Something big eclipsed the sun on the Dark Day of May 1780?

Something eclipsed the sun on the Dark Day prophesied of by Isaiah, Christ, and John.

In 2017 four of my siblings, Darold, Dennis, Shirley, and Sue, drove down from northern Virginia to Tennessee because a total solar eclipse was going to pass there. Not that they are adventure seekers, but they had never been able to be in a total solar eclipse before. And this might be the opportunity of a lifetime. Recently, Darold described it to me. He said, “It was the oddest thing. It gave a 360⸰ sunset on all horizons. And straight above at the center of the sky was a dusky twilight, the darkness gradually grew grey and then brighter toward the circular horizons. On the ground at the eclipse’s darkest you can see objects, but if you need to do some work with them, you would need artificial light. The sky was almost like the darkness at the verge of night. And because some light was coming in at the horizons the shadows were more defined than usual, not fuzzy as normal days.”

Why does his description matter? Yes, and here is why.

Of late there has come out a new explanation for the Dark Day of May 19, 1780 that normalizes it to just another day, that undermines the miraculous phenomenon (and, I suspect, to destroy the influence of Isaiah 13:10, Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:24, Luke 21:25, and Revelation 6:12). Articles are coming out saying that the darkness came from an “advection inversion” over New England from some immense Ontario forest fire. 

[Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged inversion: A reversal of normal atmospheric temperature gradient : increase of temperature of the air with increasing altitude; advection: the horizontal movement of a mass of air which causes changes in temperature or in other physical properties of air—compare convection; convection: 1: the action or process of conveying or transmitting; 2: a mechanically or thermally upward or downward movement of a limited part of the atmosphere that is essential to the formation of many clouds (as cumulus clouds) and is used in certain heating systems 3a: the circulatory motion that occurs in a fluid at a non-uniform temperature owing to the variation of its density and the action of gravity b: the transfer of heat by this automatic circulation of a fluid.

Oxford Dictionary (shorter version)  Advection inversion : A temperature inversion caused by advection as warm air passes over a cool surface.]

The people were afraid. But why, if they had had a dark day a couple years before? Or if another one a couple of years later, why the debate for another century or two? Why did no one tell them to remember that the same happened on other occasions, as would have happened if the Dark Day was an advection inversion on what was really a normal occasion, as rationalizing it would certainly happen in our smarter, atheistic, more mature modernity. Even in those days deism was explaining away the biblical miracles, and deism was rife in America. As nowadays, their newspapers would have sought to quiet the people’s fears. Abraham Davenport, a member of the Connecticut State Senate, decided that if the Lord was coming he would just as well be found doing his duty. The Revolutionary War was underway and General Washington notated the darkness in his diary.

This is how it was described by Ellen White in The Great Controversy, p. 306-308:

“Twenty-five years later [after the unprecedented Lisbon Earthquake] appeared the next sign mentioned in the prophecy—the darkening of the sun and moon. What rendered this more striking was the fact that the time of its fulfillment had been definitely pointed out. In the Saviour’s conversation with His disciples upon Olivet, after describing the long period of trial for the church,—the 1260 years of papal persecution, concerning which He had promised that the tribulation should be shortened,—He thus mentioned certain events to precede His coming, and fixed the time when the first of these should be witnessed: ‘In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.’ Mark 13:24. The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798.

“A quarter of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Following this persecution, according to the words of Christ, the sun was to be darkened. On the 19th of May, 1780, this prophecy was fulfilled.

“‘Almost, if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet unexplained phenomenon of its kind, ... stands the dark day of May 19, 1780,—a most unaccountable darkening of the whole

visible heavens and atmosphere in New England.’—R. M. Devens, Our First Century, page 89.

“An eyewitness living in Massachusetts describes the event as follows: ‘In the morning the sun rose clear, but was soon overcast. The clouds became lowery, and from them, black and ominous, as

they soon appeared, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and a little rain fell. Toward nine o’clock, the clouds became thinner, and assumed a brassy or coppery appearance, and earth, rocks, trees, buildings,

water, and persons were changed by this strange, unearthly light. A few minutes later, a heavy black cloud spread over the entire sky except a narrow rim at the horizon, and it was as dark as it usually is

at nine o’clock on a summer evening....

“‘Fear, anxiety, and awe gradually filled the minds of the people. Women stood at the door, looking out upon the dark landscape; men returned from their labor in the fields; the carpenter left his tools,

the blacksmith his forge, the tradesman his counter. Schools were dismissed, and tremblingly the children fled homeward. Travelers put up at the nearest farmhouse. ‘What is coming?’ queried every

lip and heart. It seemed as if a hurricane was about to dash across the land, or as if it was the day of the consummation of all things.

“‘Candles were used; and hearth fires shone as brightly as on a moonless evening in autumn.... Fowls retired to their roosts and went to sleep, cattle gathered at the pasture bars and lowed, frogs peeped, birds sang their evening songs, and bats flew about. But the human knew that night had not come.…

“‘Dr. Nathanael Whittaker, pastor of the Tabernacle church in Salem, held religious services in the meeting-house, and preached a sermon in which he maintained that the darkness was supernatural.

Congregations came together in many other places. The texts for the extemporaneous sermons were invariably those that seemed to indicate that the darkness was consonant with Scriptural prophecy....

The darkness was most dense shortly after eleven o’clock.’—The Essex Antiquarian, April, 1899, vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 53, 54. ‘In most parts of the country it was so great in the daytime, that the people

could not tell the hour by either watch or clock, nor dine, nor manage their domestic business, without the light of candles.…

“‘The extent of this darkness was extraordinary. It was observed as far east as Falmouth. To the westward it reached to the farthest part of Connecticut, and to Albany. To the southward, it was observed along the seacoasts; and to the north as far as the American settlements extend.’—William Gordon, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the U.S.A., vol. 3, p. 57.

“The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist. ‘After sundown, the clouds came again overhead, and it grew dark very fast.’ ‘Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light, which, when seen from the neighboring houses and other places at a distance, appeared through a kind of Egyptian darkness which seemed almost

impervious to the rays.’—Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy; or, American Oracle of Liberty, vol. 10, No. 472 (May 25, 1780). Said an eyewitness of the scene: ‘I could not help conceiving at the time,

that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete.’—Letter by Dr. Samuel Tenney, of

Exeter, New Hampshire, December, 1785 (in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1792, 1st series, vol. 1, p. 97). Though at nine o’clock that night the moon rose to the full, ‘it had not the least

effect to dispel the deathlike shadows.’ After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had the appearance of blood.”

No one mentioned fog or the smell of smoke. And the light was not darkened from the sky only, but also from the candles and lanterns. The darkness affected light vertically and laterally. Now please notice the statement, “a heavy black cloud spread over the entire sky except a narrow rim at the horizon.” This is very much like my brother’s description the perfect solar eclipse that he and my other siblings were in. “…straight above at the center of the sky was a dusky twilight, the darkness gradually grew grey and then brighter toward the circular horizons (which was in regular daylight).”

The difference between my brother’s solar eclipse and the Dark Day is that the Dark Day moon was gibbous, meaning almost a full moon. Being a gibbous moon and not a new moon dismisses the possibility of a solar eclipse. And not being a full moon dismisses a lunar eclipse from causing the Dark Day’s moon appearing like blood, as the above statement recalls, “...notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light….” Natural solar eclipses are caused by our moon moving in between us and the sun, and they don’t last but a few minutes. The shadow cast by perfect solar eclipses travels about 2000 miles per hour across mid-America, and the shadow is only 100 miles in diameter, depending on the distance of the moon (which varies). So, the event is short-lived.

Putting this all together, the darkness was not a somewhat normal occurrence, as in a meteorological formation caused by a huge fire. This Herschel the astronomer alluded to, “The dark day in North America was one of those wonderful phenomena of nature which philosophy [science] is at a loss to explain.” The darkened sun and red moon were not the results of natural eclipses, solar or lunar.

So, the darkness and the blood moon might have been caused by some other cosmic object situated between Earth and the Sun. A rogue planet inside our moon’s orbit, maybe? Close enough to eclipse both Earth to make its sky black rather than grey, darken the whole of New England, and give the moon the color of a lunar eclipse? A gigantic hand? Or…

...simply God’s powerful word through Christ.

“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth…. For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” (Psa. 33:6,9).

“Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.” (Isa. 48:13).

“...His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:3).

“For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 

And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 

I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 

Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.” (Isa. 13:10-13).

“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.” (Mark 13:24,25).

“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; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:25,26).

“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 

And 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. 

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? ” (Rev. 6:12-17).

“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 

And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” (Rev. 16:17-21).

“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: 

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 

And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matt. 24:29-31).