Two Prophecies That Cannot Now Be Fulfilled

“I was shown the company present at the Conference. Said the angel, ‘Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus. ’”—Testimonies for the Church 1:131, 132 (1856).EWP 8.3

“The Lifegiver’s voice has not yet called the sleeping saints from their gloomy prisons, but we have not lost faith, because the predicted hour has not yet arrived.... The hour will come; it is not far distant, and some of us who now believe will be alive upon the earth, and shall see the prediction verified, and hear the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God echo from mountain and plain and sea, to the uttermost parts of the earth. All creation will hear that voice, and those who have lived and died in Jesus, will respond to the call of the Prince of Life.”—The Review and Herald, July 31, 1888, p. 482.EWP 8.4

a) God’s promises are conditional. Jeremiah 18:7-10; Jonah 3:4-10.EWP 9.1

b) Christ would have come before 1883 if we had been faithful. “Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, they would have seen the salvation of God, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward.”—Evangelism, 695.EWP 9.2