The Spirit of Prophecy: The Tarrying Time and the Midnight Cry

A Word of Clarification

Recently we began to prepare the transcription of Habakkuk’s Two Tables to be translated into the various languages represented on our website. The task of changing a spoken presentation into a written presentation is much more of a task than might be understood if one is not familiar with all the hoops that must be jumped through to turn a spoken presentation into a written presentation, along with the necessary problems of ultimately translating the material into the various languages on the website. We just started our copy-editing of the first of the ninety-five presentations and I discovered another hoop that we must also jump through. It has to do with the progressive development of this message from 1989 until our current history.

In the presentations of about fifteen years ago there were truths that were in their infant state of understanding. The first of those truths that I must clarify is the arrival of the second angel in Millerite history. I understood at that time that the second angel arrived when the Protestant churches began to close their doors against Miller’s presentation of the first angel’s message, in conjunction with the termination of the year 1843. William Miller worked upon a reckoning of time that he believed identified that the years of 1843 began on March 22, 1843 and ended on March 22, 1844. He had thought the three prophecies that ultimately were placed upon the two sacred charts would terminate in the year of 1843, and he believed that year ended on March 22, 1844. He was wrong on two points.

The three prophecies of the 1335 days of Daniel twelve, the 2520 years of the “seven times” of Leviticus twenty-six and the 2300 days of Daniel eight were understood by Miller to concluded in March of 1844. The Lord thereafter guided Samuel Snow to not only understand that the prophecies ended not in 1843, but 1844; but Snow also began to apply the Karite reckoning of time, that was not the time application Miller had been employing. Miller had been using the Rabbinic/equinox-based reckoning of time that based the year upon spring to spring.

When we were presenting Habakkuk’s Two Tables, we had not understood this historical reality and were using Miller’s experience to mark March 22, 1844 as the arrival of the second and the beginning of the tarrying time. I understood, and still do that the arrival of that angel corresponded to when the Protestants rejected Miller’s message of the first angel, and the following passage was my point of reference.

I understood the closing of the doors to Miller’s message marked the beginning of the rejection of the first angel, and in agreement with Miller’s understanding of the Rabbinic/equinox-based reckoning of time I assumed that March 22, 1844 marked the conclusion of 1843. Miller’s presentation in Portland in June of 1842 is actually a waymark that identifies a progressive rejection that ultimately concluded on April 18, 1844, but at the time of the presentations we had not recognized Samuel Snow’s application of the Karaite reckoning of time.

In the first presentation we began to copy-edit I began to see that what was recorded at that time seems to contradict what we now teach. It does and it doesn’t. It is simply an emphasis upon the progressive arrival of the second angel, and also an illustration of the progressive unsealing of this message, as was the case also in Millerite history. This note of clarification should address those who have stumbled over our identification of April 19, 1844 as the first Millerite disappointment and what was taught in the past.

In our last presentation, the question arose about how October 22, 1844, can be the tenth day of the seventh month if March 22, 1844, is the first day of the first month. The Millerites in March 1844 misunderstood what they believed to be the end of 1843. After that disappointment, they re-examined the biblical reckoning of time. This is explained in Gerhard Damsteegt's book, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, particularly on pages 89 and 92. When they believed 1843 ended, they reevaluated two components of their time understanding: the change from 1843 to 1844, and the days that mark the beginning and ending of the years, so they could calculate the tenth day of the seventh month.

I often emphasize that from March 22nd to October 22nd is seven months. I am not suggesting that this is the Seventh Month Movement, but it is interesting that the Millerites believed March 22nd was significant, and it's a helpful mental marker—seven months later brings you to October 22nd. This is factual.

The disappointment and the tarrying time were not fulfillment's of a time prophecy, but rather the result of a misunderstanding by the Millerites. Their misunderstanding fulfilled the tarrying time and the disappointment; there was no specific prophecy stating that the tarrying time would begin at a certain point. Their belief that 1843 had passed on March 22, 1844, produced the disappointment.

We read yesterday that Miller was expecting that date. The majority of the Millerites were looking at that date, and even their opponents knew it and were watching for it as proof that the Millerites were false. This was the standard understanding. After it passed, they began to investigate the time prophecies more closely, which led them to October 22, 1844. This provides a point of reference for the question that came up yesterday.

Today, I want to spend more time looking at the tarrying time. This is important because we are dealing with Ellen White's first vision, where she says the bright light at the beginning of the path to Heaven was the Midnight Cry, and if you deny that light, you fall off the path to Heaven. I am trying to demonstrate that the Midnight Cry in her vision includes the entire history of the Second Angel's Message.

Personally, I have no problem saying that the Midnight Cry in that vision, which is at the beginning of the path and sheds light all along the way, represents the history of the Millerites from 1840 to 1844. The dynamics of that history must be rightly understood. The fulfillment of the Midnight Cry itself was from August 12th through 17th, when the message was presented at the Exeter Camp Meeting, and then they carried the message for about two months—September and October, two months and five days. Before October 22nd, they were preparing for the Lord's return. This two-month period is the history of the Midnight Cry. However, you cannot understand this period without understanding the steps that led into it. For me, the Midnight Cry is, more specifically, the history of the tarrying time, continuing through October 22, 1844.

Here is the history of 1840 to 1844. There are several passages in the Spirit of Prophecy where Sister White tells us we need to know where to locate the messages. When you begin to locate the messages, you realize that all the messages arrive at a certain point in time and are thereafter empowered.

The First Angel arrives in 1798 at the Time of the End, when the Book of Daniel is unsealed and there is an increase of knowledge. The First Angel's Message is empowered on August 11, 1840, when the year-day principle is confirmed for the whole world, bringing down the Angel of Revelation 10, which symbolizes the empowerment of the First Angel's Message.

The Second Angel arrives in June of 1842. We read yesterday that in June of 1842, Mr. Miller gave his second course of presentations at the Casco Street church. With few exceptions, the Protestant churches closed their doors. So, in June of 1842, the Second Angel's Message arrives, because when a Protestant church closes its door against the First Angel's Message, it becomes part of Babylon. The Second Angel's Message is a call out of Babylon. It is progressive.

Sister White tells us that even though the Protestants began to close their doors in June of 1842, the call out of Babylon—the content of the Second Angel's Message—did not actually begin until the Summer of 1844.

The Second Angel's Message arrives in June of 1842 and is empowered with the message of the Midnight Cry, August 12th–17th, 1844, at the Exeter Camp Meeting.

The Third Angel arrives on October 22, 1844, because on that day the way into the Most Holy Place is opened, where men can understand that Christ is now the High Priest in the Most Holy Place. There, the ark of the covenant is recognized, and in the ark are the Ten Commandments. When Sister White was taken into the Most Holy Place and looked at the Ten Commandments, she saw that the Sabbath Commandment shone above the others, marking the significance of the Sabbath in the Third Angel's Message. It will be a test over Sabbath or Sunday. On October 22, 1844, the content of the Third Angel's Message arrives.

One characteristic of all three messages is that when the First Angel's Message arrived in 1798, no one understood it. The Lord raised up William Miller to be the messenger of the First Angel, but it was not until 1818—twenty years later—that Miller began to understand the message. The message arrives, but it takes time before God's people recognize it, and then it is empowered.

The Second Angel's Message arrives in June of 1842, but no Millerites in 1842 began calling the Protestant churches Babylon. They did not recognize it yet. It was not until the Summer of 1844 that they began to recognize it and call people out of the churches. The message arrives, then it is understood, and then it is empowered.

On October 22, 1844, when Hiram Edson had his vision of Christ moving from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place, they received some light on Christ's change of ministration. But on October 23, 1844, Hiram Edson was not prepared to write an article or preach a sermon about Sunday being the mark of the beast. They did not understand the Third Angel's Message until after that time period.

The Third Angel's Message is empowered, as Seventh-day Adventists know, when the Fourth Angel of Revelation 18 joins it. For those watching this on LiveStreaming or later on DVDs, you may want to argue about the timing of the Fourth Angel joining the Third on September 11, 2001. At this point, we are not making any arguments about that, but we are not denying it either: The Fourth Angel joins the Third Angel with the Twin Towers coming down, and this is where the Third Angel's Message is empowered.

All three Angels' Messages have these characteristics: they arrive, are understood, and then are empowered.

In June of 1842, a door began to close, marked by the Protestant churches closing their doors against the First Angel's Message. At the beginning of this history, we see a door closing, and at the end of this history—the history of the Second Angel—the door closes again, the door into the Most Holy Place, the door in the parable of the Ten Virgins.

These two door closings are important to mark, especially if you are going to deal with the two temple cleansings. Christ cleansed the temple twice when He was on Earth, and Sister White tells us there will be two temple cleansings at the end of the world, as there were in the time of the Millerites. The temple cleansings in the Millerite time can be marked at the closing of the door in June 1842—the first door of the temple, Protestantism—and at the second temple cleansing, when the Millerites' temple cleansing is finished.

We are going to look at the tarrying time. In this history of the Second Angel, the tarrying time comes in at March 22, 1844, and is bookended by two temple cleansings. That is the Second Angel's Message.

This is also the story of Gideon. There were two cleansings in the story of Gideon, which is one of the symbols of the two temple cleansings and the Second Angel's Message.

Let us begin our study with a quote from Spiritual Gifts, volume 1, pages 195–196. We are looking at the tarrying time to understand its connection with the Midnight Cry, because we do not want to reject the light of the Midnight Cry; if we do, we fall off the path to the wicked world below.

The Second Angel's Message arrives in June of 1842, and the Midnight Cry joins it in August of 1844. This outpouring of the Spirit upon this message—the call out of Babylon—is the history Sister White uses to describe the history of September 11, 2001, when the Third Angel's Message is joined by the Fourth Angel. The Fourth Angel is when the Mighty Angel of Revelation 18 descends.

There were 490 years of probationary time cut off for the Jews out of the 2300 years marked in Daniel 8 and Daniel 9. Those 490 years ended in AD34 with the stoning of Stephen. At that point, Jerusalem, prophetically, was to be destroyed, but it was not destroyed until AD70. In The Great Controversy, Sister White says the same thing about that history. She says there were children and others who had not heard the message of Christ and the disciples before AD34, and God in His mercy gave them time to be confronted with the message before the destruction of Jerusalem. She identifies, as does Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem as illustrating the end of the world.

That history prefigures the very history she is speaking about. When The Sunday Law comes to the United States and the message finally goes to the fallen churches, God's children now in Babylon will not be held accountable for the rejection their churches or ancestors made in the 19th Century.

In these two paragraphs, this is the second time she has compared our history at The Sunday Law at the end of the world with the history of the Midnight Cry. The first time, she says the Mighty Angel of Revelation 18 joins the Third Angel as the Midnight Cry joined the Second Angel. Even though she is addressing the history of The Sunday Law crisis, she is clearly using the history of the Second Angel as a point of reference. They are parallel histories.

When it comes to the call out of Babylon, whether at the end of the world or in the Second Angel's Message, Lot is a symbol of that history and the destruction of Sodom.

If you understand Daniel 11 correctly, in verse 41 the King of the North enters the glorious land and many are overthrown, but "these shall escape his hand, even Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon." Moab and Ammon are the children of Lot's two daughters. Lot's family represents those who escape the hand of the papacy at The Sunday Law crisis.

Sister White uses this symbolism. The fallen churches are represented by Lot, and the precious were hurried out of the doomed churches, as Lot was hurried out of Sodom before her destruction. God's people were fitted up and strengthened by the excellent glory which fell upon them in rich abundance, preparing them to endure the hour of temptation. A multitude of voices were heard everywhere, saying, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

While she is talking about the call out of Babylon at the end of the world, she uses the history of the Second Angel's Message in the Millerite time period to describe that call. The Second Angel's Message is a call out of Babylon, and this history typifies the history of The Sunday Law crisis.

One of the biblical references Ellen White uses to describe this history is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. We will read from Genesis 19:1-11, which is part of the story of Lot.

Sister White talks about a progressive testing process in the time of Christ and in the time of the Millerites, illustrating a progressive testing process for us. In Early Writings, page 259, she says, "Those who would not receive the message of John the Baptist could not be benefitted by the teachings of Jesus, neither could they be benefitted by the ministration of Christ in the Sanctuary above." She then says, "Those that did not receive the First Angel's Message could not be benefitted by the Second Angel's Message, neither could they be benefitted by the Midnight Cry."

In that passage in Early Writings, 259, when the door is closed in the time of Christ, the Jews are in perfect darkness, blindness.

The Millerite history of the Second Angel is the history of Lot. The two angels come to town (June 1842), the Second Angel's Message arrives, and Lot has them tarry for the night (the Tarrying Time). There is a judgment, and then a door closes (October 22, 1844).

We will look at another biblical history where a tarrying time lines up with the Millerite History before pulling this together.

The next history is Moses receiving instructions on building the sanctuary and the Law.

During this history, Moses spent 46 days receiving instructions on building the temple, paralleling the 46 years from 1798 to 1844 when the Lord raised up the Millerite temple, and the 46 years of Herod's reconstruction of the temple noted in John 2:20, as well as the 46 chromosomes of the human temple. During the six days, Joshua was with Moses, and together they ate manna and drank from the brook that descended out of the mount. Joshua did not enter the cloud with Moses but remained outside, eating and drinking daily while awaiting Moses' return, while Moses fasted during the forty days.

During his stay in the mount, Moses received directions for building a sanctuary in which the divine presence would be specially manifested. 'Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them' (Exodus 25:8), was the command of God.

This is where we find the number 46 associated with the building of the sanctuary.

We will read from Exodus and note a tarrying time in this story, as it prefigures the tarrying time in the time of Christ, the Millerites, and at the end of the world. The tarrying time produces the environment that allows the Midnight Cry to be proclaimed and to produce two classes of worshippers. Without the tarrying time, the dynamics of that history would not be in place for what the Lord wants to accomplish at the Midnight Cry. We must see what the tarrying time represents.

This 46-day period, this Tarrying Time, is when the Lord is entering into covenant with a people.

Did the Lord enter into covenant with the Millerites in this history? Yes.

Did He enter into covenant with the Christian church at Pentecost in the time of Christ? Yes.

So, this tarrying time is one of the waymarks of the Lord entering into covenant with a people.

In the history of Moses, we see a tarrying time. During this time, the two tables symbolize the covenant, and the Lord is entering into covenant and giving Moses instructions on building the temple.

From 1798 to 1844, those 46 years, the Lord was raising the Millerite temple so He might enter into covenant with modern Israel.

The period we just read about with Moses and the tarrying time of the 70 elders is called Pentecost in biblical history—fifty days after Passover. The Lord instructed Israel to commemorate Pentecost forever. In the New Testament, Pentecost is a focus of the early Christian church, commemorating this very history. We find the same components at Pentecost in the time of Christ, in the history of the Millerites, and these components will be repeated at the end of the world.

Let us look at Pentecost from Luke 24:44-52, during the story of the road to Emmaus.

Earlier in Luke, the two disciples walking with Jesus ask Him to tarry with them. The Bible uses the word 'tarry.' There is a tarrying time marked there, but we want to mark a different tarrying time in this same history.

The tarrying time is marked by the command to tarry in Jerusalem for power. This is where the empowerment of the message takes place for the Millerites.

To tarry means to wait. "Blessed is he that waiteth." For what? The empowerment.

You cannot correctly understand the empowerment of the Midnight Cry unless you understand the tarrying time, where they are commanded to wait for that power. It is part of the story. To have the light set up behind you continue to shine, you must understand the whole history.

You may not yet see where this is going, but tomorrow it will become clear.

Three prophecies led the Millerites to a misconception that caused the tarrying time and the first disappointment. These prophecies are the same three that William Miller said he was given the commencement for: the 1335, the 2520, and the 2300 days.

If you understand that the tarrying time is a specific component of the Midnight Cry, you must ask what produced the tarrying time. It was these three time prophecies: the 1335, the 2520, and the 2300.

If you reject the prophecy of the 2520 and the 1335, you are denying the Midnight Cry and fall off the path to the wicked world below.

That is where we are heading with all this.

They tarry because they are to wait for power from on high, and in the Millerite History, that power was the Midnight Cry.

Bethany is a suburb of Jerusalem, about a mile and a half outside the city. In Jesus' day, this was a significant distance, as people walked everywhere.

Bethany means 'House of the Poor.'

Jesus' favorite place to be was Bethany, where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived.

It is worth noting that the Triumphal Entry is the history Sister White uses to describe the Midnight Cry.

Before Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Triumphal Entry, He tarried in Bethany, the House of the Poor. There is a tarrying time that precedes the Triumphal Entry, just as there is a tarrying time that precedes the Midnight Cry. They are parallel histories, but we are still dealing with Luke 24:44-52 and waiting and tarrying in Jerusalem.

At the Midnight Cry, the Millerites had their understanding of the Scriptures opened.

"The disappointed ones" from the first disappointment saw from the Scriptures that they were in the tarrying time, and the same evidence that led them to predict 1843 as the return of the Lord now proved 1844.

What had the Lord done for them? He opened their understanding. This is a parallel history to the disciples.

There is a tarrying time in the story of Jacob. This tarrying time illuminates many prophetic truths, though we will only touch on some of them.

Genesis 28, beginning with verse 10, shows that the story of Jacob prefigures the end of the world. Jacob's sons represent the 144,000 at the end of the world.

Jacob had sons from four women—two wives, Rachel and Leah, and two concubines. He had to work for his wives: 2520 days for Leah and 2520 days for Rachel. In Jacob's story, we see both 2520s, representing the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.

Jacob is a symbol of the Millerite History and the 144,000. His story should provide light for us at the end of the world.

The Lord is entering into covenant with Jacob. When the Lord enters into covenant with Moses and Israel, there is a tarrying time; when He enters into covenant with Jacob, there is a tarrying time; when He enters into covenant with modern Israel in the Millerite History, there is a tarrying time; and when He enters into covenant with the Christian church at Pentecost, there is a tarrying time.

In this story, during the tarrying time, the Lord opens the understanding of His people to His Word, symbolized by the ladder with angels ascending and descending—a symbol of communication between God and man.

At the Midnight Cry, the Millerite virgins are waking up and becoming the House of God. He is entering into covenant with them, making them modern Israel.

"Luz" is changed. The Millerites were not God's people in 1798. The history of the Millerites is the history of how He enters into covenant with them and makes them His people, changing them from "Luz" to "Bethel."

Jacob's vow is entering into covenant. He asks God to keep him in the way—the Old Paths—and to give him bread to eat. The Millerites are to eat their own bread and not return to Protestant foolishness.

If we continue to eat the bread God gives us, He will maintain His covenant with us. The bread and raiment in Jacob's vow symbolize the truths on the 1843 Chart, which Ellen White calls the Rock of Ages—the Old Paths and the bread.

When He opens up their understanding in the tarrying time, He does so by sending angels up and down the ladder.

If you have received the truth, you have the responsibility to share it. If you fulfill your responsibility, you become the ladder—the channel of communication. We are called to be that channel.

Jacob has a tarrying time; he tarries and dreams of the ladder, which represents the Lord opening the understanding of His Word to His people during the tarrying time. In this history, the Lord is entering into covenant with His people, taking them from Luz and making them Bethel—the House of God.

The channel of communication represented by the angels ascending and descending on the ladder, who is Christ, is also represented in Zechariah. Sister White comments on this in Review and Herald, July 20, 1897, though she uses a different symbol.

"The golden oil represents the grace with which God keeps the lamps of believers supplied, that they shall not flicker and go out. Were it not that this holy oil is poured from heaven in the messages of God's Spirit, the agencies of evil would have entire control over men.

God is dishonored when we do not receive the communications He sends us. Thus we refuse the golden oil He would pour into our souls to be communicated to those in darkness. When the call comes, 'Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him,' those who have not received the holy oil, who have not cherished the grace of Christ in their hearts, will find, like the foolish virgins, that they are not ready to meet their Lord. They have not, in themselves, the power to obtain the oil, and their lives are wrecked. But if God's Holy Spirit is asked for, if we plead, as did Moses, 'Show me thy glory,' the love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts. Through the golden pipes, the golden oil will be communicated to us. 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.' By receiving the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, God's children shine as lights in the world." Review and Herald, July 20, 1897.

In the story of Jacob, we have the story of the Millerite History. There is a tarrying time, and he sees the ladder representing communication between Heaven and Earth.

Zechariah tells us about two golden pipes. A ladder has two primary staves or rails, but Zechariah calls them two golden pipes.

We are to receive the messages that come down from the ladder of Heaven and communicate them to others. If we do that, we become part of the ladder, part of the communication process.

Sister White ties this into the parable of the Ten Virgins.

In the Millerite History, they were fulfilling the parable of the Ten Virgins. Jacob's tarrying time is the tarrying time of Matthew 25 and Habakkuk 2: "Though the vision tarry, wait for it."

The story of Jacob and Zechariah are the same tarrying times.

The tarrying time marks, among other things, that the Lord is about to increase His followers' understanding of the Word of God. If you do not receive that Holy Oil, you are a foolish virgin.

When you reach this history, when the door closes and you are a foolish virgin, Sister White says, "The saddest words that were ever heard, 'I knew you not.'"

You cannot separate the tarrying time from the Midnight Cry. The tarrying time produces the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which opens God's people's understanding to the Word at the Midnight Cry and provides the oil that distinguishes the wise from the foolish virgins.

There is a tarrying time when Christ performed His crowning act—raising Lazarus.

Jesus received the message, "Lazarus is sick. Come, take care of him." But Jesus did not go immediately.

Sister White says the disciples stumbled over this. They wondered why He was not going to help His friend, or prove His power as the Messiah. But He tarried.

He tarried to give them one more evidence that He had the ability to bring the dead to life.

This crowning miracle, the raising of Lazarus, set the seal of God on His work and claim to divinity.

At the Midnight Cry, the Lord is raising up the wise virgins. This is an illustration of the sealing process. The Millerites were being sealed, providing an illustration of the sealing of the 144,000.

The lesson of Lazarus is that Christ can take someone dead in trespasses and sins and bring them to life.

In the passage of Lazarus, Christ defines death as sleep.

They are all sleeping. He is tarrying. He will resurrect Lazarus, bringing them to life and placing His seal upon them. This is His crowning miracle.

In our history, when He seals the 144,000, He lifts them up as an ensign.

Zechariah says that ensign is as jewels in a crown. This is His crowning act.

With the outpouring and opening up of truth in the Millerite history, the tarrying time marks when the Lord opens up the truth. The ladder, with angels ascending and descending, is where the sealing process takes place.

Now we look at the Triumphal Entry. Notice what Sister White compares the Triumphal Entry to in Spirit of Prophecy, volume 4, page 250.

The Triumphal Entry represents the Midnight Cry.

Let us read what Sister White says about the Triumphal Entry in The Youth Instructor, February 21, 1901.

"The crowning miracle of the Saviour, in raising Lazarus from the dead, had had a wonderful effect upon the people, and a large and enthusiastic multitude was drawn to the place where Jesus was tarrying." So, He is tarrying in Bethany before the Triumphal Entry.

This refers to the Tarrying Time.

This was the first time during His ministry that Christ consented to ride, and the disciples interpreted this as a sign that He was about to assert His kingly power and authority, and take His position on David's throne.

Joyfully they executed the commission. They found the colt, loosed him, and brought him to Jesus, who sat upon him.

As Jesus took His seat upon the animal, the air was filled with acclamations of praise and triumph. He bore no outward sign of royalty, wore no dress of state, nor was He followed by soldiers. But He was surrounded by a company excited with expectancy.

He had just raised the dead. The people thought He was coming to be the Savior of Israel. Who were these people?

No mourning or wailing was heard in that procession. Those who had once been blind, but whose eyes had been healed by the Son of God, led the way.

Who leads the way? Those who used to be Laodicean's.

They pressed close to Jesus, while one whom He had raised from the dead led the animal He rode. Those once deaf and dumb, now healed, helped to swell the glad hosannas. Cripples, now walking, broke down palm branches and strewed them in His path.

The leper, once shut out from society, was there, cleansed by the Saviour's power. He laid his garment in the path of the Saviour, exclaiming, 'O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.'

The healed demoniac was there, now in his right mind, adding his testimony: 'The Lord hath done great things for me, whereof I am glad.'

The restored dead were there, praising Him. The widow and the orphan told of His wonderful works. Little children, those healed of diseases, and those brought back from the grave, bestrewed the path of the Redeemer with palm branches and flowers.

So, Jesus tarries in the House of the Poor, referring to the Tarrying Time.

Why? Because He is about to pour out His Holy Spirit and open their understanding, referring to the Midnight Cry.

In this story, He is coming as a King, referring to October 22, 1844. Does Jesus come to receive a kingdom on October 22, 1844? Yes.

This is the Triumphal Entry, and there are those who will raise the Midnight Cry.

Who are these people? They are those transformed by the power of Christ.

The message of Christ's righteousness, His power to change us from blind to seeing, from dead to living, from leper to pure, is carried in the history of the Triumphal Entry, prefiguring the Midnight Cry. What carries that message?

What is Christ riding upon? An ass. It is the Message of Islam that carries the message of Christ's righteousness.

In 1840, the empowerment of the First Angel's Message was connected to the restraint of Islam. The First Message leads to the Second Message; they cannot be separated.

The First Message carries the Second Message.

The First Message was confirmed when Islam was restrained, fulfilling prophecy. This confirmation empowered the First Angel's Message and led to the Protestants closing their doors against it.

The closing of the doors by the Protestant churches was the rejection of the Message of Islam.

The Millerite history prefigures our history.

The message of Christ's righteousness in the sealing time of the 144,000, when the Lord pours out His Holy Spirit and opens the Scriptures to the Laodicean's and lepers of Adventism, is again carried by the ass—the Message of Islam.

The Triumphal Entry is the King coming. On October 22, 1844, He receives the Kingdom. This is the Triumphal Entry.

It is in this time period that the two classes are being sealed into their fate.

A few Scriptures highlight the tarrying time. We will go through them quickly and close with a statement by Sister White.

Right here, March 22, 1844, referring to the Tarrying Time.

March 22, 1844, is not a prediction of Bible prophecy. It is the date the Millerites misunderstood, but it produced the first disappointment and marked the tarrying time.

The Scriptures do not claim that God produces the tarrying time. It is the people's misunderstanding that produces it: 'Though the vision tarry, wait for it, for it will not tarry, it does not lie.'

You can read this two ways. Either way, "Blessed is he that waiteth, and blessed is he that cometh to the 1335. But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."

The blessing of coming to the 1335 is not just about reaching the end of the time prophecy. The 1335 ends in 1843 on the Chart. The blessing is not just the end of the prophecy, but the experience of the tarrying time. The blessing takes place between the Tarrying Time and October 22, 1844. This is where you are to wait. "Blessed is he who waiteth."

The waiting is from the Tarrying Time to October 22, 1844. If you are waiting for Him, you will be blessed.

It was the misunderstanding of the Millerites that brought about the tarrying time. The vision is for an appointed time—October 22, 1844. It is not going to lie, but you will think it tarries because of misunderstanding.

Did the Lord design the misunderstanding? Yes. Sister White says so.

The Lord produced the misunderstanding through the 1843 Chart. William Miller said he never conclusively stated 1843, but in 1843 the brethren asked him to remove the 'if' and mark 1843 as a waymark. Sister White says this is a prophetic waymark, a fulfillment of Habakkuk 2. This waymark, dogmatically marking 1843, produced the tarrying time.

Notice Daniel 12:12-13: "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."—"Blessed is he that comes to the 1335. Blessed is he that comes to 1843," that is verse 12.

Verse 13: "But go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." Daniel 12:12-13 (KJV).

Sister White ties together verses 12 and 13, saying the blessing of the 1335 is fulfilled in 1843 and 1844. It is not about a point in time, but about those who wait for the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem by Christ, recognize the angels ascending and descending on the ladder, and enter into covenant with the Lord as He gives them the two tables of the covenant.