Hiram Edson

Hiram Edson (born January 1, 1806 in Gorham (Maine) , † July 16, 1888 ; according to other information: 1807-1882 / 1915 ( LCCN )) was a pioneer of the Seventh-day Adventists . He became known for spreading the doctrine of the sanctuary in heaven . Hiram Edson was a Millerite Adventist who grew up to be a Seventh-day Adventist. Like all Millerites, Edson expected the Second Coming of Jesus Christ on October 22, 1844.

Life

Hiram Edson was a wealthy farmer from Ontario County , NY. His first wife died in 1839, leaving him with three children. Soon after, he remarried in Port Gibson . At the time, Edson was stewarding a Methodist church that had adopted Millerism in the spring of 1843. His home in Port Gibson soon became a center of believers in the area.

Connection with the Millerites

The Millerite ideas reached Rochester in 1843 and soon spread to Port Gibson. William Miller had predicted that Christ would return around 1843. The exact date was later set for October 22, 1844. This idea was based on a biblical prophecy in Dan 8, LUT  EU , according to which the sanctuary will be cleansed in 2300 days , and on the so-called day-year principle , according to which a day in this prophecy corresponds to a historical year. The Millerites believed this prophecy to be a prediction of Christ's return, when Christ would cleanse the earth.

Edson heard and learned from a number of evangelical lectures. After the last of these lectures, Edson got the impression that he should visit a dying neighbor and pray for his healing in the name of the Lord. He put his thought into practice late that evening and laid his hands on him. He interpreted the neighbor's recovery as a healing miracle. That same night, Edson got the impression that he should pass the message of approaching Advent to his friends and neighbors. He struggled with this idea for several days, but had resounding success when he put it into practice: more than three hundred of his neighbors joined the denomination.

The big disappointment

Edson spent October 22, 1844 with friends in anticipation of the return of Jesus. He was deeply disappointed when the expected events did not materialize. He later wrote: “Our finest hopes and expectations were shattered, and such a wailing spirit came over us as I have never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all friends in the world was no comparison. We cried and cried until dawn. "

As the night went on, Edson thought about the events of the past year. He believed that he had been given the power to heal the sick, and he had seen hundreds of people turn to Jesus as a result of his sermons. His confidence returned, and he suggested that he and some friends visit the nearby Adventists to encourage them. On the morning of October 23, 1844, they walked through his maize field on the path hidden from view in order to avoid the malice of the neighbors. Edson had a vision in this field. He came to the conclusion that the cleansing of the sanctuary did not mean the return of Christ to earth, but that Jesus had come from the holy place to the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary.

Edson shared this vision with his fellow believers, which encouraged many, and began Bible research with two others, ORL Crosier and Franklin B. Hahn. They published Day-Dawn . In an interpretation of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins , which describes ten women waiting for the bridegroom at a wedding, they tried to explain why the bridegroom (Jesus Christ) was late.

The ideas of Crosier, Hahn, and Edson led to a new understanding of the Heavenly Sanctuary . They explained why there was a sanctuary in heaven that Christ the heavenly High Priest had to cleanse. The believers connected this with the presentation of the 2300 days with Daniel. Today this particular Seventh-day Adventist teaching is known as the Investigative Judgment . Crosier's account of Edson's vision came into the possession of James White (husband of Ellen G. White ) and Joseph Bates . The latter had visited Edson in Port Gibson and converted him to Adventistism.

Next life

As the revival movement subsided, Edson was ordained as an elder in a local church in 1855. For many years after the so-called Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844, when Jesus did not return as expected, Edson continued to preach along with Joseph Bates, JN Andrews, and JN Loughborough . As a farmer, he paid for his own living. In 1850, however, he sold one of his farms in Port Gibson to support his religious community. Two years later he sold a second farm in Port Byron, NY, so that James White could buy a printing business in Rochester. The Adventist Movement was formally constituted as the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863 , and Edson was called to pastor in 1870.

Web links

• The Great Disappointment

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Mervyn Maxwell: Tell It to the World . Review and Herald Publishing Association, Hagerstown, MD, pp. 46-50.
2. ↑ "Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and wept, till the day dawn . " Hiram Edson: manuscript fragment on his "Life and Experience," n. D. , Pp. 4-5.
3. ^ The Life and Work of Hiram Edson by James Nix, Thesis. Andrews University, Berrien Springs, 1971, pp. 18-20. From Edson's manuscript.
4. ↑ "We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed opened to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy Place before coming to the earth. " Francis D. Nichol: The Midnight Cry , p. 458.
5. ^ Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia , pp. 493-494.
6. ^ Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia , pp. 493-494.