1. What is the “Great Disappointment”?

Be sure to describe both the spring

and fall disappointments. What happened to most Millerites? What was
their disappointment like?
The Great Disappointment
This is the event in SDA history wherein people anticipated for Christ’s return yet
Christ did not show up on the day that they were expecting him to. The Millerite
Adventists expected Christ to return in the clouds of heaven sometime between March
21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. For technical reasons dealing with the Jewish Calendar
they later extended the date to April 18/19, 1844. But the time passed, and they
experienced their spring disappointment.
Spring Disappointment
For years Miller and his colleagues had preached that Christ would come “about
the year 1843.” But as the long awaited year approached, Miller was pressured by his
followers to be more exact as to the time they could expect to meet their Lord. In
response, Miller wrote in January 1843: “I am fully convinced that some time
between March 21st, 1843 and March 21st, 1844, according to the Jewish mode of
computation of time, Christ will come, and bring all his saints with him; and that then
he will reward every man as his work shall be” (Signs of the Times, Jan. 25, 1843, p.
147).
Miller in his “New Year’s Address” pointed out that many non-Adventist would
be watching for the falling away of many if Adventist hopes were not fulfilled
according to their own specifications. “This year will try our faith, we must be tried,
purified, and made white, and if there should be among us, which do not believe, and
they will go out from us.” He also warned believers of possible fanaticism as the year
of the end progressed.
The nonevent of the year, ofcourse, was that Christ had not come by March 21,
1844. Four days after the end of the set time, Miller penned a letter stating his position
in the wake of what came be known as the “Spring Disappointement.” Miller’s March
25, 1844, letter frankly admits that his predicted time was filled up. But his hope had
not died. He still believed that Christ was “at the door” and could come at any
moment. Meanwhile, he believed he had been faithful in preaching the Adventist
message that God had given him.
The Seventh-month Movement
Samuel S. Snow

Spring Types
 Passover
 First Fruits
 Pentecost

First Coming Antitypes

  Cross
 Resurrection
 Pentecost
 Daniel 9 - 70 weeks prophecy

Autumn Types
 Feast of Trumpets
 Day of Atonement
 Tabernacles

Second Coming Antitypes

 Three Angel's Messages
 Investigative Judgment
 Heaven
 Daniel 8 - 2300 days prophecy

-during the first coming of Jesus, the Spring Types were fulfilled
- however, the Autumn types were not fulfilled yet.
The October 1844 Disappointment
The 1844 Spring dates for the coming of Christ had passed, and the tarrying time
dragged on through the hot days of summer. Millerite meetings continued, but the
public was no longer as responsive. The situation radically shifted between August
and October 1844. The catalyst for the change was Samuel S. Snow. In August, Snow
preached a message at the Exeter, New Hampshire, camp meeting that thrust him into
the center of Millerism. His contribution centered on a new interpretation of the 2300
day prophecy on the cleansing of the sanctuary. That interpretation, in turn, led to a
new understanding of the bridegroom parable of Matthew 25.
Snow argues that the Millerites had been in error in looking for Christ to come in
the spring of 1844. Viewing the OT ceremonial Sabbaths as types and the ministry of
Christ as antitype, Snow demonstrates from the NT that Passover, first fruits, and
Pentecost had been fulfilled by Christ at the exact time in the year as in the annual
celebration. Snow goes on to point out that “those types which were to be observed in
the 7th month, have never yet had their fulfillment in the antitype. He then connects
the annual Day of Atonement to the cleansing of the sanctuary of Daniel 8:14 and the
second coming of Jesus. “The important point in this type,” Snow argues, “is the
completion of the reconciliation at the coming of the high priest out of the holy
place. The high priest was a type of Jesus our High Priest; the most holy place a type
of heaven itself; and the coming out of the high priest a type of the coming of Jesus
the second time to bless his waiting people. As this was on the tenth day of the 7th
month, so on that day Jesus will certainly come, because not a single point of the law
is to fail. All must be fulfilled.” Snow concludes that Christ would come on “the tenth
day of the seventh month” of “the present year, 1844.”
It was determined that the tenth day of the seventh month (the Day of
Atonement), according to the reckoning of the Karaite Jews, would fall on October
22, 1844. That date soon became the focal point of Millerite interests. Jesus, they
held, would come on October 22. With that conclusion in place, Millerism entered its
most dynamic phase. By early October all the Adventist leaders were in the seventh-
month movement. Their presses ran full speed producing unprecedented amounts of
Millerite literature as the predicted end approached. Total joy and unbounded
anticipation characterized the believers as October 22 approached. They knew they
would soon meet their Lord Jesus face-to-face.
October 22 came and went, but Jesus did not come. “The world still hangs fire,”
reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer a few days later. “The old planet is still on the
track, notwithstanding the efforts to stop her. The believers in this city, after being up
a few nights watching and making noises like serenading tom cats, have now gone to
bed and concluded to take a snoozed. We hope they will wake up rational beings!”
The humor exhibited by the Plain Dealer’s reporter was not shared by the Advent
believers. They had been devastated by the failure of Christ to return on October 22.