Ellen G. White on the Millennium
Versus
Freemasonry and Evangelicalism
“Christ continues, pointing out the condition of the
world at His coming: “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the
Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating
and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered
into the ark, and knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away; so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Christ does not here bring to view a
temporal millennium, a thousand years in which all
are to prepare for eternity. He tells us that as it was in Noah’s day, so will
it be when the Son of man comes again.” {DA 633.1}
“There will be no
probation after the coming of the Lord. Those who say that there will be are
deceived and misled. Before Christ comes just such a state of things will exist
as existed before the Flood. And after the Saviour appears in the clouds of
heaven no one will be given another chance to gain salvation. All will have
made their decisions.”—Letter 45, 1891. {LDE 237.1}
“All will be tested and tried according to the
light they have had. Those who turn from the truth to fables can look for no
second probation. There will be no temporal millennium. If, after the Holy
Spirit has brought conviction to their hearts, they resist the truth and use
their influence to block the way so that others will not receive it, they will
never be convinced. They did not seek for transformation of character in the
probation given them, and Christ will not give them opportunity to pass over
the ground again. The decision is a final one.”—Letter 25, 1900. {LDE 237.2}
William Miller was a Freemason Before he was Converted
Miller was an active Freemason
until 1831.[17][18][19]
Miller resigned his Masonic membership in 1831, stating that he did so to
"avoid fellowship with any practice that may be incompatible with the word
of God among masons".[20]
By 1833 he wrote in a letter to his friends to treat Freemasonry "as they
would any other evil".[21]
William Miller, like other Mason’s
believed in the pre-millennial reign of Christ on this earth at His second
coming.
“[William] Miller publicly professed his faith in the
religion which he had despised. But his infidel associates were not slow to
bring forward all those arguments which he himself had often urged against the
divine authority of the Scriptures. He was not then prepared to answer them;
but he reasoned that if the Bible is a revelation from God, it must be
consistent with itself; and that as it was given for man’s instruction, it must
be adapted to his understanding. He
determined to study the Scriptures for himself, and ascertain if every apparent
contradiction could not be harmonized. {CIHS 49.1}
Endeavoring to lay aside all preconceived opinions,
and dispensing with commentaries, he compared scripture with scripture by the
aid of the marginal references and the concordance. He pursued his study in a
regular and methodical manner; beginning with Genesis, and reading verse by
verse, he proceeded no faster than the meaning of the several passages so
unfolded as to leave him free from all embarrassment. When he found anything
obscure, it was his custom to compare it with every other text which seemed to
have any reference to the matter under consideration. Every word was permitted to have its proper bearing upon the subject of
the text, and if his view of it harmonized with every collateral passage, it
ceased to be a difficulty. Thus whenever he met with a passage hard to be
understood he found an explanation in some other portion of the Scriptures. As
he studied with earnest prayer for divine enlightenment, that
which had before appeared dark to his understanding was made clear. He
experienced the truth of the psalmist’s words: “The entrance of Thy words
giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Psalm 119:130. {CIHS
49.2}
The
Study of the Prophecies
With intense interest he studied
the books of Daniel and the Revelation, employing the same principles of
interpretation as in the other scriptures, and found, to his great joy, that
the prophetic symbols could be understood. He
saw that the prophecies, so far as they had been fulfilled, had been fulfilled
literally; that all the various figures, metaphors, parables, similitudes,
etc., were either explained in their immediate connection, or the terms in
which they were expressed were defined in other scriptures, and when thus
explained, were to be literally understood. “I was thus satisfied,” he
says, “that the Bible is a system of revealed truths, so clearly and simply
given that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.”—Bliss, page
70. Link after link of the chain of truth rewarded his efforts, as step by step
he traced down the great lines of prophecy. Angels of heaven were guiding his
mind and opening the Scriptures to his understanding.{CIHS
50.1}
Taking the manner in which the prophecies had been
fulfilled in the past as a criterion by which to judge of the fulfillment of
those which were still future, he became satisfied
that the popular view of the spiritual reign of Christ—a temporal millennium
before the end of the world—was not sustained by the word of God. This doctrine, pointing to a thousand years of
righteousness and peace before the personal coming of the Lord, put far off the
terrors of the day of God. But, pleasing
though it may be, it is contrary to the teachings of Christ and His apostles,
who declared that the wheat and the tares are to grow together until the
harvest, the end of the world; that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse;” that “in the last days perilous times shall come;” and that the kingdom
of darkness shall continue until the advent of the Lord and shall be consumed
with the spirit of His mouth and be destroyed with the brightness of His
coming. Matthew 13:30, 38-41; 2 Timothy 3:13, 1; 2 Thessalonians 2:8. {CIHS
50.2}
Note: In Miller’s day, it was a popular view until
about the beginning of the eighteenth century that Christ would reign over the
earth spiritually for a millennium before the personal coming of Christ the
second time. This error has been updated with another error--the error that at
Christ’s second coming, He will remain on this earth and rule over it from a
Third Temple in Jerusalem. This view has been successfully infiltrated into
Evangelicalism by Freemasonry members who have infiltrated all Christian
churches. End note.
The doctrine of the world’s conversion and the
spiritual reign of Christ was not held by the
apostolic church. It was not generally accepted by Christians until about the
beginning of the eighteenth century. Like every other error, its results were evil. It
taught men to look far in the future for the coming of the Lord and prevented
them from giving heed to the signs heralding His approach. It induced a feeling
of confidence and security that was not well founded and led many to neglect
the preparation necessary in order to meet their Lord.{CIHS
51.1}
Miller found the literal, personal coming of Christ to
be plainly taught in the Scriptures. Says Paul: “The Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump
of God.” 2 Thessalonians 4:16. And the Saviour declares: “They shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” “For as
the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:30,
27. He is to be accompanied by all the hosts of heaven. “The Son of man shall
come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him.” Matthew 25:31. “And He
shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather
together His elect.” Matthew 24:31. {CIHS 51.2}
At His coming the righteous dead
will be raised, and the righteous living will be changed. “We shall not all
sleep,” says Paul, “but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on. And in his letter to the Thessalonians, after describing the coming of the
Lord, he says: “The dead in Christ shall rise
first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. {CIHS 51.3}
Not until the personal advent of Christ can His people
receive the kingdom. The Saviour said: “When the Son of man shall come in His
glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of
His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He
shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall
the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matthew
25:31-34. We have seen by the scriptures just given that when the Son of man
comes, the dead are raised incorruptible and the living are
changed. By this great change they are prepared to receive the kingdom; for
Paul says: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption.” 1 Corinthians
15:50. Man in his present state is mortal, corruptible; but the kingdom of God
will be incorruptible, enduring forever. Therefore man in his present state
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But when Jesus comes, He confers
immortality upon His people; and then He calls them to inherit the kingdom of
which they have hitherto been only heirs.{CIHS 52.1}
These and other scriptures clearly proved to Miller’s
mind that the events which were generally expected to take place before the
coming of Christ, such as the universal reign of peace and the setting up of
the kingdom of God upon the earth, were to be subsequent to the second advent. Furthermore, all the
signs of the times and the condition of the world corresponded to the prophetic
description of the last days. He was forced to the conclusion, from the study
of Scripture alone, that the period allotted for the continuance of the earth
in its present state was about to close. {CIHS 52.2
The
Story of Redemption Chapter 63—The Millennium
My attention was again directed to the earth. The
wicked had been destroyed, and their dead bodies were lying on its surface. The
wrath of God in the seven last plagues had been visited upon the inhabitants of
the earth, causing them to gnaw their tongues from pain and to curse God. The
false shepherds had been the signal objects of Jehovah’s wrath. Their eyes had
consumed away in their holes, and their tongues in their mouths, while they
stood upon their feet. After the saints had
been delivered by the voice of God, the wicked multitude turned their rage upon
one another. The earth seemed to be deluged with blood, and dead bodies were
from one end of it to the other.{SR 415.1}
The earth looked like a desolate wilderness. Cities
and villages, shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains had been
moved out of their places, leaving large caverns. Ragged rocks, thrown out by
the sea, or torn out of the earth itself, were scattered all over its surface.
Large trees had been uprooted and were strewn over the land. Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels
for a thousand years. Here he will be confined, to wander up and down over
the broken surface of the earth and see the effects of his rebellion against
God’s law. For a thousand years he can enjoy the fruit of the curse which he
has caused.{SR 415.2}
Limited
alone to the earth, he will not have the privilege of ranging to other planets,
to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen. During this time Satan suffers
extremely. Since his fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise. But
he is then to be deprived of his power and left to reflect upon the part which
he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror to
the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done and
be punished for all the sins that he has caused to be committed.{SR 416.1}
I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the
redeemed saints which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because
they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and because the
inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his
temptations.{SR 416.2}
Then I saw thrones, and Jesus and the redeemed saints
sat upon them; and the saints reigned as kings and priests unto God. Christ, in
union with His people, judged the wicked dead, comparing their acts with the
Statute Book, the Word of God, and deciding every case according to the deeds
done in the body. Then they meted out to the wicked the portion which they must
suffer, according to their works; and it was written against their names in the
book of death. Satan also and his angels were judged by Jesus and the saints.
Satan’s punishment was to be far greater than that of those whom he had
deceived. His suffering would so far exceed theirs as to bear no comparison
with it. After all those whom he had deceived had perished, Satan was still to
live and suffer on much longer.{SR 416.3}
After the judgment of the wicked dead had been
finished, at
the end of the one thousand years, Jesus left the city, and the saints and a
train of the angelic host followed Him. Jesus descended upon a great mountain,
which, as soon as His feet touched it, parted asunder and became a mighty
plain. Then we looked up and saw the great and beautiful city, with twelve
foundations and twelve gates, three on each side, and an angel at each gate. We
cried out, “The city! the great city! It is coming
down from God out of heaven!” And it came down in all its splendor and dazzling
glory, and settled in the mighty plain which Jesus had prepared for it. 418 {SR 416.4}
~rwb