DANIEL 8 AND 9 AND THE MILLERITES

15 PROOF POINTS ABOUT 1844!!

By Derrick Gillespie
Published May, 2016
INTRODUCTION:
In a recent (April-May, 2016) Facebook discussion with an SDA dissident, it came to my
attention that a certain SDA scholar Kai Arasola in the past, in 1990 to be exact, published a
significant paper which has been a major factor causing several SDA scholars and SDA dissidents
alike, as well as outside critics of SDA doctrines related to prophetic events, to increasingly take
the position that the SDA Churchs historicist approach to the prophetic has suffered a
deathblow since William Millers time and the great multi-denominational Adventist
Disappointment of the 1840s; a Disappointment which had at its foundation a series of 15
proof points that were used to predict the year 1844 for Jesus second coming. Kai Arasolas
paper entitled The End of Historicism (1990) sought to show how/why William Miller and the
multi-denominational Millerites, who had expected Jesus to return in 1844 but were
disappointed, were largely responsible for the wholescale abandonment of the historicist
method of prophetic interpretation in Christendom (in favor of preterism and futurism).
Historicism is fundamentally the interpretive method thats at the foundation of the SD
Adventist prophetic understanding. Now, if Kai Arasolas thesis is true that historicism has
ended or is no longer valid, then the SDA understanding of key prophetic themes, especially as
it concerns the distinctive and fundamental Sanctuary and 1844 Investigative Judgment
Doctrine as connected primarily to Daniel 8 and 9, would certainly lack foundation.
However I quickly discovered/confirmed the converse to be true, and as I delved further and
further into Kai Arasolas research paper, and into what other SDA scholars critically
said/proved about his findings, a certain TRUTH resonated over and over with me, and
something was birthed in my spirit in such a powerful way that I had no choice but to write
about, expand on it, and share it with you dear reader. This short 7-page paper is meant to
delve into what I discovered, which I would not have probably seen/learned had not the SDA
dissident, whom I alluded to earlier, mounted certain challenges against my faith/belief in the
1844 Investigative Judgment teaching of SDAs, as based on Daniel 8 and 9. In setting out to
prove all things once again, just like the Bereans in the book of Acts, I ended up producing
this paper, and so, ironically, I do have that SDA dissident to thank for the publishing of this
paper, which has once again proven that all things work together for goodto them that are
called according to Gods purposes (Romans 8:28). God sometimes uses the most unlikely of
circumstances to bring about the best results, and in the face of the worst seeming situations,
simply because he is Sovereign and the Master of all circumstances. Let me now proceed to
explain what I mean.

Kai Arasolas Anti-Historicism Paper Got Me Further Thinking:

In responding to the challenge/argument that the Millerite Movement of the 1840s lacked any
biblical foundation, and hence was not of God, since, as it is argued by the critics, all of their 15
proof points for Jesus coming in 1844 were all misguided, I made the following response to
that challenge by saying (in part)highlights in yellow added for emphasis:
In the midst of all of William Miller's "15 points" of largely misguided proof texting was a

kernel of truth...and it is that something was to happen in 1844 based on Bible prophecy. He
certainly got it right in his use/interpretation of the Daniel 8 and 9 prophecies, but he and the
multi-denominational "Millerites" certainly got it wrong on what was to have happened at the
end of that 2300 years prophecy. But, just like God accomplishing much with the Jews who
believed in and expected/preached about a coming Messiah [i.e. leading up to Jesus first
coming], God also accomplished much via the Millerite movement; in bringing serious focus
back to the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, and also in having the later formed SDA
Church consistently, ever since, pointing to the fact that something momentous, of serious
cosmic importance, did happen in 1844. The early Christians Jews were NOT just 'saving face'
when they preached a risen Lord who's coming again after their great disappointment in him
being killed and him not being the type of Messiah they earlier expected, and it is not just a 'face
saving' doctrine for SDAs (as later formed in 1863) to now preach that something of major
importance did happen in 1844!!
Here's the cream of my argumentation:
1. In the midst of all that the Millerites brought to people's attention in the 1840s was the fact
that a prophecy from Daniel 8 and 9 ended in 1844, since Daniel 8:17 made plain that the
vision involved would actually relate to the time of "the end" (obviously running unbroken and
historically in sequence long after Greece and Antiochus Epiphanes left the scene), but naturally
starting from within the Medo-Persian period when "the vision" began (Daniel 8:13) and
continuing right up into a period related to the time of "the end". The times of "the end" only
related to the periods after Jesus came; never to periods before that!!
2. It is this aspect of the Millerite focus/preaching upon which the post-1863 SDA Sanctuary and
Investigative Judgment Hour Message is based
[Since] Daniel 8:17 gives one compelling signal that the vision contained in that chapter (and
further explained in Daniel 9) would run into or relate to the time of "the end"...naturally
unfolding HISTORICALLY from its starting point in the period of the Medo-Persian (ram) empire
[then] Antiochus Epiphanes does not even come close to entering the period of the time of "the
end" (Daniel 8:17), i.e. the period beginning after Jesus' ministry on earth!! Only the historicist
method is valid in this prophetic scheme.
The 1844 awakening, based on the fact that something momentous was to have happened in

that year (as indicated by Daniel 8 and 9), this awakening [in my humble opinion] was actually

God's way of using the early multi-denominational "Adventist" or "Millerite" Movement to start
to prepare the unsuspecting world and the later formed SDA Church of 1863 to recognize we
had entered the period of the Investigative Judgment!!
1844 is the culmination of the Daniel 8 and 9 time prophecies, and its when the only
remaining TRUE sanctuary in heaven above is being "cleansed" in the anti-typical fashion
foreshadowed by the day of Atonement ceremonies in Leviticus 16. Never forget that the Jews
themselves have long seen Yom Kippur (the day of atonement in Leviticus 16) as closely tied
to a day of investigative judgment (see Yom Kippur online at this link:
http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15117-yom-kippur).
The Jewish Encyclopedia I cited at the link above puts it this way:
"In rabbinic Judaism the Day of Atonement [Yom Kippur] completes the penitential period of ten
days...[with] the annual day of judgment, when all creatures pass in review before the
searching eye of Omniscience..."
This Jewish understanding is in reality quite ironic, seeing that just as Daniel 7 shows a
vindication of God's people AFTER a judgment scene (obviously occurring in the heavenly temple
above where God dwells), and AFTER an event which results in the "little horn" power's ultimate
demise (Daniel 7:9, 10, 26, 27), LIKEWISE Daniel 8 also brings into focus a "cleansing" of the only
remaining LITERAL sanctuary at the very time of "the end" (i.e. the sanctuary above), and that
too results in the "little horn" power being "broken without hand". With this evident parallelism
SDAs firmly believe that the heavenly ceremony of "cleansing" is also one of investigative
judgment that looks into the records of people's lives, and determines their final destinies and
rewards, just as the Jews believed about the earthly shadow or counterpart (the Day of
Atonement) was a time of divine investigation of the lives of the people of God From the
prophecy of Daniel 8:14, SDAs have learned that when the prophetic period covered by the
entire vision of Daniel 8 (see Daniel 8:13) is complete (expressed in symbolic language as "2300
days", but symbolically meaning years) then an event of sanctuary "cleansing" would take place,
and would also be a period of divine Judgment in heaven (the same one identified in Daniel 7:911); one that is "Investigative" in nature, and that would result in not just the demise of the
opposing little horn power, but also a judging and vindication of God's people by way of their
Advocate and High Priest (Jesus Christ) at his throne. This is what "1844" is all about (the year
that ends the period covered by the singular vision of Daniel 8 and 9), and it has a more solid
footing in the Bible than the critics do realize. Is it any wonder John the Revelator also ties the
opening of the Most Holy Place with the "TIME" APPOINTED (SEE AGAIN ACTS 17:31) for
judging ALL people of earth in Revelation 11: 18,19, INCLUDING GOD'S OWN PEOPLE? To those
too blind to see it will not be obvious, but the SD Adventists have long seen the connection and
will continue to preach it no matter the fierce opposition from within and without the Church.
--end of quotes, from Dialog With a SDA Dissident [Lovey Maize] on the Sanctuary and 1844,
April-May, 2016

I said/wrote all of the forgoing with an honest conviction after years of painstaking and
personal research into the issues of concern, but I will admit that I never knew that Kai
Arasolas research paper would unwittingly lead me to strengthen my earlier expressed views
about what the Millerites unwittingly brought focus to in Daniel 8 and 9, despite Arasolas
paper was written to do the opposite (i.e. weaken my SDA faith/beliefs). Let me explain.

Kai Arasolas paper, The End of Historicism (1990) *(see and read the photo-scanned preface
of that book/paper below), it interestingly showed how William Miller never had intended to
make Daniel 8:14 or his interpretations of Daniel 8 and 9 (as intimately connected chapters)
to be the single most important of his 15 proof points convincing the Millerites that
something of momentous importance was to happen in 1844, which, or course, we already
know he and the Millerites thought would have been the Parousia or the second coming of
Jesus to cleanse the earth or, in their view at the time, the earth as the sanctuary at the
end of the 2300 day-year prophecy. Yet, as history would prove, ironically the especially
fierce opposition to his teachings on Daniel 8:14 and Daniel 8 and 9 resulted in those bible
passages receiving the most attention in the 1840s, and this is proven By Arasolas own
research, when he said on page 127 (which I have photo scanned to emphasize; see it on the
next page):

Figure 1: Kai Arasola's Unwitting Discovery About William Miller's 15 Proof Points About 1844

This reality more than any other has convinced me that, just as God used the largely misguided
Jews to preach about a coming Messiah in their time (thus preparing the world for the
expected Messiah), despite their expectation of the type of the Messiah to come was
misguided, so too God seemed to have used the Millerites to bring serious focus to Daniel
8:14 and Daniel 8 and 9, even though that wasnt their initial intent, and even though they
were wrong on the type of event Daniel 8:14 would signal in 1844.
As I argued elsewhere, if critics of the 1844 Judgment Hour Message of SD Adventism (since
1863, when the Church was officially formed) should seek to appeal to the notion that because
the later SDA members (i.e. of the later formed 1863 Church) were around when the 1844 date
was set for the coming of Christ by the multi-denominational Adventists or "Millerites" and
the Baptist preacher William Miller, then that makes the 1863 SDA Church culpable of this
earlier mistake, then right away they are not being insightful at all. Am I to then charge the
Christian Church with being 'Christ killers', or for being preachers of a false type of Messiah who
would just be a military leader to conquer the Romans, simply because it was Jews who
crucified Christ, and Jews (including Jesus' first apostles) who had largely believed and preached
this falsehood leading up to the formation of the Christian Church by those same Jews? Not at
all!
Out of the above described situation, and with the very same misguided Jews the Christian
Church was *later formed, and yet the critics (many of whom are Bible believers) dont go
around castigating Christians because of their Jewish predecessors and the later Jewish
Christian converts earlier having misguided notions about the nature of the Messiah, or their
Jewish predecessors being the very ones that rejected and crucified Christ.

Hands down (we now in hindsight can say), the Jews were certainly wrong to have had these
misguided beliefs about who the Messiah would be and what the nature of his kingdom would
be, and the Jews were wrong to have rejected and crucified Jesus by way of false accusations
leveled at him!!! Likewise the *Baptist preacher, William Miller, was wrong in his date setting
for the coming of Jesus, and the multi-denominational "Millerites" were wrong to do the same
(matters not if they even honestly felt that the "unsealing" of the book of Daniel in the very last
days might have had the earlier-concealed date of Jesus' second coming being revealed, despite
Jesus had earlier said that "no man [*then] knows the day nor the hour")!! But here again we
have a similar situation in that just as in the bible itself it was the earlier misguided Jews who
later formed the Christian Church (with their earlier misconceptions taking years to unlearn and
abandon), so too, some of those same earlier misguided "Millerites" of the 1840s constituted
the later formed SDA Church of 1863 (with their earlier misconceptions taking years to unlearn
and abandon).
Do not ignore the biblical fact that the very first Christians were also disappointed when their
mistaken ideas/expectations about Jesus as the Messiah were dashed at Jesus' death (despite
Jesus had told them repeatedly that he would die), and when they saw that their years of
believing and preaching (as Jews) that the Messiah would have been a military leader to
overthrow the Roman beast power was totally wrong in terms of how and when that would
happen.
Finally, never forget that it was in the very midst of Jews preaching for years about the coming
of the Messiah, and in the midst of Jews preaching about the false type of Messiah that the true
Messiah arose. The Jews sensitized the world to the coming of a Messiah, even while they were
mistaken about the true nature of his Messiahship and his kingdom. The core truth in all of
these mistaken ideas was that a Messiah was biblically prophesied, and he was to arise among
the Jews, and when he came something cosmic was to be realized in human history, and
prophecy was certainly to be fulfilled. Interestingly too is the fact that when the TRUE Messiah
came on the scene, the same religious world which expected him, largely rejected him as the
fulfilment of their own bible prophecy --- both in terms of his life, death and resurrection--- and
to this very day the same Jews have largely seen as a stumbling block the much opposed truth
which only a few of his Jewish disciples later accepted (see John 6:66); that he was to be a
suffering Servant (Messiah) who would later die, be resurrected, and be their heavenly Lamb
and High Priest before later returning as a conquering King of kings!!
There's an object lesson there in all of this that we should not miss as it concerns the multidenominational Millerite movement of the 1840s bringing serious focus to Daniel 8:14 and
Daniel 8 and 9, and especially bringing to light that an event of momentous importance was to
begin to happen in 1844, and resulting in the later (1863) birth of the SDA Church which was to
thereafter carry, in these times of the end (Daniel 8:13, 14, 17), the much opposed message
among Christians (i.e. religious people expecting Jesus to return any time now) that the hour
of his [Gods] Judgment is come!!!! This Investigation Judgment on the lives of all must take

place before Jesus returns with his rewards for all, and its an ongoing event in the Sanctuary
above which calls upon all (small and great) to return to a full recognition of ALL of Gods
downtrodden Law of Ten Commandments (see Rev. 22:12-15 and Rev. 11:18-19 with 1 Kings
8:9 and Malachi 4:1-4)!!!! THE COMING KING IS AT THE DOOR!! PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD
IN PEACE!!