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Transcript of H. Grattan Guinness Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer
2/6/13 H. Grattan Guinness: Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer, by J. L. Haynes
www.historicism.com/Haynes/hgguinnessprint.htm 1/13
H. GRATTAN GUINNESS:
Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer
by
J. L. Haynes
www.historicism.com
This essay can also be read at www.historicism.com/Haynes/hgguinness.htm
Can the progress of science be facilitated by a reverence of God’s Word, and a familiarity with its contents?
There is some evidence in history that this is the case. The famous Irish revivalist, theologian, missionary, and
amateur astronomer, Henry Grattan Guinness, made some remarkable discoveries that were made possible
because of his knowledge of the Bible and his obedience to its divine Author.
Many people today have never heard of Henry Grattan Guinness, so it might be difficult at first to understand
why I call him “famous.” To be sure, the Guinness name is well known, but more for the legendary beer (or
“stout” as they say) than for ministry under the influence of a different kind of spirit. However, as Michele
Guinness, author of The Guinness Spirit writes,
In 1880 few ordinary people in England would have heard of Lord Iveagh, owner of the Guinness brewery.
Everyone would have heard of Henry Grattan Guinness, the legendary preacher, whose influence was more
extensive than Guinness beer imports, the catalyst for most major faith missionary societies, Barnardo’s Homes,
the World Council of Churches, A. B. Simpson and New York Bible College (not to mention the Missionary
Alliance denomination of churches-J.H.), the Moody Bible College, to name but a few (p.4).
Henry Grattan Guinness was born in 1835. The year of his birth, like the year of his death, 1910, was marked by
the visit of Halley’s Comet: “a propitious omen for a future astronomer” (51, 405). It was in the field of
astronomy that Henry would eventually be led, by his study of Bible prophecy, to a remarkable discovery that,
for him, supplied proof that the God of the Bible is the Creator of the Cosmos.
By the time Henry was 22, he was already gaining a reputation as a preacher. He was tall, good looking,
2/6/13 H. Grattan Guinness: Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer, by J. L. Haynes
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passionate and eloquent—a combination that made him a “serious risk to unattached young ladies” (88). Some
suspected that the two famous preachers of the previous century, Wesley and Whitefield, were about to be
paralleled by Spurgeon and Guinness (89). After his death, he would be “hailed as one of the three greatest
preachers of the nineteenth century” along with D. L. Moody and Charles H. Spurgeon (The Guinness Legend,
281).
In 1864, Henry and his wife, Fanny, decided to move to Dublin to establish a missionary-training school. What
motivated Henry to give up preaching and take up teaching was a complex series of events including a
disappointing preaching tour in America, and the publication five years earlier of Darwin’s On the Origin of the
Species. Guinness saw the need for men and women to be properly equipped and trained in the Word of God.
The need was for a Christian defence, led by Christian missionaries, to counter the growing threat of
evolutionary, atheistic theories.
Eventually the Guinness’ missionary-training project would blossom into the prominent East London Training
Institute and Harley College. But its beginnings were humble, with evening classes attended by just eight men,
four evenings per week. As a result of their concern to battle the effects of “Darwinism,” those early classes were
based on the text of Paley’s Evidences of Christianity (Spirit, 131). Already Henry’s life and ministry was
showing an interest in applying Biblical thinking to areas of science. This would prove to be a key interest
throughout the remainder of his life.
At the Guinness’ invitation, Hudson Taylor travelled to Dublin to share his vision with the little school. Henry was
so moved, that he pledged to move his family to China to join the pioneering Gospel work. Wisely, Hudson
Taylor urged Guinness to stay in Britain, to train missionaries for the work overseas. This was a disappointment
for Henry and Fanny, but they took it in stride. What followed was three years of preaching, and missionary
effort, first in England, and then in Paris.
While on holiday in Spain, Henry had a life-changing experience. He heard of a discovery, made by a group of
workmen building a road, of a mass grave of ashes and bones: victims of the Spanish Inquisition. Visiting the site,
Henry was moved to tears in righteous indignation at the crimes of the Roman Catholic Church. The events of the
next few years, together with his visit to the Quemadero (the mass grave of victims of the Inquisition), would
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awaken a passion for the prophetic word of God.
Henry and Fanny moved their family back to England as France and Prussia moved toward war. The “day
before France had declared war on Prussia, the Pope declared his infallibility” (145). Henry saw this as the
height of blasphemy. Following France’s declaration of war, the French troops at the Vatican were called home.
This provided an opening for Victor Emannuel, King of Italy, to unite Italy by seizing Rome from the hands of the
Pope. The year 1870 saw the end of the temporal power of the Papacy, and an altered Europe. In Henry’s eyes
these were events of apocalyptic proportions (145).
Back in England, Henry began to seriously study Bible prophecy. His study gave birth to his first book, The
Approaching End of the Age, and a “writing career which would exercise a profound influence on government
policy in the Middle East even after his death” (146). In the following years, the Guinness’ renewed their training
of missionaries, establishing the East London Training Institute. Henry wrote several more books on prophecy,
many of which enjoyed huge success. It was his study of prophecy which led him to discover a new passion for
astronomy.
Guinness begins the third section of his monumental The Approaching End of the Age with an investigation into
“soli-lunar cycles and their relation to the chronology of history” (384). He introduces the subject as follows:
The three great tasks assigned to the sun and moon in the first of Genesis are to rule, to give light, and to divide;to mark out the boundaries that separate day from night, month from month, year from year, “appointed time”from “appointed time.” The sun and moon are thus constituted not merely beneficent fountains of light to a dark
world, and all-influential rulers over our globe, but also principal hands of the divinely constructed and divinelyappointed chronometer, by which, in all its course, terrestrial time is measured.
Nor does the record imply, that this chronometer is to be used by man alone! “Let them be for signs and for
seasons,” or appointed times, is an expression which may legitimately include a fact, which it is our object in thepresent chapter to demonstrate. God, who assigned to these worlds their paths and their periods, has regulatedall his majestic providential and dispensational dealings with mankind, by the greater revolutions of the same
chronometer, whose lesser revolutions mark our days and months and years. That chronometer is adjusted to
measure…periods which are incalculable by human intelligence, and which border on infinity. (384-385)
Guinness explains in the following pages, that different units are needed to measure different spans of time. For
instance, a day is appropriate for certain lengths of time, but it is awkward and inefficient to measure years by
units of days, e.g., “3650 days,” instead of “10 years.” God has ordained, created, established, or appointed, the
2/6/13 H. Grattan Guinness: Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer, by J. L. Haynes
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movements of the sun and the moon, and even the other planets in our solar system, to measure other larger
periods of time. In the use of the phrase “appointed times” he hints at his thesis that foreordained movements of
human history are in accordance with a cosmic chronology built into Creation and revealed in Bible prophecy.
One key measurement is, according to Guinness, the soli-lunar cycle. This is not just a revolution of the sun, or a
revolution of the moon, but a cycle that harmonizes both. It is worth pointing out at a fact that is so well known,
so as to be easily overlooked in its significance for measuring time: that one revolution of the Earth around the sun
very nearly approximates 12 revolutions of the moon around the earth, but not exactly. In one month, the Earth
revolves on its axis approximately 30 times. The exact time of one month however, is 29 days, 12 hours, 44
minutes and 3 seconds. Similarly, the exact measurement of the Earth’s orbit around the sun is 12 months, 10
days, 21 hours (or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 49 seconds) (390).
As ancient civilizations developed the calendar to mark off and measure the passing of time, what seemed like
close-enough measurements must have led to an increasing accumulated error as the slight differences in actual
days, months, and years grew to become significant differences over the passing of several years. Therefore, in
order to harmonize the calendar measurements, these periods were properly measured in fractions. Otherwise,
the difficulties in a calendar that was so inaccurate would make its practical use impossible.
If it was at one time decided to celebrate the new year in the spring, “sixteen years afterwards, new year’s day
would fall in the autumn, and in thirty-three years it would have worked its way all through the seasons, back to
spring again” (390). By inserting days at given intervals, such as an extra month every third year, the
impracticality of the natural calendar could be remedied (Maunder, 2). This is called “intercalation.”
A major reform of the calendar was needed, however, and in the year 45 B.C., the Julian Calendar was
instituted. This system adopted months that alternated between 30 and 31 days, except for February which had
28 days, and every fourth year 29 days. This was by far the most superior calendar yet developed, but it still had
significant inaccuracies: it was longer than the actual solar year by 11 minutes and 11 seconds (391). In the space
of 130 years, this error equalled one day. By the 16th century, the Vernal Equinox, used as a basis for
determining the day of Easter, was found to occur 10 days earlier than expected as a result of the accumulation
of this error.
2/6/13 H. Grattan Guinness: Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer, by J. L. Haynes
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The Gregorian Calendar was instituted in 1582 to correct this problem. However, it was still impossible to
determine when the full moons would fall, which was also necessary for determining the day for Easter. This was
solved by adopting the calculation of “epacts,” that is, the number of days by which the moon is late each year,
following a starting point when the new moon occurs on a given day. By harmonizing these epacts with the 19
year soli-lunar cycle named for Meton, the difficulty was resolved, and the calendar we use today was
established (393).
The Gregorian Calendar is so accurate that it would only produce an accumulated error of 1 day after more than
one thousand years. It is interesting to note, however, that the Persian astronomer, Omar, in 1079, proposed a
calendar which was much simpler than that of Gregory, and much more accurate: producing an accumulated
error of 1 day in 5000 years (394). The significance of this fact is to point out that we do not, in the western
world, use the Gregorian Calendar merely because it is accurate—if that were the case, we would long ago have
adopted Omar’s calendar. The reasons for the long survival of the Gregorian Calendar have as much to do with
the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as with science (“The Essence of the Church Calendar”).
The brief history of the calendar, as outlined above, serves to illustrate the enormous difficulty in the history of
science that has accompanied the measurement of mere days, months and years. The kinds of artificial
harmonizations that have been used in the past serve well for such short periods of time, but what about much
longer ones? Guinness writes,
Short periods have to be artificially harmonized, longer ones harmonize themselves. There exist
various times and seasons, which are naturally measurable both by solar years, and lunar months,
without remainder, or with remainders so small as to be unimportant.
Such periods are therefore Soli-lunar cycles,…They harmonize with more or less exactness solar
and lunar revolutions, and they may be regarded as divinely appointed units for the measurment oflong periods of time, units of precisely the same character as the day, month, and year, (that is
created by solar, lunar, and terrestrial revolutions) but of larger dimensions. (395)
The Metonic Cycle is such a soli-lunar cycle. The cycle, discovered by Meton, is a “19 year cycle corresponding
the 235 lunar months, over which phases of the moon almost land on the same dates of the year. This cycle was
the basis for the Greek calendar” (“Moon Phases”). For centuries, the Metonic cycle remained the primary soli-
lunar cycle used by astronomers because of its relative accuracy.
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Before proceeding to outline the discoveries of Guinness and others related to soli-lunar cycles, it will be
necessary to define the basic types of lunar revolutions called “months,” since the terminology itself, to the
uninitiated, can be very confusing.
- A Sidereal month is one revolution of the moon around the earth, relative to the position of the stars. In
other words, lining up the moon to stars that are in a fixed position in space, relative to the earth at least, the time
it takes the moon to return to precisely that same position, is called a sidereal month.
- A Synodic month is one revolution of the moon around the earth, relative to the positions of the earth and
the sun. We on earth observe one synodic month from new moon to new moon, or from full moon to full moon.
- An Anomalistic month is the time it takes for the moon to return to the same place in its elliptical orbit of the
earth. Since the elliptical orbit itself is in motion, the anomalistic month varies in length over time.
- A Nodical month is a little bit harder to imagine, so I have included a diagram. This kind of month plays an
important role in the occurrence of eclipses. It is the time it takes the moon to return to a particular point in its
orbital plane. The earth, in its orbit around the sun, orbits on a plane (“A”). The moon, in its orbit around the
earth, also orbits on a plane, but this plane is on an angle to that of the earth around the sun (“B”). For an eclipse
to occur, “the moon must be full (for a lunar eclipse) or new (for a solar eclipse);…[and] the moon must be at a
node, i.e., it must be cutting the ecliptic, the plane in which the earth revolves about the sun…Hence it is evident
that eclipses will recur only at intervals which are synodic nodical cycles” (Ridgway, 4).
2/6/13 H. Grattan Guinness: Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer, by J. L. Haynes
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In the middle of the 17th century, a Swiss astronomer, Jean Philippe Loys de Cheseaux, discovered, for the first
time, a connection between soli-lunar cycles and Bible prophecy. De Cheseaux is famous for his discovery of
two comets, one a six-tailed comet, in the years 1744 and 1746 (“Philippe Loys de Cheseaux”). The following
excerpt from de Cheseaux’s book, Memoires posthumes de M. de Cheseaux, published by his sons in 1754, is
from his essay “Remarques historiques, chronologiques, et astronomiques, sur quelques endroits du livre de
Daniel,” translated in The Approaching End of the Age:
[A] singular relation…exists between [the period of 1260 years (or “time, times and a half”), from
the book of Daniel,] and the facts of astronomy…[a soli-lunar cycle is] a period which brings into
harmony different celestial revolutions, containing a certain definite number of each, without
remainder or fraction…” (Approaching, 397).
De Cheseaux lists the four different kinds of cycles connected with the sun, the moon, and the earth, summarisedby Guinness as follows:
1. Those harmonizing the solar day and year.
2. Those harmonizing the solar year and lunar month.
3. Those harmonizing the solar day and lunar month.
4. Those harmonizing all three, day, month, and year.
As de Cheseaux explains,
…the discovery of such cycles has always been a great object with astronomers and chronologists.
They have considered it so difficult a matter, that they have almost laid it down as a principle that it
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is impossible, at any rate as regards those of the fourth class. Till now, the discovery of a cycle ofthis kind has been to astronomers,--like perpetual motion to mechanicians,--a sort of philosopher’s
stone. Anxious to settle whether the thing were really impossible, I began some time ago to try for a
cycle of the second kind” (397).
And so he did find “a cycle of the second kind,” a soli-lunar cycle of 315 years. The previously mentioned
Metonic cycle, has, after its span of 19 years, an inaccuracy of .09 days. De Cheseaux’s cycle of 315 years, has
after that period, an inaccuracy of .12 days (Ridgway, 14-15). Over the same period of 315 years, the Metonic
cycle’s error will accumulate to nearly 1 ½ days; the error of de Cheseaux’s cycle, over the same 315 year
period, amounts to only three hours and 24 seconds. De Cheseaux writes, “I had no sooner discovered this
cycle, than I observed that it was a quarter of the 1260 years of Daniel, and the Apocalypse, and that
consequently, this period is itself a soli-lunar cycle…”(Approaching, 398) .
This 1260 year soli-lunar cycle will see the sun and the moon return to the same point on the ecliptic, from the
point of view of the earth, to within ½ a degree, with less than one hour’s difference (398). When de Cheseaux
realized this, and that the 1260 year period was both an “appointed season” for earthly political events
prophesied in Scripture, and an accurate soli-lunar cycle, he wondered if the 2300 years of Daniel 8, might also
be a soli-lunar cycle.
The view that both the 1260 days, and the 2300 days, should be interpreted as years, was assumed by de
Cheseaux and Guinness. The passages referring to 1260 days, believed to by identical with 3 ½ time and 42
months, are Dan 7:25; 12:7; Rev 11:2, 3; 12:6,14; 13:5. Other notable prophecies believed to be interpreted as
a day for a year are, the 2300 days of Dan 8:14; the 70 weeks of Dan 9:24; the 1290 days and 1335 days of
Dan 12:11,12; the five months of Rev 9:5; the “hour and day and month and year” of Rev 9:15; and the 3 ½
days of Rev 11:9. The hermeneutic of interpreting prophetic chronologies as symbols equalling one prophetic day
for an historical year, is a common feature of the historical (or historicist) interpretation of Bible prophecy.
De Cheseaux found that the 2300 years was also a noteworthy soli-lunar cycle. He further noticed that the error
of the 2300 year cycle, was nearly identical (by his methods of calculation) to the error of the 1260 year cycle,
being -.42 days and -.48 days respectively (Ridgway, 21). This led him to realize that the difference in years
between the two cycles, 1040 years, must itself be a nearly perfect cycle. His suspicions turned out to be
correct. More importantly though, was the discovery that this 1040 year cycle was of the “fourth class” of soli-
2/6/13 H. Grattan Guinness: Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer, by J. L. Haynes
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lunar cycles, the kind that harmonized the day, the month, and the year. This cycle is wonderfully accurate, with
an error of only +.07 days in 1040 years (Ridgway, 17). He named this cycle, “The Daniel Cycle”
(Approaching, 399).
This discovery of de Cheseaux’s was forgotten for about 50 years until first, W. Cunninghame, and then
Professor T. Birks of Cambridge, brought it to light again. Guinness comments on his introduction to the “Daniel
Cycle,” as quoted in Dr. Walter Ridgway’s master’s thesis:
It was when reading this work of Professor Birks just after the fall of the Papal temporal power in
1870 that my attention was arrested by that portion of it referring to these remarkable cycles, and I
was consequently led to investigate their character with considerable care, and in doing so made a
number of chronological discoveries, some of which I have since published in my writings on thefulfillment of prophecy” (Creation Centred in Christ, vol.1, p.238, in Ridgway, 66).
Guinness’ main discoveries were as follows:
1. That 2,300 years is not simply a soli-lunar cycle but a soli-lunar-anomalistic cycle.
2. That astronomy as well as Scripture knows of a 75 year period supplementary to 2,520 years (Ridgway,
66).
This period of 2520 years is called by Guinness, “the Times of the Gentiles” based on Luke 21:24. It is the full
duration of time prophesied in the visions of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, in Daniel chapter 2, and Daniel’s vision of
four beasts, in Daniel chapter 7. It is the lifetime, as it were, of the succession of Gentile empires predicted in
these visions, the half of which is the 1260 years persecution of the saints by the enemy of God’s people
symbolized by the 11th horn of the fourth beast:
‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and
he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. ‘He will speak out against
the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations
in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. (Daniel7:24-25 NAS95)
In Daniel chapter 12, verses 11 and 12, there is added to this period of 1260 years, in two stages an additional,
supplementary period of 75 years. "From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of
desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. ‘How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335
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days” (Daniel 12:11-12 NAS95). Guinness discovered that the difference of 75 years is exactly the epact
between 2520 solar and 2520 lunar years. (1290 - 1260 = 30) + (1335 - 1290 = 45) = 75 years) If 2520 years
is properly understood to be the duration of the Times of the Gentiles, then the fact of the epact being precisely
equal to the supplemental periods added in Daniel 12, may well indicate that the Times of the Gentiles can rightly
be interpreted in either solar or lunar years. This was further shown to be the case when, in 1905, the Canadian
scientist, Dr. Dawson Bell, discovered that the cyclical periods in the book of Daniel apply not only to solar
years and lunar months, but also to lunar years (Ridgway, 68, 72).
Finally, according to Dr. Walter Ridgway, the most interesting of Guinness’
discoveries was that the hour, day, month and year, of Rev 9:15, is a soli-lunar-
nodical cycle. “And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day
and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind”
(Revelation 9:15 NAS95). Calculating this period on the hermeneutical basis of one
prophetic day for an historical year, we arrive at the sum of 391.041 years* (or 391
years and 15 days) (Garrat, 102).
This 391 year soli-lunar-nodical cycle is also fairly accurate, with a soli-lunar error of +.22 days, and a lunar-
nodical error of -.19 days. The discovery of this prophetic period as a soli-lunar-nodical cycle is original to
Henry Grattan Guinness. In his thesis, Dr. Walter Ridgway explained the marvelous nature of this cycle:
…we see that of the forty soli-lunar-nodical cycles shorter than 3,000 years the 391 years’ [sic]
cycle is the most accurate. We may practically say that 391 years is the most accurate eclipse
cycle, embracing a whole number of years, in existence. When it is recalled that 391 years is alsothe most accurate cycle of the solar year and the lunar year shorter than 1000 years the truly
phenomenal character of this cycle will begin to appear. A further comparison…will reveal that 391
is the only number common to both tables. It is not simply the most accurate but the only solar year,
lunar year, eclipse year cycle in existence (70).
A possible historical fulfillment of the 391 year prophecy in Rev 9:15, can be measured from the commencement of
Turkish aggression into Europe, in cooperation with the Catalan Grand Company’s attack on Emperor Andronicus
in 1308, until the Peace of Karlowitz, on January 26, 1699, marking the end of “Turkey’s power of offence in
Europe,” is 391 years (71).
Of the several implications of these discoveries, the most obvious is theological in nature. How could the human
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authors of the Biblical prophecies have known to use soli-lunar cycles in their predictions? What explanation can be
seriously entertained except that the God of the Bible is the Creator of the universe?
Although numbers which happen to be soli-lunar cycles of some accuracy are not very rare, a few things about
these Biblical soli-lunar cycles should be pointed out.
- Cycles of the accuracy of the 1040 year soli-lunar cycle are quite rare, occurring only once in 350 years.
- Dr. Dawson Bell’s discovery, simply put, was that the 1260 year cycle and the 2300 year cycle, both from
Daniel, taking the half of the sum (the fractional errors of which nearly form a unity), make a soli-lunar cycle of
incredible accuracy. 1780 lunar years are 1727.000236 solar years. “This cycle falls short of perfect exactitude
by only two hours in its whole period, as shown by the above decimal of a year (.000236)” (68).
- There are only five solar year-lunar year cycles shorter than 1000 years, of which 391 years is the most
accurate.
- There are 16 cycles of the same kind, shorter than 3000 years: 1727 years being the most accurate as well.
- 391, 486 (the cycle connected with the 70 weeks of Daniel 9—69 ½ weeks until Messiah is cut off = 486.5
years), 1260, 2300 and 2520 are all soli-lunar cycles with errors less than one day.
- 1040 years is almost an exact “philosopher’s stone” cycle, with only one other that is so short, 706 years,
being so close to a perfect year-month-day cycle. 706 years, however, happens to be the sum of 315 (the base
of 1260 and 2520) and 391—therefore, its connection to the Biblical texts can also be established.
- The odds of any number being a soli-lunar-anomalistic cycle are 1/100. But of the four Biblical cycles, 315,
391, 486, and 2300, two are, in their basic form, anomalistic, while the other two are anomalistic in their fifth
multiples (68-70).
Two of the non-theological, practical applications of Guinness’ work are as follows. In his book Creation
Centred in Christ, Guinness presented a remarkable calendar based on the 2300 year cycle, that added one
day for correction, every second Jubilee, or 7-year period. This calendar is both accurate and comparatively free
of artificial corrections (Maunder, 39).
A second application of Guinness’ work was also presented to the public in the same book. Guinness devised a
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table of charts for use in determining equinoxes and eclipses that he sent to the major observatories in the world
at that time. I have confirmed that copies of the second volume of his book are still held in the University of
Cambridge Institute of Astronomy Library, the Observatoire de Paris Library, the Royal Astronomical Society
Library, and the U.S. Naval Observatory Library. A sampling of the excerpts from appreciative astronomers,
who received copies of his book after its publication, fill 6 pages in his later book, On This Rock. These letters
were written by leading astronomers of their day.
Guinness describes this second volume in On This Rock:
These Tables give the dates in days, hours, and minutes, of all the vernal equinoxes and mean andtrue moons for 3555 years, from the probable date of the Exodus, B.C. 1622 to A.D. 1934. Theyoccupy more than 600 pages, and contain 101, 217 solar and lunar dates; 87, 938 new moons
(43,969 mean and 43,969 true new moons), and also 4862 mean full moons and 4862 true fullmoons connected with lunar eclipses.
The correctness of the Tables is proved by their correspondence with historically recorded dates,and especially with more than 12,000 solar and lunar eclipses, ancient and modern, including all thecalculated eclipses in Oppolzer’s Canon der Finsternisse, up to A.D. 1934.
The whole of these Tables have been calculated by means of the prophetic Times in the Book of Daniel (150).
The scope and significance of Guinness’ discoveries, and of his charts, in that pre-computer age, was clearly
astronomical. For this work he was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. It would be difficult to
overstate the theological importance of these discoveries (Benson). The discoveries of de Cheseaux, Birks,
Guinness, and Dawson Bell, were enabled by familiarity with the prophetic Word of God and confirmed by the
scientific methods of the discipline of Astronomy.
Guinness’ own discoveries were facilitated by the passionate responsiveness to God’s leading demonstrated
throughout his ministry. In fact, it was Henry Grattan Guinness’ obedience to God, and his knowledge of the
natural and Biblical revelations of God, that made his scientific discoveries possible. Conversely, his discoveries
serve to strengthen later generations of Christians in their faith in, and obedience to, that same Creator God.
They establish with some certainty the historical method of prophetic interpretation and the existence, and
providence, of the God of Israel whom the Bible reveals.
Bibliography
Benson, Clarence H. The Greatness and the Grace of God – Conclusive Evidence That Refutes
Evolution. Chicago: Scripture Press. 1953.
2/6/13 H. Grattan Guinness: Preacher, Teacher and Astronomer, by J. L. Haynes
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* This is based on the so-called “calendar” year which is based on the simple usage of 12 months of 30 days each. This is thetype of year most indicated in the prophecies: e.g., “a time, two times, and half a time” = 1260 days; 1260 ÷ 3.5= 360. The actuallunar year is approximately 354 days, using 12 actual months discussed earlier in this paper.