Page 6 - Cults and Marginal Groups - Textbook w videos short

William Miller was a Baptist "lay leader" in New York State who began studying Biblical prophecy in
earnest around 1820 and developed elaborate theories about the timing of the Second Coming. He
attempted at first to present his theories to the ordained ministers in his area, hoping that they would
preach them to the public. But his attempts to convince others to spread his ideas were mostly
ineffective. So, in 1831 he reluctantly started preaching about them himself. In 1833 he published his
first official pamphlet on end-time prophecy. And in 1836 his book Evidences from Scripture and History
of the Second Coming of Christ about the Year 1843 was published.

Miller based his belief principally on Daniel 8:14: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then
shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Miller accepted a popular theory proposed by many Bible students of
his time (and still popular in many circles today) that a day in prophetic passages is almost always
intended to stand for a year in fulfillment. (This theory is based on passages such as Ezekiel 4:6.) And
thus, he taught that this prophecy would be 2300 years in fulfillment. Miller assumed that the cleansing
of the sanctuary represented the Earth's purification by fire at Christ's Second Coming. He believed that
the 2300 years started in 457 BC with a decree from Babylonian monarch Artaxerxes allowing those
Israelites who had been in captivity in Babylon who wished to, to return to the land of Israel and rebuild
the Temple. 457 BC (Date of prophecy) + 2300 yrs. = 1844. Thus Miller was convinced that the
"cleansing of the temple" (which he believed to be symbolic of the Second Coming-- the second "Advent
of Christ" when He would "cleanse the earth") would occur at some point between two spring
equinoxes: March 21,1843, and March 21, 1844. He finally settled on a date of October 22, 1844. At
that time, he had 50,000 hard-core followers who were called Millerites.

Miller also established to his own satisfaction several other alleged "proofs" of this chronology from
comparing other Biblical passages and historical events.

By the early 1830s, he was circuit-riding small-town New England with an illustrated series of lectures,
and within a decade he was preaching in the major cities of the Northeast and leading the most popular
millenarian movement America has seen. (The Disappointed, p. xv)

Conservative estimates indicate Miller and his associates presented his theories ultimately to hundreds
of thousands of people in America (Miller himself claimed to have spoken to over 500,000 people, in
over 4,500 meetings), along with large numbers overseas, particularly in English-speaking countries.
Many main-stream church leaders strongly criticized his teachings. Many newspapers ridiculed his ideas
as fanaticism and his supporters as fanatics, while at the same time appreciating the fact that
sensational stories about his meetings increased the sales of their papers.

For the first several years of his preaching efforts, Miller encouraged his supporters to remain in their
local church denominations and just attempt to share their beliefs with their brethren there. Toward the
approach of the predicted dates, it became obvious that the beliefs such supporters embraced from
Miller's teachings left them more and more estranged from the religious mainstream. And thus, in the
final years and months before the expected Advent, many left their former congregations and formed
independent fellowship groups based on their distinctive beliefs.

Outsiders usually referred to such groups as "Millerites," but their preferred designation for themselves
was "Adventists." Since there was no specific "organization" that such individuals and fellowship groups
could "join," it is impossible to accurately estimate their numbers. But it seems likely from various
records of the time period that from 25,000 to 50,000 people were ultimately committed to various
levels of involvement in the Millerite movement by 1843.

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