The Great Disappointment

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Pink Panther

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The Great Disappointment

Post14 Aug 2016

The Great Disappointment

The Great Disappointment was the reaction that followed Baptist preacher William Miller's proclamations that Jesus Christ would return to the Earth in 1844 and began the Millerite movement . His study of the Book of Daniel led him to the conclusion that Daniel’s “cleansing of the sanctuary” was cleansing of the earth from sin when Christ would come. He and many others prepared, but October 22, 1844 came and they were disappointed.

Millerite leaders and followers were left generally bewildered and disillusioned. Responses varied: some continued to look daily for Christ's return, while others predicted different dates. Some theorized that the world had entered the seventh millennium—the "Great Sabbath", and that therefore, the saved should not work.

Others acted as children, basing their belief on Jesus' words in Mark 10:15: "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Millerite O. J. D. Pickands used Revelation to teach that Christ was now sitting on a white cloud and must be 'prayed down'. Probably the majority, however, simply gave up their beliefs and attempted to rebuild their lives. Some members rejoined their previous denominations. A substantial number joined the Shakers.

By mid-1845, doctrinal lines among the various Millerite groups began to solidify, and the groups emphasized their differences, in a process George R. Knight terms "sect building". During this time, there were three main Millerite groups—in addition to those who had simply given up their beliefs.

However it paved the way for the Adventist who formed the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, who came to the understanding that what had happened on Oct. 22 was not of Jesus’ return, as Miller had thought, but the start of Jesus’ final work of atonement, the cleansing in the heavenly sanctuary, leading up to the Second Coming.

Repercussions of this ”Great Disappointment”: - as well as the founding the of the Seventh-day Adventist Church by some of the ‘disappointed” it was a major influence on those who became founders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even the Ba’hai faith.

The Ba'hai used the Millerite beliefs to validate their own at the time. They believe that the fulfillment of biblical prophecies of the coming of Christ came through a forerunner of their own religion, the Báb, who declared that he was the "Promised One" on May 23, 1844, and began openly teaching in Persia in October 1844. Several Bahá'í books and pamphlets make mention of the Millerites, the prophecies used by Miller and the Great Disappointment.

The Great Disappointment is viewed by some scholars as an example of the psychological phenomenon of cognitive dissonance and True-believer syndrome. The theory was proposed by Leon Festinger to describe " the formation of new beliefs and increased proselytizing in order to reduce the tension, or dissonance, that results from failed prophecies. According to the theory, Millerite believers experienced tension following the failure of Jesus' reappearance in 1844, which led to a variety of new explanations. The various solutions form a part of the teachings of the different groups that outlived the disappointment."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Z5beM0RqA
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ex-l

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Re: The Great Disappointment

Post14 Aug 2016

Interesting how it parallel BKism in many ways ... especially the schism between "Shut Down" theology and Hiram Edson's "Spiritualised Interpretation" view which said, "Christ entered 'the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement in prepartion for his second coming".

And then the exclusion of other interpretation of Miller's philosophy.

Note how the mental and emotional "pain" of the failure of Christ's second coming led to Elen G White's emergence as a prophetess.

I suppose the death of Lekhraj Kirpalani could have been said to trigger that in the BKs?

(In Part 2, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLC53g1s3WM).
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Pink Panther

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Re: The Great Disappointment

Post16 Aug 2016

The parallel for Ellen G White’s emotional pain is Miller’s PTSD from the war of 1812 which led him to seek relief in the Bible and formulate his new conclusions that placed him at the head of the ”chosen few” queue (thereby opening up this whole new sub-branch of the Christian tree).

It makes me wonder what happened to Lekhraj in his life that created the psychological conditions for his formulation, his a new interpretation of his own tradition. Why the need to be ”saved” within this one lifetime - contrary to the many lifetimes offered by the traditional beliefs? Why the "chosen few” were so localised, indeed all the way down to "realising” he himself was the ”chosen one”?

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