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The Horns Explosion
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August 16 - The Horns Explosion

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And behold, a fourth beast. . .And it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. Dan. 7:7, NASB.

Well, you may be thinking, that's not much of a text for my daily devotion.

You're right. But it has a story behind it that shock Adventism in the 1880s. It all began when the 1884 General Conference sesison asked. A. T. Jones to gather historical information on the fulfillment of prophecy, including the 10 horns of Daniel 7.

Uriah Smith was overjoyed that Jones had time to do it. But his pleasure disappeared when the younger man differed from him on the identity of one of the horns, thereby suggesting that the traditional list was wrong. Things got worse when Jones published his findings in the Signs. Smith rebutted him in the Review as the "discussion" went from cool to hot.

And why so much concern over such a small topic?

Let Smith answer. If, he noted, we changed from what we had preached for 40 years, people would notice and would say, "Oh! now you find that you are mistaken on what you have considered one of your clearest points; and so if we give you time enough, you will probably come to acknowledge finally that you are mistaken on everything!" And with that stroke the entire prophetic understanding that included the national Sunday law would collapse. Or so Smith argued.

Jones also fought on the basis of the Sunday issue, noting that "the real battle of the truth and for the truth has not yet begun." But the emergence of the Sunday laws would change all that. Seventh-day Adventist beliefs in the end-time crisis would "become the principal subject of discussion. . .Then our views are going to be noticed by the high in the land. Then every point is going to be analyzed and challenged. . .We shall then . . . have to present some better reason for our faith than 'it has been preached for forty years' or that Bishop Chandler says so."

It was the Sunday crisis that made such a seemingly unimportant topic as the identity of one of the 10 horns explosive. To Smith and Butler it hardly seemed to be a good time to be publicly tinkering with a long-standing interpretation of prophecy.

One of the facts of Adventist history is that even a small topic could set the stage for big battles as the minds and spirits of individuals heated up for an unedifying clash.

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Help us, Father, to gain proper perspective as we read Your Word and deal with one another.
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