Funner fact. The Jehovah's Witnesses calculated that the year would be 1844, and someone did start a religion that year claiming to be the return, but that was in Persia, so they didn't know. They decided they must have miscalculated, and recalculated the date multiple times until 1900 at which point they basically just said, "he's late." They were literally started to look for the return of Christ, and because it didn't happen exactly the way they thought it should, they gave up and claimed that God must be wrong.

I have fun with JWs when they come to my door.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm afraid you're thinking of Seventh Day Adventists, who were the result of the 1844 Great Disappointment of the Millerite movement after the predicted apocalypse didn't happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment

Now here's the truly weird part:

Members of the Baháʼí Faith believe that Miller's interpretation of signs and dates of the coming of Jesus were, for the most part, correct.[39] They believe that the fulfillment of biblical prophecies of the coming of Christ came through a forerunner of their own religion, the Báb, who declared that he was the "Promised One" on May 23, 1844, and began openly teaching in Persia in October 1844.[40][41] Several Baháʼí books and pamphlets make mention of the Millerites, the prophecies used by Miller and the Great Disappointment, most notably Baháʼí follower William Sears' Thief in the Night.[42][43][44]

It was noted that the year AD 1844 was also the Year AH 1260. Sears tied Daniel's prophecies in with the Book of Revelation in the New Testament in support of Baháʼí teaching, interpreting the year 1260 as the "times, time and half a time" of Daniel 7:25 (3 and 1/2 years = 42 months = 1,260 days). Using the same day-year principle as did William Miller, Sears decoded these texts into the year AH 1260, or 1844.[42]

It is believed by Baháʼís that if William Miller had known the year 1844 was also the year AH 1260, then he may have considered that there were other signs to look for. The Baháʼí interpretation of chapters 11 and 12 of the Book of Revelation, together with the predictions of Daniel, were explained by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, to Laura Clifford Barney and published in 1908 in Chapters 10, 11 and 13 of "Some Answered Questions". The explanation provided in Chapter 10 draws on the same biblical verses that William Miller used, and comes to the same conclusion about the year in which to expect the 'cleansing of the sanctuary' which was interpreted by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to be the 'dawn' of a new 'Revelation' – AD 1844.[citation needed]

[–] frezik@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago

The two are interrelated. Charles Taze Russel (founder of what is now called the Jehovah's Witnesses) was associated with the Millerites. Lots of their doctrine was copied from the 7th Day Adventists, including the numerology of the timeline that gets them to 1914 as "the" year. That one was supposed to be just a step along the way, but after WWI happened, it was a lot of pointing and saying "see, we predicted something big would happen".

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I'm thoroughly impressed. Not many know about The Baha'is.

Thanks for the clarification on the 7th Day Adventists

[–] frezik@midwest.social 3 points 1 month ago

FWIW, you're not totally off. There's a direct link between JWs and Adventists, though JWs don't like to admit it.