I hear that people are saying the Rapture is supposed to happen today
which is a perfect excuse to talk about the best named historical event of all time
The Great Disappointment
Starting after 1815 a Baptist minister named William Miller slowly became convicted that the Bible was full of a numerical code which, if unlocked, could show the exact date of the return of Jesus (and you know the Rapture).
Miller first published the idea that he had unlocked the code and that the second coming was just 21 years away (1843) in 1822. He started publicly preaching on the subject in 1831.
It wasn't till 1840 that it went from one crackpot and a few fans to a truly huge national religious movement, Millerism. Ironically belief in the Christian apocalypse is the similar sounding "millenarianism".
any ways in 1843 Miller stated the second coming would happen between March 21st 1843 and March 21st 1844. When that failed to happen the movement reached a fever pitch. A new definite date, of October 22nd 1844 was set.
Many Millerites sold all their worldly goods in the lead up to the day and Miller himself gathered a large group of followers with him to wait.
well day turned into night turned into October 23rd and well... the world did not end.
This was known to the hundreds of thousands of Millerites as "The Great Disappointment" the best name for anything ever honestly.
Miller was understandably discredited and the whole thing became a massive laughing stock joke in 1840s and 50s America
Most Millerites left the movement and rejoined mainstream Christian Churches however not all of them did. Those that didn't might be broken into 3 groups
Those who felt that the idea was correct but the date wrong, these people would evolve into Advent Christian Church, and through a few twists and turns, also the Jehovah's Witnesses
people who felt that a spiritual rather than physical second coming had in fact happened, this movement was short lived before they largely merged into the Shakers who are now pretty much all dead.
Those who felt like the date was correct but Miller misunderstood what was going to happen, rather than the second coming happening on October 22nd 1844, it was the start of the process that would lead to the second coming and readying the earth for that event. These people today are the Seventh-day Adventist
I doubt TikTok will generate so many interesting and odd religious movements through its own Great Disappointment (uh... minor? Disappointment?)
