The Origins and Development of the Millerite Movement and its role in the beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In the beginning, millenarianism was almost “the official political theory of the Church,” writes Paul Johnson in A History of Christianity. Eschatological concerns got pushed to the back-burner, however, when Christianity became the official state religion of Rome. The influential Bishop of Hippo, Augustine, considered the book of Revelation to merely be allegorical, a description of conditions that were inaugurated by the first coming of Christ, and persisted in the history of the past and present church. But coexisting with the official Church, and its official de-emphasis on prophecy, was an “underground” that continued to believe that the cosmic struggle between Christ and Antichrist remained to occur. Revelation and Daniel could not be unwritten, and remained messages of hope to those who did not feel at home in this world.

What is called “dispensationalism,” or the “extreme futurist” view was developed in the Sixteenth Century by the Spanish Jesuit Franciscus Ribeira. This Roman Catholic identified his superior (the Pope) with the Antichrist, and also considered the “Babylon” of Revelation to not be a metaphor for the culture of the current age, but rather descriptive of some future age. The Adventist Church Heritage Manual notes in Section 1-G “God’s people are to be found in all religious persuasions.”

An American religious group known as the “Plymouth Brethren” revived a focus on Biblical prophecy, mainly through the energetic efforts of a contemporary of William Miller, a former Anglican clergyman named J.N. Darby. Like Miller, he believed that Jesus would return at the start of the millennium, and not at the end (the end being the common belief at that time). The writings of Darby were a big influence on C.I. Scofield, whose Scofield Bible was embraced by many. This dominant channel of eschatological analysis spans from the 1830’s to the present day, and helps explain why dispensationalism is currently endorsed by most denominations that are regarded as “fundamentalist.” Very little of the information that has thus far been provided in this summary has much to do with William Miller’s movement, however. But it does provide an explanation as to why so many people’s appetites were whetted in the early nineteenth century for information about Biblical prophecy as it related to the End Times. Thousands eagerly flocked to hear Miller’s “airtight” analysis of this subject.

William Miller, although he reached many of the same conclusions as those of the “Plymouth Brethren,” operated independently of the “Plymouth Brethren.” From 1816 to 1832 he intensively studied the Bible. Miller’s researches went beyond those of J.N. Darby, as he was able to arrive at a “solemn conclusion,” by studying the book of Daniel, that “about” the coming year of 1843 all the affairs of our present state would be wound up, and Jesus would return. Miller felt compelled to share this “solemn conclusion” with the rest of mankind. A fervent appeal to God concerning this proposed publicity campaign resulted in nearly instantaneous affirmation by the Lord. The progress of his ministry is described in George R. Knight’s Brief History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church by the following statements: “His first presentation on the Second Advent led to several conversions. Thereafter Miller had an unending stream of invitations to hold meetings in the churches of various denominations. By the end of the 1830s the reluctant prophet had won several ministers to his view that Christ would come about the year 1843.” The successful promulgation of Miller’s message made the ostensible collapse of his eschatological corpus so exceptionally “disappointing” to his many adherents that this collapse came to be known as “The Great Disappointment.”