Henry Grattan Guinness (Dissertation)

THE LEGACY OF

REV. HENRY GRATTAN GUINNESS D.D., F.R.A.S. (1835 – 1910)

AND

THE INFLUENCE THE ULSTER REVIVAL HAD ON HIS MINISTRY,

WRITINGS AND CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD MISSION

Gustaf du Plessis

MTh in Practical Theology Dissertation

Mattersey Hall in association with Bangor University

Supervisor: Dr Anne Dyer

April 2010

Acknowledgments

I am extremely thankful to my supervisor, Dr Anne Dyer, whose encouragement, supervision and support from the preliminary to the concluding level enabled me to develop an in-depth understanding of the finer nuances of this subject.

I also want to use this opportunity to thank:

Mr Geoff Green, who cultivated a love for revival and mission history in me.

Mark Stuart, my manager and close friend, who understood when I came into the office lethargic after a night’s research, and who gave me encouragement when I felt I was not going to complete this dissertation.

My employers, especially the company directors, who were very understanding in giving me time to fulfil my research requirements.

All my friends who were proof readers and who listened mostly patiently, whilst I went into several tireless one-sided conversations about my studies.

I owe my deepest love and gratitude to my longsuffering wife, Ruth, who was always there when I needed a shoulder to cry on, and who had to deal with my variable emotions.

Lastly, I want to give honour and praise to an almighty God, who gave me the intellectual ability to undertake this endeavour in a second language.

Gustaf du Plessis

Abstract

Rev Henry Grattan Guinness was impacted by the 1859 Revival in such a way, that he in turn had an influence on the future of evangelical faith mission and the implementation of policies regarding the Middle East, even after his death. The name Guinness is famous, but as a dark beer and not as a preacher, missionary facilitator and prophetic voice of the 19^th and early 20^th century. This paper will look at the origins of Henry Grattan Guinness and the preparation he had to go through prior to the Revival of 1859. It will look at the role he played in the Revival and the fact that he was an important character in a story of great magnitude.

The following part investigates the impact the Revival had on Henry Grattan Guinness himself. It will pursue two different groups of people that will shape his ministry later in his life. The first is his marriage to Fanny Emma Guinness (nee Fitzgerald) and her involvement with the Plymouth Brethren and how that influenced Henry Grattan Guinness’ thinking and theology. He was introduced to a dispensationalist theology and a pre-millennium view of eschatology. He was also introduced to a literal interpretation of Scripture, especially in connection with Israel and the Jews. Later it would lead to his progressive study and interest in prophecy, as well as his involvement with the Keswick ‘deeper life’ movement which emphasised the Cross in the believer’s life. The effects of these beliefs urged him to invest in people to teach them and help them to commit to service and missionary outreach. Henry Grattan Guinness’ eschatological understanding and his ongoing involvement in prophesy will be investigated in line with the revival. He had an antagonistic view towards the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. Later he developed astronomical charts which he attempted to align literally with the Bible prophecies.

The second was Guinness’ remarkable interest in mission which started whilst speaking in Ulster during the revival. Through his friendship with Dr Hudson Taylor and other likeminded individuals, he started several evangelical faith mission agencies all under the umbrella of Regions Beyond Missionary Union. In his lifetime he would see missionaries go to China, Africa (Sudan and Congo), India and South America. Attention will be drawn to the fact that the mission activities were not only overseas, but that some of his students became well-known advocates for the poor and destitute people of Britain.

Finally, Guinness’ contribution biblical prophetic interpretations will be evaluated and assessments will be made. The assessment will show that Henry Grattan Guinness was a major character in Christian circles, and that even if the readers do not agree with everything that Guinness’ wrote or did in his life, they will have to consider how Guinness was impacted by the 1859 Revival and that he did extraordinary things in the service of Jes

C ontents

Guinness’ conflict with the Roman Catholic system flowed from an informed scholarship with respect to the papacy and its dark history of suppressing the truth and those who proclaimed it. He spoke with incandescent eloquence of the ruthless persecution of the Albigenses, of the Waldenses and of the massacre of 22 000 French Protestants known as the Huguenots. He decried the expulsion of 50,000 Protestants from France, the deadly work of the Inquisition, and the audacity of the Council of Trent of 1547, that placed tradition on an equal level of authority with the biblical record. It triggered Guinness to start to study biblical prophesies. He wanted to make sense of human depravity, as well as, what he thought was a misunderstanding of the en times.

3.2.4. Historicist Views

Guinness developed a Historical pre-millennial viewpoint (progressive fulfilment of prophesy). In his interpretation of the book of Revelation, he specifically identifies the ‘beast’ of Revelation 13 and the ‘Little Horn’ of Daniel 7 as the same entity. He suggested that both metaphors depicting the papal system. For Guinness, the Man of Sin, of whom the Apostle Paul speaks was neither Jewish nor a single individual, but represented the long succession of Roman Popes – in a word, the papal dynasty. It was the Jesuit Ribera, Guinness affirmed, who at the close of the 16^th century first introduced futurist interpretations of the Antichrist, relegating his appearance to ‘some final spasm’ at the close of the age. This was done to deflect public attention from the true nature of the papacy as the foe of truth. He also stated that the Roman Catholic popes were not God’s representatives on earth, but the Church of Jesus Christ. In this conviction, Guinness was in good company. The reformers agreed, as did the divines who put together the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Marshalling convincing arguments from Scripture and the Church Fathers, Guinness identified the much debated he who hinders, who would be taken out of the way as Imperial Rome before its collapse in 476 AD. Until that time, he maintained, the strong arm of Roman secular authority had restrained the lethal ascendancy of the papacy. Once Rome pagan had been taken out of the way, the path was clear for Rome papal to rise unchallenged in the sixth century. With the fall of imperial Rome, the ‘beast’ laid aside its secular garb and donned the ornate robes of an absolute politico-religious papacy.

Guinness’ outrage flowed from a genuine anguish for the millions whose blind allegiance had deprived them of the liberating freedom of the gospel. If his charges seems stirring to the twenty-first century mind, it must be remembered that he spoke in a day when Romanist pretensions carried a lot of weight and that society was far less subject to the restraints of social and political correctness than what is prevailing today.

3.3. His Eschatological Writings

Back in England, Guinness’ studies 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’.

In the following years, the Guinness family 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’. He introduces the subject as follows:

The three great tasks assigned to the sun and moon in the 1^st chapter 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 divinely appointed chronometer, by which, in its entire 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 the present chapter to demonstrate. God, who assigned to these worlds their paths and their periods, has regulated all 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.

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 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 in 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.

3.3.1. Calendars

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. The seasons were used and Spring was the starting point, back to Spring to finish a cycle. This proved very inaccurate and in 45 B.C. the Julian Calendar was instituted, because every 130 years a day was gained.

The Gregorian Calendar was instituted in 1582 to correct this problem and the Gregorian calendar is so accurate that it would only produce an accumulated error of 1 day after more than one thousand years. 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 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 harmonisations 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 measurement of long 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.

The Metonic cycle is such a soli-lunar cycle. This cycle 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, based on Moon Phases. For centuries, the Metonic cycle remained the primary soli-lunar cycle used by astronomers because of its relative accuracy.

In order to fully understand the amazing discoveries of Guinness, an attempt will be made to explain lunar revolutions, the ‘Daniel Cycle’ and the Time of the Gentiles.

3.4. Basic Lunar revolutions

The basic types of lunar revolutions are called ‘months,’ and it should be noted that it is not the same meaning as the months which are being used in the current measurement of time.

- 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. This kind of month plays an important role in the occurrence of eclipses. It is the time that 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); the moon must be at a node. An example will be if the moon is cutting the ecliptic which is 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’.

3.5. The ‘Daniel Cycle’

In the middle of the 17^th 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.

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…’

De Cheseaux lists the four different kinds of cycles connected with the sun, the moon, and the earth, summarised by 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.

De Cheseaux called this the ‘Daniel Cycle’ and it refers to Daniel 7:25 and 12:7; Revelation 11:2 - 3; 12:6, 14 and 13:5. Other notable prophecies believed to be interpreted as a day for a year are, the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14; the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24; the 1290 days and 1335 days of Daniel 12:11 - 12; the five months of Revelation 9:5; the ‘hour and day and month and year’ of Revelation 9:15; and the 3 ½ days of Revelation 11:9. The hermeneutics of interpreting prophetic chronologies as symbols equalling one prophetic day for an historical year, is a common feature of the historical pre-millenium interpretation of Bible prophecy.

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,’

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 the fulfilment of prophecy’.

Thus Guinness’ main chronological discoveries are;

- That 2,300 years is not simply a soli-lunar cycle but a soli-lunar-anomalistic cycle.

- That astronomy as well as Scripture knows of a 75 year period supplementary to 2,520 years.

Henry then applied these periods to biblical prophecy and major historical events.

3.6. Time of the Gentiles

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 2, and Daniel’s vision of four beasts, in Daniel 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 11^th 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.

In Daniel 12:11-12, 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 days’. 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.

One of the most interesting of Guinness’ discoveries was that the hour, day, month and year, of Revelation 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’. 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).

This 391 year soli-lunar-nodical cycle is also fairly accurate, with a soli-lunar error of +0.22 days, and a lunar-nodical error of -0.19 days. The discovery of this prophetic period as a soli-lunar-nodical cycle is original to Henry Grattan Guinness. A possible historical fulfilment 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,’ which is 391 years. Other numbers which happen to be soli-lunar cycles are not very rare.

3.7. Application

Some applications of the above mentioned information can be seen in -

3.7.1. Restoration of Israel

In Light for the Last Days Guinness, who passed away in 1910, pointed out that 1917 will be a crucial year for Jewish restoration. That proved to be; as on 2 November 1917 the ‘Balfour Declaration’ was signed. This document was a declaration that Palestine is the historical national home of the Jewish people. At the end of the last paragraph of the lunar tables, whilst discussing the Book of Ezekiel, Guinness had pencilled the date 1948 as important. It was a logical projection of the 1260^th year marking the times of the Gentiles. Again he was proved correct, because history shows that on 15^th of May 1948 Israel became a nation.

3.7.2. Criticism of Henry Grattan Guinness’ writings

It is in human nature to want to know what the future holds and over the years a variety of fanatics, sects and eschatologists have claimed that Guinness foretold the ‘end of the world.’ Academics have criticised his work. One such academic is Emeritus Professor Stanley Walters of Tyndale Theological Seminary. In 1989 he published an article in which he claimed that Guinness died in 1910, ‘without knowing he was wrong’.

Guinness expressly asks his readers in Light for the Last Days not to use his book to predict what God has planned. Guinness was an astute Bible scholar and he knew the day of the Lord’s coming will be as a thief in the night. He did however describe ‘the end of the age’, explaining that biblical ages came and went out over a period of many years. The sign of the gradual waning of the present (Gentile) age would be the return of the Jews to their homeland in Palestine. From his works it is clear that this is the only future event which triggered Guinness’ imagination.

3.7.3. Non-theological application of Henry Grattan Guinness’ discoveries

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, which added one day for correction, every second Jubilee, or 7-year period. This calendar is both accurate and comparatively free of artificial corrections.

A second application of Guinness’ work was also presented to the public in the same book. Guinness devised a 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 several libraries specialising in Astronomical writings. A sampling of the excerpts from appreciative astronomers, who received copies of his book after its publication, fills 6 pages in his later book, On This Rock. These letters were written by leading astronomers of their day. The scope and significance of Guinness’ discoveries, and of his charts, in that pre-computer age, was astronomical. It would be difficult to overstate the theological importance of these discoveries. 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.

3.7.6. Theological applications of Henry Grattan Guinness’ discoveries

Guinness made immense discoveries, but he did not force his viewpoint onto others. He did challenge the arrogance and barbarisms of the Roman Catholic Church, but he also tirelessly pursued the salvation of a lost humanity. For Guinness the study of prophecy was no doctrinal exercise to be radical. He rather saw it as a wake-up call to world evangelisation. Christ’s return was imminent; time is not on humanity’s side whilst there was a world to be won. Prophecy was fuel for faith, calling the Church to bold venture in winning the lost. It moved Guinness to tireless effort in spreading the gospel. He founded the East London Institute in the ‘eschatological consciousness’ of the swift approach of the end of the age, and for the same reasons he promoted the formation of missionary schools in the United States with like philosophy and objective. More important was his transparent love for the lost which bore the irrefutable hallmark of authenticity, for it won the allegiance of his children, all of whom became ardent missionaries. The astonishing array of missionary effort and mission agencies that flowed from the influence of his pen and pulpit bear ample witness.

Guinness was an evangelist at heart and surely he had studies Scripture and the reality of the correlation between the spreading of the Gospel and the end of times became a reality to him.

Chapter 4: Conclusion

The foregoing pages have endeavoured to survey whether the Ulster Revival had influenced the life and ministry of Guinness, and consensus can be reached that most of the influences were indirect, rather than direct. In this final concluding chapter a few facts will be highlighted and discussed. Some discussions will be left open ended, as a lack of evidence may lead to speculation, rather than fact. The writer is unapologetic in his use of biblical passages, as he is evangelical in belief and sees the Bible as the ultimate gauge to life.

4.1. The Revival

The character of the Ulster Revival was in line with Scripture. One passage that is used often when speaking about revival is 2 Chronicles 7:14, it reads-

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

The research showed that the Ulster Revival was clearly manifested in a remarkable joint movement of prayer and conviction of sin. The movement was essentially leaderless and the main body of evangelists were lay people anointed to share the gospel. The communities were operating upon a higher level of spiritual effectiveness, working together with temperance, unity and peace. Denominational differences were put aside and there was a sense of Christ being at the centre through neighbourly love and co-operation.

4.2. Henry Grattan Guinness – made for the Revival

Some Evangelical Christians have the understanding that God raises up individuals to use for specific tasks. Can this deduction be made in Guinness’ case? The evidence is showing that Guinness came from a well-known Irish family and that his parents were nonconformists (not sectarian). He had a solid foundation in theology and he was ready when he had a true moment of salvation. Guinness’ view that denominations were of lesser importance, can be seen in the fact that he was ordained in five different denominations as evangelist. He had a charismatic personality, he had a natural gift for oratory and his family name was very well-known all though Ireland. It will be fair to say that Guinness was extremely suited for this specific task.

Historic publications show that that during the Revival, Guinness preached to up to twenty thousand people at once. There were prostrations and people were crying out to God as he preached. His success meant that his preaching endeavours made his popularity comparable with C.H. Spurgeon, who will later become known as the ‘The Prince of Preachers’. These facts also point in the direction that Guinness was God’s man for God’s task.

How could one man, in the open air, without any microphone or electronic mechanism be heard by twenty thousand people? The fact that this happened defies logic. There were something like voice projection training, the audience was very quiet and that there were people in the audience that related the sermon to those who could not hear. Even with these factors the miraculous cannot be left out, because it defies science.

4.3. Faith or Folly?

Whilst studying the biographical documents of Henry Grattan Guinness, it seems as if he was always at odds with someone, or something.

He was at odds with some denominations (Church of Ireland and The Baptists), because of his so-called affiliation with the Brethren. In actual fact he was also a critic of the Brethren, because history shows that he was not agreeing with some of their doctrines. He was in favour of the ministerial offices of Christ as set out in Eph. 4:11. The Brethren did not have the pastoral office and this led to a polemic with a well-known Brethren author. Guinness’ very public stance in favour of the Believer’s Baptism, made that the Church of Ireland write against him in their publications. These are only two examples of many of Guinness having an opinion against the so-called ‘denominational establishment’.

Guinness’ greatest stance, or maybe folly, was his letter to American Christians on pacifism, in a period when emotions were running high. It may not have been a great political move, but if it was a word from God, it was extremely brave.

Did his experiences during the Revival play a role in him trying to change people’s minds? The author is of the opinion that he was indirectly influenced by the Revival. He saw first hand that when God is in control certain underlying beliefs and ideas can be subdued to God’s will. It can eventually produce a temperate society that wants to align itself with God’s Word.

4.4. Never reached the expected success as preacher?

In his dealing with the Brethren, Henry became so determined that his success as preacher will not make him arrogant, that he changed his natural preaching style. In his enthusiasm to prove that God is in control of his discourses, and that he was only the mouthpiece, he over-compensated. In this process he lost his natural flair as preacher, and evidence shows that he possibly never fulfilled his potential as preacher, unlike Spurgeon and Moody. It can be argued that this change in style was an indirect influence of the Revival and an assemblage of circumstances surrounding the Revival.

Other reasons maybe that God has used Guinness in the Ulster Revival as the proverbial ‘God’s man, in God’s will, in God’s time’, and that after the revival Guinness had served his main task as preacher. Another argument is that Satan used human frailties to influence Guinness’ loss of influence as evangelist, with his constant conflict with denominations and liturgical issues, bad advice and his depression, to name a few. However, a counter argument can be put forward that Guinness’ partaking as evangelist in the Ulster Revival was training ground for his true calling. His calling of an apostle and not of an evangelist, because he his visionary leadership, drive to succeed and need to be in God’s will is apparent all through Guinness’ life.

4.5. Mission

Guinness wanted to go on foreign mission at a young age, but it did not happen. He thought he would have a second chance when He invited Hudson Taylor to speak at his apologetics class in Dublin. The research shows that instead of being encouraged to go, Guinness was rather encouraged to train and impart knowledge and principles to mission volunteers.

There can be an argument that Henry’s mission ideas was established during the Revival and later encouraged by Hudson Taylor. All independent mission activities were funded by faith. The East London Institute was a counter culture in London’s most deprived borough through service to the poor and a practical living of the Bible. The students were all spiritually driven, with an emphasis on practical ministry and above all, a total and utter dependence on God. These few factors are very similar to the manifestation of community living during the Revival. His model was taken to America and to the rest of the world and mission training has not changed much since then.

Guinness’ training ideas and the fact that missionaries can be trained outside seminaries, made several established institutions very uncomfortable. Questions were asked about independent mission training facilities. There were three main questions of which the first was whether these institutions will still exist after the founders have passed away? The other two questions are entwined, because it has to do with the missionary candidates. Were these candidates ready for service and how were they being held accountable, whether in service or with financial support.

All three these questions are valid. History concludes that several organisations are still active and that the death of the founders did not mean the death of their work. The aspects about the candidates being ready for service and accountability are not that clear cut, but there have been a growth in mission, especially mission to harder to areas of the world. It will be safe to say that independent mission training facilities made a significant contribution to worldwide mission.

It needs to be stated that at East London Institute, Guinness’ personal set of principles were used to see if the candidates were suited or not? It is timeless and can still be used. Guinness was interdenominational (no sectarian) with Christ in the centre, he was spiritual and worldly wealth did not draw him, he was Scriptural and the Bible was his compass, everything he did was voluntary and he never asked any remuneration, and lastly he was prayerful. He believed through prayer he got God’s direction and aligned himself to be in God’s will. These principles were put into place during his time as evangelist in The Ulster Revival.

4.6. The Author

As proved by the research Guinness excelled as an author. His greatest literary legacy is his prophetic literature. Why spend so much time on a subject that can cause so much division in Christian circles? A possible answer is that he was from an era where the Modernist thinking was the order of the day, so there was a push to substantiate all philosophy in the physical. It could also be that he wanted to influence a wider audience than what he was able to do with his preaching ministry and he did his utmost to highlight the correlation between the preaching of the Gospel and Jesus’ second coming.

Whatever the reason, he did his utmost to impart to believers that Christ is coming soon, and that the effort of spreading the gospel needs requires urgency. It can be deducted that the aim of his eschatological findings were that it should be used as a motivating tool. Guinness urgent need to spread the gospel was indirectly influenced by the Revival, as the message of the Saviour was spread with urgency during the Revival.

4.7. His ‘twilight years’

In 1887 Guinness and Fanny handed the Directors’ posts over to their son and his spouse Annie. Fanny became very unwell and in 1889 and 1890 Henry and Fanny went to America and Mexico to preach. They were hoping that the warmer climate would help Fanny’s health, unfortunately her health kept on deteriorating and in 1891 she became bed ridden. Fanny passed away on 3 November 1898.

During her period of ill-health, Fanny insisted that Henry kept his itinerant ministry going. He preached and spoke in 1892 in the USA, 1896 he visited India and in 1897 China.

On 7 July 1903, Guinness married Grace Alexandra Hurditch. She was forty years his junior. After their wedding Guinness took his young bride on a five-year world tour, which included visits to Switzerland in 1903, America and Canada in 1904, 1905 Japan and China, and Australia and New Zealand in 1906. They concluded the tour with a visit to South Africa, where he preached to racially mixed congregations. It was 1908 before they returned to England. From Henry and Grace’s union, John Christopher and Paul Grattan were born.

Henry Grattan Guinness received an honorary D.D. degree from Brown University, Providence, USA, in 1889. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in recognition of his work in astronomy, which was sparked off by his interest in biblical prophecy. He spent his last two years in Bath, where he died at his home on 21 June 1910. Long may his legacy last.

Bibliography

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Appendix A

A brief history on the calendar

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’. By inserting days at given intervals, such as an extra month every third year, the impracticality of the natural calendar could be remedied. 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. In the space of 130 years, this error equalled one day. By the 16^th 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.

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.

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. 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.

Appendix B

De Cheseaux’s Discoveries

In the middle of the 17^th 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.

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…’.

De Cheseaux lists the four different kinds of cycles connected with the sun, the moon, and the earth, summarised by 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 is impossible, at any rate as regards those of the fourth class. Till now, the discovery of a cycle of this kind has been to astronomers, like perpetual motion to mechanicals,--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.

Thus 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. 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…’

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 realised 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, as 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 Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 11:2, 3 and 12:6, 14 and 13:5. Other notable prophecies believed to be interpreted as a day for a year are, the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14; the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24; the 1290 days and 1335 days of Daniel 12:11,12; the five months of Revelation 9:5; the ‘hour and day and month and year’ of Revelation 9:15; and the 3 ½ days of Revelation 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 pre-millennium 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. 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-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. He named this cycle, ‘The Daniel Cycle’.

Appendix C

About Soli-lunar cycles and the Bible

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 and occurs only once in 350 years.

- The discovery that the 1260 year cycle and the 2300 year cycle, both from Daniel, taking the half of the sum will 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)’.

- 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.

- 706 years is close to a perfect year-month-day cycle. 706 years also 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 in 100, but of the four Biblical cycles, 315, 391, 486, and 2300, two are soli-lunar-anomalistic in their basic form, while the other two are anomalistic only in their fifth multiples.