THIS GENERATION by Wm. Penniman

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 24, 1881

THIS GENERATION.

By Wm. Penniman

BY WM. PENNIMAN.

(Continued from page 76.)

IN Matthew 24, the 23d and 24th verses, we have this warning: "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Again, the 27th verse, "For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." This verse forcibly teaches that the coming of Christ will be sudden, and that his followers were not to go into the desert to find him, or to believe that they would find him in the secret chambers. They were to heed the injunction of the 26th verse, and not to look for him only as he had described. Again we read, Rev. 1:7, "Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so, amen." See 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; Acts 1:11; Dan. 7:13.

This sudden and personal coming has no allusion to the destruction of Jerusalem, for every eye did not then see him in the clouds of heaven. To remove the objections of cavilers, we have in preceding articles endeavored to show what was, and what was not, fulfilled in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, so that the candid reader can see when and where "these things" of the first question asked in verse three were accomplished. It now remains to be seen when the things included in the second question were fulfilled.

In the 29th verse, the evangelist takes up these things of the second question of which Luke says, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28. In answering the second question, the Saviour gives the physical and unmistakable signs of his soon coming, describing them as follows: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." This prophecy was not fulfilled till May 19, 1780. Then was probably the darkest day the world has ever witnessed. This prediction was literally accomplished as the following testimony will prove:—

"The 19th of May, 1780, was a remarkably dark day; candles were lighted in many houses; the birds were silent and disappeared; the fowls retired to roost; it was the general opinion that the day of Judgment was at hand. The Legislature of Connecticut was in session at Hartford, and being unable to transact business, adjourned. A motion of adjournment was before the Council; but when the opinion of Col. Davenport of Stanford, was requested, he replied, I am against the adjournment. The day of Judgment is either at hand or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment; if it is, I wish to be found in the line of my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought."—Pres. Dwight in Conn. Hist. Collections.

The Providence Subaltern published an account of the dark day and night, and of the night it says: "The darkness was so great in the night time, that it was said by one Dr. Blackington who resided in the north part of Rehoboth, who had to be out among his sick patients that night, that he could not see his white pocket handkerchief placed before his eyes. The darkness was so thick that it could be felt." Various accounts of this dark day might be given. An account of this phenomenon was given in the "Life of Edward Lee." The Portsmouth Journal of May 20, 1843, describes it; also "Sears' Guide to Knowledge" contains a record of it, saying that "it continued about fourteen hours, or from ten o'clock in the morning till midnight." It also says, "The causes of these phenomena are unknown. They certainly were not the result of eclipses." An eclipse of the sun can only take place at new moon, therefore it could not have been an eclipse, as the moon was full just before the day came on.

Concerning the moon, one writer has said: "The darkness was supernatural from morning till night, and during most of the night; and although the moon had fulled only the night previous, the Rev. Mr. Tenny, of Exeter, N. H., says, 'I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable darkness, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete.'"

"The stars shall fall from heaven." We read in Rev. 6:13 that "the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Henry Dana Ward, in the New York Journal of Commerce of Nov. 15, 1833, says: "At the cry of 'look out of the window,' I sprang from a deep sleep, and, with wonder, saw the east lighted up with the dawn and meteors. The zenith, the north, and the west also, showed the falling stars, in the very image of one thing, and of only one I ever heard of. I called to my wife to behold, and while robing, she exclaimed, 'See! how the stars fall!' I replied 'that is the wonder;' and we felt in our hearts that it was a sign of the last days. For truly the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind." "The stars of heaven fell unto the earth; they were not sheets or flakes, or drops of fire, but they were what the world understand by 'falling stars,' and one speaking to his fellow in the midst of the scene would say, 'See how the stars fall.'"

An eye-witness, Prof. Olmstead of Yale College, testifies that "Those who were so fortunate as to witness the exhibition of shooting stars on the morning of Nov. 13, 1833, probably saw the greatest display of celestial fire-works that has ever been since the creation of the world, or at least within the annals covered by the pages of history." Mark the language, "The stars shall fall from heaven." Therefore they could not be of terrestrial origin, but must be of celestial, and in proof of this we quote Prof. Olmstead again: "This is no longer to be regarded as a terrestrial, but as a celestial phenomenon; and shooting stars are now to be no more viewed as casual productions of the upper regions of the atmosphere, but as visitants from other worlds, or from the planetary voids."

The objector will say this was a shower of meteors and not of stars, but the Greek word aster (used in this prediction) signifies the smaller lights of heaven; therefore a shower of meteors, or small stars, fully meets the case. The manner in which they fell or flew, completely answers the description. Henry Dana Ward says in regard to this: "The falling stars did not come as if from several trees shaken, but from one; those which appeared in the east fell toward the east; those which appeared in the north fell toward the north; those which appeared in the west fell toward the west; and those which appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the park) fell towards the south. And they fell not as the ripe fruit falls. Far from it; but they flew, they were cast like the unripe fruit, which at first refuses to leave the branch; and when under a violent pressure it does break its hold, it flies swiftly straight off, descending; and in the multitude falling, some cross the track of others, as they are thrown with more or less force; but each one falls on its own side of the tree. Such was the appearance of the above phenomenon to the inmates of my house."

Humboldt, in his "Kosmos," says the phenomenon of Nov. 13, 1833, was the most remarkable which has ever occurred. Certainly it must have been the most remarkable, as in the language of Prof. Olmstead "The extent of the shower of 1833 was such as to cover no inconsiderable part of the earth's surface."

A tithe of the evidence of all these phenomena has not been given, but enough has been presented to prove the literal fulfillment of the prediction. We read (Mark 13:24) "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light," etc. This completely harmonizes with the account in Matthew, for the latter does not say after those days but after the tribulation of those days. No one can disprove the fact that the temporal power of the Pope was taken away in 1798, when Berthier, a French general in Napoleon's army, entered Rome and took the Pope prisoner, thus fulfilling the prophecy, "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity." It may be said that this temporal power did not end till eighteen years after the darkening of the sun, therefore how can it be said that the sun was darkened immediately after the tribulation of those days? The language of Mark explains this, as he does not say that these events would come after the days, but "in those days." Church history proves this, as it records no general tribulation after 1700. From this period down to 1779 there were persecutions, but they were not to be compared with the former. The last known was just before the darkening of the sun in 1779. Then we can not say that this tribulation was the destruction of Jerusalem or the sufferings of the Jews (as the Jews were no longer the elect) as immediately cannot imply a separation of over 1800 years.

We have tried to look at this in every possible light, and yet we fail to make the language symbolical, as Edwards does in his notes, in which he says: "The darkening of the sun, moon, and stars, verse 29, was fulfilled symbolically at the overthrow of the Jewish temple and city." How does this language of Edwards accord with what Luke says (Luke 21:28), "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring?" If by sun, moon, and stars, is meant kings, queens, and nobility, then these signs must be symbolical. But we fail to see any force in such a position.

Much evidence might be given of the signs of which Luke speaks, "distress of nations and perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." All who are versed in history know that these signs have been strikingly fulfilled within a few years, and even now are having a fulfillment. The shaking of the powers of the heavens is an event which is not yet fulfilled. We read: "Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." Heb. 12:26. "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake." Joel 3:16.

Our object has been to show what generation witnessed these signs, and not to burden the reader with unnecessary proof. Our Lord said of the generation living in the days of his flesh (Luke 11:29), "There shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet." Then certainly that generation was not to witness any remarkable signs. It seems that Christ meant by this language that the sign of Jonas the prophet, which was fulfilled in his death and resurrection, was so much greater than any other that would be in that age, that they all dwindled into insignificance in comparison to it. "Fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven." Luke 21:11. These signs, according to Josephus, were literally accomplished at the destruction of Jerusalem, and commentators admit their literality; yet, strange to say, when they come to the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, they make them all figurative. The symbolic position favors the millenarian doctrine, or that of the world's conversion, while the literal proves the much ignored advent doctrine of the second and soon coming of Christ. Is it any more wonderful that great signs should appear before the downfall of the earth, than that they should have appeared before the fall of Jerusalem? It is a remarkable fact, and one that weighs much in proving the literal interpretation, that whenever these signs have been seen the beholders have been impressed with the thought that they betokened the coming of Christ and the end of the world.

(To be Continued.)