On this reading, Adventism is a message for disappointed people. Its theology not only assured the disappointed that God had not abandoned them, it catapulted them to the center of the divine plan. This is the reason why dates and time charts have so captivated the Adventist psyche. As Bloom points out, Adventists, for all of their time charts, are not really interested in dates or even the patterns of chronology, for that matter. Through the visions of Ellen White, we have followed Jesus into the inner sanctum of God s sanctuary, where God s most secret plans have been made known to us.
Bloom appreciates the fact that disappointed people require attention, even if it is negative.
There is no shame in this. It is a law of life. Since 1844, Jesus Christ has been at work in the heavenly sanctuary blotting out sin, which, according to Bloom, turns out to mean something very different from forgiving sin. Rather than removing sin from the universe, or even relieving the consequences for those who suffer under sin and evil, Christ is in heaven transferring sin onto the head of Satan, the universal scapegoat. Eventually Christ will descend again to earth, as it was initially hoped he would do on October 22, 1844.