January 8  Miller's Startling Discovery

And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary by cleansed. Dan. 8:14.

Miller didn't avoid what some consider the more fruitless aspects of Scripture, such as chronology. "As I was fully convinced that 'all Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable,' that it came not at any time by the will of man, but was written as holy men were moved by the Holy Ghost, and was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, I could but regard the chronological portion of the Bible as being as much a portion of the word of God, and as much entitled to our serious consideration, as any other portion of the Scriptures.

"I therefore felt, that in endeavoring to comprehend what God had in his mercy seen fit to reveal to us, I had no right to pass over the prophetic periods. I saw that as the events predicted to be fulfilled in prophetic days had been extended over about as many literal years; as God in Numbers 14:34, and Ezekiel 4:4-6, had appointed each day for a year; . . . I could only regard the time as symbolical, and as standing each day for a year, in accordance with the opinions of all the standard Protestant commentaries. If, then, we could obtain any clue to the time of their commencement, I conceived we should be guided to the probable time of their termination; and as God would not bestow upon us an useless revelation, I regarded them as conducting us to the time when we might confidently look for the coming" of Christ.

Building upon Daniel 8:14, Miller interpreted the cleansing of the sanctuary as the purifying of the earth by fire at the Second Advent. Since biblical sholars generally agreed that the beginning date for the 2300 days was 457 B.C., he concluded, in harmony with scores of writers on the prophecies, that Daniel's prophecy would be fulfilled about the year 1843.

The difference of opinion on Daniel 8:14 was not the timing, but the nature of the event itself. By 1818 Miller had come to the startling conclusion that "in about twenty-five years. . .all the affairs of our present state would be wound up; that all its pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness and oppression would come to an end; and that in place of the kingdoms of this world, the peaceful and long desired kingdom of the Messiah would be established."

Jesus' coming is still the hope of all hopes, the event that will usher in ultimate joy.

Through the flowers, God would call our attention to the loveliness of Christlike character. He who has given such beauty to the blossoms desires far more that the soul should be clothed with the beauty of the character of Christ(TFMB 96).