Time Periods in Daniel

The book of Daniel presents time periods which have been a source of debate for many years. We are anxious to know when the end of the age and the beginning of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ will occur. Some people say it does not matter when these events will occur as long as we are always ready to meet the Lord every day. If that is so then why are these time periods mentioned in the Bible?

In the book of Daniel, the angel gave Daniel two time periods to describe the coming of the end of the age and the beginning of the Kingdom of God. He said, “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 12:11-12. In his book, “Study in Daniel”, Howard Rand identifies the time of the taking away of the daily sacrifice as 70 A.D., when the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, but the abomination of desolation as coming centuries later in 619 A.D., when Muhammad’s wife Khadija died, and Muhammad’s career took a turn toward the rapid expansion of Islam. Rand said at that point in history Islam was fully established. Before that year its survival may have been in doubt.

Khadija was an Ebeonite Christian.  They were married by a Christian priest and stayed married for twenty five years until Khadija’s death. Muhammad was faithful to her and took no other wives until after she died. After Khadija’s death, Islam entered the violent stage. Within eleven years Muhammad had marshaled the largest army in Arabia and conquered Mecca. He also married twelve women. Khadija’s death certainly marked a turning point for Muhammad and for Islam. Counting 1290 years from her death, Rand pointed to 1909 A.D. as the beginning of the consummation of the age. Counting 1335 years he pointed to 1954 as being the beginning of the era of blessedness. Rand thought there would be another war after the Second World War between our people and the Soviet Union which would end before 1954. He based his calculations on measurements from the Great Pyramid. As we all know, his calculations and predictions were not accurate. I have not seen an accurate prediction based on the 1290 and the 1335 years except that it was pointed out in Israel Truth literature that 1335 lunar years from the beginning of the Muslim calendar brings us to 1917 A.D., when Britain released Jerusalem from the domination of the Ottoman Empire.

Let us not dismiss Howard Rand`s predictions as being totally wrong, as many people have. One person, who is not in the Israel Truth movement, told me that people abandoned British Israel teaching because we predicted the return of Christ to take place in the 1950’s. I have seen this in a few writings from that era, based on measurements from the Great Pyramid. Howard Rand certainly believed the end was coming soon after the Second World War. However, it may be that Rand had something when he pointed to Islam as being connected to the abomination of desolation. Some Israel Truth believers have looked to Jerusalem and the mosque of Omar, the Dome of the Rock, which was built on the site of the original temple and completed in 691 A.D. as being the abomination of desolation. Counting 1290 years from that year brings us to 1981 A.D., which could be called the beginning of the consummation of the age. It was the year President Reagan started the arms race which financially crippled the Soviet Union and brought about its demise. There was later a separation of countries from Russia and I believe many of those countries which were liberated will not be part of Gog (Ezekiel 38:2). Counting 1335 years from completion of the mosque brings us to 2026 A.D. Will that year be 1917 all over again, when Jerusalem will be liberated a second time? I believe Gog (Russia and a conglomerate of nations) will capture Jerusalem at some time in the future (Zechariah 14:2) and possibly attack North America. Will 2026 A.D. be the end of Gog? Russia’s rise to power began in 1917 with the Communist revolution. Will 2026 mark the end of that power?

Only the Lord knows.