“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:12
Samuel Snow was born in 1806. Little is written about his parents, and early family life. What we do know is that he was married and had three children. They were in agreement with his change of heart when he converted from infidelity to Christianity and supported him, often following him wherever he would be staying any length of time.
The first years of life were spent in infidelity. He supported a newspaper called the Boston Investigator from the years 1833 to 1839. It was published by a man who was a pantheist and often wrote articles for them. According to his own words, Samuel Snow regarded the Bible as foolish and trampled it under his feet.
In 1839 , at the age of 33 he read a book by William Miller and was converted. He was very much impressed with its truth. He carefully compared it with the Bible and saw that it contained an argument that could not be rejected. He saw it to be complete. He saw the prefect harmony between Daniel and Revelation, and how history has perfectly fulfilled what was written therein.
He realized that this knowledge could only be obtained at the inspiration of God. He then saw that the Bible, that he had so long rejected, was the Word of God.
After his decision to follow Christianity, he joined the Congregational church because it was the only church in his town. He strongly believed in what William Miller had written and this did not bode well with his fellow members in the church. Since the church did not accept the Millerite teaching, Snow ended up leaving the Congregational Church and joining with the Millerites in preaching the soon coming of Christ. He then began laboring full time, without wages in the vineyard of his heavenly Father.
After the first disappointments in 1843 and the spring of 1844, Samuel Snow took a more earnest interest in, and studied more deeply into, the time surrounding the soon Advent of Christ as recorded in the Bible. By his own study he was led to look to the Autumn of 1844 as the proper time for Jesus to come. He was convinced that Jesus would return on the day of atonement in the year 1844 which fell on the 10th day of the seventh month, which in the year 1844 was the 22nd of October.
It was on August 15th at a camp meeting in Exeter New Hampshire that he made the announcement of his studies. Joseph Bates was speaking at one of the meetings when Snow rode up on horseback and soon engaged in conversation with his sister who was among those in the congregation. After hearing what he had to say she stood up and asked Bates to sit down and give Snow the floor. Bates was gracious enough to oblige and Snow proceeded to argue his case and present October 22, 1844, as a viable date for the second coming. The entire congregation was electrified. A few days later Snow published a summary of his arguments in a four-page paper titled “The True Midnight Cry”. Joseph Bates accepted the truth brought by Samuel Snow. The Advent Herald reported that Snow’s message swept over the land with the velocity of a tornado. He sparked the entire movement, the 7th Month Movement, that pointed to the conclusion and conviction that Jesus would return on October 22, 1844.
After the passing of the time on October 22, 1844, we can only imagine what Samuel Snow went through. Unfortunately, by December of that year he preached that the coming of Jesus could be in any year from 1843 to 1847 but it had to be in the fall, as that was the 10th day of the seventh month in the Jewish calendar.
He rejected the message of Hiram Edson that the sanctuary was in heaven. Since the Adventist believers were opposed to more time setting, he stopped setting times. In January of 1845 he moved to New York to be the pastor of the Franklin Hall Congregation. He began preaching falsly about the open and shut door and in February he was dismissed. After this he went and founded his own church called Mount Zion Church. He declared himself to be the Prime Minister of Jesus. He was truly a false prophet at this point in time. He continued believing himself to be Elijah until the day he died in 1890.
Unless we continue following the light, the devil has a deception designed for us. From Samuel Snow’s life we can understand that God may use a man to present actual truth, but that fact in no wise preserves him from undue exaltation nor from erring from the path of truth. We must base our belief on the Word of God alone and not lean to any fleshly man for support.