X. Widespread Expectancy of Crisis About 1844

There was clearly a widespread expectancy of some event of great importance to take place about the year 1844. And it was commonly thought that this development would lead into, or be followed soon after by, the millennial period. This anticipation, based upon varying calculations and premises, was advanced by men of widely different persuasions. Some followed the now familiar pattern of the usual prophetic calculation of these great time periods. Others had rather odd or unusual ways of calculation-but nevertheless emphasized 1844 as an impending turning point in human affairs. An example in this latter category is JOHN GEORGE SCHMUCKER (1771-1854), ^{59JOHN GEORGE SCHMUCKER was born in Germany, coming to America with his parents when only four. Trained for the Lutheran ministry, he filled various pastorates in Pennsylvania and in 1820 helped to found the General Synod of the Lutheran Church. He was first president of their Foreign Missionary Society and was also president of the Pennsylvania Ministeiium for a time. In 1825 he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in recognition of his achievements.} pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Yorktown, Pennsylvania, in The Prophetic History of The Christian Religion (1817). To him a crisis was coming in 1844, with the millennium due to begin about 1850. ^{60Somewhat like Joseph Mede, Schmucker combined the seven seals to the first four centuries, which witnessed the spread of Christianity, the decline of paganism, and corruption of Christianity. The seven trumpets begin, he held, with the barbaric invasions of Rome and the resultant scenes of desolation. And they included the Vandals and Alarms under “Gense-rich.” The fifth trumpet was the Mohammedan-Saracenic torment, and the sixth the Turks and Tartars. The pure woman is the Christian church, the dragon was the pagan rulers and priests of Rome. The Beast from the sea is the Papacy, also called the great whore, with the beast from the earth as the Jesuits. The vials, he believed, began to be poured out in post-Reformation times, and on into the French Revolution. And the flying angels include Bengel. But the great crisis comes in 1844, he thought, with the “end of the line of kings,” a revolt in the Catholic states, the pouring out of the vials, great judgment scenes, and the ascension from the bottomless pit. The binding of Satan, Schmucker anticipated, would take place about 1850. (Based on tabular chart inserts in his Prophetic History.)} There are doubtless others, whose writings have not yet come to light, who would augment the growing chorus. The year 1843, or 1844, was increasingly the focal point of interest and expectation.PFF4 224.3