William Miller’s Apology and Defence, August 1

THE RESULT ARRIVED AT

While thus studying the Scriptures, I became satisfied, if the prophecies which have been fulfilled in the past are any criterion by which to judge of the manner of the fulfilment of those which are future, that the popular views of the spiritual reign of Christ, a temporal millennium before the end of the world, and the Jews’ return, are not sustained by the word of God; for I found that all the Scriptures on which those favorite theories are based, are as clearly expressed as are those that were literally fulfilled at the first advent, or at any other period in the past. I found it plainly taught in the Scriptures that Jesus Christ will again descend to this earth, coming in the clouds of heaven, in all the glory of his Father: ¹ that at his coming the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven will be given to Him and the saints of the Most High, who will possess it for ever, even for ever and ever: ² that as the old world perished by the deluge, so the earth that now is, is reserved unto fire, to be melted with fervent heat at Christ’s coming, after which, according to the promise, it is to become the new earth wherein the righteous will for ever dwell: ⁴ that at his coming the bodies of all the righteous dead will be raised, and all the righteous living be changed from a corruptible to an incorruptible, from a mortal to an immortal state, that they will all be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and will reign with him for ever in the regenerated earth: that the controversy of Zion will then be finished, her children be delivered from bondage, and from the power of the tempter, and the saints be all presented to God blameless, without spot or wrinkle in love: s restoration are applied by the apostle to all who are Christ’s, — the putting on of Christ constituting them Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. ¹ WMAD 6.2