The Great Disappointment

Therefore if they say to you, “Look, He is in the desert!” do not go out; or “Look, He is in the inner rooms,” do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Matthew 24:26-27

William Miller, an American Baptist minister in upstate New York, was a keen student of the scriptures, especially the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.  When Miller studied Daniel 8:14 -  "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” -  he used the day/year prophetic yardstick to reach 2,300 years. The more he studied, the more he believed that "the sanctuary being cleansed” meant the return of Jesus to this earth.  Additional prophecies in Daniel gave Miller clues as to the date from which the prophet was counting.

Miller calculated several different dates during the 1830’s, finally settling on October 22, 1844, as the date when Jesus Christ would return to earth.  Miller and many others preached the soon return of their Lord up and down the Eastern starboard of the United States.  Hundreds of people joined the movement known as the Great Awakening.  Families abandoned their homes, and/or left their crops to rot in the fields.  When midnight passed and time slipped into October 23, their grief and disappointment were overwhelming.  October 22, 1844 is known in history as The Great Disappointment.

History is poised to repeat itself tomorrow, May 21, 2011, only this time the movement is centered on the west coast in California.  The disappointment and disillusionment will be the same. The staggering loss for those who have left everything behind will be overwhelming.  Many will turn against their leader, the movement spawned by Family Radio, and God Himself.  This is not the first incidence of date-setting for the coming of Christ, and it will not be the last.  Sadly, the Second Coming is not about mathematical calculations.  It is about the fullness of time – God’s time.