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Love for Christ’s Coming
203
Go home and read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and you will be
convinced that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
He went home and read the scripture. How perfectly it had been
fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Were the words of the Christian true?
The boy asked of his father an explanation of the prophecy but was
met with silence so stern that he never again dared to refer to the
subject.
When only eleven years old, he went out into the world to gain
an education, to choose his religion and his lifework. Alone and
penniless, he had to make his own way. He studied diligently,
maintaining himself by teaching Hebrew. He was led to accept the
Romish faith and went to pursue his studies in the College of the
Propaganda at Rome. Here he openly attacked the abuses of the
church and urged reform. After a time, he was removed. It became
evident that he could never be brought to submit to the bondage of
Romanism. He was declared incorrigible and left to go where he
pleased. He made his way to England and united with the English
Church. After two years’ study he set out in 1821 upon his mission.
Wolff saw that the prophecies bring to view Christ’s second
advent with power and glory. While he sought to lead his people to
Jesus of Nazareth as the Promised One, to point them to His first
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coming as a sacrifice for sin, he taught them also of His second
coming.
Wolff believed the coming of the Lord to be at hand. His inter-
pretation of the prophetic periods placed it within a few years of the
time pointed out by Miller. “Did our Lord ... 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 the summer by the fig tree
putting forth its leaves? Enough ... shall be known by the signs of
the times, to induce us to prepare for His coming, as Noah prepared
the ark.
Against Popular Interpretations
Concerning the popular system of interpreting the Scriptures,
Wolff wrote: “The greater part of the Christian church have swerved
1
Travels and Adventures of the Rev. Joseph Wolff, vol. 1, pp. 6, 7.
2
Joseph Wolff, Researches and Missionary Labors, pp. 404, 405.