L esson 7 *May 11–17

Motivated by Hope

Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Matt.
24:27, 30, 31; 2 Pet. 1:19–21; Dan. 8:14; Dan. 9:20–27; Ezra 7:7–13.

Memory Text: “And it will be said in that day: ‘Behold, this is our
God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord;
we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation’ ”
(Isaiah 25:9, NKJV).

T
he second coming of Jesus is one of the central themes of
Scripture. It is a golden thread that runs through the Bible’s sacred
pages. One scholar has estimated that there are 1,845 references
to Christ’s second coming in the Old Testament. In the 260 chapters of
the New Testament, there are more than 300 references to the return of
Christ. One in every 25 verses mentions it. Twenty-three of the 27 New
Testament books refer to this great event.
After the Reformation in Europe foundered and was hampered by
divisions and strife, Protestantism took root in the New World, includ-
ing the United States, where many sought to pick up the mantle of truth,
including the truth about the Second Coming.
Among them was a Baptist farmer named William Miller. From his
study of the Bible, he believed that Jesus was coming soon, even in his
lifetime, and then began preaching that message. Miller started a move-
ment that, though facing a great disappointment, opened up to many
people Bible truths that remain relevant to this day.
In this week’s lesson, we will examine why the second coming of
Christ has filled the hearts of believers with joy through the centuries
and how we can be ready for that great event.

* Study this week’s lesson, based on chapters 18–21 of The Great Controversy,
to prepare for Sabbath, May 18.
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 S unday May 12

The Promise of His Return

The Protestant Reformers and the pilgrims who left from Holland
for the New World longed for the coming of Jesus. For them the second
coming of Christ was a joyous event that they eagerly anticipated.
John Wycliffe looked forward to the coming of Christ as the hope of
the church. Calvin spoke for all the Reformers when he talked of the
glo­rious return of Christ as “of all events most auspicious.” For faithful
men and women of God, the second coming of Christ was something
to be embraced, not something to be feared.

Read John 14:1–3, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, and Titus 2:11–14. Why

did these Bible passages give such hope to Christians through the
centuries?

It is easy to understand why a belief in the second coming of Christ

has brought such hope and joy to Bible-believing Christians. It points
forward to the end of sickness, suffering, and death. It ushers in the
end of poverty, injustice, and oppression. It anticipates the end of strife,
conflict, and war. It forecasts a future world of peace, happiness, and
enduring fellowship with Christ and the redeemed of all ages forever.
“The coming of the Lord has been in all ages the hope of His true fol-
lowers. The Saviour’s parting promise upon Olivet, that He would come
again, lighted up the future for His disciples, filling their hearts with
joy and hope that sorrow could not quench nor trials dim. Amid suffer-
ing and persecution, the ‘appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ’ was the ‘blessed hope.’ When the Thessalonian Christians
were filled with grief as they buried their loved ones, who had hoped to
live to witness the coming of the Lord, Paul, their teacher, pointed them
to the resurrection, to take place at the Saviour’s advent. Then the dead
in Christ should rise, and together with the living be caught up to meet
the Lord in the air. ‘And so,’ he said, ‘shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.’ 1 Thessalonians
4:16–18.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 302.

Why is the Second Coming so important to our faith? Especially

because we know that the dead sleep (see lesson 10), why does
this teaching take on such importance? Without it, why would
we be, as Paul said, in an utterly hopeless situation (see 1 Cor.
15:15–18)?

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 M onday May 13

Anticipating the Time

Although the Protestant Reformers believed in the literal, visible,
audible, and glorious return of Christ, gradually the understanding of
this biblical truth changed. Popular nineteenth-century preachers taught
that Christ would come to establish His kingdom on earth and usher
in 1,000 years of peace. This led to spiritual lethargy and an apathetic
commitment to spiritual values.
Similarly, Christ’s disciples misunderstood the nature of the Messiah’s
coming. They thought that He would come as a conquering general
who would break the yoke of Roman bondage, not One who would
deliver them from the condemnation and shackles of sin. Thus, they
failed to understand the manner of His coming.

Read Acts 1:9–11; Revelation 1:7; and Matthew 24:27, 30, 31. What
do these verses teach us about the manner of our Lord’s return?

When Christ came the first time as a babe in Bethlehem’s manger,

very few people discerned His coming. But when He comes the second
time, “every eye” will see Him come. Every ear will hear the trumpet
blast of His return. Every human being on earth will behold His glory.
We need not be deceived. The Scriptures have made the events sur-
rounding His return abundantly clear.
“One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the
Bible is that of Christ’s second coming to complete the great work of
redemption. To God’s pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in ‘the region
and shadow of death,’ a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the prom-
ise of His appearing, who is ‘the resurrection and the life,’ to ‘bring home
again His banished.’ The doctrine of the second advent is the very keynote
of the Sacred Scriptures. From the day when the first pair turned their
sorrow­ing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming
of the Promised One to break the destroyer’s power and bring them again to
the lost Paradise.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 299.
An early Adventist leader, Luther Warren, used to tell young people,
“The only way to be ready for the coming of Christ is to get ready and
stay ready.” The message of Christ’s soon return is an urgent appeal to
each one of us to examine our hearts and evaluate our spiritual lives. It
is a call to godly living. There can be no neutrality in the blazing light
of the glory of Christ’s return.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:2–5 and Hebrews 9:28. What encouragement

do these verses give us regarding the manner of Christ’s coming?

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 T uesday May 14

William Miller and the Bible

Just as God used the Protestant Reformers to rediscover the truth
about justification by faith in Christ alone, He used William Miller to
rediscover the truth about the manner of Christ’s second coming. As
Miller studied Scripture, he discovered a Christ who loved him more
than he could possibly imagine. With his Bible, a pen, and a notebook,
he began reading starting with Genesis and read no faster than he could
understand the passage at hand. By comparing scripture with scripture,
he allowed the Bible to explain itself.

Read Isaiah 28:9, 10; Proverbs 8:8, 9; John 16:13; and 2 Peter 1:19–21.
What principles of Bible interpretation do you discover in these
passages?

As William Miller compared scripture with scripture, the mysteries of

the Bible were opened to him. He searched as one searching for a hid-
den treasure and was richly rewarded. The Holy Spirit opened the Word
of God to his understanding. He approached prophecy with the same
diligence in Bible study as the other biblical passages he was studying.

Read Daniel 1:17; Daniel 2:45; 1 Peter 1:10, 11; and Revelation 1:1–3.
What do these passages teach us about understanding the prophe-
cies of the Bible?

The symbols in the prophetic books are not locked in mystery. A lov-
ing God has given us His prophetic Word to prepare us for the climactic
events soon to unfold in this world. William Miller clearly understood
that prophecy was its own best interpreter. The symbols of prophecy
are made clear by the Bible itself. Beasts represent kings or kingdoms
(Dan. 7:17, 23). Wind represents destruction (Jer. 49:36). Water repre-
sents peoples or nations (Rev. 17:15). A woman represents the church
(Jer. 6:2, Eph. 5:22–32). The time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation
also are given in symbolic language, with one prophetic day represent-
ing one literal year (Num. 14:34, Ezek. 4:6). As William Miller applied
these principles of biblical interpretation, he was startled at what he dis-
covered regarding what he believed to be the timing of Christ’s return.

Why is a correct understanding of prophetic symbolism so important

for our faith?

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 W ednesday May 15

The 2,300 Days of Daniel 8:14

William Miller observed that events predicted by the prophets were
precisely fulfilled: the 400 years of the sojourn of Abraham’s descen-
dants, Israel’s 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the 70 years of
Israel’s captivity, and Daniel’s 70 weeks allotted to Israel (Gen. 15:13,
Num. 14:34, Jer. 25:11, and Dan. 9:24).

Read Mark 1:15, Galatians 4:4, and Romans 5:6. What do these verses
tell us about God’s timetable for the First Advent?

As Miller studied the prophecies, comparing scripture with scripture, he

concluded that if God had a divine timetable throughout the Bible, God
must have a divine timetable when it comes to our Lord’s second coming.

Read Daniel 8:14. What event was to occur at the end of the 2,300 days?

The sanctuary shall be cleaned.

Purification of the earth.
William Miller accepted the popular view that the “cleansing of the
sanctuary” was the purification of the earth by fire. He diligently studied
the Scriptures to understand an event of such stupendous importance.
He discovered the linkage between Daniel 8 and Daniel 9. In Daniel 8,
the angel was instructed to “make this man understand the vision” (Dan.
8:16). By the end of the chapter, the only portion of the entire vision of
Daniel 8 left unexplained (see Dan. 8:27) was the part about the 2,300
days. Later the angel returned to Daniel and declared, “ ‘I have now come
forth to give you skill to understand’ ” (Dan. 9:22, NKJV; see also Dan.
9:23, 25–27). This was to help him understand about the 2,300 days.
We know this because, after bidding Daniel to “ ‘consider the matter,
and understand the vision’ ” (Dan. 9:23, NKJV), the first words of the
angel were: “ ‘Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your
holy city’ ” (Dan. 9:24, NKJV). The word translated “determined” literally
means “cut off.” Seventy weeks, 490 years, are to be cut off. But from
what? The vision of the 2,300 days, obviously—the only part of Daniel
8 that Daniel did not understand, and that the angel now came to explain.
And since the starting point of the 70 weeks was “ ‘from the going
forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem’ ” (Dan. 9:25,
NKJV), Miller knew that if he had that date, he could know the begin-
ning of the 70 weeks and the 2,300-day prophecy.
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 T hursday May 16

The Longest Prophetic Time Line

Read Ezra 7:7–13. When was the decree issued to allow Israel’s cap-
tives in Persia to go free to rebuild their temple?
On the 1st day of the 5th month
on the 7thwasyear.
The decree issued by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, in 457 b.c.
This decree was the last of three decrees to allow the Jews to return
to rebuild Jerusalem and restore temple worship services. This third
decree was the most complete and marks the beginning of the 2,300-
day prophecy.

Read Daniel 9:25, 26. When would this entire prophetic period begin?
What major events do these verses predict?

In this remarkable prophecy, Daniel predicted that from the “going

forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” to the
Messiah would be 69 prophetic weeks, or 483 prophetic days, or
literal years. Since the decree went forth in the fall of 457 b.c., 483
years extend to the fall of a.d. 27. The word “Messiah” signifies “the
Anointed One.” In the autumn of a.d. 27, Christ was baptized and
received the anointing of the Spirit (Acts 10:38). After His baptism,
Jesus went into Galilee, “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled’ ” (Mark 1:14, 15, NKJV).
In the spring of a.d. 31, in the middle of this last prophetic week,
three and a half years after His baptism, Jesus was crucified. The sys-
tem of offerings that pointed forward to the Lamb of God ended with
Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. Type had met antitype, and eventually all
the sacrifices and offerings of the ceremonial system ceased.

Read Daniel 9:27. How would the 70-week prophecy end?

The 70 weeks, or 490 years, especially allotted to the Jews, ended in

a.d. 34 with the rejection by the Sanhedrin of the gospel message (Acts
6:8–7:60).
Subtracting 490 years from the 2,300-year prophecy leaves 1,810
years for the completion of the prophecy. This leads us to a.d. 1844.
William Miller and the early Adventists believed that the sanctuary in
Daniel 8:14 was the earth, and they assumed that Christ would come to
purify the earth by fire in 1844. (See the chart on Friday.)
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 F riday May 17

Further Thought: Look at the following chart for the prophecies of

the 70 weeks and the 2,300 days. The prophecies start in 457 b.c. and fore-
tell the events surrounding “Messiah the Prince,” upon whom the 70-week
prophecy is grounded. With that solid foundation, the 2,300-day prophecy
ends in the year 1844.
2,300 days (2,300 years)
70 weeks (490 years) 1,810 years
457 B.C. A.D. 34 1844

“Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not,
themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message which they
bore. Errors that had been long established in the church prevented
them from arriving at a correct interpretation of an important point in
the prophecy. Therefore, though they proclaimed the message which
God had committed to them to be given to the world, yet through a
misapprehension of its meaning they suffered disappointment.”—Ellen
G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 351, 352.
“Yet God accomplished His own beneficent purpose in permitting the
warning of the judgment to be given just as it was. The great day was
at hand, and in His providence the people were brought to the test of a
definite time, in order to reveal to them what was in their hearts. The
message was designed for the testing and purification of the church.
They were to be led to see whether their affections were set upon this
world or upon Christ and heaven. They professed to love the Saviour;
now they were to prove their love. Were they ready to renounce their
worldly hopes and ambitions, and welcome with joy the advent of their
Lord? The message was designed to enable them to discern their true
spiritual state; it was sent in mercy to arouse them to seek the Lord with
repentance and humiliation.”—The Great Controversy, p. 353.

Discussion Questions:
Ê What lessons can we learn from William Miller’s experience?
Does God at times overrule our mistaken understanding?

Ë Why is an understanding of Daniel 9:24–27 so significant in

establishing the integrity of the Bible and the divinity of Christ?

Ì What role does understanding prophecy play in the plan of

salvation? Why is prophecy so significant in the plan of God?

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