Two time prophecies.
These are two time prophecies that have received far too little attention. It may be because Daniel has hardly paid attention to them, and for that reason one has chosen not to try to explain them. It is a real pity that prophecy about the 1335 days is not given more attention by our own church, as they point to what was to happen just before 1844 and the beginning of the end times when Christ went from the holy and into the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary.
I think we need to connect these 1335 days with Revelation chapter 10, where John is told to eat the little book, which from the context must be the book of Daniel – because this is the only book in the Bible that has ever been sealed , and that until the end time, and that both Daniel 12,12 and Revelation 10,8-11 refer to the end time.
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. And from the time [that] the daily [sacrifice] shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, [there shall be] a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed [is] he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. Daniel 12,10-12
These verses raise several questions. We have looked at three of the questions before, but since this is explicitly mentioned in the text, we must include them.
- Who are the ones to be purified, and made white, and tried?
- What is the daily sacrifice?
- When will the daily sacrifice be taken away?
- What is the abomination that maketh desolate?
- Why is he blessed he that waiteth, and cometh to the 1335 days?
Those who are to be purified, made white, and tried in these three verses are the martyrs who were killed by the power that sets up the abomination that maketh desolate in the time period mentioned in verse 7, a time, times, and a half. We can time this event to the period before the transition to the end times, because God’s faithful people up through the Middle Ages will be purified, made white, and tried.
There is also another group that will be purified, made white and tried, and this is the group who is living in the very last days. This group has prepared to be sealed with the seal of the living God. As for this group, we can set Daniel 12,10 up against Revelation 22,11 where it says: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still! Here we see the same as Jesus says in Matthew 25,31-46 where He distinguishes between the saved and the wicked. In Revelation 22,11 we are in the time after the sealing, and the wicked have abused their last chance to be saved, something we understand from the expression He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still! The second group in this verse are those who have endured to the end and been sealed with the seal of the living God. These are the many who, with the help of God, have not followed the beast, but who have clung to their Saviour, held fast to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and have received the seal of God. The group we are talking about here is the one that goes through Jacob’s tribulation, and who experiences the greatest tribulation that has ever haunted the earth. These will experience a world that froths with rage and blames them for all the plagues that fall upon the wicked, but it do not affect God’s chosen people, something that eventually will cause the wicked to kill them. They will feel like being hunted wild, and fear for their lives because they do not know they have been sealed. We just have to remember not to mix these two groups and events.
The power that takes away the daily sacrifice and sets up the abomination that maketh desolate is the same power that we also find mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2,3 and in Revelation 13,1-10. Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians 2,3 about the man of sin or the son of perdition who is also called the antichrist. Anti means against or instead of. Antichrist then means one who opposes Christ or one who takes his place, instead of Christ.
This antichrist has approx. 50 different qualities, all of which, without exception, are fulfilled in this power. One of the qualities is to take the place of Jesus Christ, the place our Saviour so rightfully deserved after His sacrifice at Calvary.
The Son of perdition is mentioned twice in the Bible, and we find him here in 2 Thessalonians 2,3 where Paul talks about the antichrist, and we find him in John 17,12 where Jesus talks about the son of perdition, where this refers to Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus, and sold Him for 30 pieces of silver.
The beast described in Revelation 13,2, which represents the son of perdition, is a conglomeration of kingdoms, as evidenced by the fact that this beast was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. This leads us to the book of Daniel where we find the same descriptions there and in this way: … was like a lion, Daniel 7,4 … like to a bear, Daniel 7,5 and … like a leopard, Daniel 7,6.
This beast, in Revelation 13,2, rises from the sea after these three kingdoms, which the Bible itself tells are Babylon (Daniel 2,38), Medo-Persia (Daniel 8,20) and Greece (Daniel 8,21). We know that the next world empire that had a direct influence on God’s people was the Roman Empire, and this empire gradually changed from being a military-political empire to becoming a religious-political empire. This change began in the Western Roman Empire in the early fourth century AD. with the good help of Emperor Constantine when he in the year 313 made Christianity a state religion in the Roman Empire. But then the apostasy mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2,3 had already been in operation for a long time, ever since Paul wrote the Thessalonians around 51 – 52 AD. But it would be almost 200 years after Constantine made Christianity acceptable before the son of perdition seriously appears in history and takes over the throne that the Western Roman emperor had left in Rome.
As we see, Paul was pretty sure that this power already existed in his day, when he says in 2 Thessalonians 2,7: For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. (NIV 1984) (The secret power of lawlessness in NIV is the same as the mystery of iniquity in KJV.)
Then we can wonder what or who the one who now holds it back is. There are many who claim that it may be the special presence of the Holy Spirit in the disciples who hold back the mystery of iniquity as long as they were alive, but I think this is a sought-after explanation because the secret of lawlessness was already in effect 10-15 years after that Jesus died on the cross.
The one who now holds back, or the power that held back the secret power of lawlessness from the pinnacles of power in Paul’s time, may only have been the Roman Empire in its military-political phase. What Paul is really talking about here is that there must be a change in the structure of power, and before the military-political Rome is taken away, the religious-political phase cannot appear and take over the stage. But when the emperor moved to Constantinople, the bishop of Rome took advantage of the situation and seized power. The one who now holds back was gone, and the secret of lawlessness seized the power in the Roman Empire.
The secret power of lawlessness, which is the same power as the Antichrist, will only become visible when what blocks this power is removed. The apostle John, who wrote his three letters between 85 and 95, says the following about this power in his 1st letter chapter 2 and verses 18 and 19: Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would [no doubt] have continued with us: but [they went out], that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
But why does Paul call this power the secret power of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians? A secret is something that is hidden, at least for the general public. Lawlessness, or being lawless, in a biblical context means breaking God’s law, or being without God’s law. Are we then dealing with a power that, in the time of the apostles, breaks God’s law in secret, or is it because this power has not yet come into position that Paul calls it secret?
John says that the Antichrist, or the secret power of lawlessness, once came from us, that is, the one – or those – who make up this power have once been part of the church Paul and John helped to found, but they were not of us he goes on to say, and this means they did not have the same mind and spirit as the apostles. Therefore they went out, says John, so that it might be revealed that they were different from the pure church, when the time was right and the one who was holding back had been taken out of the way.
We have the following historical events:
1) The ten Aryan tribes begin to penetrate the Roman Empire from the north, south and east in the second half of the fourth century, and many reckon that it was in the year 395 that the Roman Empire was divided into the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.
2) The division of the Roman Empire, however, is a fact in the year 476 AD. when the last Western Roman emperor Romulus Augustus was deposed by the Germanic chieftain Odoacer.
3) The Bishop of Rome uses the opportunity to fill the political vacuum that arose in Rome as a result of the riots that arose in the wake of the Western Roman emperors move to Constantinople in 476, and the first step to seizing power was taken when the bishop, with the help of the Frankish king Clovis I, exterminated the Herules in the year 493.
4) In the year 508, the Roman bishop/pope was well established in Rome. The church had taken over the emperor’s throne when Romulus Augustus was deposed and took the opportunity to take full control of the political vacuum that arose when the emperor was overthrown from the pinnacle of power. The papacy now set up the destructive abomination, in order to take away the daily (continual) <offer>.
5) For the next 30 years, with the help of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I, the bishop/pope, destroyed the last two of the three tribes that the prophecy tells us about; the Vandals 534, the Ostrogoths 538, (the Herules was exterminated in 493).
The other seven tribes were the Visigoths, the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, the Alemannic, the Langobards, the Burgundians and the Suebi, and these seven tribes have given rise to modern Europe.
In the beginning of Christianity, up to the fourth century, there was a fierce battle between two interpretations, Arianism and Homoousios. Both directions claimed to be based on the current theological orthodoxy at this time, and both directions tried to come up with solutions to the theological disagreements experienced by the church. Initially, therefore, two equally orthodox interpretations set in motion a conflict to convince and win adherents and define the new orthodoxy. Arianism, which says that Jesus is a created being, was condemned by the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, but it took a long time before it disappeared. On November 27, 326, Arius was summoned to Constantinople, from where foreign mercenaries embraced the faith and spread Arianism throughout Europe, to the wrath of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church believed that Arianism was a destructive heresy, precisely because it denied that Jesus Christ was God.
Although Arianism was condemned by the Council of Nicaea, Arianism continued to live on in both Europe and North Africa. Since then, all branches of Christianity have considered Arianism to be heterodoxy (dissidents) and heretical.
Mervyn Maxwell, theologian and historian, writes in his book God Cares 1 that the Catholic emperor Zeno (474 - 491) reached an agreement with the Ostrogoths in 487 which resulted in the extermination of the Herules in 493. And the Catholic emperor Justinian I the great, exterminated the Vandals in 534 and the Ostrogoths in 538.
There was a violent uprising when King Theodoric the Great, a friend and ally of Pope Gelasius, single-handedly killed Odovacar and his son in 493. Odovacar was probably of Scirian origin, an East Germanic people. He was a military commander in Italy who led a revolt of Germanic soldiers and Herules.
There are different opinions about who helped Pope Gelasius with the Herules. Who it was is rather insignificant because it is the year that matters. Most people count 493 as the year when they were beaten/crushed because that was the year their leader Odovacar was killed. The ten Aryan tribes are the ten toes in Daniel 2, and the ten horns in Daniel 7 and the ten horns in Revelation 17,12 that came out of the fall and dissolution of the Roman Empire.
The 1290 days.
And from the time that the continual [burnt-offering] shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand and two hundred and ninety days. (Daniel 12,11).
Daniel 12,11 and the abomination that maketh desolate point to something that was to happen 1290 years later in history. To understand what this is, we need to look more closely at what the abomination that maketh desolate should do. The abomination that maketh desolate was to abolish the daily (= constant) <sacrifice>.
The daily sacrifice:
A) In Old Testament times, this was the blood of sheep and goats, goats and calves.
Many choose to interpret it so that when Antiochus IV Epiphanes ravaged the Jews in the years 165 BC. then he set up the abomination that maketh desolate by sacrificing pigs in the temple in Jerusalem. Those who claim that this is the fulfilment of Daniel 12,11 are not in harmony with the prophecies as a whole.
When they interpret Daniel 12,11 in this way, they simply do not take into account the prophecies Jesus himself brings in Matthew 24,15, which is called the Great Tribulation: So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation*, spoken of through the prophet Daniel – let the reader understand. As we see from Matthew 24,15, Jesus refers to an event that lies in the future seen from Jesus’ time. Antiochus IV Epiphanes died in the year 163 BC. almost 200 years before Jesus came with this prophecy. <*Daniel 11,31; 12,11>
B) In New Testament times, animal sacrifices have been abolished through Jesus’ vicarious sacrificial death on the cross. Our daily sacrifice today is our daily prayers to be addressed to God the Father in Jesus’ name. Furthermore, we should also ask God for forgiveness for our sins, as only God can forgive our sins. The fact that our prayers are our daily sacrifice we can read from Revelation 8,3-4:
Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand.
In Old Testament times, the sacrificial animals were laid on the altar of burnt offering, and twice a day a lamb without blemish was sacrificed, one in the morning and one in the afternoon (see Exodus 29,38 ff). In New Testament times we read that incense, along with the prayers of the saints were to be laid on golden altars.
The daily sacrifice in Daniel 8 and verses 11, 12 and 13, and in Daniel 11,31; 12,11, is translated from the Hebrew word tamid. We looked at this in Daniel chapter 8, so I will just include something for the sake of context.
There are many interpretations of what tamid is, but there are three interpretations that have received greater support than the others. These says that tamid refers to… 1) … the daily sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem. 2) … paganism (Daniel 11,31; 12,11; Matthew 24,15; Mark 13:,4) (the destructive abomination). 3) … Jesus’ high priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, and that the continual sacrifice (tamid) war taken away corresponds to the vicarious system of the papacy imposed on church members at the expense of the mediating ministry of Jesus Christ. It is relatively clear that it is the third alternative that harmonizes with history.
We also know that this power, which fulfils all signs of the Antichrist, does not want us to pray to God daily, nor to ask God daily for forgiveness of our sins, or to have Jesus Christ as our only mediator. Therefore, this power has created a system of sub-gods as we can call them, the so-called holy men and women. Even if you initially believe and say that you pray to the only true God, you pray to one of these mediators, or saints – be it St. Olav, St. Mark or this power´s the queen of heaven and mediator, Mary, mother of Jesus. No matter which of these saints you pray to, the prayers do not get where they are supposed to go. It is an illusion to believe that they do, for Jesus said the following when Thomas did not know the way to go: No one comes to the Father except through me, John 14,6.
The forerunner of this power was Babel, or Babylon, and the first to make Babylon a great and powerful empire was Hammurabi, 1810 – 1750 BC. which is best known for its law, Hammurabi’s law. It was Nabopolassar, 658 – 605 BC. which built up the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which his son Nebuchadnezzar made into the golden kingdom that was created according to the dream Nebuchadnezzar himself had. We have become quite familiar with the history of Babylon.
Babylon had many gods, and these were divided into 1) primordial beings or beings who have been from eternity, 2) seven main gods, 3) other important gods, 4) minor gods, 5) semi-gods and heroes, and finally 6) spirits and monsters.
These were:
- Abzu and Tiamat, Lahmu and Lahamu, Anshar and Kishar, Mummu
- Anu, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Inanna/Ishtar, Nanna/Sin, Utu/Shamash
- Adad, Dumuzid, Enkimdu, Ereshkigal, Kingu, Geshtinanna, Lahar, Marduk, Nergal, Ninurta
- Anunnaki, Asaruludu, Ashnan, Bel, Enbilulu, Isimud, Lahar, Mami/Nintu, Mamitu, Nabu, Namtar, Nanshe, Nidaba, Ningal, Ninkasi, Ninlil, Ninshubur, Ninsun, Nuska, Sarpanit, Uttu, Yahweh
- Adapa, Enkidu, Enmerkar, Gilgamesh, Lugalbanda, Shamhat, Siduri, Atra-Hasis, Apkallu
- Utukku, Lamassu/Shedu, Asakku, Edimmu, Siris, Anzû, Humbaba, Asag, Hanbi, Kur, Lamashtu, Pazuzu, Rabisu
In addition to these, gods such as Baal, Astarte and Dagon were worshiped in Babylon. What is particularly interesting is that Yahweh is listed under 4) minor Babylonian gods!
If we follow the history from Babylon to the present day, we know that the following kingdoms that conquered their predecessors also brought with them the gods of the occupied kingdom and in this way the pagan gods and the various philosophical systems accumulated as the kingdoms came and went, from Babylon via Medo-Persia and Greece and down to the Roman Empire.
Today we find all the pagan gods that the Roman Empire took up when they conquered Greece, in addition to the fact that new minor gods, semi-gods and heroes in the form of saints are constantly coming. Now there are over 11,600 in this class.
The following is taken from http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/helgener There are so many named saints and Blessed in the Church, that it will be a long time before this overview is nearly complete. Nevertheless (at the end of February 2011) there are just under 7,500 biographies in the overview, for just over 11,600 people and martyr groups. These are sorted alphabetically and by memorial day.
I mention this to show how today’s Babylon continues to seduce God’s people. The Catholic Church has appointed, and continues to appoint, saints for yours and hers. All professions have their patron saint, and St. Sebastian is the patron saint of athletes, archers, crusaders, soldiers and police, doctors, war invalids, ironmongers, potters, tin founders, stonemasons, cloth makers, gardeners, tanners; for weak and sick children and the dying; for wells; against plague and animal diseases; against enemies of religion. This patron saint is celebrated with Holy Pope Fabian. Saint Arnulf of Soissons is one of many patron saints of beer brewers. There are also patron saints for completely trivial matters such as falling in love, and Saint Valentine of Rome is the patron saint of lovers. There is no difference between these saints and the many gods of Babylon. The Babylonian gods were to protect people from various things, just as modern-day Roman Catholic gods, or saints, do. So when we celebrate Valentine’s Day, or Holy Valentine’s Day, we are actually worshiping one of the many saints of the Catholic Church, and with that we are committing adultery and being unfaithful to God.
If you want to have a good harvest, fall in love, brew good beer or whatever it is, just pray to one of the many thousands of lesser gods or semi-gods, the so-called saints you have at your disposal. It certainly sounds tempting for an athlete to pray to Saint Sebastian before a sports competition to achieve a victory … … something we see more and more often in football arenas around the world. When players enter the field, we see that many of them cross themselves, kiss their fingers, touch the grass and look up at the sky and pray a prayer – certainly to Saint Sebastian. But no matter how the battle goes, these people are seduced by the intoxicating wine of modern-day Babylon.
But why the year 508?
It simply has to do with confession. The confession, or the Sacrament of penance and atonement, is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, in which the believer achieves absolution for sins committed against God and his neighbour… //… and where they are reunited with the church after confession. The Catholic Church has a threefold development of this sacrament.
- from the time of the apostles until the early 6th century – the early confession.
- (508) to the 12th century – forced confession (tariff penance)
- from the 12th century onwards – individual confession
In this way, the daily (constant) <sacrifice> was taken away when the abomination that maketh desolate was set up. From the early 6th century, specifically 508, it became mandatory to go to confession for church members. Those who did not go regularly and confessed their sins to the priest were excommunicated from the church community (the holy community as the catholic church itself calls it). It is the forced confession/penance tariff which is the abomination that maketh desolate and which take away the daily <sacrifice>.
There is a list of sins from the early 500s that show which sins had to be confessed to the priest, and these were/are: murder, idolatry, sorcery, magic, greed, theft, envy, jealousy, vanity, hatred, lies, false testimony, perjury, hypocrisy, slander, defiance, anger, rebellion, bad mood, gossip, insults, unclean language, injustice, betrayal, pride, boasting, arrogance, resentment, madness, drunkenness, lack of moderation, impurity, perversity, infidelity, the practice of homosexuality, paedophilia, sexual desire and much, much more. From the time the bishop of Rome was in the process of establishing himself fully in the year 508 and introducing compulsory/compulsory confession, until this power loses its power when the pope was thrown into prison in the year 1798, it is 1290 years.
The 1335 days.
Blessed [is] he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. Daniel 12,12
In the early 19th century, W. Miller began preaching the return of Jesus, because Miller had understood it so that Jesus would return in the fall of 1843. As the time approached for Jesus’ supposed return, there was real weight and fullness in the preaching, and this is the time which the prophecy of the 1335 days points forward to and saying that he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days shall be blessed. It is implicit in Daniel 12,12 that the starting time for these days is the same as for the 1290 days,
From 508 when the daily sacrifice was taken away until the proclamation of the end-time message, the message of the three angels and the imminent return of Jesus in 1843 took place with full force, it is 1335 years. That those who reach 1335 days are blessed is connected with what is written in Revelation chapter 10, which is a prophecy about the emergence of the Advent movement, and the commission given to God’s end-time church through John. When Miller discovered this prophecy, he understood it so that there was only a short time left, and he went out and preached the Lord’s return with anointing and zeal, and this is described as the book was sweet as honey in the mouth, but Jesus did not come to it the time they first believed in 1843. They checked on the prophecies and found a mistake. They had counted on year zero. Year zero does not exist, and Jesus’ return was eventually set for the fall of 1844, specifically October 22.
But Christ did not come this day either, and this triggered a great sorrow that has been called the great disappointment. It gave a bitter pain in the stomach. But the Advent movement survived the great disappointment, and our pioneers found their way back to the ancient biblical truths that we must preach to the whole world – which is in the expression … Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
It is worth noting that the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days are mentioned in a determined form. I believe, as I said, that there are no coincidences in the Bible, and that this is an indication that something special will happen 1335 years after the bishop of Rome set up the abomination that maketh desolate, which is the forced confession/penance tariff, because those who wait and arrive to this time are blessed.
We then have three specific time prophecies that overlap:
1260 days: which we previously has treated. 1290 days: From the time the bishop of Rome set up the abomination that maketh desolate and the daily sacrifice was taken away in the year 508, until the pope was thrown into prison, and the persecution of Christians directed by the papacy temporarily stopped in the year 1798, it is 1290 years. 1335 days: From the time the bishop of Rome set up the abomination that maketh desolate and the daily sacrifice was taken away in the year 508, until the middle of the rise of the Advent movement and the first preaching of the end-time message and the three angels’ message, it is 1335 years.
Then a legitimate question arises. Why does God distinguish between these two time references, and why are the blessed who reach 1335 days, while nothing is mentioned in connection with the 1290 days.
I think the answer to this lies in how we look at these two prophecies. There are probably many who have studied Dan 12,11-12 and come to roughly the same conclusion. Something will happen both before and after the 1290 days, but they will not accept that God will rise up a prophetic movement at the end of the 1335 days. Therefore, those who help to found the Advent movement are blessed, because they rediscover the old truths that the mother church has tried to destroy. It is when they gain this understanding of the prophecies and participate in the work that leads them to this happiness. Those who do not have this understanding cannot possibly experience the same joy and happiness (bliss) as those who actually find this understanding.