Happy Great Disappointment Day!

Spectrum Staff | October 22, 2007

By Alexander Carpenter
During her sermon at the Adventist Forum conference La Sierra University professor of religion Kendra Haloviak pointed out that October 22, 1844 was actually a day of great hope. And therefore, the 23rd was the day of great disappointment.
While some churches are built on great traditions of biblical literalism (Southern Baptists) or great spirit (Assemblies of God), Seventh-day Adventism comes from great disappointment. When one gets GOD so publicly incorrect it takes a liberal hope in human understanding and divine understandability to keep on proclaiming truth. And we have, mixing the literal and the spirit and the allegorical in present ways. Due in part to our great White hope we went from wrong to 15-million strong.
Like the hymn says, “we have this hope burning in our hearts.” And I think that this hope is embedded in our Seventh-day and Advent name — hope in humans and God meeting in time as well as when there are no more disappointing days.

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