OCTOBER 22, 2014

Great Disappointment
Remembered 170 Years On
Ellen White's great-grandson says October 22, 1844, paved
the way for the Adventist Church and the marriage of his
great-grandmother.

E llen Harmon spent the night in tears.

Harmon — whose later decisions to marry James White and co-found the Seventh-day
Adventist Church had roots in that night — was among some 100,000 people in
northeastern United States who futilely waited for Jesus’ second coming on October
22, 1844.
Bitter anguish set in at midnight when they realized that their hopes would not be
fulfilled. Many wept bitterly until daybreak.
“I can’t even fathom how profound and life-changing an event it must have been, not
just for Ellen White but for all Advent believers who were heavily invested in the
anticipation of Jesus’ return,” White’s great-grandson Charles White said in a
telephone interview. 
“It wasn’t just because they were anticipating Him, but they loved Him dearly,” he
said. “They had such a love for Jesus and a desire to be with Him personally that it
was a huge emotional letdown.”
But the Adventist descendants of those who waited for Jesus 170 years ago this month
do not remember the day with sorrow. Instead they say that the Great Disappointment
was a key moment in Earth’s history that saw the fulfillment of the three angels’
messages in Revelation 14:6-11.
DANIEL EXPLAINED: William Miller preaching about the Daniel prophecy in a postcard that
supporters distributed before the Great Disappointment. Credit: Adventist Archives

Early Advent believers didn’t know it at the time. Many abandoned the Advent
movement when the world didn’t end as predicted by William Miller, a Baptist farmer
whose study of Daniel 8 led him to believe that Jesus’ return was imminent.
But those who clung to their faith and searched the Bible came to the understanding
that Daniel’s “cleansing of the sanctuary” was not a prophecy of Jesus’ return, as
Miller had believed, but the start of Jesus’ final work of atonement. In 1844, Jesus
entered the Most Holy Place in the Heavenly Sanctuary to begin judging who would
be saved, His final action before His Second Coming and a development announced in
the first angel’s message, early believers said.
“The Great Disappointment story says at least two important things to us: The
‘blessed hope’ of Jesus’ return is still our hope, our aim, and expectation, and Jesus is
ministering for us now in heaven’s inner sanctuary, during judgment time. While He
does so, we are to take the ‘everlasting gospel’ to the whole world until He returns,”
said William Fagal, associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate, a depository of
White's writings.

What Happened in 1844

Early Advent believers said the second angel’s message was fulfilled when thousands
of people left their churches in 1844 to join the Advent movement. The third angel’s
message was understood later as a call for people to observe the seventh-day Sabbath.
The three angels’ messages form the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
and are reflected in the name of the denomination.
The spirits of early Advent believers got a welcome boost about two months after the
Great Disappointment when Ellen Harmon, then 17, had her first vision in December
1844. In the vision, she saw Jesus leading a group of people along a difficult path to
the New Jerusalem, as well as a portrayal of Jesus’ Second Coming. Early believers
understood that the vision meant heaven would be attained by those who remained
faithful despite their current despair.
Ellen White later wrote that even though the Advent believers had suffered for months
after the Great Disappointment, their pain was nothing compared to that of the
disciples when Jesus was crucified.
“Our disappointment was not so great as that of the disciples,” she wrote in Signs of
the Times magazine in 1876. “When the Son of man rode triumphantly into Jerusalem
they expected Him to be crowned king. … Yet in a few days these very disciples saw
their beloved Master, whom they believed would reign on David’s throne, stretched
upon the cruel cross above the mocking, taunting Pharisees.”
But some of the believers from the Great Disappointment lived in despair for decades.
Among them were two relatives, Benjamin Franklin Craig, who only heard about the
three angels’ messages 25 years later in Adel, Iowa, and John M. Robb, who heard
them 30 years later in Kansas, said their great-great grandson Stanley Hickerson.
“For all these years they suffered uncertainty about what really happened in 1844, and
found peace when they finally understood the ministry of Christ in the Most Holy
place and its relation to the Sabbath truth,” said Hickerson, an editor at the Center for
Adventist Research at Andrews University.
Hickerson said the only story that his family had to share from the Great
Disappointment centered on the relief and peace that came years later when the event
was finally explained from the Bible.
“Thus the significance for me of the Great Disappointment lies not in the
disappointment but rather in the explanation,” he said. “Some struggle with the value
of the doctrine of Christ in the sanctuary, but for my family it represents the solution
to a decade-old inexplicable disappointment.”
THE WHITES: The earliest known photo of James and Ellen White in 1857, 11 years after a
marriage that had its roots in the Great Disappointment. Credit: Adventist Archives
A Personal Event for Charles White 
Charles White, 71, said it is vital for present-day Adventists to remember the Great
Disappointment and expressed sadness that many, especially children, are not aware
that it marked the start of Jesus’ judgment in heaven.
“When I talk to kids about the sanctuary, and what it means in connection to 1844,
they don’t have any concept of what happened,” he said from Arizona, where he has
served as pastor of the Camelback Adventist Church in Phoenix for the past 15 years.
He added: “For those who recognize the value of recounting our heritage and our
history, it is still an important and significant event. It is the event from which the
Seventh-day Adventist Church emerged.”
The Adventist Church was formally organized by James and Ellen White and other
believers in 1863, 19 years after the Great Disappointment.
For Charles White, who has served in the Adventist Church for nearly 45 years, the
event of October 22, 1844, is not only important but also personal. If it weren’t for the
Great Disappointment, his great-grandmother Ellen would never have married his
great-grandfather James.
“That was what ultimately led them to marriage — the sharing of that disappointment
between James White and Ellen Harmon,” Charles White said.
He hastened to point out that the two never would have considered marriage before
October 22 because that would have been viewed as a faithless act on the eve of
Jesus’ return. But after his great-grandmother had the first of many visions in
December of that year, James White became her “protector and guide” who helped
her share that and subsequent visions, he said. The couple was married in August
1846, and remained close companions until James White’s death 35 years later.
“Guidance and companionship first emerged from this event, and a relationship
followed,” Charles White said, noting that his great-grandmother often used her own
life as an example in counseling couples considering marriage.
“Romance was not a significant part of the relationship,” he said. “But obviously it
was something that followed because they had four boys after all.”
 OCTOBER 22, 1844
The 1844 happening was known to be called as The Great Disappointment of the Advent
believers. It all started with Daniel's prophecy, it was believed by William Miller a Baptist farmer that
Jesus' return was near. Later on, the supporters distributed the information before the great
disappointment. It highlighted the significance of fulfilling the three angel’s messages which they
believed to be the key for God's return. The process went smoothly as planned, the people left their
churches in 1844 to join the Advent movement. Aside from that, a person from those times like Ellen
White was having a vision and was explained and identified. But as people experience the great
disappointment, they goes back, dig and analyse each given information, and it has different explanation
as what people expected it to be. Those different assumptions made from the past have been examined
and explained briefly after the happening.

After the great disappointment, the advent believers are suffering for months as what Ellen
White stated. But she added that their sufferings can't be compared to the sufferings the disciples
experienced when they thought that Jesus will be reigning king but instead they witnessed him being
crucified. On the other hand, some of the advent believers did really suffered for decades and that long
time soon find their peace after they've finally understood the truth. The Great Disappointment really
paved the way not only for the Adventist church but also for its believers. The impact that they've
experienced are so heavy that they can't just forget without letting themselves heal. But gladly, the way
of healing they've prepared for themselves shared the act of understanding and opening their minds
and heart for the real truth from the bible.

In conclusion, the great disappointment didn't leave the advent believers into sorrow, it helps
them put in mind that some struggle needs a sense of faith, disappointment and sorrow. It does not
mean to tell you to lose hope and give up, it tells you to be ready and act firm. The love from the advent
believers to Jesus and the strong desire to be with him is so bigger than anything that held them have
emotional breakdown. After the great disappointment, According to the advent believers, the great
disappointment says two important things to them; first the blessed hope of Jesus return is still their
hop, aim and expectation. The second one is the fact that people must live according to his teachings to
be ready for the judgement time.