Three and a Half Times
Daniel 7:25 also says
the little horn would “wear out
the saints of God (through
persecution).” In fact, the
Bible says “they” [the
saints] shall be given into his hand
[e.g., the hand of the little horn]
for a time, times and half a
time!” (Insertions mine) This
single verse should cause every
believer in a pre-tribulation rapture
to think about his position, because
this verse indicates that God Himself
handed His saints over to the little
horn to be persecuted for a
prescribed length of time! If God
subjected His saints to persecution
in times past, why should the last
generation expect to escape from the
coming tribulation? Instead of
delivering the saints from
persecution, God did the opposite by
handing His people over to the little
horn for 1,260 years! Why would an
all-wise God do this? I can offer two
possible reasons:
First, persecution
keeps the saints on their knees and
their focus on the Word of God. When
life is easy, faith in God
evaporates. Moses warned Israel:
“Be careful that you do not
forget the Lord your God, failing to
observe his commands, his laws and
his decrees that I am giving you this
day. Otherwise, when you eat and are
satisfied, when you build fine houses
and settle down, and your herds and
flocks grow large and your silver and
gold increase and all you have is
multiplied, then your heart will
become proud and you will forget the
Lord your God, who brought you out of
Egypt, out of the land of
slavery.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14)
When we contrast the Church at Rome
(the little horn) with the Church in
the Wilderness (the persecuted
saints), we clearly see what
prosperity and persecution produces.
Prosperity produces decadence.
Persecution, on the other hand,
pushes people into a life of dynamic
faith, clinging to Jesus as their
hope and salvation. Persecution made
God’s Word extremely precious to
the Church in the Wilderness. Many
Bibles, or portions of the Bible,
were laboriously copied by hand so
that people could have the Word of
God to study. Meanwhile, back in
prosperous Rome, the Bible was not
important. The Bible was chained to
the walls of monasteries and
libraries because the authority of
the church rested in its clergy, not
the Word of God! The Church in the
Wilderness hungered for every word
that proceeded out of the mouth of
God, while the Church in Rome
preferred the authority of popes and
priests who spoke boastful things.
For the saints, a plain “thus
saith the Lord” was more
important than any papal bull. The
saints loved and honored the Word of
God and held it in much higher esteem
than life itself. In summary, the
persecution of God’s people kept
the Word of God alive.
The second reason God
handed His saints over to the little
horn is this: Persecution keeps faith
in Christ alive. This is ironic. The
very circumstances that cause faith
to grow are the very circumstances
that human nature hates the most! The
selfish desires of the carnal nature
include pleasure, prosperity, power,
unchallenged authority, and limitless
amounts of money, fame and respect.
Faith during times of persecution
means trusting God for survival of
life itself. Furthermore, as the Holy
Spirit led the saints into a greater
understanding of the truth, the
Church in the Wilderness proceeded to
follow God’s Word without regard
for social and financial
consequences. This is the essence of
faith – obeying God at any cost.
When the Church in Rome rose to
power, the word, “faith,”
was changed. Faith came to mean a
religious view, not a religious
experience. Even today, people
typically ask, “What faith do
you belong to?” Therefore, the
second reason God wisely gave the
saints over to persecution was to
keep faith in Jesus alive!
What Is a Time?
We do not need to
review the atrocities of the Roman
Catholic Church or those of her
enemies during centuries past.
(Historians have devoted thousands of
pages to this topic and these works
can be found in public libraries.)
However, we do need to consider a
specification about the Roman
Catholic Church that is profound.
Daniel 7:25 say the saints would be
given over to the little horn for a
time, times and half a time.
According to Rule Four, this
time-period amounts to 1,260 years in
length. It began in A.D. 538 and
ended in 1798.
You may recall, until
the sixteenth century A.D., men
believed the Earth stood still and
the Sun orbited our planet. For
purposes computing time, the ancients
used 360 degrees of arc to represent
a completed circle or cycle of
the Sun. The Jews did not count a
year as 365 days because the number
of days in their year is either 354
or 384. God gave Israel a solar/lunar
calendar to measure time and the
cycles of the Sun and Moon determine
the number of days in a year. (Exodus
12) Since the Sun moves about one
degree of arc per day in a year, the
use of 360 degrees of arc (the number
of degrees in a circle) to represent
the length of a year was a practical
method for measuring “a
time.” This type of averaging
was also done for the length of a
month. Even though a month is
actually 29.53 days, the ancients
counted a month (or a moon) as 30
days for the purposes of calculation.
The Aramaic word,
‘hiddan, translated “a
time” in Daniel 7:25 (and used
elsewhere in Daniel), refers to
“a set time” or “a
turning.” The word,
‘hiddan, indicates the beginning
or turning of a year at its appointed
time. Revelation 12:14 also contain
the phrase “a time, times and
half a time,” and according to
Revelation, 12:6, this phrase
represents 1,260 days. Some people
question if the word
“times” means two times or
more than two times. First,
Revelation 12 reveals that 1,260 days
are “a time, times and half a
time.” (Revelation 12:6,14)
Second, at the minimum, the plural of
“a time” is two times. If
there are more than two times, the
time period cannot be measured
because no one knows how many times
to count. Last, historical evidence
confirms that God had 1,260 years in
mind when He defined this
time-period. The number of days in
“a time, times and half a
time” is determined by the
following formula:
- One time of
the Sun equals one circle of
360 degrees of arc.
- Two times of
the Sun, equal two circles of
360 degrees of arc or 720
degrees.
- Half a time
equals half a circle or 180
degrees of arc.
- Total: 1,260
degrees of arc
(360 + 720 + 180= 1,260 degrees)
It is widely known
that God gave the Jews a calendar in
which a day of the week represents a
year, e g., and a week of seven days
equals seven years. (See Leviticus
25; Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:5,6.)
Many Bible students understand the 70
weeks mentioned in Daniel to be 490
years (that is, 70 weeks times seven
days equals 490 days, and each day
represents a year). Therefore, if God
used the Jubilee Calendar to measure
the 70 weeks in Daniel 9, then it is
possible that He used the Jubilee
Calendar to determine the 1,260 days
in Daniel 7 as 1,260 years. This is a
good place to repeat Rule Four which
states: “God reckons
apocalyptic time in two ways: (a) a
day for a year, and (b) as literal
time. The presence or absence of the
Jubilee calendar determines how God
reckons time.” Even
though it is essential to understand
the Jubilee Calendar when applying
this rule, for now just consider the
fact: History confirms the duration
of the little horn’s power was
1,260 years – to the very month!
The Roman Catholic Church persecuted
the saints for 1,260 years. Even
though Protestants in centuries past
did not properly understand the
operation of the Jubilee Calendar,
they did conclude that history and
prophecy are in perfect harmony, and
many Protestants predicted a
“wounding” of papal powers
prior to 1798. In short, Daniel was
told the Roman Catholic Church would
persecute God’s saints for 1,260
years – and history confirms
this to be the case.
Part Ten:
I beheld, and the same
horn made war with the saints, and
prevailed against them; Until the
Ancient of Days came, and [a
favorable] judgment was given to the
saints of the Most High; and the time
came that the saints possessed the
kingdom. Thus he said, the fourth
beast shall be the fourth kingdom
upon earth, which shall be diverse
from all kingdoms, and shall devour
the whole earth, and shall tread it
down, and break it in pieces. (Daniel
7:21-23, KJV, insertion mine)
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