Exposing Adventism - Second Coming is History, Not Prophecy?

According to Seventh-day Adventist Historicism, the Lord's Second Coming is History, Not Prophecy.

Seventh-day Adventists claim that they are now in the "time period" represented by the Laodician Church. They also say that the time of testing mentioned in Rev. 3:10 is a reference to Revelation 13:13-17, which they place in the future.

Revelation 3:10 clearly refers to the Church at Philadelphia which is seen by Seventh-day Adventism as symbolic of the second last period in the history of the church (generally dated from the later years of the 18th century till 1844). The Laodicean period follows on from it, and continues until the second advent.

The burden of proof is upon S.D.A. historicists to show how the Lord could help the believer living in the "Philadelphian" period of church history from being overcome in the hour of testing when, according to their assertion, the hour testing doesn't occur during the "Philadelphian" period, but rather during the "Laodicean" period.

Now in traditional S.D.A. historicism, the time of temptation described in Revelation 3:10 is described as "Satan's final effort". Following on from the above assertions, S.D.A. historicism should say, to be consistent, that the faithful believers who lived through the "Philadelphian" period of church history (generally held by them to occur between the late 18th century and just after 1844) were kept by God during "Satan's final effort" to deceive the world, and furthermore, that the events of Revelation 13:13-17 occurred during this same period of the church.

The implications of the Seventh-day Adventist scheme that interprets the churches as consecutive periods is that since we are no longer in the "Philadelphian" period but rather in the next period-the "Laodicean"- the last great crisis of the world is behind us, probation for the human race closed nearly 165 years ago, the issue over the mark of beast is long past, the seven last plagues have already fallen, and the Lord's coming is really history and not prophecy.

• Frank Basten, Revelation 3:10-the Death-knell of SDA Historicism