WAKE UP!Adventist Heritage

Lesson 1

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“There’s a buoy on the starboard bow,” said a friend, coming down the companion way.

“Already?” I cried. “Impossible! We are a hundred miles from port.”

“Well, it’s there,” he said, “and it isn’t a barrel.” I ran on deck. There was nothing to see but the great, restless ocean and the whitecaps streaking its gray, heaving surface. And nothing to hear save the scream of the wind in the rigging and the swish of the spray over the bow.

“Where is it?” I cried.

“There,” he cried, pointing. “Over there!”

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He was right. Only a pinpoint in the vast expanse, but unmistakable nevertheless. A buoy!

It was incredible. A buoy this far from port! There was no land anywhere in sight. North, south, east, west—nothing but windswept waves that merged into the haze of the horizon.

We were not due in port for six hours at least; yet here was this buoy. Surely, I thought, it must have a meaning. Perhaps it marks the beginning of the channel to the distant harbor. It did. An hour passed. A second buoy appeared, this time on the port bow.

Half an hour more, and across the surging waves came the tolling of a bell. It was another buoy, one with a bell attached. As the buoy rolled in the trough of the sea the bell clanged out its mournful warning note.

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Now, far in the distance and low down on the horizon I saw something that seemed more solid than cloud, an irregular line that might be hills and mountains.

“Land!” I cried jubilantly. But it was gone again, engulfed in mist and the gathering gloom of eventide.

Then a light shone out. Only a little light, but cheering as the lamp on the porch at home. Darkness had set in operation the automatic switch on yet another buoy.

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Soon another light appeared. Then another and another. Some were red, some green, some amber, and the ship was going between them, while everywhere around, it seemed, the warning bells were tolling as the buoys were tossed by the waves.

“We must be nearly there,” I cried.

We were. Suddenly, making a sharp turn, the ship bore us into a quiet and tranquil bay, where the gay lights of a city just ahead beamed their welcome. We were in port at last.

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Even so has been the voyage of the advent people since that day in 1844 when as a little, lonely band they set out on their journey to the kingdom.

Scarcely had they embarked when someone raised the cry, “I see a sign of the end!” And people clustered on deck, as it were, and talked of it and believed in it. It may have been but a tiny buoy on the mighty ocean of history, but to them it marked the entrance to the channel that led to the harbor of heaven.

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As the years passed by, other markers appeared. “Look!” cried the advent people. “See the signs of the coming of the Lord.”

Yet the pioneers were still far from their goal. There was no land in sight, though in moments of ecstasy and high expectation some thought they saw it now and then.

Eighteen fifty-four, sixty-four, seventy-four, eighty-four, ninety-four. The years rolled by till the nineteenth century merged into the twentieth. Nineteen hundred and four, nineteen fourteen, twenty-four, thirty- four, forty-four.

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Slowly but surely the advent ship steamed on its divinely charted way. Every decade the night grew darker, the storm more fierce, the sea more boisterous. And every year the warning signs have become more numerous, until now the lights are flashing all about us while the warning bells are tolling out their message with an insistence and a gravity never known before.

“Near-ly home, near-ly home, near-ly home,” they boom across the boisterous waves of these turbulent times.

(Arthur S. Maxwell, “Signal Lights for the Homeward Bound,” The Youth’s Instructor, October 17, 1944, p. 6) (World War II 1939-1945)

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How hard is it to get up in the morning when you are really, really tired?

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Some people can sleep through anything!

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GOD DOESN’T HAVE ONE PERSON TO WAKE UP; HE HAS A WHOLE

WORLD!

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HOW CAN HE DO IT?!

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FIRST OF ALL, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

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AND FROM THE TIME THAT THE DAILY SACRIFICE SHALL BE

TAKEN AWAY, AND THE ABOMINATION THAT MAKETH

DESOLATE SET UP, THERE SHALL BE A THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY DAYS.

(DANIEL 12:11)

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1290 DAYS

THIS IS THE SAME AS A TIME, TIMES, AND HALF A

TIME. (DANIEL 12:7; REVELATION 12:14)

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AND 42 WEEKS

(REVELATION 11:2; 13:5)

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Most Adventists believe that the 1290 days started

in AD 508.

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There is a prophetic chain in Daniel.

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Something important was to happen in AD 508 and end in

1798 (for the 1290 days) and in 1843/44 (for the 1335 days).

Something so important that God had to wake up the world!

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We often refer to the time period after the end of the

1290/1335 days as the beginning of the “time of the end.”

You and I are living in the “time of the end!”

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God had a problem around 1798 because he knew that the world

was going about its business just as it had done in the time of Noah.

Let’s read about it in Matthew 24:37-39.

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What could God do to get the attention of the world?

Let’s read Revelation 6:12-17.

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What event was to occur after the stars of heaven fell?

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So, in order, we haveA great earthquake (Revelation 6:12)

The sun became black and the moon as blood (v. 12)

The stars of heaven fell to the earth (v. 13)

The heaven departed as a scroll (v. 14)

Every mountain and island moved out of their places (v.14)

The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, every bondman, and every free man hid in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains (v. 15),

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calling to the mountains and rocks to “fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (vs. 16, 17)

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Which earthquake fits?

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The Lisbon Earthquake

1531Lisbon, Portugal

30,000; 6.9

November 1, 1755Lisbon, Portugal

80,000; 8.7Caused a huge tsunami

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The 1755 Lisbon earthquake was not the worst earthquake in history or in recent times for magnitude or for loss of life.

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Remember, Revelation 6:12 does not say greatest earthquake or even

a very great earthquake, just a “great” earthquake.

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There have been many earthquakes and many very great earthquakes:

We have record as far back as 1831 BC of an earthquake occurring in China.

In 464 and 226 BC earthquakes occurred in Greece.

In AD 17 the Lydia earthquake destroyed 13 cities in Asia.

Many more earthquakes have occurred in Italy, China, Antioch, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Japan, Switzerland, Haiti, Philippines, etc.

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More loss of life has occurred than occurred in Lisbon:

In 1556, 830,000-plus people died in an earthquake in China. This is the deadliest earthquake in recorded history.

In 1780, 200,000 died in Iran.

In 2004, 230,000-300,000 died in Sumatra, Indonesia.

In 2010, 160,000-316,000 died in Haiti.

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And stronger earthquakes have occurred:

1960 in Chile--9.51964 in 1964--9.22004 in Sumatra, Indonesia--9.1

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The significant thing about the 1755 Lisbon earthquake is its date. Remember, the 1290 years ended in 1798. Around this time, Jesus prophesied a great earthquake

would take place.

And it did.38

God wanted to wake up the world, and he used:

A great earthquake on November 1, 1755

A dark day (and red moon) on May 19, 1780

Falling stars on November 13, 1833

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Izmit 1999

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LET’S REVIEW OUR TIMELINE . . .

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QuestionsWhen did the time of the end begin?

What three signs did God use to show the time of the end was about to begin?

Is the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 the greatest earthquake in history?

How many years occurred in the time prophecy ending in 1798 and 1843/44?

What are two other ways of describing this time period?

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What famous preacher in the 1830s and 1840s preached about this time prophecy?

Where do we find this time prophecy in the Bible?

The 1290 years are also knows as the _____ Ages. It is a time period of _____ supremacy and ended with the capture of the pope.

There is a continued line of _____ in the book of Daniel.

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It’s time to wake up!!

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