The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

III. Miller Declares Faith in Imminent Advent Unaltered

Miller’s personal faith in the Bible was unshaken by the bitterness of disappointment. On November 10, 1844, he calmly wrote: PFF4 858.1

“Although I have been twice disappointed, I am not yet cast down or discouraged. God has been with me in Spirit, and has comforted me. I have now much more evidence that I do believe in God’s word; and although surrounded with enemies and scoffers, yet my mind is perfectly calm, and my hope in the coining of Christ is as strong as ever. I have done only what after years of sober consideration I felt it to be my solemn duty to do. If I have erred, it has been on the side of charity, the love of my fellow man, and my conviction of duty to God.... I had not a distant thought of disturbing our churches, ministers, religious editors, or departing from the best biblical commentaries or rules which had been recommended for the study of the scriptures.” ³ PFF4 858.2

He was confident that the end could not be far away, and was constantly emphasizing “today,” as his steadfast formula: PFF4 858.3

“Brethren, hold fast; let no man take your crown. I have fixed my mind upon another time, and here I mean to stand, until God gives me more light.—And that is Today, TODAY, and TODAY, until He comes, and I see HIM for whom my soul yearns.” ⁴ PFF4 858.4

Believing that their reckonings of the great time prophecies were essentially correct, Miller refused to speculate further on definite “time,” although he counted personally on the coming of the Lord before the current Jewish sacred year “1844” should end, by the spring of 1845. He wrote: PFF4 858.5

“I have reckoned all the time I can. I must now wait and watch until he is graciously pleased to answer the 10,000 prayers that daily and nightly ascend his holy hill, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.’ ⁵ PFF4 858.6

In this he was joined by others. Litch declared that the “ground of confidence” in the imminence of the advent “increases day by day.” ⁶ Although Cox, Whiting, and some others who had never been clear on the specific year still felt they were fundamentally “Adventists,” they believed definitely in the imminence of the Lord’s return. They were confident that Providence had unquestionably led them, and that the Advent Movement was in the will of God. They were confident that the basic principles had not lost their validity because of the mistake in specific time. ⁷ PFF4 858.7

On the contrary, Storrs bluntly declared that a “human influence, which I call Mesmerism,” was responsible for his preaching a definite date “with the positiveness that I did.” They had gone beyond the “bounds of discretion,” he felt, and should only have preached the “strong probability” of the Lord’s coming at that date. But he added: “I am now looking daily for the coming of our Lord, and striving by grace, to be always ready for it.” ⁸ PFF4 859.1

Miller, remembering that Jonah was blessed in the preaching of time to Nineveh, and that his preaching of definite time had been specifically directed of God, declared: PFF4 859.2

“It is to me almost a demonstration, that God’s hand is seen in this thing. Many thousands, to all human appearance, have been made to study the Scriptures by the preaching of the time; and by that means, through faith and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, have been reconciled to God.” ⁹ PFF4 859.3