The 1844 Movement
Did it really fulfill the 1st and 2nd angels' messages?
| And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. (Rev. 14:6-8) |
According to Ellen White, the Millerite Movement of 1843/1844 was a fulfillment of the first and second angels' messages of Revelation 14:
"Prophecy was fulfilled in the first and second angels' messages. They were given at the right time and accomplished the work which God designed to accomplish by them."1Is this true? Did the first and second angels sound during William Miller's 1844 movement? Did they accomplish the work described in the Bible? The Bible clearly says the angelic messages of Revelation 14 were to be proclaimed....
Was the Millerite message of the soon return of Christ delivered to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people? If not, then was it really a fulfillment of Revelation 14?
Ellen White painted a picture of the Millerite movement as a glorious worldwide movement:
"The advent movement of 1840-44 was a glorious manifestation of the power of God; the first angel's message was carried to every missionary station in the world, and in some countries there was the greatest religious interest which has been witnessed in any land since the Reformation of the sixteenth century."3Is that an accurate assessment? Can the interest generated by the 1844 movement be compared in any way with the Protestant Reformation?
Not according to Joshua V. Himes. Next to William Miller, Joshua Himes was the foremost leader of the 1844 movement. No one was in a better position to assess the progress of the 1844 movement than Himes. His testimony is certainly more reliable than that of Ellen White, who was, after all, only a sickly 17-year-old teenager at the time. Note carefully what Himes wrote after the Great Disappointment:
"...the cry of the seventh month was a local and partial one. It was confined to this country..."4Himes went on in the article to say that the "cry" produced no effect in Europe whatsoever. Himes knew what he was talking about. He had directed this movement. He had traveled all over the Northeastern United States promoting the movement. He was in contact with England. If anyone was in a position to assess the progress of the movement, it was Himes.5
The historical facts show that the Millerite Movement was largely confined to the Northeastern United States. There is scant evidence that it ever made much penetration into the southern or western United States, let alone the entire world! There was a small interest in the message in southeastern Canada, and perhaps 2,000 to 3,000 followers in Britain. There were a handful of believers in a few scattered places in Europe, but the message really only caught on in the Northeastern United States where it garnered perhaps 50,000 adherents.
Although the message was carried out to a few missionary
stations, it is an incredible exaggeration, if not an outright lie, to claim this was a worldwide message that went to every nation, tongue, and people! There is little or no evidence that this message ever reached the following peoples:
The millions of Indians living within the United States itself!
The untold millions of Africa (this was before Livingstone opened Africa)!
Countless millions in Central and South America!
Millions upon millions in China, Japan, Philippines, and Southeast Asia!
Millions and millions in India, Pakistan, and Central Asia!
Millions in the Ottoman Empire and other Arab nations of the middle east!
Millions in Russia and the Catholic nations of Europe!
"After the great disappointment in 1844, Satan and his angels were busily engaged in laying snares to unsettle the faith of the body. He affected the minds of persons who had had an experience in the messages, and who had an appearance of humility. Some pointed to the future for the fulfillment of the first and second messages... These were gaining an influence over the minds of the inexperienced and unsettling their faith. Some were searching the Bible to build up a faith of their own, independent of the body. Satan exulted in all this; for he knew that those who broke loose from the anchor he could affect by different errors and drive about with divers winds of doctrine. Many who had led in the first and second messages now denied them, and there was division and confusion throughout the body."6Mrs. White decries those who pointed to the "future" fulfillment of the first and second angels' messages, charging that "Satan and his angels" were responsible for their abandoning their former belief. One might wonder why Satan and his angels would need to convince them their movement was not a worldwide movement when the evidence was abundantly clear all around them. One might rightly ask, "Who could possibly believe this movement reached every nation, kindred, tongue, and people"? Only those who were either uneducated or who were so determined to believe that they were right that they chose to believe a delusion instead of the the stark truth.
The first angel in Revelation 14:6 is described as having the "everlasting gospel." Was the "everlasting gospel" preached by the Millerites? Not according to one Adventist scholar who studied the writings of the Millerites in depth:
"Finally, and possibly most significantly, one can consider what is omitted in Miller's [15] rules. They make no mention of Christ, of salvation or of the gospel. This matches the near total lack of devotional writing in Millerite periodicals."7
The Millerites proclaimed that the hour of God's judgment, as described in Rev. 14:7, had commenced: "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come." What did they understand this judgment to be? They understood it to be the judgment of God upon the wicked. This is the only valid interpretation possible from the text of Revelation 14. The judgment of God upon the wicked is the focal point of the chapter:
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. ... And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (Rev. 14:10,11,19,20)The "judgment" announced by the first angel in Rev. 14:7 is referring to the wrath of God being visited upon the wicked. The wrath of the judgment is then described potently in the subsequent verses of the chapter. This is what all the Millerites taught and believed.
After 1844, however, the Adventists faced a dilemma. The wrath of God did not commence as expected in 1844. How could they continue to claim the first angel's message had been fulfilled when the judgment upon the wicked did not occur? In order to explain away this obvious failure, they concocted a theory that the judgment referred to an investigative judgment in Heaven. The investigative judgment, rather than being an execution of justice upon the wicked, envisions a court-room procedure where God ponders the fate of every soul and makes a decision upon each case. This "court-room" investigation is not found anywhere in Revelation 14. Nevertheless, the Adventists adopted this teaching because, even though it violated the context of the passage, it allowed them to have a "judgment" commence in 1844 while at the same time allowing them to say the first two angels' messages had already sounded.
It is impossible for a person to sit down with their Bible, read Revelation 14, and come up with an investigative judgment. If there is any doubt, read the following quotes and ask yourself this question: Do these verses describe an investigative judgment of the righteous or do they describe a judgment of wrath upon sinners?
How could these verses possibly be describing an investigative judgment??? The fact that Revelation 14 is describing a judgment upon the wicked is yet another proof that the first and second angels' messages were not fulfilled in 1844.
When something is placed under a microscope and continually dwelt upon, it starts to look big. Take away the microscope, and one begins to see the bigger picture. One sees that what they once thought was so huge, grand, and glorious, is in reality a tiny speck of near nothingness. The Millerite movement was not a great, grand, or glorious movement. It was an isolated outbreak of fanaticism that 99% of the world never even heard about. Miller was not a great reformer. He goes down in history as someone who deceived thousands of people with his faulty conjectures and incorrect Biblical interpretations. The 1844 movement was not a fulfillment of the first and second angels' messages as Ellen White claimed. Nor was it akin to the Protestant Reformation. It was the dismal failure of a time-setting fanatic that quickly passed into the obscurity of history.
1. Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 245.
2. Revelation 14:6.
3. Ellen G. White, Great Controversy, p. 611.
4. Joshua V. Himes, The Morning Watch, Feb. 20, 1845, emphasis supplied.
5. Ibid.
6. Early Writings, p. 256.
7. Dr. Arasola, The End of Historicism, p. 59.