Second Coming
“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Matthew 24:36-44
STORY
A dramatic event took place on the night of November 12, 1833. So many meteors burned through the Earth’s atmosphere that they seemed to turn the night sky into morning. Eyewitnesses claimed the air was filled with brilliant “snowflakes,” while newspapers dubbed it “the shower of stars.” In oral histories, Native American tribes referred to it as “the night the stars fell.”
“The world is now actually coming to an end, for the stars are falling,” exclaimed a Southern farmer who had run outside only in his shirt. As the display increased, he was so terrified that he sought cover under his house – sans clothing – according to the Georgia Journal.
In Tennessee, an enslaved girl named Amanda Young was awoken by the sound of screaming. According to an account related by her great-great-grandmother through family oral history, the White people on the plantation “thought it was Judgment Day” and “started callin’ all the slaves together, and for no reason, they started tellin’ some of the slaves who their mothers and fathers was, and who they’d been sold to and where they took ’em.”
Joseph Harvey Waggoner, a Pennsylvania teenager, recalled later that “It appeared so grand and magnificent as to be truly exhilarating. It was a sight never to be forgotten.” Living in Switzerland 55 years after the meteor shower, Waggoner told the artist Karl Jauslin what he had seen that night. He recalled “the stars falling at all points of the compass at once” and said they “continued to fall without any diminution of numbers until the dawn of day obscured them.”
Waggoner knew no artwork could truly do justice to the incredible spectacle he had witnessed as he surmised that “Any representation on paper must at best give a very limited idea of the reality.” He wrote this in Signs of the Times, a magazine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as a note to the illustration.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was ecstatic at the sight, believing that Armageddon was imminent. He wrote of that moment: “I arose, and to my great joy, beheld the stars fall from heaven like a shower of hail stones; a literal fulfillment of the word of God as recorded in the holy scriptures as a sure sign that the coming of Christ is close at hand.”
Smith recalled that he was awoken at 4 a.m. to watch the star show. He was mesmerized by what he saw, writing about “long trains of light following in their course [that] resembled large drops of rain in sunshine. These seemed to vanish when they fell behind the trees, or came near the ground. Some of the long trains of light following the meteoric stars, were visible for some seconds; these streaks would curl and twist up like serpents writhing. The appearance was beautiful, grand, and sublime beyond description.”
Smith is believed by some to have prophesied the meteor shower. In the fall of 1833, the Mormon leader was speaking in Ohio when he encountered a skeptic. In response, Smith is said to have uttered, “Forty days shall not pass, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” According to church elder Parley P. Pratt, that revelation came true on the 40th day, Nov. 13.
Because of a lack of astronomical knowledge in 1833, most everyone understandably turned to religion for an explanation. The spectacular scene had another effect on people: Many believed that it foretold a disaster of biblical proportions and that their lives were all but over. The most obvious conclusion was that Jesus was returning – this was The Second Coming!
On the basis of contemporary descriptions, researchers estimate that as many as 240,000 meteors lit up the sky in a nine-hour period that night. In one hour, as many as 70,000 shooting stars streaked across the sky. The brightness of the shower caused countless citizens to rise from their slumber, in turn waking neighbors with loud exclamations of the vivid sight before them.
It was instead the Leonid meteor shower, that is caused by a comet, and occurs every 33 years. This astrological phenomenon occurs when the comet’s elliptical orbit brings it closer to the Earth and Sun, producing a celestial “storm” in spectacular style. This cyclical display has happened for millennia; ancient Greek astronomers wrote about it, noting its location in the Leo constellation. In 902 AD, Chinese observers described it as the night “stars fell as rain.”
The Leonids actually occur every fall and are caused by debris from the 55P/Temple-Tuttle comet as it passes. Most years, the shower is only moderately remarkable, with about 10 to 15 meteors per hour.
Although the end times never arrived, the Leonid meteor shower gave rise to the birth of modern meteor astronomy. Scientists studied the 1833 event to understand its cause. Yale professor Denison Olmsted researched it extensively, even using newspapers to request observations from the public. In 1834, he published his findings in the American Journal of Science and Arts, hypothesizing that meteors came from beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. When the storm occurred again in 1866 – although not at the same intensity – scientists began to speculate that a comet could be the cause.
DEVOTION
Dr. Lawrence Stookey, my worship professor at Wesley Theological Seminary that is located in Washington, D.C., once told our class as an aside comment, that Jesus returns every day, so we should only speak of his Final Coming, instead of his Second Coming.
We don’t know when Jesus is returning for his final and complete enthronement over creation, though we do know that he is coming. Many individuals, throughout history, have speculated on the exact day. Others are constantly trying to interpret the signs of the times that Jesus’ return is intimate. I only know this –it is going to happen.
Though we can and should look for possible signs in our current age, Jesus is steadfast in his teaching that the day is unknown to us. Moreover, when Jesus returns, we will be caught unaware. The significance that we know not when Jesus will return, demands that we remain God’s obedient servants. Looking for the signs of the times, forces us to remain ever vigilant in our recognition of Jesus as a part of the Godhead – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus taught that he will return when people are living contented lives. Life will seem so normal that having Jesus in one’s life will seem insignificant and unimportant. “Ler the good times roll” as the expression goes. There is “no atheist in a foxhole,” so if one is living a trauma free life Jesus is unnecessary.
Woe to those who forsake the message of judgment and the mandate to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Sad are those who live absent of the blessing of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Destitute are those who live absent of the scriptures as a moral compass. Spiritual lonely are those who don’t dwell in a Christian community.
The Second Coming mandates that we are evangelists to the complacent.
Let us witness to the self-assured, while avoiding the frolic of William Miller and Ellen Gould White.
William Miller (1782-1849) was a fundamentalist Baptist preacher from Low Hampton, New York. A biblical literalist, his study of the scriptures in 1818 concluded that the “2,300-day prophecy” of Daniel (8:14) ought to be interpreted as “years.” Using a finely tuned self-conceived mathematical formula he calculated Christ would return on October 22, 1843. Miller, along with his followers, expecting the immediate advent of the Lord, became known as “Adventists,” and derogatorily referred to by others as “Millerites.” Jesus, failing to appear on the appointed hour, constituted what became known as the “Great Disappointment.” Undeterred, Miller revised his numbers proclaiming the date to be March 1844, and when that month came and went he set forth October 1844, equally to no avail. Understandably, his disheartened flock drifted away and Miller withdrew from the Baptist fellowship.
The movement would have ended except there was another willing to pick up the mantle where Miller had disappointedly dropped it. The Adventist and psychic Ellen Gould White (1827-1915) continued the prophetic movement. The lady from Maine was converted to Miller’s views at a revival in 1842. Engulfed by the Holy Spirit she had thousands of visions and ecstatic transports, all of which she recoded. At the time of her death her stream of mystical revelations filled eighty volumes.
White was content that Miller’s calculations were accurate, but Jesus chose not to abide because Christians failed to keep the Ten Commandments, especially the fourth, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” (Ex 20: 8) Further, she admonished Adventists for not properly preparing themselves for the return of the Lord, which included the avoidance of drugs for medical treatment, abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, and for not adhering to a vegetarian lifestyle.
Relocating to Battle Creek, Michigan she became a friend and admirer of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who in turn became a disciple. Under his direction came forth the manifesto that his cornflakes were the most nutritious vegetarian health food Adventists could consume. Kellogg’s Cornflakes became the staple in all Adventists diets.
In obedience to the Law of Moses to sanctimoniously observe the fourth commandment, and by the ruling of White, Adventists worshiped on the biblical day of rest, Saturday, the seventh and last day of the week as the authentic day for worship. This gave a name to their sect, the “Seventh-Day Adventists.”
“Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”