Chapter 19—Why the Great Disappointment?

From age to age, the work of God presents a striking similarity in every great reformation or religious movement. The principles of how God deals with people are always the same. The important movements of the present have their parallel in those of the past, and the church's experience in previous ages has lessons for our own time. 5TC 202.2

By His Holy Spirit God especially directs His servants on earth in advancing the work of salvation. Human beings are instruments in God's hand. He gives each one enough light to perform the work God gives him to do. But no one has ever had a full understanding of God's purpose in the work for his own time. God's representatives do not fully comprehend in all its aspects the message they speak in His name. Even the prophets did not fully understand the revelations God committed to them. He would unfold the meaning gradually, from age to age. 5TC 202.3

Peter says concerning this salvation that “the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering” (1 Peter 1:10-12, italics added). What a lesson for the people of God in the Christian age! Those holy men of God “inquired and searched carefully” concerning revelations God gave for generations that were not yet born. What a rebuke to the world-loving indifference that is content to declare that no one can understand the prophecies. 5TC 203.1

At times the minds of even God's servants are so blinded by tradition and false teaching that they only partially grasp the things revealed in His Word. Even when the Savior was with His disciples, they had the popular concept of the Messiah as an earthly prince who would exalt Israel to a universal empire. They could not understand His words predicting His suffering and death. 5TC 203.2

“The Time Is Fulfilled”

Christ had sent them out with the message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). That message was based on the prophecy of Daniel 9. The sixty-nine weeks were to extend to “Messiah the Prince,” and the disciples looked forward to the establishment of Messiah's kingdom at Jerusalem to rule over the whole earth. 5TC 203.3

They preached the message Jesus gave them, though they misunderstood its meaning. While their announcement was based on Daniel 9:25, they did not see in the next verse that Messiah was going to be “cut off.” They had set their hearts on the glory of an earthly empire, and this blinded their understanding. At the very time when they expected to see their Lord take the throne of David, they saw Him arrested, whipped, mocked, condemned, and lifted up on the cross. What despair and anguish wrung the hearts of those disciples! 5TC 203.4

Christ had come at the exact time foretold. Scripture had been fulfilled in every detail. The Word and the Spirit of God confirmed the divine commission of His Son. And yet the disciples’ minds were clouded with doubt. If Jesus had been the true Messiah, would they have been plunged into such grief and disappointment? This was the question that tortured their souls during the hopeless hours of that Sabbath between His death and resurrection. 5TC 204.1

Yet God had not forsaken them. “When I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.... He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness.” “Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness.” “I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.” (Micah 7:8, 9; Psalm 112:4; Isaiah 42:16.) 5TC 204.2

The announcement the disciples made was correct, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” When “the time” expired—the sixty-nine weeks of Daniel 9 that would reach to the Messiah, “the Anointed One”—Christ had received the anointing of the Spirit after His baptism by John. The “kingdom of God” was not an earthly empire, as they had been taught to believe. Nor was it that future, immortal kingdom in which “all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (Daniel 7:27). 5TC 204.3

The expression “kingdom of God” refers to both the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. The apostle says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace” (Hebrews 4:16). The existence of a throne implies the existence of a kingdom. Christ uses the expression “the kingdom of heaven” to designate the work of grace on human hearts. So the throne of glory represents the kingdom of glory (Matthew 25:31, 32). This kingdom is still future. It will not be set up until the second coming of Christ. 5TC 204.4

When the Savior gave up His life and cried out, “It is finished,” He ratified the promise of salvation made to the sinful pair in Eden. The kingdom of grace, which had existed before by the promise of God, was then established. 5TC 204.5

In this way the death of Christ—the event the disciples saw as destroying their hope—was what actually made it secure forever. While it brought a cruel disappointment, it was the proof that their belief had been correct. The event that had filled them with despair opened the door of hope to all God's faithful ones in all ages. 5TC 205.1

Mixed in with the pure gold of the disciples’ love for Jesus was the cheap metal of selfish ambitions. Their attention was fastened on the throne, the crown, and the glory. Their pride of heart, their thirst for worldly glory, had led them not to notice the Savior's words showing the true nature of His kingdom and pointing forward to His death. These errors resulted in the ordeal that God permitted to correct them. God would entrust the disciples with the glorious gospel of their risen Lord. To prepare them for this work, He permitted the experience that seemed so bitter. 5TC 205.2

After His resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples on the road to Emmaus and “expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” He wanted to fasten their faith on the “prophetic word confirmed” (Luke 24:27; 2 Peter 1:19), not just by His personal testimony, but by the prophecies of the Old Testament. And as the very first step in giving them this knowledge, Jesus directed the disciples to “Moses and all the Prophets” of the Old Testament Scriptures. 5TC 205.3

Despair to Assurance

In a more complete sense than ever before the disciples had “found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote.” Assurance and unclouded faith replaced their uncertainty and despair. They had passed through the deepest trial possible for them to experience and had seen how God's Word had been fulfilled triumphantly. After this, what could shake their faith? In the deepest sorrow they had “strong consolation,” a hope that was like “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:18, 19). 5TC 205.4

The Lord says, “My people shall never be put to shame.” “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Joel 2:26; Psalm 30:5.) On His resurrection day these disciples met the Savior, and their hearts burned within them as they listened to His words. Before His ascension, Jesus instructed them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel,” adding, “Lo, I am with you always” (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:20). On the Day of Pentecost the promised Comforter came down, and the hearts of the believers thrilled with the vivid presence of their ascended Lord. 5TC 205.5

The Disciples’ Message Compared to the 1844 Message

The experience of the disciples at the first coming of Christ had its counterpart in the experience of those who announced His second coming. As the disciples preached, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,” so Miller and his associates proclaimed that the last prophetic period in the Bible was about to end, that the judgment was about to take place, and that the everlasting kingdom would soon be established. The disciples’ preaching about the time was based on the seventy weeks of Daniel 9. The message that Miller and his associates gave announced the end of the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14, of which the seventy weeks form a part. The preaching of each was based on the fulfillment of a different part of the same prophetic period. 5TC 206.1

Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not fully understand the message they carried. Long established errors in the church prevented them from correctly interpreting an important point in the prophecy. So although they gave the message God had committed to them, yet because of a misunderstanding of its meaning they suffered disappointment. 5TC 206.2

Miller adopted the widely held view that the earth is the “sanctuary,” and he believed that the “cleansing of the sanctuary” represented the purification of the earth by fire when Jesus would return. Therefore, he concluded, the close of the 2,300 days revealed the time of the Second Advent. 5TC 206.3

The cleansing of the sanctuary was the last service the high priest performed in the yearly cycle of worship. It was the closing work of the atonement—a removal or putting away of sin from Israel. It illustrated beforehand the closing work of our High Priest in heaven in removing or blotting out the sins of His people, which are registered in the heavenly records. This service involves investigation, a work of judgment, and it takes place just before the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, for when He comes, every case has been decided. Jesus says, “My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” (Revelation 22:12). This is the work of judgment that the first angel's message of Revelation 14:7 announces: “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.” 5TC 206.4

Those who proclaimed this warning gave the right message at the right time. As the disciples were mistaken about the kingdom to be set up at the end of the “seventy weeks,” so Adventists were mistaken about the event to take place at the end of the “2,300 days.” In both cases popular errors blinded the mind to truth. Both groups fulfilled the will of God in delivering the message He wanted given, and both experienced disappointment through misunderstanding their message. 5TC 207.1

Yet God accomplished His will in permitting the judgment warning to be given as it was. In His plan the message was to test and purify the church. Were their hearts set on this world or on Christ and heaven? Were they ready to turn away from their worldly ambitions and welcome the advent of their Lord? 5TC 207.2

The disappointment would also test the hearts of those who had claimed to receive the warning. Would they rashly give up their experience and throw away their confidence in God's Word when called to endure the scorn of the world and the test of delay and disappointment? Because they did not immediately understand God's dealings, would they reject truths that the clear testimony of His Word upheld? 5TC 207.3

This test would teach them the danger of accepting human interpretations instead of making the Bible its own interpreter. It would lead the children of faith to a closer study of the Word, to examine the foundation of their faith more carefully and to reject everything, no matter how widely accepted by the Christian world, that was not based on Scripture. 5TC 207.4

The things that seemed dark in the hour of trial would later be made plain. Despite the ordeal resulting from their errors, they would learn by a blessed experience that the Lord is “very compassionate and merciful,” and that all His paths “are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies” (James 5:11; Psalm 25:10). 5TC 207.5