IX. Exact Time Clearly a Mistake; but Advent Near

In reply to the demand of opponents that as the expected time for the advent has passed, “as honest men you are bound to relinquish it,” the Millerites frankly admit, “We were mistaken in the definite time.... We relinquish all that is thus disproved ... that part of our position.” And they add, “If anything more is proved to be erroneous, we will confess that also.” But, they ask, should we thereby relinquish “our hope” of the second advent itself? And they add earnestly:PFF4 871.1

“We may be mistaken in the exact time, and yet we may, in accordance with the command of our Saviour, know that it is at the very doors. We may be mistaken in the exact termination of the prophetic periods; and yet there may be some inaccuracy in our chronology, or in the date of their commencement, which, when the time of such variation shall have passed, will bring the event.” ^38Ibid.PFF4 871.2

They therefore declare that they will not relinquish their hopes until their opponents-PFF4 871.3

“demonstrate that the periods of Daniel and John are not years, that they do not terminate at about this age of the world, that the prophetic symbols do not shadow forth events to the setting up of God’s everlasting kingdom, that the seventh angel is not about to sound, and that its sounding will not usher in the resurrection and judgment, that the reign of Christ will not be personal and premillennial, and that the saints will not reign on the earth. If those doctrines are truths, we occupy the only scriptural ground. If they are not Bible doctrines, we wish to see them disproved. But, as yet we have not been satisfied of the soundness of the arguments which have been advanced to disprove them. And, be it remembered, that in the discussion of these questions we stand on the ground which the primitive church occupied; and, from which, you, who oppose us, have departed.” ^39Ibid.PFF4 871.4