III. Scope and Purpose of Volume 3

This volume comprises the third of the series tracing the prophetic faith of our fathers. The set covers the entire Christian Era, as well as certain antecedent Jewish interpretations of prophecy carried over into the Christian church. The precise field of discussion for Volume 3, its limits and its relationships, may be seen at a glance from the accompanying diagram.PFF3 13.1

Two independent but vitally significant lines of prophetic exposition converge to form the background and setting of the nineteenth-century great Second Advent Movement of the New World. The first part (No. 1) presents the little-known colonial American and early national interpreters, who were independent of, but nevertheless closely paralleled, the Old World expositors. They begin with John Cotton in 1639, and continue with increasing clarity, fullness, and accuracy for nearly two centuries. They, with their contemporary Old World expositors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, form the ancestral line from which William Miller and his associates of the early nineteenth century drew most of their leading positions on the prophetic symbols and time prophecies.PFF3 13.2

The second line (No. 2) that converges to form the immediate background of the American Advent Movement is the Old World Advent Awakening of the early decades of the nineteenth century. These prophetic expositors were scattered over Great Britain and the Continent of Europe, and definitely touched Asia and Africa. Their work slightly antedates and partly parallels the rising Advent Movement of the New World.PFF3 14.1

This great galaxy of Old World witnesses, two hundred strong, produced hundreds of separate books and pamphlets, and issued some fourteen periodicals devoted chiefly to prophetic discussion. They formed organizations, inaugurated the plan of study groups, and held conferences on prophecy. Much of their prophetic evidence and argument set the early pattern for their fellow heralds of the advent in America. They also provided the initial publications, pending development of an indigenous American prophetic literature. On most points they were in virtual agreement, but on a few they were sharply at variance.PFF3 14.2

Only as these backgrounds are known and understood does the broader significance of the great American Advent Movement (No. 3) become fully apparent. That movement drew most of its leading positions on prophecy from these colonial American and Old World post-Reformation expositors, and the revived Reformation expositions of the British and Continental European students of the early nineteenth century.PFF3 14.3

In this way we are enabled to see the larger import as well as that greater scope and deeper rooting of the last-day Advent Movement. The world character of this great modern revival of prophetic study and proclamation assumes a place and a significance otherwise impossible. The immediate purpose is therefore to develop and portray this twofold background. The goal of all our quest—the unfolding story of the great nineteenth-century Advent Movement of America—must be reserved for the final volume.PFF3 14.4

To this unique task we shall address ourselves, summoning the witnesses, noting their names, the leading facts in their lives, their competence to testify, and the amazingly explicit witness of their writings on prophecy.PFF3 15.1