The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

The First Disappointment

The inquiry will now arise, “What was there in the advent experience that answers to these statements?” There were movements which accord fully with the prophecy. Those giving the message down to April, 1844, labored among the churches, and the ministers of the various churches united with their efforts. Thus they were “fellow-servants.” GSAM 149.3

Those giving the message taught that the twenty-three hundred days of Daniel 8:14 would terminate with the Jewish year 1843, which would be in our year 1844. They proclaimed the hour of God’s judgment to come at the close of that period. Every denomination in the land at that time held that the judgment day would be introduced by the second coming of our Lord. Thus it will readily be seen that the Adventists supposed the Lord would come at the close of that prophetic period. They said, “This period may terminate with the month, March 21, 1844, the last of the natural Jewish year 1843.” So they looked to the last of March or the first of April, 1844, as a time when the Saviour might come. GSAM 150.1