The Clearest Signs of the Second Coming

On what basis can we be sure that Jesus is coming soon?

Russians and Eastern Europeans crowd former Communist halls to hear the third angel’s message.

Time magazine reveals that Reagan and the Pope collaborated to bring down the communist government of Poland and, thereby, the Soviet Union.

Desert Storm demonstrates that for now there is only one superpower.

As such amazing things begin to come to pass, many Seventh-day Adventists lift up their heads and relish a new confidence in Matthew 24 and Revelation 13. Yes, they say, the gospel is about to finish its expansion into every nation. Yes, the United States will soon persuade the world to worship the beast.

The end cannot come till the “gospel of the kingdom” has been preached in all the world. The gospel of the kingdom is the gospel of the King’s grace and of our loyalty to His royal rules. So it is the gospel of God’s law written on our hearts as well as of our sins being forgiven. It is the gospel of commandment keeping as well as of faith in Jesus—the gospel of commandment keeping by faith in Jesus. It is the gospel of the three angels’ messages, preached in the setting of earth’s judgment hour. And it must be preached in all the world.

All of this being so, major developments that make possible the proclamation of the true gospel in formerly closed areas are portentous indeed. For we know that the second coming “will not tarry past the time that the message is borne to all nations, tongues, and peoples” (Evangelism, p. 697 [Review and Herald, June 18, 1901]).

However, whether the current exciting headlines mean that Christ is coming right away we cannot say with certainty. “We are not to live upon time excitement. . . . You will not be able to say that He will come in one, two, or five years, neither are you to put off His coming by stating that it may not be for ten or twenty years” (Selected Messages, 1:189).

If thousands of Russians are opening their hearts to Christianity today, we may remember that before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the entire country of Russia was described as a Christian nation.

If America is the principal world power at the present time, we should not forget that she was regarded as the principal world power once before, at the close of World War II, and that between then and now her power was smartly challenged. The USA may experience further ups and downs before the final showdown.

Jesus seemed more concerned to warn us not to be deceived by signs than to give us very many of them.

On the Mount of Olives, on the Tuesday night before His crucifixion, Jesus warned four of His disciples (and through them warned us today as well) not to put too much confidence in headlines. In reference to such things He said, “The end is not yet.” Indeed, Jesus seemed more concerned to warn us not to be deceived by signs than to give us very many of them. “Take heed that no one leads you astray,” He urged (Matt 24:4, RSV).

Yet Scripture does provide unimpeachable evidence that we are indeed living in the end time. This evidence lies in events sometimes overlooked nowadays but singularly significant nonetheless: the close of the 1260 days of Daniel and Revelation, the earthquake, dark day, and star shower of Matthew 24 and Revelation 6, and the 1844 entrance of Christ into the most holy place foreseen in Daniel 7 and 8.

We won’t have space to take a fresh look at the 1260 days, but in this article we will take a new look at 1844 first and then at the famous natural phenomena.

THE 1844 EVENT

What Really Happened?
When skeptics ask, “What on earth happened in 1844 to fulfill Daniel 8:14?” the correct response is, “Nothing at all! Daniel 8:14 speaks of a heavenly event.”

And what happened in heaven at the close of the 2300 days is most clearly described not in the symbolic words of Daniel 8:14 but in the vivid language of its parallel passage, Daniel 7:9–14.

Daniel 7:9–14 RSV states in plain ordinary language, “As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; . . . his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. . . . A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set [KJV], and the books were opened.”

In this experience, Daniel’s attention was drawn away from the four beasts that had risen out of the sea to a new event developing in heaven. There he saw God’s glorious throne installed in a new place and other thrones being grouped around it. He saw heavenly beings by the million, no doubt singing God’s praises as described in Revelation 4 and 5. Daniel also saw record books being opened and observed that “the judgment was set.”

But the judgment could not begin!

Why not?

Because the Son of man had not yet arrived; and the Bible says (in John 5:22) that “the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”

The judgment process was not long delayed. Daniel continues, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days” (Dan 7:13).

When the Son arrived, the judgment began—and the first angel of Revelation 14:6, 7 emitted a triumphant yell, “The hour of His judgment has come.”

The hour of His judgment had come. We call it the first phase of the final judgment. And if, indeed, the investigative judgment is the first phase of the final judgment, then the final judgment had begun.

This is part of the stupendous significance of 1844. In that year the final judgment began. And if in our day the final judgment has already been underway for nearly 150 years, we know for sure that we are living in the end time.

Magnificence.

But let us dwell a moment on the magnificence of the 1844 event. Doing so can help us savor its significance realistically.

But how are we to visualize the 1844 event?

Are we, perhaps, to picture Jesus ministering in a 30-foot “holy place” until 1844, then drawing an embroidered curtain aside and taking a few steps west into the most holy place? Or should we visualize an episode far more dramatic?

Our passage says that the Son of man journeyed to the judgment “on the clouds of heaven.”

The same words about the Son of man on the clouds of heaven are used to describe the second coming in Matthew 24:30; and very similar words are used for Christ’s ascent into heaven (Luke 24:50–51; Acts 1:9) after His resurrection. When Seventh-day Adventists read what the Bible says about Christ’s ascension and about His second coming, we believe it to describe dramatic literal events.

Remember Luke 24:50–51, “He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them.” And Acts 1:9, “As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

Christ the Lord, all power possessing,
Parting, mounted heaven’s height,
Gracious hands outstretched in blessing,
Clouds received him from their sight.
Christ ascended on the clouds.

We believe that Christ did ascend on the clouds, literally, personally, visibly. And we believe that He will return on the clouds, literally, personally, visibly.

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, . . . and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him” (Rev 1:7).
“The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. . . . Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:16–17).

Revelation’s word fulfilling,
Trumpet, voices pierce the air.
Saint and sinner, fainting, thrilling,
Every eye beholds Him there.
Christ is coming on the clouds.

So we look again at the judgment scene in Daniel 7. After describing the arrival of the Ancient of Days and the gathering of myriads of heavenly beings, the opening of the books, and the setting up of the judgment, the passage continues by saying,

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him” (verse 13).

Daniel views earth’s judgment hour,
Angels gathering, open books;
God enthroned in flaming power
For His Son’s arrival looks.
Christ approaches on the clouds.

Poem by C. Mervyn Maxwell, set to a familiar hymn tune in the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, No. 415. —Editor

Judgment Scene.

Visualize the event. Take into account what you know about heaven and God’s throne and about the antiphonal drama at Christ’s victorious ascent to the holy city after His resurrection. Visualize millions of angels. Listen to their gorgeous harmonies. The mellow sound of multiple harps. The electrifying fanfares of silver trumpets. The pageantry of the Father’s advent on His flame-wheeled throne. His entourage of seraphim and cherubim, installed with joyful solemnity, solemn joy, on all their thrones. The opening of the books.

The court is ready. The judgment is set. But the process cannot begin, because the delegated Judge has not yet put in His appearance.

“The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”

And right on time the cry erupts from every throat, “There He is!”

The trumpeters at God’s side discharge a welcoming fanfare. An answering fanfare sails downward from the clouds. The angels beside the throne burst forth in rapturous melody, and the angels in the clouds respond antiphonally. And the entire universe—all of it with the exception of sinful man—comes alive, echoing and reechoing and resonating with a rhapsody of mellifluous worship. The Son of man is arriving at last to reverse the judgments of human tribunals (see *The Great Controversy, p. 650), to vindicate once and for all His victorious but downtrodden saints.

Such an event deserves retelling again and again; yet Seventh-day Adventists are the only people who

It is the most momentous of all the events which teach us the nearness of the end.

proclaim it. What a pity! May God find us faithful in talking about it and telling it eagerly to the whole world.

It is the most momentous of all the events which teach us the nearness of the end, for it provides evidence that the final judgment has already begun. It is one of the clearest signs of the second coming.

Adventist Leaders and 1844.

Daniel viewed the 1844 event from the “camera angle” of the most holy place. In early 1845, however, Ellen White saw it from the viewpoint of the holy place.

“I saw a throne,” she wrote after her vision of it, “and on it sat the Father and the Son. . . . I saw the Father rise from the throne, and in a flaming chariot go into the holy of holies within the veil, and sit down. Then Jesus rose up from the throne.
. . . Then a cloudy chariot, with wheels like flaming fire, surrounded by angels, came to where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat” (Early Writings, pp. 54–55).

That both Father and Son moved from one part of heaven (“the holy place”) to another part of heaven (“the most holy place”) in 1844 continued to be taught faithfully by leading Seventh-day Adventists for over a hundred years.

Lend your ear to Joseph Bates, one of our foremost “founders.” In An Explanation of the Typical and Anti-Typical Sanctuary (New Bedford, 1850), p. 10, he reminded his readers that he had “already adduced the proof that Jesus was sitting with his Father on his throne in the Holy, where the seven lamps of fire were. Then at the appointed time, 2300 days, the Ancient of Days moves in something that has wheels burning like fire, with thousands of angels in attendance. Then one like the Son of Man is brought near before him,” 13th verse . . . . How evident that both Father and Son here left their throne in the Holy and moved into the Most Holy, in accordance also with, and close of, the message of the flying angel in Rev. xiv. 6, 7, to sit in judgment.”

Uriah Smith edited the Review during most of the first half century of its existence. In The Sanctuary and the Twenty-three Hundred Days of Daniel VIII. 14 (Battle Creek, 1877), pp. 235–236, he said, “We have seen Christ on the throne with the Father in the holy place. But we have seen the Father changing his position and opening a new scene, a scene of judgment. To do this, he must first move to the place where this scene is to transpire. Then Christ . . . is escorted by a multitude of heavenly beings . . . into the presence of the Ancient of days in his new position, according to Dan 7:13.”

A leading soul winner, adviser, and conference president for well over fifty years, Stephen N. Haskell also spoke of the movement of Father and Son in 1844. In The Cross and Its Shadow (South Lancaster, 1914), pp. 212–214, he reviewed how “Daniel beheld the Father’s throne changed from the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary to the second.” But something was “lacking yet. Daniel’s attention,” Haskell went on, was “now attracted to the ‘clouds of heaven’—myriads of angels—bearing the Saviour in before the Father in triumph.” Haskell explained: “In heaven the throne of God was in the first apartment when Christ ascended and sat at the right hand of His Father,” but moved from the first to the second apartment in 1844.

And we could cite similar expressions from W. A. Spicer, our best-loved-ever General Conference president (1922–1930), in Our Day in the Light of Prophecy (Mountain View, 1918) pp. 216–217; and from General Conference president (1950–1954) W. H. Branson, in his powerful Drama of the Ages (Takoma Park, 1950), p. 336 (p. 296 in the popular compact 1953 printing).

Seventh-day Adventists rightly believe that in 1844 Father and Son moved from one part of heaven to another to mark the commencement of the final judgment. 1844 means that we are today living in the end time. It is the greatest evidence of all that the second coming is near.

And if the 148 years that have already elapsed since 1844 seem to constitute a very distant “near,” we have lost our sense of proportion. Of the 6000 years of human history delineated so far by Scripture, the period since 1844 represents less than one fortieth, less than 2.5%. If the 1844 event was one of the clearest signs to our pioneers that Christ was coming soon, it is even more so to us, inasmuch we are today nearly 150 years closer to the end.

1844 and “Seventh-day Adventist.”

Our review of what happened in 1844 helps enrich our understanding of our denominational title.

After our pioneers chose the name Seventh-day Adventist in the fall of 1860, Sister White expressed her inspired satisfaction.

The name “Seventh-day Adventist” she wrote, “carries the true features”—“the peculiar and prominent features”—“of our faith in front, and will convict inquiring minds” (Testimonies for the Church, 1:223, 224).

By “the true” “peculiar and prominent features of our faith,” she said she had in mind “the observance of the seventh day, and waiting for the appearing of our Lord from Heaven.” Thus today we often say that a “Seventh-day Adventist” is a person who keeps the seventh-day as the Sabbath and believes that Christ is coming soon.

But as we are now prepared to realize, when the name was originally coined, back when Ellen G. White was so pleased with it, it meant notably more than this. A Seventh-day Adventist in 1860 was a person who believed that Christ was coming soon because of the fulfillment of the 2300 days and who kept the seventh-day Sabbath because of the fulfillment of the 2300 days.

“Advent” and “Adventist.”

The word “advent” is based on a Latin word for arrival or coming. For most Protestant and Catholic Christians, Christ’s “advent” refers to His first coming, with intimations for a second coming some day. Denominations that follow the Ecclesiastical Year celebrate Advent, or Advent Season, for four weeks prior to Christmas. On Sundays during Advent they look at the Old Testament prophecies predicting the Messiah’s birth; and, depending on the minister’s personal preferences, they also refer more or less to prophecies about His future second advent.

In the 1830s, when William Miller began preaching the fulfillment of the 2300 days, he emphasized not the “advent” but the “second advent.” As his movement swelled in size and activity in the early 1840s, its camp meetings and other big rallies came to be known as “Second Advent” meetings. The movement itself became known as the Second Advent movement. And William Miller’s followers became known as Second Adventists.

But “Second Adventists” is a mouthful. And inasmuch as there were no First Adventists to occasion terminological confusion, people naturally fell into the habit of abbreviating the term to “Adventists.”

When our denominational paper first appeared in October 1850, its full name was The Second Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald. The first half of the name indicated that the editor, James White, planned to review week by week evidence that God had been at work in the Second Advent movement of 1840–1844. He wanted people to know that the Millerite Second Advent movement had been a fulfillment of prophecy. He especially wanted them to know that the prophecy of the 2300 days had ended in 1844, when Jesus and His Father moved into the most holy place, and that therefore Jesus was now calling attention to the Sabbath in a timely and urgent manner, so that all Adventists would start keeping it.

Thus, the name Seventh-day Adventist, when coined ten years after the birth of the Review and Herald, referred to the beliefs that Christ was coming soon in view of the fulfillment of the 2300 days and that the Sabbath should be observed in view of the fulfillment of the 2300 days in 1844.

We can speak more about the relationship of the Sabbath to 1844 in another issue of Adventists Affirm, but for now we want to remember the relationship of “Adventist” to 1844 and the momentous relationship of 1844 to the near return of Christ. For 1844 is one of the clearest signs that Christ is coming soon.

THE CLASSIC SIGNS

We indicated at the beginning of this article that after we’d taken a good look at 1844 as a stupendous “sign” proving that we are living in the last days, we would also take a new look—a fairly brief one—at the classic signs, the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, the dark day and bloody moon of May 19, 1780, and the falling of the stars on November 13, 1833. Like 1844, these events too need never be underrated as gateposts of the end time.

The fulfillment of these predictions as understood by early Adventists was fully justified.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days [the 1260 days, 538–1798],” said Jesus in Matthew 24:29-30, “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign [the arrival on clouds] of the Son of man in heaven.”

John, who was on the Mount of Olives that Tuesday night when Jesus spoke these words, said in Revelation 6:12-13, “When he opened the sixth seal [after the persecution of the fifth seal], I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth.”

The fulfillment of these predictions as understood by early Adventists was fully justified. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the dark day and blood-red moon of November 1780, and the Leonid meteor display of 1833 qualify as the signs that Jesus had in mind. Consider first—

1. Their magnitude.

Each of the events we have so often pointed to was notable in its own right. The Lisbon earthquake shook an unusually large portion of the earth’s surface, from North Africa (where it leveled twin cities some 500 miles south of Lisbon) to Scandinavia (where it altered the water level of lakes) to the coasts of North America (which it affected with a tidal wave). If Lisbon had been San Francisco, this earthquake would have destroyed Los Angeles as well as San Francisco and would have disturbed Hudson Bay in far-away northeastern Canada!

As recently as 1980, the widely respected seismologist G. A. Eiby, in chapter 11 of his Earthquakes (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company) ranked the Lisbon earthquake as “the largest shock ever” and reckoned that it may well have reached an almost incredible 9.0 on the Richter scale. In his chapter 20, “Some Famous Earthquakes,” Eiby returned to the theme, saying that the designation “largest known earthquake” is “usually accorded the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which possibly reached magnitude 9.”

“Magnitude 9” marks an intensity seven times more severe than that of the famous earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906.

Many eighteenth-century writers (Dr. Dan Augsburger tells us) saw the Lisbon quake as ending an era of optimism. In 1955, on the two hundredth anniversary of the traumatic tremor, Sir Thomas Kendrick, Director of the great British Museum, assembled impressive data to prove that by opening an era of gloom it paved the way for the French Revolution, which in turn opened a new era in human destiny.

Though there have been other dark days, the Dark Day of May 19, 1780 has not been equaled in North America in the 200 years that have since come and gone. The Leonid shower of November 13, 1833 — when, from Mid-Atlantic to California 60,000 meteors were seen falling every hour, many exploding noiselessly into sub-showers of stars, as the vast shimmering spectacle sailed silently westward — launched a new branch of astronomy, and it too has not been matched, in spite of scientific expectations that it would be. The 1966 shower, though perhaps as brilliant while it lasted, was much shorter in duration and was visible over a much smaller area (a portion of the American southwest).

Our events were noteworthy. Consider too—

2. Their location.

Our events occurred in Europe and North America primarily, where people were studying the Bible and pondering the prophecies. They happened where people were prepared to perceive their importance, and where communication could take place. A dark day over the Sahara or in New Guinea would have said little in those days about the second coming of Christ to cannibal headhunters or Moslem nomads.

Events need not be universal to deliver a global message.

Events need not be universal to deliver a global message. A few square miles at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sufficient to announce the atomic age. A stable in Bethlehem ushered in the Christian era. Only a few hundred people saw Jesus after His resurrection — but they told others.

Some years ago a news magazine told of a train that tooted its horn regularly and rapidly as it approached a crowded station at the end of the line. The waiting passengers paid little if any attention. A few railroad personnel, however, recognized the sound as a signal — a “sign” — that the train’s brakes had failed. At once they ordered everyone off the platform and out of the waiting rooms. The train plowed into the platform and ground to a halt. Equipment was damaged, but no one was hurt — because a few people understood the “sign” and interpreted it to others.

Because our end-time phenomena occurred where they did, some people likewise understood them and passed the meaning on. That was enough. But consider further—

3. Their timing.

Jesus said that the sun and moon would be darkened and the stars would fall “immediately after the tribulation of those days [the 1260 days].” And so they were, right on time. The last overt European persecution of Protestants is said to have occurred in 1762. Jesus also promised, “Then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, . . . and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt 24:30).

Within a few years of the 1833 star shower Jesus fulfilled (as we have seen) one of the most notable of all Bible prophecies. In 1844, at the close of the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14, He traveled as Son of Man on the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days to initiate the final judgment. Ever since, He has been expanding the proclamation of the gospel toward His goal of reaching every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. Here is the true underlying cause for the current success of the third angel’s message in the former Soviet Union.

When the gospel has been preached throughout the whole world, “then the end will come.”

When the gospel—the true gospel of the kingdom—has been preached throughout the whole world, “then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). The spectacular events predicted for the earth and for the sun, moon, and stars have done double duty as signs. They have witnessed clearly to the coming of the Son of Man in judgment as well as to the general nearness of His coming as Son of Man at the second advent.

And if all this is true, if we are indeed living in the judgment hour which is also the antitypical Day of Atonement, how earnest should be our behavior in preparation for the appearance at its close of the King of kings.

“We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life, should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away” (The Great Controversy, pp. 489, 490).

The major earthquake, the unique dark day, and the spectacular star shower foreseen in prophecy have taken place. The final judgment has begun. The greatest signs that we are living in the end time, foretold in Scripture, have already been fulfilled! May God help us live in harmony with so momentous a truth.