The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 360
advent as “a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” he saw that
the prophecies bring to view with equal clearness His second advent
with power and glory. And while he sought to lead his people to Jesus
of Nazareth as the Promised One, and to point them to His first coming
in humiliation as a sacrifice for the sins of men, he taught them also of
His second coming as a king and deliverer.
“Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah,” he said, “whose hands and
feet were pierced, who was brought like a lamb to the slaughter, who
was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, who after the scepter
was taken from Judah, and the legislative power from between his feet,
came the first time; shall come the second time in the clouds of heaven,
and with the trump of the Archangel” (Joseph Wolff, Researches and
Missionary Labors, page 62) “and shall stand upon the Mount of Olives;
and that dominion, once consigned to Adam over the creation, and
forfeited by him (Genesis 1:26; 3:17), shall be given to Jesus. He shall be
king over all the earth. The groanings and lamentations of the creation
shall cease, but songs of praises and thanksgivings shall be heard. ...
When Jesus comes in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels,...
the dead believers shall rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians
15:32. This is what we Christians call the first resurrection. Then the
animal kingdom shall change its nature (Isaiah 11:6-9), and be subdued
unto Jesus. Psalm 8. Universal peace shall prevail.”—Journal of the Rev.
Joseph Wolff, pages 378, 379. “The Lord again shall look down upon the
earth, and say, ‘Behold, it is very good.”’—Ibid., page 294.
Wolff believed the coming of the Lord to be at hand, his
interpretation of the prophetic periods placing the great consummation
within a very few years of the time pointed out by Miller. To those
who urged from the scripture, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man,”
that men are to know nothing concerning the nearness of the advent,
Wolff replied: “Did our Lord say that that day and hour should never be
known? Did He not give us signs of the times, in order
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