The Abiding Gift of Prophecy

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Section Five: The Remnant Hour

Chapter 24—Gift Renewed in the Remnant Church

The passing of the time of expectation, in 1844, left many thousands of God’s faithful believers in the second advent in bitter disappointment and bewilderment. The very word of God itself seemed to have failed, and the foundations of their faith to have crumbled. Many of the advent host yielded to the seemingly logical conclusion that the rising of the sun on the morning of October 23—the day following the great disappointment—constituted unmistakable witness to the error of their prophetic calculations. Such soon renounced the entire movement as having been a fanatical delusion. Many who speak or write of that amazing experience are wont to impugn the sincerity or the sanity of those who, they aver, were so easily duped by fanatical teachers. AGP 253.1

But this is not a necessary conclusion. The student of Scripture will readily recognize that in the past God’s people have repeatedly been disappointed in their expectations,—just because they have misunderstood God’s providences. Many times they have been perplexed and discouraged, and often have passed through strange experiences,—all because of the failure of some hope based upon faulty understanding of the prophetic word. Some have even been perplexed by the direct word of the Lord. AGP 253.2

By the command of the Lord, the prophet Jonah had warned the inhabitants of Nineveh that their great city would be destroyed in forty days. When the allotted time passed and no destruction came, the prophet was grievously perplexed. So great was his humiliation and confusion that he prayed: “O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:3. But the Lord did not leave him in darkness. He led him into an understanding of the secret of the divine providence that had in mercy spared the repentant sinners. AGP 253.3

Again, picture the terrible sorrow and disappointment that came to the disciples of Christ when their Lord was actually crucified and buried, when they had fondly expected Him to AGP 253.4

ascend the throne. With blasted hopes they “communed together and reasoned” concerning the strange events that had taken place,—events so different from what they had hoped and had looked for. Luke 24:15. “We trusted,” said they, “that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” Verse 21. AGP 254.1

But in pitying love the risen Saviour appeared to them, and so clearly opened the Scriptures that they at last understood that in harmony with all prophecy Christ ought “to have suffered these things.” Still, they did not see things plainly, for a few days later as they communed with Jesus, “they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6. Only when He had opened “their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45), did they see for the first time that it had not been His purpose at that time to take the throne of His earthly kingdom. AGP 254.2