Some Time-Period Passages

The 42 Months of Revelation 13:5

[The Beast] was also given authority to act for 42 months. He began to speak blasphemies against God… And he was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them. [Revelation 13:5–7, HCSB]

This prophecy foretells the length of time that the Antichrist Beast (i.e., the post–Ali Islamic Caliphate) would wield political and military power. The faithful Christians of the Middle East had to bear this oppression for forty-two periods of thirty years each, or 1,260 years.

This period began with the assassination of Ali in AD 661, and the creation of the two main branches of Islam: Sunni and Shi'a. It ended with the Turkish constitution of AD 1921 and the Caliphate’s permanent loss of power.

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The 1260 Days of Revelation 12:6

Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. [Revelation 12:6, NASB]

I will give power to my two witnesses. They will prophesy for 1,260 days. They will be dressed in black clothes to show how sad they are. [Revelation 11:3, NIrV]

These prophecies are similar to the forty-two months (above). They covers the same period—from the inception of Sunni and Shi'a Islam with Ali’s assassination in AD 661, to the Caliphate’s loss of power with the Turkish constitution of AD 1921.

During this period the formerly Christian lands in the Middle East were transformed into the Antichrist's lair. Creedal Christians prophesied in sackcloth, and the bulk of God's Church moved into the wilderness of Central and Western Europe, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. There the Church was nourished and protected from the Antichrist Beast of Islam.

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The 5 Months of Revelation 9:5

The Bible speaks of a bottomless pit on earth that gave forth smoke and darkened the sky. And it tells of 'locusts' that came out of the smoke and were a source of torment for people who did not have God's seal on their foreheads.

I believe that the bottomless pits are oil wells, the darkening of the sky is smog, and the locusts are automobiles which are powered by the internal combustion engine. The people that are tormented due to this technological innovation are the Muslims, who supply 70% of the world's petroleum, and have the Mark of the Beast rather than God's seal on their foreheads. Their oil wealth has had a spiritually-deleterious effect upon them.

Furthermore, the prophecy states,

In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them. [Revelation 9:6, HCSB]

This is fulfilled in the desire of Islamists from oil-rich nations to die in jihad. A small number of them do carry out suicide attacks, and thus secure their place in the Islamic paradise. But the vast majority only spit curses upon God's Chosen People (i.e., the Christians) and long for a glorious death.

There is a time-limit to the reign of the 'locusts':

The locusts were allowed to make them suffer for five months… [Revelation 9:5, CEV]

The five months represent five periods of thirty years each. This began when Karl Benz patented the first gasoline-driven automobile in AD 1886, and it will end with the Second Coming of Christ in AD 2036.

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The 1000 Years of Revelation 20:2

He seized the dragon—that old serpent, who is the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years. [Revelation 20:2, NLT]

The sixth and final millennium in human history began in AD 1014 with the adoption by the western [Roman Catholic] Church of the Filioque into the Nicene Creed. During this time the devil has been restrained, and the Antichrist Beast of Islam has been on the defensive. Such is the power of the three properly-worded Ecumenical Creeds.

But beginning in AD 2014, the devil will be released for twenty years. This will begin the Great Tribulation. Havoc will reign—especially in the Middle East and in other Muslim countries—until AD 2034 when Islam will cease to be a credible world religion. Then Jesus will return in AD 2036.

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The 10 Days of Revelation 2:10

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. [Revelation 2:10, ESV]

These words were spoken by Jesus to His Church in Smyrna. This is the only place in the messages to the seven churches of Asia (found in Revelation 2 and 3) that contains a timeline. What could it mean? Like all Scripture, it speaks both to the ancient people who received it, and to us today.

It is interesting that Smyrna was the final Christian holdout in all of [what later became] the Republic of Turkey. At the end of the First World War, six years after the Armenians and Assyrians had been exterminated from eastern Turkey, Smyrna was under Greek control. It had a majority Christian population, but the Greek forces lost the Battle of Dumlupinar in August AD 1922. The next month the Turks set fire to the city of Smyrna, killed 100,000 Christian civilians, and ethnically-cleansed the remaining Christians. Thus ended the 4,000 year long Greek presence in Asia Minor. In modern Greece this episode is known as 'the catastrophe'.

The Greek word for 'suffering' in Revelation 2:10 is the same one that the Apostle John used for his own exile from Ephesus to the island of Patmos in Revelation 1:9.

I interpret the '10 days' prophecy to mean that the Christian population would be vanquished for 100 years from AD 1922 to AD 2022.

I expect much civil unrest in Turkey before AD 2022. The Holy Spirit will guide some Turks away from Muhammad's Islam and Ataturk's secularism, and to an embrace of Christ. After all, most Turks carry Christian blood through the forced conversions and forced marriages that took place during the previous 1000 years.

It is interesting that there is already a small community of Protestant Turks in Izmir (the Turkish name for Smyrna). As the Second Coming approaches, and anarchy reigns in Turkey, more Turks will embrace Christianity.

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The 1 Hour of Revelation 18:10

They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, "Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come." [Revelation 18:10, ESV]

The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, "Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste." [Revelation 18:15–17, ESV]

And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, "Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste." [Revelation 18:19, ESV]

The entire chapter of Revelation 18 speaks of a great city, 'Babylon the Great,' that is to be destroyed. I believe that this refers to the attacks upon the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, AD 2001.

The 'single hour' in which the city is brought to ruin is the time between the airliner strikes and the collapse of the towers—one hundred and two minutes for the North Tower, and fifty-six minutes for the South Tower.

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The 3.5 Days of Revelation 11:9

These two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone tries to hurt them, fire comes from their mouths and kills their enemies. And if anyone tries to hurt them in whatever way, in that same way that person will die. These witnesses have the power to stop the sky from raining during the time they are prophesying. And they have power to make the waters become blood, and they have power to send every kind of trouble to the earth as many times as they want. When the two witnesses have finished telling their message, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will fight a war against them. He will defeat them and kill them. The bodies of the two witnesses will lie in the street of the great city where the Lord was killed. This city is named Sodom and Egypt, which has a spiritual meaning. Those from every race of people, tribe, language, and nation will look at the bodies of the two witnesses for three and one-half days, and they will refuse to bury them. People who live on the earth will rejoice and be happy because these two are dead. They will send each other gifts, because these two prophets brought much suffering to those who live on the earth. But after three and one-half days, God put the breath of life into the two prophets again. They stood on their feet, and everyone who saw them became very afraid. Then the two prophets heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Come up here!" And they went up into heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched. [Revelation 11:4–12, NCV]

The two witnesses of Revelation 11 represent all faithful Roman Catholic and Confessional Protestant people. We are told earlier in the chapter that they prophesy in sackcloth for 1260 'days' (i.e., years)—during the post–Ali Caliphate from AD 661 to AD 1921.

Then, after this period, the Antichrist Beast (i.e., Islam) that comes up from the bottomless pit (i.e., it derives its power from oil wealth) will make war against them (i.e., terrorist jihad), and defeat them and kill some of them (i.e., the attacks of September 11th). The bodies of the two witnesses (i.e., those faithful Roman Catholics and Confessional Protestants who died during the attacks) will lie in the streets of the great city (i.e., Ground Zero in New York City).

The prophecy states that people all over the world will view their deaths and will rejoice that a blow has been struck against Christian peoples who were previously impervious to attack in their place of refuge (i.e., the wilderness of Revelation 12:6,14). These dead Christians will not be buried. This prophecy became fulfilled when most of the remains of the 9-11 victims were burned in the fire that smoldered for weeks afterward. And the wreckage from the buildings was subsequently recycled as scrap metal along with the human remains that it contained.

After 3.5 'days,' God breathes life into His people that died during the attack. This will take place 3.5 decades after AD 2001 on the day of the Second Coming in AD 2036.

The Lord Jesus revealed to the Apostle Paul,

We who are living when the Lord comes again will not go before those who have already died. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And those who have died believing in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive will be gathered up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever. [1 Thessalonians 4:15–17, NCV]

So the people that are alive on the final day will witness the resurrection of the dead, both the dead from 9-11 in New York, and the dead from all times around the world. We will watch it on television before we ourselves are brought before God for judgment.

The final day will be an unusual day.

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