WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:04.108 --> 00:00:06.748 Have you ever believed in something so strongly that you 00:00:06.748 --> 00:00:10.168 rearranged your whole life for it only to find out you were wrong? 00:00:10.768 --> 00:00:14.788 That's exactly what happened in 1844 when thousands of people gave 00:00:14.788 --> 00:00:17.758 up everything because they were convinced Jesus was coming back. 00:00:18.088 --> 00:00:20.158 But when the day came, nothing happened. 00:00:20.638 --> 00:00:23.278 Let's talk about what they went through and how that disappointment 00:00:23.278 --> 00:00:24.568 ended up changing history. 00:00:25.318 --> 00:00:28.768 In the early 18 hundreds, a quiet farmer from New York named William 00:00:28.768 --> 00:00:30.448 Miller began studying Bible prophecy. 00:00:31.262 --> 00:00:35.192 After years of personal prayer and study, especially in the books of Daniel and 00:00:35.192 --> 00:00:37.592 Revelation, he came to a bold conclusion. 00:00:38.012 --> 00:00:41.852 Jesus would return to Earth around 1843 or 1844. 00:00:42.482 --> 00:00:45.752 At first, Miller was hesitant to share what he had found, but 00:00:45.752 --> 00:00:47.522 eventually his message caught fire. 00:00:47.912 --> 00:00:51.182 Soon the millwright movement was sweeping across the United States, 00:00:51.482 --> 00:00:52.832 and it wasn't just the Millerites. 00:00:52.862 --> 00:00:56.582 These were everyday people, farmers, shopkeepers, teachers, parents 00:00:56.582 --> 00:00:59.552 who believed with all their hearts that Jesus was coming again. 00:01:00.392 --> 00:01:01.142 Not just soon. 00:01:01.322 --> 00:01:05.912 They believed he would return on a specific day, October 22nd, 1844. 00:01:06.752 --> 00:01:09.332 It's hard to overstate how seriously people took this. 00:01:09.572 --> 00:01:12.182 Some sold their homes and land, some gave away all their 00:01:12.182 --> 00:01:14.222 possessions, some even left crops. 00:01:14.222 --> 00:01:15.542 Unharvested in the fields. 00:01:15.702 --> 00:01:17.622 convinced that they wouldn't need food anymore. 00:01:17.622 --> 00:01:18.972 Children were pulled from school. 00:01:18.972 --> 00:01:22.152 Businesses were shut down, families put on white robes and gathered on 00:01:22.152 --> 00:01:24.342 hillsides of rooftops watching the sky. 00:01:24.972 --> 00:01:28.392 It was a movement rooted in deep hope, hope that pain would end, that 00:01:28.392 --> 00:01:31.812 death would be no more, that Jesus was coming to take his people home. 00:01:32.442 --> 00:01:35.142 And then the day came on October 20. 00:01:36.732 --> 00:01:39.282 October 22nd, arrived with excitement and prayer. 00:01:39.612 --> 00:01:44.112 People gathered in fields, churches and homes, some fasted, some sang hymns. 00:01:44.232 --> 00:01:44.892 They waited. 00:01:45.522 --> 00:01:49.032 Morning passed, then afternoon, then the sun began to set. 00:01:49.662 --> 00:01:50.982 Some still held onto hope. 00:01:51.222 --> 00:01:55.692 Perhaps he would come at midnight, but when the clock struck 12, the sky stayed. 00:01:56.412 --> 00:01:59.232 But when the clock struck 12, the sky stayed dark. 00:01:59.532 --> 00:02:00.822 Jesus had not returned. 00:02:01.242 --> 00:02:04.182 It was a moment that would come to be known as the great disappointment. 00:02:04.962 --> 00:02:06.042 One man, Hiram. 00:02:06.042 --> 00:02:09.042 Edson later wrote, we wept and wept till the day. 00:02:09.042 --> 00:02:13.392 Dawn, I'm Mused in my own heart saying my advent experience has 00:02:13.392 --> 00:02:16.452 been the richest and brightest of all of my Christian experience. 00:02:16.782 --> 00:02:20.802 If this had proved a failure, what was the rest of my Christian experience worth? 00:02:21.462 --> 00:02:23.772 It wasn't just a wrong date, it was heartbreak. 00:02:23.772 --> 00:02:25.662 It was confusion, it was shame. 00:02:26.202 --> 00:02:28.782 Many had told their family and friends that this was the truth. 00:02:29.262 --> 00:02:33.072 Now they were mocked, ridiculed, and in many cases left with nothing. 00:02:33.597 --> 00:02:35.547 Some walked away from faith entirely. 00:02:35.997 --> 00:02:39.177 Others tried to set new dates, but those hopes also faded, 00:02:39.747 --> 00:02:40.797 but not everyone gave up. 00:02:41.247 --> 00:02:44.667 The very next day, Hiram Edson was walking through a cornfield when 00:02:44.667 --> 00:02:45.987 he felt impressed with the thought. 00:02:46.467 --> 00:02:48.837 What if they had misunderstood where Jesus was going? 00:02:49.377 --> 00:02:52.617 Maybe he hadn't come to earth because his work in heaven wasn't finished. 00:02:52.617 --> 00:02:56.757 That thought that Jesus had entered a new phase of ministry in the heavenly 00:02:56.757 --> 00:02:58.587 sanctuary would go on to shape the. 00:03:00.702 --> 00:03:05.502 The thought that that's thought that Jesus had entered a new phase of ministry 00:03:05.502 --> 00:03:10.512 in the heavenly sanctuary would go on to shape the theology of a would go on 00:03:10.512 --> 00:03:14.202 to shape the theology of a small group of believers who continued studying 00:03:14.202 --> 00:03:15.642 together in the months that followed. 00:03:16.242 --> 00:03:19.242 And out of that small, humble group, a new movement was born. 00:03:19.752 --> 00:03:22.002 They came to be called Seventh Day Adventists. 00:03:22.452 --> 00:03:24.762 People who still believed in Jesus's soon return. 00:03:25.437 --> 00:03:29.277 But who now saw the 1844 date as a turning point in heaven? 00:03:29.517 --> 00:03:33.627 Not the end of the story Today, that church is a global movement with 00:03:33.627 --> 00:03:37.317 millions of members, but it started with a group of disappointed people who 00:03:37.317 --> 00:03:41.247 chose to keep going, who kept searching the scriptures, who chose not to let 00:03:41.247 --> 00:03:44.187 heartbreak be the end of their faith, but the beginning of something new. 00:03:44.847 --> 00:03:47.817 The great disappointment reminds us that faith isn't always easy. 00:03:48.177 --> 00:03:50.907 Sometimes we hope for something with all of our hearts, and it 00:03:50.907 --> 00:03:52.082 doesn't happen the way we expect. 00:03:52.782 --> 00:03:54.372 But that doesn't mean God isn't working. 00:03:54.702 --> 00:03:55.392 Sometimes. 00:03:55.422 --> 00:03:57.252 It just means that the story isn't over. 00:03:58.398 --> 00:04:00.798 Episode three, the Day the Sky Didn't Fall. 00:04:01.038 --> 00:04:02.028 Read by Megan Scheme.