Center for Creative Ministry A research organization and research center for Seventh-day Adventist pastors and their congregations
Light from the Sanctuary
The date May 18, 1980 is etched in the memories of everyone living in the Pacific Northwest at the time. The beautiful spring morning turned cataclysmic at 8:32 AM when a massive earthquake triggered the largest landslide in recorded history and activated the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
The blast speeds of around 670 mph briefly broke the sound barrier. The ash cloud spread out over Western Washington, burying Yakima under a 4-inch layer of ash, and turning Spokane, 250 miles away, completely dark. A plume of rock and ash leveled the previously lush, dense forest, entombing 230 square miles under a thick sheet of scalding hot debris. Singed tree needles indicate the pyroclastic temperatures reached up to 660°F. Ecologists believed that no living organism could survive such devastation – they hypothesized that it would take decades for life to return to the blast zone.
Just two weeks later, when US Forest Service ecologist Jerry Franklin stepped out of a helicopter into the devastation, he was surprised to see little green shoots popping up through the ash—fireweed growing from bits of roots that survived the blast. Beetles scurried over the ash, and gopher mounds appeared across the landscape. “Right off,” he said later, “all of us smart ecologists realized we didn’t have the correct working hypothesis.”
Reworking hypotheses was a startling reality check that Millerites would also have to face, forcing them to reevaluate their understanding of the Scriptures. Their dashed hopes of Jesus’ return to take them to heaven during October 22, 1844 became what we now call The Great Disappointment.
When morning dawned on October 23, 1844, Millerites worldwide must have felt as empty and barren as that volcanic moonscape. Many of these believers sold everything they owned and left their winter provisions rotting in the fields, expecting they wouldn’t need those earthly possessions in the kingdom. Their misplaced hope left them with nothing.
That morning, while walking home through his cornfield to avoid the mocking jeers of the neighbors, Hiram Edson realized that they didn’t have a correct understanding of the cleansing of the sanctuary mentioned in Daniel 8:14. He saw Jesus moving from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary, not coming to the earth.
“While passing through a large field,” he recalled, “I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed opened to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy Place before coming to the earth.”
That revelation meant new life for our Adventist pioneers, and a fuller biblical understanding of the sanctuary service for us today. And the date of October 22, 1844 stands etched in the annals of Seventh-day Adventist history as a milestone in Jesus’ heavenly work of salvation.
For Reflection
Connecting: What is the greatest disappointment you’ve experienced? How did you survive this setback? Did it eventually become a valuable growing lesson for you?
Sharing: Why do you think God didn’t reveal the truth about the cleansing of the sanctuary on October 22, 1844 to William Miller and other early Adventists so they could avoid such a great disappointment?
- God purposely blinded them to the truth to test them and see who were genuine believers and who were just band-wagon followers (see Revelation 10:8-11)
- God gave them all the light they needed to discover the truth, they just didn’t study deeply enough
- Preconceived notions—such as Miller’s understanding that the earth was the sanctuary—are nearly impossible to eradicate; sometimes even God can’t uproot them
- This was an opportunity for those early Adventist believers to learn to rely wholly on God—on October 23 they had nothing left to fall back on
- This led them to appreciate the sanctuary doctrine more fully; that new light after such a deep disappointment became much more beautiful to them than if they hadn’t been so upset
- Other:
Applying: The message of Jesus’ return on October 22, 1844 was much more exciting and gained larger crowds than if Miller preached that Jesus was moving into the Most Holy Place on that day. Are we ever justified in preaching rousing, exaggerated messages? How can we make biblical truth interesting without resorting to sensationalism?
Valuing: It’s dangerous to follow every new wind of doctrine, and it’s equally dangerous to close your mind to new light from God. How do you discern between true and false new ideas? Prayerfully consider Philippians 1:9-11 to help strike a proper balance between open-mindedness and caution.
~ Chuck Burkeen
Your Center for Creative Ministry Team
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