Part 2 - The Unveiling of the Glory of Yahweh
We explore the concrete foundations of all prophetic literature
Biblical Apocalyptic Literature is ALWAYS Highly Symbolic
The single biggest mistake that believers make when reading the Bible is mixing narrative genres with prophetic genres. The biblical narrative genre is re-telling a historical event, and as such, can be taken literally. The apocalyptic subset of the prophetic genre alludes to events, either present or future at the time of writing, about the redemption of mankind, and employs symbolism to provide a deeper spiritual understanding.
The first six chapters of Daniel are narrative, describing the period that begins with the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the capture of young, intelligent Jewish slaves for service to King Nebuchadnezzar, and concludes with the overthrow of the Babylonian Empire by the Medo-Persian Empire. These chapters can be taken literally.
The last six chapters of Daniel are an Apocalyptic dialogue between Yahweh and Daniel with particular focus on the fate of the Hebrew nation. These chapters are symbolic and must be interpreted with the help of the indwelling holy spirit. Likewise, ALL of Revelation is Apocalyptic literature and therefore symbolic.
Revelation 1:3 LSB Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near.
It is our task as sanctified souls to understand what the symbols represent and not submit to the temptation of taking anything literally within Apocalyptic writings.
We will attempt to uncover the spiritual meanings of all of the imagery within Daniel and Revelation through a historical lens, and together, the glory of Yahweh in the perfection of prophecy will be unveiled. I use a historical lens because, in our current year of existence, we are nearing the end of mankind as we know it, and we have the benefit of 20/20 vision in hindsight to match actual events in history with the prophecies. Historicity is a framework for viewing prophecy, particularly Apocalyptic prophecy, that is rarely used today. We are much more adept at throwing prophecies into the future, or taking texts literally within them, and thereby take our eyes off Christ as the author of our faith. This is a satanic deception that diminishes our appreciation of the glory of YAH.
In Time-Related Apocalyptic Literature, One Day is ALWAYS Symbolic of One Year
The application of this principle alone renders both Preterism and Zionism/Dispensationalism a grave error in the interpretation of Daniel and Revelation.
The Scriptural foundation for this principle is found in the following two scriptures:
Numbers 14:33-35 LSB ‘And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses come to an end in the wilderness. (34) ‘According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. (35) ‘I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall come to an end, and there they will die.’”
Yahweh ordered twelve spies to canvass the promised land ahead of all the Israelites. The spies were gone for 40 days, and Yahweh determined that they would spend a year in the wilderness for each day, and that most would die. Yahweh spared only Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who brought back positive and faith-filled reports.
It is interesting to note that this incident is a type and a shadow of the forty days Yeshua spent in the wilderness immediately after His commissioning and the forty days He spent in the land after resurrection. This time, after the resurrection, was then quantified for Israel in the wilderness for forty years following Christ’s crucifixion. Jewish historians noted that the usual annual signs of atonement ceased after Christ’s crucifixion and did not return, with the destruction of Jerusalem completed by Titus in 70 AD, exactly forty years after Christ’s crucifixion in 31 AD.
Ezekiel 4:5-6 LSB “Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. (6) “And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for each year.
"John Wycliffe, John Knox, William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Phillip Melanchthon, Sir Isaac Newton, Jan Huss, John Foxe, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Finney, C. H. Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, E. B. Elliot, H. Grattan Guinness, and Bishop Thomas Newton." (S. Gregg, "Revelation: Four Views," Nashville: Thomas Nelson Pub, 1997, p. 34.)
Steve Gregg noted above all the prominent theologians who supported the day as a year principle.
The Seven Uses of The Day to a Year Principle
In the following scriptural examples, the stated periods (time, times and half a time, forty-two months, or 1,260 days) are symbolic of 1,260 years.
Daniel 7:25 LSB ‘He will speak words against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make changes in seasons and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
Daniel 12:7 LSB And I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they complete shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed.
Revelation 11:2 LSB “And leave out the court which is outside the sanctuary and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample the holy city under foot for forty-two months.
Revelation 11:3 LSB “And I will give authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Revelation 12:6 LSB Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she *had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days.
Revelation 12:14 LSB But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she *was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
Revelation 13:5 LSB And there was given to him a mouth speaking great boasts and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.
This is consistent throughout Daniel and Revelation, and is the most frequent misinterpretation of these scriptures. Many take them all literally, while others interpret some of them literally and others symbolically. Taking them all symbolically, the 1,260 years aligns with the historicist view of prophecy and is also consistent with the Seventy Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27, which is symbolic of 490 years, not days. The Seventy Weeks of years perfectly prophesied the commencement of the ministry of Christ in 27 AD, His crucifixion in 31 AD, and the completion of the prophecy when Stephen was stoned in 34 AD (Daniel 9:26-27).
The Two Witnesses
The most common misinterpretation of Revelation 11, particularly among those who focus on Israel in the end times, is that the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11:3 are Moses and Elijah, who appear for 3 1/2 years after the “antichrist” is unveiled, following the completion of the Third Temple.
Can you see the problem here?
If the day-to-year principle is applied, they would have to be alive for another 1,260 years. By consistently using the day-to-year principle, we can deduce that the Two Witnesses are the martyrs slaughtered by the Catholic church during their 1,260-year supremacy from 538 AD to 1798 AD.
Conclusion
The application of the above two principles when reading Daniel and Revelation provides the reader with a framework of reference for uncovering the consistent meaning of the imagery within. These two books are like peas and carrots. They belong together. You cannot understand Revelation without a grasp of Daniel. Revelation expands upon Daniel for the specific post-Apostolic era.
571 BC — (1260 years) — 689 AD — (1260 years) — 1949
Daniel 4:13 — In the year 571 BC Babel’s/Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar said: ‘I saw in the visions of my mind as I lay on my bed, and behold, an angelic messenger, a holy one, descended from heaven. He shouted out and spoke as follows: “Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit; let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field; and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let a beast’s mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him.”
The prophetic “seven times” (7x360) that passed over Babylon’s king, who ruled over the captive nation of Israel, had a 7 year (2520 days) short-term fulfillment and a 2520 year long-term fulfillment. The band of brass and iron represent the culture of the Greco-Roman civilization that preserved the stump of Babylon’s global kingdom/village. 1260 years after the king’s vision in 571 BC, is the year 689 AD, when the Islamic abomination that brings desolation began to set up Allah’s gold-domed mosque upon Jerusalem’s holy temple mount. 689 AD is the exact midpoint of the “seven times”
(2520/2 = 1260 years) that pass over Babylon’s banded stump. 2520 years after the king’s vision in 571 BC, is the prophetic year 1949 AD. On June 11, 1949 the extinct nation of Israel was resurrected, amalgamated, and once again subjugated to the foreign rule of Babel’s/Babylon’s re-United Nations.