Editor’s note: Ian is writing about an area in which there are various possible interpretations. He is presenting his own interpretation, which we believe is worth reading. Prophecy Today UK does not hold tightly to any particular end times view, but seeks to watch and listen to what is going on today.
In our examination of the symbolism, ‘picture language’ and various Middle-Eastern idioms and metaphors which enrich the Bible, we have seen how one object is commonly used to represent something else. For example, we have seen that a mountain is a common symbol for a nation, and a menorah is a Biblical symbol for a group of people called out by God. We also need to be aware that time-spans can be symbolic (or ‘coded’) rather than literal.
Days can represent Years
Many scholars believe that, in prophetic scripture, days can represent years. The Biblical justification for this is given in Ezekiel 4:6, where God tells Ezekiel that he shall count “a day for each year”. A similar idea can be found in Numbers 14:34.
In the Books of Daniel and Revelation, prophetic time-spans given in days should generally be assumed (in the first instance) to represent years as understood by the prophet. Since the prophet Daniel was trained in the ways of the Babylonians when he was still a teenager, any prophetic time-spans given in days in the Book of Daniel would represent Babylonian years (of 360 days each). However, in the Book of Revelation, which was written when the Julian calendar was used, days would represent ‘normal’ solar years – as the Julian calendar was not very different in this respect from our present Gregorian calendar.
Examples from the Book of Daniel
Perhaps the most famous ‘timed’ prophecy in the Book of Daniel is the so-called ‘Seventy Weeks Prophecy’ in Daniel 9:24-27. Each ‘week’ (or period of seven) actually represents a time-span of seven Babylonian years. Dr Eitan Bar (on the ‘One for Israel’ website1) gives a good explanation of how the first 69 ‘sevens’ lead up to the crucifixion of Messiah.
We need to be careful though. In Daniel 8:14 there is a prophesied time-span, which many English translations render as “2,300 days”. It does not say this in Hebrew. The text actually translates as “2,300 evenings [and] mornings”. If the text had used the Hebrew word for days (yamim) then we might well have assumed that this prophetic word refers to 2,300 years. However, it does not, and our creative God has used “evenings [and] mornings” to show us that the time-span is 2,300 literal days.
In Daniel 12:11 we have another prophesied time-span. The text states: “From the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.” Here the time-span is symbolic (or ‘coded’), and it refers to a period of 1,290 Babylonian years.
After the Babylonians had destroyed Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC, the daily sacrifices would still have been offered on a makeshift altar until the last ordained priests were taken away into captivity. Jeremiah 52:30 suggests this might have been around 583-582 BC. If we count on 1,290 Babylonian years from that time, we come to the year 688 (AD). Unsurprisingly, around the year 688, the Muslims started work on building the Dome of the Rock, which was completed circa 692. Furthermore, archaeological and photographic evidence suggests that the Dome of the Rock was erected in “the court which is outside the temple … [which] has been given to the Gentiles” (Revelation 11:2).
The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem - the abomination of desolation? by Ian Liddle
Examples from the Book of Revelation
From what I have just written above, I believe that Revelation 11 begins in the year 688. This is an important chronological benchmark in the Book of Revelation, from which we can calculate three key dates. My acknowledgments to the late Ellis Skolfield2 for pointing out the first two of these prophesied dates, and my thanks to the Holy Spirit for guiding me to discover the third date.
Revelation 11:3 tells us that God’s two witnesses will proclaim the Word of God for 1,260 days, “clothed in sackcloth”. In the second part of this series, I explained that the two witnesses are the Messianic Jews and the faithful Gentile Church. So why would these two sections of the Body of Christ be “clothed in sackcloth” for what is really 1,260 years? The expression “clothed in sackcloth” pictures people who are undertaking serious prayer and fasting, so the question is really why the Body of Christ should be doing this for 1,260 years.
Perhaps the answer lies in Revelation 12, where we can read that “the woman” (Israel) would be wandering in “the wilderness” for “1,260 days” (Revelation 12:6). In other words, the people of Israel (“the woman”) would be cast out of their land for 1,260 years. Since this time-span is counted from our chronological benchmark of 688, we might note that counting on 1,260 years from 688 brings us to 1948. How accurate is that! The modern nation state of Israel was founded in May 1948.
In June 1967, during the Six Day War, the Israelis recaptured their eternal capital of Jerusalem, fulfilling another stunningly accurate prophecy in the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 11:2 tells us that the Gentiles “will trample the holy city [Jerusalem] for 42 months.” On the Julian calendar, 42 months is typically 1,279 days. Interpreting days to represent years, as before, we might note that counting on 1,279 years from 688 brings us to 1967. In June 1967, during the Six Day War, the Israelis recaptured their eternal capital of Jerusalem, fulfilling another stunningly accurate prophecy in the Book of Revelation.
God’s Judgment in the Book of Revelation
The third (and final) date that we can calculate from our chronological benchmark of 688 relates to five of the so-called ‘trumpet judgments’ in a section of the Book of Revelation between Revelation 6:1 and Revelation 9:12. This whole section describes a number of disastrous events that appear to be fairly contemporaneous. The opening of six seals in Revelation 6 provides an overview of these events. When Jesus opens the seventh seal in Revelation 8:1, we are then provided with more detail. The clue to the year is given in Revelation 9:5 and again in Revelation 9:10.
Everything in Scripture is there for a purpose. When something is repeated, like the time-span of “five months”, which is given in those two verses, then we are meant to take it seriously. Five months on the Julian calendar would typically be 152 days, and we might presume that these 152 days represent 152 years. Since the events described in this section from Revelation 6:1 to 9:12 are recorded before we reach our chronological benchmark of 688 in Revelation 11:1-2, it seemed reasonable to me to wonder whether these events occurred 152 years before 688 AD – in the year 536 AD. And they most certainly did!
According to the distinguished medieval historian Professor Michael McCormick3, the year 536 was the worst year to be alive – and the beginning of one of the worst periods to have been alive. Literature from that time is often apocalyptic in its language, and I have no doubt that people really thought the end of the world was almost upon them – as stated in Revelation 6:15-17.
Procopius of Caesarea, historian for the Roman general Belisarius, wrote: “And it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed. And from the time when this thing happened men were free neither from war nor pestilence nor any other thing leading to death. And it was the time when Justinian was in the tenth year of his reign [536-537].” (Procopius: Wars 4.14.5).
And it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year – Procopius
The historical evidence provided by Procopius and others is both substantiated and explained further by scientific (e.g. geological and dendrological) evidence. I explain all of this in much more detail in my book4, but for now I can only affirm that the apocalyptic events described in that section of the Book of Revelation really did happen in (and from) the year 536.
Why does this matter?
Why is all this important? God’s judgment in the year 536 was a warning to humanity. In the year 536, God’s judgment on the world was only one third of what will be inflicted when the bowls of God’s wrath (Revelation 16) are poured out at the end of the age. Now is the time for people to examine themselves and to turn to God – before it is too late! In fact, I am convinced that time is much shorter than most people realise. “As in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37), “the coming of the Son of Man” will surprise an unsuspecting and sceptical world. End Notes