William Miller (preacher)

William Miller

William Miller (1782 - 1849) was an American Baptist preacher, whose followers have been termed Millerites. He is credited with the beginning of the Adventist movement of the 1830s and 1840s in North America. Among his direct spiritual heirs are several major religious denominations including Seventh-day Adventists, and Advent Christians. Later movements which found inspiration in Miller's emphasis on Bible prophecy include Bible Students/Russellites and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Early Life

William Miller was born on February 15,1782 in Pittsfield, MA. At age 4 his family moved to rural Low Hampton, New York. Miller was educated at home by his mother until age 9 when he attended the newly established East Poultney District School. Miller is not known to have undertaken any form of formal study after the age of 18; though he continued to read widely and voraciously. As a youth, he is known to have accessed the private libraries of Judge James Witherell and Congressman Matthew Lyon in nearby Fairhaven, VT and that of Alexander Cruikshanks of Whitehall, NY. (Memoirs of William Miller, Sylvester Bliss, p. 13).

In 1803, Miller married Lucy Smith and moved to her home town, nearby Poultney VT where he took up farming. While in Poultney, Miller was elected to a number of civil offices, beginning with the office of Constable. In 1809 he was elected to the office of Deputy Sheriff and at an unknown date was elected Justice of the Peace. Miller served in the Vermont militia and was commissioned a lieutenant on July 21, 1810. By this time he had become a relatively wealthy man, owning a house, land and at least two horses.

Shortly after his move to Poultney Miller rejected his Baptist heritage and became a Deist. In his biography Miller records his conversion: "I became acquainted with the principal men in that village [Poultney, NY], who were professedly Deists; but they were good citizens, and of a moral and serious deportment. They put into my [hands] the works of Voltaire, [David] Hume, [Thomas] Paine, Ethan Allen, and other deistical writers." (Apology and Defence, William Miller, p.24).

Miller as a Freemason

Miller was also an active Freemason: "It was here [Poultney, Vermont] that Mr Miller became a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which his perseverance, if nothing else, was manifested; for he advanced to the highest degree which the lodges then in the country, or in that region, could confer." (Memoirs of William Miller, Sylvester Bliss, p. 21-22). Little is known of Miller's Masonic ties other than this statement by his biographer Sylvester Bliss. The majority of subsequent authors either ignore this statement or list it without comment. Whitney R. Cross specifies that Miller was a Royal Arch Mason but gives no further details or sources. (The Burned-over District: A Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, Whitney R. Cross, p. 288) H. Y. Smith and W. S. Rann, editors of the 1886 book History of Rutland County Vermont with Illustrations & Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men & Pioneers show "Rev. William Miller" as one of fifty-one individuals listed by a Mr Clarke as "those who have been prominent in the Order in this county [Rutland]." Miller (listed as Capt. Miller) is later given as one of the early masters of Morning Star Lodge, No. 27. This lodge is said to have been "organized in Poultney prior to 1800, though the exact date is not known." In a letter written to his friend Truman Hendryx, dated November 17, 1832, Miller rejoiced when Antimasonry died in his locality. (Quoted in The Burned-over District: A Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, Whitney R. Cross, p. 123) Miller’s statements concerning Antimasonry are dated well after his conversion in 1816, and seem to indicate that Miller saw no contradiction between his Baptist religiosity and his Masonic beliefs. It doesn’t seem likely that Miller was an active Mason following his licentiation as a Baptist minister by the Low Hampton Baptist Church on September 12, 1833; the Poultney lodge-and most other lodges—had closed in 1832 during a time of Anti-masonic fervour. In addition, Miller had moved back to Low Hampton in 1815. However, as shown previously, evidence suggests that he at the very least, retained sympathy for the Masonic movement until 1834, and possibly later.

Military Service

Upon the outbreak of the War of 1812, Miller raised a company of local men and travelled to Burlington, VT. He transferred to the 30th Infantry Regiment in the regular army of the United States with the rank of lieutenant. Miller spent most of the war working as a recruiter and on February 1, 1814, he was promoted to captain. He saw his first action at the Battle of Plattsburg, where vastly outnumbered American forces overcame the British. Miller came to view the outcome of this battle as miraculous and therefore at odds with his deistic view of a distant God far-removed from human affairs. He later wrote, "It seemed to me that the Supreme Being must have watched over the interests of this country in an especial manner, and delivered us from the hands of our enemies....So surprising a result, against such odds, did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man." (Memoirs of William Miller, Sylvester Bliss, p. 52-53).

Religious Views

After the war, and following his discharge from the army on June 18, 1815, Miller returned to Poultney. Shortly after his return however, he moved with his family back to Low Hampton. Throughout this time period Miller was deeply concerned with the question of death and an afterlife. This reflection upon his own mortality followed the recent deaths of his father and sister; and his experiences as a soldier in the war. Miller apparently felt that there were only two options possible following death: annihilation, and accountability; neither of which he was comfortable with.

Soon after his return to Low Hampton, Miller took tentative steps towards regaining his Baptist faith. At first he attempted to combine both, publicly espousing Deism while simultaneously attending his local Baptist church. His attendance turned to participation when he was asked to read the day's sermon during one of the local minister's frequent absences. His participation changed to commitment one Sunday when he was reading a sermon on the duties of parents and became choked with emotion. Miller records the experience: "Suddenly the character of a Savior was vividly impressed upon my mind. It seemed that there might be a Being so good and compassionate as to Himself atone for our transgressions, and thereby save us from suffering the penalty of sin. I immediately felt how lovely such a Being must be; and imagined that I could cast myself into the arms of, and trust in the mercy of, such an One." (Apology and Defence, William Miller, 5).

Following his conversion, Miller was soon challenged by his Deist friends to justify his newfound faith. He did so by examining the Bible closely, declaring to one friend "If he would give me time, I would harmonize all these apparent contradictions to my own satisfaction, or I will be a Deist still." (Apology and Defence, William Miller, 17). Miller commenced with Genesis 1:1, studying each verse and not moving on until he felt the meaning was clear. In this way he became convinced firstly, that postmillennialism was unbiblical; and secondly, that the time of Christ’s Second Coming was revealed in Bible prophecy.

Basing his belief principally on Daniel 8:14: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," and using an interpretive principle known as the "day-year principle"; Miller concluded that the cleansing of the sanctuary represented the earth's purification by fire at Christ's Second Coming. For Miller, and other users of this principle, a day in prophecy was read not as a 24-hour period, but rather as a calendar year--365 days instead. Further, Miller became convinced that the 2,300 day period started in 457 B.C. with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes I of Persia. Simple calculation then revealed that this period would end—and hence Christ’s return occur--in 1843. Miller records, "I was thus brought… to the solemn conclusion, that in about twenty-five years from that time 1818 all the affairs of our present state would be wound up."(Apology and Defence, William Miller, 11-12).

Although Miller was convinced of his calculations by 1818, he continued to study privately until 1823 to ensure the correctness of his interpretation. In September 1822, Miller formally stated his conclusions in a twenty-point document, including article 15: "I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, even at the door, even within twenty-one years,--on or before 1843." (Memoirs of William Miller, Sylvester Bliss, p. 79) Miller did not however, begin his public lecturing until the first Sunday in August, 1831 in the town of Dresden. (Apology and Defence, William Miller, 18)

Writings

In 1832 Miller submitted a series of sixteen articles to the Vermont Telegraph--a Baptist paper. The first of these was published on May 15, and Miller writes of the public's response: "I began to be flooded with letters of inquiry respecting my views; and visitors flocked to converse with me on the subject."(Apology and Defence, William Miller, 17). In 1834, unable to personally comply with many of the urgent requests for information and the invitations to travel and preach that he received, Miller published a synopsis of his teachings in a 64 page tract with the lengthy title:Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ, about the Year 1843: Exhibited in a Course of Lectures.

Millerism

From 1840 onwards, Millerism was transformed from an "obscure, regional movement into a national campaign." The key figure in this transformation was Joshua Vaughan Himes--the pastor of Chardon Street Chapel in Boston MT, and an able and experienced publisher. Though Himes did not fully accept Miller’s ideas until 1842, he established the fortnightly paper Signs of the Times on February 28, 1840, to publicize them. (Apology and Defence, William Miller, 5).

Despite the urging of his supporters, Miller never personally set an exact date for the expected Second Advent. However, in response to their urgings he did narrow the time-period to sometime in the Jewish year beginning in the Gregorian year 1843, stating: "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. (Quoted in William Miller and the Advent Crisis, Everett N. Dick, p. 96-97). March 21, 1844 passed without incident,and further discussion and study resulted in the brief adoption of a new date--April 18, 1844, based on the Karaite Jewish calendar (as opposed to the Rabbinic calendar). (Millennial Fever, George R. Knight, p. 163-164). Like the previous date, April 18 passed without Christ's return. Miller responded publicly, writing, "I confess my error, and acknowledge my disappointment; yet I still believe that the day of the Lord is near, even at the door." (Memoirs of William Miller, Sylvester Bliss, p. 256).

In August 1844 at a camp-meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, Samuel S. Snow presented a message that became known as the "seventh-month" message or the "true midnight cry." In a discussion based on scriptural typology, Snow presented his conclusion (still based on the 2300 day prophecy in Daniel 8:14), that Christ would return on, "the tenth day of the seventh month of the present year, 1844." (Advent Herald, August 21, 1844, Samuel S. Snow, p. 20). Again using the calendar of the Karaite Jews, this date was determined to be October 22, 1844.

The sun rose on the morning of October 23 like any other day, and October 22, became the Millerites' Great Disappointment. Hiram Edson recorded that "Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before....We wept, and wept, till the day dawn." (Quoted in Millennial Fever, George R. Knight, p.218). Following the Great Disappointment most Millerites simply gave up their beliefs. Some did not and a viewpoints and explanations proliferated. Miller initially seems to have thought that Christ’s Second Coming was still going to take place--that "the year of expectation was according to prophecy; but...that there might be an error in Bible chronology, which was of human origin, that could throw the date of somewhat and account for the discrepancy." (William Miller and the Advent Crisis, Everett N. Dick, p. 27). Miller never gave up his belief in the Second Coming of Christ; he died on December 20, 1849, still convinced that the Second Coming was imminent. Miller is buried near his home in Low Hampton, NY and his home is a registered National Historic Landmark and preserved as a museum: William Miller's Home.

Estimates of Miller's followers--the Millerites vary between 50,000, and 500,000. Miller’s legacy includes the Advent Christian Church with 61 thousand members, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church with over 14 million members. Both these denominations have a direct connection with the Millerites and the Great Disappointment of 1844.

External links

• Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller Biography by Elder James White.
• Evidence From Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ, About the Year 1843 Lectures by Miller.
• Signs of the Times DJVU scans of Millerite journal (1840-1841)
• Midnight Cry PDF scans of Millerite journal (1842)
• William Miller: The End of Time and the Adventist Sects by John H. Martin
• Miller Overthrown Contemporary Critique of Miller.
• Adventist Archives Contains articles written by William Miller
• [1] An online copy of the 1886 book History of Rutland County Vermont with Illustrations & Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men & Pioneers edited by H. Y. Smith and W. S. Rann.