spread through the world through the proclamation of a verbal gospel, the Gospel. It's not random suffering for no purpose, rather, God is orchestrating these birth pains to end in eternal joy and glory. The suffering of the messengers of that gospel is clearly predicted. The suffering of the messengers, it's a laborious, a painful journey that the church has to go on. Look at Verse 9-13, “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them, and the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Wherever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say, just say whatever is given to you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Jesus warns us, his followers, again and again, as the world hated him, it's going to hate us. It's going to hate Christians as well, and that hatred is actually going to increase. It's going to be greatly ramped up into the world. The persecution on the messengers of the gospel will be both informal and formal. Informally, family members and friends will betray and hate Christians. Verse 12, “Brother will betray brother to death and a father, his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.” This is utterly heartbreaking. You look at Verse 12 and you're like, what would that actually mean for those people, to have those closest to you hate you and turn you over to death because they hate Jesus? That's how bad it's going to get, the betrayal. But the persecution will also be formal. It will involve synagogues, religious tribunals, governmental agencies, governors and kings and emperors and presidents and supreme courts, and all these formal tribunals that the messengers of the gospel are going to get hauled in front of. This has been a repeated scene in twenty centuries: the messenger hauled up in front of the authorities giving an account. It happens again and again and again. The Apostle Paul, the last third of the book of Acts is that; Paul on trial, Paul on trial, Paul on trial. They're standing before either religious tribunals or governmental inquiries, etc. Bottom line, all of that is going to culminate in the hatred of the Antichrist, when he controls the government of the entire world and uses his supernatural powers to seek to eradicate the church of Jesus Christ, precipitating the Second Coming of Christ I believe. So that tribunal aspect is going to keep coming and the persecution is going to get worse and worse. Summed up in Verse 13, “everyone will hate you.” It seems to me like American evangelicals need to understand, we're not going to win a popularity contest. We need to understand the truth. The more that our surrounding culture digresses from biblical Christianity, the more they're going to hate us. We need to be aware of that. That doesn't mean every single person will hate. There will be unconverted elects who will eventually cross over from death to life. But in general, the world's evaluation of Christians will be fiercely negative. In the middle of all of that persecution and tribunals and all of that, will be the powerful equipping by the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Spirit as power to witnesses. Acts 1:8 says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” We need the Spirit's power. The tribunals will be terrifying. The synagogues and the religious councils and the governors' courts and all of that, it's going to be terrifying. We're going to in our flesh, quake and melt in front of it. But we'll be positioned to be witnesses to them [verse 9], to preach the gospel [verse 10]. Jesus speaks of the violence of the persecutions. It says that they'll be betrayed by family members to death, to execution. But before that execution happens, the martyrs die, they speak words of witness. The blood of martyrs is seed for the church. They powerfully speak words of witness empowered by the Spirit of God. He says, "Don't worry ahead of time what to say, for the spirit will tell you what to say at that time." Some of the greatest statements in church history have been made by martyrs on trial. They could never have written that material ahead of time. The Holy Spirit knew what to say through them. A very good example of this is in Acts 4 when Peter and John were arrested for doing a miracle and they're brought before the Sanhedrin, and they are so filled with the Holy Spirit and they are absolutely fearless. They say, "If we are hauled in front of this tribunal and asked to give an account for a miracle done to a cripple, then know this, you and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, by whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Wow, where did that come from? The Holy Spirit came on them. It says, when they saw the courage, the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled ordinary men, they're just regular people, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. Stephen's whole speech was saturated with the Spirit of God. Also, Polycarp's courageous message when they burned him at the stake in Smyrna at the end of the first century. Felicitas, the Roman noble woman said, "While I live, I shall defeat you and if you kill me, I shall defeat you even more." It's one of my favorite statements ever in church history, “you can't win,” something like that. “There's no way you can win. If you let me go, I'm going to keep preaching the gospel. I'm going to keep winning disciples. If you kill me, then things really take off.” Awesome. Jan Hus said, "What I proclaim with my lips, I now seal with my blood." Martin Luther, though he was not martyred, he thought he was going to be martyred just like Jan Hus. He said, "Here I stand; I can do no other.” Courageous, bold. Do not worry ahead of time, the Holy Spirit will come on you at that trial of faith. The increase of persecution will be a severe test of nominal Christians, people who aren't serious. They're in the habit of going to church but they're not really Christians. The fires of persecution will weed those people out. In Matthew 24:10 it says, “At that time, many will turn away from the faith and betray and hate each other.” So they're apostates. The increase of wickedness, it says, will cause people's hearts to grow cold. Natural affections will be replaced by animal-like instincts. The survival of the fittest [Matthew 24:12] because the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. True Christians can never fall away from Christ. But in the Parable of the Seed and the Soils, there is that stony ground that springs up. But when heat comes, when trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away. Jesus gives a warning to all of his true followers, he who stands firm to the end will be saved. You have to stand firm in your faith through all that persecution. That's Mark 1-13. VI. Applications Let's take some applications now. First and foremost, it's simple, come to Christ. Come to Christ. There is macro-eschatology, the big story of the world. But then there's your eschatology, do you know how much longer you have to be alive? Do you know when you're going to die? That's the end of your time here on earth. Do you know when that is? No one knows. All of this wickedness and convulsions and famines and earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars, all of that is caused, the Bible says, by sin. There is one and only one remedy, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. Flee to Christ while you can. You don't know how long you have. You've heard the Gospel here this morning. All you need to do is repent of your sins, turn away from your sin and trust in Christ and you'll be forgiven. You'll be forgiven. So come to Christ, come to Christ for salvation. If you're a Christian, come to Christ for wisdom. I love what Peter, John, James and Andrew do. They didn't understand and they came to Jesus privately and said, "Explain it." Just like with the parables, Jesus gives them the secrets. The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you but not the outsiders. He'll tell you what you need to know. If you want to know things about the future, come to Christ and ask and He'll tell you the Scripture by the Spirit. He's not going to tell you more than the Scripture but the Scripture says everything you need. So come to Christ for wisdom and expect it in the Scriptures by the Spirit. Then, understand the direction of history. History has a direction. It has a purpose. This is not random sorrow and destruction like there's no purpose at all. No, there's a purpose to everything. History has a direction. Revelation 21, the second to last chapter of the Bible, in verses 6 and 7 Jesus said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." History has a journey. It's a story being unfolded and Jesus is that story. “I am the Alpha, I am the first letter and I'm the Omega, I'm the last letter. The beginning and the end.” Then He says, "To him who is thirsty, I'll give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this. I will be his God and he will be my son." That's the purpose of history, salvation. Come to Christ and drink. Come to Christ and drink, and never think that history is spinning out of control. God is sovereign. He is on his throne. When the so-called eternal city Rome fell to the vandals in the 5th century, many Christians thought it was the end of the world but it wasn't. When the Muslims swept across North Africa, destroying lots of good churches ... and then swept across the Strait of Gibraltar and conquered all of Spain. Then when they swept up into France in the 8th century, many thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn't. When the Vikings were pillaging and ravaging monasteries and churches all throughout the Northern part of Europe and then on into Russia and even down into the Mediterranean and all that, people begged God, deliver us from the fear of the Norsemen. They thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn't. When Mongol warriors extended the largest contiguous empire that had ever been ... coming in from the Asian steppes and no band of Christian knights could defeat them, and they just won battle after battle after battle, many thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn't. When the Black Death swept across Europe and killed a third of the population ... and all of their good luck charms and all of their incantations and all of that stuff could not drive it away. They really thought everyone's going to die of this disease. The end of the world is imminent, but it wasn't. When the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople, finally fell in the 15th century because of a new invention, cannons with gunpowder ... and the Muslim banners fluttered over Eastern Orthodoxy, over the most significant site of Eastern Orthodoxy. The backdoor to Europe was finally thrown open it seemed to Turkish invasion, many thought the end of the world was imminent, Martin Luther did, but it wasn't. The 20th century dawned with a war to end all wars and millions died in that senseless conflict. When European poets said, “I see the lights of humanity extinguished all over Europe and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Then twenty years later, an even worse war came with an even more terrifying scourge, Nazism, subjugating one nation after another. It seemed they could never be defeated. Many thought the end of the world was imminent, but it wasn't. So also Communism when it spread from one country to the next, the dominoes were toppling in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and all kinds of places ... and it was godless atheism and openly hostile to the church, many thought the end of the world was imminent, but it wasn't. Now there will come a time, the end of the world will come but God is sovereign over all these things. In every one of these cases, the church continued and even flourished. Nothing can stop the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So let's rest assured in that and realize what our calling is. Our calling is to be holy and to spread the gospel. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to begin this study in eschatology, in Mark 13. I thank you for the themes that Jesus lays out and He tells us very clearly ahead of time what's going to happen. Lord, continue to strengthen us for our mission in this world, that we'll be courageous and clear and bold, and unafraid of what's happening with governments, unafraid what's happening with natural disasters, knowing that we will suffer. It's not going to be painless but we know also all of it has a glorious purpose. We thank you in Jesus's name. Amen.

James Connolly is a stand-up comedian and former marine who attended Harvard. He and Dawn have a remarkably jovial time HILF-ing the history of Dooms Day. Because we have been predicting the End of the World for time immemorial, Dawn breaks it down  into:The Faith-based Theories on the end of the world.The Science-based TheoriesThe Great Take-Backs - Not only those very specific predictions through history (IE: Y2K, Mayan Calendar) but the stories of those who pin-pointed a specific date for the End, and then ventured second, third and even more guesses when existence stubbornly persists. (There are more than you think.)---SOURCES & LINKS---Read more about ancient cuneiform tablets. See what they look like and how we were able to read them. This will tell you more about human's endless obsession with the apocalypse. This will tell you more about The Millerites and The Great Disappointment.FULL TRANSCRIPT -- EP32: Dooms Day with James Connolly. ---NEXT EPISODE - March 15th - Alcoholics Anonymous, AA with comedian - Jason Ryan HILF is now part of The DEN - Deluxe Edition Network. Go there to find your NEXT favorite podcast!WANNA TALK? Find us on Instagram or email us hilfpodcast@gmail.com

"Our prayers for such an undertaking on behalf of God's people will be answered by whatever the results to this call might be."More than a century before David Koresh or the Branch Davidians became household names, the religious movements that led to their existence began growing out of the American Northeast. First came William Miller and the Millerites, a collapsed movement that ended up inspiring the Seventh-Day Adventists years later.In the early 20th century, an Adventist named Victor Houteff wrote a book titled The Shepherd's Rod, which he hoped would help reform the church. After being disfellowshipped for creating a "disloyal" and "divisive movement," Houteff ended up building his own church, the Davidians, nearby Waco, Texas...Research, writing, hosting, and production by Micheal WhelanLearn more about this podcast at http://unresolved.meIf you would like to support this podcast and others, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or ProducerMusic Credits:Noisyfilter - "Repose"Acedis - "Illustrations"Mystery Mammal - "O Come O Come Emmanuel"Rest You Sleeping Giant - "Dead Waters"Graham Bole - "Gloci"Blue Dot Sessions - "Svela Tal"Percival Pembroke - "Music For Haunted Orbital Research Stations"

Revelation 22:7-15 Many have endeavoured through the ages to predict the date of Christ's Second Coming.  In the 1830s, a Baptist minister from New York by the name of William Miller began publicly sharing his newfound belief, that Jesus Christ was going to return around the year 1843.  This belief began to gain momentum across denominations, and by 1840 it had become a nationwide campaign with between 50,000 and 100,000 followers.  This growing group was dubbed ‘The Millerites'.  When 1843 passed without Jesus coming, one of William Miller's followers, a  preacher by the name of Samuel Snow, pinpointed an exact date for the Lord's return — October 22, 1844.  Such was the expectation and hope placed in the October 22 1844 date that many of those devout Millerites cast in everything, giving away all their possessions.  If my dates are correct, today marks the beginning of a new year, January 1st, 2023, and what do you know? Jesus hasn't come back yet!! When October 22 1844 came and went without the Lord coming, William Miller's followers were left devastated, their hopes dashed into pieces!!  Many were left to pick up the pieces and begin the painful process of rebuilding their lives from scratch.  This event became known as the ‘Great Disappointment'.  If the Millerites had cared to consult the Bible, it would have saved them a great deal of disappointment! What did Jesus say? “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Mt. 24:36).  Though we know not the day nor the hour, we can know the season.  All around the signposts of prophecy declare the soon return of Jesus Christ.  It is one thing to read the signs and another to allow these signs to move us to readiness to meet the Lord. A cry goes forth from the heart of God, “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”.

In part two of a series of conversations with Don Casebolt about his new book, Father Miller's Daughter, we discuss a minor figure with a large influence on Ellen White: S.S. Snow. Casebolt explains how Snow wrested control of the Millerites in late 1843 and used several highly allegorical interpretations that whipped the believers into a frenzy for Oct. 22, 1844. With historical detail Casebolt explores several of the texts used and then shows how Ellen White reinforced the questionable methodology even as Snow grew increasingly marginal and erratic.

In Season 1 Vicki and Shawn found that many of the cults were inspired by the Millerites. In this Bonus Episode, we delve into this old school cult to see how they inspired others. 

*CORRECTION: Ellen White was the false prophet of the SDA (Seventh Day Adventists) and not the JW (Jehovah's Witness) cult. Both the Seventh-day Adventists and the Jehovah's Witnesses grew out of the Adventist movement of the 19th century, the Seventh-day Adventists specifically through the Millerites. Both still cults.HOMEPAGE:   https://safeguardyoursoul.comSUPPORT:  https://safeguardyoursoul.com/donate/STORE:   https://store.safeguardyoursoul.com/ABOUT:  https://safeguardyoursoul.com/about/email Todd:  info@safeguardyoursoul.comBackground Music by: Thad Fiscella https://www.thadfiscella.com/ 

In the 1st part of this long-awaited series, we look into the historical origins of Ellen G White & the underlying worldview that formulated the 7th Day-Adventist church. Whether you are a former or active Seventh-day Adventist, or just generally curious about the Seventh-day Adventist church, we invite you to listen in and be part of this conversation. You can find more about our guests at https://blog.lifeassuranceministries.org/author/colleentinker/ This episode is brought to you by https://higherbond.com/

Just how closely tied was the abolition movement with the early Millerites? Was it possible to believe in the soon return of Jesus and not be involved with the abolition of slavery?Join us for this fascinating podcast with Kevin Burton as he unpacks some research that he has done with his doctoral dissertation into this period of Adventist history. We also unpack some newly released information that he unearthed on the FBI's surveillance of religious groups, including the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the implications that this has had on our interpretation of Revelation 13 over the last 100 years. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Most Christians have a spiritualistic worldview - they believe in proposed "spiritual" (aka non-physical) realities. The distinctive doctrines of the Millerites moved them on a trajectory towards materialism (the belief that all that exists is made of matter). After the Great Disappointment, the Millerite movement fractured and different groups formed - heading either back toward spiritualism, maintaining the Millerite position, or moving toward full-fledged materialism. Those who formed the SDA church became full-fledged materialists. This episode explains how the Great Disappointment (and the SDA explanation of it) was instrumental in making that happen. Plus... you'll get to find out what it means for the Second Advent to be "Personal" as well as what it means for God to be a "Person." Blog Article: http://www.bdsda.com/2021/10/17/what-happened-on-oct-22-1844-is-not-immaterial/ Materialism: Our Forgotten Foundation: http://www.bdsda.com/materialism-our-forgotten-foundation-2/ Personality of God tag: http://www.bdsda.com/tag/personality-of-god/

Mormonism, Second Great Awakening, New York's Burned out District, Adventists, the Millerites, the Shakers, Spiritualism, Joseph Smith, ceremonial magick, astral magic, theurgy, scrying, Fraternal Order of Rodsmen, the "Wood Scrape," Rodsmen tied to the early Mormon church, the Smith family, Ephrata Cloister, Conrad Beissel, "Magus of Cocalico," Rosicrucianism, Renaissance vs Enlightenment thinking, Hermeticism, Beissel's influence on Mormonism, Salamander's letters controversey, Peter Levenda, Mark Hoffman, Freemasonry, William Morgan, Morgan Affair links to Mormonism, American folk magic, The Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon, The Magus, Joseph Smith's Jupiter talisman, John Dee, obsidian scrying stone controversy, Brigham Young's "Bloodstone amulet," "cunning folk," Utah weirdness

"Jesus Could Have Come By Now!" Sabbath School Lesson for 2022, 1st Quarter In These Last Days: The Message of Hebrews Week 1 This quarter's study is called, "In These Last Days: The Message of Hebrews." This week's lesson is entitled, "The Letter to the Hebrews and to Us." Thursday's lesson is, "These Last Days," and will be the focus of our study today.   The lesson makes the comparison between the first century audience contemporary to the author of Hebrews and the readership of Hebrews today. It notes that the author of Hebrews, (who the Sabbath School lesson portrays as Paul, but we must note that this is not actually stated in the book itself, it is just a theory), believes that he is living in "the last days," not unlike what we believe today. The lesson also points out that the author of Hebrews compares the believers' experience in the first century with the experience of those on the verge of the promised land in Moses' day. Interestingly, Ellen White did the exact same thing in her writings in regard to the experience of the SDAs of her day, which we will get to in a minute. But first, the lesson reads,   "There is a very important element that the apostle emphasizes that adds urgency to his exhortation: the readers are living in the very 'last days' (Heb. 1:2) and the promises are about to be fulfilled (Heb. 10:36– 38). It is interesting, as we will see, that throughout the document Paul compares his audience with the desert generation that stood right before the border of Canaan, ready to enter into the Promised Land. He reminds them, '"For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry"' (Heb. 10:37, NKJV). And then he encourages them: 'We are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul' (Heb. 10:39, NKJV). This last exhortation reminded the readers, and us, about the dangers that the people of God have historically experienced right before the fulfillment of the promises of God." Sabbath School Quarterly Lesson, Thursday, December 30, 2021   Many have noticed that quite a few prominent people in the movement of God throughout the ages have thought they were living in the "last days."   First, as the Sabbath School lesson points out, we have the author of Hebrews believing this, as written in Hebrews 1:1-2 which reads, 1God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;   But we can see this in other places as well. Peter in Acts 2 clearly applies Joel's prophecy concerning the "last days" to the experience that the 120 in the upper room were having at the third hour of the day on Pentecost.   John the Revelator also seemed to believe that Jesus was coming in his day. In Revelation 22:20 even Jesus himself is recorded as saying,   20 He who testifies to these things [Jesus] says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Ellen White also clearly thought she was going to experience the second coming of Christ in her day. In "Last Day Events," pages 36-37, there is compiled a collection of her statements that indicate that she was under the impression that Christ was to come in her day. So, what accounts for the fact that all these thought Jesus was going to return in their day, and yet he didn't? Were they just wrong, or is there some other reason? Well, as we've evidenced in other videos, history unfolds in a free, or undetermined, way. Too often, people think that God has already planned exactly how and when everything in history is going to happened, as though the exact date of the second coming was predestined before the world was even made. In reality, God interacts with the humanity in a very dynamic and genuine way. Our choices actually make a huge difference, even to such an extent that we can hasten or delay the second coming. There have been times in the past when the second coming was genuinely close to happening, but then was delayed through...well...let's let Ellen explain that. Here something she said regarding just such a delay... Ellen wrote, "The history of ancient Israel is a striking illustration of the past experience of the Adventist body. God led his people in the Advent movement, even as he led the children of Israel from Egypt. In the great disappointment their faith was tested as was that of the Hebrews at the Red Sea. Had they still trusted to the guiding hand that had been with them in their past experience, they would have seen of the salvation of God. If all who had labored unitedly in the work in 1844 had received the third angel's message, and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts. A flood of light would have been shed upon the world. Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of his people." Ellen White, The Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, p 291 Here we see that just like the author of Hebrews, Ellen compares the Advent experience with that of the ancient Israelites. But beyond that, Ellen speaks of a rejection of the third angel's message by many Millerites. Many Adventists from the Millerite movement did not receive these messages as they should have, and therefore they did not finish the gospel work and Christ did not "come quickly" back in the years following the Great Disappointment as He obviously wanted to. And I think all will admit that according to Revelation, Jesus wanted to come again very soon to take unto himself his church in the first century. But as we all know, apostasy was taking root, and the very truths that formed the pillar and foundation of the faith of Jesus and the apostles were being corrupted and ultimately rejected. This rejection of the light of truth is what delayed the second Advent and instead brought about the dark ages. Light and darkness are constantly battling. Light to hasten the completion of the plan of redemption and darkness to delay it. In fact, this has been going on since before Christ's first advent and is an impart part of why Christ came. Consider this statement from Ellen White:   "Cherubims and seraphims, angels and archangels, are watching the battle that is going on in this life. Between whom? The Prince of life and the power of darkness. And what does God do? He shows us how we must do, how we must conduct the battle. He left the royal courts, laid aside His royal robe, and clothed His humanity with divinity. He became a man among the sons of men, and here He walked the world as what? A representative of the love of God, an example that we may study, a character that we may imitate every phase of, that we may see that He did not live to glorify Himself, but He lived to point to God. He came to live the law of God, because Satan was bringing his power to bear upon men, and his lying fallacies were all the time pressing upon them." Ellen White, 1 SAT 241.1 Jesus came at a dark time in earth's history. As we can read here from Ellen, fallacious thinking ruled the day; that is, logical fallacies and cognitive biases reined in their minds. And we hope you can see that the same thing is true today. We are in the midst of a misinformation crises. And it isn't just in the world; it's in the church too. We clearly need a wake up call. Ellen told us over a century ago that we rejected the message of Justification by faith, which is the third age's message in verity, (see The Review and Herald, April 1, 1890). Basically, in 1888 we, like the early church and the Millerites at large, also rejected God's message. Concerning the message of justification by faith which was rejected in 1888, Ellen wrote, "The Lord designed that the messages of warning and instruction given through the Spirit to his people should go everywhere. But the influence that grew out of the resistance of light and truth at Minneapolis, tended to make of no effect the light God had given to his people through the Testimonies. 'Great Controversy,' Vol. 4 has not had the circulation that it should have had, because some of those who occupy responsible positions were leavened with the spirit that prevailed at Minneapolis, a spirit that clouded the discernment of the people of God.   "The work of opponents to the truth has been steadily advancing while we have been compelled to devote our energies in a great degree to counteracting the work of the enemy through those who were in our ranks. The dullness of some and the opposition of others have confined our strength and means largely among those who know the truth, but do not practice its principles. If every soldier of Christ had done his duty, if every watchman on the walls of Zion had given the trumpet a certain sound, the world might ere this have heard the message of warning. But the work is years behind. What account will be rendered to God for thus retarding the work?" Ellen White, GCDB February 28, 1893, par. 4-5   A few years later, Ellen said, "If those who claimed to have a living experience in the things of God had done their appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would have been warned ere this, and the Lord Jesus would have come in power and great glory." Ellen White, RH October 6, 1896, par. 7   Clearly, the 1888 message was rejected and it resulted in a delay in Christ's coming. In fact, he could have already returned were it not for rejecting this light. If we rejected the message in 1888 and in the years that closely followed, why do we think we have an understanding of the message today? After all, if we've accepted the 1888 message and have been proclaiming it as a church for many decades, shouldn't Christ have returned by now? Did Ellen ever say we ever accepted the message of Justification by faith in her lifetime? Not to our knowledge. So, why do we think we are in need of nothing? Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" Matthew 23:37 Jesus said this, of course, right before they killed him. Their minds were so dark with misinformation that they did not recognize their messiah. The cause of this? It was the rejection of the God-breathed messages Jesus Himself had sent by the Holy Spirit through the prophets over the years. Nothing has changed. If Christ is not here, it is because we have done the same thing. We have failed to accept the light God has given. This is true of old light as well as new light. Ellen said, "In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it. It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new. . . . But it is the light which shines in the fresh unfolding of truth that glorifies the old. He who rejects of neglects the new does not really possess the old." Ellen White, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 127   How urgently, then, should we seek new light God has given to build on the old. We believe that the Spirit of Prophecy (the testimony of Jesus by the Holy Spirit through a prophet) is still active in the SDA church today, although unrecognized by most. Mercy still tarries, but time is short. We invite you to look deeper into this claim by reading our study, "The King of Crises in the Seventh-day Adventist Church," by Trent Wilde.      

Glory glory hallelujah, it's the end times. Today we're talking about the religious rebels of America, revivals, Millerites, and those pesky Quakers. Sometimes life truly is stranger than fiction, especially if you're bad at math. Special guest this week is Matt, resident Bad Boy and coffee apologist, coming to us moist from the wet Seattle area.

Jesus failed to show up on the day that came to be known as ‘The Great Disappointment' - 22nd October, 1844. It was an embarrassment for the New England preacher, William Miller, who had prophesied Christ's return; and devastating for his 100,000+ followers in North America alone. Miller had calculated the end of the world via an idiosyncratic interpretation of Daniel 8:14 (“And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed”). In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how the Millerites processed their monumental anti-climax; reveal what Ralph Waldo Emerson made of it all; and wonder whether Miller's flexibility in the face of contrary evidence has parallels in the modern-day QAnon movement…Further Reading:• ‘William Miller Convinced Thousands of Millerites the End Was Near' (New England Historical Society, 2020): https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/william-miller-convinced-thousands-millerites-world-end/• ‘The Great Disappointment' (Grace Communion International): https://www.gci.org/articles/the-great-disappointment/• ‘William Miller Predicted Christ's Return in 1844. Here's What Happened After His Prophecy Failed' (History Unplugged, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkYj9DOyz5kFor bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/RetrospectorsWe'll be back on Monday! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Creepover Fam, are you ready for the END? The end of the world, that is! Join us as we delve into all manner of topics relating to the apocalypse. GHOST STORIES: Listener Brylee shares a mystifying tale concerning clocks. CREEPED OUT: Another Creep-yay for a breakthrough in the 25-year-old disappearance of Kristin Smart. STRANGER THAN FICTION: Kathryn dishes to Alli about The Great Disappointment. BUMP IN THE NIGHT: A real-life contribution from patron Sandra. BONUS: Banana bandanas, the t-shirt that got away, and red string everywhere. 

Mary Jo and John compare March 4 and the Q Anon expectation to the the Millerites on October 22 1844. That did not end well.

On episode 37 of TheEoNProject, Mike and Jay tackle the interesting yet always incorrect predictions of Doomsday Cults.  The Millerites are at the forefront of the discussion as well as an end times cult called Heaven's Gate.  In addition Mike and Jay once again battle it out in a tv show theme song challenge.  Once again join us on a podcast journey of knowledge and nonsense through a wormhole of pleasure.  The truth exists, believe it!!!

In October 1844, tens of thousands of people in New England believed the world would soon end. They followed William Miller, a man who claimed that through his study of the Bible to know the exact day of Jesus’s return to earth. His followers sold everything they had in preparation for Christ’s second coming, in which he would gather them into heaven, and cleans the Earth in fire. The “Millerites” donned white garments called ascension robes. They climbed trees or mountains to speed up their ascension.But Christ never came. The followers sat in confused disappointment. What happened to them after they gave up completely in their lives on earth? Moreover, what made them believe in Miller in the first place? Was he a particularly charismatic speaker, or was something happening in the United States that made belief in the apocalypse ripe? If so, what are those conditions and can they happen again?

Prophecy enthusiasts believe the end is near. A plague has claimed many thousands of lives. Many believe it is a sign of the end times. Am I talking about the year 2020? No! I am talking about the year 1666. Many Londoners thought this may be the year that Jesus returns. In 1665 the world seemed to be on the brink of destruction as a plague claimed the lives of 100,000 people in London alone. Then in 1666 a London fire destroyed many thousands of buildings. Prophecy enthusiasts reasoned it had been 1000 years since the time of Christ plus the number of Antichrist (666) bringing them to 1666. Putting it all together it sure seemed like it all pointed to the end being at hand. Just one problem: None of this was tied to an accurate interpretation of the prophecy of Scripture. People have all kinds of ideas about prophecy, but frankly MOST of it is in error. Very little of what passes for prophecy today is actually in keeping with true biblical prophecy. There is nothing NEW under the sun. People that have very little knowledge of the Bible, or just enough knowledge to be dangerous, often claim their EXPERIENCE or their intuitive instincts are a sufficient guide related to the topic of prophecy. But what does the Bible really teach in context? That is the great issue to be considered! The subject of prophecy has fallen on hard times. Most of those professing to be Christian today have little or no interest in the subject. There are several reasons why I think this is true. 1. The disregard of prophecy is itself a sign of the times. 2 Peter 3:3–4 (ESV) 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” We should expect that if we are living in the last days of the Church Age that MANY will mock the idea that Christ will return again – or the idea that we are getting close to His return. We see that reality today. 2. Many, (perhaps even well intended) professing Christians have consistently overplayed their hand in claiming to KNOW the time of the end in a specific sense. In the 1800s a man by the name of William Miller (1782-1849) was a Baptist minister. Based on a flawed study of Dan. 8:14 he concluded that Christ would return by March 21, 1844. He gained a fairly large following of people called “Millerites”. And because of their preoccupation with the coming of Christ they were called “Adventists”. However, when Christ didn’t return as predicted, with a little help from his friends, Miller recalculated to Oct. 22, 1844. When the second date also proved wrong it was called “The Great Disappointment”. The entire movement then evolved into great error under the leadership of a false prophetess by the name of Ellen G. White (1827-1915). It developed into what is known as Seventh Day Adventism today. Edgar C. Whisenant, a former NASA engineer and Bible student, wrote a book titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 predicting the rapture would occur in 1988, sometime between Sept. 11 and Sept. 13. When it didn’t happen, he wrote another book titled, “The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989!” explaining that he had miscalculated by one year and that Jesus was actually returning in 1989. He then died in 2001 and Jesus still has not returned. Harold Camping said the Lord would return in 1994. It didn’t happen. Harold Camping recalculated and said the Lord would return on May 21, 2011, accompanied by an unparalleled earthquake that would be felt around the world. It didn’t happen. Harold Camping then said that his predictions for May 21st did happen “spiritually”. And then Camping said, the world would end in a holocaustic judgment on October 21, 2011. Finally, Camping admitted he was wrong and died in 2013. What a pathetic way to go. 2 Peter 2:1–2 (ESV) 1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. I am not saying that all those who are wrong about prophecy are all lost false teachers, but I am saying that errant teaching on prophecy does incalculable harm causing the TRUTH of God to be blasphemed. That is most serious, and I think in part it is one reason the subject of prophecy has fallen on hard times. 3. An inconsistent “Reformed” approach to prophetic Scripture. In recent years there has been a resurgence in those holding to Reformed Theology emphasizing what are called the doctrines of grace. Not all, but many, often mock dispensationalists like me who hold to a strong distinction between Israel and the Church and a pre-tribulation view of the Rapture. They claim such views are “Johnny Come Lately” views which were not endorsed by the Reformers. But I would argue that when it comes to “prophecy” the Reformers largely dropped the ball. They correctly insisted on getting back to a literal/normal understanding of Scripture – except in the case of prophecy. Here they were inconsistent – allowing for an allegorical treatment of the Scripture. This error has caused all kinds of confusion right down to the present time. A consistent approach to the interpretation of the Bible if consistent – consistently interprets all parts of the Bible, including prophecy, in context, and in a normal/literal fashion. 4. The “Now/Me” mentality that pervades so much of modern Christianity. Many people don’t want sound doctrine. They want “practical” stuff that caters to them and this life. They don’t want to talk about “future things” related to the hereafter. The SOUND doctrine of prophecy therefore is OUT. For them it's all about “me” and “now”. It’s about “My Best Life Now”. In doing so what they really clamor for is a “man-centered theology” instead of a “God centered theology” and the tragedy is that MOST don’t even realize the error of their ways (cf. 2 Tim. 4:1-5). In truth there is value in the whole counsel of God. There is a reason that 27% of the Scripture as given was prophecy. If you don’t like prophecy you are going to have to do away with HUGE portions of the Bible. The Bible is a prophetic book. God is a God of prophecy. All Scripture is given by inspiration and it is all profitable (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16). None of it is to be neglected, certainly not the prophetic parts. Our very faith is “prophetic”. It was prophesied in the OT and fulfilled in the NT. That is why Paul says the gospel of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is “according to the Scriptures” – meaning “according to the prophetic OT Scriptures” (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-4). Tucked away in 1 Chron. 12:32 is this statement: “The sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do”. In context they understood that David was God’s man to be king. They understood that all the tribes should get together and crown David as the new king of Israel. They understood God’s revelation through His prophet Samuel, and they sought to apply it to life. The need for understanding and discernment is also critical for our day. We need to know what God says and apply it to life. Prophecy is consistently linked with how we should then live. Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day saying: Matthew 16:2–3 (ESV) 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. What were the signs of the times that they missed? Well, it was the prophetic fulfillment of the prophecies in the OT Scriptures that were fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus. The “signs of the times” directly related to Jesus. The Bible is uniquely a book of prophecy. There is no other book in the world like this book. There is no other book that comes close – frankly there is no other book even in the running. The Bible ALONE is truly prophetic. In the Bible 8,352 verses out of 31,124 refer to prophetic issues. That is 27% of the Bible. Scholars tell us there are 333 specific prophecies about Christ in the Bible. 109 of them were fulfilled at His first coming; leaving 224 yet to be fulfilled at His second coming. This means that 1/3 of the prophecies about Christ have already been fulfilled. There are about 1000 total prophecies in the Bible with about 500 of them having already been fulfilled. Prophecy is about predicting the future. One thing about humans is that whenever they try to predict the future they consistently get it wrong. Yogi Berra (that famous theologian) once said, “Prediction is hard, especially when it’s about the future.” Dr. Norman Geisler said, “Not a single prediction of Nostradamus has ever proved genuine.” Steve Jobs (Founder of Apple) said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” Humanly speaking that is true. But here is the deal: God gives the dots looking forward. That is prophecy. God tells us the dots before they are even in place and then He brings them to pass. This is GOD'S GLORY ALONE! Now as we look back, we see the dots God told us in advance and then we see how they all connect in perfect harmony. This is the prophetic glory of God. In contrast to human predictions, God never gets it wrong. True prophecy is always 100% accurate all the time. This is because true prophecy is of God. The God of the Bible is UNIQUELY a God of prophecy! 2 Peter 1:20–21 (ESV) 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Today's Topics: 1) Finding the Fallacy: Begging the Question Meet the Early Church Fathers: Clement of Rome 2, 3, 4) Interview

One of the greatest transformations in human history is how the disciples were changed from the followers of Christ who continually disappointed Him, to those who turned the world upside down.

The Great Disappointment of the Millerites took place on this day in 1844. / On this day in 1966, The Supremes became the first all-female group with a number one album - "The Supremes A' Go-Go" - on the Billboard 200. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

William Miller gave numerous dates for the apocalypse, starting with October 22, 1844. None resulted in the end of the world. However, his prophecies did result in the eventual formation of the Seventh-day Adventist movement.

After very briefly falling out of religion, William Miller came back in a big way. Not only did he throw himself into preaching the Lord's gospel, but he also devoted his life to decoding what he believed was the Bible's secret code. You can guess how that turned out.  Sources:  Great Disappointment. Wikipedia. Last accessed on July 21, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment The End of the World Was Almost Today in 1843 and 1844: The Failed Prophecies of the Millerites. Vermont Digital Newspaper Project. March 21, 2015. http://library.uvm.edu/vtnp/?p=2765 William Miller Convinced Thousands of Millerites The End was Near. New England Historical Society. 2019. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/william-miller-convinced-thousands-millerites-world-end/

What is the Qualifier exam?o Basically, it’s an early test to make sure the students they let into their PhD program know what their stuff—Academic hazing?o Much like the rest of PhD-dom it will vary from school to school and dept to dept Our experiences and our dept’s Quals like?o Various folks in the panel explain their version of quals and experiences they want to shareo Stories and experiences:1. Figuring I would fail out after my first year2. Weird day… sorta nodding at your fellow first years as you walk down the hallways into your next exam. 3. Almost failed the subject I was supposed to be good at because I stupidly started almost arguing with the Prof.4. After the test—felt like the religious cult (Millerites) “the great disappointment” the end of the world came and went and then I had nothing to do5. Older grad student tapping me on the shoulder and saying: “you will never know as much as you do right now in materials science Quals strategies, don’t panic, prepare!:o Your advisor should realize you need to prepare for this and give you some space here—you should realize this too, but don’t panic!o Talk to the older grad students, find out what their quals were like, what problems people had—story of grad student and curmudgeonly Profo We had awesome older grad students that right after the quals they put everything they remembered about it into a big book of knowledge for the next students—we dd the same after ours—the even had shots and burgers after it for us. Try and initiate your own tradition—you’re in this togethero Talk to the profs—we found some profs to be more willing to help that others… one even set up review sessions for us!o Band together with your fellow first years, study together and compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Set up a weekly time and date, book a room, set a schedule, assign taskso Take senior level classes for the subject areas your weak at—it’ll be a shot to your ego possibly struggling with undergrads, but you’ll be better prepared for the Quals. Bonus points if the Prof teaching the class is giving the subject test After qualso Relax and take off for a day or even two, you’ve been through a lot and it’s been stressfulo Whatever happens is fine—if it delays you a year, that’s not the end of the world, probably for the best actually (Our connection to Dr. Steven Strogatz - a Connell rockstar professor and a Radiolab math guy!)o The tests from here on out get technically harder but in the later exams (A & B) you come with way more PhD skillz to handle it so it’s actually easier though the subject area testing is noto I found out later that some of the smartest and most impressive senior level grad students really felt they got rocked by their Quals—cut yourself some slack and if you need to retool or shore up something, do it and know you’re not alone -----------------Join us each week (new podcasts drop Monday) as we try our best to handle various topics involved in pursuing a STEM PhD and try and give our best advice, stories, strategies and mutual commiseration of choosing this career pathPlease subscribe to the podcast and check out our associated website:http://realphdeal.com/Also feel free to send an email and let us know what you liked or didn’t—or if you have any questions or potential show topics at:phdealmail@gmail.comAll the music in our episodes are done by Luis Estevez, and copyrighted to our show. 

He gave numerous dates for the apocalypse, but none resulted in the end of the world. But it did result in the eventual formation of the Seventh-day Adventist movement.

In this weeks episode of the Subliminal Deception Podcast, Cody and Phil look back at the doomsday prophet William Miller and his followers known as the Millerites, and discuss what preceded and followed the Great Disappointment of 1844. 

Pre-order the YBOF book! or Get bonus content. 01:40 Puritans and Mother Shipton 04:31 Popes 07:31 Planet Clarion 09:50 Community 12:00 Harriet Livermore 13:19 Prophet Hen of Leeds 16:34 Millerites 21:44 Listen, Rinse, Repeat; Reviews4Good, promo: Ghost Town  24:43 Heaven's Gate 29:11 Harold Camping Read the full script. Reach out and touch Moxie on FB, Twit, the 'Gram or email. Music by Unicorn Heads

Welcome back for another episode of Brain Boggled! Today we talk about a variety of different Doomsday Prophecies, from Y2K to the Mayan Calendar. What better way to ring in the new year?! Go check out our Patreon page to see some pictures/videos of the things we talked about in today's episode (it's free to all listeners!) https://www.ecowear.us/collections/brain-boggled-podcast https://patreon.com/brainboggledpodcast brainboggledpodcast@gmail.com Instagram: @BrainBoggled Twitter: @BrainBoggledPod

An Independence Day Parade, complete with tanks and QAnon cultists prepared for the promised return of JFK, Jr. What could go wrong? We're on iTunes: http://apple.co/2tCd0Dn Google Play: http://bit.ly/2tEpOJb Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=139322 TuneIn: http://bit.ly/2svIk6F ... and now Spotify! https://spoti.fi/2NpeIT3 Please subscribe, share us with your friends and write a review! Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/NobodyKnewPod and like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NobodyKnewPod/

Back on October 22, 1844, tens of thousands of Americans who followed a preacher named William Miller, eagerly awaited the Second Coming of Christ. By “await,” I don't mean that they had a general hope or belief, as in, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” I mean they expected Jesus to return on that day. In anticipation, many had settled their debts and given away what remained of their property. Some had slaughtered their animals to feed others and freed their slaves. To put it in contemporary language, they were all-in. But the day came, and the day went. Eventually, it became known as “The Great Disappointment,” leaving people disillusioned and financially unprepared for a future they were certain wouldn't exist. Today, the Millerites are regarded as, at best, pitiable, and at worst, fools. They are often held up as an example of the dangers of religious thinking run amok. A recent story in MarketWatch shows that the Millerites aren't the only ones who let apocalyptic thinking get in the way of prudence. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, two-thirds of those born between 1981 and 1996, a.k.a., “Millennials,” have saved nothing for retirement. There are many reasons this shouldn't surprise us. In addition to the sense of immortality associated with being young, this generation came of age during the Great Recession. Between student loans and lower-than-expected earnings, they often have trouble making ends meet, much less planning for retirement. But there's another, somewhat surprising reason some have offered for their lack of savings: climate change. One 27-year-old told MarketWatch that, while she wanted to “hope for the best and plan for a future that is stable and secure,” she didn't see how “things could not be chaotic in 50 years.” She even used the word “apocalyptic.” When we first came across that story, I wondered if she was an outlier. She wasn't. Another person interviewed for the article said he wasn't saving for retirement for the same reasons he wasn't planning to marry or have children: “The more you read the more you feel like, unless something very radically changes soon, it's going to be downright cruel to have children in the future.” They're not alone in this bleak view of the future. A 2018 report from the American Psychological Association found that 72 percent of Millennials reported that their “emotional well-being is affected by the inevitability of climate change.” For some, this “inevitability” overshadows their hopes and dreams for the future, including any desire to save for the future. One executive of an online investment firm told MarketWatch that “[f]rom a perception point of view, I hear a lot of cynicism about the ability to build retirement savings or whether they will be able to retire at all.” The resemblance to those people who, back in 1844, sold their possessions awaiting the apocalypse is not coincidental. As I've said before on BreakPoint, modern discourse is often a parody of Christian ideas and concepts. Even after people cease to believe in Christianity, their way of thinking and talking about the world reflects what philosopher John Gray called “secular reincarnation of Christian beliefs.” An obvious example is the use of the word “apocalyptic.” But so is the idea that history comes with an “expiration date,” which no amount of human planning can forestall. As my colleague Shane Morris noted on Facebook, “The more you study climate change as a political and cultural phenomenon, the more you realize how much it's replaced fundamentalist, rapture-centered religion.” Of course, today's religious fervor differs from the 19th century Millerites in one very important way. The Millerites' disappointment came from a dashed hope. But hope is one thing that holders of this 21st century climate-apocalypticism sorely lack.  

What if we told you the end of the world already happened? What if we told you it happens all the time? No, we're not talking about a meteor impact or zombie apocalypse, but that moment when a movement fails and leaves its followers devastated. In this podcast, we compare two world-ending events: the religious world of the Millerites that was smashed by the “Great Disappointment” when the world failed to end and how Democrats and progressives confronted the unexpected 2016 election of Donald Trump. We're joined by Congresswoman Katherine Clark,Harvard Professor David F. Holland,  and University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate student Basileus Zeno. Created by: Kekely Dansouh Nick Edwards Chris Kosteva Juliana Madden Courtney Murtagh Alexandra Pigeon Image by Flickr user Kelly Poull Transcript

The Great Disappointment of the Millerites took place on this day in 1844. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Topics: 90s, San Francisco, Infinite Jest, Internet, Digital Media, Immersive Text, Truth, Buildungsroman, Blogs, History, The New, Curmudgeon, Video Games, Research, Interactive Fictions, Millerites, Apocalypse, Y2K, 911, Technological Change, Narrative

42 Minutes 309: Paul La Farge - Luminous Airplanes - 04.10.2018 On the day before the paperback edition of The Night Ocean arrives, we meet again with Paul La Farge to speak about his 2011 work, Luminous Airplanes, an expansive, hugely imaginative, and very funny novel about history, love, memory, family, flying machines, dance music, and the end of the world. Topics Include: 90s, San Francisco, Infinite Jest, Internet, Digital Media, Immersive Text, Truth, Buildungsroman, Blogs, History, The New, Curmudgeon, Video Games, Research, Interactive Fictions, Millerites, Apocalypse, Y2K, 911, Technological Change, Narrative. lumionousairplanes.com

Grant takes us back to the 1800s to talk about the end of all things. William Miller believed he had concrete evidence that the end was nigh, and his friends built a movement that grew to reinterpret all kinds of orthodoxy. Despite their specific predictions having no clear result, the faith continues. Is the truest faith that which survives evidence to the contrary? What holds a community together, the good times or the tough? Can we be trusted to ever speak on this topic respectfully? Links! Archives of The signs of the Times The 1843 and 1850 charts The Ellen G. White Estate Ellen and James White's graves The official site of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Sunday School Dropouts on Daniel Ross and Carrie Await the End Times (Part 1): Amazing Facts Edition Gextra Life 2 donation page Please help our show succeed by sharing it. Send a link to someone you know and tell them what you enjoy about History Honeys. Rate and review us on iTunes, Stitcher, or whatever other platform you use to hear us. It helps so very much and we do appreciate it. You can connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or by emailing us at historyhoneyspodcast at gmail. The episode 32 prompt is: favorite pirate!   Logo by Marah Music by Thylacinus Censor beep by Frank West of The FPlus

The United States in the early nineteenth century was one of Christian history's great moments of sectarian creativity. The religious entrepreneurs of a newly democratic society rebelled against the proliferation of denominations by creating new movements of their own, from Utopian communities to apocalyptic revivals. The most notorious such movement, the Millerites, forecast the end of the world for 1844 - in the most modern, rational and compelling terms.This lecture will explore why Millerites believed the predictions, what effects they had, and how they responded to the 'Great Disappointment'. And it will look at how two very different but almost equally successful modern Christian movements, the Seventh-day Adventists and the Jehovah's Witnesses, emerged from the wreckage.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/americas-adventsGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Session 3 “Revival and Strife”  Revival to revivalism, Charles Finney, abolitionism and the Civil War, communes, Millerites, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventism.

Thony Christie, historian of science and proprietor of the Renaissance Mathematicus and Whewell's Ghost stops by to talk about Galileo, Newton, the Copernican controversy, and why it was smart to believe that the Earth didn't move. The story of how we came to understand that the Earth was not the center of the Universe is one of the most fascinating stories in the whole of the history of science. The debate over Copernicus' heliocentric model lasted for centuries, and was carried out by mathematicians, theologians, philosophers and scientists. Observational evidence initially favored a geocentric model, and definitive proof did not appear until long after the first precise data (captured by Tycho Brahe and compiled by Kepler) had persuaded most scientists of their truth. Independent scholar Thony Christie takes us through the debate on this episode of Startup Geometry.   [0.0.16] How did you get into the study of the History of Science? Eric Temple Bell Men of Mathematics. History of Mathematics and Logic: Church’s list of formal logicians, Boole, Jevons, and others.   [0.3.50] Renaissance Mathematicus and Whewell’s Gazette/Whewell’s Ghost (Whewell pronounced “Hewell”). John Wilkins, historian of biology.   [0.6.30] What was a “mathematicus”? Fields of study: astrology, astronomy, mathematics, cartography, design of engines of war, (sun)dialing, volumetrics.   Leonardo DaVinci once sent a letter describing his skills in some of these areas.   [0.14.46] Christoff Clavius. The Galileo Affair. Heliocentricity. Cardinal Barberini. Who can interpret the Bible? Cardinal Bellarmine. The difference between proof and speculation.   [0.27.00] Giordano Bruno. Miguel Serveto (Servetus).   [0.28.14] Newton. Newton & alchemy. Newton & religion. Kepler. Prisca Theologia.   [0.35.44] Interpreting Early Modern systems of thought. Lawrence Principe and William R Newman’s modern alchemical experiments. Phlogiston. Problems with turning lead into gold. (Not a problem for us, but requires a huge particle accelerator.) Roger Bacon.   [0.44.23] Newton predicted the end of the world (not before 2060). Other predictions of the end of the world. Jehovah’s Witnesses. The University of Chicago study of the Millerites.   [0.47.47] Discussion of the various Renaissance world systems or models of the universe. Why it’s obvious that the Earth doesn’t move. Tycho Brahe. Johannes Kepler. Gilbert, On the Magnet. How it was finally proved that the Earth does move. Chris Graney on star sizes, Setting Aside All Authority. Torricelli.   [1.00.00] The Rudolphine Tables. Not proof, but Kepler’s system fits the data, so Kepler’s model is probably right. Heliometers and elliptical orbits. Bradley, 1725, finds elliptical movement of stars due to Earth’s movement. Christiaan Huygens. The Earth bulges at the Equator and is flattened at the poles. Later confirmed by stellar parallax, Bessel, 1838.   [1.08.18] Book recommendations. Richard Westfall, Life of Isaac Newton. John Heilbronn, Galileo. Chris Graney, Setting Aside All Authority. Eric Scerri, The Periodic Table. My recs: Deborah Harkness, The Jewel House of Nature. (she also rediscovered The Book of Soyga, which was part of John Dee’s library, and is also a really good fiction writer.) Lost Enlightenment S. Frederick Starr.  

Our apocalypse series continues with noted biblical scholar Robert M. Price discussing the biblical apocalypse! Noah's flood, The rapture, tribulation, second coming, millennium and last judgment are all explained so simply that even Toren can understand. Also: a brief history of failed apocalypse prophecies including Montanism, The Millerites' Great Disappointment, Harold Camping and more. Part one of two! Music: "Brush the Dust Off That Old Bible" by Bradley Kincaid Images Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBktYJsJq-E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7BQKu0YP8Y

Wed, Sept 01 2010 Mister Ron's Basement #1759 We have dug up some little-known gems from Mortimer Thomson, better known to one and all as Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B. Our 1854 tale concerns a group of religious followers of William Miller, gathering together for the predicted day the earth will end. It's called 'Doesticks Sees the Millerites.' Time: approx twelve minutes The Mister Ron's Basement Full Catalog can be found at: http://ronevry.com/Mister_Rons_Full_Catalog.html The Philander Doesticks (Mortimer Thomson) Catalog of Stories is at: http://ronevry.com/doesticks.html *There is a nifty interview with Mister Ron in issue #59 iProng Magazine (now known as Beatweek Magazine) which can be downloaded as a free pdf file here. (New URL!) *John Kelly of The Washington Post has written a lively piece about the Basement. You can read it here. Help Keep Mister Ron's Basement alive! Donate One Dollar: http://ronevry.com/Mister_Ron_Donate.html A hint to new listeners - you can use the catalogs to find stories by specific authors, or just type their name in the keyword search field. To find some of the best stories in the Basement, simply click here! -- By the way, if you haven't noticed, you can get the episode by either clicking on the word 'POD' on top of this section, or on the filename on the bottom where it says 'Direct Download' or by clicking on the Victrola picture, or by subscribing in iTunes.     When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you.       Join us on Facebook!                                              

Introduction It was the midst of the darkness of one of the darkest times in history, World War II, at 9:15 in the evening, June 5th, 1944, the BBC radio news was interrupted by the following report: "Eileen is married to Joe. It is hot in Suez. The compass points north, the dice are on the table." Now to thousands of listeners, including many Germans that were listening over an occupied France, that message was utter nonsense. But to the French resistance, the underground, it was a signal that D-Day was imminent within 24 hours, and over 5000 French resistance workers, each carrying two packages of TNT went out into the night risking their lives and blasted important railway targets and other targets to make way for the impending invasion, the greatest invasion of history. Seventy-four telephone exchanges were destroyed and roads that German reinforcements would need to throw back the invasion into the sea were destroyed. For four years, the Nazis had been occupying France and their resistance numbers were growing. There were an estimated 100,000 plus resistance workers right before D-Day. They were risking their lives because if they were arrested in the act, they would be immediately executed. Many of them immediately were executed by the Gestapo, horribly tortured and executed, but these people didn't mind, they realized that the Nazi rule of France and of the world was wicked and they wanted to risk their lives to throw it off. How much more should we be active in advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ? We're like resistance workers in occupied territory. Did you realize that? It says in 1 John 5, in verse 19, "We know that we are children of God," and listen to this, "the whole world is under the control of the evil one." Well, what does that make us who are seeking to advance the kingdom of a coming king but traitors and rebels and resistance workers to the occupying force. “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.” Satan's time is short, and we are called on to resist the devil, to be resistance workers. Why? Because the greatest invasion of all history is yet to come. The greatest invasion is described very plainly in Revelation 19. Jesus Christ is coming back at the head of a heavenly angelic army. He's going to be riding on a horse whose name is called Faithful and True. His eyes are like blazing fire, out of his mouth comes a sword of righteousness with which to slay the wicked. He will destroy the anti-Christ with the breath of his mouth and with the splendor of his coming, and he will gather up all that have fought for him in this occupied world. Oh, that that would be you and me, that we would be faithful to get ready for that coming invasion. The resistance workers knew what those codes meant. There are no such codes in the Bible. I already covered that in my sermon on the Rapture, we're not looking for a special calculation concerning the exact day and hour of the Lord's return. Instead, what we get at the end of Matthew 24 are two simple parables that tell us that we, as the resistance workers here in occupied world, are to be constantly ready and consistently faithful for the Second Coming of Christ. That's what this sermon is all about. How do you be constantly ready and consistently faithful in your service to Christ? We are told in Matthew 24 and 25 that the timing is uncertain, but the Second Coming is not uncertain, and Christ's expectations on us are not uncertain. The exact timing of Christ's return is unknown. Look at verses 36 - 39, Matthew 24. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage right up to the day Noah entered the ark, and they had no idea about what would happen until the flood came and swept them all away. And that is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” The Timing of the Second Coming is Unknown In the text we're looking at today, verse 42, "Therefore keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." And then again in verse 44 of this same chapter, "So you also must be ready because the son of man will come in an hour when you do not expect him." Again, and again, the parables of Jesus in chapter 24 and again in chapter 25, imply a long delay between the first and second comings of Christ. He's getting them ready for a long time. In our parable, the second parable today, at the end of Matthew 24, the wise and the wicked stewards, both are dealing with a long delay. The master, it seems, is away a long time. At least one of the servants thinks he's going to stay away a long time. In the parable of the five wise and the five foolish virgins it says, "The bridegroom was a long time in coming and they all became drowsy and fell asleep." In the Parable of the Talents, after a long time, the master of those servants returned to settle accounts with them. There's an implied long time between the first and second comings of Christ. The overall message to every generation of Christians is, be constantly ready, be consistently faithful because you don't know when the Lord will come. The key issue then for us is how do we do that? How shall we live in light of this? He tells us this first simple parable, one of his simpler parables, of the need of constant watchfulness, constant readiness, that nothing be lost. You don't want to lose anything when the Lord returns. He takes up this image of a thief in the night. Look at verses 43-44, "But understand this, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into, so you also must be ready because the son of man will come in an hour when you do not expect him." Some of Jesus' parables are complex, some are simple. This is a simple one. Two characters, the owner of a house and a thief in the night, these are the two that we're looking at in this parable. A simple question is in front of us, will the thief be able to plunder the house by stealth? Jesus uses a rather humorous, actually, a preposterous concept, that the thief would send notice to the homeowner of the exact time when he's coming to plunder his house. “I’m going to be in your neighborhood tonight, I plan on making your home the third one I'll hit. In the evening after the Smith and the Jones' place you'll be third on the list. I shouldn't be there before 2:00, probably not later than 2:30, if all goes well. Somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 AM. I will come in the back door with a flashlight, I'll try to come with as little, as much stealth and as little noise as possible, so as not to disturb you.” Obviously, if the thief were completely truthful and the owner of the house believed it, all he would need to do is just set his alarm for 1:55 AM, right? Get up five minutes before the guy comes and be waiting at the back door. Jesus is playing with us, isn't he? No thief would ever do that. Never. The issue here is the loss of something valuable. A burglar comes to take valuables from your house. A burglar is not looking for Tupperware, that stuff that's been in there for four months, he's not taking that. Nor is he going to clean out your closets for you and take much of it to the dump. He's looking for your valuables, he's looking to steal you blind, taking something valuable. The owner has valuable possessions, gold and silver coins maybe, family heirlooms, carpets, dishes, tableware, other precious possessions. These possessions are vulnerable they are valuable, and so also each human being on the face of the earth is vulnerable in the face of the Second Coming of Christ. We're vulnerable to loss. If you're not a Christian, you stand to lose your soul, your eternal soul. Jesus said in Matthew 16: 26-27, "What would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul?" What could a man give in exchange for his soul, for the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with all of his angels, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done. There, if you're not a Christian, you stand to lose your soul, your eternal soul, and you will spend eternity losing it. It's not an instantaneous thing. We don't believe in annihilation scripturally, and so for an eternity of suffering, you'll lose your soul. For Christians, we also stand to lose the loss of rewards. Stewardship issues, things that were entrusted to us. We should have been faithful with them, we did not make the most of those opportunities, and we will stand to lose when judgment day comes. This is recorded very plainly in 1 Corinthians 3:12 -15, "If any man builds on the foundation, the existing work of the church builds on the foundation using gold and silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light, it will be revealed with fire, the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer a loss. He himself will be saved yet only as one escaping through the flames." That's a believer saved, going to heaven who suffers loss on judgment day. Why is it so hard for the church to understand that Judgment Day will be a difficult day for us all? I teach this and I'm looked at like I'm a heretic. It's like a Monopoly game where you go past “Go” and I guess there you go straight to jail. The idea is prevalent that you get to skip anything unpleasant and go right on into a heavenly bliss. No, you have to give an account for your lives, all the stewardship stuff, you got to give an account. You don't want to suffer loss, so Jesus picks up the image here of a thief in the night. The very famous expression “a thief in the night”, Peter and Paul and John all pick up on it and use it later in the New Testament. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-2, "Now brothers, about times and dates, we do not need to write to you for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." Peter in 2 Peter 3:10, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief." Jesus says in Revelation 3:3, quoted by John as he wrote that book for us, "Remember therefore what you have received and heard, obey it and repent but if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you." There's Jesus saying it again, but John recording it for us in the book of Revelation. You know very well Jesus is not comparing himself morally to a thief, a thief comes and takes what doesn't belong to him. What is there in this universe that doesn't belong to Jesus? Nothing. He's not coming to take from you what is not his, he's just comparing his approach and the stealth and the suddenness of it to a thief in the night, he himself is no thief. The simple idea is, you do not know the day or the hour, just like Jesus' parable of the unjust judge, who's a wicked man and cares nothing for man or God. Do you remember that parable? Jesus is not comparing God to the wicked judge; He's just saying that how much more should we go to God who loves us and who will answer our prayers. The thief in the night is also a famous expression historically in evangelicalism. In 1972, there was a film entitled “A Thief In The Night," about the secret rapture. It was the first in a series of films on the End Times done at that point. The problem I have with the secret rapture is not that Jesus comes like a thief in the night, He does, is that he also leaves like a thief in the night, and that I think is unscriptural. He comes and then after the coming and explosion of sound and light, friends, like lightning that flashes at one side visible to the other side, everybody will see it, an explosion of sound and light, but the coming is quiet like a thief in the night. Listen to 2 Peter 3:10, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the Earth and everything in it will be laid bare." He's not leaving like a thief in the night; at that point, everything changes. [2 Peter 3:10], “The day of the Lord is coming.” Note also that Paul's use of the expression refers not to the secret rapture when Christ's true bride is carried away in the night, but to the open devastating judgment of God on sinners. 1 Thessalonians 5, “Now brothers, about times and dates, we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night while people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape." What's so amazing is how Paul continues in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 with a thief in the night, “But you brothers, you're not in the darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You're all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness, so then let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled for those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk, get drunk at night but since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet for God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are awake or sleep [that means alive or dead] "we may live together with him." We are not in the darkness, we're not going to be surprised, and why not? Because you heard this sermon or others like it, because you read these texts and others like it, you have been instructed about the day of the Lord. Therefore, it's not going to surprise you like a thief in the night, you're going to be ready. Please be ready. That's the whole point of so many sermons in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, be ready. This day should not surprise you like a thief. Be Always Ready for the Second Coming I think to some degree, it's not so much that we're getting ready, but we're keeping ready. How's that? Ray Steadman had an illustration that I loved. He said this in a small country store, a faithful church-going lady came to do her shopping. Two or three of the kinda shiftless troublemakers in the town were standing around passing the time of day. They knew she was a Christian and churchgoer. They began to taunt her. "We hear that you're expecting Jesus to come back,” they said. "I sure am,” she replied brightly. "Do you really believe he's coming?" they asked. "Sure, as you're born," she answered. "Well, you better hurry home and get ready, he might be on his way." She turned and fixed her tormentors with a look, "I don't have to get ready. I keep ready." You get ready the moment you come to Christ in faith, that's how you get ready for the Second Coming of Christ. Trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, he who shed his blood, who died on the cross for you. You keep ready through faithful spirit-filled living, involving holiness of your own life and service through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's how you get ready for the day of the Lord. You're not going to be constantly gazing up in the sky, getting a crick in your neck, looking for the clouds to come, like the apostles, out on the Mount of Olives waiting for Jesus to come back. I think that should be the disposition of your heart, I think the eyes of your heart should be upward and future-oriented, but you need to be busy. We're not going to be like the Millerites in 1843 who sold all their possessions and literally waited on the roofs of their houses in white robes. We're not doing that. We've got a busy life; we need to be faithfully occupied in the labor of the Lord and service to the Lord. That's the point of the next parable, the blessedness of consistent faithfulness. Look at verses 45-51, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time. It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself my master's staying away a long time, and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour, he is not aware of, he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus begins this parable with a rhetorical question about the nature of the faithful and wise servant. Who is the faithful and wise servant? What does it mean to be faithful and wise? He's going to answer the question in the parable, both positively and negatively. He is like this; he is not like that. Who is this faithful and wise servant, this one put in a position of responsibility? First and foremost, he is a servant, and he knows that he is a servant. The essence of being a servant is that you are under the master. In the previous parable, you have a homeowner and a thief, but here it's not a homeowner, this is a servant or a steward. He knows that he's not in charge, he knows he's accountable to his master. He owns nothing here. Secondly, he's a steward who has been put in a position of vast responsibility; the master has put him in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time. This will be like Joseph who ran Potiphar's house for him. Potiphar had entrusted everything to Joseph to look after, but it was still Potiphar's house. This servant is put in charge of the other servants, he's a man under authority, but he has got servants under him. KJV calls him a ruler in the household, he has authority, he also has the job to feed the household their daily food. He's entrusted with the responsibility of giving them their food at the proper time, it says, and without that being done, the whole estate is going to be shut down. Remember Jesus is giving this teaching to the twelve apostles whom Jesus had chosen to be the leaders of his church in his absence once He ascended to heaven. Let's start in redemptive history with these words to the apostles. The apostles were listening, and after Jesus ascended in the clouds, it would be their job to rule God's household under his leadership and to give the people of God their food at the proper time through right doctrine, through good, faithful Bible instruction. They would instruct the people of God and feed them the word. You remember how Peter denied Jesus three times the night he was arrested, and after his resurrection, Jesus so beautifully reinstates Peter, I think to his apostolic office. In John 21, they're eating that breakfast of broiled fish, and after they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs. Feed them." Again, Jesus said, "Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." And Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time He said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time do you love me. He said, "Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you." Then Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." That's the apostolic calling, isn't it? Give the servants of God their food at the proper time. What did that entail? Peter went out, the day of Pentecost, to the huge assembly of people there, and preached this incredible Pentecost sermon about the resurrection of Jesus. Those who accepted his message were baptized, about 3000 were added to their number that day. Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.” Do you hear that? They fed on the word of the apostles, they fed on that doctrine. Every day they used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade and the apostles would be faithfully teaching the church. Jesus wanted to be sure that the apostles were going to be faithful and wise stewards in his household to give the people of God their food at the proper time. But let's not leave it right there, the apostles are dead, they're gone, they're up in heaven. Does this still have a word to speak to us? Yes, it does. It has a word to speak to us. What is your ministry? What has God entrusted to you? Are you being faithful and wise with what God has entrusted to you? You're going to have to give him an account when he comes. Are you being a faithful and wise servant to do what he told you to do? Faithful means you keep your promise, you do what you said you would do. Wise means you're sensible, you understand the time, you know what's going on, you're not distracted by laziness or love of pleasure, you're wise in the way you use your time. I am a pastor teacher, that's what I am. This parable speaks directly to my ministry, I need to be a faithful and wise steward in the house of God to give you the food of the word at the proper time, that's my calling, and not just me, but the elders and all that are called to teach. Their responsibility is to feed you the word of God to be sure it's true and faithful and enriching and helpful. That's our job, but it's not just us pastor teachers and elders, anybody entrusted with anything from Jesus, you need to be faithful and wise as a servant in his house to do what he has entrusted you to do. Rewards for Being Faithful What will you get if you do? “Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.” The word means happy, not just kind of happy, like the kind of happiness you get when something good happens to you in this world, but I mean an eternal happiness. Blessed because God is happy with you, and you're going to be eternally happy when the master returns and you were faithful. The master will return when you're not expecting him, but when you look up and see him, you're not going to be shocked and ashamed. You'll be delighted to see him, delighted to report what the Lord did through you. You're going to come right into the light to make it plain that everything you did has been done through God. [John chapter 3], You're not going to be ashamed. The other servants in the house were well-led and well-fed. You did it right, you were faithful, and you were wise, and the Lord will say, "Blessed are you." It's going to be good for you when the master finds you doing so. What are the rewards? Verse 47, "I tell you the truth, he'll put him in charge of all his possessions." This is very provocative, and I'm not going to deal with it fully today. Let's deal with it when we get to the parable of the talents. “Well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful with a few things, I'm going to put you in charge of many things.” Heaven and earth, the new heaven and the new earth, is going to be a very busy place with things to do, and you are presently auditioning for your job there if you're a Christian. It's going on right now. If you're faithful in little, you'll be faithful in much. I already blurted it out, you already know what I'm going to say when I get to the Parable of the Talents. You're auditioning now for your job then. You'll be happy no matter what you have. Bigger and bigger responsibilities for those who are more and more faithful in this life, so be faithful. What then of the curse of treacherous laziness? Look at verses 48-51 again. Suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, “my master is staying away a long time”, and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour, he is not aware of, and he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Here we see the character and the behavior of this servant. He is wicked, the word means rebellious, defiant, treacherous, he is presumptuous. Notice that he's presumptuous. He says my master is staying away a long time. He is tyrannical, he uses his position of authority as a tyrant to beat his fellow servants, though they are essentially equal to him, since they are his fellow servants. He's just in a temporary position of authority over them, for which he will give an account to the master, but he's still behaving like a tyrant. He is self-serving, immoral, lazy and self-indulgent, eating and drinking with drunkards, a life of fleshly, sensual indulgence. James 5:5, "You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence, you have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter." Wow, is that convicting? We Americans should read that and tremble. Let us not fatten ourselves in the day of slaughter. Let's not live self-indulgent lives but look at this wicked servant. He is self-indulgent and look at the shock of this wicked servant. In verse 50, the master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect him, in an hour he is not aware of. He is shocked, he is terrorized now by the coming of the master. He's not delighted to see Jesus, he’s terrified of it, and look at the judgment of this wicked servant. Verse 51, "He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This is exceptionally harsh language. It's always reserved for those sent to hell. Jesus is saying that people who do not live faithfully and expectantly in light of the Second Coming of Christ are not really Christians. Application Look at your life, which of these two describes you? Are you the faithful and wise servant about the business of the master, or are you the wicked lazy, self-indulgent servant who says my master's staying away a long time, I can eat, drink and be merry today because he's not coming today? What application can we draw from this? All scripture has the same ultimate application: come to the cross, come to Jesus, trust in Christ. Are you an unbeliever who never made a commitment to Christ, and don't know for certain that you're ready to stand before this Holy God? Come to Jesus. His blood is sufficient for you. The cross is enough for you. Come to Jesus. If I can just urge the rest of us as we look at this, I believe these two parables and the general teaching here is designed to drive away false wicked understandings of the Second Coming that we tend to have. For example, it drives away careless unpreparedness, these parables teach a constant vigilance for the Second Coming is needed. We tend to be thoughtless; we tend to not think about what it's going to be like when Jesus comes back. We'll get to that more next week with the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins. They just didn't think it through. What will I really need when the bridegroom comes? There's this careless unpreparedness, it's a form of rank unbelief, I really don't think He's coming. Therefore, you're really not ready, you didn't give it much thought, or if He comes, He'll be gracious, and it'll be no big deal. If anything ever has been a big deal, how about the Second Coming of Christ? This will be the big deal. You need to be ready. Careless unpreparedness or biding time and pacing yourselves, is this you? Biding time, pacing yourselves, the wicked steward in the second parable didn't want to exert himself for any length of time. He thinks he knows when he’s coming, and he’ll get ready right at the end. Hurry to get ready right at the end, do you know what I'm saying? Patch it up, clean it up, hurry, get ready. We are on the business, if you're a Christian, you're on the business of two infinite journeys, an internal journey of perfection, growing in holiness to be like Jesus, and an external journey of worldwide evangelization. Those are incredibly difficult journeys, and you may be like, "I don't want to be about that all the time, that's hard work." It's tough, the task of faithfulness in a sin cursed world seem so overwhelming. It's so difficult to be about the master's business 24/7, to be on it, to be at it all the time, to be witnessing, to be sharing, to be growing, to be reading and praying and serving, it's like, "How about we just tread water and just get ready at the end?" We can't do it. Find your strength in God, find your strength in the indwelling Holy Spirit and be more and more faithful all the time. That's what the Scripture is calling on us to do. Thirdly, address laziness. We tend to be lazy, with an allergy to hard work. Yes, it's work. The Lord is calling on us to labor for him. We've got this sluggish tendency, and we all have it, like the sluggard in the book of Proverbs, that would rather just roll over like a door on its hinge side to side, have somebody feed us like mommy used to do. We've all got that laziness inside us. This drives that laziness out of us. How about procrastination? Any of you struggle with that at all? There'll be time, we'll get to it. I know I should make that phone call today, but we'll get around to it eventually. Do you realize how presumptuous that is, to assume that you’re going to have another time to do this when the Holy Spirit is prompting you to get busy to do something, make that call, to get in the car and go do such and such, and like I'll put it off. There'll be plenty of time, won't there, when Jesus comes back, to get everything ready? I mean, throw it together at the end. Procrastination is a prideful sin, it's presumptuous. How about self-indulgence? It's addressed here, feed my flesh, feed that desire, that stomach inside me. The servant thinks there's plenty of time to eat and drink with drunkards and have a good time, and then he'll get it patched up when the Lord returns, self-indulgence. Prideful abuse of power, angry tyranny. Have you ever heard it said the ground is equal at the foot of the cross? Have you heard that? Guess what, the ground is also equal at the foot of the judgement seat of God. It is. You are in positions of power and authority, you have them temporarily. The ones you are in power over are equal to you at the cross and will be again on judgment day, do you understand that? They are your fellow servants. Let me speak to parents. Please remember that this child you're training up is your equal before God. Though you may need to chastise as the Bible instructs, though you may need to train, you have authority, you have the right to command, though you have these things, you have them temporarily. They are created in the image of God, and some day you will stand side by side with them and give an account for yourself, just as he or she, your son or daughter will give an account for him or herself. Your job is to get them ready for that; not to be a tyrant. You masters, employers, authority figures, government officials, you elders, senior pastors, whatever is entrusted to you, it is temporary, and you are ministering to fellow servants. Do so with humility. Don't be a tyrant beating your fellow servants. What about unbelief? Second coming, “out of sight, out of mind”, right? The purpose of all these sermons in Matthew 24 is to make it in the mind. Yes, it's out of sight. Therefore, you need faith to believe in the Second Coming and think about it all the time. Do you want to get rid of your unbelief in the Second Coming of Christ, read Matthew 24 a lot? Read these parables a lot, feed on the Word and say, "He is coming back." It might be today. Absentee landowners and absentee masters and absentee kings that are coming back, you've got to have faith, believe in those guys. You have to have faith to believe in Jesus who's coming back and He's going to ask you to give an account. What about a misunderstanding of judgment day? You know the wicked servant; you know what he thought? It's just how it looks at the end, right? Does he think that the master isn't going to ask the servants how it was the whole time? Suppose he says, I'm going to be gone exactly ten years and one day. Okay, and at nine years, 11 months and two weeks, he puts it together, throws it together, gets it nice. The master comes back, and the servants aren't so emaciated as they were six months ago. They're looking a little bit better, starting to recover. The house is immaculate, everything's looking sharp. Do they think that the master's an idiot? Do they think he's not going to say, “How was it when I was gone? How was it the first day after I left?” Everything is written in God's book. Everything, not just the stuff at the end. Every day we're going to give Him an account. How about weariness or discouragement over this long delay? Let's banish that, dear friends. Go again and again to Christ for the energy and the strength. Don't get weary in doing good, the Lord's coming back. If you're weary, take a nap, get up and pray, and get up and serve some more. And finally, hypocrisy, acting like we really believe in the Second Coming of Christ when we really don’t. He says He will cut them to pieces and assign them a place with the hypocrites. You don't want to be a hypocrite, who claims something they really aren't. Do we believe in the Second Coming? Do you believe it could happen today? Do you believe that you could die today and give this master an account for your life, do you believe this? Then act like it, be constantly vigilant and be constantly faithful in what the Lord has entrusted to you.

This 125th episode of CS is titled A Second Awakening.I usually leave this announcement for the end but will insert it here at the beginning.Donations to keep the CS host site up are welcome and needed. You can do so at sanctorum.us. Just look for the “Donate” link.We ended our last episode with the dour spiritual condition of both the United States and Europe at the end of the 18th C.I mentioned Dr. J Edwin Orr a couple of episodes back. He was the 20th C's foremost expert on Revival and Spiritual renewal. While he could speak with eloquence on literally dozens of Revivals, one of his favorite subjects was what's come to be known as the Second Great Awakening.Before it began, there were many who worried if God did not intervene, Christianity might die out of Europe and the US.Following Independence from England, many American intellectuals fell in love with France. But France was throwing off religious faith as fast as it could. The French Revolution made a mockery of the Church and Christianity.  A well-known prostitute in Paris was crowned Goddess of Reason IN the Cathedral of Notre Dame. A majority of churches in France closed and the famous skeptic Voltaire claimed Christianity would be consigned to the dustbin of history in only 30 years. Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands were taken over by Rationalism. England was afflicted by a sophisticated Skepticism led by the philosopher David Hume. His attacks on faith are still used on campuses today.French radicals contributed millions of francs to propagandize and seduce American students. In Christian colleges like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, students welcomed the new French ideas, not because they promised justice, but because of they welcomed immorality. It was a time of great moral decline. Of a population of 5 million--300,000 were alcoholics.  They buried 15,000 of them annually.To give you an idea of just how prolific drinking was, President Washington had to call out troops to put down an armed revolt over alcohol in what's come to be known as the Whiskey Rebellion. There was a plague of lawlessness with bank robberies a daily occurrence. Out-of-wedlock births and STDs sky-rocketed. Public profanity soared, cheating was epidemic. The turn toward immorality was so dramatic Congress appointed a special commission to investigate what had happened and how to correct it. The Commission discovered that in Kentucky, there'd been only one court of law held in five years. They simply could not administer justice on the frontier. It became so bad, a group of vigilantes formed and fought a pitched battle with the outlaws è and LOST!A poll taken at Harvard found most students were atheists. At Princeton, a far more evangelical college; there were only two believers in the entire student body. All but five were members of the Filthy Speech Movement. Christians were so unpopular they had to meet in secret. Students burned down buildings and forced college presidents to resign.  A mob of students attacked a Presbyterian church, breaking windows and burning the pulpit Bible. Students often entered churches during Communion to interrupt the service by spitting on the floor.The largest and fastest-growing denomination had been Methodists. But they were now losing thousands each year. The second-largest were the Baptists. They described this time as their “most wintry season.” Presbyterians met in Philadelphia to express their dismay at the immorality of the nation. Lutherans and Episcopalians were so far gone they held talks to consider merging.Samuel Provost, Bishop of NY had not confirmed anyone as a new member in so long, he quit and looked for other work. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshal wrote to Bishop Madison of Virginia that the Church in the US was too far gone to ever recover. Charles Lee, a popular hero of the Revolutionary War loudly advocated pulling down all the churches claiming they were obstacles to progress.The church historian Dr. Kenneth Scott Latourette summed it up by saying it looked as though Christianity was about to be ushered out of the affairs of man. But it wasn't. On the contrary, a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit was about to come.In 1784, Pastor John Erskin of Edinburgh, Scotland published a plea for prayer by all Christians in Scotland.  He sent a copy to Jonathan Edwards in America.  Edwards replied in what became a book titled A Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth.Erskin published both his book and Edwards' reply as one-volume and sent it to Dr. John Rylands, a Baptist leader in Britain. Rylands read it, was profoundly moved, and pondered what to do with it.He gave it to two men of prayer who determined to spread it among church leaders. They convinced dozens of Baptist churches to set aside the first Monday of each month to pray for a spiritual awakening. Other denominations found out about what the Baptists were doing and joined. Congregationalists, Evangelicals in the Churches of England and Scotland, and the Methodists all held monthly prayer meetings devoted to praying for revival. Within seven years Britain was covered with a network of prayer.Then in 1791, the first evidence of an answer to their prayers began in the churches at Yorkshire. Mockers went to the monthly prayer meetings intending to disrupt them but went home converted. Some of these meetings were quiet prayer, others noisy.Then in the city of Leeds, the Methodist Church there saw a thousand unbelievers brought to faith in just a few months. Soon all the churches were experiencing the same. What they saw was the renewal of believers and the conversion of the lost. And this winning of so many to Christ stunned both Baptists and Congregationalists. They didn't believe in instantaneous conversion. They assumed it took three months of challenge, another three months of instruction to prove someone had been converted. That an alcoholic could attend a church meeting and go away converted and dramatically changed was hard to believe à Until they saw it happening in their own services.  It revolutionized their understanding of conversion, changing it forever.The revival strengthened Evangelicals in the Church of England like William Wilberforce who went on to lead the abolition movement in England.The revival moved into Scotland. It swept Wales. By 1796 it had covered Norway.One of the products of real revival is the new ministries it gives rise to. A pastor named Thomas Charles was moved by the story of Mary Jones, a serving girl who'd saved up her pennies to by a Bible. The nearest store was thirty miles away, so on her day off, she walked there, to find they were sold out. She returned home in tears. Pastor Charles was so moved he went to London and asked the publishers to print more Bibles. They refused saying the revival was a fad, a temporary emotionalism that would quickly pass and no one would want any Bibles then. So Charles formed the British and Foreign Bible Society, the first of all the Bible societies that would end up printing millions of Bibles that went all over the world.The Second Great Awakening resulted in a massive missionary outreach as well as major social reforms. It led to the abolition of slavery, thousands of schools, and a host of organizations to help the poor and needy.In the US and Canada, the first glimmers of revival began in 1792. It started in Boston where all but a couple of the churches had gone off into the error of Unitarianism. In Lenox, Mass. not a single young person had been received into the Church in 16 years. So a couple of churches agreed to hold special prayer for revival. They prayed for two years, then in 1794, a few pastors sent out a letter to every congregation in the US calling for a concert of prayer.  They'd heard about what was happening in England and determined to do the same.The Presbyterians adopted it in mass. Congregationalists, Baptists, and Moravians all took it up. Soon Christians across the nation were praying the first Monday of every month for spiritual awakening. Their prayers were desperate as they realized the urgency of the need. The momentum built over the next four years until 1798 when the Second Great Awakening began in earnest in the US.One church in NYC began with 80 members. They prayed for revival and three years later had grown to 720. This was typical for most churches during the revival.In the Eastern States, there was little to no emotional extravagance. But in the Western states of Kentucky and Ohio things were different. Remember the horrible conditions that existed on the Western frontier. People were brought under such conviction of sin they were often in an agony that once confessed and repented of, was replaced by unbound joy in salvation.  Many would go from unrestrained weeping to dancing and celebration.James McCready was the pastor of three small churches in Kentucky. McCready's chief claim to fame was that he was so ugly he attracted attention. His voice was coarse and his style of preaching was far from elegant.  In 1799 he said the ministry was “Weeping and mourning with the people of God.” But a year later, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit began in Kentucky.The churches of the frontier were small buildings inadequate to house all those who wanted to attend, so ministers like McCready rode to outdoor campsites where thousands gathered to hear the Word of God and take Communion.At these camp meetings, as many as 20,000 would show up and stay for 3-4 days as one preacher after another preached.The revival swept Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Dr. George Baxter, a Presbyterian minister from Philadelphia heard about what was happening and went to investigate. He said Kentucky was the most moral place he'd ever seen in his life. He heard not a word of profanity the entire time he was there. He said a sense of religious awe hovered over the entire countryside.There was a great movement for the further evangelization of the Western frontier. Those who were converted traveled back East to attend college and get their degree in theology so they could return and continue the revival. So, revival broke out in those godless colleges of the East we talked about earlier. The Westerners returned home and started dozens of colleges in what today we call the Midwest. ¾'s of all Midwest colleges were the result of the Second Great Awakening.The Revival swept the South and was as evident among the slaves as among the white population.The War of 1812 interrupted the revival, but historians mostly agree that the Second Great Awakening marked the US as a thoroughly Christian nation.As the Awakening began to lose steam, Charles Finney came on the scene with his revival efforts. Beginning in New York State in 1824, he conducted effective meetings in several Eastern cities. The greatest took place in Rochester, New York, in the fall and winter of 1830–31, when he reported a thousand conversions in a city of 10,000. The revival affected nearby towns as well, with over 1,500 making professions of faith. At the same time, there were about 100,000 conversions in other parts of the country from New England to the Southwest.In 1835, Finney became president of Oberlin College in Ohio, where he continued to be an influential revivalist through personal campaigns and the wide distribution of his book Lectures on Revival. It was from the Oberlin school that the Holiness and Pentecostal churches emerged. Not only did Finney's work make a great impact on America, he also made two trips to Europe, where he experienced extensive success.Finney is credited with introducing something called the anxious bench in his meetings. This was a place for people who wanted to express a desire for conversion to sit and await someone leading them to faith by walking them through an understanding of the Gospel then praying with them. The modern-day altar call practiced in many Evangelical churches and meetings is the descendant of Finney's anxious seat.Fast-forward 50 years from the Second Great Awakening and it seemed the tide had gone out again. By the 1850s the country was thriving, largely because of the benefits brought by the Awakening. The Mid-West was being developed, the economy was booming. People made 18% interest on their investments. But as is so often the case, economic prosperity turned into a neglect of the Spirit. The pursuit of pleasure replaced the pursuit of God. The nation was politically divided over the issue of slavery.  It wasn't just States that were divided. Churches and denominations split over it.Into this national argument that ended up tearing the country in two was added a dose of religious turmoil.A veteran and farmer named William Miller rediscovered the doctrine of the 2nd Coming. For generations most of the Church considered Bible prophesy a closed book. Miller began teaching on the Return of Christ. But he made the mistake many have and said Christ would return in 1844. About a million people followed his views.  When it didn't happen, they were bitterly disillusioned because they'd sold their homes, businesses, and farms. Skeptics piled on the fanaticism of the Millerites and fired up a new round of mocking faith.  Then, in 1857, things began to change. What that change was, we'll take a look at it next time.

During the early-mid 19th C, an interesting phenomenon spread over the thinking of parts of Western Europe and the US. It was a general negativity about the present, but a strong optimism about the future. In some places, it was almost giddy. The current political and economic situation might be a mess and the number of social ills piling higher. But the Enlightenment's promise of a bright new day gripped the imagination of thousands. The recent boom in technological progress with things like steam engines, cotton gins, and spinning machines promised endless new products, markets, and employment. Medicine was making dramatic steps forward, promising less pain and longer life. Trains & steamships conquered distance in a way the generation before could not have imagined.“Yeah, today might be tough; but hang on, because tomorrow is going to be awesome.”While that mentality was spotty in Western Europe, it was pretty much a blanket across the United States. European immigrants remarked on the nearly euphoric positivity of their new homeland. This positivism was largely the product of the pervasive Evangelical Revivalism that owned most American churches and a good portion of the population. That Evangelicalism conveyed the idea that conversion to Faith in Christ conveyed a new heart that sought after holiness. People began to reason that that new heart ought to pursue holiness in a new world shaped by holiness. All this spilled into numerous reform efforts; attempts to remedy past grievances and address the growing number of new challenges industrialization had produced. For progress did not come cheap. As Charles Dicken's wrote, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”So, Evangelicals went to work on reforming society.Charles Finney championed abolition as being part & parcel of the Christian faith. He went so far as to refuse Communion to slave-holders.Stephen Caldwell called for new tariffs to protect American wages and to fund the Christianizing of the public school system.In 1816, the American Bible Society proposed distributing Bibles as a moral and spiritual antibiotic aimed to eradicate Theological Liberalism and any goofy ideas brought over by Immigrants.The American Sunday School Union set up dozens of schools in urban centers to educate the growing pool of child laborers.By 1858, Evangelicals in NYC had established 76 missions to minister to the needs of the urban poor.While most reform-minded Evangelicals engaged the culture, a smaller group decided to pursue holiness by withdrawing from society to form separatist communes. Nathaniel Hawthorne labelled these religiously-motivated separatists “Come Outers.”One example is a group known as the Shakers. Their original name was the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing. They began in the mid-18th C as a splinter group from the Quakers who at the time were moving away from their reputation as enthusiasts of ecstatic forms of worship. The Shakers didn't just want to maintain that reputation; they wanted to ramp it up. So they became knowns as the Shaking Quakers. They were lead by the ardent and eloquent preaching of Jane Wardley who said the Millennium was about to begin with the Return of Christ. In preparation for the Return of Christ, they gave themselves to strict celibacy and a remarkable egalitarianism that saw a notable influence of women in the leadership of the group.Shakers settled in colonial America but never saw many members until this era of reform in the mid-19th C when their community grew to its largest number, about 6000. The policy of celibacy as well as changes in society saw the eventual dwindling of the Shaker movement to just a single community today.Another group of Come Outers were the Millerites.William Miller was a well-off farmer and Baptist lay preacher in NE New York. He became convinced Christ would return sometime between 1843 & 44. His calculations convinced a large number of people across many churches and denominations. They set the date of March 21st, 1843 as the likely day Jesus would Return.But Millerism, as it came to be known, was rejected by most clergy. By the beginning of 1843, the movement had hardened around enthusiasts and those who opposed it. Advocates of Millerism left their churches to form a new group of like-minded supporters. It hardened even more when after the evening of March 21st, Millerites donned special ascension robes and waited the big event. Some had gone so far as to give away their property. When the morning of the 22nd dawned, they were supremely bummed out. Because – and I don't think I'm giving anything away here – Jesus in fact had NOT returned!Miller did some quick figuring and said, he'd missed some minor calculations and needed to revise the date to April 18th. On April 19th, he re-upped by saying it wasn't the days he'd gotten wrong, but the year. It would be March 21st, 1844; then Oct. 2nd. But by then the Millerites were a laughing stock and no new dates were set.But instead of calling it quits and going back to their old denominations, the Millerites formed a new one – called the Adventists. In a bit of revisionism, they said that Christ really HAD come at the aforesaid & appointed time, but in Spirit, rather than in flesh. By 1863, the Adventists had 125  churches. They made themselves odious to many Americans by declaiming the US as the Great Whore of Babylon, doomed to the plagues of Revelation.But the most extreme form of come-outerism was the 1830 emergence of the Mormons, under the leadership of Joseph Smith. Taking the name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Smith claimed to have unearthed a record of a Pre-Colombian group of immigrants who'd had travelled all the way from the Middle East to settle in the New World. They fashioned an extensive civilization in the Americas but were wiped out by other Native Americans.The Golden Plates Joseph Smith unearthed contained the record of that lost civilization, with a proper understanding of the Christian Faith. Smith claimed the Church as it was, was a horrible corruption – something God had never intended it become. Mormonism claimed to restore the Gospel Jesus and the Apostles taught.But there was little connection between Joseph Smith's vision of the Gospel and the Bible, so most churches and denominations opposed Smith's emerging movement. They moved from New York to the Midwest. But when hostility broke out there, in 1847 they decided to make the big leap and head to a place all their own in the consummate come-outer move. They headed west and settled along the Great Salt Lake in what would one day be the State of Utah. They might as well have settled on the moon.While each of these come-outer sects was radically different in its theological leanings, what united them was their short term pessimism about the world in which they lived. That's how they justified their break with society. But they maintained a long term optimism about their ability, once they'd come out of a corrupt society, to found a healthy & holy community that could achieve it's grand vision of establishing, if not heaven on Earth, then at least an outpost of it.And each reprised a story that dates all the way back to the Desert Fathers we talked about early in Season 1. The hermits, who, having swallowed the dualism of Greek philosophy, fled the City to dwell alone in caves for years or sit atop a pillar for weeks. They understood holiness as physical separation from the world.If that's what Jesus had meant by being holy, that's what He'd have done. It's not. Jesus was to be found with people; often the kind of people least likely to show up at synagogue or church. Yes, Jesus spent time alone in the wilderness, but only in preparation for the City. He wasn't a man OF the City, but He was IN it; where the love of God for needy souls could be seen and passed off to others. His strategy for reform wasn't to withdraw FROM the world, it was to enter INTO it.Secular reform movements copied religious come-outers in creating communes dedicated, not to a religiously-fueled spirituality, but a philosophically-based morality. Transcendentalists founded Brook Farm as an experiment in communal living. The Northampton Association organized an economic industrial cooperative. Oberlin, Ohio, was organized as a colony and college, with the college based on a philosophy of self-sufficient manual labor.The American obsession with reform drew criticism from some. They saw it as the dark side of democracy. Brownson thought all the enthusiasm for reform was the logical consequence of Protestant individualism. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne who coined the term “come outers” said most reform was based on an overestimation of human nature.Alexis de Tocqueville, by far the shrewdest observer of Americanism in the 19th C regarded the reform impulse as a mark of the health of American democracy.

This 126th episode of CS is titled, Yet Again.Donations to keep the CS host site up are welcome and needed. You can do so at sanctorum.us. Just look for the “Donate” link.In the last episode, we considered the Second Great Awakening and ended with this . . .By the 1850s the United States was thriving, largely because of the benefits brought by the Awakening. The Mid-West was being developed, the economy booming. People made 18% interest on their investments. But as is so often the case, economic prosperity turned into a neglect of the Spirit. The pursuit of pleasure replaced the pursuit of God. The nation was politically divided over the issue of slavery.  And it wasn't just States that were divided. Churches and denominations split over itInto this national argument that ended up tearing the country in two was added a dose of religious turmoil.A veteran and farmer named William Miller rediscovered the doctrine of the 2nd Coming. For generations, most of the Church considered Bible prophesy a closed book. Miller began teaching on the Return of Christ. But he made the mistake many have and said Christ would return in 1844. About a million people followed his views.  When it didn't happen, they were bitterly disillusioned because they'd sold their homes, businesses, and farms. Skeptics piled on the fanaticism of the Millerites and fired up a new round of mocking faith.  Then, in 1857, things began to change.Another revival began as a movement of prayer. It was leaderless, though it produced several notable leaders.In September 1857, a businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier printed up a leaflet on the importance of prayer. It announced there would be a weekly prayer meeting at Noon, in the upper room of the North Dutch Reformed Church in Manhattan. When the time for the first meeting came, only Lanphier was there. He prayed anyway and at 12:35, six more businessmen on their lunch break came up the stairs. They prayed till 1 pm. As they broke up to return to work, they agreed they'd been so moved, they'd meet the following week at the same time and place.The next week, their number doubled to 14. They sensed something special was about to happen and agreed to meet every day, Monday-Saturday in that room at Noon. A few weeks later the room overflowed and they filled the basement, then the main sanctuary. A nearby Methodist Church opened its doors for noontime prayer. When it filled, Trinity Episcopal Church opened. Then church after church filled with people praying at noon, Monday-Saturday; mostly businessmen on their lunch break.Throughout the remainder of 1857, prayer meetings spread throughout the States. In Feb. 1858, New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley sent a reporter out to cover the story of the growing movement. The reporter went by horse and buggy and was able to make a dozen stops during the noon hour. He estimated there were over 6000 businessmen praying at those stops. Greeley was so surprised he made the story the next day's headline. Other papers didn't want to be outdone, so they began to report on the revival.The publicity further fanned the flames and more began showing up. Soon every auditorium and hall in downtown NY was filled.  Then, theaters filled.We might wonder what were these prayer meetings like. They were run by laymen, not professional clergy. Pastors were often present but did not conduct the meetings. They might be asked to open pray or read a scripture, but then the meeting was turned over to fifty minutes or more of prayer.There was a remarkable sense of unity that marked the meetings. Those who attended came from different churches but were cautious about debating doctrines. There was more a concern to focus on the things they agreed on. They were there to pray and that's what they did.At one prayer meeting in Michigan led by a layman, he said, “I see my pastor and the Methodist minister are here. Will one of you read a scripture and the other pray, then we'll get started.”  They did, then the laymen said, “I'm not used to this kind of public and impromptu prayer so we'll follow the example we've read about in the NY papers. We have so many here today please write your request down then pass them to the front. We'll read them one at a time, and pray over each one.”The first request said, “A praying wife asks the prayers of this company for the conversion of her husband who's far from God.” (That's certainly a common request.) But immediately a blacksmith stood up and said, “My wife prays for me. I must be that man. I need to be converted. Would you please pray for me?” A lawyer said, “I think my wife wrote that note because I know I'm far from God.”  Five men all claimed the request was surely for them. All were converted in a matter of just a few minutes.This was common at the beginning of the revival. People were converted during the prayer meetings. They'd simply express their need for salvation then would be prayed for by the rest.One minister stood up and said he'd stayed till 3 PM the day before answering the questions of those who wanted Christ. He announced his church would be open each evening from then on for the preaching of the Gospel. Soon, every church was holding similar meetings.As the revival spread across the States, 10,000 were converted each week. In Newark, NJ, of a population of 70,000; 2,785 were brought to faith in 2 months. At Princeton University, almost half the students came to Christ and half of those entered full-time ministry.The revival swept the colleges of the nation.On Feb. 3rd, 1858 in Philadelphia, a dozen men moved their daily prayer meeting from the outskirts of the city to downtown. They met at the James Theater, the largest in The City. A couple weeks later sixty were attending. By the end of March, 6,000 were literally crammed in.That Summer, churches united to hold mass services. They erected big-top tents and conducted evangelistic meetings that thousands flocked to. In Ohio, 200 towns reported 12,000 converts in just two months. In Indiana, 150 small towns saw 4,500 come to Christ.In two years, of a national population of 30 million, 2 million made a profession of faith.Edwin Orr remarks that this points up the difference between Evangelism and Revival. In evangelism, the evangelist seeks the sinner. In revival, sinners come running to God. It was during this Revival that a young shoe salesman went to the Sunday School director of the Congregational Church in Chicago and said he wanted to teach a class. He was turned down because there were sixteen ahead of him waiting to teach. They put him on the wait-list. He told the director, “I want to do something NOW.”The director said, “Okay – start a class.”  He asked, “How?”He was told to “Go get boys off the street, take them to the country and teach them how to behave, then bring them in.”He went out to the alleys, gathered up a dozen street urchins and took them to the beach on Lake Michigan. He taught them Bible games and Scripture. Then brought them to the church where he was given a closet to hold his class.  That was the beginning of the ministry of Dwight Lyman Moody who went on to preach all over the US and England and led tens of thousands to Christ.Today, we're accustomed to the secular press giving a cold shoulder to the things of God. That's not new; it's usually that way. Even during times of revival, the world tends to stand back and wait for it to pass. They may give grudging acknowledgment of the good fruit revival brings, but they always dig up some critic who dismisses it as religious fanaticism and emotionalism.  So the Revival of 1857-8 stands out because the secular press received it with enthusiasm. Maybe because it was a movement that began in the sophisticated urban centers of the nation and spread their first. It was called The Businessman's Revival. These weren't backwoods, country hicks who were “getting religion.” They were educated, literate, successful people being profoundly changed for the better. In a day when nearly everyone read the newspaper, they were familiar with the revival because it consistently made headlines. There was near-universal approval of it.Yes, it had a few critics, but their objections were dismissed as the grousing of unreasonable skeptics and the envious. The Anglicans were at first against it, until their churches began filling with seekers; then they approved of it as they saw its glorious effect. The same happened among the Lutherans.The prayer meetings were marked by order. And the conversions were as frequent among the older and more mature members of a community as the younger.It quickly spread up into Canada, then across the Atlantic to Ireland, Scotland, and England where conservative estimates say 10% of the population was brought to faith in Christ.  In London, every theater and auditorium was filled for prayer. It was during this time Charles Spurgeon built the Metropolitan Tabernacle and Hudson Taylor started the China Inland Mission.  Just a mile from where Taylor started, William Booth formed the Salvation Army.All of these came out of the Revival of 1857-9. The revival spilled over into Europe and reached India. The Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa still celebrates the revival for the huge impact it had on them. Jamaica was covered as were numerous other cities and nations.What I'd like to note as we end this episode is the date of this revival. Its peak was from 1857-60. A few years later the US was torn in two by the Civil War; a bloody chapter in my nation's history. Many of those who died in the war were saved in the Revival.This seems to be a consistent pattern of revival; that it takes place just prior to a major war. Dr. Orr says that this has been a consistent pattern throughout our nation's history.The First Great Awakening occurred shortly before the Revolutionary War. The Second before the War of 1812. The Revival of 1857-8 before the Civil War. The Welsh Revival that so affected Great Britain, Europe, and the US came right before WWI. It's as though God pours out His Spirit to reap a harvest before evil falls and there's a great loss of life.