Copyright
© 2024 Michael A. Brown
The Times of the Gentiles as a Historical Prophetic
Type of the Seven-year End-times Tribulation Period
· The
prophet Daniel presents the end-times tribulation period as ‘a seven’ (NIV) or
‘a week’ (AV), i.e. a week of seven years, so the very natural assumption by
almost all commentators is that this will work out simply as seven continuous,
uninterrupted years, with the ‘abomination of desolation’ being set up in ‘the
middle’ of this period (Dan. 9:27).[1]
We gain more insight from Daniel in the final chapter of his book when
the angel informs him that the latter part of this tribulation period will last
for ‘a time, times and half a time’ (Dan. 12:7). This therefore describes the latter part of
the tribulation as lasting for 3.5 ‘times.’
As I said in Part 1, this is based on the Babylonian system of 12 months
of 30 days each in a 360-day calendar year, which God uses in Scripture to
measure periods of judgement. So this
latter period of the tribulation will last for 3.5 x 360 days, i.e. 1,260 days.
· Furthermore,
the book of Revelation gives us an even more detailed development of Daniel’s
teaching. It presents this same
tribulation period in terms of two distinct halves of equal duration, rather
than in terms of an unbroken period of seven years. We are told that the first half of the
tribulation (i.e. when the Two Witnesses minister) will last for 1,260 days
(so, three and a half ‘times,’ and again using the same 360-day calendar
system) (Rev. 11:3), and that the reign of Antichrist which follows in the
second half of the tribulation will last for 42 months, i.e. 42 x 30 days, and
so again for 1,260 days (or three and a half ‘times’) (Rev. 11:2, 13:5). This makes a total of 2,520 days altogether
over the two halves. The fact that these
two numbers in the book of Revelation are again based on the 360-day calendar,
and so when taken together make up seven ‘times’ rather than seven solar years,
and the fact that they are presented to us as two distinct periods, suggests
that there could well be a gap of time between these two distinct halves. And when we look carefully at the other
evidence Scripture provides, this indeed proves to be the case. Contrary to what many if not most
believers think, these two distinct halves of the tribulation period do not
follow on immediately one after the other.
· Firstly,
we are told of the 3.5 days during which the bodies of the Two Witnesses lie
dead in the streets of the city. They
were killed after they completed their 1,260-day ministry. They are raised from the dead after these 3.5
days, and they then ascend to heaven.
Hot on the heels of these events is a severe earthquake which occurs in
and around Jerusalem (Rev. 11:3-13). So
this short time period of 3.5 days occurs AFTER the end of their 1,260 days of
ministry, but BEFORE Antichrist begins his worldwide reign of 42 months.
· Secondly,
we are told by Daniel that the end-times abomination of desolation will be in
place for 1,290 days (Dan. 12:11). It
will evidently still be in place at the end of the tribulation, but it will be
the first thing which Christ destroys when he defeats both Antichrist and the
False Prophet at his Second Advent. So
we should measure this period of 1,290 days BACKWARDS from the end of the
tribulation in order to arrive at the time when it begins. Doing this, indicates that there must be a
30-day period BEFORE the start of the 1,260-day second half of the tribulation,
but a priori this 30-day period can only start on the day when the abomination
is set up. Being that the abomination is
set up in ‘the middle of the “seven”’ (Dan. 9:27) and therefore AFTER the first
half of 1,260 days, then we must conclude that this 30-day period takes place
AFTER the first half of the tribulation ends, but BEFORE the second half
begins. Presumably also, the abomination
is set up when Antichrist is free to do this, and therefore it must be set up
AFTER the Two Witnesses have died, been raised, and have ascended to heaven,
and therefore this 30-day period must occur AFTER the 3.5 days. Hence, we have a total of 3.5 + 30 = 33.5 days
sandwiched between the first and second 1,260-day halves of the
tribulation. We could perhaps refer to
this as ‘the mid-tribulation interval.’ See the summary diagram in Figure A.2 below.
· Therefore,
the total length of time from when Antichrist affirms the covenant to when he
begins his worldwide reign at the beginning of the second half of the
tribulation is 1,260 + 33.5 = 1,293.5 days, and the total length of his reign
during the second half of the tribulation until the Second Advent is 1,260
uninterrupted days. These figures of a
total of 1,293.5 for the first part, and 1,260 for the second part, correspond
EXACTLY with those for the ‘times of the Gentiles.’ We can conclude therefore that the
‘seven times’ of the ‘times of the Gentiles’ are a historical prophetic type of
the seven-year end-times tribulation period. See Figure A.2 below.
· As
we can see from the summary diagram in Figure A.2 below, the only difference
between the two timelines concerns when the figure of 33.5 occurs in relation
to the first half. In the ‘times of the
Gentiles,’ the 33.5 years of Christ’s lifetime occurred during the first half
of the times of the Gentiles (somewhere around halfway through, but not exactly
so), whereas, by contrast, when it comes to the end-times tribulation, the
equivalent extra 33.5 days will occur after the end of the first half of 1,260
days. But on both timelines, the total
figure for the first part is still 1,293.5, and that for the second part is an
uninterrupted 1,260.
· Similarly, on both timelines the overall total figure is 2,553.5. However, in the case of the end-times tribulation, we need to add on the ‘long day’ of the Second Advent, so making a grand total of 2,555 days. This is exactly seven solar years (2,555 = 365 x 7), measuring from the day when Antichrist affirms the covenant up to and including the ‘long day’ of the Second Advent when the abomination will finally be destroyed by Christ, so fulfilling the words of Daniel 9:27. See Figure A.2 below.
Figure A.2
Summary diagram: Comparison of the timelines of the ‘times of the Gentiles’ and
the seven-year end-times tribulation period
[1] This period of
the end-times tribulation is sometimes referred to as ‘the seventieth week,’
since it is the seventieth and last of the seventy weeks of years in the
prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:24-27.
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