How do people respond when their higher institutes and organizations make empty promises? Dr. James Bratt, a former Calvin history professor that retired in 2016, plans to discuss this question at his upcoming History Colloquium titled, “When Jesus Did Not Return.”
He has chosen to focus on several notable evangelists such as William Miller and Ellen Harmon, whose stories and decisions had a strong influence on the Evangelical world, after their expectations of the second coming of Jesus failed to be fulfilled.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Chimes: What initially got you interested in the topic of “The Evangelical Crisis of 1843”?
Bratt: A lot of people were hitting the evangelical wall at the same time. The promises of evangelicalism were not turning out, or were not sustaining or sustainable, and then they all looked for something else, and they didn’t all come to the same new thing by any means. They all diverged, but I think they all turned towards something else in the frustration with the failed promises of evangelicalism.
The most dramatic case is the one of William Miller, [who is featured on] the advertisement. He calculated from the Bible that Jesus would return. . . physically on the clouds of Heaven, the trumpets blaring and all that, somewhere between the spring equinoxes of 1843 and 1844. So, there’s a lot of competition [and] uncertainty. Everybody’s appealing to the same Bible, but nobody can finally sweep the stage. So, you need something: a definitive interpretation of the Bible or a supplement in the Bible. William Miller calculated the return of Jesus, right out of biblical scriptures, out of evidence. Obviously, that didn’t work out. So, the Bible upon which these evangelicals had totally staked their claim was proving, you know, to be inadequate.
Chimes: For someone who would not normally go to a history lecture, what is a good reason to give this one a try?
Bratt: The more general problem is — and this goes well beyond Evangelicalism — well beyond religion, it goes into politics. It goes into economics. It goes into everything. When you have a movement staking very high claims, what happens when those claims are indicated, or when the promises of fulfillment just aren’t delivered? When a movement of high promises hits the wall, how do people react?How do they move on? So, it’s a case study in movement dynamics. So, if you’re interested in social movements, politics, [and] so forth, you might find this an interesting case study that you can apply to your own questions.
Also, in terms of personal psychology, these stories I’ve assembled, I mean, people are in acute pain. They take these claims very seriously, and when they don’t come true or get questioned. Where do these people go? So, I have a bunch of people here who are having dark nights of the soul. They keep on with it, they persist, and they come out on the other side. You’re wondering how individuals deal with the stresses of frustrated promises. This might be interesting for you.
Chimes: Have you done similar talks in the past? What are you looking forward to about this one?
Bratt: Yeah, I’ve given a history colloquium before and a lot of adult-ed sessions at churches. I’m interested in what people, what kind of questions or curiosities that people are bringing to the place. I hope that I can whet their appetite or maybe stimulate their further thinking. You know, as a history major, you know that the past, it’s living on and on. It doesn’t repeat. It’s been strongly rhymed and so forth. We looked at history out of curiosity about the past, but also to help us answer the questions of our own time and lives. If people show up with a lively mind, I hope they’ll find that happening.
