Page 7 - Cults and Marginal Groups - Textbook w videos short

When both March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844, passed without the Return, Samuel Snow, one of
Miller's followers, suggested that a prophetic principle regarding "tarrying" in Habbakuk 2:3 might be
used to extend the expected date by 7 months and 10 days. This would push the Return forward to
October 22, 1844, mistakenly believed by Miller and others to be the date of the annual Biblical Holy
Day of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) in that year. Miller accepted this reasoning, and he and
many of his followers once again waited in anticipation. But that date too, passed, and Miller finally gave
up the effort to pinpoint a specific date.

How did Miller himself deal with what later became known as "The Great Disappointment"?
From The Disappointed, p. 32 (Chapter 2, "William Miller: Disappointed Prophet" by Wayne R. Judd)
He refused to bear responsibility for deception. 'No one can honestly say that he has been deceived by
me. My advice has always been for each to study the evidence of his faith for himself.' [letter from
Miller to T.E. Jones, 11/29/44] He speculated that God may have designed the delay so that people
would turn to the Bible to study further and be reconciled to God. After all, to have erred in the precise
date did not reduce the advent urgency. Every passing day was one day nearer the end.

But many thousands of former "True Believers" who had cut ties with their former religious affiliations
were now left wondering how to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on. Many swallowed their
pride and went back to their old churches. Others became greatly disillusioned with religion in general
and drifted away from any specific faith. Some stayed together and created their own new small
denominations, still convinced that the Return would be "soon," but realizing now that it was foolish to
set dates. One such group developed into the Advent Christian Church, which still exists to this day.

But a minority held on to their convictions that something important had happened in 1844. They
decided that the date must have been true, but their understanding of what was to happen on that date
was the factor that was the error. An Adventist named O.R.L. Crosier published an article in February
1846, in the Adventist publication Day-Star alleging that the real significance of what had happened on
that date was not on earth, but in heaven. He proposed that on that date, Jesus, who had been
"ministering" in the "Holy Place" in the heavenly tabernacle (interceding for all mankind), moved into
the "Holy of Holies." At that point, the "door of salvation" was shut, and only those who had believed
the Millerite advent message had the hope of salvation. Jesus' new work within the Holy of Holies was
only on behalf of those who had believed the advent message.

In addition, a number of these believers had come to accept that the seventh day of the week,
commonly called Saturday, was the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment, and should be kept by
Christians. They had been exposed to this doctrine by individuals who had learned of it from the Seventh
Day Baptist denomination. Miller himself was never converted to Sabbatarianism. And he was not
ultimately completely convinced of any sort of explanation of the continuing significance of the date
1844. He died in 1849 without any clear view on where the various factions of the movement he had
spawned were headed.

While Miller’s focus was primarily on the imminent return of Jesus Christ, his followers held several
doctrines contrary to the historical Christian faith: 1) Soul sleep of faithful and annihilation of the lost.
2) No eternal punishment. 3) Jesus was not God. 4) the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy
(influence of the Seventh Day Baptist denomination). 5) importance of dietary laws.

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