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