Promise Land Ministry

Joshua V. Himes

   As Joshua the patriarch was a help and organizer to the aid of Moses, so was Joshua Von Himes a help and organizer to the aid of William Miller and the cause of warning the world of the Judgment. (Daniel 7:9-13)

   "For eight years, Miller, who made it a rule to go only where the Lord  'opened the way', was kept immensely busy in small churches in little towns.  In the fall of 1839 at the close of a service in Exeter, New Hampshire, he met a man who changed the course of his career.

   "Joshua V. Himes at the age of thirty-four was already widely known in New England as an ardent crusader against slavery, liquor, and war.  Seeking in every way to make the world a better place to live, he was deeply moved as he listened to Miller's message on the 2300 days.  As soon as the meeting was over, Himes stepped up briskly and invited Miller to repeat the sermon in his chapel on Chardon Street in Boston.

   "Thus on December 8, 1839, Miller presented his first series in a major city.  Interest was so great that meetings were scheduled twice a day, yet hundreds had to be turned away for lack of space."  Tell it to the World p. 16

   "Little did Miller realize that as Himes listened day by day to the lectures, great thoughts were stirring in his mind.  Miller did not know that this pastor was in some respects different from any other preacher whose church he had visited.  Here was a man of action, a born promoter, a man whose name was soon to be linked with his in every discussion of Millerism throughout the country.  It was Himes who made the Boston visit important.  The quality of importance ever resides in personalities, in people.  It is not multitudes in the abstract, not buildings, not organizations that accomplish great things, but men, individual men with vision, conviction, faith, and ardor.  Himes was in the spiritual succession of those who long ago were accused of turning the world upside down.

   "So far as Himes was concerned, Miller's preaching was either true or false.  He squarely confronted Miller with the question: 'Do you really believe this doctrine?' That question was no sooner answered than it was followed with this: 'What are you doing to spread or diffuse it through the world?'

   "In that initial question is found a true insight into the man Himes.  For him there was only one question of importance.  If the message was really true, then what steps should be taken to blazon it over the whole land?  Action, and on a large scale and without delay-- that was the spirit of Joshua V. Himes.

   "For Himes, who had now accepted Miller's views, there was only one response he could make: 'I laid myself, family, society, reputation, all, upon the altar of God, to help him, to the extent of my power, to the end'.

   "Himes could not understand why Miller had not been in the large cities before.  Miller explained that he had gone only to those places where he had been invited.  Himes inquired whether he would be willing to go with him 'where doors are opened'.  Miller assured him he would.  'I then told him he might prepare for the campaign', said Himes; 'for doors should be opened in every city of the Union, and the warning should go to the ends of the earth!  Here I began to "help" Father Miller'." The Midnight Cry p. 71, 72

   "Himes made many dynamic contributions.  Perhaps his greatest was through publications.  In February 1840, without money or subscription list, he launched the first Adventist periodical, Signs of the Times.  It catapulted Adventism into prominence.

   "For a while Himes edited the Signs himself.  As the movement spread, he got others to stay at the office while he started other journals in other cities or encouraged men of talent to publish papers of their own.  Within four years the advent message was proclaimed in different cities by the Midnight Cry, the Glad Tidings, the Advent Chronicle, the Jubilee Trumpet, the Philadelphia Alarm, the Voice of Elijah, the Southern Midnight Cry, the Western Midnight Cry, the True Midnight Cry, and several others--most of them clearly written, ably edited, and well printed on good paper.  There are books too, a series of more than forty known as 'The Second Advent Library'.  Before the great disappointment of October 22, 1844, eight million copies of Adventist literature found the people and spread the word." Tell it to the World p. 18

   Joshua Himes also produced the  "1843 Prophecy Chart".  One of the greatest contributions to helping folks understand the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.

   "I have seen that the 1843 chart was directed by the hand of (YHWH), and that it should not be altered; that the figures were as He wanted them." Early Writings p. 74 by Ellen G. White.  In other words, the arrangement of the time lines were as He wanted them, and that the preeminent application of them were for "our own time" . . . "extending to the very eve of the great consummation." Review & Herald 9/25/83

   Parents take thought for the name that is given to your child, for it may affect him/her as it did Joshua Himes.  For he did his best to live up to that great name!

   Joshua Himes must have known the variations of his name as only shown in the King James Version, such as Jehoshua (Num. 13:16 & I Chr. 7:27) and Jeshua (Neh. 8:17).  The name "Jehoshua" has the element of the sacred name in it as saith the Scriptures, "My name is in him" Exodus 23:21, which most know as Jehovah.  The original sacred name is briefly comprehended by looking at Elijah's name in the margin of I Kings 17:1 KJV.  This name also contains the element of the sacred name "Jahu" or "Yahu".  The prophets name was Eliyahu, meaning "my El is Yahuvah", or more accurate Yahuwah.  The prophets name was not  Elijeho! 

   Once this is comprehended we know that Joshua's original name was Yahushua!  Joshua successor of Moses is called Jesus in the KJV Apocrypha in II Esdras 7:37, Ecclesiasticus 46:1 & I Maccabees 2:55, also the New Testament in Acts 7:45 & Hebrews 4:8, because they were based upon Greek manuscripts, whereas the Old Testament is based on the Hebrew, the language spoken from Mt. Sinai, and written on tables of stone.  The Messiah was raised by Jewish parents in a Hebrew neighborhood.   This means that our Saviour had the same name as "Joshua"!

   Scripture presents Joshua as a type of the Messiah, the New Joshua.  Joshua's conquest of Canaan and his leading the Israelites into the rest into the Promise Land is a sublime prefigure of YAHUSHUA's personal conquest over the powers of evil and leading spiritual Israel (Gal 3:29) to the eternal inheritance in the New Earth, the original intended promise of the Promise Land.

   The name Joshua (originally YAHUSHUA) means YAHUWAH's Saviour, or YAHUWAH's Salvation.  YAHUSHUA obtained salvation for mankind by His self sacrifice, "even the death of the cross.  Wherefore El also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of YAHUSHUA every knee should bow." Philippians 2:8-10

What a wonderful meaning in the name "Joshua"!