Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Albany Conference

In the spring of 1845 a conference of Advent believers was called in Albany, New York, in an endeavor to clarify the thinking of the Millerites. The Advent Herald thus summarizes a portion of an address William Miller gave at the conference: EGWC 167.7

“After the seventh month, he felt for a time that his work was done. But when he commenced his lectures at Albany, all his darkness was gone. Therefore brethren, he said, where you find a door open, enter upon that field of labor, and labor until the Master shall tell you to stop. As yet he has given you no such command. Go, labor in the vineyard, and you will still find souls willing to listen to the glad tidings.”—June 4, 1845, p. 132. EGWC 167.8

In the summer of 1845 William Miller published what he called his Apology and Defence in relation to the movement and its great disappointment. He made a distinction between the Advent movement in general, which had been expanding for years preceding 1844, and the seventh-month movement which, as we have seen, developed within the framework of the large movement in the summer of 1844. We observed that Miller and most of the other leaders were the last to accept the distinctive tenet of the seventh-month movement; namely, that the 2300-day prophecy was to end October 22, 1844, and that the preaching of this specific date for the cleansing of the sanctuary constituted the true midnight cry. In August, 1845, Miller wrote: EGWC 168.1

“I have no confidence in any of the new theories that have grown out of that [seventh-month] movement, viz., that Christ then came as the Bridegroom, that the door of mercy was closed, that there is no salvation for sinners, that the seventh trumpet then sounded, or that it was a fulfilment of prophecy in any sense.”—WILLIAM MILLER, Apology and Defence, p. 28. EGWC 168.2

Miller is here referring to various views that began to be preached and published by different individuals in an attempt to find their way out of the great disappointment. He refused to consider any new interpretation of the words, “Behold the bridegroom cometh,” or to believe that the seventh-month movement “was the fulfilment of prophecy in any sense.” EGWC 168.3