William Miller and Fanaticism

Dale Ratzlaff insinuates in The Cultic Doctrine (81) that William Miller was a fanatic. This criticism of Miller and the movement he spawned follows a long tradition. Clara Endicott Sears book, Days of Delusion (1924), for example, popularized the charge of fanaticism and was for some time influential in early Millerite studies. Francis D. Nichol responded in his apologetic work, The Midnight Cry (1944), and successfully challenged Sears' negative historical image of the Millerites.

Ellen White, once a Millerite herself, wrote that “William Miller had no sympathy with those influences that led to fanaticism” (The Great Controversy, 396). Was she right? Read the evidence below.

Primary sources:

William Miller and Fanaticism.
From Memoirs of William Miller (1853), 229-239, by Sylvester Bliss. This definitive biography of Miller is based on significant primary source material, some of which is no longer available. It refutes the unfair charges against William Miller and is a must read for an accurate understanding of his life and ministry. The principle authors–Sylvester Bliss, Joshua V. Himes, and Apollos Hale, Millerite leaders who never became Seventh-day Adventists–wrote the book to give the “Christian public” an accurate picture of Miller. Himes wrote in the Preface: “As the public learn to discriminate between the actual position of Mr. Miller and that which prejudice has conceived that he occupied, his conservativeness and disapprobation of every fanatical practice will be admitted, and a much more just estimate will be had of him” (Bliss, iv).

“Mr. Miller’s Influence Upon The People”
From Views of the Prophecies and Prophetic Chronology, Selected from Manuscripts of William Miller; With a Memoir of His Life (1841), Chapter II, 15-19, by Joshua V. Himes. This chapter responds to charges against the influence of Miller’s teaching before the final years of 1843-1844 and provides original written accounts.

These primary sources corroborate Ellen White’s statement about William Miller. She was right!

Secondary Source:

From Francis D. Nichols, The Midnight Cry:

Did the Millerites Indulge in Fanatical Practices?

Was Fanaticism Rampant in October 1844?

Did Millerism Cause Insanity, Suicide, and Murder?

Annotated Bibliography

Bliss, Sylvester. Memoirs of William Miller (Boston: Joshua V. Himes, 1853).

Himes, Joshua V. Views of the Prophecies and Prophetic Chronology, Selected from Manuscripts of William Miller; With a Memoir of His Life (Boston: Joshua V. Himes, 1841).

Knight, George. Millennial Fever and the End of the World: A Study of Millerite Adventism (Boise ID: Pacific Press, 1993). This is a respected scholarly, yet readable, work on the Millerites. Knight viewed the Millerites as an extension of the Second Great Awakening and William Miller "as perhaps the most successful revivalist of the last phase" of the Awakening (22-23, 65). A must read for anyone serious about getting an accurate understanding of the Millerites.

Nichol, Francis D. The Midnight Cry: A Defense of the Character and Conduct of William Miller and the Millerites, Who Mistakenly Believed that the Second Coming of Christ Would Take Place in the Year 1844 (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1944). This work did much to change the negative image of the Millerites created by Sears' book.

Ratzlaff, Dale. The Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists (Glendale, AZ: Life Assurance Ministries, 1996).

Sears, Clara Endicott. Days of Delusion: A Strange Bit of History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924). This book, lacking in historical accuracy, popularized the fanaticism charge against the Millerites, depending largely on tradition and stories told to her by old men and women who heard them in their youth.

Jud Lake, Th.D., D.Min.