The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

I. Early Confusion Becomes Prevalent

After the Disappointment the leaders were distressed at the confusion of opinions that ensued. I. E. Jones described it at the time: PFF4 828.2

“Our brethren this way are catching at every conceivable hypothesis to reconcile the movement of the tenth [day of the seventh month, or October 22].... PFF4 828.3

“But, supremely ridiculous, painful & dangerous, as is this state of things among ourselves, it is not as much so as the ranks of our opponents present. Who can think of the endless diversity of opinion among them on the prophe[c]ies & Atonement, Free Will, Baptism, conversion, & every Bible truth; & not say in view of his temptations to leave this [Advent] cause, ‘To whom shall we go?’ ... PFF4 828.4

“Oh, I sigh for home. Home; sweet, sweet home. But, patience my soul.” ² PFF4 828.5

Miller, deeply perturbed over this discord, appealed to the editors of the Millerite journals to stay the controversy. PFF4 828.6

“I must confess I am pained at heart, to see the battle we are now in, ... after having silenced our common enemy.... Every [Adventist] paper which has come into my hands recently is full of fight, and that too against our friends.” ³ PFF4 828.7

He was outspokenly opposed to the various “new theories” that had developed, following October 22, in an endeavor to explain the Disappointment. He deplored the “call to come out” of the churches that had been given, and he never accepted the distinctive positions of the Sabbatarians. The doctrine of the unconscious sleep of the dead and the final destruction of the wicked was not, he maintained, part of the original Millerite position, but was introduced personally by Storrs and Fitch. He even came to deny the application of the parable of the “Midnight Cry” to the seventh-month movement, and eventually went so far as to declare unequivocally that that movement was not “a fulfillment of prophecy in any sense.” ⁴ PFF4 828.8