Red heifers: Another great disappointment!

By: Masood Ashraf – USA

Baptist preacher William Miller was a man from Massachusetts who had not originally believed in anything divine, but his ideology changed after surviving tragedies in the war of 1812. From that day forward, he dedicated 7 years to intricately studying the bible and all its prophecies, finding explanations for all the information he read. Eventually, by the end of those 7 years, Miller not only had a deep faith in the Bible, but had claimed that he knew when the Second Coming of Christ was going to take place. He had “solved” the puzzle that the Bible had presented and had predicted that Jesus would descend to the earth sometime between March 21st, 1843 and March 21st, 1844. How did he come up with these dates? Well, Miller had calculated the arrival based on a particular line in the Bible referred to as Daniel 8, which stated “And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Miller had then converted the 2,300 days into years because it is a widely accepted theory of the Bible that days are used to symbolize years, as supported by another verse Ezekiel 4:6 stating “I have appointed thee, each day for a year.” Now, Miller just needed a start date to count the 2,300 years off from. Through other verses in Daniel, Miller had interpreted that date to be the time period from which the temple in Jerusalem was officially rebuilt, which was in 457 BC. Miller could now simply add 2,300 years to 457 BC and end up in the year 1844.

With a solid number in mind, Miller was ecstatic and he had eagerly displayed his mathematical calculations on a detailed poster and paraded through various areas, speaking publicly, and publishing his work internationally, convincing people that the second coming of Christ was soon to come. Many individuals could not find a genuine reason to argue against Miller’s claims, and soon enough, he had earned himself a significant following of people who referred to themselves as Millerites. They all excitedly waited for that day to arrive, hoping that their Lord and Savior would be revealed to them. However, as you might predict, it never happened. Thousands of individuals were upset at the lack of a coming and sought to blame Miller for his incorrect claims. One of his followers in particular, Samuel Snow, had taken up Miller’s work and claimed that he had not been entirely wrong, just a little off in regard to specific calculations. Snow calculated the arrival himself and rode horseback through town, exclaiming “October 22nd” as the new day in which Jesus would arrive. The people who had been so greatly let down in March suddenly had hope and something to look forward to again, so just like in the past months, they waited longer. Over 100,000 people gathered in various places, waiting for the coming of their Lord on October 22nd, but as midnight rolled in, doubt settled deep into the bones of the believers, a disappointment too great to allow for any other possible predictions in the near future. Thousands of people were left feeling empty, some abandoning their faith entirely, others refusing to let go of hope and creating their own denominations, and many attempting to forget the event ever happened and go back to their normal lives. However, regardless of how people had responded to the event, the one thing they all shared was a deep unsettling feeling of disappointment.

Although Miller’s unfortunate circumstance was a major upset to many people, it was not in its lonesome. In fact, many other groups predicted the coming of Christ along similar lines. Theologist Johann Jocob Zimmerman claimed Jesus would return in 1694. The Irvingits in England and Scotland had predicted 1835, 1838, 1864, and 1866.  S.S. Brewer and A. Decker predicted it would occur in 1867. Charles Taze Russel claimed it could occur in 1874. Sun myung moon offered a time between 1917 and 1930. And countless others made various different predictions around the 1800s and 1900s. Claus Epp, a leader of the Mennonite Brethren in Russia predicted March 8, 1889. Yet, during each of these events, everyone stood, eyes plastered to the sky in anticipation, waiting for a man to descend from the heavens, only to be met with an unblemished skyline. Were they wrong? Were all the calculations they had done beforehand baseless? Was Miller, Snow, and the many others that had tried to predict the coming of Christ incorrect? No, in fact, they were right, and they were very close to the truth. The only simple thing these groups never considered was the metaphor lying in the Messiah’s prophecy. Never was it meant by the books that a man would physically drift his way to the earth, but that a person would be born and his teachings would descend into the hearts of those around him.

Even in the bible itself, where Miller and others had made their predictions from, it states that the Messiah everyone is waiting for will “come like a thief in the night.” All of the signs that these groups were looking for were correct, the calculations they had all made were close, yet the only thing that prevented them from realizing the truth in their own words was the lack of focus on the aforementioned line. The Messiah was never meant to physically ascend, but to be born into this world without divine circumstances, and spread the message of peace and love to the far corners of the world. Yet, countless individuals still look to the sky for his return. And until people realize that the Messiah has indeed, already come, the searching and hatred will never cease. In fact, the situation occurring in Israel and Palestine directly reflects this idea. The violence we hear about in Palestine and Israel is related to these religious misconceptions, and the Jews of Israel, like many others, are still awaiting the Messiah’s descent and are preparing to do anything they can to make it happen.

Currently, the Jews of Israel have been inspecting 5 red heifers to be used in a potential ritualistic sacrifice in Jerusalem. They aim to build a “Third Temple” in order to bring upon the coming of the Messiah and according to their beliefs, the temple must exist on Al-Aqsa grounds and cannot be built until the mosque is destroyed and purified. The purification process involves the sacrifice of the special red heifers, who must not have more than 2 non-red hairs, can never have worked, never been milked, never given birth, and must be raised under strict circumstances until they are 2 years and one day old. Once the red heifers have been sacrificed, they will be burnt to ashes and combined with red yarn, cedar wood, hyssop, and fresh spring water collected by spiritually pure children born and raised under specific conditions. Although many Jewish scholars explain that a “Third Temple” can only be constructed after the coming of the awaited Messiah and not to bring about his return to Earth, this group of Jews believes that the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the ritualistic sacrifice of the red heifers will bring the Messiah down from the heavens and onto the Earth regardless. Once again, all of this effort will lead to yet another Great Disappointment and the date will simply earn itself a place in the growing list of false predictions made by individuals who have misunderstood the metaphor lying within the prophecy. People will never learn, and they will continue partaking in increasing amounts of violence in the name of sacrifice, looking for a way to bring about a spiritual cleansing that will never happen.

The Israelites have no problem slaughtering thousands of people and committing mass genocide because they believe that once their Messiah returns, he will kill all others who are not of their people anyways, so they claim that it is a necessary sacrifice in order to achieve a cleansed sanctuary. They believe that their beliefs are in the right, and all others will be killed for not sharing them. This idea is not specific to the Jews, however. Strangely enough, the Evangelical Christians are actually helping the Jews in their attempt to make this sacrifice because they believe that the person who the Jews are waiting for is actually going to be the Antichrist and that Christ will then follow in his descent soon after to kill him and everyone who is not of Christian faith in the final battle of Armageddon. Then, in the rubble of the aftermath, Jesus will set up his throne in the city of Jerusalem. Even with Muslims, they await their Messiah’s return although not in Jerusalem but east of Damascus and expect for him to kill all the Christians and Jews for being nonbelievers. Each religion is waiting for their respective Messiah to descend to earth and lay waste to everyone whose belief does not match theirs. But what dignity and faith can there be in a Messiah who is built on the blood of others? Are all the previous teachings about peace only reserved for those within a person’s respective religious communities? What happened to “love thy neighbor,” to “whosoever kills one person, it shall be as if they killed all mankind.” to “you shall not murder?” What religion can take pride in its triumph if its foundation lays on the deaths of the innocent? Is such a religion worth following? No, it cannot be. There is no compulsion in religion and belief should be based on love and compassion.  It is time for people to recognize this and investigate the idea that the Messiah everyone is desperately looking to, is not one that is worth waiting for, and that the real Messiah has already arrived. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a person who was born in 1835 and claimed to be the Messiah in 1889; someone who does not build their faith on cruelty, but on the concepts of mercy, humanity, and companionship. Maybe it is time to investigate his life and his claim of being the promised Messiah. For more on his life.

https://www.reviewofreligions.org/1599/my%E2%80%88claim-to-promised-messiahship/