In this research William Miller must have consulted the writings of Johan Petri (1718-1792), a reformed pastor, in his investigations. Petri was the first to simultaneously begin the prophecy of the 70 weeks and the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings; at the end of which the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus would begin. Petri started the 2,300 years in the year 453 and ended in the year 1847; because he considered the biblical account that the Lord Jesus was about thirty years old when he was baptized; so he subtracted the thirty years mentioned from the 69 weeks or 483 years, which leads to the year 453 BC.
At this point, it is interesting to note that Petri’s interpretation has some agreement with the correction of the miscalculation error made by the monk Dionysius Exiguus, who computed the birth of the Lord, four years after that event had occurred, which leads to the reasonable consideration that the Lord Jesus was baptized at the age of thirty. If Petri’s calculation and Dionysius Exiguus’s computation are relatively correct, the prophecy of Daniel 8 had to begin in the year 453 BC, and end in the year 1847, not in the year 1844, as we have believed, following the miscalculation of time by the mentioned monk. According to our traditional interpretation, the prophecy of the 2,300 evenings and mornings begins with the command to return and rebuild Jerusalem; a command that should have been given by Artaxerxes in the last days of the year 458 BC, so that Ezra could depart from Babylon to Jerusalem on the first day of the first month of the year 457 BC, as recorded in Ezra 7:9. If the above is correct, the 2,300 years of Daniel 8 should have ended on the first day of the first month of the year 1844; which in our Gregorian calendar corresponded to March 21 of that year.
Miller understood that prophetic portion perfectly well, so he dedicated himself to preach that the Lord Jesus would come in the spring of 1844. Unfortunately, the Lord did not come on the expected date, which led to thousands of Millerites experiencing the first disappointment; including the Harmon family. Miller acknowledged that he had made a mistake and was disheartened. In those circumstances, the Millerite Samuel Snow, not wanting to admit that they had been mistaken, reinterpreted the prophecy; pointing out that the 2,300 years did not begin and end in the spring with the issuing of the order, but with its implementation in the autumn, on the day of atonement, which occurred after Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem, contradicting what was prophesied in Daniel 9:25 and recorded in Ezra 7:9. This reinterpretation faces the inconvenience – already mentioned several times – that Ezra 7 does not record any order to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls, much less the implementation of such an order, which we do find in the book of Nehemiah.
Miller initially did not accept Snow’s proposal for considering it lacking biblical foundation, but six months later; specifically two weeks before October 22, he changed his mind and was infected and excited about the possibility that the Lord would come on the newly proposed date. October 22 arrived and the Lord did not come; causing some Millerites to be somewhat disturbed, to the point that they clung to any interpretation that made them feel good and made sense of their expectations. This was the case of Samuel Snow, the Millerite who proposed that the Lord would come on October 22, 1844, who ended up affirming in 1848 that he was the prime minister of King Jesus, and that God and the Lord Jesus Christ had commissioned him to prepare the way. Snow demanded that all kings, presidents, magistrates, and civil and ecclesiastical ministers hand over all the power and authority they have in their hands, in the name of King Jesus.
At this point; considering the ignorance of the Scriptures of our sincere and honest pioneers, we must ask ourselves: Will it be part of God’s plan that, in the 21st century – the century of enlightenment -, we continue at the same level of prophetic obscurantism as approximately 180 years ago? It is time to wake up and try to do something, and not gloat in the idea that our prophetic errors do not matter because we are doing well, as we are the militant church that will end up being the triumphant church. In a triumphant church, truth cannot be mixed with error. Blessings.
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