I believe our turn from hope to fear can be traced right back to


the Great Disappointment. Such great expectations dashed! What had gotten them to 1844 was symbol interpretation and biblical algebra, but they had only brushed the surface of the prophecies, and there were so many more secrets to unpack! If Jesus didn’t return, perhaps it was because they hadn’t yet figured out the rest of the formulas. It turned the Millerites from joyful believers into secret decoders. As for Titus 2, the focus for the pioneers now seemed to


move from verse 13—“that blessed hope”—to verse 14 and an expectation that Christ would “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (KJV).


Our turn from hope to fear can be traced right back to the Great Disappointment.


Many contributed to the effort, but two individuals are most


responsible for creating the Adventist eschatology that has persisted to this day: Uriah Smith and Ellen White. Uriah Smith’s Toughts on Daniel and the Revelation, which


synthesized ideas already present among the pioneers and added a few quirky ones of his own, was the church’s first prophetic roadmap. It was Smith (brother of the hymn-writing Adventist pioneer Annie Smith) who gathered the pieces of what we now call historicist interpretation, or assigning prophetic symbols to periods or characters in history. Many of Uriah Smith’s ideas have aged poorly, such as that the


nation of Turkey would be a major player in end-time events as the King of the North. Most seem contrived, as when Smith chose his starting dates by working backward from key historical events that he considered prophetic fulfillments. He started with a conclusion that the French Revolution was the terminus of the 1,260-year prophecy, which he speculated made the baptism of Clovis its starting point.2 He also gathered in one place the many terrifying predictions


that focused on Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath-keepers, notably persecution by the United States government under the impetus of the papacy. While some modern Daniel or Revelation scholars ignore Smith, few directly contradict him. Tat’s because Ellen


42 AD VENTIS T T OD A Y


White endorsed Smith’s schema: “Daniel and the Revelation … speaks of past, present, and future, laying out the path so plainly that none need err therein.”3 White’s own magnum opus, Te Great Controversy, tracked


closely with Smith’s, but with even more dire and frightening warnings for Sabbath-keepers. While Daniel and Revelation is dense and overwrought, Te Great Controversy is passionate and personal. Religious liberty will soon be taken away, she says. Adventists are the only ones with the truth, a truth that makes them God’s peculiar people but also sets them up to be persecuted under the pretense of Sunday observance. It is essential to say that virtually none of the predictions in


this cruel, conspiratorial narrative have happened. To his credit, William Miller rejected all explanations for those ideas. “Desire for the Lord’s coming and preparation for that event are acceptable to Him,” wrote Miller. But he added, “I have no confidence in any of the new theories that have grown out of that movement.”4


A New Universe A refreshed Adventist church will return to the joyful anticipation of William Miller. We will replace the fearful predictions about Jesus’ return in favor of “that blessed hope” and leave it at that. Surely, all spiritual people—not just Christians but also Jews,


Muslims, and even some of the so-called non-theistic religions of the Far East—expect something to happen to them at death. I believe that aſter this lifetime of suffering and doubt and pain, we will be resurrected to something better. How nice for us! Yet, though we die, life on Earth goes on as


before—and even worse, perhaps. Our children, grandchildren, and on and on into the unknown future would still be beset by disease and war and difficulties of all kinds. Te environment will likely deteriorate. Someone will probably use atomic weapons against other nations. Unconquerable diseases will continue to decimate humankind. Most of us Christians still think in terms of personal salvation,


but the second coming of Christ offers believers something larger than that. When Jesus comes, this old Earth, with all of its problems, will be changed—in an eyeblink! Every past believer is redeemed to live on, but just as importantly, every future person will be born into a sinless universe. Paul affirms personal salvation, too: “We ourselves, who have


the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23, NIV). But not only individually do we need renewal. In Paul’s words, “the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (verse 22, NIV).


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