Happy Theological Humility Day
It is our tradition to mark October 22, the day that the Seventh-day Adventist Church began, according to many. It is the day that the Millerite band expected their Lord to return to earth, and it is the day that he did not. The experience is captured in the words of Ellen White in “The Great Controversy,” page 409.
“Our expectations were raised high, and thus we looked for our coming Lord until the clock tolled twelve at midnight. The day had then passed, and our disappointment had become a certainty. Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept and wept, till the day dawn….
“I mused in my heart, saying: ‘My advent experience has been the brightest of all my Christian experience…. Has the Bible proved a failure? Is there no God, no heaven, no golden city, no Paradise? Is all this but a cunningly devised fable? Is there no reality to our fondest hopes and expectations?’…
“I began to feel there might be light and help for us in our distress. I said to some of the brethren: ‘Let us go to the barn.’ We entered the granary, shut the doors about us, and bowed before the Lord. We prayed earnestly, for we felt our necessity. We continued in earnest prayer until the witness of the Spirit was given that our prayers were accepted, and that light should be given—our disappointment explained, made clear and satisfactory.
Commenting on Facebook, Pacific Union College grad Alex Larson suggested the name Theological Humility Day in recognition of the fact that the Adventist Church was birthed in theological error. We liked the name and hope it catches on.
Acension Rock, the spot on which the Advent Believers spent the night in prayer and singing on October 22, 1844.
