(1782–1849). American religious enthusiast William Miller was leader of a movement called Millerism. Millerism sought to revive belief that the bodily arrival (“advent”) of Christ was imminent.
Miller was born on February 15, 1782, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was a farmer, but he also held such offices as deputy sheriff and justice of the peace. In the War of 1812 he served as a captain of the 30th Infantry.
After years of Bible study Miller began to preach in 1831 that the present world would end “about the year 1843.” He based this belief primarily on a passage in the Book of Daniel (8:13–14), which discusses the “cleansing” of the “sanctuary.” Miller published a pamphlet in 1833 and a book of lectures in 1836, the first of many publications. The views of the Millerite movement were published in the journals Signs of the Times (Boston, Massachusetts) and the Midnight Cry (New York, New York).
Miller estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 believed in his views. When 1843 passed, some of his associates set October 22, 1844, as the date of the Second Coming. When this date passed, many of Miller’s followers abandoned him. The last general Millerite conference met at Albany, New York, in April 1845. Belief in the imminence of the advent was restated, but no date was set and no church organization created. Miller died on December 20, 1849, in Low Hampton, New York.
There are two principal Adventist bodies today: the Advent Christian Church, organized in 1861, and the much larger body of Seventh-day Adventists, organized in 1863. Several smaller Adventist bodies also exist.