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Preface
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consisted in not understanding what the sanctuary was and the nature
of its cleansing.”—Page 243
.
Almost immediately following the disappointment of October
22, many believers and ministers who had associated themselves
with the Advent message dropped away. Some of these joined
the movement largely from fear, and when the time of expectation
passed, they abandoned their hope and disappeared. Others were
swept into fanaticism. About half of the Adventist group clung
to their confidence that Christ would soon appear in the clouds of
heaven. In the experience of the derision and ridicule heaped upon
them by the world, they thought they saw evidences that the day of
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grace for the world had passed. These people believed firmly that the
return of the Lord was very near. But as the days moved into weeks
and the Lord did not appear, a division of opinion developed, and
this group divided. One part, numerically large, took the position
that prophecy was not fulfilled in 1844, and that there must have
been a mistake in reckoning the prophetic periods. They began to fix
their attention on some specific future date for the event. There were
others, a smaller group, the forefathers of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church, who were so certain of the evidences of the work of the
spirit of God in the great Advent awakening that to deny that the
movement was the work of the Lord would, they believed, do despite
to the spirit of grace. This they felt they could not do
.
A Vision Is Given to Ellen Harmon
The experience of this company of believers, and the work they
were to do, they found portrayed in the last verses of
Revelation 10
.
The Advent expectation was to be revived. God had led them. He
was still leading them. In their midst was a young woman, Ellen
Harmon by name, who in December, 1844, barely two months after
the disappointment, received a prophetic revelation from God. In
this vision the Lord portrayed to her the travels of the Advent people
to the New Jerusalem. While this vision did not explain the reason
for the Disappointment, which explanation could and did come from
Bible study, it gave them assurance that God was leading them and
would continue to lead them as they journeyed toward the heavenly
city
.