Ezra and Nehemia and Reflectors on Miller’s view of 2300 years in 1848

 

538                           518                           457                           444                         

Cyrus                       Darius I                  Artaxerxes I           Artaxerxes I          

Temple                   Temple                   Walls                       Walls                       Hengstenberg +2300=1871

Sanballat                                                 Ezra                         Nehemiah

                                                                   W.Miller +2300=1844

                                  [11thy.Persepolis until 6th y]

                                  Audience art          Audience art          Audience art

                                  Throne pompous Blank                       Blank

                                  Crown square       Sack hat                 Sack hat

                                                                   Hengstenberg [455] +2300=1845 (Pinney 1848: 53)

 

 

 

Source:

E. R. Pinney, The Purpose of God in Creating the World. Etc.Rochester, 1848.

"Now, inasmuch as the faith of the church ever has been and still is that the present dispensation must close at the end of 6000 years, and inasmuch as their own chronology, when corrected, shows the world to have attained that age, is it not time to cease scoffing at and finding fault with Adventists for proclaiming Christ's coming and the end of the world near, and unite with us in solemnly warning this doomed world to prepare for the judgment of the great day of God Almighty?" (E. R. Pinney 1848: 52).

 

"But the question arises, How came Mr. Miller to date the 2300 days (70 weeks) from 457 B.C.? Was it original with him? Was it his time exclusively? Certainly not. It was his only by adoption. This date was affixed to that commandment hundreds of years before Mr. Miller had an existence. The year 457 B.C. was the date assigned for the going forth of that decree by Blair, Prideaux, Ferguson, Horne, Watson, Ptolemy, and the great majority of Commentators."

"1843 passed and the Lord did not come. Immediately the cry was raised, "Mr. Miller's time has failed." But how came it all at once to be Mr. Miller's time? O consistency! Was it not the time of the church? Certainly as much as Mr. Miller's? The only difference between the Adventists and the church at large, was simply, the former were honest and confessed their faith - while the latter were dishonest, and, when the test came, denied their faith. Hence we see the reason Mr. Miller looked for Christ in 1843, was because he supposed the chronology adopted by the church in our Bibles to be correct; but the time passing, proved that chronology wrong. Then it was not Mr. Miller's time that failed, but the time of the church - the chronology placed on the margin of our Bibles failed, and Mr. Miller, and all who had confidence in it were disappointed." (E. R. Pinney, 1848: 53).

"But it may be asked, Why, then, do you still look for the coming of Christ? I answer: Because there were other chronologists equally wise and good, who had given a later date for the commencement of the 2300 years. To wit: Hengstenberg [famous Lutheran scholar and commentator in the year 1831] dated it B. C. 455, terminating A.D. 1845. Hence we looked for the end in '45. When that passed we took the chronology of Petarius and Usher, who dated it B.C. 454, ending the period in A.D. 1846. When time proved that incorrect, we then (as we were in duty bound to do) took the last and latest date given by any chronologist of any note from Christ's day to the present time, 453 B.C. Which date, if correct, brings the termination of the 2300 days this year. For it is evident, if that period began in 453 B.C., it must end in 1848 A.D. ....Therefore we look for the end this year. But, says the objector, Suppose 1848 should pas and Christ not come, will you then give up looking for his coming? Certaining not. The passing of this time cannot affect our faith in the event of Christ's coming, nor in the time that God has given for his coming; it will simply prove all human chronology wrong - the wisdom of this world a failure."

 

[E. R. Pinney was a Baptist minister In New York. In 1842 he heard a message of the “Lord’s soon coming, and he immediately examined its claims and heartily embraced it. He was a man of deep piety, a good preacher, a clear and forcible writer. He wrote much for the Advent papers. …He finally died by cancer in the face; but he died in the joyful hope of a part in ‘the resurrection of the just’.” (Isaac Cummings, History of the Second Advent Message and Mission, Doctrine and People [London: Yarmouth, 1874], page 307).

Downloaded on 19th of October 2019 from

https://ia802609.us.archive.org/1/items/cu31924050424054/cu31924050424054.pdf

 

 

Sylvester Bliss, Apollos Hale, Memoirs of William Miller: Generally Known as a Lecturer on the Prophecies and the Second Coming of Christ.

(Boston: Published by Joshua V. Himes, 1853).

Gift of Joshua Himes to Harvard Library. Downloaded on 19th of October 2019 from https://ia800200.us.archive.org/12/items/memoirswilliamm00blisgoog/memoirswilliamm00blisgoog.pdf