The Original Advent Faith

Many who embraced the third message had not had an experience in the two former messages. Satan understood this, and his evil eye was upon them to overthrow them; but the third angel was pointing them to the most holy place, and those who had had an experience in the past messages were pointing them the way to the heavenly sanctuary. Many saw the perfect chain of truth in the angels’ messages, and gladly received them in their order, and followed Jesus by faith into the heavenly sanctuary. These messages were represented to me as an anchor to the people of God. Those who understand and receive them WILL BE KEPT from being swept away by the many delusions of Satan. EW 256.2

Jeremiah 6:16 KJV

[16] Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

The above is a command from the LORD. Will we obey?

Why did God give this command?

Jeremiah 18:15 KJV

[15] Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;

Have we forgotten God? Do we burn incense (pray) to vanity? Have we stumble away from the ancient (old) paths to walk is a way not cast up? The answer is yes to all of the above. At the end of the world we don’t know what it is to have the experience of the first and second angel messages. And we can only understand it from those who have had that experience.

The following is an explanation of that experience. Read prayerfully and make the necessary changes that you may be a part of the Original Advent Faith.

JWe

“Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1852.

“Call to Remembrance the Former Days.” ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.1

It is good to obey this injunction of the Apostle, and call to remembrance past experience in the Advent cause. Those who believe it to be the cause of God, should not reject the means that has made it a separate cause. Those who talk much of standing on the “original faith,” should be the last to trample under-foot that faith they have boldly defended, at the origin of the Advent cause. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.2

The original Advent faith is not merely to believe in the literal coming of Christ, the resurrection and the restitution of all things at some future period, of which we can know but little or nothing about. Thousands believed all this, and believe it still, who are not, and have not been, connected with the Advent cause. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.3

We say that the original faith is that which has made us a separate people. If we had never heard the judgment hour cry, which was based on definite time, we never should have been led to bear a testimony which, being rejected by our own brethren, made it necessary for us to separate from the churches. If the Advent people had closed their ears to the cry of the second angel, [Revelation 14:8,] they would, as a general thing, have remained in the churches to this day and would now be Baptists, Methodists, Christians, etc. And where would be the Advent cause, as it is called by some who reject the very means that has made it a separate cause? It would not be in existence. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.4

That this may appear in its true light, please look at those Ministers and church members who went with us till the cry “Babylon is fallen” was given, or to those who have since returned to the churches. Some of them may take an Advent paper, but who believes they stand on the original Advent faith? No one. They have lost their faith, and now perhaps, preach, or hear those preach who teach the world’s conversion prior to the Second Advent. And if the Advent people who are now a separate people, had not heeded the cry of the second angel, but had remained in the different churches they would, probably, have no more interest in the coming of the Lord, than those now have who staid in the churches. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.5

We say that the Advent cause owes its very existence to the first and second angel’s messages of Revelation 14. Then why talk of the Advent cause being the cause of God, and at the same time call the means that gave it birth a mistake, some say, a lie, false excitement, or the work of man. Such had better, like consistent, honest men, retrace their steps, and go back to their former brethren in the churches, who were not led to take those steps in the Advent cause, which they attribute to an evil influence. We think that such a course would look far more consistent, and be less displeasing to God, than to profess great interest in the Advent cause, and at the same time trample down the very means that has given it an existence. “I would,” says the True Witness to the Laodicean church, “thou wert cold or hot,” Revelation 3:15. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.6

The following letter will show the position of the Editor of the “Advent Herald” in 1844, who was one of the last to speak in defence of the work of the second angel’s message. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.7

From the Advent Herald. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.8

Editorial Correspondence. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.9

SEPARATION FROM THE CHURCHES

JWe

When we commenced the work of giving the “Midnight cry” with Bro. Miller in 1840, he had been lecturing nine years. During that time he stood almost alone. But his labors have been incessant, and effectual, in awakening professors of religion to the true hope of God’s people, and the necessary preparation for the advent of the Lord: as also the awakening of all classes of the unconverted to a sense of their lost condition, and the duty of immediate repentance and conversion to God as a preparation to meet the Bridegroom in peace at his coming. Those were the great objects of his labor. He made no attempt to convert men to a sect, or party, in religion. Hence he labored among all parties and sects, without interfering with their organizations or discipline; believing that the members of the different communions could retain their standing, and at the same time prepare for the advent of their King, and labor for the salvation of men in these relations until the consummation of their hope. When we were persuaded of the truth of the advent at hand, and embraced the doctrine publicly, we entertained the same views, and pursued the same course among the different sects, where we were called in the providence of God to labor. We told the ministers and churches that it was no part of our business to break them up, or to divide and distract them. We had one distinct object, and that was to give the “cry,” the warning of the judgment “at the door,” and persuade our fellow-men to get ready for the event. Most of the ministers and churches that opened their doors to us, and our brethren who were proclaiming the Advent doctrine, co-operated with us until the last year. The ministry and membership who availed themselves of our labors, but had not sincerely embraced the doctrine, saw that they must either go with the doctrine, and preach and maintain it, or in the crisis which was right upon them they would have difficulty with the decided and determined believers. They therefore decided against the doctrine, and determined, some by one policy and some by another, to suppress the subject. This placed our brethren and sisters among them in a most trying position. Most of them loved their churches, and could not think of leaving. But when they were ridiculed, oppressed, and in various ways cut off from their former privileges and enjoyments, and when the “meat in due season” was withheld from them, and the syren song of “peace and safety” was resounded in their ears from Sabbath to Sabbath, they were soon weaned from their party predilections, and arose in the majesty of their strength, shook off the yoke, and raised the cry, “come out of her, my people.” This state of things placed us in a trying position. 1. Because we were near the end of our prophetic time, in which we expected the Lord would gather all his people in one. 2. We had always preached a different doctrine, and now that the circumstances had changed, it would be regarded as dishonest in us, if we should unite in the cry of separation, and breaking up of churches that had received us and our message. We therefore hesitated, and continued to act on our first position, until the church and ministry carried the matter so far, that we were obliged in the fear of God to take a position of defence for the truth, and the down-trodden children of God. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.10

Apostolic Example For Our Course. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.11

“And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and BELIEVED NOT**, BUT SPAKE EVIL OF THAT WAY BEFORE THE MULTITUDE, he departed from them, and SEPARATED the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.” Acts 19:8, 9. It was not until divers were hardened, and spake evil of that way (the Lord’s coming) before the multitude, that the brethren were moved to come out, and separate from the churches. They could not endure this “evil speaking” of the “evil servants.” And the churches that could pursue the course of oppression and “evil speaking” towards those who were looking for “the blessed hope,” were to them none other than the daughters of the mystic Babylon. They so proclaimed them, and came into the liberty of the gospel. And though we may not be all agreed as to what constitutes Babylon, we are agreed in the instant and final separation from all who oppose the doctrine of the coming and kingdom of God at hand. We believe it to be a case of life and death. It is death to remain connected with those bodies that speak lightly of, or oppose, the coming of the Lord. It is life to come out from all human tradition, and stand upon the word of God and look daily for the appearance of the Lord. We therefore now say to all who are in any way entangled in the yoke of bondage, “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18. ARSH January 13, 1852, page 76.12

J. V. HIMES.

McConnellville, O., Aug. 29, 1844.