As Adventists, our story begins with embarrassment.
The Great Disappointment wasn’t just theological confusion—it was public, painful, and humbling. Jesus did not return when we expected Him to—and we expected Him soon. That sense of imminence has never left us. We don’t merely believe that Jesus is coming back someday; we believe He is coming back soon. We have lived in the long shadow of that expectation ever since.
That history has given us a complicated relationship with date-setting. Officially, we swore it off. Unofficially, we’ve watched a steady parade of voices cave to the temptation, stirring urgency into frenzy and certainty into spectacle. When the dates fail—as they always do—the damage is spiritual, relational, and yes, embarrassing.
But expectancy itself is not.
Adventism is shaped by urgent hope. Believing that Jesus is coming soon has fueled schools, hospitals, publishing houses, humanitarian work, and lives of sacrificial service. Expectancy and urgency, when held well, are good things. They prevent complacency. They promote action. They keep us oriented toward meaning rather than comfort.
What is embarrassing is when urgency is abused—when fear replaces hope, when “soon” becomes a tool of control, when us-versus-them thinking masquerades as faithfulness. Anti-Catholic paranoia, conspiracy thinking, and constant alarmism don’t prepare people for Jesus; they distort His character and exhaust His followers.
The problem isn’t believing Jesus is coming soon.
The problem is pretending we know how soon.
We can mature enough to hold both truths at once: Jesus is coming soon, and we do not know what “soon” means. Anyone who claims otherwise is mistaken.
So no—we shouldn’t be embarrassed that Jesus isn’t back yet. Instead, let’s model a generous, productive, hopeful expectancy—faithful living until whenever “soon” turns out to be.
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