And
when the dragon saw that he was cast
unto the earth, he persecuted the
woman which brought forth the man
child.{13} When
the dragon saw that he had been
forever locked out of Heaven, when he
saw there was no further point in
accusing sinners before God (hoping
to find sympathy among the holy
angels), he focused his rage on the
woman who had given birth to Jesus.
He and his demons agreed they would
not let her rest until she was
totally destroyed.
Revelation
12:14
And
to the woman were given two wings of
a great eagle, that she might fly
into the wilderness, into her place,
where she is nourished for a time,
and times, and half a time, from the
face of the serpent.{14} However,
God gave the woman two wings of a
great eagle so that she could flee to
remote places that He had prepared
for her. God’s people were
sustained for a time, times, and half
a time. Later, this time period would
become known as, “The Dark
Ages.”
The Bible
declares the dragon chased the woman
for “a time, times, and half a
time.” This time period is
defined in verse 6 as 1,260 days. Two
different expressions for the same
time period enables us to nail down
this period of time. When translated
according to Rule Four, we find that
1,260 days equals 1,260 years.[47] History
indicates this time period ended in
1798 when the power of the little
horn (the papacy) was broken.
Counting backward 1,260 years, this
prophetic time period began in A.D.
538. The language used in Revelation
12:14is identical
with Daniel 7:25 and
they easily align and identify the
same time period.
Why Did God
Say "A Time, Times, and Half a
Time?"
God is
deliberate and purposeful in
everything He does. There is an
important reason for everything that
God does and discovering some of the
reasons behind His ways is very
exciting and inspiring. For example,
in Daniel 9:24, God did not
say that 490 years were allotted to
Israel, instead, He said
“seventy weeks.” He used
the expression “seventy
weeks” when He could have said
“490 years” because the
expression, “seventy weeks”
indicates that as far as God is
concerned, weekly cycles of seven
years are ongoing. In fact, weekly
cycles of seven years began with the
year of the Exodus.[48] Therefore,
God used the expression “seventy
weeks” in Daniel 9:24 because
there is far more to this 490 years
than a random period of 490 years.
When God used
the phrase, “seventy
weeks,” He gave Israel a very
big clue about the appearing of Jesus
that would help them identify Him as
the Messiah.[49] In
God’s calendar, a week of years
always begins with a Sunday year. God
wanted Israel to watch for a decree
to rebuild and restore Jerusalem that
would be issued during a Sunday year.
History records four decrees that
were issued to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem, but only one (457 B.C.)
occurred during a Sunday year. If God
had said “490 years”
instead of “seventy weeks,”
it would have been much more
difficult for Israel to determine the
beginning of this time period. God
chose the term “seventy
weeks” because He wanted His
people to be prepared for
Messiah’s arrival. By choosing
the term “seventy weeks,”
God identified 490 years that align
with the weekly cycles of seven years
that began at the Exodus. God
provided this calendar so Israel
could determine the exact year when
Messiah would begin His ministry and
the exact year when Jesus would die
on the cross (the Wednesday year of
the seventieth week)![50]
An
interesting question we need to
consider is, “Why did God say
the dragon would chase the woman to
the wilderness for “a time,
times, and half a time” in verse
14, but in verse 6, He says the
dragon would chase the woman into the
wilderness for 1,260 days?”
Please consider the following issues:
God
described the same prophetic
time period in two different
ways to tell us that “a
time, times, and half a
time” equals 1,260 days.
Additionally, the 1,260 days
allotted to the Two Witnesses
in Revelation
11:3 equals
“a time, times, and half
a time.
”God
declares “a time, times,
and half a time” equals
1,260 days in Revelation 12,
but there must be a method to
calculate this relationship
mathematically. Please take a
few moments to consider the
following concepts:It is
widely known that ancient
nations often observed two or
more calendars at the same
time. (We do the same thing
today. For example, we have a
calendar that defines a year
as January through December,
a calendar that defines a
school year as August through
May, and we may have a
calendar that defines a
fiscal year at our place of
business as July through
June.) The ancients also used
different calendars to meet
different needs just like we
do today. History indicates
that ancient nations used
solar calendars (based on the
orbit of the Sun), lunar
calendars (based on lunar
cycles of the moon), as well
as religious, civil, and
other types of calendars.
Calendars are important and
necessary in any society
because they enable people to
plant crops, make and meet
appointments with each other
and to establish specific
dates for business contracts.
Ultimately, the purpose of
any calendar is to measure
time, both forward and
backward.It appears that a
solar calendar of 360 days
(twelve months of thirty
days) was in use at the time
of Noah’s flood. When
Moses wrote the book of
Genesis, he wrote that the
waters flooded the Earth for
150 days.[51] Moses
also says that the flood
began on the seventeenth day
of the second month[52] and
that Noah’s ark came to
rest on the seventeenth day
of the seventh month.[53] I
believe five months amounts
to 150 days because Moses
used a solar calendar based
on twelve months of thirty
days. If Moses had used a
lunar calendar, he would have
said 148 days because five
lunar months contain 147.65
days.
The ancient use of a solar
calendar should not be
surprising. Although history
does not explicitly reveal
why the ancients correlated
360 degrees of arc with a
solar year of 365.24 days, I
believe there is a simple
explanation for this
correlation: The
ancients studied the Sun.
When looking at the stars
each morning, they noticed
that the rising sun appears to
advance through the twelve
constellations about
“one Sun width” per
day. From Spring Equinox to
Spring Equinox, there are
approximately 360 “sun
widths.” From this
observation, the ancients may
have created a complete cycle
of the Sun called “one
time” or “one solar
year.” This may also
explain how a circle came to
have 360 degrees of arc. For
purposes of calculation, the
solar year may have been
defined as twelve months of
thirty days or 360 days.
Moreover, the orbit of the
Sun naturally divides a year
into four seasons and each
season contains approximately
ninety “sun
widths.” Because the
ancients relied upon their
observation of the Sun to
determine the timing for
planting crops, it is
possible that many ancient
nations defined a solar year
as having approximately 360
days.”[54]For
purposes of calculation, the
nation of Israel needed a
fixed solar year because
Israel’s religious year
was based on a solar/lunar
calendar that contained 354
or 384 days. Because of this
variance, when calculating
time periods forward or
backward, it was very
difficult for the Jews to
determine the exact number of
days in a given year because
each year varies in length. A
solar calendar resolves this
complexity. It simply has 360
days, or 12 months of 30
days.[55]When
God exiled Israel to Babylon
in 605 B.C., there is
biblical evidence showing
that the Jews and the
Babylonians were acquainted
with a solar year of 360
days.[56] History
records that
Nebuchadnezzar’s lengthy
conquest of Tyre and Egypt
ended in 570 B.C.[57] Evidently,
the king became delusional
with his success and he began
to think more highly of
himself than God thought he
should. Twelve months after
conquering Tyre and Egypt,
(569 B.C.), God imposed seven
times (seven solar years) of
punishment on Nebuchadnezzar
and the king ate grass like
an animal from 569 to 563
B.C. The Bible indicates that
Nebuchadnezzar finally
returned to his senses and to
his throne after the seven
years ended and historians
believe that he died about
two years later, in 561 B.C.
The
Aramaic word, ‘iddan is
used in Daniel
7:25. “The
saints will be handed over to
him [the little
horn power]for a
time, times and half a
time.” The
word ‘iddan means
a definite period of time,
such as one solar year.
Literally speaking, three and
a half solar years contain
1,278.34 days, but the
ancients did not count actual
days. Instead, they counted
360 “sun widths”
per solar year which
evidently became the basis
for a circle of 360 degrees.
God affirms this method of
counting solar years in Revelation
12:6,14 by
defining “a time, times
and half a time” as
1,260 days.
Rule
Four of prophetic
interpretation defines how
God measures time; therefore,
the “time, times, and
half a time” in Daniel
7:25 and Revelation
12:14 must
be translated into 1,260
years.[58] So,
to calculate when the dragon
chased the woman for 1,260
years, we have to determine a
starting point (to count
forward) or an ending point
(to count backward). I
understand the little horn
power in Daniel
7 represents the
dominion and power of the
Roman Catholic Church over
the nations of Europe which
ended in 1798. Obeying orders
from Napoleon, General
Berthier entered Vatican City
and arrested the pope on
February 20, 1798 on the
grounds that the pope refused
to renounce temporal (civil)
authority over Europe. On
March 7, 1798,
Napoleon’s army entered
Rome and established the
Roman Republic. On this date,
the power of the papacy was
broken.To find the beginning
date for “the time,
times and half a time,”
we subtract 1,260 years from
1798 which results in the
year A.D. 538. The dragon
began chasing the saints in
A.D. 538. Here is a short
version of the story: When
Justinian I (A.D. 483-565)
became the ruler of the Roman
Empire, he aspired to reunite
a fractured empire. He
created and issued various
laws between A.D. 529-534
that formed the basis of his
government. “The very
first law in his Codex
required all persons under
the jurisdiction of the [Holy
Roman] Empire to belong to
the Christian faith.”[59] Justinian
made this law a priority
because like Constantine, he
thought Christianity (a
religion having one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism) could
solve many problems that
plagued the empire. When
Justinian issued this law,
the head of the Christian
Church at Rome (the pope) did
not have sufficient power to
implement and enforce the law
because three tribal nations
(the Ostrogoths, Heruli, and
Vandals) were at war with the
church. They were determined
to kill the pope.A series of
battles took place between
A.D. 534 and 537 and
eventually, the Heruli and
the Vandals were defeated. In
A.D. 537, the Ostrogoths set
siege to the city of Rome in
hopes of capturing the pope
(who was inside the city),
but Justinian’s general,
Belesarius broke the siege
and Pope Silverius escaped
without harm. After the
rescue, Belesarius discovered
correspondence indicating
that Pope Silverius had been
secretly negotiating with the
Ostrogoths to end the siege
and Belesarius was outraged.
Belesairus deposed Pope
Silverius in March 537. (This
event happened exactly 1,261
years, to the month, before
Napoleon established the
Roman Republic in March
1798.)After Belesarius
removed Silverius from office
and demoted him to the
position of monk, Belesarius
appointed Vigilius to be the
next pope. About a year
later, in A.D. 538, Pope
Vigilius began to exercise
temporal (civil) authority
that no previous pope had
been able to exercise because
the distracting enemies of
the papacy had been uprooted
or rendered powerless. At
last, the pope was able to
make the first law of
Justinian’s codex
effective. When these
historical events are aligned
with the time frame A.D. 538
to 1798, two conclusions
become apparent. First,
according to Daniel 7, there
is no question about the
identity of the little horn
power. The little horn that
grew up out of the fourth
beast (Rome) was the papacy
and as it grew to power, it
uprooted three of the
original ten horns (the
Ostrogoths, Heruli, and
Vandals). Second, the fall of
the little horn in 1798 is
the terminus of the 1,260
years mentioned in Revelation
12. The details and
specifications given in
Prophecies 2, 6, 10, and 11
firmly align with world
history. Even though the
Bible does not offer a
specific event to mark when
the 1,260 years began, it
does limit the dragon’s
persecution to 1,260 years.
John saw the devil chase the
woman to the wilderness for
1,260 years and history
records the papacy fell
(received “a deadly
wound”) in 1798.
A review of
what we have learned regarding the
1,260 years may be helpful. First,
Revelation 12 indicates that
“a time, times, and half a
time” equals 1,260 days. Second,
God is deliberate and purposeful. His
ways of measuring time are unlike
man’s ways. Therefore, when
studying apocalyptic prophecy, we
have to carefully consider the God
given name of each time period.
Evidently, “a time, times and
half a time” is based upon a
solar year of 360 “sun
widths.” During a solar year,
the Sun completes a circle of 360
degrees with respect to the stars.
Third, the Aramaic word ‘iddan (used
in Daniel 7:25) refers to a
definite period of time – such
as a solar year (this stands in
contrast to God’s solar/lunar
calendar where a year is 354 or 384
days). Fourth, history confirms the
rise and fall of the papacy
(538-1798). All of this information
perfectly aligns with the dragon
chasing and persecuting the woman
in Daniel 7:25 and Revelation
12:6,14.
