A Specific Period for the Event—Remarkable Darkening of Sun and Moon—A Great Earthquake Also Answered the Prediction
By Calvin P. Bollman
"BUT in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." Mark 13: 24.
It is necessary only to remind the reader that "those days" were the twelve hundred and sixty years of papal supremacy, beginning in 538 and ending in 1798; while "in those days, after that tribulation," meant between the close of the tribulation, or persecution, and the end of the days. As in the case of the parts of this prophecy that have already been examined, we shall find this part fulfilled to the letter.
PERSECUTION HAD CEASED
As shown last week, owing to the combined influence of the Reformation, the discovery and settlement of America, etc., there was little persecution of note after the middle of the eighteenth century; and May 19, 1780—"in those days, after that tribulation"—the sun was supernaturally darkened over all New England, parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada,—the very region where, a few years later, would arise the message that would stir the world as it had not been stirred by any preaching or by any message since the days of John the Baptist and of our Lord Himself.
THE SUN AND THE MOON WERE DARKENED
Two or three quotations on this point will suffice: Webster's “Unabridged Dictionary,” edition of 1883, article “Dark Day,” says: “Dark Day, The, May 19, 1780, so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day, extending over all New England. In some places persons could not see to read common print in the open air for several hours together. . . . The true causes of this remarkable phenomenon are not known.”
The greatest earthquake that has ever occurred within historic times.
In a sermon preached nine days later—that is, on May 28, 1780—the Rev. Elam Potter, who was himself an eyewitness of the phenomenon, said: “But especially I mention that wonderful darkness on the nineteenth of May inst. Then, as in our text [Matt. 24: 29], the sun was darkened; such a darkness as probably was never known before since the crucifixion of our Lord. People left their work in the house and in the field. Travelers stopped. Schools broke up at eleven o'clock. People lighted candles at noon-day, and fires shone as at night. Some people, I have been told, were in dismay, and thought whether the day of Judgment was not drawing on. A great part of the following night also was singularly dark. The moon, though in the full, gave no light, as in our text.”
Many efforts have been made to account for this remarkable darkness. But even if a satisfactory explanation could be given, the fact would still remain that it was foretold by the Saviour eighteen hundred years before it occurred, and that it came at just the time He said it would come; namely, “in those days, after that tribulation.” Even if some natural cause could be assigned, it would not prove the occurrence to have been any less a sign of the coming of the day of God.
It may be objected that this sign was given nearly 135 years ago, and the end has not yet come. But what of that? Did not Noah preach the coming of the Flood for one hundred and twenty years? And must it be thought incredible that God, in His providence, began to give warning of the still greater and more terrible destruction by fire, even a longer time before the event?
Again, did not the angels sing, “On earth peace, good will toward men,” nearly a third of a century before Christ actually entered upon His ministry? And did not John Huss, “the morning star of the Reformation,” do his work, and die for his faith, and apparently die in vain, a hundred years before Luther's time?
Yea, verily; all these things were even so. God is not limited as to time, and is “long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” He prepares His agencies centuries in advance. He hangs out His warning signs decades and even centuries before the event, that men may have ample time to make choice between His service and eternal life, or the service of this world and the wages of sin. No man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Only he who endures to the end has the promise of the everlasting reward.
OTHER PROPHETS SAW IT
This same event—the darkening of the sun and of the moon—was foretold also in Rev. 6: 12: “And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.”
THE GREAT LISBON EARTHQUAKE
The sixth seal was ushered in by the earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, when ninety thousand lives were lost in a few minutes of time, and when parts of four continents felt the mighty heavings of the sin-cursed earth. This was unquestionably the greatest earthquake that has ever occurred within historic times. No other ever wrought so great destruction. None before nor since affected so great a part of the earth's surface.
Following the great earthquake, there came, in 1780, the darkening of the sun and of the moon. Though the moon was at the full, it gave no light until late in the night, and then it had the appearance of blood.
Milo Bostwick, describing some years later the occurrence, and the impression it made upon the minds of his parents, said: “My father and mother, who were pious, thought the day of Judgment was near. They sat up that night, during the latter part of which, they said, the darkness disappeared, and then the sky seemed as usual, but the moon, which was at its full, had the appearance of blood.”
Thus in a single event was fulfilled not only our Lord's prophecy of Matt. 24: 29, but likewise the still older prediction of the prophet Joel: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” Joel 2: 31.
