Introduction
1844
1846-1850
1851-53
1856 • 1857
1859 • 1861
1863 • 1865
1867 • 1868
1882
1886-1887
1888 • 1890
1891 • 1893
1895
1896-1897
1900
1901 • 1902
1903 • 1904
1905 • 1907
1908 • 1909
1913 • 1915
Message Today |
1844
What happened when the Protestant churches rejected the first angel’s
message given in 1840-1844?
“When the churches spurned the counsel of God by rejecting
the Advent message, the Lord rejected them. The first angel was
followed by a second, proclaiming, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication." [REV. 14:8] This message
was understood by Adventists to be an announcement of the moral
fall of the churches in consequence of their rejection of the first
message. The proclamation, "Babylon is fallen," was given
in the summer of 1844, and as the result, about fifty thousand withdrew
from these churches.”
Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 232.
“Adventists, seeing that the churches rejected the testimony
of God's word, could no longer regard them as constituting the church
of Christ, "the pillar and ground of the truth;" and as
the message, "Babylon is fallen," began to be proclaimed,
they felt themselves justified in separating from their former connection.”
Spirit of Prophecy,
vol 4, p 237.
The first angel’s message was given “to separate the
church of Christ from the corrupting influence of the world.”
[7]
Spirit of Prophecy,
vol 4, 231.
At it’s proclamation, the Protestant churches “were
in Babylon.”
[8]
Spirit
of Prophecy, vol 4, 239.
When they rejected the first angel’s message in the
summer of 1844, they became Babylon fallen as proclaimed by the
second angel. Hence, about 50,000 Adventists were justified in separating
themselves from their churches. Likewise, it’s only when a
church or churches are “Babylon fallen” are we justified
in separating from their connection.
How can we best describe that religious movement in 1844?
“Of
all the great religious movements since the days of the apostles,
none have been more free from human imperfection and the wiles of
Satan than was that of the autumn of 1844. Even now, after the lapse
of many years, all who shared in that movement and who have stood
firm upon the platform of truth still feel the holy influence of that
blessed work and bear witness that it was of God.”
Great Controversy,
p 401.
“What produces the effect
is this: Bro. Miller simply takes the sword of the Spirit, unsheathed,
and lays its sharp edge on the naked heart, and it cuts; that is all.
Before the edge of this mighty weapon, infidelity falls and Universalism
withers; false foundations vanish, and Babel's merchants wonder. It
seems to me that this must be a little the nearest to apostolic revivals
of anything that modern times have witnessed."
Review and Herald,
November 25, 1884.
When Sis. White received her first vision, she saw the experience
of the Advent people traveling in the straight and narrow path;
some fell off the path because they denied the light of “midnight
cry” (Matt 25:6), “which was to give power to the second
angel’s message” (EW238) of separation.
“While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell
upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the
dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but
could not find them, when a voice said to me, "Look again, and
look a little higher." At this I raised my eyes, and saw a straight
and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent
people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of
the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the beginning
of the path, which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light
shone all along the path and gave light for their feet so that they
might not stumble. If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was
just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But soon
some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected
to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising
His glorious right arm, and from His arm came a light which waved
over the Advent band, and they shouted, "Alleluia!" Others
rashly denied the light behind them and said that it was not God that
had led them out so far. The light behind them went out, leaving their
feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and lost sight of the
mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked
world below.”
Early Writings, p
14-15.
“It was impossible for them
to get on the path again and go to the city, as all the wicked world
which God had rejected.”
Word to the Little
Flock, p 14. (edited version in EW 15)
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