Great Religious Awakening
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The apostle Paul warned the church not to look for the coming
of Christ in his day. “That day shall not come,” he says, “except
there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” [
2
Thessalonians 2:3
.] Not till after the great apostasy, and the long period
of the reign of the “man of sin,” can we look for the advent of our Lord.
The “man of sin,” which is also styled the “mystery of iniquity,” the
“son of perdition,” and “that wicked,” represents the papacy, which, as
foretold in prophecy, was to maintain its supremacy for 1260 years.
This period ended in 1798. The coming of Christ could not take
place before that time. Paul covers with his caution the whole of the
Christian dispensation down to the year 1798. It is this side of that
time that the message of Christ’s second coming is to be proclaimed.
No such message has ever been given in past ages. Paul, as we
have seen, did not preach it; he pointed his brethren into the then
far-distant future for the coming of the Lord. The reformers did not
proclaim it. Martin Luther placed the Judgment about three hundred
years in the future from his day. But since 1798 the book of Daniel
has been unsealed, knowledge of the prophecies has increased, and
many have proclaimed the solemn message of the Judgment near.
Like the great Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Advent
movement appeared in the different countries of Christendom at the
[357]
same time. In both Europe and America, men of faith and prayer
were led to the study of the prophecies, and, tracing down the inspired
record, they saw convincing evidence that the end of all things was
at hand. In different lands there were isolated bodies of Christians,
who, solely by the study of the Scriptures, arrived at the belief that the
Saviour’s advent was near.
In 1821, three years after Miller had arrived at his exposition of the
prophecies pointing to the time of the judgment, Dr. Joseph Wolff, “the
missionary to the world,” began to proclaim the Lord’s soon coming.
Wolff was born in Germany, of Hebrew parentage, his father being a
Jewish Rabbi. While very young he was convinced of the truth of the
Christian religion. Of an active, inquiring mind, he had been an eager
listener to the conversations that took place in his father’s house, as
devout Hebrews daily assembled to recount the hopes and anticipations
of their people, the glory of the coming Messiah, and the restoration of
Israel. One day hearing Jesus of Nazareth mentioned, the boy inquired
who he was. “A man of the greatest talent,” was the answer; “but