p. 598 | TIME-SETTING by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 38.

TIME-SETTING.

By Editor

SOME of the writers in the Herald of Life have caught the almost annual time-setting disease as regards 1889. One L. E. Pendleton thus writes of the closing of the great prophetic periods, in a recent number of that paper:—

"Where will they end?—Facts and figures indicate 1889. This also stands as antitype to the forty-five years waiting of ancient Israel from Kadesh-barnea to the division of land, when the faithful ones stood in their lot. This can never be true of another year, brethren. As the sister said in the Herald, whose article the Crisis rejected, this year is a test of our message which no previous time-movement has been; neither can any future one reinstate our record as vindicated by the prophetic periods."

The italics are his. Later on he says:—

"Daniel's nap in the Persian tomb will then be broken, and he will stand in his lot as Caleb and Joshua did anciently, 'at the end of the days.'"

Of course this means that the resurrection of the righteous dead will take place in 1889. It means that Mr. Pendleton believes this. We wonder if he and those who hold with him, will be any wiser when 1889 ends? or, will they continue to "set times"? The doctrine of the second advent is a Bible doctrine. We may know when it is near, even at the door, but facts and figures, prophetic or historical, do not "indicate 1889," or any other year, as the end of these prophetic periods. All of this time-setting is laid at the door of the students of prophecy and the Advent people, wherever found. But they are not responsible. Seventh-day Adventists never did set times, nor have they any connection with those who do. Time-setting is one of the devil's means of bringing reproach upon a great and important Bible doctrine.