THIS MAN CHANGED YOUR LIFE - did you know that?
Our story begins 6 years later in 1782 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
There is a family of 16 children called the Miller family. The firstborn male in that family was named William. He was born into a family of abject poverty.
Little wonder with all those children, you say? Not exactly.
Poor families needed to have lots of children to survive by working those kids' fingers to the bone to benefit the household as best as they could. The Miller family was no exception. William had little opportunity to better himself in the normal scheme of things other than a rudimentary education. Oh but - he was special, you see …
William Miller was a very curious and bright lad who loved reading any and every book he could lay his hands on. He devoured them whenever he had a spare moment away from his backbreaking chores. Young Billy Miller learned as much as he could and became useful in his teen years to the community in which he lived, Low Hampton New York. He secured an important job.
Miller became the local scribe.
The Community scribe was vitally necessary at a time when a great many folks had been too busy at hard work to learn how to read or write. Non-reader desperately needed a secretary with these indispensable skills.
William's parents made a strong impression on their son’s character.
William's dad had been an army captain in the American Revolutionary war.
His mother was deeply pious and a devout Baptist. His Grandfather and two uncles were ministers in the Baptist Church.
Can you imagine the questions a bright young man would raise at family gatherings? In a "Children should be seen and not heard" sort of world; how would this be tolerated?
When he turned 21, Miller married a woman who proved to exert a profound influence on his thinking and his belief system. He married Lucy Smith and moved away from his family ties to Vermont in the town of Poultney.
As is often the case, once a young person leaves the familiar behind them and starts a new life on their own they are more inclined to become objective and idealistic than before.
Newly married William Miller saw behavior he disapproved nor understand in the hypocrisy of local Christians.
He asked many questions and could not abide the answers he was given by local ministers. His book-learned intellect began to create a skeptical attitude that gradually turned him inward. His once easy faith had now been damaged.
He questioned everything.
He formed a circle of new friends who were not as insular Baptists as before.
His new friends included educated, articulate and refined people who read the works and words of great thinkers such as Voltaire, Paine, and Hume.
The now “intellectual” Miller was irresistibly drawn to "rationalist" thinking and philosophy. He transformed from an unquestioning and humble believer to a rational Deist.
Whatever/whoever "God" was had created the universe and then wiped His hands of it - leaving mankind to fend for itself outside the rules of a mere book such as the Holy Bible. Mind you, he was not an atheist. He was seeing God as impersonal and distant to human affairs.
While Miller's profession of faith changed, his outlook on what was ethical and moral remained firmly entrenched. He was not that of a libertine indulging the flesh. He remained steadfast and upright in his actions and was a leader in the local community well-respected for integrity. Miler served as Constable, Justice of the Peace, and even sheriff.
By the age of 30, Miller faced the War of 1812 as the Captain of the local regiment of infantry. He met the challenge of the British by facing off with his men at the Battle of Plattsburg. This proved to be a time of reckoning in his life.
Battles at that time were largely a matter of two things: how many soldiers there were handy to fight and how much advantage in terrain and experience were available. Miller's infantry was grossly outnumbered 3 to 1 and faced certain defeat.
Miller was smart enough to know this.
It was unthinkable they should win at such odds against seasoned troops such as the British brought to bear upon them.
At that moment events transpired that dramatically seized upon Miller's sense of the divine. The battle commenced and by the time the last bugle sounded and the dust cleared something of a miracle had occurred.
The Americans won and the British retreated!!
The main cause was the defeat of the British Navy which was the support of infantry columns. British policy was to conserve forces. The British lived to fight another day by not squandering troops.
Miller chose to see things from the divine perspective and viewed it as proof positive that God was truly one who intervened in human history. Perhaps this intervention meant God had a specific purpose for Miller's life personally.
It was a new William Miller reborn that day by unexpected events and an imagination fueled by his early belief system.
Let us stop for a moment and reflect!
William Miller is now a war hero, the natural leader of men, well-respected for his integrity, and much appreciated for his intelligence and curiosity.
In a world of deeply religious believers, many of whom came from Puritan families, such a man as Miller might seem remarkably blessed against the backdrop of this Epiphany of Belief!
After the war, Miller moved his family back to Low Hampton and began life as a mere farmer. But, deeply troubled in his mind and soul he tried to reconcile his personal experiences with his religious upbringing. He sought solace in attending his Uncle's Baptist church.
Obviously, his family deeply longed to have William join them spiritually without reservation. His Uncle involved Miller in Bible reading before the congregation. The loving support of the crowds and their natural admiration and esteem for his community service keened him toward a tipping point of an inevitable crisis.
According to William Miller's own account, it was in the public reading of Isaiah 53 that it all came together. The focus of this scripture was expounded to explain what Miller had previously failed to see.
God did purposefully intervene in men's affairs to redound to their salvation!!
Miller was stricken at his failure to see this previously. He collapsed with emotion only to rise afterward with dramatic self-realization.
Miller's journey was a small circle back to the starting point.
He simply became what he had been raised to be all along: a devout Christian Believer. But, now the full force of his intellect was brought to bear upon it rather than the weak and ineffective emotional succor he saw in others.
What William Miller now threw himself into is predictable in hindsight. He simply did what he always did: he began reading and teaching himself from whatever books were available. Miller was what is called an auto-didact; a self-taught man.
Whatever views he might form would be according to his own personality, whims, and imagination rather than conforming to some rigor of schooling or the headmaster's influence.
William Miller reinvented himself and the indelible mark of his theology would be proprietary to his self-educated viewpoint.
Psychologists today would label this a “confirmation bias”.
It is notable that what William Miller sought to do is done again and again every day by perplexed Christians and waffling non-believers alike. It is commonplace and rather naive to simply view it now for what it was.
Miller started with the first book of the Bible and worked his way through to the end using a Bible concordance only so as not to taint his learning by the opinion of others.
Miller tackled the problem of language and interpretation and lack of resources with zeal. Yet, he was baffled by most of the difficult passages. There was little in the way of archeology, hermeneutics, documentary hypothesis, or analysis of any scientific structure available at that time. Even so, he slogged away for 2 solid years!
Miller concentrated on what interested him most: Prophecy and especially End Times. This was of the greatest interest to amateur ‘scholars’ because it concerned them personally with a kind of dramatic thrill of imminent proximity.
What happens next is most interesting.
Miller finished his studies in 1818 at the age of 36. He had bootstrapped himself into a theory about End Times that gave him much cause for urgency. Miller came up with the idea that ONLY TWENTY-FIVE YEARS REMAINED before Jesus would return to Earth and end human affairs!!
The target year was 1843!
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Let us stop and review.
Down through the centuries, plenty of sincere men of faith and intellect predicted speculative dates and explanations for when the world would end. They came and they went - always humiliated and deflated.
What made Miller's speculations any different from the others who proved themselves False Prophets?
Nothing. It was William Miller’s spotless reputation and pristine character above all.
It would not exactly be the scholarship or explanation of William Miller that would set events into motion. It is the fact that Miller had credibility, respect, good standing in the community, intellect, high morals, and a strong connection with fellow Christians that should red flag what followed.
Miller had strayed from the faith and had COME BACK as a prodigal son which marked him as no flash in the pan. Miller had been a war hero with a story of Divine Intervention on his behalf that made him irresistible to other believers and even non-believers who might sympathize.
Miller had Gravitas!
He was one heavy dude. Further, he had natural talent as an orator and preacher of spellbinding ability. He made people listen and he could convince you that pigs could fly so marvelous was his gift of speech.
The disaster that followed was caused by people wanting a certain outcome in advance to be true! All it took was the suspension of disbelief.
Miller gave it to them in spades.
Two things of note now follow.
Miller did something that no other preacher had done. Miller propounded the idea that ANY student of the Bible of normal intelligence could do what he, Miller, had done without being a graduate of a Theological Seminary. Miller became the first POPULIST preacher of note to move a vast crowd. He empowered the little people rather than making them feel stupid and passive.
Miller challenged Authority! It would not be the Church as an institution that would bring about the Millennium Reign of Christ--no! It would be a small band of True Believers unfettered by tradition or pomposity.
Miller produced an easy-to-understand system that anybody could grasp immediately. The past mirrored the future. The Bible prophecies of old were a mirror of fulfillment in present times. It was a matter of Dispensations or spans of time which matched present-day events that enabled believers to understand predictions of when the End was to come.
Miller produced 14 or 15 iron-clad arguments to persuade belief in his system. He used chiefly Daniel 8:14 and Daniel 9:24-27 to achieve his purpose.
Note: Modern denominations of Christianity are still using Miller’s failed system but moving dates around and jury-rigging explanations to make them dramatic and oh so near! As always, millions of people are persuaded and disappointed.
The best-selling non-fiction book of the 1970s was Hal Lindsey’s book,
THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH. (The book was first featured on a primetime television special featuring Hal Lindsey from 1974 to 1975 with an audience of 17,000,000.
He cited an increase in the frequency of famines, wars, and earthquakes, as major events just prior to the end of the world. He also foretold a Soviet invasion of Israel (War of Gog and Magog).
Lindsey’s predictions proved worthless but - undaunted - he repeated his error with a new book, Countdown to Armageddon, Lindsey predicted that "the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it".
We can all think of other religious groups who fell into the same trap of End Times fever.
(The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life 106,486,735 copies in 116 languages) pointed to 1975 as “the end of 6,000 years of human history”, for example. It was reprinted in 1981 with all the embarrassing predictions removed.)
So many sects, cults, and mainstream churches have familiarized the "day for a year" and "weeks of years" arguments and reasonings. The only changes made today are small and inconsequential ones. The system hasn't been junked at all!
MEANWHILE - BACK TO WILLIAM MILLER …
I mentioned to you how smart William Miller was, right? You must know, then, that he knew he was going to be in for a hailstorm of protests, arguments, and criticisms. So, he spent an additional FIVE YEARS perfecting his counter-arguments, explanations, charts, diagrams, and reasonings anticipating every critic in advance!!
Miller's theology was a refutation-based counter-attack strategy.
Meaning what? For every protest there was a reply; a counter-punch that took you back to scripture. The effect was like watching a fistfight between a professional boxer and a small un-trained amateur. It was always a dramatic knockout!
As people now know, Miller's arguments suffered from two fatal flaws hidden from view: wrong assumptions that bedeviled his very premises and the interpretations of meaning in scripture.
In other words, it was what a computer programmer often says: GIGO GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT.
However, be it noted here something very important. William Miller was an intellectually honest person. He was sincere. He was reluctant. He was not a charlatan nor a flim-flam artist. Read his own words:
"When I was about my business, it was continually ringing in my ears, "Go and tell the world of their danger...." I felt that if the wicked could be effectually warned, multitudes of them would repent; and that if they were not warned, their blood might be required at my hand."
This is a truly Christian sense of responsibility! Misplaced and falsified - but pure in motive.
Having no formal public speaking training, feeling too old, not a preacher by trade, Miller overcame his reluctance.
On the morning of Saturday, August 13, 1831, the fifty-five-year-old farmer promised God something that would go on to change his life and yours perhaps.
Read what it was:
"If I should have an invitation to speak publicly in any place, I will go and tell them what I have found."
As he made this very vow his own nephew was racing to his side to deliver an invitation for him to preach the very next day at the Baptist church in nearby Dresden!
Preparation met opportunity and the rest is history.
The result was a vast wildfire enthusiasm unlike anything known in the New World. Audiences went crazy with acceptance and motivation. Invitations galore took him from one church to another as the crowds grew larger and yet larger into huge mobs of quivering, wide-eyed yokels filled with dread, awe, and religious zeal.
Revivals broke out and thousands were throwing themselves at the altars embracing Salvation and baptism in preparation for THE END.
So successful did this make the local Baptist Churches that they granted him a special license to preach as a Baptist minister in 1833.
An industry was begun with pamphlets, charts, and printed sermons. Illustrators sought to depict the events of Revelation soon to unfold on mankind as these publications flooded America like nothing before it. Like the Boy Who Cried Wolf, everybody took the warning seriously. But wait! No. Not everybody.
It wasn't long before half a million people stood nodding in agreement with the rendezvous with Armageddon Miller had foretold. How could it be otherwise? Leading ministers and preachers well-respected in their community came forth with public acceptance and approval of what Miller was doing and this more than triggered the final skeptics into jumping on the bandwagon with mad abandon.
One follower and admirer, Joshua V. Himes helped Miller to publish Signs of the Times and Midnight Cry.
Both influenced sectarian copycats to come along afterward...
Millerites is what his followers were eventually called by nay-sayers. After the fact, it is claimed only about 55,000 people to 100,000 were true followers of his movement and theology. But, his influence was infectious in many quarters. Miller’s methodology was popular no matter what conclusions were reached at the end.
As the dreaded date approached, these “2nd Adventist” watchers-of-the-end coalesced into a sect after sect of True Believers who could not accept that this might all be a non-eventful event.
Noteworthy are the following:
Millerites began characterizing other churches (who did not embrace their end-time speculations) as members of Babylon the Great!
Eventually, ALL other Christian Churches were seen as clinging to Satan's old world instead of preparing for the New World to come.
Christendom was attacked as the whore of Babylon who rejected the only true religion.
Followers began divesting themselves of personal possessions, dropping out of school, and selling their houses in preparation for the Great Day to come.
The unexpected appearance of a great comet in February seems a sure sign of what was certain to follow.
_______(***Spoiler Alert***)______
THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT
I'm sure you can guess!
To his merit, William Miller made a public apology:
"I confess my error, and acknowledge my disappointment."
He conveyed this retraction in May of 1844.
"Yet I still believe that the day of the Lord is near, even at the door."
179 years have passed since that fateful prediction flunked!
MONKEY SEE-MONKEY DO
After Miller, do you think those thousands of disappointed believers shrugged and admitted they were duped?? NO WAY!
It started all over again. Psychologists have a term for this and it is called “cognitive dissonance.” A person fooled against their will is of the same opinion still.
Various persons tried date-setting chronologies and all of them got it wrong! Again and again!
One famous spinoff of ADVENTISM is Ellen White (who was knocked on the skull as a child). She had "visions". Those visions proved useful for 2nd Adventists. God was speaking to her directly!
What was Ellen White's PREMISE??
A bump on her head and subsequent "visions"!
And that’s not all, Folks!
William Miller’s flabbergasting failure sparked a grassfire among aroused Christians with a thirst, a passion, and an addiction to END TIMES date-setting doctrines.
THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF ended badly for the ordinary villagers who believed the one making false cries because they stopped believing because of those failed warnings!
The moral of the story should be but is NOT clear!
The moral of the story is that liars will not be rewarded; even if they tell the truth, no one believes them.
Was William Miller a liar?
No. The Greek philosopher Aristotle gave us a clear definition of lying.
“To LIE is: To say the opposite of what one believes to be true.”
He was a self-deceived person of piety. But he wasn’t only self-deceived.
His self-deceit created a chain reaction that hasn’t stopped even to this very day.
William Miller’s false prediction brought reproach to God and the Bible as well.
Becoming a laughing stock under the auspices of God’s holy spirit is a serious sin!
In fact, it could well be UNFORGIVABLE because people who trust you are carried away in error. They warn others and so on - everybody looks like a fool and all in the name of Bible truth and God’s prophetic powers.
God describes a false prophet as one who “presumes to speak in My name anything I have not commanded…”
The penalty was - (drum roll, please) “They should be put to death.”
“Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in My name: I did not send them…”
Speaking about End Times is like printing counterfeit money. As long as people accept the bills as legal tender the false prophet can spend and spend and spend.
Gullible True Believers are an easy mark as the story of William Miller proves.
He wasn’t even a liar.
He was upstanding and admirable - until - he wasn’t.
What can we learn from William Miller?
As the gypsy tells the man who was bitten by a strange wolf:
"Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night
can become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."
When it comes to END TIME's predictions, the 'wolfbane' is always in bloom.
Don't let the Boy Who Cries Wolf near you!
