By Sam Oliveira
Let’s take a leap back to the 1800s. It was around that time that the Seventh-day Adventist church came into existence. Shortly after the Great Disappointment of Oct. 22, 1844, the denomination formed, and today it has over 20 million members.
Upon reading Seeking a Sanctuary, a book written by Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, I realized how prophecy helped galvanize the early Adventist pioneers. They focused on what would happen in the last days, preaching and teaching about how people should give their lives to Jesus and how many would suffer persecution before Christ’s faithful return.
However, that wasn’t all. Early Adventists were fixed on finding out exactly when Jesus was coming. They would vigorously study scripture trying to decipher everything they could.
“Adventists nonetheless became obsessive watchers of the ‘Signs of the Times,’ producing a succession of individuals who provided an almost continuous apocalyptic commentary on national and international events,” Bull and Lockhart wrote.
The focus on the end times became a massive phenomenon in the church and is still talked about today.
The problem with today? Many have been pushing prophecy for so long that any occurrence around the world causes “the church’s eschatology [to thrive] whenever there is political disorder or natural disaster,” according to the authors.
I honestly can’t remember the last time a tsunami or decision made by the Pope wasn’t preached about in relation to the end times.
It’s easy for the older generation to pinpoint those occurrences as an apocalyptic event, but as Bull and Lockhart state, that’s not always the case. While many of the disasters around the globe may be related to the end times, “Adventist apocalyptic does not always flourish in crisis situations.”
Must we continue to be vigilant? Of course. Prophecy is just as important today as it was in the early days of the denomination and, perhaps, even more so. However, the major obsession that the early pioneers initiated may or may not have hindered how the Millennial generation has responded to an imminent event that has existed for 177 years.
Do younger Adventists have a different perspective on this issue? Let’s continue to dive deeper and learn how prophetical views have continued to evolve and adapt over the generations.