{"id":4987,"date":"2018-11-15T23:58:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T23:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/?p=4987"},"modified":"2023-08-29T11:23:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:23:43","slug":"a-change-of-emphasis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/a-change-of-emphasis\/","title":{"rendered":"A Change of Emphasis"},"content":{"rendered":"
Like most churches of the nineteenth century, the Church of Christ, Michigan, and the Church of Jesus Christ, Iowa, believed that most Bible prophecies had been fulfilled. It was generally believed that the seven churches of Asia Minor, identified in Revelation 2 and 3, represented church eras and that the Christian church was in the Laodicean, or the last church, age.<\/p>\n
The Iowa and Michigan churches anticipated the second coming of Jesus as the next great prophetic event. According to The Hope of Israel<\/em> (October 10, 1863), they expected Jesus\u2019 return to be accompanied with the resurrection of the righteous dead to everlasting life, the establishment of His millennial kingdom on earth, restoration of the earth \u201cto more than its Eden glory and beauty.\u201d They anticipated that at the end of the millennium, the wicked would be resurrected and annihilated in the lake of fire just prior to the establishment of God\u2019s eternal kingdom.<\/p>\n
These churches also anticipated the reestablishment of the State of Israel. This series of beliefs, as a whole, was known in the 1850s as \u201cthe age to come\u201d doctrine.<\/p>\n
The Michigan and Iowa churches believed the 1,260 years of domination by the Roman church\u2019s papacy over the Christian world, spoken of in Daniel 7, had ended in 1798. They believed that Catholicism\u2019s authority would continue to diminish in the years to come until it was ultimately destroyed by the brightness of Jesus\u2019 coming.<\/p>\n