Black Wednesday
October 23, 1844
This was to have been the first day in heaven. Instead, the Advent believers found themselves still chained to earth, reeling in shock and grief – the laughingstock of a jeering world.
The bible, they were utterly certain, had said Jesus would return on October 22. He hadn’t.
“Has the Bible proved a failure?” asked Hiram Edson, voicing the giant question haunting the wounded flock. “Is there no God, no heaven, no golden home city, no paradise? Is this all a cunningly devised fable?” In this landmark volume, author-historian George R. Knight recounts the history of that shattering disappointment and explores the vital dynamic that thrust the Millerites into the flow of history.
Sixteen decades after the Great Disappointment, Jesus still has not come. Dr. Knight concludes this carefully researched volume by addressing the question, And what of the certainty? What of the nothing-held-back commitment and the joyous expectancy of those early Adventists? Can the fire that first ignited this movement be recaptured? Are the message and mission still valid?
PART I: Moving Toward the Year of the End
Chapter 1: Millennial Passion
- Revival of the Study of Prophecy
- Millennial Conflict
- Millerism and the Second Great Awakening
Chapter 2: The Making of a Millennialist: William Miller’s Early Years
- Not Always a Rebel
- The Deistic Years and the War of 1812
- Back to Christianity
- An Enthusiastic Bible Student
- To Preach or Not to Preach
Chapter 3: Miller’s Mission to the World
- A Profile of Miller the Man
- A Profile of Miller’s Message
- A Profile of Miller’s Results
Chapter 4: Enter Joshua V. Himes: Mission Organizer
- Meet J. V. Himes
- Himes Meets Miller
- “The Napoleon of the Press”
- Organizational Strategist
- Himes Under Criticism
Chapter 5: More Millennial Missionaries
- Josiah Litch Joins the Adventist Mission
- The Millerite Camp Meetings
- The Zealous Charles Fitch
- Additional Millerite Leaders
- Black and Female Lecturers
PART II: The Year of the End
Chapter 6: Entering the Year of the End
- Progressively Focusing on the Time
- A Year of Expectancy and Evangelism
- Non-Millerite Responses to the Arrival of the Year
Chapter 7: Coming Out of Babylon
- “Boundary Crisis”
- Growing Resistance to Millerism
- Toward Millerite Separatism
- “Babylon Has Fallen”
Chapter 8: The Spring Disappointment
- A “Final” Evangelistic Thrust
- But Christ Did Not Come
Chapter 9: The Tarrying Time
- Persevering in “the Work”
- Fanaticism in the Ranks
Chapter 10: The “True Midnight Cry”
- A New Message
- New Leaders
- Older Leaders Join the Seventh-Month Movement
- “Real” and “Perceived” Fanaticism in the Seventh Month
- Moving Toward October 22
Chapter 11: The October Disappointment
- Immediate Reactions
- A Leadership in Turmoil
- The Scattering Time
- The Shut Door and the Forming of the Battle Line
PART III: Moving Away From the Year of the End
Chapter 12: Adventism’s Radical Fringe
- The Rise of the Spiritualizers
- Aberrant Adventism
- The Shaker Temptation
- “Who Is We? ”
Chapter 13: The Albany Reaction
- Up to Albany
- Albany
- Immediately After Albany
- From Albany to Miller’s Death
- The Albany Denominations
Chapter 14: The Sabbatarian Disentanglement
- Born in Confusion
- New Personalities
- New Doctrines: The Answer to Confusion
- The Third Angel
- The Gathering Time
Chapter 15: Millerism at 170
- The Changing Shape of Adventism
- The “Why” of Success
- And What of the Passion?
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