On the Day October 22 1844

On the Day October 22 1844

Miller Gets It Wrong with Christ's Return

Khen Lim




William Miller (Image source: dedication.www3.50megs.com)

Not once was it ever revealed in the Bible the date of Christ’s return though many have foolishly found out by their predictions. Even Jesus had said that no man knows the hour or the day and basically warned us not to try. Still, we even have theologians making spurious and outlandish claims, like a certain Baptist preacher William Miller.

By boldly predicting that Christ would return on this day, one-hundred and seventy-two years ago in 1844, Miller not surprisingly amassed a huge following. However despite the foolhardiness, his approach to predicting the date was not outlandish but instead, it felt believable but then again, much throughout church history, many have treaded along similar ‘logical-sounding’ theories as well.

Between 1831 and 1844, Miller was caught up by the prophecies of Daniel 8:14, which says, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” He took the phrase ‘sanctuary be cleansed’ to mean the purification of the Earth by fire but instead of implying the sanctuary in Heaven, he assumed it to be symbolic of Christ’s Second Coming. 

Alluding to the great church scholars of yore like Augustine and Bede, these 2,300 days were taken to refer to 2,300 years because each day counted for a year. Miller was convinced that these 2,300 years had to begin from the period 457 BC in which the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes of Persia.  

William Miller (Image source: goran.waldeck.se)

Therefore then, the seventy ‘weeks’ mentioned in Daniel 9:24 were taken to mean 490 years and these were then ‘cut off’ from the 2,300, which leaves us with 1,810 years. With the assumption that Christ died in the year 31 AD, with 3 ½ years of Daniel’s seventieth week still to run. 

So Miller added those 3 ½ years to 31 (AD) to arrive at roughly 34 AD, which then represented the point at which the 1,810 years were supposed to commence. From there, 34 added to 1,810 gave Miller the year 1844. Some technical deliberations compelled Miller to arrive at a date somewhere within October of that year.

In hindsight, Miller’s deliberations were apparently not without merit for it was claimed that they matched actual historical events in line with the sequence of events laid out in Daniel 11. 

For example, Byzantium, the pope, Egypt, Turkey, France and others seemed to draw much parallels with the predictions from the Bible. From this point, it wasn’t difficult to imagine Miller going to great lengths in convincing a whole lot more people.

To his credit, repeated urgings from his supporters did not convince Miller to announce the exact date for Christ’s Second Coming. However, he probably couldn’t resist narrowing the time period to somewhere around the Jewish year 5604. 

Here, he said, “My principles in brief are, that Jesus Christ will come again to this Earth, cleanse, purify and take possession of the same, with all the saints, sometime between March 21 1843 and March 21 1844.” 

Well, that day passed by and nothing happened but much of Miller’s followers remained undeterred in their belief.

Through further studies, Miller came up with a new date – April 18 1844 – by deferring to the Karaite Jewish calendar instead of the Rabbinic version. Yet again, the date passed and there was nary a sign of Christ’s return. 

At this point, Joshua Himes of the Advent Herald newspaper wrote on April 24 that despite the previous expected dates had passed uneventfully, they had been “mistaken in the precise time of the termination of the prophetic period” and that in fact, it was more likely “only in error relative to the event which marked its close.” 

To that, Miller wrote to the newspaper addressing ‘Second Advent Believers,’ that in spite of his error and palpable disappointment, he “still believe that the day of the Lord is near, even at the door.” 

Samuel S Snow (Image source: baanbrekers.co.za)

Later in August 1844 at a camp meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, it was a sceptic-turned-Millerite, Samuel S Snow, who provided a slightly different take on Miller’s calculations. 

Still using the 2,300-day prophecy in Daniel 8:14, he drew on his interpretation called ‘seventh-month message’ and based his discussion on ‘scriptural typology’ in which doctrines are established that concern the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. Here was a biblical interpretation in which an element found in the former is seen to prefigure one found in the latter. In other words, it was a special kind of symbolism. For a clearer explanation, click here.

In his presentation, which still relied on the Karaite Jewish calendar, Snow predicted that Christ would return on “the tenth day of the seventh month of the present year, 1844,” which when translated into our Gregorian calendar, was October 22 1844. And with this fresh prediction, the message spread like wildfire across the entire Miller followers before it fanned out into the general population.

Millerite camp meeting of the Second Great Awakening (Image source: news.adventist.org)

From that point on, it is said that more than 100,000 followers came together at that predicted time in makeshift temples and on the hill slopes to witness Christ’s return. 

The Reverend Maxwell Pierson Gaddis who was one of the many at the rallies, wrote in his findings:

“When midnight came and Christ had not returned, people grew restless. Some walked out. One person said allowance must be made for differences of latitude and longitude between Palestine and the U.S. At about one o’clock, one of the leaders rose and said, ‘I never did fix upon the precise time myself and I always told my brethren they would get into trouble if they did; but they would not listen to me, but followed other leaders… I believe the most important thing after all is to be ready…”

As it turned out, October 22 1844 fizzled into nothing. Without any event to show, feelings of disappointment were palpable among those who had followed Miller all along. 

One of the followers, Henry Emmons, wrote thereafter:

“I waited all Tuesday (October 22) and dear Jesus did not come; I waited all the forenoon of Wednesday and was well in body as I ever was but after 12 o’clock, I began to feel faint and before dark, I needed someone to help me up to my chamber as my natural strength was leaving me very fast and I lay prostrate for two days without any pain – sick with disappointment.”

The Great Disappointment (Image source: faculty.polytechnic.org)

Amidst the disappointments were also instances of physical violence. There were mob attacks and some churches were burned and vandalised. Shots were also fired at one group meeting in a private house. In all that unfolded, nobody felt more keenly than Miller’s followers and leaders who were in complete bewilderment and disillusionment. 

Unbelievably, some had the persistence to keep waiting. Others were reviewing the dates, believing it was a technical hitch. Eventually new dates were espoused including April, July and October of the following year. Some others proposed radical ideas that suggested the world had entered the ‘seventh millennium’ (Great Sabbath) in which the saved should cease to work.

In what eventually became known as ‘The Great Disappointment,’ most others gave up their beliefs and sought to rebuild their lives. For some of these people, this was no small feat because they had given away all their physical belongings and possessions, believing that they would be raptured and therefore had no need for material items anymore. 

To live past such a massive disappointment would be a mammoth undertaking, not to mention one filled with immense distraught. There were many who returned to their previous denominations, which were essentially the more traditional mainline churches while certain ones joined the Shakers, more formally known as ‘United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing.’

Perhaps the one visibly significant outcome of this disappointment was the formation of an offshoot denomination led by Miller himself called the Adventists. As it they in turn who went on to form the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In their beliefs is the understanding that what had transpired on this day in 1844 was not Jesus’ return but the beginning of His final work of atonement and the cleansing in the heavenly realm, both of which will then open the way for His Second Advent. 

Of course, the bigger problem for this new denomination was their oblique non-biblical views and falsified gospel. One of the more notable indictments against this denomination can be found here.

Useful reading sources (in alphabetical order)

-     Bliss, Sylvester (1853, reprinted May 2015). Memoirs of William Miller. Jasper, Oregon: Adventist Pioneer Library (https://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-William-Miller-Sylvester-Bliss/dp/1883925495)

-     Cross, Whitney R (1950). The Burned-Over District: A Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (https://www.amazon.com/Burned-over-District-Intellectual-Enthusiastic-1800-1850/dp/0801492327)

-     Knight, George R (January 1993). Millennial Fever and the End of the World: A Study of Millerite Adventism. Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub Association (https://www.amazon.com/Millennial-Fever-End-World-Millerite/dp/0816311765)

-     Kroll, Paul (2005, rev 2015). The Great Disappointment. Grace Communion International. www.gci.org (available as at October 21 2016 at https://www.gci.org/history/disappointment)

-     Lechleitner, Elizabeth (no date). Seventh-Day Adventist Church Emerged from Religious Fervour of 19th Century. Adventist News Network. http://news.adventist.org (available as at October 21 2016 at https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/-/seventh-day-adventist-church-emerged-from-religious-fervor-of-19th-century/)

-     McChesney, Andrew (October 2014). Great Disappointment Remembered 170 Years On. AdventistReview. www.adventistreview.org (available as at October 21 2016 at http://www.adventistreview.org/church-news/great-disappointment-remembered-170-years-on)

-     Professor Veith PhD, Walter J (July 2011). The Great Disappointment and the Birth of Adventism. Amazing Discoveries. http://amazingdiscoveries.org (available as at October 21 2016 at http://amazingdiscoveries.org/S-deception-Great-Disappointment_Advent_Miller)

-     Sears, Williams (June 1961). Thief in the Night, The Case of the Missing Millennium. London: George Ronald Pub Ltd (https://www.amazon.com/Thief-Night-Case-Missing-Millennium/dp/085398008X)

-     White, L Michael (no date). Prophetic Belief in the United States – William Miller and the Second Great Awakening. Frontline, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). www.pbs.org. (available as at October 21 2016 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/amprophesy.html)