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The Great Disappointment was an event in the early history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, when Jesus failed to re-appear on the appointed day of October 22, 1844 as members of the Church expected.
Between 1831 and 1844, William
Miller, a Baptist preacher, launched what he called the "great second advent
awakening", also known as the Millerite Movement. Miller preached a set of
fourteen rules for the interpretation of the Bible, which spread to followers throughout
the world. Based on his study of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, Miller
calculated that Jesus would return to Earth sometime between 1843 and 1844. Others within the movement calculated a specific date
of October 22, 1844.
When Jesus did not appear, Miller's followers experienced what became to be called "the Great Disappointment". Most of the
thousands of followers left the movement. A few, however, went back to their Bibles to find why they had been disappointed. They
concluded that the prophecy predicted not that Jesus would return to earth in 1844, but
that a special ministry in heaven would be formed on that date. From this started the
modern Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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