Hiram Edson

Hiram Edson (1806–1882) was a pioneer of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, known for
introducing the sanctuary doctrine (investigative judgment) to the church. Hiram Edson was a
Millerite adventist, and became a Sabbath-keeping Adventist. Like all Millerites, Edson expected
that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur on October 22, 1844. This belief was based
on an interpretation of the 2300 day prophecy which predicted that "the sanctuary would be
cleansed" which Millerites took to mean that Christ would return on that day.
 Hiram Edson

Personal details

Born Hiram Edson

December 30, 1806
Gorham, Maine

Died January 8, 1882

(aged 75)
East Palermo

Spouse 1830: Effa Chrisler

(died May, 1839);
1839: Esther Persons
 Children George, Susan,
Belinda, Viah Ophelia,
Viah Ophelia, Lucy
Jane

Occupation Pioneer of the

Seventh-day Adventist
Church

Early life
Hiram Edson, was a prosperous farmer of Ontario County, N.Y.. Edson's first wife, Effa Chrisler,
died in 1839, leaving him to care for three children. He soon remarried in Port Gibson, New
York.[1] At the time, Edson was a steward of the Methodist church who had embraced the
Millerite expectation of the Advent in the spring of 1843. His home in Port Gibson soon became
a home church for the believers of the region.

Involvement with the

Millerites
The Millerite message came to Rochester, New York, in 1843 and soon spread to Port Gibson.
The message was based on the preaching of William Miller and predicted that Christ would
return about the year 1843, which was later refined to October 22, 1844. This belief was based
on the day-year principle and an interpretation of the 2300 days mentioned in Daniel 8:14 which
predicted that "the sanctuary would be cleansed". The Millerites understood this verse to point
to Christ's return to "cleanse" the earth.

Edson, a Methodist, heard and accepted the message at an evangelistic series. On the last day
of the series, Edson was impressed to visit a dying neighbor and ask for his healing in the name
of the Lord. He followed through on this thought, entering the neighbor's home late that night
and laying his hands on him. It is said that the neighbor immediately threw off the blankets, got
out of bed, and began praising God. Soon the whole household was doing the same.[1]

That same night Edson believed that the Lord told him to begin preaching the Advent message
to his friends and neighbors. He struggled with the thought for days, finding this more difficult to
do even than healing the sick. He finally acted on his belief and soon three or four hundred of his
neighbors accepted the Advent message as well.[1]

The Great Disappointment

Edson spent October 22, 1844 with friends waiting for the event, and was heart-broken when
Jesus did not return as expected. He later wrote,

"Our fondest hopes and expectations

were blasted, and such a spirit of
weeping came over us as I never
experienced before. It seemed that the
loss of all earthly friends could have
 been no comparison. We wept, and
wept, till the day dawn."[2]
As the hours passed, Edson reflected on the events of the previous year. He believed he had
been given the power to heal the sick, and he had seen many hundreds of friends turn to Jesus
as a result of his preaching. His confidence soon returned, and he suggested that he and some
friends visit some nearby Adventists (or Millerites) to encourage them. On the morning of
October 23, 1844 they walked through Edson's cornfield to avoid the mocking jeers of the
neighbors who had refused to believe the Advent message.[3] It was in this cornfield that Edson
claimed to have received an insight from God. Accordingly, Edson came to understand that "the
cleansing of the sanctuary" meant that Jesus was moving from the Holy Place to the Most Holy
Place in the heavenly sanctuary, and not to the Second Coming of Jesus to earth:

"We started, and while passing through

a large field I was stopped about
midway of the field. Heaven seemed
opened 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 Place before coming to the
earth."[4]
Edson shared his new understanding with many of the local Adventists who were greatly
encouraged by his account. As a result, Edson began studying the Bible with two of the other
believers in the area, O. R. L. Crosier and Franklin B. Hahn, who published their findings in a paper
called the Day-Dawn. This paper explored the biblical parable of the Ten Virgins, which describes
a group of women waiting at a wedding for the bridegroom to arrive. The bridegroom, who was
thought to symbolise Christ, was delayed, of which the men saw a parallel in their own situation.
They attempted to explain why the "bridegroom" had tarried. The article also explored the
concept of the day of atonement and what the authors called "our chronology of events".

The findings published by Crosier, Hahn and Edson led to a new understanding about the
sanctuary in heaven. Their paper explained how there was a sanctuary in heaven, that Christ, the
heavenly High Priest, was to cleanse. The believers understood this cleansing to be what the
2300 days in Daniel was referring to. This distinctive Seventh-day Adventist belief is now known
as the investigative judgment. Crosier's published account of Edson's vision came into the
possession of James White (husband of Ellen G. White) and Joseph Bates, the latter of whom
visited Edson in New York and converted him to the seventh-day Sabbath.

Later life
At the close of a revival in 1855, Edson was ordained as a local church elder.[5] For many years
after the "Great Disappointment" when Jesus did not come as expected, he continued as a lay
preacher, working with Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, and J. N. Loughborough. He continued to
farm in the summer to pay his expenses. In 1850 Edson sold his Port Gibson farm to help
support the Sabbatarian movement, and sold a second farm two years later in Port Byron, NY so
that James White could purchase a printing press in Rochester. The Sabbatarian Adventist
movement was formally organized as the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. Edson was
credentialed as a minister in 1870.[5]

See also

Christianity
portal
Biography
portal

Seventh-day Adventist Church

Seventh-day Adventist theology
Seventh-day Adventist eschatology
Millerites
William Miller (preacher)
History of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church
28 fundamental beliefs
Questions on Doctrine

Teachings of Ellen White

Inspiration of Ellen White
Prophecy in the Seventh-day Adventist
Church
Investigative judgment
The Pillars of Adventism
Second Advent
Baptism by Immersion
Conditional Immortality
Historicism
 Three Angels' Messages
End times
Sabbath in Seventh-day Adventism
Ellen G. White
Adventist Review
Adventist
Seventh-day Adventist Church Pioneers
Seventh-day Adventist worship
Heavenly sanctuary

References

1. Maxwell, Mervyn. Tell It to the World.

Review and Herald Publishing Association,
Hagerstown, MD. pp. 46–50.
 2. Edson, Hiram. manuscript fragment on his
"Life and Experience," n.d. Ellen G. White
Research Center, James White Library,
Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Mich.
pp. 4–5.

3. The Life and Work of Hiram Edson by

James Nix, Thesis. Andrews University,
Berrien Springs, 1971, pp. 18-20. From
Edson's Manuscript.

4. F. D. Nichol. The Midnight Cry. p. 458.

5. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia.
pp. 493–4.

External links

Article: The Great Disappointment (htt

p://www.presenttruthmag.com/7dayadv
 entist/1844/4.html)

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