Miller Finds a Friend

“Suddenly,” he says, “the character of a Savior came vividly to my mind. It seemed that there might be a being so good and compassionate that he would himself atone for our transgressions, and so save us from suffering the penalty of sin.... But the question arose, How can we prove that such a being does exist? Aside from the Bible, I found that I could get no evidence of the existence of such a Savior, or even of a future life....LF 135.1

“I saw that the Bible did tell about just the kind of Savior I needed, and I was perplexed over how an uninspired book could develop principles so perfectly adapted to the needs of a fallen world. I was forced to admit that the Scriptures must be a revelation from God. They became my delight, and in Jesus I found a friend. The Savior became to me the Chief among ten thousand. The Scriptures, which before seemed dark and contradictory, now became the lamp to my feet and light to my path.... I found the Lord God to be a Rock in the midst of the ocean of life. The Bible now became my main study, and I can truly say, I searched it with great delight.... I wondered why I had not seen its beauty and glory before, and I was amazed that I could have ever rejected it.... I lost all desire for other reading and applied my heart to get wisdom from God.”^{1S. Bliss, Memoirs of William Miller, pages 65-67.}LF 135.2

Miller publicly acknowledged his faith. But his unbelieving friends brought up all the arguments that he himself had often used against the Scriptures. He reasoned that if the Bible is a revelation from God, it must be consistent with itself. He decided to study the Scriptures and see whether every apparent contradiction could be harmonized.LF 135.3

Setting commentaries aside, he compared scripture with scripture by the aid of the marginal references and a concordance. Beginning with Genesis, reading verse by verse, when he found anything unclear he compared it with every other text that seemed to refer to the topic. He allowed every word to have its influence on the text. So whenever he came across a passage hard to understand, he found an explanation in some other part of the Scriptures. As he studied, he prayed earnestly for God to enlighten his mind, and he experienced the truth of the psalmist's words, “The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:130).LF 135.4

With intense interest he studied Daniel and Revelation and found that the prophetic symbols could be understood. He saw that all the various symbols, metaphors, illustrations, etc., were either explained in their immediate context or defined in other scriptures and should then be understood literally. He found link after link in the chain of truth, which rewarded his efforts. Step by step he found the meaning of the great Bible prophecies. Angels of heaven were guiding his mind.LF 135.5

He became satisfied that the Word of God did not teach the popular view of an earthly millennium before the end of the world. This doctrine, pointing to a thousand years of righteousness and peace before the coming of the Lord, is the opposite of the teachings of Christ and His apostles, who declared that the wheat and the tares are to grow together until the harvest, the end of the world, and that “evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse” (2 Timothy 3:13).LF 135.6