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be brought to submit to the bondage of Romanism. He was declared to
be incorrigible, and was left at liberty to go where he pleased. He now
made his way to England, and, professing the Protestant faith, united
with the English Church. After two years’ study he set out, in 1821,
upon his mission.
While Wolff accepted the great truth of Christ’s first advent as “a
man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” he saw that the prophecies
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bring to view with equal clearness his second advent with power and
glory. And while he sought to lead his people to Jesus of Nazareth as
the Promised One, and to point them to his first coming in humiliation
as a sacrifice for the sins of men, he taught them also of his second
coming as a king and deliverer.
“Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah,” he said, “whose hands and
feet were pierced, who was brought like a lamb to the slaughter, who
was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who after the scepter
was taken from Judah, and the legislative power from between his
feet, came the first time, shall come the second time in the clouds of
heaven, and with the trump of the archangel,” and “shall stand upon
the Mount of Olives. And that dominion once consigned to Adam
over the creation and forfeited by him (
Genesis 1:26
;
3:17
) shall be
given to Jesus. He shall be king over all the earth. The groanings
and lamentations of the creation shall cease, but songs of praise and
thanksgiving shall be heard.” “When Jesus comes in the glory of his
Father with the holy angels,” “the dead believers shall rise first.
1
Thessalonians 4:16
;
1 Corinthians 15:23
. This is what we Christians
call the first resurrection. Then the animal kingdom shall change its
nature (
Isaiah 11:6-9
), and shall be subdued unto Jesus.
Psalm 8
.
Universal peace shall prevail.” “The Lord again shall look down upon
the earth, and say, ‘Behold, it is very good.’”
Wolff believed the coming of the Lord to be at hand, his interpre-
tation of the prophetic periods placing the great consummation within
a very few years of the time pointed out by Miller. To those who
urged from the scripture, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man,”
that men are to know nothing concerning the nearness of the advent,
Wolff replied: “Did our Lord say that the day and hour should never
be known? Did he not give us signs of the times, in order that we may
know at least the approach of his coming, as one knows the approach
of summer by the fig-tree putting forth its leaves? Are we never to
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