The Bible and Millenarianism

     A few years ago, during my senior year of high school, everyone on the internet and at school strongly believed that the end of the world was on this set day in October. I remember that day vividly because everyone was uneasy and something felt off. However, per usual, the day went by, and the world never ended. I remember sending my brother a post from twitter that said “I don't mean to brag but this is like the 10th end of the world I survived.” I thought it was absolutely hilarious at the time, but I never actually realized that this has been a common recurring theme since the 1800s. 

    These memories rushed back when I was doing the prereading for Millenarianism. I don’t think that I have ever heard of this movement through my history classes, but it certainly rang a bell with the kind of phrases that were going around. The most interesting thing to me when reading the New England Historical Society article was the statement “He spent endless hours reading and researching [The Bible]. He became obsessed with knowing when and how Christ would return, and he believed the Bible held the answers if he could only decode its date references.” I believe that this is ironic because if William Miller was truly reading and studying the Bible, he would have come across Matthew 24:36 which states “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” In addition, the rest of the book of Matthew continues to talk about the signs of the end of the world including floods, famines, wars, etc. Although all those factors may have been present, I don't think it was to the extent of how it was mentioned in the Bible. 

    Although Miller’s statements were convincing, and he built a following, I think it is important to realize that history repeats itself. We must do our own research about topics and beliefs that we hear. With our current resources, we should be able to not fall into the same traps/beliefs that were presented in history and time and time again were proven wrong.


Comments

  1. williams.dan76September 30, 2025 at 1:48 PM

    Thanks for this blog post. I absolutely loved the phrase, "this is like the 10th end of the world I survived." I did not realize it a couple weeks ago, but there was a fairly large online community online who believed that the rapture was going to take place last week. Now they all have to go on with their lives. It's probably better not to worry about when and if. Thanks also for mentioning the passages in Matthew. History does repeat itself.

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