Astronomy Verifies Prophecy
By George W. Reaser
THAT the year 1844 was a focal point around which clustered events that marked the beginning of the proclamation of Heaven's last gospel message to the inhabitants of our world, is one of the cardinal points of doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. They base this view upon the period of 2,300 days given in Dan. 8: 14, and have held tenaciously to it for full threescore years and ten. A careful study of the ninth chapter of Daniel forced them to the conclusion that the 2,300-day period of the eighth chapter was actually 2,300 years, a day being employed, in symbolic prophecy, to represent a year; and from an exhaustive study of Ezra 7, they were convinced that this time period began in the autumn of B. C. 457, and therefore terminated in the autumn of A. D. 1844. Further, they concluded that "the great advent movement," which reached its climax in the last named year, as foretold in Revelation 10, was, in the plan of God, to mark the conclusion of the 2,300-year period, immediately after which the threefold message of Revelation, chapter 14, was due to be proclaimed. Fastening their faith upon this line of proof, which seemed to them incontrovertible, they began the proclamation of that message on schedule time. For nearly three quarters of a century, they have acted consistently upon this view, devoting their time and energies to the work of evangelizing the world by the proclamation of "the everlasting gospel" in the setting which the prophetic outline of the movement called for. (Rev. 14: 6-14.) Vouched for by Astronomers
So far as this people knew during that period, none of the accepted Bible commentators, and none of the recognized astronomers, concurred in their interpretation of this time period. Finally Dr. H. Grattan Guinness, D. D., F. R. A. S., brought out a book—"Creation Centered in Christ"—for the express purpose of aiding astronomers to fix dates readily in connection with certain historical events. In this work of some 627 pages, he makes prominent the well-known fact that Sir Isaac Newton astronomically determined the date of "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem,"—carried into effect by Ezra the priest when he formed a company, empowered to enact laws, and journeyed from Persia to Palestine, in B. C. 457. At this point, Dr. Guinness starts the computation of the 2,300-year period of Dan. 8: 14, and locates its termination in the year 1844.3 He quotes the following eminent astronomers as vouching for the accuracy of his calculations: Dr. Downing, superintendent of the Nautical Almanac; Mr. Lynn, long connected with Greenwich Observatory; Dr. Dreyer, of Armagh Observatory; Mr. Marth, of Markree Observatory; De Cheseaux, the Swiss astronomer; and Dr. Chambers, author of "Handbook of Astronomy." Nearly all these men are fellows of the Royal Academy of Science, and therefore of unquestioned standing in the scientific world. Profound and Exact Agreement
Quoting from Mr. Chambers, he says: "Such are some of the adjustments which astronomy discloses between the prophetic times and the periods which affect the material universe. They are adjustments of such a character as only modern science, with its instruments of exact precision, could discover, and were of necessity unknown to the prophets of bygone ages. The periods which the prophets foretold as destined to measure cycles of moral harmonization are themselves cycles of material harmonization. There is a mutual adjustment between the material and moral worlds. The course of revealed redemption chronology, Levitical and prophetic, is in profound and exact agreement in all its details with the time order of the universe." Mr. Guinness adds: "We will conclude with a sentence from De Cheseaux's treatise on the astronomical character of the prophetic times in the book of Daniel: 'For many ages, the book of Daniel, and especially these passages of it, have been quoted and commented on by numerous and varied authors, so that it is impossible for a moment to call in question its antiquity. Who can have taught the author of the marvelous relation of the periods he selected with soli-lunar revolutions? Is it possible, considering all these points, to fail to recognize in the Author of the book of Daniel, the Creator of the heavens and all their hosts, of the earth and the things that are therein?'" Truth is divine, whether revealed in "the sure word of prophecy" or by scientific men. To the people who for these many years have based their faith upon the great prophetic period under consideration, it is naturally a source of satisfaction to find their interpretation confirmed by so large a group of recognized scientists; and this fact must have the effect of inspiring them to greater earnestness in the proclamation of the last gospel message.