Above you can find F.G. Brown's "VIEWS AND EXPERIENCE IN RELATION TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION AND THE SECOND ADVENT" in audio format at the link above. James White republished this book in 1859 to show "the spirit of the great Advent movement, and the deep work of grace in those whom God led out to look for the coming of his Son"
I want to continue making available audio materials containing the Second Advent message as originally preached by those who had experience in the 1844 Millerite movement. Before deciding what book should be next, I would like to take a survey from you. Thank you in advance for your answers!
I chose Joseph Bates' book just because I know it is very good background history for the 1844 movement, needed by most of our SDA brethren today.
But personally, I'd like to hear something I don't believe I'm familiar with - Advent Shield.
I know you worked with Joseph Bates' book. Is that the only sense you chose, or would you also choose as a priority for an audiobook?
I made the same survey in several groups on FB. Out of the four people who voted, one chose only a book. The rest placed their vote on three of them. Should I count your vote only for Advent Shield, or Joseph Bates' book as well?
I chose Joseph Bates' book just because I know it is very good background history for the 1844 movement, needed by most of our SDA brethren today.
But personally, I'd like to hear something I don't believe I'm familiar with - Advent Shield.
I know you worked with Joseph Bates' book. Is that the only sense you chose, or would you also choose as a priority for an audiobook?
I made the same survey in several groups on FB. Out of the four people who voted, one chose only a book. The rest placed their vote on three of them. Should I count your vote only for Advent Shield, or Joseph Bates' book as well?
Thank you for your feedback!
The Advent Shield shows the position of the Advent body during the tarrying time of 1844 (before the midnight cry).
zafer, my vote is only for Joseph Bates' book if you can do only one.
Considering that on FB. the same person could select more than one option, I will count both of yours without any problem.
After collecting all the votes from all groups, Bates' book stands first with five, followed by "Thrilling Testimonies" and James White's "THE SECOND ADVENT: MANNER, OBJECT, AND NEARNESS OF THE EVENT", with just one vote behind.
I chose Joseph Bates' book just because I know it is very good background history for the 1844 movement, needed by most of our SDA brethren today.
But personally, I'd like to hear something I don't believe I'm familiar with - Advent Shield.
I know you worked with Joseph Bates' book. Is that the only sense you chose, or would you also choose as a priority for an audiobook?
I made the same survey in several groups on FB. Out of the four people who voted, one chose only a book. The rest placed their vote on three of them. Should I count your vote only for Advent Shield, or Joseph Bates' book as well?
Thank you for your feedback!
The Advent Shield shows the position of the Advent body during the tarrying time of 1844 (before the midnight cry).
While working on Bate's book to make it audio, I realized that it mentions and quotes Advent Shield:
All attention was now called to the long looked for period, the end of the Jewish year, viz, the 17th of April, 1844. We had rallied down to this point buoyant with hope and expectation, bible in hand, (our lamps) to meet the bridegroom, expecting certainly that the Lord himself would descend from heaven with a shout, and Daniel with all the just would stand in their lot. Here we were sadly disappointed. But the world was glad, and said to us, You see now what we told you - we were right. You thought you knew more than your neighbors. Now go and make your confession, and be reinstated in your former position. Though we could not see the meaning of our disappointed hopes, the response to our prayers was, God will justify his word, it will not return to him void. And this word said, Light is sown for the righteous, (Proverbs 2:7,) and our minds were made up to wait for it. Our reply was, never! Go back to what? darkness, confusion, Babylon! No, no. We have experienced too much of the power and glory of God, to yield this waymark in our pathway. If there is no other difference to be seen, one mark is sure; we have been honest, and you have not.
At this important crisis the Advent Shield was published, reviewing all the past, especially the prophetic chronology, showing positively that our waymark was sure.
Now see page 87. We look upon the proclamation which has been made, as being the cry of the angel who proclaimed, The hour of his judgment is come. (Revelation 14:6-7.) It is a sound which is to reach all nations; it is the proclamation of the everlasting gospel. In one shape or other this cry has gone abroad through the earth, wherever human beings are found, and we have had opportunity to hear of the fact. The story for instance, which was started by the New York Sun, that Mr. Miller had fixed on the 23rd of April, 1843 as the time for Christ to come. - There was scarcely a place known, where this report was not heard, and an interest awakened. Again, 92nd page - No cause of a moral or religious character, probably, ever made so rapid advances, as the cause of Adventism. Its votaries have usually been the most humble, pious, devoted members of the different churches, men and women who love their Lord, and to whom the thought of his glorious advent has been a source of the sweetest pleasure. Never have a set of men labored more faithfully and zealously in the cause of God, or with purer motives. Their record is on high. BP2 57.1-3
An important part of reviewing our past is not only to understand the solid platform that was laid for our faith but also to see where we have been mistaken. Joseph Bates is doing this in his book, and this is what every honest Christian should do. After 1844 and even after the first disappointment they didn't sit and try to find a way of justifying their errors. No! They searched to see what was wrong in their understanding and were ready to abandon their errors. One was that the first six of the seven last plagues were already fulfilled:
"How many plagues are there? The angel says seven. Now, Mr. M. taught us that time, and I suppose fully believed, that six of these plagues had been poured out."BP2 62.1
Nobody believes today that the last plagues are in the past, but many conservative SDAs believe that the 7 trumpets are in the past because this is what our pioneers thought. To review their teachings in the light of the Bible is considered by some as "stepping off the platform." If this is sound reasoning, why not take altogether everything from pioneers, including the last plagues?
zafer, the promo for Bates' Waymarks and High Heaps has great audio. The AI text-to-speech function works very well.
I agree completely regarding the plagues and trumpets. Our SDA Church's failure to advance with increasing light is one thing mentioned by both James and Ellen White that they feared would happen when we get up a creed - we would fight for our creeds and denounce anything that does not agree with them.
Sadly, that has come all too true in the area of prophecy and in keeping the Statutes of the Lord.
For example, Revelation and even Daniel and some other parts of the Bible show clearly that there will be a 1260 days at the end time that the saints will have problems. But standard SDA interpretation is that is all in the past. And of course as you rightly point out, SDAs understood clearly that the Plagues couldn't have been poured out yet, but still cling to the mistaken idea that 6 of the Trumpets have been completely fulfilled. How can anyone who honestly believes in the Holy Scriptures read about the 5th Trumpet in Revelation 11 and think for a moment that it is completely in the past? It is ridiculous. Our current interpretation of that is it ended in August 1840 (?) as Josiah Litch said, but nothing at all happened then to the Ottoman Empire. Josiah Litch himself said later that he was mistaken. I've read books from the 1850s and 1860s showing that the Ottoman Empire definitely was still in control of Jerusalem at that time, so our current interpretation is proven mistaken. Of course in reading the text itself we can see that our current interpretation that the Muslims fought the Christians for 5 prophetic months is ridiculous too, and that the Roman Catholic Church never ever desired to see death but could not die!
Advent Shield is the only one I'm aware of that received votes and is not prepared as an audiobook. I find it a bit difficult with it because I have this book only as a photocopy and I would need it in some other digital format.