The 1845 Expectancy of the Second Advent

In view of the inevitable conclusion reached by the majority of the Adventists immediately after the Disappointment—that their message for the world closed on October 22, 1844—it was not strange that some should look forward to the autumn of 1845 as a time of importance. Not a few anticipated the jubilee year of deliverance at that time. Earnestly the Scriptures were searched for some clue. They found in Luke 12 the parable of the servants waiting for the return of their Lord, and the words of verse 38: “If he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so [waiting], blessed are those servants.” Could it be that Jesus would come in the “fourth watch,” or at the end of the year of expectancy? James White came to believe so, as presented in his article in The Day-Star, September 20, 1845. In recounting the history in 1847, he declared:1BIO 99.4

It is well known that many were expecting the Lord to come at the seventh month, 1845. That Christ would then come we firmly believed.”—A Word to the Little Flock, 22.1BIO 100.1

And then he revealed what averted another disappointment on the part of the believers:1BIO 100.2

A few days before the time passed, I was at Fairhaven, and Dartmouth, Massachusetts, with a message on this point of time. At this time Ellen was with the band at Carver, Massachusetts, where she saw in vision that we should be disappointed and that the saints must pass through the “time of Jacob's trouble,” which was future. Her view of Jacob's trouble was entirely new to us, as well as herself.— Ibid.1BIO 100.3

With a channel of communication now in the world, God in His mercy gave light that spared sincere Advent believers another disappointing blow.1BIO 100.4

Thus early in the experience of the emerging church, light new to herself and others, yet in full harmony with the Scriptures, was given by the Lord through His chosen messenger. The pioneers were conscious of this; a decade and a half later, when organizing the church, they refrained from the adoption of a creed, which could stand in the way of God giving new light through the visions.1BIO 100.5

Ellen and her sister Sarah returned to their home in Portland, Maine. But the battle continued in Massachusetts. Through the false representations of Turner, Haskins, Howell, and others, the believers were led to believe that the visions were of the devil, that James White mesmerized her, and that she could not have a vision if he was not present. Nichols, while visiting Portland, proposed what he hoped would check the opposition:1BIO 100.6

I proposed to Sister White [Harmon] and Sarah, her sister, who were then at their father's house in Portland, to come up to Boston without Brother White accompanying them, to visit the bands in Boston, Roxbury, and Randolph, and wherever the war against visions was manifest, to convince them if possible that they had been deceived by their teachers. They assented to this arrangement, and Sister White and Sarah accompanied me to Massachusetts, leaving Brother White in Portland, and made their home at our house.—DF 105, “Statement by Otis Nichols.”1BIO 100.7