I have appointed thee each day for a year.
– Ezekiel 4:6
In Daniel’s prophecies, days are put for years.
– Isaac Newton, Observations, op cit. p. 38
The many and clear Prophecies concerning the things to be done at Christ’s second coming are not only for predicting but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness. (Newton, p. 79)
During the time of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah – prophets who were contemporary with one another – a hermeneutical tool was used which used “days” to mean “years.” We do not know why. Perhaps it was used as a coding method, as was the imagery of various beasts to represent kingdoms and empires.
As was explained in detail during the “Forensic Notes” series, Newton followed the day=year interpretation. This was customary hermeneutics among the theologians of his time who were Reformed and Historicist in their interpretation of Bible prophecy.
Of course, the Historicist School was replaced by the now popular Futuristic School as embodied in dispensationalism, premillennialism, and the Rapturist theology of American Fundamentalism.
This worldview held by American Evangelicals continues to shape American foreign policy. Even though world leaders may not subscribe to what might be called a “religious superstition,” because the United States is the leading world power, their respective countries might be adversely impacted by it.
[Side Note: For example, the Futuristic School was invented by the Jesuits for the political purpose of dissuading Protestants from labeling the Papacy as “antichrist,” a school still favored by some Roman Catholics. Likewise, if, as many Dispensationalists believe, China, Iran, and Russia represent a prophetic entity called “Gog and Magog” who are regarded as the “enemies of God,” then a sort of “racial predestination” is taught which persuades many Americans to take a hostile view toward these nationalities. Unlike the Soteriological Model of Bible prophecy which allows for the redemption of all of humanity and nation groups, an apocalyptic determinism locks these “goat nations” in a nefarious role to “fulfill” Bible prophecy.]
These Futurists believe in an “imminent,” literal seven-year tribulation period. The first half (3 1/2 years) consists of a time of apostasy, persecution, and wicked governance. It is the time of the “Antichrist,” “the Beast,” and “Mystery Babylon.”
As Divine sanctions for this time of wickedness, the second half of the seven years is characterized with Divine judgments upon the world in the form of the 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets, 7 Vials, and so on.
We see this seven year period identified in Daniel’s prophecies but the particulars are detailed by John in the Book of Revelation.
For the Futurists, this Tribulation Period is followed by the Second Coming of Christ (except for the Rapturists, who see a “Rapture of the Saints” at the beginning of it). The Second Coming inaugurates a time of peace in which Christ rules the world with “a rod of iron” from the city of Jerusalem with a rebuilt temple and presumably a royal palace, just as it was in the days of the United Kingdom under King Solomon.
But Newton, as I said, was a Historicist and Historicists differ from the Futurists in that they believe the “Great Tribulation” – or at least the first half of it – began sometime in the eighth century (756 AD, 774 AD, or 800 AD) when the Papacy was endowed with temporal power. The Pope began to rule the “10 Kingdoms” of the former Roman Empire as a chief potentate. Instead of confining his authority to spiritual matters pertaining to the Church, the Pope began to rule these kingdoms like a Christian Caesar and to aggregate wealth as described of Mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation.
With a day=year hermeneutic, this period, as we have shown in previous installments, was to end as early as 2016 AD, the end of 1,260 days.
This position is significant because it implicates all reform movements which occur during this period of apostasy. If this scenario holds true, then all reform movements become corrupt. And Newton made much of this tendency by claiming that the “Woman Clothed With the Sun” in Revelation 12 – representing the pure Church – becomes defiled and the “Whore of Babylon” later in the prophetic narrative.
The unsettling significance, of course, is that all of Protestantism is implicated and any other reform movement from within or without the Papacy must be suspect as a deception and a ruse to tighten satanic control over mankind. We saw this in our discussion of Pope Gregory.
And what of the other churches from outside of the former Roman Empire, such as the Eastern Orthodox and related churches? Newton describes their apostasy in detail and in fact argues that it was their apostasies which spread from the East to the West. But since these churches do not exist within the 10 Kingdom context, they are left off to experience other manifestations of Divine judgment in symbolism of a different kind.
The reason these Ten “Antichrist” Kingdoms are center stage is because in the prophetic narrative they are the kingdoms which “hate” and “kill” the Whore of Babylon, end her world power, and “burn” her with fire. Somehow, these kingdoms, which for 1,260 years are under the control and spell of Mystery Babylon, at the end of that period, rebel and destroy the world hegemony of “Babylon the Great.”
At first, it appears to be racial because as it was in Daniel’s interpretation, these kingdoms are represented in the “ten toes” of the Great Metallic Image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The feet and toes consist of “clay mingled with iron” and lack cohesion, as says the prophet,
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another; even as iron is not mixed with clay. (2:43)
But in addition to this, according to Newton, there is a restoration of a “long lost truth” which makes genuine reformation possible. What this doctrine might have been was discussed at length in our last installment (Newton’s Notes #19).
Assuming all of this, the Historicist would then say that one of two things will happen next: either the second half of the Great Tribulation will commence which involves a period of natural disasters as God pours out His wrath upon the world lasting for an additional 1,260 years, or in the alternative: the Millennium of Christ.
Or, perhaps both.
To total 7 prophetic years, 1,260 plus 1,260 equals 2,520. But we never see this number in the prophetic narrative. We have 1,260; 1,290; and 1,335 which if we were to total these, comes to 3,885: a number with no prophetic significance. So, if they are to fit within a 7-year tribulation, they would have to overlap somehow.
If we expect that these natural calamities are supernatural in origin and manifest the rule of Christ’s kingdom from heaven, we can then begin to see that the latter half of the Tribulation is really a manifestation of the “rod of iron” (Rev. 12:5) reign of Jesus Christ.
That is why I discussed at length the amillennial position. The amillennial position argues that the length of the “millennial reign” should not be taken as a literal one thousand years but as a symbolic and very long period of rule in which the goat nations receive Divine cursings while the sheep nations experience the blessings of His reign.
Daniel’s visions also provide for a 1,290 day prophetic period which we surmise is this second period of 1,260 days plus a 30 day (year) parenthetical period of transition between the two halves. That period brings us to 2046 AD (exactly 30 years after the close of the first 3 1/2 year period) and the expected Great Eschaton of a Solar Nova catastrophe.
As the details have been described by scientific analysts, such as Douglas Vogt, a solar nova is followed by an ice age and further natural disasters lasting for centuries, while the Earth attempts to restore equilibrium. The disasters found in the Book of Revelation, then, should not be considered as “once and done” events, but rather, a series of repeated catastrophes which involve a much longer period of time: over a thousand years.
Considering the “thousand generation” scenario described in the Cambrian Peshers, the redemptive work of Christ overcomes the Curse of Adam’s Fall and the law of entropy during this period; for Daniel 12:12 declares “blessed” is he who comes to the 1,335 days (years), which, too, was discussed in an earlier installment. He who endures to overcome the 1,290 days (years) and comes to the 1,335 days (years) survives to enjoy the blessed hope of Christ’s millennial kingdom.
We suggest that the 1,260 days and the 1,290 days as somehow representative of the Tribulation while the 1,335 days represent the millennial reign because it is a “blessed” period, but may overlap the Tribulation with a transition period of “conquest” involving three or four generations in which the effects of “ancestral sin” are overcome by obedience to biblical law (Exodus 20:5-6).
We presume that this is accomplished by embracing “the long lost truth.” Those who refuse this doctrine, are left to their corruption, and those who embrace it, are given dominion of the Earth.
JWS, 7/12/25
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