High Priest

     Three distinctive teachings, added to the message of the second advent, set the group apart from all others. God began leading them into an understanding of these truths soon after the disappointment. On October 23, Hiram Edson, a Millerite, gained a correct understanding of the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. Edson describes the incident:

“‘After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, “Let us go and see, and encourage some of our brethren.” We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed open to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the most holy before coming to this earth.’”—Quoted by Francis D. Nichol,

The Midnight Cry, page 458.

    The ultimate conclusion of the believers was that they had been correct in their calculations of the time of the end of the 2300 years, but mistaken as to the event to take place at the end of the period. With the correct view of the ministry of Christ, they could see the reason for their disappointment, and yet not abandon their former positions on other prophecies and doctrines. They realized that their difficulties had arisen not because of any failure on the part of God to keep His promise, but because of their incomplete understanding of the operation of the antitypical service in the heavenly sanctuary.

Captain Of The Host P 91