1844, the remarkable year that changed the world.

The year 1844.

I want to start with a curiosity.

When the Christian Jew and world missionary Joseph Wolff (1795 – 1862) came to Bukhara (Uzbekistan) he found an isolated people who had studied the Bible and found that something very special was to take place not long after 1840. They built their understanding on the prophecies of the 2300 evenings and mornings mentioned in Daniel 8,14. But since they had not found out exactly when the valid command to rebuild and rebuild Jerusalem was given (Daniel 9,25), they were not sure when this prophecy started, but they believed that the 2300 years would end not long after the year 1840.

What was to happen in 1844? The prophecy says that then shall the sanctuary be cleansed, Daniel 8,14. The word cleansed is translated from the Hebrew sadaq but is also translated into; be put in the right condition and be done right. The Greek Septuagint translation, (LXX) uses the word kataharisthêsetai which can mean cleansed, washed, repaired or made usable. There are differing opinions on which word is best to use when translating the Hebrew sadaq and the Greek kataharisthêsetai. Many people may think that this is quite insignificant, but if we really want to understand this prophecy, which God himself gives so much space in the Bible, I doubt that the expressions the angel gave the prophet are random. Perhaps much of the correct understanding is to be found precisely in the meaning of the words. When the angel makes it clear that study and scrutiny are required to find the right meaning and that the wise will understand what Daniel himself did not understand (Daniel 12,10). Shouldn’t we then try to find the right meaning?

Some of those who, in their study of the Bible and history, discovered the year 1844 quite early, believed that Jesus would return this year. It was common to think that the earth could be the sanctuary of God and that it should be purified, or cleansed by fire, at the second coming of Jesus. That they did not understand what the term sanctuary really meant was not necessarily negative, and God left them in their delusion for a while so that they could proclaim Jesus’ imminent return, which is the content of the first angel’s message, with empathy and anointing. This was the goal for God when he rose up, among others William Miller, Ellen G and James White. When Jesus did not return this year, they studied the Bible even more thoroughly and found where they had gone wrong.

As we have seen, this year marked the end of prophetic time and the beginning of the end time in the broadest sense. From a Christian point of view, 1844 should be a memorable year, the year when God began the last part of the plan of salvation. But when God does something for his people, Satan comes up with his countermeasures, so also in 1844. There were many events that happened this year that have affected the world and people, and I will mention some of them in random order.

• 1) The not unknown Karl Marx began writing his work, The Communist Manifesto this year. Through this manifesto, Marx sought to kill God, and this manifesto came to play a major role in the spread of communism, primarily in Eastern Europe, Russia and later also in China, Cuba, and some other countries in Asia. These countries had or have, not entirely unexpectedly, according to the contents of the manifesto, non-Christian or anti-Christian regimes. We can probably state today that communism managed to put an end to the spread of the gospel where communism became dominant, even though there were and are underground groups in most countries.

• 2) Another, also not unknown size, Charles Darwin, began in 1844 to collect his notes and thoughts for a book later known as The Origin of Species. According to Wikipedia, the book’s full title is: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. What Darwin is trying to do with this book is kick legs under the Bible’s creation theory and thus kill God’s claim that He created the heavens and the earth and all living things in six days and rested on the seventh day which He declared holy and blessed. Darwin’s theory of evolution, which is based on this book, has been hammered into the school system for more than 150 years, and it is assumed that no critical questions will be raised about the theory. Already from the kindergarten stage, children today are taught (read: indoctrinated) this doctrine, while Christianity has been forbidden to learn (read: preach). Christianity has been effectively gagged into silence with the help of the so-called human rights. The theory of evolution has also gradually gained a foothold in several liberal churches, it has almost been implemented as a dogma in many denominations.

• 3) In the same year, 1844, an Iranian named Baha´u´llâh founded the Baha´i religion. This is the religion that most UN delegates profess today. This religion has as its main goal to unite all religions, merge them, and can be called an ecumenical forge.

These are three of several currents that arose in 1844, at the same time as the Advent movement. The three mentioned all go to war against the gospel as they attack God and God’s position in their own way and try if possible to depose, or rather kill God, and if this does not work then they want to remove focus from the end time message, which has the tragic consequence that people who are really sincere seekers do not find the truth because they are seduced.

To get to the fourth event that took place in 1844, I will first include a curse pronounced by Jewish rabbis on four of the verses in the book of Daniel (Daniel 9,24-27). There are many who claim that the rabbinic curse is only a conspiracy, that it simply does not exist, but is a product of, among others, the Seventh-day Adventists. The curse is called The Rabbinic Curse and Sir Isaac Newton, who also eagerly studied the biblical prophecies, says of Daniel 9,24-27 that this is the cornerstone of the Christian religion because it reveals that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ, God. in human flesh. It also explains why some Jewish rabbis laid this curse on those who read this passage: May the spirits of those who attempt to calculate the final time [of Maschiach’s coming] expire (Sanhedrin 97B, quoted in chapter 12 of Hilchos Melachim from the Mishneh Torah of Rambam ).

This is the text of Daniel 9,24-27:

Verse 24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Verse 25 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

Verse 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Verse 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

These four verses in Dan 9,24-27, form the first part of the longest time prophecy (the two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings in Dan 8,14) in the Bible, and these 70 weeks deal with the story from when Artaxerxes this year 457 BC (see Ezra 7) gave the Jews their decree to return to their land, the only one of three decrees given to the Jews that contain all necessary powers, such as political powers, military powers, religious powers and economic powers as well as powers to request equipment and materials to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and until the last of the seventy weeks where Jesus of Nazareth through his baptism, his life, and his death in the middle of the last week showed that he was the Messiah that was to come, and that the gospel was preached to the Gentiles. The gospel was given to the Gentiles in the year 34 AD. that is, exactly 490 years (= 70 weeks of years) after the decree was given when most Christians in Jerusalem saw themselves forced to flee the city due to persecution and the threat of stoning.

The rabbis must have seen that this prophecy, the seventy weeks, fulfils everything in connection with Jesus’ first coming. Therefore, they have pronounced a curse on these verses so that the Jews will not find out that the Messiah has come for the first time. Jesus did not come as a warlord who was to free the Jews from the Roman yoke, but as the saviour of man that the whole Old Testament tells about. This Jesus whom the Jewish people rejected, and the scribes crucified was the Messiah. When the rabbis discovered this, they pronounced the curse mentioned above over all those who study this scripture, then this scripture must be significant in relation to the Messiah, and then it must also be true that Jesus came at the appointed time as God´s Lamb. On the basis of this, we can also conclude that the first part of the long-time prophecy must be correct, for the first part of the two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings is the same time period as the 70 weeks of years, which are mentioned in Dan 9,24-27, which culminates with the death of Jesus on the cross and the gospel given to the Gentiles. So if the first part of the two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings leading up to the Messiah is correct, we can be sure that the rest of the prophecy is also correct. We then arrive at 1844.

• 4) The fourth great event of 1844 came in the wake of the disappointment experienced by thousands of people who called themselves Advent believers due to a misinterpretation of a word. But out of the remnants of this disappointment grew a new movement which today is worldwide, SDA or Seventh-day Adventists, a church that has its origins precisely in the disappointment they experienced in 1844. There were many, in fact it was the majority who fell from the movement in October 1844, but those who were sure they were right continued to study the Bible and eventually found out where they had gone wrong. On the morning of October 22, 1844, it was roughly 50,000 to 100,000 Adventists in the United States, after the disappointment there were only about 50.

We believe, as I said, that God raised up W. Miller, E. G. White, J. White, and others to restore His end-time Church. If we look at the history of God’s people, we find that every time God did something for his people, Satan was on the spot immediately to oppose and destroy God’s plan. So also in 1844.

First to the day that changed the world completely, October 22, 1844. This day led to a new understanding of biblical teachings and opened the floodgates of heaven for prophetic and doctrinal insight, and five great biblical principles were rediscovered and given to the world. These were:

• The sanctuary.

• Jesus’ Second Coming.

• The Sabbath.

• The condition of the dead.

• The spirit of prophecy.

These five points are some of the principles that Satan hates more than anything else, because they show us the way to the one and true God, the Creator. Therefore, these five principles are under massive attack from the opponent.

This group the Millerites or Adventists, now continued to preach the three angels’ message, which is the end-time message of the Bible, also called the eternal gospel, which in short states that …

• a) the hour of His judgment is come. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Rev 14,6-7). • b) Babylon is fallen. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, (Rev 14,8). • c) not take the mark of the beast. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:(Rev 14,9-10).

And this is where the war between good and evil stands. On the one hand the Word of God, and on the other hand Marx, Darwin and Bahá´u´llâh, and all other individuals and organizations that compromise the Word of God.

Other events that coincided with the proclamation of Jesus’ return in 1844 were:

• The last Reformation. This began when Rachel Oakes, a seventh-day Baptist, challenged the Millerites – the Adventists – to keep all of God’s ten commandments, and her first Sabbath sermon was held on a Sabbath in March this year.

•The awakening of the spirit of prophecy. This happened when William Fay, Hasen Foss and Ellen Harmon (later White) got their first visions this year. This led to a broad understanding that the three angels’ message had to be spread quickly to the whole world. But how could one manage this when the only thing one could communicate through was letters and direct visits face to face, and the fastest means of transport was horse and boat?

But God always has a plan.

• The telegraph. On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first telegram from Washington to Baltimore, and the text he sent was apt: What hath God wrought? • The railway. The first locomotive was built in 1813, and when George Stephenson built his Rocket in 1829 this innovation still needed to be developed. When the first railway line was planned in Dhio March 20, 1844, the development of the railway accelerated. And with these two innovations, the telegraph and the train, the world began to shrink. • Modern archaeology. Saw the light of day in 1798 and thanks to this, the Elamite cuneiform was translated for the first time in 1844. This gave help to open the book of Daniel, which until then had been a sealed book.

But as mentioned, Satan also has his countermeasures, and in addition to the three mentioned above, we find the following countermeasures implemented by the devil, all in 1844.

• Spiritism. • Existentialism. • Ecumenism • Codex Siniaticus Codex Siniaticus was found in a rubbish bin in an old monastery at Mont Sinai in Egypt.

The good is the eternal gospel which tells us who God is, what He is and where He rules. This is what the other three, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Baha´u´llâh, go to war against.

• The devil and the world will not know of that God is our Lord and the only one worthy of worship. • The devil and the world will not know of that God is the one who created heaven and earth and all living things in the air, on earth and in the water. • The devil and the world will not know of that God rules over the entire universe, including the earth.

To divert human attention from the fact that an end is approaching the world as we know it today, the devil has directed and given the impetus to communism, the theory of evolution and the Baha’i religion to take the focus away from the truth. Communism says in short that God does not exist, the theory of evolution says in short that God did not create, and the Baha’i religion says in short that we should unite no matter what we believe.

By taking the focus away from God who creates the universe, humans will also quickly forget, or stop believing, that there will be a day of judgment, as the three angels’ message tells us. In this way, the focus is also taken away from who Babylon is and what the mark of the beast is.

How is the general doctrine and preaching in the world today? Well, more and more is it taught and preached in an ever-increasing part of the world that God does not exist, and where a God is preached, peace and safety are preached, and a community is advocated that transcends what the Bible teaches us, which will unite believers according to human desires, in the lowest common denominator – not according to the will of God.

But how does this harmonize with the Bible? This is in glaring contrast to what the Bible tells us. God’s word, the Bible, itself says that the Lord is our God and Creator and that there is none else, and that a sudden judgment will come when everyone says peace and safety, and that we shall not unite in a worldwide cooperation.

• I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 20,2).

• I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, [even] my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. (Isaiah 45,12).

• Know therefore this day, and consider [it] in thine heart, that the LORD he [is] God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: [there is] none else. (Deuteronomy 4,39).

• For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5,3).

• And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. (Revelation 18,4).