June 23, 2022 • 46 mins
You might not have heard of William Miller, but in his time he was a pretty big deal. In the first part of this two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the origin of William Miller and Millerism, his spiritual movement predicated on the idea that, with some tricky math, you could indeed predict the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. It's
(00:27):
the end of the kidding. Welcome back to the show
Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always for tuning in. Let's
hear it for our own profit. The one and only
super producer, Mr Max Williams. I don't feel fine. I
have a dummy ache. Well, uh, as we'll find you
have some time to resolve that, Tommy ache Noeld before
(00:48):
the world does actually end at least as we know it,
They called me, Ben. We are here today to talk
about one of one of our show's favorite things, cults,
spiritual leaders, messianic figures, and as always, prediction about the
(01:08):
end of the world. Uh. This goes a lot of places,
and I thought it would be I thought it would
be really helpful for us at the very beginning of
today's show on Millerism, one of America's first end time Gospels.
I think it'd be very important for us to put
a little disclaimer here to say, of course, we do
(01:29):
not discriminate against anyone's personal spiritual beliefs. They are your own. However,
this story Millerism is going to give us a distinct
and unique look at American culture and at the way
the United States approaches religious concepts, especially if they are
(01:50):
somewhat distinct from from the the dominant religious cultures of
the time. Would you say it's a fair disclaimer. I
would say so. And I will also say that by
the end of this episode, the phrase Miller time is
going to mean something completely different to you. The end times,
not not happy hour. Uh So, in the early eight hundreds, um,
right after the Revolutionary War, you know, we go west,
(02:12):
young man and all of that stuff, right, pushing out
west to achieve a new frontier. Um. And this is
a period that along with that comes a lot of
other new developments and happenings and spreading of various flavors
of religion, bringing that religion to the quote unquote Heathens,
(02:34):
you know, um, in that part of the country that
was being settled all of that. So there's this westward
expansion of religion too, and along with that comes a
lot of weird apocalyptic kind of vibes. You know, you
think of the Sandwich board man walking around with the
sign saying, you know, scrawled in like some sort of
red paint, saying the end is nigh. Repent now or
(02:56):
forever hold your piece maybe that's not quite how it goes,
but the in his an ipart for sure. Yeah. Maybe
with maybe with a particularly juicy excerpt from the Book
of Revelations. You probably have seen those, folks. And I
myself am a big fan of sandwich board messaging. I
wish it was around more often. Maybe we'll bring it
back to advertise a live show for ridiculous history. But
(03:19):
the thing about a lot of these new developments happening
as this nation is forming and expanding, is that many
of these movements have apocalyptic overtones, kind of a kind
of a metaphysical hard cell and act now lest you
regret it, soon vibe to them. And this period of
(03:41):
history gives rise to what is commonly known as the
Second Great Awakening. It's a period of revival. It's totally thematically,
it's in step with the great physical expansion of the country.
There is a great way for us to set it
off with a quote from PBS. You can read a
(04:04):
great article by L. Michael White called Prophetic Belief in
the United States, And what better way than uh, this quote.
We're gonna summarize a little, but they say one of
the interesting things about the Second Great Awakening is it
gives rise to a number of new religious sects within
the American cultural experiment. This is what some people have
(04:25):
called the rise of a free market religious economy in America.
I love that phrase. But there are new groups popping
up all over the place. And the article goes on
to name utopian groups who moved to places like Armana
and Oneida, which you may know for cutlery today true story, uh,
and New York was known as the burned Over District
(04:46):
because there were so many revivalist preachers coming from that area.
And in this second grade Awakening, we see the origins
or the genesis if we want to have some starky
wordplay of other groups that a exist today like Seventh
Day adventis U, Latter Day Saints and so on, all
of whom came out of that revivalist temperament of this
(05:08):
time period. Yeah, it reminds me a lot of um,
the television series Carnival, if you've seen that, it's kind
of a dust bowl kind of like traveling Carnival thing
um with this this this big tent revival kind of vibes.
And of course in that show, uh, the leader of
the revival is possessed by some sort of demon, um spoiler,
(05:31):
you find out that, like I think episode one unfortunate
uh turn of events. That show didn't get renewed, and
it ends on a really like super intense cliffhanger, and
there was talking about turning into a graphic knowledge. But
I still thought it was quite an excellent show. And
I think this period in American history is rife for
this kind of exploration. Uh, you'll find it in a
lot of fiction, because the whole kind of doomsday prophecy
(05:54):
mentality really is fascinating. It's like we something, you know,
the royal we as in part of this particular niche
you know, sect of a religious order of faith, know
something that you don't know, the idea that we know
when the world is going to end, and only we
can protect ourselves and hopefully convert you so that you
also might not perish, you know, in the flames of
(06:17):
of the apocalypse. And that's fascinating to me. And I
think just the idea of secret knowledge interest both of us.
Yeah agreed, And I have a long standing personal fascinations
since childhood with cult like figures for religious leaders who
name the day and the time and they typically will
(06:40):
have uh some sort of revelation that's come directly to
them from a supernatural or divine force, or they will
feel they have made calculations based in in math or
in the passage of the stars that tell them not
only the world is going to end or change, but
exactly when this will end and change. And they have
(07:00):
some they have some commonalities here that will find often
it's gonna be a time that occurs within the lifetime
of that religious figure. And this is where we go
to our main character of the story, a guy named
William Miller. Let's learn a little bit about Willie. He's
born in seventeen eight two Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He's the son
(07:24):
of a veteran from the Revolutionary War and his mom
is the daughter of a Baptist preacher. He grows up
on a farm in Hampton, New York, just over the
border from Vermont. He's like a lot of kids on
a farm in this time. He doesn't really go to
(07:44):
school unless farm work allows him to. Otherwise he's in
the fields and he's trying to run the family business.
He is literate, his mom teaches him to read, and
he loves, loves, loves, reading, but his mom is a
little bit anxious about his choice of books, especially because
(08:05):
he likes reading things by Thomas Payne, and uh, these
these are works that cast doubt on the validity of
a lot of religious tenants and question the authority can
you believe it? Of the Bible? So picture Miller's mom
being someone who really likes classical music, and she taught
(08:28):
her kid to love classical music. And now she's walking
by his room and she's like, why are you playing
all these rock albums? Right? Because Thomas Paine is like
a rock album in in this household. That's absolutely a
fantastic comparison because even when we see concepts that seem
really dated to us now, there was once a time
(08:49):
when it was absolutely revolutionary and or completely radical and
dangerous seeming, you know, and terrifying. It's like kids now
look at like Marilyn Manson and think that's that goofy guy.
Who's that goofy sex predator. But back when we were kids,
he was like the scourge of parents, you know, far
and wide. It was like, well, he's gonna turn my
(09:09):
kids into a Satan worshiping you know, headenist. Right, Yeah,
it's the slippery slope argument that happens every time a
new generation comes to the fore. You know, I picture
some very disgruntled uh, a very disgruntled bishop somewhere going.
I only approve of Gregorian chant. It's a common pattern.
(09:30):
So like a lot of people, a lot of young
people who are given to the love of language, Miller
also starts writing poetry, and he starts expanding his vocabulary.
He falls in love with turns of phrase and so on.
It's during the War of eighteen twelve that he joins
up with military forces. At first he's a recruiter throughout
(09:52):
western Vermont, and then he's a captain of a company
at the Battle of Plattsburgh. His company is mostly known
for not having very good discipline. A little bit after
the battle, he writes to his wife, and he has
a description of the fighting that later goes hand in
glove with the way he writes about the end of
(10:13):
the world. He says, how grand, how noble, and yet
how awful. The roaring of cat and the bursting of bombs,
the wheezing of balls, the popping of small arms, the
cracking of timbers, the shrieks of the dye, and the
groans of the wounded, the swearing of soldiers, the smoke,
the fire, everything conspires to make the scene of battle
(10:35):
awful and grant other than using the word awful repetitively,
that's pretty good. Also the whizzing of balls. I'm sorry,
I thought sorry, I'm a child, because whizzing also means
never mind. Um so yeah, no, it's it's it's it's
good doomsday prose right there. I would argue a little
little on the repetitive side with awfulness, but sounds pretty awful. Uh.
(11:01):
You know, it's funny though. I always found it interesting
the differentiation between the word awesome and awful that basically
they're like the same thing, but they mean completely different things.
But I think awesome, you know, the awesome power of
God or the awful you know, annihilation of of of Satan. Yeah, yeah,
because it's it's weird because um, awful etymologically comes for
(11:28):
a word called augural h A G H G f
U L, which just means worthy of respect or fear,
striking with awe causing dread, and awesome is inspiring awe
or dread. It's like, it's it's interesting, I I really,
awesome just means something containing awe, like something with awe
(11:50):
and awful to me means something that's full of awe. Yeah, yeah,
And it's fascinating to when we look at this exert
from his letter to his wife, this may have set
him to reconsidering his deistic or deistical inclinations from his childhood.
(12:11):
Deistical is sort of this religious belief that says, yes,
there's a God who created the universe and created moral
and natural laws, but this God doesn't interfere in human affairs.
That's a bit beneath this god's pay grade. And so now,
maybe at least this is the supposition of Gary E. Waite,
writing for the Dartmouth College Library Bulletin, maybe this close
(12:37):
brush with death because he was seeing people die, maybe
that turned Miller's mind around a little bit. Maybe death
wasn't just the end of consciousness. Maybe there was some
kind of system of reward and punishment in a world
after the physical world of mud and pain and struggle.
(12:59):
But still he's he's wrestling with these problems, and in
September of eighteen sixteen, Captain Miller it still kind of thinks,
all right, dogmatic religion, that's not my vibe. The Bible
has a lot of contradictions and inconsistencies Christian Bible, and
uh he yeah. He goes to fair Have in Vermont
(13:20):
to have a reunion with veterans from the Battle of Plattsburgh,
and at this time, these reunions almost always open with
a religious service and something that includes a sermon. And
out of all the sermons the William Miller has heard
up to this point in his life, this one's different.
(13:41):
Something the preacher says, hits him harder than a bullet.
It hits him as hard as all the bullets that
missed him, and he converts. He comes away and he's like, okay, no,
he raised some points. I'm very lucky. I might need
to change my two well. And that was also a
(14:06):
real characteristic of this period of these religious kind of
like awakenings or whatever. It was, this like instantaneous conversion,
you know what I mean, like laying hands upon some
of them all of a sudden, the Word of God
just filling their their mind, body and soul. You know,
it's certainly something that happens today as well, But this
it really did, wouldn't you say, Ben. There was this
(14:26):
kind of almost like explosive sense of of of conversion,
usually at the hands of some really expert orator, you know,
who was able to just kind of like imbue people
with the power of the word. M hmmm. And there's
a lot to be said about the psychology of social
dynamics at revivals, which or something we should look at
(14:49):
in the future for this show. But I think your
point holds. Let's fast forward, but not too far so
the Sunday after this reunion where this preacher really gets
to him. William Miller is reading from the scriptures at
this Baptist chapel near his house, and he becomes so
emotionally fraught that his voice breaks and he physically can't
(15:14):
go on. Now he's still not a diet in the
world convert, but he is struggling. He's vacillating. He's going
back and forth with this argument in his head between
faith and between reason. And he says, look, I am
a believer. Now I get it, I understand, but caveat
(15:35):
I'm unable to reconcile this my understanding, my emotional experiential belief,
with my intellectual objection to the conflicts between scripture and
between history. So I need to study the Bible with
historical secular notes and I I'm gonna make sense of
(15:56):
it all. We're gonna get to the bottom of this.
And he does just that. He literally loses interest in
reading anything else but the Bible. Um. He goes through
a chapter and verse just methodically. There's a quote from
him kind of describing how he tackled the project. I
commenced with Genesis and read verse by verse. Whenever I
(16:17):
found anything obscure. My practice was to compare it with
all collateral passages. Then, by letting every word have its
proper bearing on the subject, I pursued the study of
the Bible. And here's the kicker, and was fully satisfied
that it is its own interpreter. Can we unpack that?
Ben does that basically me. And he's saying it's infallible
(16:40):
because no one, no other tone could possibly dissect the
Bible except except itself. Or is he saying that everything
you need to properly interpret the Bible is already in there.
It's kind of the latter. So he's he's doing He's
got big dan round vibes at this point, because to him,
the Bible is almost a puzzle, right. He's saying that
(17:03):
if I can decode certain parts of it, particularly the
references to dates, then I will understand. So perhaps all
the stuff that I thought was contradictory or didn't make
sense was just on me because I didn't know how
to interpret it. And all the answers are there for
(17:23):
those who know the correct way to encounter this text.
So he moves in eighteen fourteen across the border. He
goes to Lowahampton, New Jersey, and he sets up a
farm with his wife and people in town. You know,
this is every every town is kind of a small
(17:44):
town outside of like New York, Boston, a couple other places.
So everybody talks about everyone. You're familiar with it if
you've ever spent time in a small town, and people
are kind of you know, joking, not in a necessarily
supermean way, but it's it's like a little meme people
have about his, uh, his religious change of heart. And
(18:05):
so he says, you know what, I'm going to make
this serious. I am going to master the Bible. He
spends pretty much all the time that he can reading
and researching, Like you said, this one book. He becomes obsessed,
in particular with decoding how and when Jesus Christ will
(18:29):
return in the Second Coming, and he says, the Bible
has the answers, it's just on me to figure out
what what specifically is going on with these dates, and
it's not. And he spends time on this, He spends
almost a decade. It's not until eight years later that
he thinks he has his answer. Yeah, he's in the meantime,
(18:50):
he's he's essentially being you know, visited by visions of sorts,
you know, in his dreams, and he's also interpreting those
and you know and using those as as trees into
his research as well. Uh. In eighteen thirty two, he
became a preacher actually, you know, in a small town
kind of situation. I don't know that he actually even
went to seminary. I think he was just sort of
(19:11):
like a you know, manic street preacher. I guess, uh exactly,
because he was writing all of these articles and these
letters to the editor to the Vermont Telegraph, which was
a Baptist paper that like outlined all of the research
and all these views that he's kind of been developing
over the last handful of years. And he starts getting
a lot of traction, a lot of followers, you know,
(19:33):
I mean, essentially, he's going viral letters start coming in,
too many to read, asking for more detail, more specificity
on his views, and from that kind of you know,
humble beginning, Millerism itself was born. Yeah, and there's I
want to spend a second on this, because it wasn't
until he wrote to the Telegraph that he really started
(19:56):
to have traction. If you go back through some of
his ear Leader letters, he said that once he went
once he figured out his calculations, he would talk with
people about it in private and then later in a
more public space. But he felt like folks weren't taking
him seriously. And this all changed when he got the
power of the press behind him. He had us mathematics
(20:21):
of a sort that he used to calculate the end times.
Oh and his conclusion, of course, was at the end
is near. It's not a particularly surprising conclusion for people
who study apocalyptic belief systems, but here's what he did.
He had a set of what he thought of as
common sense rules for deciding which passages should be taken
(20:45):
literally and which should be taken figuratively. And he said,
if it makes good sense as it stands and does
no violence to the simple laws of nature. Then it
should be understood literally. If it doesn't do those two things,
it should be figurative. And this is all like on
his vibe of it. If if he reads it and
he goes, okay, yeah that makes sense, so right, yeah, yeah,
(21:07):
that's good. And then if it doesn't make sense to him,
or if it seems um impossible from what he knows
of the world, then he's like, oh, it's a metaphor
you know what I mean, it's not literal. Even this
approach didn't solve everything. Soon he began to believe that
some words must have more than one symbolic meaning. So
day is a great example of this. Day, for example,
(21:29):
might mean not just a twenty four hour unit of time.
It could also mean an indefinite period. It could mean
a year, or it could mean a thousand years. Well sure,
it's like you know, even today we use expressions like
back in the day, or it's been a minute, you know,
things like that. I mean, they're there the other day,
(21:50):
which confusing. Max is gonna want to punch me, but
you can't because we're on zoom when I bring this up.
But the way he's interpreting the Bible here like a puzzle.
It kind of reminds me of the way people pick
up on the lore of like the frum soft games
like elden Ring and h and Dark Souls and all those,
(22:10):
because the plots are very obscure and kind of obtuse,
and you have to like pick up objects and read
like the text on you know, the sword that you
find in a chest or whatever, or like a piece
of arm or something, and then through those little bits
and pieces and these breadcrumbs, you kind of develop a
bigger picture of the lore and like of you know,
(22:31):
the pantheon of like the gods and all that stuff.
I think the Bible is like a slightly less obscured
version of that. But also I think there's a lot
of opportunity to have debatable conclusions about the lore of
elden Ring, as there also is to have debatable conclusions
about the lore and the meaning of the Bible, which
(22:51):
is why the idea of like the end times that
was his conclusion, not necessarily you know what everybody thinks
when they read the Bible. This is sort of like
a novel in repretation at the time, right, Yeah, it's
kind of like I mean, like it's it's a known
fact among religious scholars that the Bible is based on
the Lord of Skyrim. Clearly, uh, and this it happens
(23:12):
to Skyrim as well. But yeah, it goes it goes
down to interpretation and the idea of what like. At
this point, he's not even quite questioning exactly what the
end of the world means, but he's trying in a
pseudo scientific way to break down this text. Right, and
(23:34):
we should say he's acting in good faith. He's not
trying to con people. He's trying to satisfy a um
a philosophical battle within himself, and he becomes obsessed with
finding a truth that he feels as solid and understandable. So,
if we go back to this day thing, he is
(23:57):
choosing the interpretation of word it's like day based on
what seems to best agree with his knowledge of history
and what seems most consistent with the overall passage of
the scripture under consideration. This is when he gets to
Daniel eight. Daniel eighth is a pivotal text for Miller. Uh.
(24:20):
He is especially taken with Daniel A fourteen, a relatively
short little verse. It just says, and he said unto me,
unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed? It's about the cleansing of sin from earth,
and so he thinks. He muddles this over. You know,
(24:42):
picture the montage or you know that meme with the
guy from Narco's who's just standing around in his empty house.
You guys know thee. Yeah, he's doing he's doing that,
and through his head Daniel A fourteen think also of
the beautiful mind meme with all the equation superimposed or
the galaxy brand meaning which would require can maybe comparing
(25:03):
different things, but still I like the like the ultimate
mind explosion when at the end um. But yeah, he
he thinks about this and starts to wrap his head around, uh,
something that he felt may have been missed. He believes
that Christ would return at that time, at the hundred
year period that was that was a referenced in Daniel
(25:25):
eight four team. He was really just starting to understand
the message and actually initially kind of misunderstood what its
connection might be. Prophecy. Yeah, yeah, he thinks, Okay, Cleansey
and the sanctuary. Really and you've seen this in many
religious services, right where the the religious leader quotes a
(25:49):
passage from a holy text and then says, but what
does that mean exactly? You know, let's break it down.
What is a date? I said, what is a date?
And you know it goes on. He's doing the for
himself often and he says, Okay, cleansing the sanctuary. What
does this mean? Well, this means cleansing the earthly sanctuary.
(26:09):
This means cleansing of the church at the return of Christ,
because what is the church but the earthly sanctuary? And however,
he says and stops himself, the sanctuary referred to here
is instead the heavenly sanctuary. And then he dives into
something called the day year principle. You guys know about
(26:32):
this one. I didn't until researching this, you know. And
big shout of super duper research associated Zach Williams for
digging deep into this stuff. For us, it's hipping us
to some of these concepts that you know, both of
us being equally fascinated with end of days prophecies and
doomsday theology and all of that. There's a lot of
new stuff in here for me as well. So, Ben,
(26:53):
could you explain to us the day year principle. Yeah,
so it's also called the year day principle or the
year or a day principle, which is I think a
more accurate way to describe it. It's a way of
interpreting biblical prophecy in which the word day in any
prophetic statement is considered to be symbolic of a year
(27:16):
of actual time. So from Miller's interpretation, that twenty three
hundred day prophecy is really twenty three hundred years. And
so this leads into initially calculate the yes, Jesus Christ
is returning, because remember Miller's a Christian, he believes all
this stuff. He says, Jesus Christ is returning, and Christ
(27:40):
is coming back in eighteen forty three, and then you know, eureka.
He clapped his hands. He's like, of course, it makes
sense here for a day. That's solid math, and the
church will be cleansed during that time because it is
a sanctuary. So one day in prophetic scripture equals one
year of act full time. So that's twenty three years
(28:03):
of history. That's what the prophecy of Daniel eight is.
And uh, the details of the system that he makes
Miller not Daniel, are complicated, I like dug into it,
and it's still it's Yeah, it's a little more of
an esoteric kind of like obscured version of like dog
years to human years conversions, you know. Um, but yeah,
(28:26):
it gets a little funky if you look too deeply
into it. But so, you know, again, super complicated, super
kind of you know, to obscured any other five dollar
word for complicated and mysterious really because it was kind
of this like you know, mystery theology kind of thing
(28:46):
at least had the vibe of that. So they're a
little hard to follow. Much like the story of elden Ring,
he drew upon passages in the Book of Daniel, as
we mentioned that referred to one thousand, two hundred and
sixty days. Uh. He translated the days in two years,
and then he used that as the start point to
the notion of rebuilding the Jewish Temple after the captivity
(29:10):
of the Babylonians and moving forward from that point. And
that is often like a very important point in history, right,
ben like that, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, especially
like you know, in uh traditional um, Jewish history and faith,
that's a very important, uh historical event that often time
(29:31):
is marked by yeah, absolutely, and for people who consider
themselves skeptics overall, or for people at the time who
are skeptical of Miller's findings. This is the moment where
you say, Okay, I feel like you are just moving
things around to fit a conclusion, which is the idea
(29:53):
that this is all possibly going to happen while you
are alive. That's again, that's the thing that's pretty common
with a lot of cult leaders, and it's maybe unfair
to call him a cult leader. At this point. He's
not trying to get over on people or run their lives.
(30:14):
He is getting a lot of pr though, and there
are a lot of folks in his time who totally
buy into this system. He lectures around Vermont in New York,
he gets invited to increasingly far away places Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine,
in Connecticut, he's getting momentum. And by eighteen forty, just
(30:35):
three years before the Second Coming of Christ Peris calculations,
a Boston publisher named Joshua Vaughan Himes starts a newspaper
dedicated entirely to William Miller's teachings as he is traveling
around lecturing. So now you've got the power of the
press again, just like when he was writing into the
(30:56):
Vermont Telegraph at this point. Now we can properly call
all his belief system a movement, the Miller Wite movement,
and Himes is a convert as well. Himes first encounters
Miller in New Hampshire and then says, Okay, I get
what you're saying. Miller. You've got to come with me
(31:17):
to Chardon Street Chapel in Boston. You've got to preach
to those folks. Miller is ted toes down on this.
He goes and preaches multiple times to packed audiences throughout
December of eighteen thirty nine, and then Himes and him
they become friends over this time, and so Himes says, father, Miller,
you've got to you've got to come to my house,
(31:38):
come to my personal house, and look, I'm gonna make
sure that you can talk to people in every single
city in the Union. And Miller is okay with this.
But again, he's not a p T. Bartum, he's not
a flim flam artist. He really believes in what he's saying.
And Himes is like the power, Himes is power. Read
(32:00):
this thought. You know it's funny. Man. We talked about
this pretty recently. I can't remember what episode, just the
idea of how some flim flam men don't know they're
flim flam men. And again, this is all based in
the power of belief, and there may well still be
some people to believe in what Miller put out there.
But it's an interesting line because you're out there converting
(32:21):
people with the best of intentions, maybe, but also putting
them in a situation that is a form of kind
of almost psychosis, you know, or uh, the kind of
belief system that is so extreme and so kind of
nihilistic that it could put their families, their relationship with
their families in jeopardy. It's almost like a Q and
(32:43):
on kind of situation, you know. And again, not trying
to disparage people who believe in the rapture of things
like that. I personally think it's it's not on, but
you know, people are gonna believe, they're gonna believe, and
I fully believe in your power and right to do so.
But it is an interesting line when you say he's
not a flam flam man. But from the outset, a
(33:05):
lot of these revival tent preachers could be seen that way.
It's all about what's in their heart? Do they believe
or are they after something more specific? Yeah, and I
love a I love a good tent revival and just
like the uh, the energy of it. Um. But I
see exactly what your what your point is there. Himes
(33:25):
is not the originator of these ideas, but he is
a huge force in the popularization of it. Let's talk
a little bit about how we get to that newspapers.
So Himes decides, I'm gonna be your publicist. I'm gonna
be like your marketing guy. I'm gonna be your brand
manager for your message. So he gets Millar to preach
in New York, in Philly, in Washington. Uh. Miller is
(33:48):
not used to this. This is the big leagues for him.
This is deep water and U. Now he has gone
from talking to like groups in small towns in New
England two thousands of Americans in the biggest cities in
the country. And Miller says, Okay, look, that's great. We
can have you walking around pressing the flesh all the
(34:09):
live long day up till the end of the world.
In however, we need to take advantage of mass media.
And that's why Himes publishes that newspaper we're talking about
the signs of the Times. Himes had knew the odds
were against him. He didn't have the money to make
this himself in a sustainable way, and he didn't have
(34:29):
a built in sturdy subscription base. But he was able
to convince This is how we know Himes himself must
have been charismatic. He was able to convince a group
called down Jackson Anti Slavery publishers to print the paper.
And these guys, these publishers, said, well, the interest in
(34:50):
the second Advent, that where it's going to be important later, folks,
This second coming has grown so much that we could
definitely sell papers off this. We sell it out this.
You know what, they said, Himes, Miller, we will assume
the financial responsibility for keeping the paper going and publishing
it semi monthly if you, Himes can make content for
(35:14):
it and then start building a subscription list. And Himes said,
you know what, I'll do it as a volunteer. Yeah.
And they're like, Himes, your signs at the Times must
rhyme because that's gonna sell more papers to right right, Yes,
but I think it's a missed opportunity. You should have
been Himes Signs of the Times. Um, but this is
a big deal. This is a platform, a real platform,
(35:38):
and it turns out it was it was a big deal.
At the end of the first year publication, the Signs
of the Times by Himes had a subscription base of
fIF people, which might not seem massive. Um, but these
are all like hardline, devout believers. So from these relatively
meager beginnings, Himes able to persuade down Jack and to
(36:00):
sell him the paper. And by two the paper had
gained so much attention that Himes began to publish it weekly,
and nine months after that a man named Josiah Litch
was hired as the associate editor. Um, you can't have
a name like Josiah Lytch and not be a hardline
(36:20):
religious nut. Not spelled like lich king though, it's l
I T C H. So shut out all my fellow
D and D D and defense. Yeah, it's Josiah Litch,
not the litch King. They're the first of the first
of the post with a Millerite focused publication, but they're
not the only ones. Other Millierite themed periodicals start getting
(36:44):
published over the next few years. It's a very compelling strategy.
The second coming of Christ is in eighteen forty three,
it's next year, you want to read a paper about it.
Of course, the money flies out of people's hands, and
not all of these periodicals are as successful as the
Signs of the Times. But Himes doesn't stop there. There
(37:07):
are a plethora of publications, and whenever I say the
word plethora, I want to point out that plethora means
too much of something, not just a lot, means so
much that it's not good. So they're the markets flooded. Uh.
Himes is moving on to other things, and he's publishing
books and tracks like pamphlets that are written by Miller
(37:29):
and other preachers who agree with him, other Advent preachers.
He calls this the Second Advent Library. If you are millerite,
if you are down with his teachings and his calculations,
you are encouraged not just to buy these books, but
to buy a copy for yourself, and buy a copy
to lend out to your friends and neighbors, so they
(37:50):
get the good word. Uh and uh then they develop
even like now they're getting into merchandising. Right. Himes doing
right works with Charles fitch Letch and a guy with
a really cool name, Apollos Hail to create a prophetic chart,
(38:14):
and they developed this for use in eighty two. Yeah,
what wouldn't it be funny if, like, you know, the
Advent calendar, like it was like a piece of chocolate
for every day leading up to the apocalypse. Small small
consolation there, I did. I didn't really realize until the
research for this episode that Advent does refer to like
the second coming of Christ um, which I guess is
(38:36):
what happens when well, I don't understand why is an
advent calendar then, because this isn't the Advent calendar. It
leads up to Christmas, which is when it's the birth
of That's not that's the birth, but not the rebirth
that would be Easter, right, The rebirth is the resurrection
of Christ. The second Advent is the second Coming, so
(38:56):
the Advent calendar celebrates the first coming. That's alright, I suppose. So,
I just it seems to me like the word advent
specifically refers to a second coming, so they should just
call it like a baby Jesus birthday calendar or something.
It's a little confusing as all, yeah, but it's just
the It comes from the Latin Adventist just means coming.
So in the church calendar, it's the advent calendar is
(39:18):
the period of preparation for the celebration of the Birth
of Christ at Christmas. But then the second Advent is
the preparation for the second coming of Christ. Ben he
got me, thank you for that. Um. So here's the thing.
We start seeing these, uh, this literature being spread outside
of the United States. Around fifty thousand copies of Signs
(39:41):
of the time As were distributed in the US and
in Europe. And it wasn't long before the little Rags
started to get some some real attention, and not all
good attention, um, from the secular press, because this is
some hardline doom and gloom stuff that could be I
can see how it could be met with some you know, resentment.
(40:03):
It's like, what why are you spreading all this, like
this misinformation about the end of the world getting people
all worked up into a tizzy. Yeah. And also I
want to pause here just for a second, because we're
getting really close to his original eighteen forty three prediction, right,
but he has begun to modify this prediction and his
(40:29):
he never sets an exact date, He sets a window
of time. So at the urging of his followers, he
narrows his time frame down to this, and want to
give this quotation from him. He says, My principles of
brief are that Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify,
and take possession of the same with all the saints
(40:51):
sometime between here it is March one, eighteen forty three
and March one, eighteen forty four. So when you hear
hear him talking about when you when you hear us
talking about these secular responses, know that we're getting close
to that window. But we haven't crossed the window yet,
and we haven't gotten to eighteen forty five, or indeed
(41:13):
April eighteen forty four. But you are, you are on
the money. People started calling him out and saying that
maybe maybe he was a con artist. When the second
Millerie Journal came out, it was called The Midnight Cry,
which is a great name for a publication, right. It
(41:34):
launches in November eighteen forty two, just a few months
before Miller's Apocalyptic Window, and when it launches a paper
out of New Hampshire, the Congregational Journal says, Huh, looks
like these folks have made a profitable business out of
scaring people. And then they said quote, though the world's
(41:55):
doom is announced to be the thirteenth of next month,
his prospective covers thirteen weeks, for which period he does
not hesitate to take payments in advance. So they're saying
like you're you're taking money after the apocalypse. In our opinion,
it's weird because the critics aren't just secular people. The
(42:17):
critics are also other established religious denominations, and they get
more and more intolerant of this. Like if you were
a preacher and you're known to have h an association
with Millerism, then when you're on a tour, when you're
traveling and you want to talk to other people about
the message of God, they're more and more likely to say, oh, no,
(42:38):
I've heard about you. Guys. There is no there's no
pulpit for you here, no platform. It's okay. I brought
my own Apple box, my own box, and my own megaphone,
which was also invented by Himes. Kidding, it's just a
coiled up piece of cardboard. You know that. I shout
him to one end, but it definitely amplifies does the job.
(43:00):
So as as we decided Noll, this is going to
be a two parter. We're all very much into this idea,
and we've gone for like an hour and we haven't
even gotten to the turn right. A credit to the
bonkers nature of this story and to our super research
associate Zachary Williams for digging this one up for us
(43:21):
and doing such a fine job, very thorough, very thorough,
that man um. But yeah, one of our rare preemptive
two parts. I think you're gonna be seeing maybe a
few more of these coming down the pike where we're
gonna let you know ahead time. We do hate that
we have to make this one a Thursday Tuesday situation,
but it couldn't be helped. Couldn't be helped. Yeah, and
(43:41):
we think it is going to be BEHINDS fifty seven
style worth the way good things come to those wait,
I think is the tagline. But tune in this Tuesday
to hear about what went wrong with Millerism, to learn
a little bit more about the dark side of the equation,
and uh, particularly to learn about something called the Great Disappointment.
(44:04):
I just don't see how anything could possibly go wrong
with this story band. It feels like it's just being
set up for a a real climactic victory here for
forrel Miller and his uh his, his followers. But yeah,
maybe we did kind of spoil I guess history really
spoiled it more than anything that you know. We we
haven't been raptured yet that we know of, um, But
(44:27):
it's funny, you know, And we'll talk about this a
little bit in the second episode, but this is almost
kind of a pre rapture kind of situation, at least
in the rapture, like the good people get to be
lifted up and taken too Jesus, and the baddies, you know,
get assumed presumably you know, cast down into the the
pit or just incinerated or something. No, it depends on
the version. There's also the whole left behind model where
(44:49):
just all the good people disappear and then the bad
people to stay on earth, which is I guess a
punishment worse than than hell. Yeah, and we can't wait
for you to be part of this story, for you
to join the conversation with us, So tune in next
Tuesday for part two of Millerism and learn why we're
(45:10):
still around after eighteen forty something. Making a podcast in
two thanks as always to our own personal profit, the
one and only super producer, Mr Max Williams. Thanks to Yes,
thanks to first of his name, the quister a K.
Jonathan Strickland, Thanks to Alex Williams, who else, No, of course,
(45:30):
Chris frostiotas here in Spearity's Jeff coats the same. Uh.
You know what, Max gets another thanks for me, and
I'm gonna give no c Max. That's he screwed it up. Man.
You can't double woo. You can't triple woo yourself. I
was gonna woo you so that you're a personal woo
would have seemed a little less self congratulatory, but never mind.
Oh my god, you guys have been wooing each other
(45:52):
since that hot tub incident. I know it's son. There
was also that balcony the balcony incident where I was
wooed as well, and then we died on each other's
arms in a crypto sorts, only to be resurrected to
podcasts another day. I am so glad you guys are here.
This show is one of my favorite things to do,
and we hope you enjoy the wild story ahead. That's
(46:17):
it for us this week, folks. Uh don't join Occult
Definitely not unless you're into it. We'll see you next Seploix.
For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. It's
(00:27):
the end of the kidding. Welcome back to the show
Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always for tuning in. Let's
hear it for our own profit. The one and only
super producer, Mr Max Williams. I don't feel fine. I
have a dummy ache. Well, uh, as we'll find you
have some time to resolve that, Tommy ache Noeld before
(00:48):
the world does actually end at least as we know it,
They called me, Ben. We are here today to talk
about one of one of our show's favorite things, cults,
spiritual leaders, messianic figures, and as always, prediction about the
(01:08):
end of the world. Uh. This goes a lot of places,
and I thought it would be I thought it would
be really helpful for us at the very beginning of
today's show on Millerism, one of America's first end time Gospels.
I think it'd be very important for us to put
a little disclaimer here to say, of course, we do
(01:29):
not discriminate against anyone's personal spiritual beliefs. They are your own. However,
this story Millerism is going to give us a distinct
and unique look at American culture and at the way
the United States approaches religious concepts, especially if they are
(01:50):
somewhat distinct from from the the dominant religious cultures of
the time. Would you say it's a fair disclaimer. I
would say so. And I will also say that by
the end of this episode, the phrase Miller time is
going to mean something completely different to you. The end times,
not not happy hour. Uh So, in the early eight hundreds, um,
right after the Revolutionary War, you know, we go west,
(02:12):
young man and all of that stuff, right, pushing out
west to achieve a new frontier. Um. And this is
a period that along with that comes a lot of
other new developments and happenings and spreading of various flavors
of religion, bringing that religion to the quote unquote Heathens,
(02:34):
you know, um, in that part of the country that
was being settled all of that. So there's this westward
expansion of religion too, and along with that comes a
lot of weird apocalyptic kind of vibes. You know, you
think of the Sandwich board man walking around with the
sign saying, you know, scrawled in like some sort of
red paint, saying the end is nigh. Repent now or
(02:56):
forever hold your piece maybe that's not quite how it goes,
but the in his an ipart for sure. Yeah. Maybe
with maybe with a particularly juicy excerpt from the Book
of Revelations. You probably have seen those, folks. And I
myself am a big fan of sandwich board messaging. I
wish it was around more often. Maybe we'll bring it
back to advertise a live show for ridiculous history. But
(03:19):
the thing about a lot of these new developments happening
as this nation is forming and expanding, is that many
of these movements have apocalyptic overtones, kind of a kind
of a metaphysical hard cell and act now lest you
regret it, soon vibe to them. And this period of
(03:41):
history gives rise to what is commonly known as the
Second Great Awakening. It's a period of revival. It's totally thematically,
it's in step with the great physical expansion of the country.
There is a great way for us to set it
off with a quote from PBS. You can read a
(04:04):
great article by L. Michael White called Prophetic Belief in
the United States, And what better way than uh, this quote.
We're gonna summarize a little, but they say one of
the interesting things about the Second Great Awakening is it
gives rise to a number of new religious sects within
the American cultural experiment. This is what some people have
(04:25):
called the rise of a free market religious economy in America.
I love that phrase. But there are new groups popping
up all over the place. And the article goes on
to name utopian groups who moved to places like Armana
and Oneida, which you may know for cutlery today true story, uh,
and New York was known as the burned Over District
(04:46):
because there were so many revivalist preachers coming from that area.
And in this second grade Awakening, we see the origins
or the genesis if we want to have some starky
wordplay of other groups that a exist today like Seventh
Day adventis U, Latter Day Saints and so on, all
of whom came out of that revivalist temperament of this
(05:08):
time period. Yeah, it reminds me a lot of um,
the television series Carnival, if you've seen that, it's kind
of a dust bowl kind of like traveling Carnival thing
um with this this this big tent revival kind of vibes.
And of course in that show, uh, the leader of
the revival is possessed by some sort of demon, um spoiler,
(05:31):
you find out that, like I think episode one unfortunate
uh turn of events. That show didn't get renewed, and
it ends on a really like super intense cliffhanger, and
there was talking about turning into a graphic knowledge. But
I still thought it was quite an excellent show. And
I think this period in American history is rife for
this kind of exploration. Uh, you'll find it in a
lot of fiction, because the whole kind of doomsday prophecy
(05:54):
mentality really is fascinating. It's like we something, you know,
the royal we as in part of this particular niche
you know, sect of a religious order of faith, know
something that you don't know, the idea that we know
when the world is going to end, and only we
can protect ourselves and hopefully convert you so that you
also might not perish, you know, in the flames of
(06:17):
of the apocalypse. And that's fascinating to me. And I
think just the idea of secret knowledge interest both of us.
Yeah agreed, And I have a long standing personal fascinations
since childhood with cult like figures for religious leaders who
name the day and the time and they typically will
(06:40):
have uh some sort of revelation that's come directly to
them from a supernatural or divine force, or they will
feel they have made calculations based in in math or
in the passage of the stars that tell them not
only the world is going to end or change, but
exactly when this will end and change. And they have
(07:00):
some they have some commonalities here that will find often
it's gonna be a time that occurs within the lifetime
of that religious figure. And this is where we go
to our main character of the story, a guy named
William Miller. Let's learn a little bit about Willie. He's
born in seventeen eight two Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He's the son
(07:24):
of a veteran from the Revolutionary War and his mom
is the daughter of a Baptist preacher. He grows up
on a farm in Hampton, New York, just over the
border from Vermont. He's like a lot of kids on
a farm in this time. He doesn't really go to
(07:44):
school unless farm work allows him to. Otherwise he's in
the fields and he's trying to run the family business.
He is literate, his mom teaches him to read, and
he loves, loves, loves, reading, but his mom is a
little bit anxious about his choice of books, especially because
(08:05):
he likes reading things by Thomas Payne, and uh, these
these are works that cast doubt on the validity of
a lot of religious tenants and question the authority can
you believe it? Of the Bible? So picture Miller's mom
being someone who really likes classical music, and she taught
(08:28):
her kid to love classical music. And now she's walking
by his room and she's like, why are you playing
all these rock albums? Right? Because Thomas Paine is like
a rock album in in this household. That's absolutely a
fantastic comparison because even when we see concepts that seem
really dated to us now, there was once a time
(08:49):
when it was absolutely revolutionary and or completely radical and
dangerous seeming, you know, and terrifying. It's like kids now
look at like Marilyn Manson and think that's that goofy guy.
Who's that goofy sex predator. But back when we were kids,
he was like the scourge of parents, you know, far
and wide. It was like, well, he's gonna turn my
(09:09):
kids into a Satan worshiping you know, headenist. Right, Yeah,
it's the slippery slope argument that happens every time a
new generation comes to the fore. You know, I picture
some very disgruntled uh, a very disgruntled bishop somewhere going.
I only approve of Gregorian chant. It's a common pattern.
(09:30):
So like a lot of people, a lot of young
people who are given to the love of language, Miller
also starts writing poetry, and he starts expanding his vocabulary.
He falls in love with turns of phrase and so on.
It's during the War of eighteen twelve that he joins
up with military forces. At first he's a recruiter throughout
(09:52):
western Vermont, and then he's a captain of a company
at the Battle of Plattsburgh. His company is mostly known
for not having very good discipline. A little bit after
the battle, he writes to his wife, and he has
a description of the fighting that later goes hand in
glove with the way he writes about the end of
(10:13):
the world. He says, how grand, how noble, and yet
how awful. The roaring of cat and the bursting of bombs,
the wheezing of balls, the popping of small arms, the
cracking of timbers, the shrieks of the dye, and the
groans of the wounded, the swearing of soldiers, the smoke,
the fire, everything conspires to make the scene of battle
(10:35):
awful and grant other than using the word awful repetitively,
that's pretty good. Also the whizzing of balls. I'm sorry,
I thought sorry, I'm a child, because whizzing also means
never mind. Um so yeah, no, it's it's it's it's
good doomsday prose right there. I would argue a little
little on the repetitive side with awfulness, but sounds pretty awful. Uh.
(11:01):
You know, it's funny though. I always found it interesting
the differentiation between the word awesome and awful that basically
they're like the same thing, but they mean completely different things.
But I think awesome, you know, the awesome power of
God or the awful you know, annihilation of of of Satan. Yeah, yeah,
because it's it's weird because um, awful etymologically comes for
(11:28):
a word called augural h A G H G f
U L, which just means worthy of respect or fear,
striking with awe causing dread, and awesome is inspiring awe
or dread. It's like, it's it's interesting, I I really,
awesome just means something containing awe, like something with awe
(11:50):
and awful to me means something that's full of awe. Yeah, yeah,
And it's fascinating to when we look at this exert
from his letter to his wife, this may have set
him to reconsidering his deistic or deistical inclinations from his childhood.
(12:11):
Deistical is sort of this religious belief that says, yes,
there's a God who created the universe and created moral
and natural laws, but this God doesn't interfere in human affairs.
That's a bit beneath this god's pay grade. And so now,
maybe at least this is the supposition of Gary E. Waite,
writing for the Dartmouth College Library Bulletin, maybe this close
(12:37):
brush with death because he was seeing people die, maybe
that turned Miller's mind around a little bit. Maybe death
wasn't just the end of consciousness. Maybe there was some
kind of system of reward and punishment in a world
after the physical world of mud and pain and struggle.
(12:59):
But still he's he's wrestling with these problems, and in
September of eighteen sixteen, Captain Miller it still kind of thinks,
all right, dogmatic religion, that's not my vibe. The Bible
has a lot of contradictions and inconsistencies Christian Bible, and
uh he yeah. He goes to fair Have in Vermont
(13:20):
to have a reunion with veterans from the Battle of Plattsburgh,
and at this time, these reunions almost always open with
a religious service and something that includes a sermon. And
out of all the sermons the William Miller has heard
up to this point in his life, this one's different.
(13:41):
Something the preacher says, hits him harder than a bullet.
It hits him as hard as all the bullets that
missed him, and he converts. He comes away and he's like, okay, no,
he raised some points. I'm very lucky. I might need
to change my two well. And that was also a
(14:06):
real characteristic of this period of these religious kind of
like awakenings or whatever. It was, this like instantaneous conversion,
you know what I mean, like laying hands upon some
of them all of a sudden, the Word of God
just filling their their mind, body and soul. You know,
it's certainly something that happens today as well, But this
it really did, wouldn't you say, Ben. There was this
(14:26):
kind of almost like explosive sense of of of conversion,
usually at the hands of some really expert orator, you know,
who was able to just kind of like imbue people
with the power of the word. M hmmm. And there's
a lot to be said about the psychology of social
dynamics at revivals, which or something we should look at
(14:49):
in the future for this show. But I think your
point holds. Let's fast forward, but not too far so
the Sunday after this reunion where this preacher really gets
to him. William Miller is reading from the scriptures at
this Baptist chapel near his house, and he becomes so
emotionally fraught that his voice breaks and he physically can't
(15:14):
go on. Now he's still not a diet in the
world convert, but he is struggling. He's vacillating. He's going
back and forth with this argument in his head between
faith and between reason. And he says, look, I am
a believer. Now I get it, I understand, but caveat
(15:35):
I'm unable to reconcile this my understanding, my emotional experiential belief,
with my intellectual objection to the conflicts between scripture and
between history. So I need to study the Bible with
historical secular notes and I I'm gonna make sense of
(15:56):
it all. We're gonna get to the bottom of this.
And he does just that. He literally loses interest in
reading anything else but the Bible. Um. He goes through
a chapter and verse just methodically. There's a quote from
him kind of describing how he tackled the project. I
commenced with Genesis and read verse by verse. Whenever I
(16:17):
found anything obscure. My practice was to compare it with
all collateral passages. Then, by letting every word have its
proper bearing on the subject, I pursued the study of
the Bible. And here's the kicker, and was fully satisfied
that it is its own interpreter. Can we unpack that?
Ben does that basically me. And he's saying it's infallible
(16:40):
because no one, no other tone could possibly dissect the
Bible except except itself. Or is he saying that everything
you need to properly interpret the Bible is already in there.
It's kind of the latter. So he's he's doing He's
got big dan round vibes at this point, because to him,
the Bible is almost a puzzle, right. He's saying that
(17:03):
if I can decode certain parts of it, particularly the
references to dates, then I will understand. So perhaps all
the stuff that I thought was contradictory or didn't make
sense was just on me because I didn't know how
to interpret it. And all the answers are there for
(17:23):
those who know the correct way to encounter this text.
So he moves in eighteen fourteen across the border. He
goes to Lowahampton, New Jersey, and he sets up a
farm with his wife and people in town. You know,
this is every every town is kind of a small
(17:44):
town outside of like New York, Boston, a couple other places.
So everybody talks about everyone. You're familiar with it if
you've ever spent time in a small town, and people
are kind of you know, joking, not in a necessarily
supermean way, but it's it's like a little meme people
have about his, uh, his religious change of heart. And
(18:05):
so he says, you know what, I'm going to make
this serious. I am going to master the Bible. He
spends pretty much all the time that he can reading
and researching, Like you said, this one book. He becomes obsessed,
in particular with decoding how and when Jesus Christ will
(18:29):
return in the Second Coming, and he says, the Bible
has the answers, it's just on me to figure out
what what specifically is going on with these dates, and
it's not. And he spends time on this, He spends
almost a decade. It's not until eight years later that
he thinks he has his answer. Yeah, he's in the meantime,
(18:50):
he's he's essentially being you know, visited by visions of sorts,
you know, in his dreams, and he's also interpreting those
and you know and using those as as trees into
his research as well. Uh. In eighteen thirty two, he
became a preacher actually, you know, in a small town
kind of situation. I don't know that he actually even
went to seminary. I think he was just sort of
(19:11):
like a you know, manic street preacher. I guess, uh exactly,
because he was writing all of these articles and these
letters to the editor to the Vermont Telegraph, which was
a Baptist paper that like outlined all of the research
and all these views that he's kind of been developing
over the last handful of years. And he starts getting
a lot of traction, a lot of followers, you know,
(19:33):
I mean, essentially, he's going viral letters start coming in,
too many to read, asking for more detail, more specificity
on his views, and from that kind of you know,
humble beginning, Millerism itself was born. Yeah, and there's I
want to spend a second on this, because it wasn't
until he wrote to the Telegraph that he really started
(19:56):
to have traction. If you go back through some of
his ear Leader letters, he said that once he went
once he figured out his calculations, he would talk with
people about it in private and then later in a
more public space. But he felt like folks weren't taking
him seriously. And this all changed when he got the
power of the press behind him. He had us mathematics
(20:21):
of a sort that he used to calculate the end times.
Oh and his conclusion, of course, was at the end
is near. It's not a particularly surprising conclusion for people
who study apocalyptic belief systems, but here's what he did.
He had a set of what he thought of as
common sense rules for deciding which passages should be taken
(20:45):
literally and which should be taken figuratively. And he said,
if it makes good sense as it stands and does
no violence to the simple laws of nature. Then it
should be understood literally. If it doesn't do those two things,
it should be figurative. And this is all like on
his vibe of it. If if he reads it and
he goes, okay, yeah that makes sense, so right, yeah, yeah,
(21:07):
that's good. And then if it doesn't make sense to him,
or if it seems um impossible from what he knows
of the world, then he's like, oh, it's a metaphor
you know what I mean, it's not literal. Even this
approach didn't solve everything. Soon he began to believe that
some words must have more than one symbolic meaning. So
day is a great example of this. Day, for example,
(21:29):
might mean not just a twenty four hour unit of time.
It could also mean an indefinite period. It could mean
a year, or it could mean a thousand years. Well sure,
it's like you know, even today we use expressions like
back in the day, or it's been a minute, you know,
things like that. I mean, they're there the other day,
(21:50):
which confusing. Max is gonna want to punch me, but
you can't because we're on zoom when I bring this up.
But the way he's interpreting the Bible here like a puzzle.
It kind of reminds me of the way people pick
up on the lore of like the frum soft games
like elden Ring and h and Dark Souls and all those,
(22:10):
because the plots are very obscure and kind of obtuse,
and you have to like pick up objects and read
like the text on you know, the sword that you
find in a chest or whatever, or like a piece
of arm or something, and then through those little bits
and pieces and these breadcrumbs, you kind of develop a
bigger picture of the lore and like of you know,
(22:31):
the pantheon of like the gods and all that stuff.
I think the Bible is like a slightly less obscured
version of that. But also I think there's a lot
of opportunity to have debatable conclusions about the lore of
elden Ring, as there also is to have debatable conclusions
about the lore and the meaning of the Bible, which
(22:51):
is why the idea of like the end times that
was his conclusion, not necessarily you know what everybody thinks
when they read the Bible. This is sort of like
a novel in repretation at the time, right, Yeah, it's
kind of like I mean, like it's it's a known
fact among religious scholars that the Bible is based on
the Lord of Skyrim. Clearly, uh, and this it happens
(23:12):
to Skyrim as well. But yeah, it goes it goes
down to interpretation and the idea of what like. At
this point, he's not even quite questioning exactly what the
end of the world means, but he's trying in a
pseudo scientific way to break down this text. Right, and
(23:34):
we should say he's acting in good faith. He's not
trying to con people. He's trying to satisfy a um
a philosophical battle within himself, and he becomes obsessed with
finding a truth that he feels as solid and understandable. So,
if we go back to this day thing, he is
(23:57):
choosing the interpretation of word it's like day based on
what seems to best agree with his knowledge of history
and what seems most consistent with the overall passage of
the scripture under consideration. This is when he gets to
Daniel eight. Daniel eighth is a pivotal text for Miller. Uh.
(24:20):
He is especially taken with Daniel A fourteen, a relatively
short little verse. It just says, and he said unto me,
unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed? It's about the cleansing of sin from earth,
and so he thinks. He muddles this over. You know,
(24:42):
picture the montage or you know that meme with the
guy from Narco's who's just standing around in his empty house.
You guys know thee. Yeah, he's doing he's doing that,
and through his head Daniel A fourteen think also of
the beautiful mind meme with all the equation superimposed or
the galaxy brand meaning which would require can maybe comparing
(25:03):
different things, but still I like the like the ultimate
mind explosion when at the end um. But yeah, he
he thinks about this and starts to wrap his head around, uh,
something that he felt may have been missed. He believes
that Christ would return at that time, at the hundred
year period that was that was a referenced in Daniel
(25:25):
eight four team. He was really just starting to understand
the message and actually initially kind of misunderstood what its
connection might be. Prophecy. Yeah, yeah, he thinks, Okay, Cleansey
and the sanctuary. Really and you've seen this in many
religious services, right where the the religious leader quotes a
(25:49):
passage from a holy text and then says, but what
does that mean exactly? You know, let's break it down.
What is a date? I said, what is a date?
And you know it goes on. He's doing the for
himself often and he says, Okay, cleansing the sanctuary. What
does this mean? Well, this means cleansing the earthly sanctuary.
(26:09):
This means cleansing of the church at the return of Christ,
because what is the church but the earthly sanctuary? And however,
he says and stops himself, the sanctuary referred to here
is instead the heavenly sanctuary. And then he dives into
something called the day year principle. You guys know about
(26:32):
this one. I didn't until researching this, you know. And
big shout of super duper research associated Zach Williams for
digging deep into this stuff. For us, it's hipping us
to some of these concepts that you know, both of
us being equally fascinated with end of days prophecies and
doomsday theology and all of that. There's a lot of
new stuff in here for me as well. So, Ben,
(26:53):
could you explain to us the day year principle. Yeah,
so it's also called the year day principle or the
year or a day principle, which is I think a
more accurate way to describe it. It's a way of
interpreting biblical prophecy in which the word day in any
prophetic statement is considered to be symbolic of a year
(27:16):
of actual time. So from Miller's interpretation, that twenty three
hundred day prophecy is really twenty three hundred years. And
so this leads into initially calculate the yes, Jesus Christ
is returning, because remember Miller's a Christian, he believes all
this stuff. He says, Jesus Christ is returning, and Christ
(27:40):
is coming back in eighteen forty three, and then you know, eureka.
He clapped his hands. He's like, of course, it makes
sense here for a day. That's solid math, and the
church will be cleansed during that time because it is
a sanctuary. So one day in prophetic scripture equals one
year of act full time. So that's twenty three years
(28:03):
of history. That's what the prophecy of Daniel eight is.
And uh, the details of the system that he makes
Miller not Daniel, are complicated, I like dug into it,
and it's still it's Yeah, it's a little more of
an esoteric kind of like obscured version of like dog
years to human years conversions, you know. Um, but yeah,
(28:26):
it gets a little funky if you look too deeply
into it. But so, you know, again, super complicated, super
kind of you know, to obscured any other five dollar
word for complicated and mysterious really because it was kind
of this like you know, mystery theology kind of thing
(28:46):
at least had the vibe of that. So they're a
little hard to follow. Much like the story of elden Ring,
he drew upon passages in the Book of Daniel, as
we mentioned that referred to one thousand, two hundred and
sixty days. Uh. He translated the days in two years,
and then he used that as the start point to
the notion of rebuilding the Jewish Temple after the captivity
(29:10):
of the Babylonians and moving forward from that point. And
that is often like a very important point in history, right,
ben like that, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, especially
like you know, in uh traditional um, Jewish history and faith,
that's a very important, uh historical event that often time
(29:31):
is marked by yeah, absolutely, and for people who consider
themselves skeptics overall, or for people at the time who
are skeptical of Miller's findings. This is the moment where
you say, Okay, I feel like you are just moving
things around to fit a conclusion, which is the idea
(29:53):
that this is all possibly going to happen while you
are alive. That's again, that's the thing that's pretty common
with a lot of cult leaders, and it's maybe unfair
to call him a cult leader. At this point. He's
not trying to get over on people or run their lives.
(30:14):
He is getting a lot of pr though, and there
are a lot of folks in his time who totally
buy into this system. He lectures around Vermont in New York,
he gets invited to increasingly far away places Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine,
in Connecticut, he's getting momentum. And by eighteen forty, just
(30:35):
three years before the Second Coming of Christ Peris calculations,
a Boston publisher named Joshua Vaughan Himes starts a newspaper
dedicated entirely to William Miller's teachings as he is traveling
around lecturing. So now you've got the power of the
press again, just like when he was writing into the
(30:56):
Vermont Telegraph at this point. Now we can properly call
all his belief system a movement, the Miller Wite movement,
and Himes is a convert as well. Himes first encounters
Miller in New Hampshire and then says, Okay, I get
what you're saying. Miller. You've got to come with me
(31:17):
to Chardon Street Chapel in Boston. You've got to preach
to those folks. Miller is ted toes down on this.
He goes and preaches multiple times to packed audiences throughout
December of eighteen thirty nine, and then Himes and him
they become friends over this time, and so Himes says, father, Miller,
you've got to you've got to come to my house,
(31:38):
come to my personal house, and look, I'm gonna make
sure that you can talk to people in every single
city in the Union. And Miller is okay with this.
But again, he's not a p T. Bartum, he's not
a flim flam artist. He really believes in what he's saying.
And Himes is like the power, Himes is power. Read
(32:00):
this thought. You know it's funny. Man. We talked about
this pretty recently. I can't remember what episode, just the
idea of how some flim flam men don't know they're
flim flam men. And again, this is all based in
the power of belief, and there may well still be
some people to believe in what Miller put out there.
But it's an interesting line because you're out there converting
(32:21):
people with the best of intentions, maybe, but also putting
them in a situation that is a form of kind
of almost psychosis, you know, or uh, the kind of
belief system that is so extreme and so kind of
nihilistic that it could put their families, their relationship with
their families in jeopardy. It's almost like a Q and
(32:43):
on kind of situation, you know. And again, not trying
to disparage people who believe in the rapture of things
like that. I personally think it's it's not on, but
you know, people are gonna believe, they're gonna believe, and
I fully believe in your power and right to do so.
But it is an interesting line when you say he's
not a flam flam man. But from the outset, a
(33:05):
lot of these revival tent preachers could be seen that way.
It's all about what's in their heart? Do they believe
or are they after something more specific? Yeah, and I
love a I love a good tent revival and just
like the uh, the energy of it. Um. But I
see exactly what your what your point is there. Himes
(33:25):
is not the originator of these ideas, but he is
a huge force in the popularization of it. Let's talk
a little bit about how we get to that newspapers.
So Himes decides, I'm gonna be your publicist. I'm gonna
be like your marketing guy. I'm gonna be your brand
manager for your message. So he gets Millar to preach
in New York, in Philly, in Washington. Uh. Miller is
(33:48):
not used to this. This is the big leagues for him.
This is deep water and U. Now he has gone
from talking to like groups in small towns in New
England two thousands of Americans in the biggest cities in
the country. And Miller says, Okay, look, that's great. We
can have you walking around pressing the flesh all the
(34:09):
live long day up till the end of the world.
In however, we need to take advantage of mass media.
And that's why Himes publishes that newspaper we're talking about
the signs of the Times. Himes had knew the odds
were against him. He didn't have the money to make
this himself in a sustainable way, and he didn't have
(34:29):
a built in sturdy subscription base. But he was able
to convince This is how we know Himes himself must
have been charismatic. He was able to convince a group
called down Jackson Anti Slavery publishers to print the paper.
And these guys, these publishers, said, well, the interest in
(34:50):
the second Advent, that where it's going to be important later, folks,
This second coming has grown so much that we could
definitely sell papers off this. We sell it out this.
You know what, they said, Himes, Miller, we will assume
the financial responsibility for keeping the paper going and publishing
it semi monthly if you, Himes can make content for
(35:14):
it and then start building a subscription list. And Himes said,
you know what, I'll do it as a volunteer. Yeah.
And they're like, Himes, your signs at the Times must
rhyme because that's gonna sell more papers to right right, Yes,
but I think it's a missed opportunity. You should have
been Himes Signs of the Times. Um, but this is
a big deal. This is a platform, a real platform,
(35:38):
and it turns out it was it was a big deal.
At the end of the first year publication, the Signs
of the Times by Himes had a subscription base of
fIF people, which might not seem massive. Um, but these
are all like hardline, devout believers. So from these relatively
meager beginnings, Himes able to persuade down Jack and to
(36:00):
sell him the paper. And by two the paper had
gained so much attention that Himes began to publish it weekly,
and nine months after that a man named Josiah Litch
was hired as the associate editor. Um, you can't have
a name like Josiah Lytch and not be a hardline
(36:20):
religious nut. Not spelled like lich king though, it's l
I T C H. So shut out all my fellow
D and D D and defense. Yeah, it's Josiah Litch,
not the litch King. They're the first of the first
of the post with a Millerite focused publication, but they're
not the only ones. Other Millierite themed periodicals start getting
(36:44):
published over the next few years. It's a very compelling strategy.
The second coming of Christ is in eighteen forty three,
it's next year, you want to read a paper about it.
Of course, the money flies out of people's hands, and
not all of these periodicals are as successful as the
Signs of the Times. But Himes doesn't stop there. There
(37:07):
are a plethora of publications, and whenever I say the
word plethora, I want to point out that plethora means
too much of something, not just a lot, means so
much that it's not good. So they're the markets flooded. Uh.
Himes is moving on to other things, and he's publishing
books and tracks like pamphlets that are written by Miller
(37:29):
and other preachers who agree with him, other Advent preachers.
He calls this the Second Advent Library. If you are millerite,
if you are down with his teachings and his calculations,
you are encouraged not just to buy these books, but
to buy a copy for yourself, and buy a copy
to lend out to your friends and neighbors, so they
(37:50):
get the good word. Uh and uh then they develop
even like now they're getting into merchandising. Right. Himes doing
right works with Charles fitch Letch and a guy with
a really cool name, Apollos Hail to create a prophetic chart,
(38:14):
and they developed this for use in eighty two. Yeah,
what wouldn't it be funny if, like, you know, the
Advent calendar, like it was like a piece of chocolate
for every day leading up to the apocalypse. Small small
consolation there, I did. I didn't really realize until the
research for this episode that Advent does refer to like
the second coming of Christ um, which I guess is
(38:36):
what happens when well, I don't understand why is an
advent calendar then, because this isn't the Advent calendar. It
leads up to Christmas, which is when it's the birth
of That's not that's the birth, but not the rebirth
that would be Easter, right, The rebirth is the resurrection
of Christ. The second Advent is the second Coming, so
(38:56):
the Advent calendar celebrates the first coming. That's alright, I suppose. So,
I just it seems to me like the word advent
specifically refers to a second coming, so they should just
call it like a baby Jesus birthday calendar or something.
It's a little confusing as all, yeah, but it's just
the It comes from the Latin Adventist just means coming.
So in the church calendar, it's the advent calendar is
(39:18):
the period of preparation for the celebration of the Birth
of Christ at Christmas. But then the second Advent is
the preparation for the second coming of Christ. Ben he
got me, thank you for that. Um. So here's the thing.
We start seeing these, uh, this literature being spread outside
of the United States. Around fifty thousand copies of Signs
(39:41):
of the time As were distributed in the US and
in Europe. And it wasn't long before the little Rags
started to get some some real attention, and not all
good attention, um, from the secular press, because this is
some hardline doom and gloom stuff that could be I
can see how it could be met with some you know, resentment.
(40:03):
It's like, what why are you spreading all this, like
this misinformation about the end of the world getting people
all worked up into a tizzy. Yeah. And also I
want to pause here just for a second, because we're
getting really close to his original eighteen forty three prediction, right,
but he has begun to modify this prediction and his
(40:29):
he never sets an exact date, He sets a window
of time. So at the urging of his followers, he
narrows his time frame down to this, and want to
give this quotation from him. He says, My principles of
brief are that Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify,
and take possession of the same with all the saints
(40:51):
sometime between here it is March one, eighteen forty three
and March one, eighteen forty four. So when you hear
hear him talking about when you when you hear us
talking about these secular responses, know that we're getting close
to that window. But we haven't crossed the window yet,
and we haven't gotten to eighteen forty five, or indeed
(41:13):
April eighteen forty four. But you are, you are on
the money. People started calling him out and saying that
maybe maybe he was a con artist. When the second
Millerie Journal came out, it was called The Midnight Cry,
which is a great name for a publication, right. It
(41:34):
launches in November eighteen forty two, just a few months
before Miller's Apocalyptic Window, and when it launches a paper
out of New Hampshire, the Congregational Journal says, Huh, looks
like these folks have made a profitable business out of
scaring people. And then they said quote, though the world's
(41:55):
doom is announced to be the thirteenth of next month,
his prospective covers thirteen weeks, for which period he does
not hesitate to take payments in advance. So they're saying
like you're you're taking money after the apocalypse. In our opinion,
it's weird because the critics aren't just secular people. The
(42:17):
critics are also other established religious denominations, and they get
more and more intolerant of this. Like if you were
a preacher and you're known to have h an association
with Millerism, then when you're on a tour, when you're
traveling and you want to talk to other people about
the message of God, they're more and more likely to say, oh, no,
(42:38):
I've heard about you. Guys. There is no there's no
pulpit for you here, no platform. It's okay. I brought
my own Apple box, my own box, and my own megaphone,
which was also invented by Himes. Kidding, it's just a
coiled up piece of cardboard. You know that. I shout
him to one end, but it definitely amplifies does the job.
(43:00):
So as as we decided Noll, this is going to
be a two parter. We're all very much into this idea,
and we've gone for like an hour and we haven't
even gotten to the turn right. A credit to the
bonkers nature of this story and to our super research
associate Zachary Williams for digging this one up for us
(43:21):
and doing such a fine job, very thorough, very thorough,
that man um. But yeah, one of our rare preemptive
two parts. I think you're gonna be seeing maybe a
few more of these coming down the pike where we're
gonna let you know ahead time. We do hate that
we have to make this one a Thursday Tuesday situation,
but it couldn't be helped. Couldn't be helped. Yeah, and
(43:41):
we think it is going to be BEHINDS fifty seven
style worth the way good things come to those wait,
I think is the tagline. But tune in this Tuesday
to hear about what went wrong with Millerism, to learn
a little bit more about the dark side of the equation,
and uh, particularly to learn about something called the Great Disappointment.
(44:04):
I just don't see how anything could possibly go wrong
with this story band. It feels like it's just being
set up for a a real climactic victory here for
forrel Miller and his uh his, his followers. But yeah,
maybe we did kind of spoil I guess history really
spoiled it more than anything that you know. We we
haven't been raptured yet that we know of, um, But
(44:27):
it's funny, you know, And we'll talk about this a
little bit in the second episode, but this is almost
kind of a pre rapture kind of situation, at least
in the rapture, like the good people get to be
lifted up and taken too Jesus, and the baddies, you know,
get assumed presumably you know, cast down into the the
pit or just incinerated or something. No, it depends on
the version. There's also the whole left behind model where
(44:49):
just all the good people disappear and then the bad
people to stay on earth, which is I guess a
punishment worse than than hell. Yeah, and we can't wait
for you to be part of this story, for you
to join the conversation with us, So tune in next
Tuesday for part two of Millerism and learn why we're
(45:10):
still around after eighteen forty something. Making a podcast in
two thanks as always to our own personal profit, the
one and only super producer, Mr Max Williams. Thanks to Yes,
thanks to first of his name, the quister a K.
Jonathan Strickland, Thanks to Alex Williams, who else, No, of course,
(45:30):
Chris frostiotas here in Spearity's Jeff coats the same. Uh.
You know what, Max gets another thanks for me, and
I'm gonna give no c Max. That's he screwed it up. Man.
You can't double woo. You can't triple woo yourself. I
was gonna woo you so that you're a personal woo
would have seemed a little less self congratulatory, but never mind.
Oh my god, you guys have been wooing each other
(45:52):
since that hot tub incident. I know it's son. There
was also that balcony the balcony incident where I was
wooed as well, and then we died on each other's
arms in a crypto sorts, only to be resurrected to
podcasts another day. I am so glad you guys are here.
This show is one of my favorite things to do,
and we hope you enjoy the wild story ahead. That's
(46:17):
it for us this week, folks. Uh don't join Occult
Definitely not unless you're into it. We'll see you next Seploix.
For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I
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