A friend recommended that I rewrite my previous blog on Bible Prophecies and include more detail and documentation. Below you will find a question-and-answer section slightly revised from the end of Chapter XX in Breakthrough Analysis of Daniel’s Prophecies. Much of the documentation includes references to previous chapters because too lengthy to be included here. It is in the third person instead of the first because it was written for academia, one of my intended audiences.
Sixteenth Question: Did the author discover any unexpected interrelations when examining all Daniel’s prophecies as a whole?
Answer: Yes, several.
(1) Daniel 4 indicates that by not obediently responding to God’s warnings after 12 prophetic months of grace (verse 29), the Hebrews were going to be punished 7 times, where a time stood for one prophetic year. (Explained in Chapter IV.) Thus, the ratio between 12 months to repent, but is not done, and 42 months (7 x 12) to be punished, is 1:7. However, this ratio pertained only to when God or His law is disobeyed, not a tyrant or human king. Although the number seven is generally related to something positive, The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible says, “Seven was also a factor in vengeance and punishment (Gen.4:24; Exod. 7:25; Lev. 26:18; Dan. 4:16, 23, 25)” (4:295). The number seven related to punishment actually is repeated a fourth time in Daniel 4 (verses 31-32), reflecting the Daniel-writer’s understanding of the four times it is related to punishment in Leviticus 26. (More details are in Chapter IV covering Daniel 4.) The 1 in the ratio 1:7 might be said to represent the One God and His law with grace; the 7 in the ratio, the needed but fair chastisement to culminate in true repentance.
(2) When Daniel 7:12 and history revealed that 450 years before Rome replaced Greece as the dominant world power, the prophetic 42 months (or 7 x 360 prophetic days in a time) meant the 2520 prophetic days (or solar years) began in 650 B.C., highlighting King Manasseh’s sins against God and His temple and pointing to the end of 360 years of grace. (Details are in Chapter VII.) Consequently, counting back 360 years of grace points directly to Solomon’s building the first Hebrew temple in Jerusalem. The surprise was finding that all of Daniel’s prophecies indirectly began with, or related to, Solomon’s temple.
(3) Since Daniel’s spans begin with Solomon’s temple, God’s plan according to the prophet assigns more attention on his other extra-long span besides the 2520 years, to the 2300 years for the final sanctuary and also to Martin Luther’s interpretation of the 1290-year span being the manifestation of the pulpit. All three prophecies bring a focus on the importance of the final sanctuary. (Details are in Chapter XIII.)
(4) The 2520 years are two sequential spans of 1260 years each. Nowhere did the Daniel-writer prophesy that the First Advent of Christ would appear halfway through the first 1260 years, a quarter of the way through the 2520 years. However, when the 2520 years are plotted on a scale and the 490 years in Daniel 9 for the Messiah the Prince are also plotted, the coincidence stands out. Although Jesus Christ’s appearance at the midpoint of the first 1260 years is not spelled out by the ancient prophet, a reasonable conclusion is that the coincidence is a part of God’s plan—especially since the abomination of desolation appeared at the midpoint of the whole 2520-prophecy and lost its temporal power when the smiting Stone fell on the abomination at the end of the second 1260 years, the end of the 2520 years.
(5) Just as the prophet did not record that the grace period in his prophecies began with Solomon’s building the first temple in Jerusalem, likewise he did not record that six prophecies pertaining to the Second Advent were going to end in a 30-year period. In both cases, the prophet relied on his reader to apply what the prophet did write to reveal even more of God’s plan. Furthermore, the 30-year period serves as a check on the accuracy of the individual prophetic spans coming from several points on the 2520-year timeline and with various lengths.
(6) An examination of Daniel’s prophecies from the perspective of a whole reveals a massive interrelationship. If any prophecy is withdrawn, ignored, or misunderstood, the situation would be like a block being pulled out of a stack of organized blocks; either the stack collapses or, at best, is weakened and becomes unstable.
(7) A study of the six prophetic spans that terminate within 30 years at the Second Advent reveals that the first two spans would be performed by the impersonal Christ, the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands. The other four prophetic spans would be accomplished by the anointed individual with the impersonal Christ. For example, the final sanctuary is to be built by the BRANCH of David at the Second Advent (Details are in Chapter XIII.), and Daniel’s special book, called the “little book open” in Revelation, is unsealed in Revelation 5 by the Lamb of God apparently with an understanding of the seven spirits of God. (Details are in Chapter XIX.) The implication is that the first 30 years after the abomination of desolation loses its power are also the most productive years of the anointed individual at the Second Advent.