Millerism facts for kids
The Millerites were people who followed the teachings of William Miller. In 1831, Miller publicly shared his belief that Jesus Christ would return to Earth around 1843 or 1844. This idea became very popular during a time of religious excitement called the Second Great Awakening. Many people believed Miller, which later led to an event known as the Great Disappointment.
Contents
How It All Started
William Miller was a successful farmer and a Baptist preacher. He lived in northeastern New York. Miller spent many years studying the Bible, especially the prophecies in the Book of Daniel. He focused on Daniel 8:14, which talks about "two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
Miller believed that the "cleansing of the sanctuary" meant the Earth would be destroyed by fire when Jesus returned. He used a special way of interpreting prophecies called the Day-year principle. This method turns prophetic "days" into actual "years." Using this, Miller became sure that the 2,300-day period started in 457 BC. This was when a king named Artaxerxes I of Persia gave an order to rebuild Jerusalem. Simple math then showed that this period would end around 1843.
In 1822, Miller wrote down his ideas. One point said, "I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near... on or before 1843." For many years, he kept these thoughts to himself.
Miller eventually started sharing his views with friends and other preachers. At first, he was surprised that not many people listened. He said, "To my astonishment, I found very few who listened with any interest." But some people did understand his ideas.
Miller began giving public talks in August 1831. He started in a village called Dresden, Washington County, New York.
In 1832, Miller sent a series of articles to a Baptist newspaper called the Vermont Telegraph. The first article was published in May. After this, Miller said he was "flooded with letters of inquiry" and visitors who wanted to talk about his ideas. In 1834, he published a small book of his teachings. He gave away most of these books for free to people who wrote to him or lived in places he couldn't visit.
Spreading the Message
From 1840 onwards, the Millerite movement grew from a small, local group into a national campaign. A key person in this growth was Joshua Vaughan Himes. He was a pastor in Boston and an experienced publisher. Even though Himes didn't fully agree with Miller until 1842, he started a newspaper called Signs of the Times to share Miller's ideas. The first issue came out in February 1840.
Newspapers and magazines were very important in spreading Millerite beliefs quickly. Besides Signs of the Times in Boston, Millerite papers were published in many other cities. These included New York City, Philadelphia, Rochester, Cleveland, and Montreal, Quebec. At least 48 different Millerite newspapers were published before the Great Disappointment. Most of these were short-lived. Often, a new paper would start when Millerite preachers came to a new area.
The Millerites also published papers for different groups of people. The Advent Message to the Daughters of Zion was for women. The Advent Shield was a more serious paper for academic readers. It aimed to "defend the doctrine from the attacks of the enemies."
As the expected return dates for Jesus got closer, Millerite publishing increased a lot. By May 1843, 21,000 copies of Millerite papers were printed each week. In New York City alone, 600,000 copies of various publications were given out in five months. By May 1844, five million copies of Millerite publications had been distributed.
Most of Miller's followers lived in New York, Vermont, and other parts of New England. However, his message also reached beyond the United States. Miller preached in Canada's Eastern Townships several times. He gained many followers there, and some local church leaders supported him. At least five Millerite papers were published in Canada.
Many travelers or people who moved to the United States heard the message there. They then returned home to preach it. From 1841, Millerite preachers appeared in Great Britain, even though Miller never went there himself. People in British ports borrowed Miller's books and magazines from American ship captains.
Two Millerite papers were also published in Great Britain: the Second Advent Harbinger and the British Midnight Cry. The Millerite message even reached Australia through a Canadian paper. Thomas Playford in Adelaide became a believer and spread the message there. He even published a book of his sermons.
Miller never set an exact date for Jesus' return. But he did narrow the time down to sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. When March 21, 1844, passed without anything happening, most Millerites still kept their faith. Miller wrote, "I am still looking for the Dear Savior... I expect every moment to see the Savior descend from heaven."
The movement continued because its leaders were flexible about the timing. They knew there could be small errors in their calculations.
Further study led to a new date: April 18, 1844. This date was based on a different Jewish calendar. But April 18 also passed without Jesus' return. Millerites then believed they had entered a "tarrying time," a period of waiting before Jesus would finally come. This belief helped them through the summer of 1844.
In August 1844, at a meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, everything changed. A man named Samuel S. Snow presented a new idea. This became known as the "seventh-month" message. Snow used complex Bible studies to conclude that Jesus would return on "the tenth day of the seventh month of the present year, 1844."
Using the same Jewish calendar, this date was October 22, 1844. This new message spread very quickly among the people. Many of the main leaders, including Himes and Miller, were surprised. Most leaders didn't accept this new date until late September or early October.
The Big Day That Didn't Happen
October 22, 1844, was the day Jesus was expected to return. But it ended like any other day. This was a huge disappointment for the Millerites. Both the leaders and followers felt confused and let down.
People reacted in different ways:
- Some Millerites kept looking for Jesus to return every day.
- Others predicted new dates, like April, July, or October 1845.
- Some believed the world had entered a "Great Sabbath," meaning they shouldn't work.
- Some acted like children, based on a Bible verse that says you must receive God's kingdom like a child.
- A few simply gave up their beliefs and tried to rebuild their lives.
Many people rejoined their old churches. Hundreds even joined the Shakers, who believed Jesus had already returned in the form of a woman named Mother Ann Lee. Some stayed Shakers, while others left after a short time.
What Happened After the Disappointment?
After the Great Disappointment, there was a lot of confusion. It seemed like every Millerite had a different idea about what had happened. Miller himself said that in one week, he received sixteen different papers, all claiming to be Advent papers, but all with different views. Miller's own rules for studying the Bible encouraged people to read it and understand it for themselves. This led to many different ideas.
By mid-1845, the different Millerite groups started to form clearer beliefs. This process is called "sect building." Three main groups formed among those who still believed Jesus would return.
One group believed in a "shut-door theology." They based this on a Bible story about ten virgins. They thought the "shut door" meant that after October 22, 1844, there would be no more chances for people to be saved. They believed Jesus had come spiritually as the Bridegroom, and only true believers had entered the "wedding feast." This group was often called the "shut-door" or "spiritualizer" group.
However, doubts grew about the meaning of October 22, 1844. If nothing visible happened, then there couldn't be a "shut door." Joshua Vaughan Himes led the opposition to this belief. His group soon became more popular, and even Miller changed his mind and joined them.
Himes called for a meeting, the Albany Conference, in April 1845. Its goals were to:
- Strengthen belief in Jesus' coming.
- Plan how to prepare people for His speedy return.
- Work together to help sinners find salvation.
Only Adventists who still held the "original faith" were invited. Those who had developed new ideas, like the "shut-door" believers, were not included. Miller's presence was very important for the conference.
The Albany Conference was a very important meeting for Adventists after October 1844. Leaders like Miller, Himes, and others were there. They did three main things:
- They created a ten-point statement of beliefs.
- They made a plan for spreading their message, which included starting Sunday Schools and Bible classes. They also decided to ordain some believers as ministers.
- They rejected some extreme beliefs and practices, like mixed foot-washing and acting childlike.
This group of Millerites formed the Evangelical Adventists, from which the Advent Christian Church later grew. However, many people found the new, stricter beliefs of the Albany Conference unacceptable. Millerism had started with Miller's open approach to Bible study, which allowed people to discover new truths. The new strict rules were not accepted by many who had joined the movement.
A third major group of Millerites also believed that the October 22 date was correct. But they thought something different happened on that day. This idea started as early as October 23, 1844. On that day, during a prayer meeting, Hiram Edson felt that "light would be given" and their "disappointment explained."
Years later, Edson said that he had a vision while walking in a field. He saw that instead of Jesus coming out of the Most Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary to Earth, He had actually entered the second part of that sanctuary for the first time on October 22. This meant Jesus had work to do in the Most Holy Place before coming to Earth.
Edson's experience led him and others to study the topic more. They concluded that the "sanctuary to be cleansed" in Daniel 8:14 was not the Earth, but the sanctuary in heaven. So, October 22 was not Jesus' Second Coming, but a heavenly event. This idea became the basis for the later Seventh-day Adventist doctrine of the Investigative Judgement. This third Millerite group is where the Seventh-day Adventist Church came from.
What They Believed
The Millerites originally included people from many different churches, like Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Campbellite churches. They became separate church groups only after the Great Disappointment. They were all united by their belief that Jesus Christ would return very soon. After October 22, 1844, their beliefs started to split.
There were four main topics that caused disagreements among Millerites around the time of the Albany Conference:
- Bible prophecies about the Jews: Most Millerites believed these prophecies would be fulfilled in a spiritual way, not literally. But some, like Joseph Marsh, believed Jews would physically return to Palestine before Jesus came back.
- Conditional immortality: This idea, that people are not naturally immortal but receive eternal life only if they are saved, was discussed later.
- The Sabbath: The idea of observing the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) was rejected at the Albany Conference. They passed a rule to "have no fellowship with Jewish fables." But observing the seventh-day Sabbath remained a minority belief among Millerites. It gained support when Thomas Preble published a widely read paper about it.
- The "shut-door": After the disappointment of October 22, there was much talk about whether sinners could still be saved. The idea that they could not was called the "shut-door." Miller himself believed this for a short time but later changed his mind.
Their Lasting Impact
The Bible Student movement, which started later, had some early connections with the Millerite movement. Charles Taze Russell, a leader of the Bible Student movement, said he learned from Adventists. So, the Bible Student Movement was influenced by Adventist roots, but it didn't directly come from Millerism.
Followers of the Baháʼí Faith also recognize Miller's work on the timing of Jesus' return. They believe that while Miller's understanding of how and where Jesus would return was not correct, his calculation of the timing was right.
Many Adventist groups grew out of the Millerite movement, including the Seventh Day Adventists.
See also
In Spanish: Movimiento Millerita para niños
- Category:Adventism
- Christian eschatology
- Christian revival
- Christianity in the 19th century
- Millennialism
- Unfulfilled Christian religious predictions
