This book is for Seventh-day Adventists who take their stand with the true Adventist pioneers whose ancestry go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Inherent in God's promise to crush the serpent's head was the promise of a Saviour. By faith Abraham claimed this promise. Isaiah told the world that the Saviour would be "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," but that eventually He would "see the travail of His soul and be satisfied" (Isa. 53:11).
Zechariah had the solemn duty to tell God's people that this Saviour would be wounded in the house of His friends. But they, by the spirit of grace, would come to their senses and say, "The Lord is my God." And as sacred history unfolded before the universe, this Son of Abraham, this Son of David, this Son of Man came, and was given the name Jesus, for He was to save His people from their sins.
But how few listened to Him when He walked among men and explained the eternal truths of His kingdom! His disciples today are as reticent to accept the cross as the Twelve who heard His voice 2000 years ago. Yet His kingdom shall be established, for He is the One who promised, "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself."
Today Adventists who claim this promise are Abraham's "seed" who take their place in sacred history. They verily belong to Christ and have committed their all to the truth of His Word. He not only said He would come back again, to claim them for His own, but He gave every reason to know when that time was near.
If we as a church will read our history and believe the counsel God sent to us, and only listen to the Holy Spirit, we will be compelled to see that there has been a delay in the second advent. The Spirit of Prophecy counsel is adamant that the Lord sent to this people in 1888 a message of light that was to "fill the whole earth with its glory" and to be "proclaimed with a loud voice and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit" (Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 89-98).
The total truth of the entire Bible was to be summarized in that message that the Lord sent to us--the priceless gift of Christ's own righteousness. The completion of the plan of salvation hinges upon the acceptance by the church of that light from heaven and its proclamation to the world.
In this book an attempt is made to give a sanctified common sense reason that our 1888 history provides, which shows us how our Seventh-day Adventist leadership failed then to understand God's purpose. But we all may know "why the delay."