January 28  The Scattering Time3

Let all things be done decently and in order. 1Cor. 14:40.

To bring order out of confusion. That was what Adventists needed in the spring of 1845. At least that's what Joshua V. Himes thought. He could plainly see that the fanatical spiritualizers would drive the movement into ruin.

But their fanaticism wasn't the only point on which Himes differed from the spiritualizers. He also disagreed as to whether prophecy had been fulfilled in October 1844. As we saw earlier, the spiritualizers said it had been-that Jesus had come into their hearts on October 22, 1844, that the 2300-day prophecy had met its completion, and that they had been correct on both the timing and the event.

Himes would eventually decide that Millerism had been wrong on the time but correct on what should have taken place at the end of the 2300 days. To put in another way, no prophecy had been fulfilled on October 22, but they should continue to expect the return of Jesus in the clouds of heaven in the next few years of "disputed time." In the process of arriving at that conclusion, Himes as early as November 1844 had begun to give up Miller's understanding of prophecy. Eventually he would lead those in his segment of the movement away from the prophetic understanding that had given force and point to Millerite evangelism.

But that end wasn't clear to anyone during the spring of 1845. All Himes knew was that they had to escape from the false teachings of the fanatics. It was that same fear that drove the ever-ailing and ever-weakening Miller into Himes' camp by late April 1845. Himes had persuaded William to join him at a conference slated to open on April 29 at Albany, New York. There the majority group of Adventists organized into a quasi-denomination with a doctrinal base and a rudimentary organizational approach along the lines of congregationalism.

The Albany event was a good thing in the sense that it sought to bring order out of chaos. It was unhelpful, however, when it divorced its segment of Millerism from an understanding of the prophecies that had given it birth and meaning. The underlying problem was that their major motivation was to define their movement in terms of what they were against. They had fallen into the pit of doing theology primarily against their neighbor. And with that comes a failure of balance.

Help us, Lord, to keep our eyes on Your Word rather than on the problem of our neighbors as we seek to navigate through the day.