[Is the count of Time or the method of counting time Important? Whose idea was it to determine that all 490 years of Daniel’s 70-weeks Prophecy must be counted in 360-day years? God explicitly said 7 different times in the key prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation to only use that short count for the last 3.5 years of this epic prophetic message. Why would God have us use an impractical 360 day per year count throughout history when all calendars are based on 365-day solar years? History will not be recorded in the final 3.5 years ….. the days and years of God’s Wrath.]
Why did so many scholars choose to use 360-day years to measure time in Daniel’s 490-year prophecy? It allowed them to flip Ezra’s decree to Nehemiah’s decree and to bypass Jesus’ Baptism in favor of Christ’s final entry into Jerusalem right before his death. Why did they ignore God’s natural method of measuring time in 365-day solar years. And why did they ignore the strong implication given by God in Revelation and Daniel that only the 3.5-year Wrath qualifies for a 360-day count?
This study has shown that God divided the final week of 7 years into two 3.5-year periods for many reasons. The most important one is that He chose to measure the first half or the first 3.5 years in solar years and the second half in 360-day years. God intentionally measured the entire 483 years in solar years, and the final week of 7 years would naturally follow this progression. However, God told both Daniel and the Apostle John that His Wrath or the second half of the week would be different. His righteous judgment would be measured in prophetic 360-day years and not in solar years. Maybe God did this because prophetic 360-day years are shorter and God wants to express His Mercy and Justice under a unique prophetic light. In the days of Noah God also judged the earth in a 360-day year count. And He repeats this count for His final Judgment.
Like with Noah God provides an Ark to save mankind. This Living Ark replaces the Arc of the Covenant. Jesus Christ is the New Covenant, a Living Covenant, and as Paul puts it a mystery, “Christ in us, our glorious Hope,” (Col. 1:25-26). God prepares the 2000+- year Church Age for His Great Commission. His plan began with the Patriarchs followed by Jacob, the Judaic period and then the Baptism of Jesus Christ. Christ’s 3.5-year saw the sick healed, the meek encouraged, the captives set free, Satan and his “seed” squashed, sin and death defeated, and Heaven’s door opened. The Church with the Gospel of Christ carries the scarlet thread for 2000 years with Jesus declaring: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
At the same time God will bless the nation of Israel in 1947-48 when He opens the secret of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the world verifying the authenticity of Old Testament Scripture (including the highly critizied book of Daniel), helped Israel defeat the invading Arab armies, and guided the League of Nations and President Truman to establish the nation of Israel. Before the Church Age ends God will rapture the Church and soon afterwards the 3.5-year Wrath of God period follows, but it is a 1260-day Wrath that will judge the world and sin. This will mark the end of man’s crowns and kingdoms and the beginning of God’s Kingdom in the Millennium as Satan and the beasts are defeated. A 365-day count is not necessary since God’s Judgment will be recorded in Heaven and not on earth. Jesus’ Return and Rescue of Israel will be celebrated in Heaven just as the rapture was. There is no purpose in measuring the world’s historical events after the rapture -except to mark the beginning and end of the Wrath.
By the end of the Judaic kingdom the Jews had repeatedly failed to obey God’s command to leave their fields fallow every 7th Year. The fall and 70-years that followed was a test of their faith and likewise we are being tested during this final “week” of God’s Promise. Seven times in Daniel and Revelation God defines the Wrath as being 1260 days, 42 months, or “a time, times, and half a time.” All of these add up to a 360-Day count. But nowhere in scripture does God say that the first half of Daniel’s “last week” year should be measured in 360-day years. God declared that the revealing of His Son in the first 3.5 years followed by the mystery of “Christ in us” were reasons for counting time differently. Where does Scripture itself require us to impose the 1,260-day measurement upon Christ’s first 3½ years? Why have we done it? Most important why have we imposed a 1,260-day count for the 483 years? These are historical years measured by calendars and measured in detail by Daniel’s account in Chapter 11. By imposing this count — Darby and others forced a change in the timetable — 1) switching Ezra’s decree to Nehemiah 2) the “appearance” of the Anointed One to the year of Christ’s death instead of His glorious Baptism 3) connected two uniquely divine 3.5-year periods into one 7-year period 4) and making major changes in the meaning of Daniel 9:27 and the deeply prophetic meaning of “mid-week,” “desolate,” “abomination” and “sacrifices and offerings.”
Time measured in solar years will record the birth, ministry and death of Jesus whereas the 3.5 years of God’s Wrath does not need to be recorded for posterity nor for the Millennium. Jesus’ ministry in the first 3.5 years unfolded in ordinary historical time, whereas God explicitly said the Wrath would unfold in 360-day years. This reinterpretation of the book of Daniel and of Revelation will force the futurist to add —to the Word of God and sadly to the book of Revelaton—-for nowhere in chapter 4 is there a mention of the raptured saints and likewise in Chapter 7 —God has made it obvious that these are the countless raptured saints during the long 2000+or minus Church Age.