Gilbert Jorgensen’s Weblog

[Editor’s note: All 15 Proofs as well as William Miller’s 1843 chart (that Ellen White said was just as God wanted it) are also available in my Library at DefendingTheGospel.com.]

In part 1 we identified that the foundation for Adventism is laid in Ellen White’s comprehensive endorsement of William Miller’s methods and message. If Miller was right, so was Ellen G. White.

In part 2 we carefully examined what Ellen White said about William Miller and saw that her endorsement of William Miller was comprehensive. We found that Ellen White unequivocally stated that Miller was guided by God in his methods, his conclusions, and his message.

Part 3 began an examination of William Miller’s 15 proofs (1, 2, 3, 4) that Ellen White said constituted a “a perfect chain of truth” (Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 1, p. 129).

Much of the material covered in this series is explained in much greater detail in Cultic Doctrine by Dale Ratzlaff. Dale has done a masterful job with the facts clearly laid out before the reader to evaluate. I consider this book to be invaluable in understanding how the 1844 Sanctuary doctrine and the 1857 Investigative Judgment doctrine came to be in the first place. No matter what your theological perspective, this book presents the historical backdrop in a gripping, easy-to-read, narrative. This is one of those books that you will be unable to put down until you complete it. If you don’t have it, you should order it today.

As Dale points out in chapter 4, “William Miller: His Methods and Message”

Did he really discover “a perfect chain of truth,” as Ellen White stated? The stakes are high for Adventists. If Miller was wrong, then Ellen White was equally wrong.

Let’s examine proof #5 of William Miller’s "Time Proved Fifteen Different Ways"

FIVE: Again, we can prove it by the typical jubilee. Lev. 25:8 ?13: “And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty through all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you, ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee, ye shall return every man unto his possession.” Now, if we can show any rule whereby we can find the antitype, we can tell when the people of God will come into the inheritance of the purchased possession, and the redemption of their bodies, and the trump of jubilee will proclaim liberty, a glorious one, through all the land. In order to do this we must take notice of the order of the Sabbaths. “Seven Sabbaths shall be complete.” There is seven kinds of Sabbaths, which all have seven for a given number.

The Jews kept but six Sabbaths: if they had kept the seventh they would have been made perfect without us; but they broke the seventh. “Therefore there remains a keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God.” The Jewish Sabbaths were:?
1. The 7th day. Ex. 31:15.
2. The 50th day. Lev. 23:15,16.
3. The 7th week. Deut. 16:9.
4. The 7th month. Lev. 23:24,25.
5. The 7th year. Lev. 25:3,4.
6. The 7 times of 7 years and 50th year Jubilee.
7. The 7 times 7 Jubilees and the 50th Jubilee will bring us to a complete or perfect Sabbath,?the great Jubilee of Jubilees. Thus 7, times 7, 50 years is 49 times 50 = 2450 years.

It is very evident no year of release or Jubilee was ever kept after the reign of Josiah, the last king of Jerusalem that obeyed the commandments of the Lord, or kept his statutes. This king’s reign ended B.C. 607. See 2 Ki. 23; 2 Chron. 35, 36 and Jer. 22. After which the Jews never kept, neither could they keep, a year of release, or Jubilee; for neither their kings, their nobles, their people, or their lands could have been redeemed after this. Jer. 44:20?23. Here ended the Jewish Jubilees, when they had not kept more than 21 Jubilees, lacking 28 of coming to the great Jubilee.

And now the land was to lay desolate, while the people of God were in their enemies’ land. Lev. 26:34. How long is a Jubilee of Jubilees? Ans. 49 times 50 years = 2450 years. When did these years begin? Ans. When the Jews ceased the keeping of the Sabbaths and Jubilees, at the close of Josiah’s reign, B.C. 607. Take 607 from 2450, it leaves A.D. 1843; when the Jubilee of Jubilees will come.

Take a moment to examine more closely the points that William Miller makes in this fifth proof. Notice also that he starts out by saying

.. we can prove it by the typical jubilee.

That certainly is a new way to determine when the Lord’s second coming is. Neither William Miller nor Ellen White seem to have been aware of the verses in the Bible that clearly state

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matthew 24:36 (KJV)

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Mark 13:32 (KJV)

As Dale Ratzlaff notes in Cultic Doctrine

Ellen White said:

William Miller possessed strong mental powers, disciplined by thought and study; and he added to these the wisdom of heaven by connecting himself with the Source of wisdom. The Great Controversy, p. 335

With the above endorsement clearly in mind consider the following: Miller lists no Bible reference for his so-called “seventh Sabbath.” Why? There is none.

Even within historicist ideals Miller should have seen that in his list of the seven Sabbaths the second and the third sabbath were one and the same festival, the feast of weeks or the Pentecost. (Arasola, The End of Historicism, pp. 116, 117)

There is no record that the Jews ever celebrated the Jubilee. It seems that the Jubilee pointed forward to the release offered by Christ in forgiveness of sins. At His first coming Jesus read a prophetic Jubilee passage and then said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4:21). It appears that Miller was looking for prophecies of the second coming that would end in 1843, and would go to great lengths to find them, even when they were not there. We must conclude that this is not a link in “a perfect chain of truth.”

Next time we will begin examining William Miller’s proof #6. There Dale notes that

A pattern running through Miller’s interpretive method is that of linking one invalid assumption to another invalid assumption and then attempting to draw out divine “truth.”

Two more "proofs" and we will be to Proof #7, the Daniel 8:14 proof that the Seventh-day Adventist Church trots out as the reason for its existence.

Ellen White said God chose William Miller, guided his mind, his methods of Bible study, his conclusions, his charts, his mission, and more.

It’s shocking to think that this is the logic that Ellen White fully endorsed, and by extension that of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. To quote Fundamental Belief #18, The Gift of Prophecy.

This “gift” is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen. G. White . As the Lord’s messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction.