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`My two witnesses ... shall prophesy 1,260 days' (Rev. 11:3).
This period of three and a half years corresponds with the prophetic period
of Daniel 9:27 `the midst of the week'. The following simple analysis may
help the reader to visualize these time periods and prophetic associations of
the seventh trumpet:
The time of the Seventh Trumpet -- 3 and a half years (Rev. 12:6).
A time, times and half a time (12:14).
The Beast has power 42 months (13:5).
The Seven Vials (Ch. 15 and 16).
Babylon falls (14:8).
The final 3 and a half years of Daniel's 70 weeks (Dan. 9:27).
If the above suggestion is true, then it would appear that the breaking of
the covenant in the midst of the week (Dan. 9) is answered by the opening of
the temple containing God's covenant. The giving over of the throne and
great authority of Satan to the Beast is answered by the proclamation of
Heaven's King (Rev. 11:15). It is the date also of the catching up of the
man child to God and His throne (12:5). The Lord too may descend from heaven
to the air immediately after the pouring out of the seventh vial -- for we
read `and the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air' and the hope of
1 Thessalonians 4 will be realized. (See the article Seventy Weeks9 for an
exposition of Daniel 9).
One passage in Leviticus has provided a pitfall for many would -be
chronologists, especially those who are addicted to the `year day theory'. A
well -known British -Israel writer tells us that in Leviticus 26:28 `seven
times' is an enigmatical expression which requires a key before it can be
understood and that students of Prophecy have at length found the key which
reveals that `seven times' denoted a period of time some 2,520 years in
length. British -Israel teaching is that in Leviticus 26:28, `seven times'
consists of `seven' and the noun `times', and that a `time' is a
chronological term for a period of 360 years, so that 360 X 7 = 2,520 years.
One writer (P. W. Thompson, Israel in Prophecy and History) says:
`British -Israel truth, without the exposition of the seven times and
their literal fulfilment, is Hamlet with the prince of Denmark left
out'.
Unfortunately for British -Israel, but fortunately for all lovers of
truth, this `Prince of Denmark' must be left out after all. Let an English
reader open Young's Analytical Concordance, and let him turn to the heading
`time' or `times' and he will look for Leviticus 26:28 in vain. Should he
turn to the word `seven' he will find that word listed. Now either Dr. Young
has made a slip and omitted this important reference, or there is no Hebrew
for `times'. All that we find in Leviticus 26:28 is the Hebrew sheba
`seven'. The same numeral is used to speak of the intensity of the furnace
that was heated seven times its wonted heat. When a period of time is
intended, the word iddan is added. (This subject has been set out with
conviction in a small pamphlet entitled Correspondence with British -
Israelites on the meaning of seven times in Leviticus 26, and was issued by
E. J. Burnett, 15 King Edward Avenue, Worthing, in 1931. We do not know
whether it is still available).