Cornerstone Magazine - The Voice of Jesus People USA

What John Greenleaf Whittier, the 19th century poet and abolitionist, so picturesquely describes is a prophecy chart--the kind featured in the exhibition "Prophecies: Adventist Charts from the Jenks Memorial Collection, Aurora University," which ran through February 23, 2002, at Intuit. In fact, the chart that so fascinated Whittier-a hand-painted and hand-lettered original (now lost)-inspired the most famous lithograph in the Intuit show, which is known as the Chart of 1843. The original was devised by two 19th century ministers, Charles Fitch and Apollo Hale, who were both (as far as I've been able to ascertain) untrained artists. Their creation played an extraordinary role in the history of Evangelical Christianity in America, helping to establish Adventism, the belief in Christ's imminent return to earth, as a powerful and influential religious movement. Equally intriguing, their invention also helped to provoke a strain of popular religious art that has not only shaped the imagery of many Christian publications but also influenced the work of contemporary self-taught artists.

The Chart of 1843, actually printed in 1842 and measuring approximately 4 feet 7 1/2 inches by 3 feet 2 1/2 inches, displays a variety of images, including the scene of the Crucifixion and prophecy motifs inspired by the Old Testament Book of Daniel and by the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. It also contains printed comments, so that those who used the chart could understand the correct meaning of its numbers and illustrations. Its distinguishing feature, however, is the large statue that figures so prominently in Whittier's description. It derives from Daniel 2, where Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, dreams of a huge statue of a man with a head of gold, chest of silver, thighs and belly made of brass, and legs of iron with feet of iron and clay, which is destroyed by a hurling stone. Often called the Colossus of Nebuchadnezzar, the statue's significance is spelled out in Daniel 2:36-45, where Nebuchadnezzar's dream is interpreted by Daniel, a Jewish youth at the Babylonian court. The statue symbolizes four kingdoms or eras of human history, each succeeding the other and each more inferior than the last. The hurled stone that strikes the statue down is a fifth kingdom: it symbolizes the rule of God that is destined to destroy the statue-and thus human history-at the end of time.

Understanding the end-time symbolism of Nebuchadnezzar's Colossus is crucial even today for people who believe in Bible prophecy, and the statue's significance did not escape the notice of William Miller, an influential 19th century Baptist lay preacher. Drawn to the study of Bible prophecy, Miller identified the statue's gold head as Babylon, the silver chest as the Medo-Persian Empire, its bronze thighs and belly as the empire of Alexander the Great, and the iron legs with its feet of iron and clay as pagan Rome and the numerous small kingdoms established in its wake. Miller's understanding of the figure and his analysis of other prophetic sayings in the Bible led him to believe the world was indeed perched at the edge of disaster and that humanity was now facing its final hour. Miller contended that the stone that breaks the statue apart symbolizes Christ's Second Coming. He calculated, moreover, that the Lord would return to earth sometime between March 21, 1843, to March 21, 1844.

Miller preached to enthusiastic audiences, and ultimately his followers, known today as the Millerites, may have numbered as many as 100,000. To explain his end-time chronology and its basis in the Bible, Miller and other lecturers who accepted his ideas employed teaching charts, the most famous being the Chart of 1843. Officially adopted by the Millerite General Conference of 1842, the chart was first used at the Adventist camp meeting of June 1842 in New Hampshire, where Whittier saw and described it. Joshua V. Himes, Miller's right-hand man, a gifted publicist and promoter, quickly printed the chart and disseminated it widely. Himes was the head of a thriving publishing system, which produced more than five million pieces of literature, giving Miller's theories worldwide exposure. The charts were published in newspapers, pamphlets, brochures, and leaflets, and widely used in classrooms, tent revivals, and other public settings. So closely were such charts identified with the Millerites that on March 2, 1843, they were lampooned on the front page of Horace Greeley's New York Tribune (here). When the Messiah failed to appear by March 1844, the Millerites were forced to regroup and reexamine the Bible's prophecies, finally establishing a new end-time chronology and a specific date for Christ's return: October 22, 1844. When once more the Lord did not appear, the hopes of the Millerites were completely shattered, resulting in what is known in history as the "Great Disappointment."

The Great Disappointment fractured the Millerite movement into several groups, but it established Adventism as a primary concern among Evangelical Christians and a major theme in American religion. Moreover, the idea of using biblically inspired imagery to teach and preach prophecy was continued by such Adventist groups as the Adventist Christian Church, the Seventh-day Adventists, and the Jehovah's Witnesses. The making of prophecy charts for use in tent revivals, large public gatherings, and in books, brochures, and pamphlets flourished in many Evangelical settings.

Possibly the most famous early artwork related to the Millerite chart tradition is a remarkable, late 19th century "Missionary Map" in the Smithsonian. It, too, bears the familiar Colossus and the apocalyptic motifs found on the Chart of 1843 but also pictures other biblically inspired prophecy motifs. The charts at Aurora University, which was originally founded in 1893 by the Advent Christian Church, demonstrate the tradition of making prophecy charts continued well into the 20th century. The sheer number of charts in the Jenks collection-there are 33-and the variety of their scale and imagery are astonishing. Moreover, the charts, which span a century (the earliest dates from 1842, the latest to the 1940s), demonstrate the longevity of the tradition. Along with other historical documents in its collection, the charts make Aurora University's holdings one of the most (if not the most) important collection of Adventist materials in the world.

The scale of some of the charts from the Jenks Collection is absolutely incredible. Two of the largest, signed by C. H. Locke of Lake Village, New Hampshire, were made for use at tent revivals. One stretches 50 feet while the other, exhibited in "Prophecies," is more than 38 feet long. Although neither portray Nebuchadnezzar's Colossus, both represent a number of prophecy motifs, including the "Son of Man Standing Among the Candlesticks," the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," the "Sun that Turns to Black and the Moon to Red," and the "Four Angels at the Corners of the Earth" from the Book of Revelation. At the far right in the chart exhibited at Intuit is a depiction of heaven modeled on an actual site: Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Another chart in the exhibition was signed and dated 1927 in Portland, Oregon, by George Bingham, who attended art school in New York but moved to Portland, where he opened an art supply business. Measuring approximately 11 feet 8 1/2 inches by 7 feet 5 inches, it is densely packed with apocalyptic motifs, including the Colossus, as well as the "Woman Standing on the Moon" and the "Seven Headed Dragon" from Revelation.

Among the latest banners in the collection are ones dating to the1930s and '40s, created by Henrietta Black, who lived in the midwest and took courses at the Kansas City Art Institute. Two of Black's paintings are featured in Intuit's exhibition. One, measuring 9 feet 1/2 inch by 5 feet and dated 1933, pictures the earth's destruction foretold in Revelation. It features a panoramic view of the cosmos framed by the familiar motifs of the sun and the moon. At the right is the scene of the "Four Angels at the Corners of the Earth" and in the center, the earth and its buildings rocked by a catastrophic earthquake. At the left is the altar with the slain souls of the witnesses of the Lord, described in Revelation 6:9. This scene is situated behind a cemetery with crosses and a number of tombstones, one neatly labeled with the artist's name. A second chart dating 1935 and measuring 10 feet 8 3/4 inches by 4 feet 11 1/2 inches depicts in majestic terms the familiar Colossus as well as four apocalyptic beasts, also inspired by the Book of Daniel. Both banners reject the diagrammatic presentation that characterizes most of the other charts in the Jenks collection. Rather, Black's charts display a more narrative approach that seeks to visually re-create the biblical figures in spacious landscape settings.

Nebuchadnezzar's Colossus, which is featured so prominently in the prophecy charts in the Jenks collection, is not a newcomer to Intuit or The Outsider. The fabled statue appears, for example, in the work of Chicago self-taught artist Reverend Samuel David Phillips, whose art has been shown twice at the Center (most recently in the retrospective "Rear Vision: The First Ten Years" and earlier in an exhibition solely devoted to his work. See especially The Outsider, volume 3, issue 1, summer 1998). Phillips, who came from Georgia, created teaching charts for use at the Progressive Pentecostal Mission, where he served as pastor from 1960 until his death in 1973. Now in the collection of his grandson, Turtel Onli, the charts demonstrate in their didactic function and subject matter the imprint of the Millerite forerunners.

In fact, Adventist charts inspired a long tradition of prophecy art in America. Not only did they lead doomsday preachers to make and use their own prophecy charts, but they made a lasting impact on popular religious imagery, including publications dealing with prophecy seminars and even charts used on television. Most recently, the Colossus appears in Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice's Charting the End Times: A Visual Guide to Understanding Bible Prophecy (Harvest House Publishers, Eugene Oregon, 2001, p. 88). Prophecy charts can also be found on the Internet (try www.armageddonbooks.com, where you can also follow links to 265 other prophecy-related sites). The desire to teach and preach Bible prophecy and the use of prophecy motifs also characterize the work of such well-known self-taught artists as William Blayney, Josephus Farmer, Howard Finster, Sister Gertrude Morgan, William Thomas Thompson, and Myrtice West. The grounding of these artists in the teachings of Evangelical Christianity, their enthusiasm for Bible prophecies, and their hope for Christ's Second Coming closely associate them with the makers of the Adventist charts. Thus Intuit's "Prophecies" showcases a little-studied but significant moment in the history of American art whose legacy-both artistic and religious-is still very much in evidence today.

Cornerstone magazine online would like to thank Chicago's Intuit Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, who graciously shared their magazine's article with us. All rights are reserved by Intuit Museum. Intuit has some wonderful folk art, including that of Howard Finster and other biblically inspired artists. (Consider this an unsolicited plug for Intuit!)

ABOUT the AUTHOR: Carol Crown, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Memphis holds the PhD. from Washington University, St. Louis. Dr. Crown is the curator of “Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South,” an exhibition of contemporary religious folk art that has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and will open at the Art Museum of The University of Memphis (AMUM) in October 2003 and travel. She is the editor of Visions to Behold! The Visionary Paintings of Myrtice West, a book anthology of writings by widely- respected artists, collectors, and specialists in the field of contemporary folk art. Dr. Crown’s special interest is the religious imagery employed by self-taught artists. Her writings appear in The Outsider, a publication of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Number, Inc: An Independent Journal of the Arts, Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion, and the Oxford American Journal. She has presented scholarly papers at the American Academy of Religion, Southeastern College Art Association, Southeastern Council on Religious Studies, the Sixth International and Interdisciplinary Built Form and Culture Conference, University of Cincinnati, and “Global Arts Beyond 2000,” Auckland, New Zealand. She curated “Noah’s Art: Animals by Southern Self-Taught Artists,” an exhibition with catalog organized by AMUM,1995-1996. Currently, Dr. Crown is the essayist and educational consultant for “Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists,” a traveling exhibition organized by Exhibits USA, scheduled to open in 2002. She also organized and chaired “Purpose, Meaning, Context, and the Work of Self-taught Artists,” a session at the 2002 College Art Association Conference.