God’s Purpose in 1844

Note that this first vision was given to a 17-year-old Sundaykeeping pork eater—and it said nothing about either the right day upon which Christians should worship God, or of the desirability of a vegetarian diet!GVEGW 19.1

Rather, God’s purpose in this first vision seems to have been to bring comfort and assurance to a dispirited band of Christians who had literally staked their all upon a sincere conviction. They had “put their money where their mouth was,” but, through no fault of their own, they had been shaken and shattered, nearly as badly as were Christ’s 11 surviving disciples on the day of His crucifixion.GVEGW 19.2

The vision gave them comfort in knowing that God had directed them to the present day in their theological understanding, and that He had not deserted them in the bitter aftermath of October 22. It gave them assurance that if they remained faithful to God, each of them would ultimately find his or her way into the heavenly city, and that their present theological difficulties would be made plain—in God’s own way and time, of course.GVEGW 19.3