1843–1844
William Miller and the return of Christ in 1843 to 1844
Well documented Prediction was reinterpreted End TimesProphecyBiblical NumerologyDate SettingMillerismFailed Predictions
Quick facts
- Predicted date
- 1843–1844
- Who predicted it
- William Miller, Millerites
- When announced
- 1833
- Reasoning
- 2,300 prophetic years counted from 457 BC (Artaxerxes' decree in Ezra 7), which ends in 1843 or 1844 depending on whether the missing year zero is counted.
- What happened
- The Jewish year ended on March 21, 1844 without the expected return. Miller wrote that he was disappointed and extended the window. The expectation then fixed on April 18, 1844, and finally on October 22, 1844 (see the…
- Historical status
- Well documented. The prediction and its date appear in primary or reliable secondary sources.
- Outcome label
- Prediction was reinterpreted
- Editorial certainty
- High: multiple primary or independent sources
- Editorial review
- Pending. This entry has not yet been checked line by line against its sources. Treat details as provisional.
Prediction
What did William Miller predict?
William Miller concluded from Daniel 8:14 that Christ would return around 1843. He later refined the window to the Jewish year from March 21, 1843 to March 21, 1844.
Interpretation by the author
Why did they believe it?
Miller read the 2,300 "days" of Daniel 8:14 as 2,300 years and counted them from an ancient royal decree. The end of that count, in his reading, marked the "cleansing of the sanctuary", which he understood as the purification of the earth by fire at Christ's return.
This is a Second Coming expectation. Miller did not teach a separate secret Rapture, a concept that was not yet widespread in the United States.
Scripture as used by the author
Biblical basis cited
Daniel 8:14 and Daniel 9:24 to 27, with the decree of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7 as the starting point. Miller linked the "seventy weeks" of Daniel 9 to the first part of the 2,300-year period.
Method
How the date was calculated
2,300 prophetic years counted from 457 BC (Artaxerxes' decree in Ezra 7), which ends in 1843 or 1844 depending on whether the missing year zero is counted.
Historical record
Historical context
Miller lived in the burned-over district of upstate New York, a region of intense revival activity. He began lecturing in 1831 and published his arguments in newspapers and a pamphlet, Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ, about the Year 1843 (1833).
The movement grew when Boston publisher Joshua V. Himes gave it newspapers, charts and large tent meetings from 1840. Estimates of followers range from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand, and historians treat the higher numbers cautiously.
Historical record
What happened when the date passed?
The Jewish year ended on March 21, 1844 without the expected return. Miller wrote that he was disappointed and extended the window. The expectation then fixed on April 18, 1844, and finally on October 22, 1844 (see the separate entry for that date).
Historical record
What happened afterward
Miller published a public acknowledgment of his error in 1845 and remained in the Baptist tradition until his death in 1849. The movement fragmented into several groups.
Interpretation
Later reinterpretation
Several denominations took the 1844 date and reinterpreted it. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, organized in 1863, teaches that the date marked the beginning of an "investigative judgment" in a heavenly sanctuary, not the return of Christ to earth. Other Adventist groups developed different readings.
Scripture
Passages cited
-
Daniel 8:14 (KJV)
"And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
The verse Miller's calculation rests on.
-
Daniel 9:24–27 (KJV)
The seventy weeks, read as the first segment of the 2,300 years.
-
Ezra 7:11–26 (KJV)
The decree of Artaxerxes used as the starting point.
-
Matthew 24:36 (KJV)
"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
Critics of Miller cited this verse. Miller argued that he was reading a year from prophecy, not claiming to know the day.
Excerpts are from the King James Version (public domain). Listing a verse here does not mean this site agrees with how the author used it.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- William Miller. Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ, about the Year 1843. 1833. Primary source Miller's own statement of his method.
- Sylvester Bliss. Memoirs of William Miller. Joshua V. Himes. 1853. Secondary source A biography by one of Miller's associates, so sympathetic in tone.
- Ronald L. Numbers and Jonathan M. Butler (eds.). The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth Century. Indiana University Press. 1987. Academic Scholarly essays on the movement and its aftermath.
- David L. Rowe. God's Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World. Eerdmans. 2008. Academic A modern biography.
Found an error or a better source? Send a correction. See also the methodology.