The day the sky didn't fall
Have you ever believed in
something so strongly that you
rearranged your whole life for it
only to find out you were wrong?
That's exactly what happened in
1844 when thousands of people gave
up everything because they were
convinced Jesus was coming back.
But when the day came, nothing happened.
Let's talk about what they went
through and how that disappointment
ended up changing history.
In the early 18 hundreds, a quiet
farmer from New York named William
Miller began studying Bible prophecy.
After years of personal prayer and study,
especially in the books of Daniel and
Revelation, he came to a bold conclusion.
Jesus would return to
Earth around 1843 or 1844.
At first, Miller was hesitant
to share what he had found, but
eventually his message caught fire.
Soon the millwright movement was
sweeping across the United States,
and it wasn't just the Millerites.
These were everyday people, farmers,
shopkeepers, teachers, parents
who believed with all their hearts
that Jesus was coming again.
Not just soon.
They believed he would return on a
specific day, October 22nd, 1844.
It's hard to overstate how
seriously people took this.
Some sold their homes and
land, some gave away all their
possessions, some even left crops.
Unharvested in the fields.
convinced that they
wouldn't need food anymore.
Children were pulled from school.
Businesses were shut down, families
put on white robes and gathered on
hillsides of rooftops watching the sky.
It was a movement rooted in deep
hope, hope that pain would end, that
death would be no more, that Jesus
was coming to take his people home.
And then the day came on October 20.
October 22nd, arrived with
excitement and prayer.
People gathered in fields, churches and
homes, some fasted, some sang hymns.
They waited.
Morning passed, then afternoon,
then the sun began to set.
Some still held onto hope.
Perhaps he would come at midnight, but
when the clock struck 12, the sky stayed.
But when the clock struck
12, the sky stayed dark.
Jesus had not returned.
It was a moment that would come to
be known as the great disappointment.
One man, Hiram.
Edson later wrote, we wept
and wept till the day.
Dawn, I'm Mused in my own heart
saying my advent experience has
been the richest and brightest of
all of my Christian experience.
If this had proved a failure, what was
the rest of my Christian experience worth?
It wasn't just a wrong
date, it was heartbreak.
It was confusion, it was shame.
Many had told their family and
friends that this was the truth.
Now they were mocked, ridiculed,
and in many cases left with nothing.
Some walked away from faith entirely.
Others tried to set new dates,
but those hopes also faded,
but not everyone gave up.
The very next day, Hiram Edson was
walking through a cornfield when
he felt impressed with the thought.
What if they had misunderstood
where Jesus was going?
Maybe he hadn't come to earth because
his work in heaven wasn't finished.
That thought that Jesus had entered a
new phase of ministry in the heavenly
sanctuary would go on to shape the.
The thought that that's thought that
Jesus had entered a new phase of ministry
in the heavenly sanctuary would go on
to shape the theology of a would go on
to shape the theology of a small group
of believers who continued studying
together in the months that followed.
And out of that small, humble
group, a new movement was born.
They came to be called
Seventh Day Adventists.
People who still believed
in Jesus's soon return.
But who now saw the 1844 date
as a turning point in heaven?
Not the end of the story Today, that
church is a global movement with
millions of members, but it started
with a group of disappointed people who
chose to keep going, who kept searching
the scriptures, who chose not to let
heartbreak be the end of their faith,
but the beginning of something new.
The great disappointment reminds
us that faith isn't always easy.
Sometimes we hope for something
with all of our hearts, and it
doesn't happen the way we expect.
But that doesn't mean God isn't working.
Sometimes.
It just means that the story isn't over.
Episode three, the Day
the Sky Didn't Fall.
Read by Megan Scheme.
