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Back in 1978, I was asked to teach a seminar on Daniel & Revelation. While doing so, the thought crossed my mind, "What if the 1290 and 1335 days of Daniel 12:11-12 were not the first and last half of the tribulation, and what if Dan 9:27 wasn’t about a seven-year tribulation either."
While in Bible college, I had studied all the usual explanations about the 69 weeks in Daniel 9 (from the decree of Artaxerxes I to the cross), but the way most theologians explained them you had to fudge the numbers to make them fit. Then I remembered from the book of Jubilees found at Qumran that for religious reasons, the O.T. Jews used a somewhat complicated 19 year cycle of basically a year with 360 days. Since Daniel was an O.T. book, it then occurred to me that the Lord may have used the calendar for the 69 weeks with which Daniel was familiar, a year with 360 days, so I tried it.
Bingo, it was exactly 483 Hebrew (476 solar years) from the decree of Artaxerxes I (444BC-445BC to the cross, 32-34AD (ignoring the zero year, or lack thereof because of the one to three year ambiguity in O.T. dating). Those "69 weeks" were not weeks of days, but weeks of years. And it wasn’t pie-in-the-sky theology because Ezekiel (a contemporary of Daniel) had already prophesied that days in prophetic visions could be understood as years . . .
Ezek 4:5 "For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. "
The day-year principle, a pivotal understanding that opened Daniel and Revelation as never before. I then asked myself, "Well, if it wasn’t literal days in the 69 weeks, maybe it wasn’t literal days in Dan 12:11-12. Do we have the authority to arbitrarily decide that days in Dan 12 are literal, if they weren’t literal days in Dan 9, particularly since God had given us a day for a year? I looked at Dan 12:11 again:
Dan 12:11 "And from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days."
Years, maybe? I just had to try for a fit. But first I needed to ask, to which abolition of temple sacrifices was God referring? Sacrifices have been abolished three times in the O.T.. Once before Daniel, once during Daniel’s lifetime and once in 168 B.C.. Since sacrifices were indeed abolished during Daniel’s time, wasn’t it reasonable to conclude that the Lord was telling Daniel about an event to which he could relate?
The temple was destroyed in 586BC + 1290 Hebrew (1271.5 solar) years = 685.5AD. That’s when the Muhammedan Califah Abd el Malik Ibn Marwan ( ruling in Jerusalem at the time) started clearing the temple mount. But the construction of the Islamic Dome of the Rock didn’t begin for another three years, so I didn’t have a fit.
I went back to Scripture. In Jer 41:5 we find that temple sacrifices actually continued AFTER the temple was burned, so when were sacrifices abolished? In Jer 52:30 we find that Nebuzaradan, Captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s guard, took the final captivity, i.e., the priests, back to Babylon three years AFTER the temple was destroyed - in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, i.e., 583BC, and that would indeed stop the ritualistic evening and morning sacrifices. So did it fit?
583BC + 1290 Hebrew (1271.5 solar) years = 688.5AD,
And that, brethren, is when the Muslims started to build the Dome of the Rock, a memorial to Muhammad, right on the temple mount of God, Most Holy. An abomination that made the temple mount spiritually desolate.
Having one day=year fit to the Dome of the Rock is not enough to build a theology around, but what if the days in Revelation were also years? God had not abrogated that principle anywhere in Scripture, so I saw that possibility. I started with Rev 12:6, because the context was easy to understand. The woman was obviously Israel and the Child, Jesus. He was "caught up to God and to His throne" (the ascension), and then we read . . .
Rev 12:6 "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."
The new nation of Israel was established in 1948, was it possible that prophecy was fulfilled?
1948 - 1260 = 688AD.
I tell you, brother, my palms started to sweat. Was I on to something? It appeared that Daniel took us from his time to the Dome of the Rock, and John was taking us from the Dome to the return of the Jews to the land. Oh, BTW, John was under the solar calendar, and Revelation was written to the church (which has always been under the solar calendar), so no need to convert from Hebrew years. But now we had two fits! Maybe there were more.
Rev 11:2 "But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."
In Biblical Archeology Review, April 1983, Vol IX, No.2, the lead article was about finding the location of the Temple of Solomon. It was 300 ft. north of the Dome of the Rock. The dome is right in the middle of what was once the Court to the Gentiles, and the city of Jerusalem has been under Muslim control for centuries.
Now read the above verse again. I asked myself, "Is it possible that those months are really "months" of days, of years? If they are, Jerusalem was freed of Gentile control in 1967 and that prophecy might be fulfilled. I started figuring. 365.24 days divided by 12 = 30.437. So there are 30.437 days in a month. Multiply times 42 = 1278.34.
Jerusalem was freed from Gentile control in June of 1967 - 1278.34 = 688.66AD, and the construction of the Dome of the Rock!!!
Now we no longer had a theory, but a historically and biblically provable thesis. And guess what, brethren . . . look at what this does to our doctrine. We can now prove that the Muslim Dome of the Rock on God’s holy mountain is the abomination that makes desolate. Those prophetic "days," thought until now to take place in a future tribulation period, have already been fulfilled. From context, Daniel’s 70th week is also about the abomination that maketh desolate, an understanding that’s the death-knell to the seven-year tribulation doctrine.
While in Bible college, I had studied all the usual explanations about the 69 weeks in Daniel 9 (from the decree of Artaxerxes I to the cross), but the way most theologians explained them you had to fudge the numbers to make them fit. Then I remembered from the book of Jubilees found at Qumran that for religious reasons, the O.T. Jews used a somewhat complicated 19 year cycle of basically a year with 360 days. Since Daniel was an O.T. book, it then occurred to me that the Lord may have used the calendar for the 69 weeks with which Daniel was familiar, a year with 360 days, so I tried it.
Bingo, it was exactly 483 Hebrew (476 solar years) from the decree of Artaxerxes I (444BC-445BC to the cross, 32-34AD (ignoring the zero year, or lack thereof because of the one to three year ambiguity in O.T. dating). Those "69 weeks" were not weeks of days, but weeks of years. And it wasn’t pie-in-the-sky theology because Ezekiel (a contemporary of Daniel) had already prophesied that days in prophetic visions could be understood as years . . .
Ezek 4:5 "For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. "
The day-year principle, a pivotal understanding that opened Daniel and Revelation as never before. I then asked myself, "Well, if it wasn’t literal days in the 69 weeks, maybe it wasn’t literal days in Dan 12:11-12. Do we have the authority to arbitrarily decide that days in Dan 12 are literal, if they weren’t literal days in Dan 9, particularly since God had given us a day for a year? I looked at Dan 12:11 again:
Dan 12:11 "And from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days."
Years, maybe? I just had to try for a fit. But first I needed to ask, to which abolition of temple sacrifices was God referring? Sacrifices have been abolished three times in the O.T.. Once before Daniel, once during Daniel’s lifetime and once in 168 B.C.. Since sacrifices were indeed abolished during Daniel’s time, wasn’t it reasonable to conclude that the Lord was telling Daniel about an event to which he could relate?
The temple was destroyed in 586BC + 1290 Hebrew (1271.5 solar) years = 685.5AD. That’s when the Muhammedan Califah Abd el Malik Ibn Marwan ( ruling in Jerusalem at the time) started clearing the temple mount. But the construction of the Islamic Dome of the Rock didn’t begin for another three years, so I didn’t have a fit.
I went back to Scripture. In Jer 41:5 we find that temple sacrifices actually continued AFTER the temple was burned, so when were sacrifices abolished? In Jer 52:30 we find that Nebuzaradan, Captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s guard, took the final captivity, i.e., the priests, back to Babylon three years AFTER the temple was destroyed - in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, i.e., 583BC, and that would indeed stop the ritualistic evening and morning sacrifices. So did it fit?
583BC + 1290 Hebrew (1271.5 solar) years = 688.5AD,
And that, brethren, is when the Muslims started to build the Dome of the Rock, a memorial to Muhammad, right on the temple mount of God, Most Holy. An abomination that made the temple mount spiritually desolate.
Having one day=year fit to the Dome of the Rock is not enough to build a theology around, but what if the days in Revelation were also years? God had not abrogated that principle anywhere in Scripture, so I saw that possibility. I started with Rev 12:6, because the context was easy to understand. The woman was obviously Israel and the Child, Jesus. He was "caught up to God and to His throne" (the ascension), and then we read . . .
Rev 12:6 "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."
The new nation of Israel was established in 1948, was it possible that prophecy was fulfilled?
1948 - 1260 = 688AD.
I tell you, brother, my palms started to sweat. Was I on to something? It appeared that Daniel took us from his time to the Dome of the Rock, and John was taking us from the Dome to the return of the Jews to the land. Oh, BTW, John was under the solar calendar, and Revelation was written to the church (which has always been under the solar calendar), so no need to convert from Hebrew years. But now we had two fits! Maybe there were more.
Rev 11:2 "But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."
In Biblical Archeology Review, April 1983, Vol IX, No.2, the lead article was about finding the location of the Temple of Solomon. It was 300 ft. north of the Dome of the Rock. The dome is right in the middle of what was once the Court to the Gentiles, and the city of Jerusalem has been under Muslim control for centuries.
Now read the above verse again. I asked myself, "Is it possible that those months are really "months" of days, of years? If they are, Jerusalem was freed of Gentile control in 1967 and that prophecy might be fulfilled. I started figuring. 365.24 days divided by 12 = 30.437. So there are 30.437 days in a month. Multiply times 42 = 1278.34.
Jerusalem was freed from Gentile control in June of 1967 - 1278.34 = 688.66AD, and the construction of the Dome of the Rock!!!
Now we no longer had a theory, but a historically and biblically provable thesis. And guess what, brethren . . . look at what this does to our doctrine. We can now prove that the Muslim Dome of the Rock on God’s holy mountain is the abomination that makes desolate. Those prophetic "days," thought until now to take place in a future tribulation period, have already been fulfilled. From context, Daniel’s 70th week is also about the abomination that maketh desolate, an understanding that’s the death-knell to the seven-year tribulation doctrine.
