Was Miller not so wrong after all?
Reverend William Miller (1782-1849) was a brilliant man who attempted to decipher the Daniel prophecies. Miller's discoveries still form the basis for most modern interpretations of the book of Daniel today. Miller studied the Bible in great detail for many years and announced that he had successfully deciphered the prophetic codes of the book of Daniel revealing the time of The End. Miller preached his theory in the churches of New England and found many people very receptive to it. But Miller would eventually fail because of an unfortunate typographical error that had occurred during the translation of our English Bibles from the original Greek Septuagint text.
Like most Protestants in America during the early 1800s, the people of New England had fled Europe to avoid being "burned at the stake" by the Catholic Church in the Inquisitions happening all over Europe against Protestants, Jews, and Muslims who had committed no crime other than refusing to join the Catholic Church. Miller believed the Catholic Church was the great "whore" of Revelation Chapter 17, who had "whored" herself with the Roman Empire in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicea, to become the "Roman" Catholic Church. America's Protestants had followed the Bible instruction contained in Revelation 18:4 to leave the Catholic Church.
Miller and his followers proclaimed that the end of the "last of the transgressors" against God's Hebrews would occur around the year 1845, and that this event would be preceded by a "Rapture" of God's people up to Heaven on October 22nd, 1844 at midnight. And so many of Wm. Miller's followers sold all their worldly goods and trekked to the hilltops of New England, patiently waiting to be "Raptured" up to Heaven. But when midnight passed and no Rapture occurred, Miller and his loyal group of followers had to suffer the laughs and jeers of all the New England townsfolk who were greatly amused by "Miller's folly".
In the year 1800 Americans considered the Catholic Church and it's papacy to be the most evil entity on Earth. Reverend Miller's calculations for the date of the end of the Last Beast were based upon the 2300-year prophecy contained in Daniel 8:14. When 2300 years was added to the 457 BC date of the commandment to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, it produced 1845 AD as the date of the end of the eighth beast. It turns out that Miller's mathematic calculations were correct, but he unfortunately fell victim to a typographical error that occurred as our English Bibles were being translated from the original Greek Septuagint text. It turns out that the Vatican's copy of the Greek Septuagint records that it will be 2400 years until the end of the "last of the transgressors" against the Hebrews, not 2300. So it seems that MIller was 100 years ahead of his time, and thus Reverend Miller was misled not only on the date, but also on the identity of the eighth and last beast to persecute God's Hebrew people.
If you'd like to learn more about how Miller's calculations may have been more correct than many people realize, click on one of the secure book links on this webpage to order your book by Edward Oliver and learn more about how Wm. Miller helped advance the world's understanding of the Daniel prophecies.
Copyright 2004-2026 Edward Oliver
USE THIS SECURE AMAZON LINK
TO ORDER A BOOK OR EBOOK: