This work gives a detailed history and defense of the Advent Movement of the 1840's known as Millerism, the movement from which the Seventh-day Adventist denomination sprang. The book is based on original sources, William Miller's correspondence, contemporaneous books, pamphlets, journals, newspapers. The first half is devoted to the history of the movement, and the second half to an examination of charges made against the Advent believers, such as that they wore ascension robes, that the Millerite preaching filled the asylums, and so forth.

The world is in great turmoil. Nuclear cataclysm is a real and present danger and the talk of a third world war has become all too common even among the most influential personalities. Political instability is shaking the great nations that once claimed to be bastions of democracy and rule of law. Geopolitical rivalry among the superpowers is ripping apart the institutions that ensured relative peace and stability around the globe for the past several decades. Moral decline is destroying the nuclear family and the fabric of society, particularly in the once-Christian West, as more people abandon faith and traditional family values. Paradoxically we also live in the most technologically advanced age that humanity has ever seen. We have the highest level of material wealth, information and knowledge, governments, global and regional organizations, schools, universities and research centers, hospitals, doctors, and experts in every field of knowledge. We have by far the fastest, efficient, cost-effective and convenient means of communication, travel, production and distribution as well as health care and entertainment than even our most recent progenitors. And yet we are becoming more cruel to each other. Our leaders want to take us somewhere but they themselves do not know the destination. There appears to be a broad realization that the world is not going in the right direction. Many are the calls for change of course and diverse the propositions for direction. Are we humans left to our own devices to extricate ourselves from the quagmire into which we have fallen? Are we condemned to endless failure? Is there a hope for us, as individuals, families, communities, and nations? The Jewish prophets of old who penned the books of the Bible not only foresaw the storms that would billow throughout the many millennia that followed their times but also assured us of a beautiful and lasting final outcome. Their predictions have proved true time and again. The most intriguing promise of the prophets was the coming of the Messiah who will rule the world with truth and righteousness. The Gospels tell us an even more audacious story, that the predictions of the prophets actually came true in the birth of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago. The writers of the New Testament have also penned for us the promises of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son of God, to come back at the end of the age to establish God's kingdom. Could the turmoil we see today be the very birth pangs that will finally usher in the promised kingdom of God?

The crisis in Adventist eschatology is due to its reliance on Millerism’s faulty methodology and falsified prophetic predictions. Ellen White taught that Father Miller’s sole authority was Scripture and a concordance; that his interpretations were literal commonsense; and most importantly, that God had originated his date-setting conclusions by repeated angelic guidance. She announced that Miller was typological of John the Baptist; that Miller was a forerunner to Christ’s Second Advent as the Baptist was to his First. This book will document that these three misconceptions are falsified by primary sources from roughly 1835 to 1851. Miller was highly dependent on disconfirmed, centuries-old, historicist speculations; his interpretations were allegorical and arbitrary not literal; his falsified proofs obviously not of angelic origin. For example, Miller initially predicted the Parousia and fall of the Ottoman Empire for 1839. White also endorsed Snow, Joseph Turner, and Crozier, whom, she said, God had given “true light.” Post-Disappointment, these men continued using Miller’s allegorical-typological-historicist methods, and Ellen Harmon “was taught” by these men. About two centuries after “The Midnight Cry” and the “end-times” signs of 1755, 1780, and 1833, the SDA church’s tenacious reliance on Millerite proofs makes its eschatology increasingly implausible.

Close to midnight on May 17, 1951, four north Alabama lawmen drove to a bootlegger’s home to serve an arrest warrant. Before the clock struck twelve, the bootlegger lay dead in front of the house he shared with his wife and eight children, and three of the four officers were also dead. Afterward, a sixteen-year-old boy would face a series of trials that would divide a county and thrust the state of Alabama into the national spotlight. In this good, old-fashioned, true-crime story, Lesa Carnes Shaul draws on court documents, trial transcripts, newspaper articles, and personal interviews to weave together a rollicking and illuminating tale of murder and revenge. Besides the shooting itself and the subsequent trials, the narrative explores the cultural shifts that occurred after World War II in the United States, the Deep South, and the state of Alabama in particular. Immediately after the war, many southern states, still recovering from the lingering effects of the Great Depression, stood poised to advance toward a progressive New South yet struggled with the legacy of race and class inequities, retrograde government policies, and a stubborn resistance to change. Sand Mountain represented a kind of “land that time forgot” during this era, even as nearby cities like Huntsville and Birmingham sought to claim a place on the national stage in technology, industry, business, and medicine. Through her investigation of this murder trial, Shaul reveals the backwoods justice at play in this isolated area of the American South.

The night, or the possibility of Christ returning, begins when the night of the seven year Tribulation begins. To deny this, is to deny the earlier watches of the night (Mark 13:33 37), and the night itself the Day of the Lord. In this vein, the Day of the Lord is pictured as nighttime (1 Thess. 5:2), that is, before it dawns (2 Pet. 1:19). If the chapter division between 1 Thessalonians 4 & 5 is taken out, which doesn=t exist in the original manuscripts, we find that it is not a pre night Rapture that we are to be ready for, but a coming of the Lord as a thief in the night, wherein we are commanded to watch (1 Thess. 5:6 8) and keep our garments (Rev. 16:15). Ironically, the seven year Tribulation and the Day of the Lord both begin with birth pangs (Matt. 24:8; 1 Thess. 5:3) they are one in the same! Now Christians are told to earnestly expect the Day of the Lord in 2 Pet. 3:12 (The word hasting is really to earnestly expect in the Greek.). In suit, since Christians are still here once the Day begins the night (Christ also comes as a thief in the night: in Rev. 16:15), we are told to provoke one another to love and good works, even more so as we see the Day approaching (Heb. 10:24 25). Moreover, it is impossible for the literal salvation to take place before the Day of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 5:5; Philip. 1:6, 10; 2 Thess. 2:2 3), being before the Day of our Redemption (Eph. 4:30). The pre trib Rapture teaches that Christ=s initial coming will happen before the Day of the Lord; before the night (imminently), but conversely, the Word tells us, "Let no man deceive you by any means, for that Day shall not come (speaking of the Day of Christ) until there is a falling away and the man of sin is revealed. The point is, That Day will begin the beginning of the Tribulation; and again, both the Day of the Lord and the Tribulation begin the night, just as we find in Scripture (1 Thess. 5:1-3). Thus the Trump of God in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 is not an anytime trump before the night, but the Last Trump of the Last Day (John 6:40), being the traditional Second Coming. Even the idea of the Lord returning with a shout, and the Trump of God, and the voice of Michael the Archangel clearly also testify of this, and these represent a battle cry. The irony is, that there is no battle at Christ's initial appearance (1 John 3:2), wherein again, we are COMMANDED to watch (1 Thess. 5:6 8) for His appearing and keep our garments (Rev. 16:15). The Day of the Lord, wherein Christ initially returns, again, has the attributes of nighttime (Luke 17:34; Mark 13:35; 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10 14; Rev. 2:1, 16:15), that is, before it dawns (2 Pet. 1:19). Thus Christ is the Bright and Morning Star, the sign of the Son of man at the traditional Second Coming or the first light after the NIGHT the dawning of the That Day (2 Pet. 1:19) when the God man returns at the Second Coming with all of His saints (1 Thess. 3:13, 4:14; Jude 14). Indeed, it is That Day, that is, its prior night segment that we are to look for (Heb. 10:24 25), that will come upon the world and much of the Church as a thief in the night (Luke 21:36; 1 Thess. 5:3). Indeed, it is That Day, as Peter Greek-wise tells us, to earnestly expect (1 Pet. 3:12). Indeed, it is That Day when literal redemption will take place (1 Cor. 5:5). Indeed, it is the Day of Christ (2 Thess. 2 3), being the Day of Jesus Christ (Philip. 1:6, 10)BBbeing the Day of our Redemption (Eph. 4:30)! Speaking of the Day of the Lord, it begins when there is a Great Apostasy, and that the Man of sin is revealed to the Body of Christ (2 Thess. 2:2 3), that is, when the Antichrist confirms (Hebrew: insolently prevails) the Old Covenant and/or the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in a peace movement (Such will cause great