For centuries the second coming of Jesus was a forgotten doctrine of the Bible. Men thought that it might come sometime in the distant future, but nobody thought of the coming of Jesus as near. Most theologians and scholars believed that a great meillennium of peace was to come upon the earth for a thousand years before Jesus would come again. As a result, few people looked for and expected the coming of the Lord. The book of Daniel and its time prophecies were forgotten.
However, at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a sudden awakening of interest in the second coming of Jesus and in the time prophecies of the book of Daniel. It seems that overnight people in several parts of the world began an intensive investigation of the book of Daniel. In Chile a Roman Catholic Priest, Manuel de Lacunza began to preach the soon return of Jesus, based on a fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel. In England, Edward Irving, Joseph Wolff and Henry Drummond preached the second coming of Jesus extensively. Joseph Wolff traversed the world, sharing the good news of the coming of Jesus. Wolff even appeared before a joint session of the Congress of the United States, proclaiming the Jesus possibly could come in the mid-nenteenth century, based on the fulfillment of the 2300 day prophecy of Daniel 8:14.
By 1820, 300 Church of England and 600 of the non-conformist clergy were preaching the soon return of Jesus. In Scandinavia, where all preaching contrary to the state church was forbidden, little children heralded the message of the soon coming of Jesus. Everywhere on the European continent, and especially among the scholars and the educated of society, there was great discussion about the possibility of the return of Jesus in their lifetime. At the same time in America, independent of the Europeans, a movement arose that began to emphasize the soon return of Jesus based on the fulfillment of the time prophecies of the book of Daniel.
The leader of the American movement was a Baptist farmer named William Miller, who was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1782 and grew up in Low Hampton, New York. By reading library books he became an educated man, but drifted toward Deism (a philosophy of the nineteenth century which taught that God created the world and then withdrew from its continuing activity). Miller served his country in the War of 1812, where the carnage of battle helped him to turn back to the faith of his fathers. Upon his return to Low Hampton, he joined the Baptist Church.
In an effort to meet the scoffing of his Deist friends who denied the inspiration of scripture, Miller began 15 years of intensive study of the Bible. Dispensing with commentaries and other reference works, he used the bible as its own interpreter. As Miller studied, he took a special interest in the books of Daniel and Revelation, because the prophecies proved the Word of God true and would help his Deist friends to see the validity of Scripture. In his study he came to Daniel 8:14 and the 2300 days. At this point Miller made a serious mistake: he departed from his principle of letting the Bible interpret itself. Since MOST theologians at that time taught that the Sanctuary was this earth, Miller concluded that what the theologians said was true. Thus, if the Sanctuary was to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days, it would have to refer to the second coming of Christ, because the earth would be cleansed by fire at His second coming.
As Miller reckoned the prophecy, he came to the concusion that the 2300 days would end sometime around 1843 or 1844. Suddenly he realized that the second coming of Jesus could occure in his lifetime, possibly in the mid-nineteenth century. Interestingly, Miller was not alone in arrive at this conclusion. As we have already mentioned, Joseph Wolff and his colleagues in England and others on the Continent had come to the same conclusion. William Davis in South Carolina, Archibald Mason in Scotland, and Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Disciples of Christ, all taught that the 2300 days would end in 1843 or 1844. It seemed as if God was leading different people, independent of each other, to arrive at the same conclusion at the same time. All these people saw clearly that the prophecy of the 2300 days was going to end in the mid-nineteenth century. Many made the same basic mistake as Miller in assuming that the end of the prophecy meant the second coming of Jesus.
In 1831 William Miller became deeply convicted that he should tell the world of his belief that the second coming of Jesus was about to take place. Yet he shrank from the prospect of publicly proclaiming the message. Finally he made a covenant with the Lord that if an invitation to preach was extended to him, he would accept. No sooner had Miller finished his prayer than a knock came at the door and his nephew, Irving Guilford, was there with an invitation for Miller to preach at Dresden, New York and share what he had been studying from the Word with the believers there. Miller was dumbfounded. While he had been making his covenant with the Lord, the Lord already had answered and sent him an invitation to preach.
Miller went out to the grove behind his house, still reluctant to preach what he had discovered from the Word. He went into that grove a farmer, but emerged a preacher. Miller accepted the invitation, and soon invitations began to pour in from towns all over upstate New York and New England, asking him to come and share the good news of the second coming of Jesus. Invitations came from churches of various persuasions and denominations. It was truly an interdenominational movement at this time. Everywhere that Miller went, great revivals broke out, and people came to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 1833, two years after Miller began preaching, the falling of the stars occurred on November 12 and 13. The exact fulfillment of this fantastic prophecy of Jesus gave tremendous credence to the Millerite movement and caused many to accept Miller's message as truth.
To get a perspective of the revolutionary teaching Miller was expounding, one must remember that in the mid-nineteenth century, post-millennialism was the popular teaching of the day. It taught that Jesus would come following the thousand years, instead of before. When Miller proposed that Jesus was coming in the mid-nineteenth century, he was proclaiming that Jesus would come at the beginning of the thousand years. That was revolutionary teaching, and yet true to the Word of God. In fact, many who sided with Miller, while not accepting his exact date setting, agreed with him on pre-millenialism and joined with him in proclaiming the soon return of Jesus before the thousand years rather than after the thousand years.
Shortly after the falling of the stars in 1833, Miller met Joshua V. Himes, who was pastor of the Charlton Street Chapel in Boston. As Himes listened to Miller preach, he became convinced that what Miller said was Biblical truth, and invited Miller to share his message with his congregation. Boston was the beginning of Miller's ministry to the large cities. Joshua V. Himes was the first of what were to be many clergymen who united with Miller in this interdenominational movement. Soon the movement was spreading far and wide. Millerite preachers were going everywhere, sharing the good news of the soon-coming of Jesus. No device of the era was neglected for spreading the message -- the press, the pulpit, prophetic charts, gummed stickers on envelopes, etc. Millerite periodicals were scattered across the country like the leaves of autumn. In fact, a historian has said:
Up to 1840 the Millerite movement had been completely interdenominational and was well accepted by the many denominations. But by the early 1840's a change began to take place. The Millerite lecturers were finding it increasingly difficult to gain entry into Protestant churches, until eventually they were shunned as the churches began to reject the message of the soon coming of Jesus. However, that did not stop the Millerites. With the churches no longer open to them and the coming of Jesus seemed to be even nearer, they turned to tent meetings. They had the largest tent in the world built, and they carried it from place to place conducting many Millerite camp meetings. More than a half million people attended 125 of these millerite camp meetings. When one realizes that the United States population at that time was only 17 million, one can easily see that a large share of the population was involved in the Millerite movement.
The movement had been founded in Bible study, and Bible study continued to be its greatest bulwark. As one historian has said, "No other enthusiasts of the half century, in fact, stuck so closely and exclusively to the Bible as did the Millerites." Probably that is the reason why fanaticism failed to creep into the Millerite movement. It would be very easy for fanatical elements to take control of a movement with such a heavy emphasis on the second coming. But the Millerites tested everything by the bible, and they would not tolerate fanaticism. At first they had seen no need for a separate organization, but now with the message rejected by the popular churches, in 1842, they formed what they called "The Second Advent Association" and began to issue the call of Revelation 18:4, "Come out of her, my people." They believed and taught that the Catholic Church represented Babylon, and the popular Protestant Churches that had rejected the message of the soon coming were her daughters.
At first they expected the second coming to occur sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, the Jewish year. They settled on no specific date, but as March 21, 1844 approached, people began planning their businss affairs and their lives for this most joyous of events. But March 21, 1844 came and went, and the believers experienced their first disappointment. When Jesus did not come as expected, the Millerites went back to their Bibles. They knew that God had not made a mistake. Somehow they had misunderstood something. And so they restudied the prophecies in an attempt to find their mistake. But their calculations continued to point to 1844 as the conclusion of the 2300 year prophecy.
At the camp meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire on August 12, 1844, as the Millerites restudied the prophecies, a new light began to brighten their disappointed hopes. Since the ancient Jewish sanctuary was cleansed on the tenth day of the seventh Month, it would be logical that the cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of the 2300 days would also occure on the tenth day of the seventh month, which that year would be October 22, 1844. Excited about this discovery, they quickly went out and began to preach this added messge, that Jesus would come October 22, 1844. During this time another 50,000 people left their churches and joined the movement.
On October 22, 1844 the believers gathered in homes and churches to await the advent of their Lord. All over the world men waited expectantly in this last remnant of time. As the hours passed, they continued in prayer and songs, hopefully looking forward to that wonderful moment when the sky would open and their Lord would appear. Not until midnight did they accept the fact the Jesus was not coming that day. Their experience was a bitter disappointment. The hope of the Advent had been such a sweet and blessed experience, as sweet as honey to the mouth. But the disappointment of their hopes was bitter in the belly.
As a result of the dissapointment, many renounced their faith in the Advent and left the movement. Divergent views broke the Millerite movement into various factions. But ultimatly, out of the confusion there came two main groups: Advent Christains and Seventh-day Adventsts. The great disappointment wounded, but did not destry, the Second Advent movement, for the doctrine of the second advent was rooted in Scripture. The date was right; the event was wrong. Miller never saw it, but did keep his faith in the advent of his Lord until his death 5 years later in 1849. He refused to set other dates but expectantly looked forward to the coming of his Lord at any time.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has never set a date for the coming of Jesus. This was done by the Millerites before 1844. The Millerites were an interdenominational movement composed of Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. The emphasis that the Millerites gave to the great truth of the second coming of Jesus and the nearness of that event, however, did bring forth the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
On October 22, 1844, a little group of Millerites met with Hiram Edson in the little town of Port Gibson, New York, to wait for the coming of the Lord. When the time had passed and Jesus had not come, Hiram Edson and a few others went out to the barn behind the house and poured out their hearts in agonizing prayers to God for strength, guidance and further light. They felt that God had led them in the past and would continue to lead them in the future. They did not understand the disappointment, but expectantly felt the Lord would give them strength to survive the dissapointment.
After spending several hours in prayer, they felt reassurance that God would bring an answer to their petitions. Knowing that the brethern on the other side of their field would also be discouraged, they began making their way across the field to bring encouragement. Suddenly Hiram Edson was struck with the thought that the sanctuary was not this earth, but that the sanctuary was in heaven and that Jesus had a work to do there before coming to earth. Going back to their homes, Edson and his friends began to study the Bible about the Sanctuary. Through diligent Bible study they learned the meaning of the Sanctuary: that it was not on this earth, but in heaven. As they continued to study, the ministry of Jesus in heaven began to open to their understanding, and they saw that 1844 marked not the end of the world, but the beginning of Jesus' final phase of ministry in the heavenly Sanctuary, His work of judgment. William Miller had missed this very point, when he had accepted the popular teachings of the clergy that the Sanctuary was the earth. If He had continued with his rule of letting the Bible interpret itself, he may have reached these same conclusions.
As they continued their study, their view of the Sanctuary became clear and they set down their view in a paper called "The Day Dawn." This was sent out to many of the disappointed Millerite believers. Among those who received this paper with the explanation of the Sanctuary were Joseph Bates and James White.
In the town of Washington, New Hamshire lived another group of Millerite Adventists. Among their number was a young woman by the name of Rachel Oaks Preston, a Seventh-day Baptist, who brought the light of the seventh-day Sabbath to the attention of these Millerite Adventists in Washington, N.H. After much study and struggle, this group of Millerite Adventists accepted the seventh-day Sabbath truth and became the first Seventh-day Adventists. The church where they met in Washington, New Hampshire, is today recognized as the first Seventh-day Adventist Church in the world. Here the people who had accepted the hope of the Advent now also discovered the beautiful Sabbath truth.
T.M. Preble, one of the Believers in Washington, N.H. who accepted the Sabbath truth, became the first Adventist to write a tract on the seventh-day Sabbath. Joseph Bates, who had also received the tract on the Sanctuary truth, read Preble's tract and accepted the Sabbath as truth and began to preach it. In 1846, James and Ellen White visited Joseph Bates and heard Him preach on the seventh-day Sabbath. At first they did not see its importance, but through diligent Bible study, they too accepted it.
These few Millerite Adentists became united on the Sanctuary, the sceond coming of Jesus, the seventh-day Sabbath. On this basis these scattered believers united in prayer for wisdom and understanding, that they might understand and comprehend other great Bible truths. Various prayer meetings and Bible conferences were held, and through diligent Bible study the Seventh-day Adventist Church came into being. As they studied Revelation 10, they saw their past experience clearly presented, and then they read verse 11. They then understood their duty. They must again go into all the world and preach the message that was to prepare people for the coming of the Lord. They saw that their movement was a movement of prophecy and they were the people of prophecy. They saw that theirs was not to be just another church, but a mighty movement that was to encompassed the entire world and help to prepare prople for that day when their Lord would come.
Some may wonder why God chose this means to begin his last-day, remnant movement. From a human standpoint, it seems the worst way ever to start a movement: to bring from the ashes of disappointment a mighty movement. But God's ways are not man's ways. When the time came for the Christian Church of the book of Acts to begin, God began it the same way, with a very bitter disappointment. The disciples had expected Jesus to be hailed King of the Jews; instead He ended up on the cross. But from the agony of that bitter disappointment came the might Christain Chruch of the first century.
Likewise, when it came time or God's final movement to arise in fulfillment of Revelation 10, God again chose to allow people to go through a bitter disappointment in order that self glory might be humbled and people could see that it was not human excitement and ambition that created this movement, but only the divine power of God. As one looks back over the identification marks that Revelation 10 gives of the movement of Revelation 10, it becomes very clear that the Millerite movement and the subsequent development of the Seventh-day Adventist Chruch are in exact fulfillment of every detail of the prophecy. Thank God, He fulfilled His word and began His final movement on earth at the end of the 2300 day prophecy in 1844.
This page maintained by Allen Roy. Last update on 01/18/98