I bought this book believing it to be a new book by George Knight, only to discover this manuscript is a reprint of his Millennial Fever and the End of the World. Nevertheless, I appreciate having this book available again and find it indispensible for anyone who wants to know and understand the background of the world out of which the Seventh-day Adventist Church came.
Though the author writes as a historian, and this is desirable and commendable, one catches a sense that behind the history lies an intervening hand. His quite detailed analysis of how and why the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown, while the other various groups, including Sabbatarians that developed out of the Millerite movement, have not, becomes instructive and sobering.
All the main characters who supported, and in some measure, resisted Miller, are discussed objectively. The man himself is set before us with his greatness and failings. One’s admiration of William Miller can only grow when seen in the light of his achievements. I do not think a more useful and comprehensive portrayal of Miller, the Millerite movement he created, and its aftermath is presently available.
The contents of the book are arranged into three categories: (1) Moving Toward the Year of the End, (2) The Year of the End, and (3) Moving Away From the Year of the End. In this last section, Knight articulates some of his concerns for the future of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He sees three concerns that are dangerous to the future of the church: complacency, which has created a loss of urgency in witnessing; affluence, which has blunted faith in the actual imminent return of Jesus; and bureaucracy, seeing the church changing from a movement to an organizational giant, expending more and more of its resources on maintaining itself at the expense of its mission.
He laments that few in the church appear to have the perceptive grasp of what is required to recover the vibrant vision that initially energized, maintained, and motivated the church until the end of the twentieth century.
I find it encouraging to see this important book available again. The document is thought provoking, possessing the possibility of challenging and stimulating leaders and members to enlarge and expand their thinking of our heritage and how we can individually and collectively recapture the vision of a finished work.
