This history nugget is being written while I am listening to the CNN special report on Jonestown that started and ended with Rev. Jim Jones. Actually, I have previously viewed this documentary on Jonestown. The parallels between the days of Jonestown and Millerism are too obvious to miss. My American history professor was the late Dr. Everett N. Dick from Union College who authored the “forbidden” book in SDA circles entitled, ”William Miller and the Advent Crisis.” This book was actually Dr. Dick’s doctoral thesis at the University of Wisconsin. This book is a treasured gem in my library. I love history. The clarity, integrity, and scholarship of Dr. Dick in his historical assessment of Millerism is most commendable.
After his doctoral thesis turned into a book, Dr. Dick never wrote about Adventism or religion again. His book was shunned by the General Conference “brethern” at that time. However, Dr. Dick was a humble, godly man who just turned another cheek when abused. So, Dr. Dick devoted the rest of his life to Frontier American history. He wrote many excellent books (i.e.,“The Sod-House Frontier: 1854-1890,” etc.), and he was frequently a visiting professor of history at several public universities. Today the new administration building at Union College is called the “Everett Dick Building.” I am most honored to have known him personally both inside and outside of the classroom.
Dr. Dick documents and tells about the suicides, homelessness, and insanities (known clinically as “Millerite Madness” in the 1840s) that occurred as a result of Millerism. The so-called “Great Disappointment” could not have come at a worse time of the year for New Englanders when winter was fast approaching, and the Millerites had no gardens to harvest. After all, why plant a garden or keep your home when Jesus is going to return on October 22, 1844? Many devout Millerites sold their homes and businesses in anticipation of Christ’s second coming. This served to finance the Millerite Movement in a big way. Interestingly, when all was said and done, unlike most of his followers, William Miller ("Father Miller") had a comfortable farm to return to in upstate New York. Sadly, there is no evidence that he even offered groceries or shelter to any of his disillusioned followers. Many ended up in Shaker communities to survive the cold winter. Many were too embarrassed to even talk to their old friends and neighbors. For many, time did not heal all wounds. Remember there was no welfare or medicaid in those days.
Likewise, the followers of Jim Jones sold everything they owned and gave the money to him. Moreover, wilderness survival has always been an attractive option for cults. Perhaps you have read Ellen White’s booklet entitled, “Country Livng.” She was strongly opposed to urban living. Today many SDA academy (secondary) students routinely undergo wilderness survival training as a requirement for graduation. Cults thrive best in an isolated environment--away from other people and information technology (e.g., the private SDA academies that require students to remain there all year in slavery for tuition). The students are kept busy gardening, canning, running sawmills, working in bakeries, senior homes, etc. My wife and I spent an evening visiting such a school in Tennessee many years ago. It was most depressing to see how controlling the whole place was. It was not uncommon for students to actually escape from the campus in utter desperation.
Oh yes, the current “Reading Rooms” of the Christian Science cult were preceded by the Millerites also having reading rooms in the larger cities in the 1840s. With suicide, insanity, hunger, and severe privation, many of the Millerites suffered similar consequences as the followers of Jim Jones and David Koresh did. The big difference for William Miller was that he survived the whole deceptive ordeal with a comfortable farm home. Sadly, the harmful effects of his false teaching were imposed upon his followers--a few even wearing ascension robes on October 22, 1844. The late SDA apologist, F. D. Nichol, almost succeeded in debunking the “ascension robe” stories by his attempt to rewrite Adventist history. When Christian scholars (savvy in biblical languages) approached William Miller about the wrongness of his fifteen different prophetic charts, he boldly and proudly replied, “I can read my English Bible very well, thank you.” Dr. Dick commented about the disillusioned Millerites, ”Many gave up, some becoming infidels; others went back to their former churches.”
F. D. Nichol, longtime editor of the Adventist Review, L. E. Froom, conditionalist author, and their colleagues were highly regarded in SDA circles when Dr. Everett Dick started his career as a historian. They saw no need for another historian in a young upstart thwarting their work in any way. Indeed, Jonestown, Waco, and Millerism have some very sad and uncomfortable commonalities. By the way, Jonestown reportedly had a few SDA followers that died in the horrific, jungle massacre, and Waco had mostly people with an Adventist background that died in the flames. Truly, Millerism inspired an intense frenzy for the uncommon, the strange, the most bizarre conspiracy theories, the futuristic, the extrabiblical, and the unbiblical that is still alive and well today.
Dennis Fischer