Bible Study on Daniel and Revelation – Exploring the 1260 Day Prophecy
The prophecy of the 1260 days in Daniel and Revelation lends itself to various interpretations due to the uncertainty of whether it should be treated as literal or symbolic. This is one of the areas of the study of prophecy that I consider to be the most technical and can be confusing if we are not very diligent in our Biblical studies in this area. However, if we apply the correct method of prophetic interpretation, we will gain a better understanding of how we should treat this period.
Seventh-day Adventists seem to be much more interested in this time period and have perhaps done more research into the prophecies associated with it than any other denomination. In that teaching, they suggest that everywhere this prophetic period is mentioned in Bible prophecy, it refers to the Dark Ages of papal rule that occurred between AD 538-1798, a period of 1260 years.
This interpretation is based on the day-year principle established in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. Thus it was interpreted that 1260 days should really be 1260 years. In my biblical study of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, I have come to realize that the prophecy of the 1260 days is not clear enough to suggest that all references to this period must apply to a particular dispensation.
The different designations of the prophetic period
You will notice that this period receives various descriptions. You will see descriptions such as forty-two months (Rev. 11:2; 13:5), times and half a time (Dan. 12:7; Rev. 12:14), time, times, and half a time (Dan. 7:25). ), and one thousand two hundred and sixty days (Rev. 11:3; 12:6). The forty-two months are 42 x 30 = 1260 days, and time multiplied by half a time (or division of time) is calculated as time = 1 year (360 days), times = 2 years (720 days), and half a time = ½ year. (180 days), whose sum is 1260 days.
To ensure a good understanding of this prophetic period, we must pay special attention to the context of the prophecy in which this period is mentioned. In my Bible study on the parallel prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, I discovered two different contexts in which the prophecy of the 1260 days is mentioned. They are the following:
1. The historical context, and
2. The context of the end time
The historical context
The most obvious example of a historical application of the 1260-day prophecy is found in chapter twelve of the book of Revelation. In this prophecy it is said that when the dragon saw that he had been thrown to the earth, he persecuted the woman for 1,260 days, a period that was supposed to have begun shortly after the man-child (Jesus) was caught up into heaven (Revelation 12: 6, 14). In this prophecy, the dragon is a symbol of Satan and the woman in the Scriptures is a symbol of Israel, the church (Jeremiah 6:3).
Satan wanted to kill the manchild at birth, but he did not succeed, so he persecuted the church, which gave birth to this manchild, for 1260 prophetic days. Therefore, this period of persecution of the church of God came shortly after the ascension of Christ. This is where I believe the Adventist analysis of prophetic timing is correct.
The context of the end time
Whenever I think of a last days context in which the prophecy of the 1260 days is mentioned, Daniel 12 immediately comes to mind. In my Bible study of Revelation I have also seen this period mentioned in similar contexts, but Daniel 12 is the most evident. In verse 7 the Bible clearly states that during this prophetic period the king of the north “will scatter the powers of the holy people.” But the context of this prophecy is found in verse 1, which tells us of a time of trouble such as never was since there were people. No impartial student of prophecy will deny the significance of this prophecy for the last days.
A clear transition between the historical and end-time context in the book of Revelation
If you study Revelation 12 and 13, you will see where the Bible transitions from one dispensation to the next in regards to the 1260 day prophecy. As we have established above, the mention of that period in chapter 12 is in the context of a post-ascension scenario. It was right after Christ was caught up into heaven that Satan began to persecute the church. But when we go to chapter 13 we see a different picture. Now we are seeing the dragon giving power to the beast to persecute the saints for forty-two months. This conflict will take place during the mark of the beast crisis in the last days.
The context changes from a historical war between the dragon and the woman to an end-time war between the beast and the saints. If you study the contexts through the parallel prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, you will see a distinction between past and future applications of the 1260 day prophecy. The day-year principle is applied in historical contexts to indicate a period of 1,260 years, while the last days context should be treated as a literal period of time.