Thief in the Night or The Strange Case of the Missing Millennium

11. The light that blinds

it still did not satisfy me. As a detective in search of facts, it was not sufficient to know that He would be called by a new name. Therefore, I examined the Scriptures with care to see if I might find it.

I made a very welcome discovery; I actually did find a new name by which the Promised One might very well be known. The more I tested it, the firmer it held, and this name was repeated time after time in connection with the prophecies of the time of the end.

It was given so often, that there seemed little doubt that this would be one of the titles by which He, the Messiah, would be known in that day. He would be recognized as the ‘Glory of God’ or the ‘Glory of the Lord’.

Isaiah prophesied that the Plain of Sharon and the holy mountain, Carmel, would both be centres for the light and presence of the ‘Glory of the Lord’ in the last days. He said:

“… the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the Glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.”¹

Again in the chapter preceding the one in which he, Isaiah, promises that God will raise up a ‘righteous man from the East’, he foretells:

“And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of God hath spoken it.”²

In the next chapter but one Isaiah adds the warning:

“Hear, ye deaf; and look ye blind, that ye may see.”³

One group among the millennial scholars of the 1844 period was so certain that the ‘Glory of God’ would appear on the side of Mount Carmel, as foretold by Isaiah, that they sold all they owned and sailed for the Holy Land.

This group was originally under the leadership of Leonard H. Kelber. Their home was in Germany, where they were known as Templars. They were disillusioned when Christ did not appear, as expected, between 1843 and 1845, so they abandoned their former life and settled at the foot of Mount Carmel to await the great day of His coming.

They were positive that the ‘Glory of God’ would appear on the side of Mount Carmel. Their study of the Scriptures assured them that this promise would be kept. In the stone arches above their doorways, they chiselled the words which held their hopes:

der herr ist nahe (The Lord is near).

Further search uncovered additional evidence that the title ‘Glory of the Lord’ or ‘Glory of God’ would be the new name by which the Messiah could be identified in the latter days.

The Book of Revelation, which, as we have already seen, gave the date of 1844 (1260) for the end of the ‘times of the Gentiles’, and which promised the new name and the new city, also confirms the name or title of Him Who will be the central Light of that new city of God.

St. John declares:

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem … and the city had no need of the sun … for the Glory of God did lighten it.”¹

Christ Himself links the hour of His return with this same wondrous Figure ‘the Glory of the Lord’ or the ‘Glory of God’. He promises that in the last days He will appear in this very likeness of God, and in His glory:

“For the Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father.”²

This vision of the ‘Glory of God’ promised by Christ and

seen by St. John and Isaiah, is identical with the vision which came to Ezekiel. He saw the ‘Glory of God’ on more than one occasion, and associated it with a Promised One who would come into His House in a latter day. His coming, Ezekiel said, was:

“… the appearance of … the Glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face.”¹

It was this same ‘Glory of God’ that appeared to Daniel as well. When Daniel had his vision of the last days, he spoke movingly of the Prince, Michael, who came to help him, Michael who would stand up for the children of God at the time of the end.

When Daniel had his vision, he was unable to bear the glory of it. In his own words:

“… I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb.”²

The meaning of the word michael when translated into English is: One who looks like God. Thus, it appeared, that Daniel, too, had seen the ‘Glory of God’.

I uncovered another important clue that seemed to confirm the belief that this Figure seen by Daniel was identical with the one promised by Christ Himself for the time of His return.

Christ clearly explained the conditions of His second coming. He foretold that in that day everyone would see

“… the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven …”³

This exact same picture was given by Daniel as the vision he saw of the ‘latter days’. In fact, in almost the exact same words Daniel said:

“… one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven …”⁴

Furthermore, in that same chapter, for the second time, I found that Daniel foretold the hour when this would take place. This wondrous event, the coming of the Messiah, Daniel promised, will come to pass after

“… a time and times and the dividing of time.”¹

There seemed to be no end to the references that brought me back to the year 1844. Here once again I had found that same prophecy of 1,260 days, forty and two months, three and a half years, and now, ‘a time and times and the dividing of time’. Students of Scripture agreed that all these phrases referred to one period of time, namely 1,260 years.

This meant that I had found another reference to when the Messiah would come. According to Daniel, He would appear in the year 1260, and I knew already that in the calendar of the land in which Daniel saw his vision (Persia), the year 1260 coincided with the year 1844 of the West.

Daniel and Christ both had promised the coming of the ‘Son of man’. Daniel had been overwhelmed and had fallen to the ground because of the glory of his vision.

In other places too numerous to detail, I found this same prophecy of the coming of the ‘Glory of God’. Isaiah promised the faithful that:

“… the Glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.”²

And again:

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee … I the Lord am thy Savoir and thy Redeemer …”³

I was satisfied that I had uncovered sufficient evidence to indicate that the title by which the Messiah would be known when He appeared would be: ‘the Glory of the Lord’. This

would be the new name, just as Christ, ‘the Anointed One’, had been the old name.

In making the investigation into His name, I had also discovered additional information pointing to His coming with this new name in the year 1844.

I felt I was making progress.