Tuesday, October 22, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 22nd of October 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Imagine waking up on this, the 22nd of October in 1844. For many, that morning was ominous… but I suppose we have our first problem already- when we say “the morning of,” we need to establish both a calendar and a clock. Most of the Western world had moved on to a Gregorian calendar- but this was not universal. And if the day is hard, how about the hour? While the British, in typical form, set their standard time- Greenwich meantime as the standard for the rest of the world. But, to take the United States as an example, there was no standardized time. The invention of the rails made “artificial time” (say, 2:05) a thing, but there was also no standard clock- causing havoc with different railroads using different clocks.

And so, perhaps this gives us a new appreciation for the idea that no one knows the hour or the day. But, like so many things, we are slow learners.

William Miller was not your picture of a wide-eyed prophet. He was a respected man back home in Massachusetts- he had been a farmer, justice of the peace, and army captain. He was also a convert to Christianity and began to take seriously the calls in the New Testament to “be ready” and to “observe the signs.” Based on James Ussher’s calculations (more on that, ironically, on tomorrow’s show as he claimed the world began on October 23rd, 4004 BC), Miller went to the Old Testament apocalyptic sections from the book of Daniel- and in Daniel 8:14 we read that the cleansing of the temple would take place in "two thousand and three hundred days”. He switched those days to years (and maybe this is problem #1) and counted from 547 BC, when he believed Artaxerxes announced the rebuilding of the temple. Add 2300 to -547 and you get 1843, and so he claimed that the end of the world- the “cleansing of the temple” would be in this year. When it didn’t come to pass, a slightly altered proposal was given of this, the 22nd of October in 1844.

What makes Miller and his “Adventism” (as he was writing for a second advent) interesting is how mainline such ideas had become. The excitement of the 19th century- of westward expansion- the Eerie canal and all that… added to this high-speed printing, and Miller’s friend Joshua Himes took up Miller’s cause with his printing business, and soon the claims caught fire. And, knowing that the aged and increasingly ill Miller couldn’t do it all by himself, he hired other preachers (sometimes overly zealous) to take Miller’s ideas and his, Himes’, very complicated but intriguing timeline of the end times to the masses, and soon 10’s of thousands came to believe that this- the 22nd of October in 184 would be the last day. Families sold their belongings, moved into fields, and, like so many times before and since, were sorely disappointed in what the press was calling “the Great Disappointment.” Miller would die, but the very literal (and at the same time, not very) approach to counting days and years continued. some- including James and Ellen White- came to see the “cleansing of the temple” as a spiritual and heavenly event ushering in the last days. Seventh-Day Adventism would take a few twists and turns, but this was its genesis.

Others, such as John Nelson Darby of the Brethren movement, would stop short of claiming days and hours but did use a similar model for his interpretive model of Old and New Testament prophecy, which would become “Premillennial Dispensationalism” and the template for much of the Apocalypticism of the coming century. Miller would die, and his name would go down as forever associated with the “Great Disappointment” of his apocalyptic teachings, even if they were as much the result of a network of people and printers and similar beliefs. This, the 22nd of October, came and went- but as long as there were maps (and the real call from Jesus and others to be watchful), there would be calculations- ironically, most using tomorrow's date as the beginning of the world- on whose calendar? You’ll have to tune in tomorrow.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and Hebrews 6:

16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 22nd of October 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man in the central time zone, where shows at 8 start at 7- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man with an idea for a universal timezone based on Pacific time, for my own benefit… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.