We Have This Hope

Seventh-day Adventists are people of hope.

Over the years, they have heartily preached and sung of Christ’s glorious second coming. An excellent example of this was the 1962 General Conference Session in San Francisco, California. “We Have This Hope” was the theme.

Wayne H. Hooper (1920–2007), a member of the King’s Heralds Quartet from the Voice of Prophecy radio broadcast, was asked to write the theme song for that conference. After much prayer, he composed both the lyrics and the tune for a song with the same title, “We Have This Hope.” The 1962 General Conference Session opened on Thursday evening, July 26, 1962, when the delegates to the session sang it for the first time.

It begins with these inspiring words: “We have this hope that burns within our hearts, Hope in the coming of the Lord.”51 “We Have This Hope” is one of the most-loved Adventist hymns and has even been used as the theme song for several other sessions (1966, 1975, 1995, 2000, and part of the 2015 session).

It has been translated into several other languages.

Before the 1995 General Conference Session, with “United in Christ” as its theme, Hooper was asked to write a second stanza, which was added to the song. What really matters is the message of the song and what it means for us.

We are now much closer to the Second Coming than when this song was first sung in 1962. Are we excited about it? Ellen White challenges, “Every day that passes brings us nearer the end. Does it bring us also near to God?” Take time to reflect on this question today.