# The Millerites · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/028-the-millerites/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 028 · Apocalyptic / Doomsday
The Millerites
Adventists; the Great Disappointment
1831 – 1845 · Northeastern United States
III. THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY
Fully religious — interdenominational Protestant date-setting movement
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1818 Miller completes his calculation privately.
- 1831 Begins public preaching.
- 1840 Himes launches Signs of the Times; the campaign goes national — an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 committed believers, perhaps a million interested.
- 21 March 1843 – 21 March 1844 The first predicted window passes with nothing.
- August 1844 Snow announces the true date at the Exeter camp meeting: the tenth day of the seventh month, 22 October 1844.
- 22 OCTOBER 1844 THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT. Believers who had sold farms, given away goods and left crops unharvested wait through the night. Nothing happens. Hiram Edson later wrote that they wept till the day dawned.
- 23 October 1844 Edson's vision reinterprets the date as the moment Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary rather than the earth — a textbook rescue of a falsified prophecy.
- 1863 Seventh-day Adventist Church formally organised; today over 22 million members.
### Its people
### William Miller
—
Founder, the Millerite movement · 15 February 1782 – 20 December 1849 · active 1831–1845
Before the law. None.
Where things stand. Deceased 1849. The remnant of his movement founded Seventh-day Adventism, now over 22 million members.
- 1818 Completes the calculation privately.
- 1831 Begins preaching publicly.
- 1840 Joshua Himes takes the campaign national.
- 21 March 1844 First predicted window closes with nothing.
- 22 OCTOBER 1844 THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT.
- 20 December 1849 Dies at Low Hampton, New York.
Checked
### Joshua Vaughan Himes
—
Publisher and organiser, the Millerite movement · 19 May 1805 – 27 July 1895 · active 1839–1845
Before the law. None.
Where things stand. Deceased 1895.
- 1839 Meets Miller and takes over promotion.
- 1840 Launches Signs of the Times.
- 1842 Commissions the Great Tent, seating around 4,000.
- 22 October 1844 The Great Disappointment.
- 1878 Returns to the Episcopal Church.
- 27 July 1895 Dies in South Dakota.
Checked
### Samuel S. Snow
—
Author of the 22 October 1844 date · 1806 – 1870 · active 1843–1845
Before the law. None.
Where things stand. Deceased 1870.
- August 1844 Announces the 22 October date at the Exeter camp meeting.
- Aug–Oct 1844 The seventh-month movement; the most intense phase of Millerism.
- 22 October 1844 The date passes.
- later Declares himself Elijah; dies obscure in 1870.
Checked
### Hiram Edson
—
Author of the doctrine that saved Adventism · 1806 – 1882 · active 1844–1882
Before the law. None.
Where things stand. Deceased 1882.
- 22 October 1844 Waits through the night with fellow believers; 'we wept till the day dawned'.
- 23 OCTOBER 1844 The cornfield vision — the sanctuary doctrine.
- 1840s–60s Helps organise the Sabbatarian Adventist movement.
- 1882 Dies.
Checked
### Ellen G. White
—
Co-founder and prophet, Seventh-day Adventist Church · 26 November 1827 – 16 July 1915 · active 1844–1915
Before the law. None. Plagiarism disputes over her writings have been argued within the church for over a century.
Where things stand. Deceased 1915. The church she co-founded has over 22 million members.
- 1844 Experiences her first vision at 17, weeks after the Great Disappointment.
- 1863 Seventh-day Adventist Church formally organised.
- 1866 Western Health Reform Institute founded, later the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
- 16 July 1915 Dies in California.
Checked
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