These back and forth posts can get pretty long, and we only have 10000 characters, so I must be selective in what I reply to. I read your posts.
Why? Does there have to be other prophetic pauses in prophecy as a prerequisite for the seven year pause to be valid?
Well for several principles we know about Him:
a) It's because the Almighty
doesn't change
b) when we have
two or more witnesses such can be established as the truth
c) The Almighty doesn't do anything unless
He first tells about it, especially if it would overturn a previous determination
d) His word
doesn't return to Him void. He made a determination about a countdown.
Truly, agreed, there are numerous prophetic scriptures that were only
partially fulfilled. And many times only part of sentences were fulfilled (with the rest of the sentence being left for the future). But when it comes to
TIME; when it comes to the Almighty prophesying a specific
amount of time for an event, He is
exact because time does not pause. The world keeps turning. Days keeping counting. Years keep coming to pass.
Seventy "sevens",
490 years were given to the people and to Jerusalem to end their sin (and to do other important stuff). It was a countdown until judgment: either they'd be saved or condemned to destruction...and we know which path judgment took.
Daniel 9:24
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
A determination was made. The King's Word was spoken, and nowhere is it recorded that the Almighty said He paused the countdown. Nowhere. It's theologians and scholars that have assumed a pause to force-fit echatological math. But that's not how this works. We can't change His word to fit our viewpoint. If our viewpoint doesn't fit the Almighty's words then we absolutely must change our viewpoint, as hard as it is to do. I've done it so many times.
Where did you read that they were to be killed by the rider on the white horse?
No, no I didn't say they were killed
by the rider of the white horse. I was listing the
order of events that the Messiah gave and that Revelation 6 gave, showing that the Messiah's disciples are martyred
5th in order (5TH SEAL) while the rider of the white horse is unleashed
1st in order (1ST SEAL).
Logical Position: If we know that the disciples were killed in the
first century...but that event is 5th in the order...then the white horse rider had to be unleashed sometime AFTER the Messiah ascended to heaven but sometime
BEFORE the disciples were persecuted and killed,
in the first century also.
I've already contended with others over the years who have attempt to use the "Rome was the entire world" claim. This is done to diminish the reality that scripture is speaking about the whole inhabited world, as if God isn't able to get that point across.
Case in Point: when the fourth angel pours out his bowl on the sun
The bowls are not the trumpets. There's a progression of judgment during the progression of time. Notice how the trumpets (more or less) affect only a 3rd of things, while the bowls fully affect things.
Punchline: (more or less) The Seals judged Israel...The Trumpets judged the Roman Empire...The Bowls are judging today's entire world. It's a progression of judgment throughout history that started with 70AD and has expanded to the world in these last 2000 years.
The 1260 days are not to be interpreted as years...
Let's take the other number given to Daniel to see how we're supposed to measure these times. 1290 days.
Daniel is told that from the time the
daily is taken away until the abomination of desolation is setup there are 1290 days (Dan 12:11). Daniel himself knew what the
daily was and he also knew when it was taken away. A morning and evening lamb was meant to be sacrificed
daily on the altar, and its fire was
never to go out...but the one time this was stopped was when Babylon successfully invaded Jerusalem, violated the temple with their presence, and stole the temple furnishing while enslaving Daniel and the other servants. The daily was taken away.
History records this event at around 606 BCE.
If the man in linen meant 1290 days and not years, that would bring the date of the AOD to 602 BCE (plus a few months)...but this date makes no sense.
606 BCE + 3.58 years (1290 days) = 602.42 BCE
Daniel and his people were ALREADY captured by Babylon living there for a while and the temple was ALREADY ransacked by 602 BCE when he was given his visions of the end times. The man in linen told Daniel the AOD would occur long after he was dead. So "days" isn't the proper understanding of the timeframes given by the man in linen. So let's try 1290 years...
606 BCE + 1290 years = 685 CE (the date of the
Dome of the Rock on the temple mount)
This reckoning of time is more plausible because the Dome is an abominable thing set up in the Holy Land and it's long after Daniel's time, plus it perfectly fits the math.
Daniel 12:11
And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
So this means the other timeframe of "1260 days" for the Great Tribulation is also most likely reckoned as years too..
685 CE + 1260 years = 1945 (the date of the Atomic Bomb; Uranium was shaken). This math works too.
Matthew 24:29
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 heaven [Ouranos/Uranus] shall be shaken:
The world is currently heading for that time of wrath. But first the church must be gathered from the earth.
I'm just trying to get you to understand the truth of these matters.
I appreciate it. I'm attempting the same. In that, no one can fault our intentions.