Millerism

Millerism was a 19th-century American Protestant religious movement founded by William Miller, a Baptist preacher from New York, who calculated from biblical prophecies—particularly Daniel 8:14—that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur around 1843 or 1844.^[1][2] The movement emphasized premillennialism, the belief in Christ's imminent return to establish a thousand-year reign on Earth, and attracted followers primarily from evangelical denominations amid the Second Great Awakening's revivalist fervor.^[3][2] Key figures like publisher Joshua V. Himes helped spread Miller's message through lectures, camp meetings, and publications such as the Signs of the Times, fostering a sense of urgency for repentance and spiritual preparation.^[2] By 1844, anticipation intensified with Samuel Snow's "seventh-month movement," pinpointing October 22 as the precise date based on interpretations of the Jewish calendar and typology from the Old Testament.^[1] When the prophecy failed to materialize, the event became known as the Great Disappointment, causing widespread disillusionment, ridicule from outsiders, and the movement's fragmentation.^[1][2] In the aftermath, Millerites divided into factions: some abandoned the advent faith, while others reinterpreted the prophecies, leading to the formation of new groups including the Advent Christian Church and, eventually, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which traces its roots directly to Millerism and now numbers over 23 million members worldwide as of 2025.^[1][4] The movement's separatist tendencies, driven by perceptions of mainstream churches as spiritually corrupt or "Babylon," had already prompted many followers to withdraw from their congregations by 1843, reflecting broader antebellum tensions over evangelical practices and social reform.^[3] Millerism's legacy endures in American religious history as a pivotal example of apocalyptic enthusiasm and its consequences.^[2]

Historical Development

Origins in Early 19th-Century America

Millerism originated amid the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening, a widespread revival movement in early 19th-century America that spanned roughly from the 1790s to the 1840s and emphasized personal conversion, biblical authority, and millennial expectations.^[5] This era saw a surge in premillennialist thought, which anticipated Christ's imminent return to establish a thousand-year reign, contrasting with the dominant postmillennial optimism that viewed human progress as ushering in the millennium.^[2] Influenced by broader transatlantic currents, including figures like Edward Irving in Britain, American Protestants increasingly turned to prophetic interpretation of scriptures such as Daniel and Revelation to discern end-time events.^[2] In this context, rural New England and upstate New York became hotbeds for such ideas, fueled by economic uncertainties like the Panic of 1837 and a cultural shift toward individualistic piety.^[3] William Miller, the movement's founder, was born on February 15, 1782, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as the eldest of sixteen children to a farming family with deep Protestant roots.^[6] His father, Captain William Miller, had served in the Revolutionary War, while his mother, Paulina Phelps, was the daughter of a Baptist minister, embedding early exposure to evangelical influences.^[6] Receiving only limited formal education—about three months per winter year—Miller became largely self-taught, reading voraciously in works by deistic authors like Thomas Paine and Voltaire, which led him to embrace deism around 1804 and reject the Bible's divine inspiration for over a decade.^[6] His deistic phase ended amid service in the War of 1812, where he rose to captain and fought at the Battle of Plattsburgh in September 1814, experiences that prompted reflections on providence and a profound dream, culminating in his conversion to Christianity in 1816 following a sermon on Isaiah 53.^[6] Settling as a farmer and justice of the peace in Low Hampton, New York, Miller joined the local Baptist church, aligning with Calvinist emphases on human depravity and scriptural inerrancy.^[3] From 1818, Miller undertook an intensive, systematic study of the Bible, devoting nearly two years to a verse-by-verse analysis using only the text and Cruden's Concordance, a method he described as comparing "scripture with scripture" to resolve apparent contradictions.^[6] This effort, spanning about fourteen years in total, centered on prophetic books like Daniel and Revelation, leading him to adopt historicist exegesis—viewing prophecies as unfolding through history—and the day-year principle, where prophetic "days" equated to literal years.^[2] By 1828 or so, he concluded that the 2,300 "days" of Daniel 8:14 represented 2,300 years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 457 BCE, pointing to Christ's second advent sometime between March 1843 and March 1844.^[6] Initially sharing these views privately within his Baptist circle, Miller began public lecturing in August 1831 at a schoolhouse in Dresden, New York, delivering his first series of talks on prophecy to small audiences of farmers and locals.^[6] These early presentations, marked by his logical style and rejection of mainstream Arminianism, laid the groundwork for Millerism as a distinct premillennial movement critiquing the perceived worldliness of established churches.^[3]

Growth into a National Movement

The publication of the Signs of the Times in 1840 marked a pivotal step in disseminating Miller's prophetic message beyond local audiences. Edited by Joshua V. Himes, Josiah Litch, and Sylvester Bliss, this periodical began as a bi-monthly publication in Boston and quickly became a central organ for the movement, printing lectures, biblical expositions, and calls to repentance. By early 1842, its circulation had exceeded 50,000 copies, reflecting the growing interest in Millerite teachings across the northeastern United States.^[7] Alliances with established denominations further propelled the movement's expansion, drawing support from sympathetic clergy and lay members within Baptist, Methodist, and Congregationalist circles. These groups, sharing premillennial eschatological views, provided platforms for Millerite preaching without full institutional endorsement. To coordinate these efforts, the first general conference convened in Boston on October 14, 1840, uniting approximately 200 delegates from various denominations to affirm the nearness of Christ's advent and plan evangelistic strategies.^[8] A subsequent conference in Low Hampton, New York, in 1842, reinforced this unity, focusing on unified proclamation amid rising opposition.^[9][10][11] William Miller's extensive lecture tours amplified the movement's reach, as he traveled to major urban centers including New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, delivering sermons that attracted crowds in the thousands. Himes, serving as the movement's promotional manager and financier, organized these campaigns, often utilizing large tent meetings to accommodate audiences; by 1842, such gatherings had become a hallmark, with over 125 held in the ensuing years. Estimates suggest the movement garnered 50,000 to 100,000 adherents by 1844, fueled by these public engagements and media outreach. The formation of the General Conference of Christians Expecting the Advent in 1841, under Himes's leadership, formalized this organizational structure, holding sessions like the one in Lowell, Massachusetts, to standardize doctrine and missionary activities.^[12][9]

The Prophecy and the Great Disappointment

William Miller initially predicted the Second Coming of Christ sometime between March 1843 and March 1844, based on his interpretation of the 2,300-day prophecy in Daniel 8:14.^[7] As the initial timeframe passed without the expected event, Miller and his followers extended the prediction to the spring of 1844, maintaining their anticipation amid growing fervor.^[2] In August 1844, Millerite minister Samuel S. Snow introduced a more precise calculation at a camp meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, known as the "seventh-month message." Snow linked the prophecy to the Jewish Day of Atonement in the seventh month of the religious calendar, drawing from Leviticus 23, and determined that the antitypical fulfillment would occur on October 22, 1844, using the Karaite Jewish calendar for accuracy.^[13] This refinement, published in The True Midnight Cry on August 22, 1844, rapidly spread among Millerites and solidified the date as the climax of their expectations. By mid-1844, the movement reached its height with widespread organizational efforts that facilitated national dissemination of the message, drawing in tens of thousands across the United States. Mass gatherings, such as camp meetings and conferences, attracted thousands, where preachers urged preparation for the imminent advent. Publications played a central role; the Millerite newspaper The Midnight Cry, edited by Joshua V. Himes, with a daily print run of 10,000 copies during its peak in 1844, amplified the urgency of the prophecy.^[12] Economic disruptions became evident as many adherents quit jobs, neglected farms, and sold possessions in preparation, believing worldly affairs would soon end.^[14] On October 22, 1844, the anticipated date arrived, with Millerites gathering in homes, churches, and fields, some donning white "ascension robes" to greet Christ. As the day concluded without the Second Coming, profound despair gripped the movement; many wept, prayed, or collapsed in shock, viewing the failure as a personal and spiritual catastrophe. Outsiders responded with widespread ridicule, mocking the Millerites in newspapers and public discourse as deluded fanatics. In some regions, immediate backlash escalated to mob violence, including attacks on Millerite meetings and vandalism of property, exacerbating the sense of persecution.^[15] William Miller himself expressed deep disappointment, writing on November 10, 1844, to Himes: "Although twice disappointed... I am not yet cast down or discouraged... my hope in the coming of Christ is as strong as ever."^[16] He continued to affirm his faith in an imminent return, though without a new date. Estimates of the movement's size at its 1844 peak vary, with scholars placing active participants between 50,000 and 100,000, and broader sympathizers possibly reaching 300,000, reflecting its significant national footprint.^[14]

Fragmentation and Post-Disappointment Evolution

Following the unfulfilled expectation of Christ's return on October 22, 1844, the Millerite movement underwent immediate doctrinal reevaluation and organizational splintering as leaders and followers grappled with the implications of the Great Disappointment.^[14] One pivotal development was the "shut door" doctrine, which emerged from a vision experienced by Hiram Edson on October 23, 1844, while walking through a cornfield.^[3] In this vision, Edson interpreted the events of the previous day as Christ entering the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary to begin investigative judgment, rather than descending to earth; this led to the belief that probation— the period of grace for unbelievers—had closed, limiting salvation to those who had accepted the Millerite message prior to 1844.^[14] The doctrine provided a framework for some to reaffirm their faith by shifting focus from earthly events to heavenly ones, though it alienated others who rejected such a restrictive view of salvation.^[3] Efforts to unify the disparate groups soon highlighted deepening divisions. The Albany Conference, convened in April 1845 in Albany, New York, under the leadership of Joshua V. Himes, sought to consolidate remaining Millerites by rejecting further date-setting for the advent and emphasizing continued preaching of the imminent return without specifics.^[14] However, the conference failed to bridge theological differences, resulting in the formation of distinct factions rather than a cohesive body; it marked the rejection of rigid chronological predictions by moderates while radicals pursued alternative interpretations.^[3] Among the emerging groups were the followers of Jonathan Cummings, a former Millerite minister who recalculated advent dates to 1854 and later influenced the establishment of the Advent Christian Church in 1860.^[17] This church formalized among those who adhered to conditional immortality and ongoing adventist expectations but distanced from the shut door emphasis, contributing to the broader decline of the original Millerite structure as independent assemblies proliferated.^[15] William Miller himself played a subdued role in the post-disappointment era, continuing to preach the nearness of Christ's return while partially disavowing the fixation on specific dates that had defined the movement's fervor.^[18] Afflicted by declining health, he retreated from public prominence but maintained correspondence and occasional sermons until his death on December 20, 1849, at age 67 in Low Hampton, New York.^[14] His waning influence underscored the movement's loss of central authority, as competing leaders filled the vacuum with divergent teachings. Demographically, the fragmentation led to a severe attrition, with most adherents departing the movement in disillusionment.^[15] Many returned to their original Protestant denominations, while others embraced secularism or joined unrelated spiritualist groups, leaving only a small remnant committed to adventist ideals amid widespread ridicule and internal discord.^[14] This exodus transformed Millerism from a national phenomenon into scattered, localized fellowships, setting the stage for further evolution among surviving pockets of believers.^[3]

Core Beliefs and Practices

Biblical Interpretations and Prophetic Framework

The Millerite movement employed the historicist method of biblical prophecy, which interprets apocalyptic symbols as representing successive historical events from the time of the prophets to the end of the age, a approach rooted in Protestant Reformation traditions and widely used by figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin. This framework viewed the books of Daniel and Revelation as a continuous historical narrative, with symbols such as beasts denoting empires or powers and time periods unfolding across centuries. Central to this was the emphasis on literal fulfillment of prophecies in history, avoiding both preterist (past fulfillment only) and futurist (future only) extremes.^[19][20] Key scriptural texts underpinning the Millerite prophetic framework included Daniel 8:14, which states, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," and passages from Revelation 14, particularly the three angels' messages proclaiming the hour of judgment, the fall of Babylon, and a warning against the beast and its mark. William Miller and his followers interpreted Daniel 8:14's 2,300 days as prophetic symbols pointing to the purification of the earth through Christ's second coming, calculating the period using the day-year principle—a hermeneutical rule where a prophetic day represents one literal year, drawn from biblical precedents like Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. This principle was applied systematically to align prophecies with verifiable historical events, establishing a chronological backbone for end-time expectations. Revelation 14 was seen as outlining the sequence of divine warnings in the last days, with the first angel's message ("Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come") directly paralleling the Millerite call to repentance and anticipation of 1844.^[19][3][2] A prime example of the day-year principle's application was the interpretation of the 1,260 days in Daniel 7:25 ("a time and times and the dividing of time") and parallel passages in Revelation 12:6, 14, as 1,260 years marking the duration of papal supremacy's oppressive rule. Millerites dated this period from 538 CE, when Emperor Justinian's decree elevated the bishop of Rome, to 1798 CE, when French General Louis-Alexandre Berthier captured Pope Pius VI, effectively ending temporal papal power and signaling the dawn of the "time of the end" as described in Daniel 11:40 and 12:4. This calculation reinforced the urgency of the prophetic timeline, positioning 1798 as the pivotal shift toward final events.^[19][2] The sanctuary concept in Daniel 8:14 was understood as an earthly temple metaphor for divine judgment, where the "cleansing" symbolized the removal of sin through fiery purification at Christ's return, initiating a pre-advent judgment of the righteous and wicked. This pre-advent judgment, commencing in 1844 according to the 2,300-year prophecy starting from the decree of Artaxerxes I in 457 BCE, was viewed as God's investigative review prior to the second coming, vindicating the faithful. Complementing this was the strong anti-papal emphasis, identifying the "beast" of Revelation 13 and the "little horn" of Daniel 7 and 8 with the Roman Catholic Church as a corrupt religio-political power that had persecuted saints for centuries. The 1798 event was thus not merely historical but prophetic, marking the mortal wound to the beast and the onset of its final resurgence in the time of the end.^[19][3]

Theological Distinctives

Millerism emphasized conditional immortality, teaching that humans do not possess an inherently immortal soul but receive eternal life as a gift from God contingent upon faith in Christ. This doctrine, also known as soul sleep, posited that the dead remain in an unconscious state until the resurrection at Christ's second coming, rejecting the traditional view of an immediate afterlife in heaven or hell. Influential Millerite publications, such as those by Charles Beecher and Henry Dana Ward, promoted this belief by arguing that immortality is bestowed only on the righteous, while the wicked face annihilation rather than eternal conscious torment.^[14] Regarding Sabbath observance, early Millerites generally adhered to a non-Sabbatarian stance, viewing Sunday as the appropriate day of rest in line with prevailing Protestant practices. However, following the Great Disappointment of 1844, a subset of Millerites, influenced by contacts with Seventh Day Baptists, began adopting the seventh-day Sabbath as a biblical mandate, marking a shift toward more distinctive liturgical practices among emerging factions.^[21][22] Moral reforms formed a significant aspect of Millerite theology, with strong advocacy for temperance to combat intemperance and alcohol's societal harms, alongside pronounced anti-slavery sentiments that led many adherents to participate in abolitionist activities and condemn slaveholding churches, reflecting broader reformist ideals. Central to their eschatology was premillennialism, which anticipated Christ's literal return to establish a thousand-year reign on earth, purifying the world from sin before the final judgment.^[23][24] In ecclesiology, Millerism adopted a non-denominational approach, prioritizing the Bible as the sole authority for faith and practice while rejecting human creeds, denominational hierarchies, and rituals like infant baptism in favor of believer's baptism by immersion. This stance fostered a congregational model that emphasized individual Bible study and direct accountability to Scripture, avoiding formal ecclesiastical structures.^[25][21]

Organizational and Communal Aspects

The Millerite movement operated without a centralized hierarchy, relying instead on a loose network of itinerant lecturers and local elders who coordinated through general conferences and camp meetings. Prominent figures such as Joshua V. Himes served as key organizers, managing publications and logistics, while William Miller and others like Josiah Litch functioned as traveling preachers without formal ordination requirements, allowing lay individuals to lead based on personal conviction and biblical knowledge.^[9][26] Women played significant roles in this structure, often preaching publicly and contributing to publications; for instance, Olive Maria Rice lectured at camp meetings in New York in 1843, while Lucy Maria Hersey Stoddard quit her teaching position to preach full-time after accepting Miller’s teachings in 1842.^[27] This egalitarian approach stemmed from the movement's emphasis on direct biblical interpretation, enabling broad participation but also leading to varied local leadership styles. Worship practices centered on communal gatherings that fostered spiritual intensity and collective anticipation of the Second Advent. Camp meetings, beginning in 1842 with events like the one in Hatley, Quebec, drew thousands for multi-day sessions under large tents, featuring biblical preaching, prayer meetings, personal testimonies, and enthusiastic hymn-singing focused on advent themes, such as songs envisioning Christ's return that unified participants emotionally.^[28][29] Bible classes and study groups supplemented these, encouraging individual and group examination of prophecy. For dissemination, Millerites leveraged emerging print technologies, producing broadsheets, pamphlets, illustrated prophetic charts, and periodicals like Signs of the Times to spread messages rapidly across regions.^[30] Communal life among Millerites emphasized mutual support through informal advent societies and local "advent bands," small groups that separated from mainstream churches to hold dedicated prayer meetings and provide emotional and practical aid amid growing isolation. In some communities, this extended to economic communalism, with members sharing labor and resources in anticipation of the imminent end, such as pooling efforts for publications or sustaining lecturers during travels.^[3] These structures reinforced solidarity but faced severe challenges from persecution, including social ostracism, disfellowshipping by parent denominations, and mob violence, such as armed attacks on meetings in places like West Shefford in 1845 that damaged property and threatened participants.^[9][31] While legal restrictions on gatherings were infrequent, local opposition often disrupted assemblies, intensifying the sense of a beleaguered remnant community.

Legacy and Influence

Formation of Successor Denominations

Following the Great Disappointment of 1844, doctrinal debates among remaining Millerites intensified in the 1850s, particularly over the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the "shut door" theology implying probation had closed for non-believers, and further date-setting for Christ's return, leading to separations into distinct groups by the mid-decade.^[32] These disputes arose as some Millerites, influenced by visions and reinterpretations, adopted the Sabbath while others rejected ongoing time prophecies, fracturing the movement into Sabbath-keeping and non-Sabbath factions.^[32] One major offshoot emerged from non-Sabbath-keeping Millerites who rejected the shut-door doctrine and the investigative judgment, focusing instead on conditional immortality—the belief that eternal life is granted only to the saved at resurrection, with the dead remaining in an unconscious state.^[33] This group organized as the Advent Christian Association in 1860 and formally established the Advent Christian Church in 1861, adopting a congregationalist structure to emphasize Christ's imminent return without the more esoteric post-1844 interpretations; as of 2020, it reported approximately 25,000 members worldwide.^[33] Sabbath-observing Millerites, drawing from the sanctuary doctrine that reinterpreted the 1844 prophecy as the beginning of Christ's work in the heavenly sanctuary, coalesced into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, officially organized in May 1863 as the General Conference to coordinate publishing and missionary efforts across northern U.S. congregations; as of 2024, it had over 23 million members worldwide.^[34][35] Ellen G. White played a pivotal role through her prophetic writings, which emphasized biblical application and helped unify the group around the sanctuary teaching while introducing a health message promoting vegetarianism, abstinence from stimulants, and holistic wellness, leading to institutions like the Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1866.^[34] Another early offshoot formed around 1858 from Millerite Adventists influenced by editor Joseph Arnold Marsh, who advocated an "Age to Come" theology positing a millennial probation period and restoration of Israel, diverging from stricter shut-door views.^[36] Marsh's followers, rejecting Seventh-day Adventist organizational emphases, established the Church of God General Conference (Abrahamic Faith) in 1921, maintaining roots in Millerite premillennialism with 3,421 members as of 2010 and 2,942 adherents as of 2020.^[36][37] Indirectly, Millerism influenced the later development of Jehovah's Witnesses through Charles Taze Russell, who as a teenager in the 1870s encountered Millerite preachers like Jonas Wendell and embraced adventist ideas of Christ's invisible return, leading him to found the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1881.^[38] Russell's group evolved under successor Joseph Rutherford, who renamed it Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931, incorporating elements of Millerite eschatology such as conditional immortality.^[38]

Broader Cultural and Scholarly Impact

Millerism exerted a notable influence on 19th-century American social reforms, particularly through its intersections with the abolitionist movement. Many Millerites, driven by their premillennial eschatology that emphasized divine judgment on societal sins, actively participated in anti-slavery activism; lectures by figures like William Miller and his followers often framed slavery as a moral failing that would precipitate apocalyptic consequences, spreading through abolitionist networks across the Northeast.^[39][40] This fervor contributed to broader millennial expectations in American politics, where premillennial beliefs inspired calls for societal purification and influenced the ideological underpinnings of utopian communities, such as those seeking to establish pre-millennial righteous societies amid the Second Great Awakening's revivalist ethos.^[2][41] In American literature and folklore, the Great Disappointment of 1844 became a enduring symbol of dashed prophetic hopes and human folly. Mark Twain, who as a child in Hannibal, Missouri, witnessed Millerites ascending local hilltops in white robes awaiting Christ's return, later alluded to such apocalyptic scenes in works like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, using them to satirize irrational enthusiasm and temporal illusions.^[42][10] The event embedded itself in cultural memory as an archetype of failed end-times prophecy, recurring in narratives of communal delusion and resilience, from 19th-century periodicals to later folk tales that caution against unchecked religious zeal.^[43] Scholarly analyses in the 20th century have positioned Millerism as a pivotal case study for understanding psychological and sociological responses to prophetic failure. Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, which posits that individuals rationalize inconsistencies between beliefs and reality to alleviate tension, was retrospectively applied to the Millerites' post-Disappointment reinterpretations, such as shifting expectations from earthly to heavenly events, illustrating how apocalyptic groups sustain faith amid disconfirmation.^[44] Religious studies critiques have further examined Millerism's apocalyptic fervor as emblematic of broader risks in millenarian movements, including social withdrawal, economic disruption from asset liquidation, and the potential for ideological extremism, while highlighting its role in challenging mainstream Protestant complacency.^[45][46] Millerism's legacy resonates in modern end-times movements, serving as a historical benchmark for analyzing contemporary apocalyptic groups that predict imminent divine intervention. Scholars draw parallels between the Millerites' date-setting and prophetic reinterpretation and similar dynamics in 20th- and 21st-century evangelical factions, such as those fixated on dispensational premillennialism amid global crises.^[20] Overall, the movement helped shape Protestant evangelicalism by normalizing historicist biblical interpretation and urgent evangelistic outreach, embedding millennial anticipation as a core motif in American religious identity.^[47][9]

Modern Interpretations and Historiography

In the early 20th century, scholarly interpretations of Millerism often dismissed the movement as an episode of religious fanaticism and collective delusion, as seen in Clara Endicott Sears' 1924 study Days of Delusion, which portrayed Millerites as irrational outliers and shaped subsequent negative textbook narratives.^[32] This perspective began to evolve mid-century with more defensive accounts, notably Francis D. Nichol's The Midnight Cry (1944), which sympathetically reconstructed the Millerites' biblical sincerity and organizational efforts, countering accusations of hysteria. Post-1960s historiography marked a significant shift toward empathetic, contextual analyses, viewing Millerism as a mainstream expression of 19th-century American revivalism rather than aberration. David L. Rowe's God's Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World (2008) embeds the movement in the social upheavals of the Second Great Awakening, emphasizing its appeal to farmers, laborers, and reformers amid rapid industrialization.^[48] Similarly, Ruth Alden Doan's The Miller Heresy, Millennialism, and American Culture (1987) frames Millerism as a cultural conflict between premillennial urgency and evangelical gradualism, highlighting its resonance with broader antebellum anxieties.^[49] Recent scholarship has further spotlighted women's leadership, documenting female preachers like Lucy Hersey Stoddard who lectured publicly and distributed literature, challenging gender norms within the movement's egalitarian impulses.^[50] Historiographical gaps persist, particularly in addressing economic drivers such as the Panic of 1837, which exacerbated unemployment and debt, drawing the economically marginalized to Millerism's promises of divine restitution.^[2] Early works like Reuben Harkness' 1927 analysis linked this distress to the movement's growth among the "poor and oppressed," yet comprehensive explorations remain limited.^[2] Likewise, scholarship has underemphasized global parallels in 19th-century adventism, despite transatlantic influences; Henry Wellcome's 1874 memoir noted synergies with British millennialists like Edward Irving, a connection later elaborated by Ernest Sandeen in 1970 to underscore shared prophetic fervor across Anglo-American contexts.^[2] In the 21st century, interpretations increasingly connect Millerism to contemporary apocalypticism, analogizing its communal anticipation of the Great Disappointment to modern responses to climate anxiety and political polarization, where end-times rhetoric mobilizes action amid perceived crises.^[51] These analyses, such as those examining premillennial influences on environmental discourse, underscore Millerism's enduring model for how eschatological hope intersects with societal fears.^[51]