I just found this 1994 film on YouTube and watched it a couple of nights ago. It is a fine documentary about the Millerite movement, focusing on William Miller, Joshua Himes, and Josiah Litch. It was made by T.N. Mohan, with a script written by Ronald Alan Knott, a long-time professor at Andrews University (and husband of Esther Knott, and brother of Bill Knott), and Dennis O’Flaherty. It is narrated by Cliff Robertson.
This is not what I would consider pro-Adventist apologetics; rather, it is an objective evaluation of the Millerite movement. Two of the three main commentators, Ruth Alden Doan and David L. Rowe, are not Adventists. Doan is an academic and an heiress to the Dow Chemical fortune who wrote a dissertation back in the 1980s entitled “The Miller Heresy, Millennialism, and American Culture.” David Rowe has written a book entitled, “God's Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World,” which I read and found significantly lacking. The third main commentator is George Knight, whom most of us would not consider a conservative cheerleader for early Adventism.
And yet this documentary has many positive things to say about Miller and his movement. It does explain the 2,300 day prophecy, which is why Miller thought Jesus would return around 1843. It does underline Miller’s very strong commitment to the Scriptures, and that he was a very caring, protective, fatherly figure. It mentions that many called him “Father Miller.”
In sum, for any Seventh-day Adventist, or anyone who wants to know more about the movement that the SDA Church grew from, this is well worth the hour and 42 minute run-time.
I think it underscores the fact that we can be wrong about specific interpretations of prophecy while still being good people, right with God. Because what comes through in this film is that although Miller, Himes, and Litch were wrong about Jesus returning in 1844, they were wonderful Christian men.