Ellen White's Fake Date: Was the Day of Atonement on October 22, 1844?

By Dirk Anderson, Sep., 2024

October 22, 1844, is an important date for Adventists. During the Millerite Delusion in the summer of 1844, all eyes in America were focused on whether or not Christ would return on that date. Where did this date come from?

William Miller was hesitant to set a specific day for the return of Christ. At first, he merely predicted that Christ would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.¹ After that failure, in August of 1844, Millerite leader Samuel Snow proclaimed that Christ would return on the Day of Atonement, on "the tenth day of the seventh month of the year of jubilee: and that is the present year, 1844."² Miller eventually got onboard with this date. Before long, it became known as the date of the Great Disappointment when Christ did not return. How did Snow arrive at this date?

According to SDA apologist Daniel Golovenko, Snow relied on an "obsolete calendar to generate October 22 as the modern 'tenth day of the seventh month.'"³ However, no evidence of the existance of that "obsolete calendar" has ever been produced by the SDA sect. An alternative explanation is provided by the historian Isaac Wellcome. In 1844, he was a preacher in the Millerite Delusion and was familiar with Snow. He recollects that Snow arrived at his knowledge of the date in a more mystic way. He writes that Snow was deep in "meditation" when he was "suddenly impressed" that Jesus would return on the Day of Atonement.⁴ This explanation would seem to be more in alignment with Snow's character. According to the SDA Encyclopedia, "in 1845 Snow declared himself to be Elijah the prophet." It seems that Snow had a bad habit of interpretting his "impressions" to be messages from God. Unfortunately, his impressions were not always right. He later proclaimed himself to be Christ’s "Prime Minister" and demanded that all earthly leaders surrender their authority to him.⁵ It is clear to the most casual observer that Snow was operating under a strong delusion.

While the exact method of how Prophet Snow fabricated the October 22 date remains shrouded in mystery, the actual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) in 1844—based on the Karaite and Orthodox Jewish calendars—was September 23, 1844.⁶ All evidence indicates that the Jews celebrated it upon that date.⁷ There is no evidence that any community of Jews celebrated it on October 22. In 1939, the leading Karaite rabbi Youseff Ibrahim Marzork confirmed the date of Yom Kippur: "In the year 1844 it is on Monday 23rd September for the Karaite and Rabinnical."⁸ Finally, according to Susan Prohofsky of Purdue University, the "Day of Atonement has never occurred so late in the year as October 22."⁹ Rabbi Loschak explains:

It is impossible for Yom Kippur to occur that late in the month of October no matter what alleged change (to the Jewish calendar) there may have been. Simply put the Torah tells us that the first month of the Jewish year is the month of Passover which must occur in the Spring, and the latest secular date it can start is about April 19. Yom Kippur is always 173 days after this date, and that would be October 9. There is no way it could work out to be October 22.¹⁰

In 1844, the Jews celebrated Yom Kippur on September 23, 1844. The date of October 22, 1844, was a fake date invented by Samuel Snow.

Ellen White's Endorsement of Snow's Fake Date

During the Millerite Delusion of 1844, Ellen Harmon and other Adventists looked forward to October 22 with great anticipation. After Christ did not return on that date, O.R.L. Crosier devised a theory that instead of returning to the earth, Christ moved from the Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary to the Most Holy Place on October 22, 1844, and began a work of investigative judgement. In 1846, Ellen Harmon had a vision endorsing Crosier's understanding.¹¹ Subsequently, the shut-door Adventists, led by Joseph Bates and James and Ellen White, adopted Crosier's theory as a fundamental teaching of their sect. Today, Seventh-day Adventists [SDAs] continue to hold that theory as one of the pillars of their faith.

In addition to providing a visionary endorsement of Crosier's view, Mrs. White confirmed in her book Great Controversy that the "tenth day of the seventh month, the great day of atonement, the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary...in the year 1844 fell upon the 22d of October."¹² To this day, SDAs revere October 22 as the starting point of the Investigative Judgment.

Conclusion

Today, many SDAs believe heavenly events of great relevance to them occurred on October 22, 1844. They have not been informed that the date is fraudulent. They have not been informed that the Jews celebrated the actual Day of Atonement in 1844 on September 23rd. On a personal note, I was educated in SDA schools for 16 years. I attended many SDA church services, Sabbath School meetings, and evangelistic crusades. In all the decades I spent in the SDA Church, I never heard a single person mention that October 22, 1844, was a fake date. What a tragedy that this so-called church is so embarrassed about its origin that they would allow their people to believe a White lie!

See also

• 1844: Is It Wrong to Be Right?

Citations

1. James White, Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller (Battle Creek, MI: Steam Press Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Assoc., 1875), 182.

2. Samuel Snow, The True Midnight Cry, vol. 1, no. 1 (Aug. 22, 1844).

3. Daniel Golovenko, "Where Did October 22 Come From?" Adventist Today, Oct. 18, 2022.

4. Isaac Cummings Wellcome, History of the Second Advent Message and Mission, Doctrine and People (Boston: Advent Christian Publication Society, 1874), 357.

5. George R. Knight, Millennial Fever and the End of the World (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1993), 191-205.

6. According to the official Hebrew Calendar, "Yom Kippur for Hebrew Year 5605 began on Sunday, 22 September 1844 and ended on Monday, 23 September 1844." (https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/yom-kippur-1844). See Robert Sanders, "Day of Atonement of the Karaite Jews in 1844," https://www.truthorfables.com/Day_of_Atonement_of_the_Karaite.htm. The evidence for the September 23 date comes from a Karaite Tomb Stone inscription cited by Abraham Firkowitz in his book Avnei Zicharon (1872).

7. The tenth day of the seventh month (Tishrei) in the Jewish year 5605 = September 23, 1844. The following web site can be used to verify the date: https://www.chabad.org/calendar/converter.asp?hdate=7/10/5605.

8. Letter from Youseff Ibrahim Marzork to C.L. Price (1939), as quoted by E.S. Ballenger in The Gathering Call, May-June, 1941.

9. Quote by Sydney Cleveland, White Washed (Greenwood, IN: self published, 2000), 166. From a conversation with Robert K. Sanders, Lafayette, Indiana, in November, 1994.

10. Rabbi Loschak, AskMoses.com, Subject: Holidays (Thread:2079297).

11. Ellen White, letter to Eli Curtis, April 21, 1847. Published in A Word to the Little Flock, 11-12. "The Lord shew me in vision, more than one year ago, that Brother Crosier [O.R.L. Crosier] had the true light, on the cleansing of the Sanctuary, &c; and that it was his will, that Brother C. should write out the view which he gave us in the Day-Star, Extra, February 7, 1846. I feel fully authorized by the Lord, to recommend that Extra, to every saint." Crosier originally espoused his theory in the Day-Dawn of 1845, and then provided a further explanation in his article "The Law of Moses" in the Day-Star Extra (Feb 7, 1846). Crosier later repudiated this doctrine as a falsehood.

12. Ellen White, Great Controversy (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1888), 399. Reprinted in: Great Controversy (1911), 399; Christ in His Sanctuary (1969), 123; From Here to Forever (1982), 247;