Dave Camp (10 Apr 2004)
"Re: Ted Porter's Good Friday, Bad Saturday, etc."

Dear Ted & Doves,

Intro

In Ted Porter's Tuesday post (link) regarding the "Daniel Days" - the 1260-, 1290- and 1335-day markers, he asked the following:

... it begs the question of what of significance happened on March 12, 2004 after 1260 days.

Anyone venture an idea?

OK, Ted, I'll bite!

Now I have three ideas here. As they're not necessarily mutually exclusive, the FULL truth could be a combination of them (and maybe something else as well).

So what I'll do is briefly list them, and then explain in more detail below.


Whither 1260 ?

Here are my three ideas:

1) Although in Daniel 12 we find this:

• At the 1290-day point, the abomination of desolation is "set up";
• The 1335-day point is a blessed point to reach, although we're not told why.

Daniel's prophecies don't seem to give any EXPLICIT event corresponding to the 1260-day mark; so the simple answer to your question just might be "There IS no specific event."

2) Since as Ted suggested, the "Day 1 Point" may have been either Thursday or Friday Sept 28/29 2000, perhaps what the Lord is saying is to focus on the time BETWEEN these days - ie, sunset/twilight, which is the beginning of the Jewish day.

The idea that the "Daniel Days" are literal Jewish calendar days would support this; in other words, for example, the 1335-day point would not actually be reached until sunset of that day.

3) What we MAY be seeing is a "shadow" - a PARTIAL fulfillment of the REAL 1335-day period, in which case, God just may be using this period as part of His WAKE UP call for the church.

As an aside, there's nothing EXPLICIT in the prophecies that says the "Daniel Days" MUST fall on Jewish Feast or Fast days, either; so even though Days 1290 and 1335 DO (assuming that what we're seeing here is "real"), nothing says that Day 1260 would have to also.


No 1260-Event ?

1) First off, please realize that under NO earthly calendar - Jewish or Gentile - is 1260 days EXACTLY 3-1/2 years (what this means, for example, is that 1 January thru 1 July, or 1 Nisan thru 1 Tishri, over a 3-1/2 year period will never be EXACTLY 1260 days).

2) HOWEVER: When we put ALL the "Trib prophecies" together (at least as we seem to understand them), we see that there DOES SEEM to be a period of time that is 1260 days / 42 months / 3-1/2 years long. Yet the only way that this CAN come about is for the years in question to be what are typically called "prophetic" years of exactly 12 30-day months each.

3) ALSO however: Doing the math might shed some light here. Since the lunar month is pretty close to 29-1/2 days long, 42 LUNAR months would be (1260 - 21) days. What this means is that, for example, we COULD find a 1260-day period running from, say, 1 Nisan thru 21 Tishri - the end of Tabernacles, or 1 Tishri thru 21 Nisan - the end of Unleavened Bread. (Of course, for this to be true, there would have to be no intervening leap years.)

Note, however, that since there IS an intervening leap year during the 1260-day period that we're considering, Day 1290 falls almost EXACTLY on the last day of Unleavened Bread this year! In fact, Day 1290 ends at the end of the 6th day of Unleavened Bread (and the 7th day is 21 Nisan; might this be Val's Sky-blue 21?).

To me, this is VERY important, as I had previously determined (link) that Jesus began His Ascension at twilight, EXACTLY between the 6th and 7th days of the SECOND week of Unleavened Bread after SECOND Passover!

Acts 1:11 Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Could the angels' "in like manner" ALSO be a reference to timing, I wonder?

Hmm ...


Days Ending at Sunset ?

1) Please realize that BIBLICALLY, the end of the day represents the end of a particular period of grace ("night cometh when no man can work"), and since the 1290-day point seems to represent the beginning of JUDGMENT, it would most likely begin at twilight.

Some Biblical examples that immediately come to mind are:

• Adam and Eve. God did not come to them and call them to accout for their sin until "the cool of the evening" - so we might assume (rightly, I believe) that He was giving them until sunset that day before their sin would be imputed to them.
• The "barn builder" of Jesus' parable in Luke 12. The Lord's words to him were "this very NIGHT thy soul is required of thee."
• God's judgment of "The Writing on the Wall" at Belshazzar's feast VERY likely occurred at night.
• The angels sent by God to destroy Sodom most likely arrived AFTER sunset, since Lot invited them in to stay for the night.

So IF we're going to see something this Sunday/Monday at the 1290-day point, the question is: WHERE? - as whatever point on the earth it occurs, it would very likely be twilight.

2) Now as Ted had observed, if the count began on 29 September 2000, then Spain's 9-11 would have occurred on Day 1259, NOT Day 1260.

HOWEVER: As I had observed (link), the headlines PROCLAIMING this disaster did not really "show up" until the next day - Day 1260.

Would this not be like Jesus' Resurrection - which, although it took place around twilight Saturday/Sunday, the NEWS of it was not realized and proclaimed until the next day?


A Shadow Fulfillment ?

To see why there might be a "shadow" fulfillment of Daniel's 1335 days, we need to consider Daniel's 70 weeks. Although there are many different interpretations of these weeks, two major possibilities stand out:

1) The understanding that the 70 weeks were divided after the fulfillment of the first 69; the fulfillment of the 70th week was thus left for a future time (and most believe this to be the 7-year Trib).

2) The same - except here, the understanding is that the time was divided in the MIDDLE of the 70th week, which means that only the final 3-1/2 years were yet future (and most place these in the SECOND half of the Trib).

Additionally, many who so believe, understand that Jesus' 3-1/2 year ministry here on earth corresponded to the FIRST half of the 70th week - in which case, "time was suspended" so to speak, with His death on the cross.

Inside Story

Although I'm personally not sure which of these two scenarions (or maybe even some combination of them) will turn out to be correct, when I laid out Jesus' ministry years once I had derived my date for the Crucifixion, I found that 1335 days before the cross was Yom Kippur! This, then, was most likely the time that John the Baptist made his declaration "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" - as such a statement is a Yom Kippur declaration and NOT a Passover one.

Additionally, since Satan is in reality just a copycat, I would not be AT ALL surprised if the Antichrist began HIS "ministry years" duplicating Jesus' ministry! How many would be deceived if he were to do THAT, I wonder?

(back outside)

OK, Doves, let's consider the second one first.

2) Jesus COMMANDED us to "watch." He even told us the kinds of things we would see - signs in the heavens and the earth, the love of many growing cold, increased sin in the world, etc. But WHY would we be told to do so - if it were not to help us to be PREPARED for The Call?

So if we're waiting for the SECOND half of Daniel's 70th week to "show up," then it would make a LOT of sense that one of the signs we might see would be a "shadow" of the FIRST half of that 70th week - perhaps occurring just before the SECOND half is about to begin!

1) Alternatively, if the ENTIRE 70th week is yet future, it STILL might make sense that we would see a "shadow" of it come to pass - in particular, the 1335-day period.

This would be ESPECIALLY true if the 1335 days actually occurred at the BEGINNING of the 7-year Trib, placing the abomination of desolation in the middle (as most believe, btw!), rather than at the end!

So regardless of which scenario might be true (perhaps even a third one), the idea of seeing a "shadow" 1335 days as a WAKE UP call would be very much in keeping with our understanding of God as a loving Father Who would surely warn us of coming danger!


Conclusion

Sometimes simple questions aren't that easy to answer - although as we draw nearer and nearer to the end, the pieces of the puzzle ARE coming together, are they not?


Outro

One final thing to consider, Doves.

If the abomination of desolation IS set up at the 1290-day point this coming Sunday/Monday, then most likely we're NOT talking about our common understanding of this event (the AC in the Temple), but only a shadow thereof! Although with God, ALL things are possible, I for one would be REAL surprised if the Temple were built and the Beast and False Prophet brought forth - all in this coming weekend!

So we're probably looking at a "shadow" event, if anything.


-Dave