Question 12

The Adventist Pioneers understood the first two woes as being the work of Islam in this world. Why has this perception been lost and what are the consequences for us?

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In Revelation 10:4, you’ll find something that is sealed up. We’ve already established that Jesus illustrates the end from the beginning, and we gave a couple of arguments that Millerite history is repeated at the end of the world in the history of the 144,000. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, volume 7, 971 says this: “After these seven thunders uttered their voices, the injunction comes to John as to Daniel in regard to the little book: ‘Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered.’ These relate to future events which will be disclosed in their order. Daniel shall stand in his lot at the end of the days. John sees the little book unsealed. Then Daniel’s prophecies have their proper place in the first, second, and third angels’ messages to be given to the world. The unsealing of the little book was the message in relation to time.
“The books of Daniel and the Revelation are one. One is a prophecy, the other a revelation; one a book sealed, the other a book opened. John heard the mysteries which the thunders uttered, but he was commanded not to write them.
“The special light given to John which was expressed in the seven thunders was a delineation of events which would transpire under the first and second angels’ messages. It was not best for the people to know these things, for their faith must necessarily be tested. In the order of God most wonderful and advanced truths would be proclaimed. The first and second angels’ messages were to be proclaimed, but no further light was to be revealed before these messages had done their specific work. This is represented by the angel standing with one foot on the sea, proclaiming with a most solemn oath that time should be no longer.”
In Revelation 10:1-3 Christ, the mighty angel comes down out of Heaven with the little book of Daniel open in His hand. He puts one foot on the land and one foot on the sea and then in verse 3 cries as a lion cries, and when he does, then seven thunders uttered their voice. John was about to write what the seven thunders uttered, but then he is told to write them not, to seal them up.
Whatever the seven thunders represent, they there were sealed up. Sister White tells us that the seven thunders represent two things. One: “The special light given to John which was expressed in the seven thunders was a delineation of events which would transpire under the first and second angels’ messages.” She is saying the seven thunders represent the events that took place from 1798 to 1844, because that’s the history of the first and second angels’ messages. Two: “After the seven thunders uttered their voices, the injunction comes to John as to Daniel in regard to the little book: ‘Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered.’ These relate to future events which will be disclosed in their order.” She tells us, the seven thunders represent not only the Millerite history from 1798 to 1844, but also the history of the 144,000 at the end of the world.
In here she specifically compares the sealing up of the seven thunders as a parallel to the sealing up of the book of Daniel. And it was, when the book of Daniel was unsealed in 1798, that the increase of knowledge produced the experience of the Millerites. When she compares the sealing up of the seven thunders to the sealing up of the book of Daniel, she also compares the seven thunders to the history of the Millerites and the history at the end of the world, when the Millerite history is repeated. She is saying: At the end of the world, when the Millerite history is repeated, the seven thunders will be unsealed and it will parallel the unsealing of the book of Daniel for the Millerites.
In Revelation 22:11 it says: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still…” As Seventh-day Adventists we know that this verse is identifying the close of probation. In the verse right before verse 11, verse 10, it says: “And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.” Just before human probation closes, there comes a pronouncement that the time is at hand to unseal the prophecy in the book of Revelation that’s been sealed up. The prophecy in the book of Revelation that’s been sealed up (Revelation 10:4) is the seven thunders.
In several sacred histories the word of God has been sealed up to that generation. The Old Testament had been sealed up to the Jews. When Sister White comments on these times, when the Bible has been sealed up to men, she tells us what seals up those truths. We’ll read a couple of those impotenzastop.it. This is from Spalding and Magan, 58: “When Christ came to this earth, the traditions that had been handed down from generation to generation, and the human interpretation of the Scriptures, hid from men the truth as it is in Jesus. The truth was buried beneath a mass of tradition. The spiritual import of the sacred volumes was lost … But the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed. He opened the seal that closed the book of divine instruction.”
One more quote, Signs of the Times, May 17, 1905: “The scribes and Pharisees professed to explain the Scriptures, but they explained them in accordance with their own ideas and traditions. Their customs and maxims became more and more exacting. In its spiritual sense, the sacred Word became to the people as a sealed book closed to their comprehension.”
Let’s try to get back into your question about why this pioneer perception of the trumpets has been lost. If you look at the 1843 pioneer chart in the lower right hand corner, you see two horses with warriors on them. The horse on the top represents the fifth trumpet, Islam. The horse below it represents Islam of the sixth trumpet. The pioneers had a very distinct and accurate understanding of the trumpets of Revelation. When Sister White says “this chart was directed by the hand of the Lord and should not be altered”, this is one of nine specific quotes where she endorses the pioneer understanding of the trumpets. For instance, any Seventh-day Adventist that has read The Great Controversy, knows that she speaks about Josiah Litch’s prediction of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (The Great Controversy, 334). In The Great Controversy she says that when the Ottoman Empire collapsed, “The event exactly fulfilled the prediction.” That prediction was based upon the time prophecy in the sixth trumpet. When she is endorsing that understanding, she is endorsing the pioneer understanding of the trumpets.
Today the modern theologians of Adventism reject the pioneer understanding of the trumpets. The question is why? Well, the seven thunders were sealed up, and Sister White says the seven thunders represent the events that took place between 1798 and 1844. In other words, the history of the Millerites has been sealed up! But how was it sealed up? How was it that we no longer understand what the Millerites believed about prophecy? We just read how. Sister White tells us that at the different points in history, when biblical truth is sealed up to God’s people, it’s from the reception of “customs and traditions, that are handed down from generation to generation.”
Let me give you an example. Consider the book Thoughts on Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith. There are some conclusions that Smith makes in there that I don’t agree with and I can explain why I think he missed on those couple of places, but in his book Smith defends Miller’s position on the daily. And in this book Smith endorses the pioneer understanding of the trumpets. In the early part of the 20th century, when the German leader Louis Conradi introduced the incorrect view of the daily, a few men accepted it from Conradi and began to push that we should accept the new view of the daily. Suddenly there was an argument about the daily. If you read when Sister White was speaking of that argument you’ll find several places where she says: “They wanted to change the books”, or sometimes when she was dealing with the men who wanted to change the books, she said, “Leave the books alone.” The book they want to change was Thoughts on Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith. They wanted to go into this book and remove Miller’s understanding of the daily and replace it with Conradi’s.
Most people in Adventism don’t have this book any more. Adventists in the United States usually have all the Spirit of Prophecy books, or many of them. They may never read them, but they have a lot of them in their book cases. This book is becoming more archaic, out of place, unacceptable, yet Sister White says every Seventh-day Adventist should own this book. She doesn’t say it that way. She says: “We should be giving this book out to our neighbors.” How can we give it to our neighbors if we don’t own it? But you know what she calls this book? “God’s helping hand” (Publishing Ministry, 356). The book endorses the pioneer position on the trumpets and daily. The reason that we no longer accept the pioneer position on the daily, or the trumpets, or the 2520 is, because those truths were established in the Millerite history from 1798 to 1844. But the history of 1798 to 1844 is represented as the seven thunders and the seven thunders were sealed up. This means we don’t understand them because we have received customs and traditions, which have been handed down from generation to generation. Praise the Lord, just before the close of probation, the book that’s sealed and the book of Revelation are going to be unsealed. Then the Lord is going to lead His people back to the foundations of Adventism and reacquaint them with these foundational truths.

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