DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS AND TIMES
The Churches of God of the latter stage of the Laodicea era have failed to recognise that most Biblical prophecies of duration have now been fulfilled, many of them since the beginning of the 20th century. This blindness is the result of their inconsistent interpretation of time-related terminology found in Scripture.
It is common, for example, to hear it said that "days" in prophecy can mean either literal days, or years, or even millennia, and that therefore we can't be sure what God means when He foretells periods of days.
But is this logical? God spent over 1500 years carefully putting His Scriptures together, and He has seen to it that they have been preserved throughout time. II Timothy 2:15 says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth", which tells us that it is possible, through diligent study, to understand God's Word.
Yet supposedly we can't be sure of what His time-related prophecies are conveying?! Those who claim this are implying that God has been inconsistent in His Word, or that He hasn't expressed Himself clearly enough to get His intended meaning across.
II Peter 1:19 speaks of the "sure word of prophecy", yet we say that we can't be sure. It is unimaginable that the great Author of Scripture would put us in such a position.
The day/week/month/year/time based prophecies of the Bible must be understandable, or God would have wasted His time giving them to us.
As explained at length on the page "THE SEVEN DAY BLUEPRINT", a day pictures a thousand years in the Creation account. II Peter 3:3-8 mentions several aspects of Creation week and in that context says in verse 8 that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years". Here Peter confirms the 7000 year framework of time within which God is working out His plan on Earth.
However, as we will see, a day picturing a thousand years applies only to the seven days of Creation, while within that 7000 year framework a day as a measurement of the duration of a prophecy always pictures one year.
How then does God predict the duration of an event covering literal days?
In the account of the Flood, God prophesies in Genesis 7:4, "I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights". This was fulfilled as forty literal days.
Exodus 34:28 presents a similar example. Here Moses, a type of Christ, ascends Mt Sinai to draw near to God and to receive His law, and "was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water". In Matthew 4:1 we find Christ fulfilling this type when He also "fasted forty days and forty nights" to draw near to God, when He overcame Satan's temptation to transgress God's law. Obviously forty literal days are intended in both these instances.
In Jonah 1:17 we find that "Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights", denoting three literal days. Christ prophesies in Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth". So Jonah's time inside the fish was a type of Christ's time in the grave. As we know, this was also fulfilled as three literal days.
In other words, when God prophesies or typifies a duration of literal days, the prophecy will express this as "X days and X nights".
Some might contradict this by pointing to Genesis 7:4 or Jonah 3:4 which respectively state, "For after seven more days I will cause it to rain ...." and "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" and claim that these statements must therefore refer to years. The answer is that in both these cases literal days are meant, because the "seven more days" and "forty days" do not refer to the duration of the prophesied events, but rather to when the events will commence.
In Revelation 9:15-16 we are given a remarkable prophecy that confirms the terminology of time used by God in Bible prophecy. It states, "So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind ("men" - KJV). Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them" (NKJV). The hour indicates that the prophecy will occur at a particular point in history chosen by God. The day, month and year denote the duration of the prophesied events.
As fully explained on the page "THE TWO WITNESSES", this prophecy was fulfilled in recent history, so with the benefit of hindsight we know how long the period was: It was the period of the two world wars, which lasted for 32 inclusive years from 1914 until 1945. These two wars together saw the mobilisation of some 200 million soldiers, and the killing of one third of the Jews in the world during the Holocaust. All the other details of the prophecy are also shown to fit perfectly with history, as described in the article mentioned above. We can deduce therefore that in Revelation 9:15 the "day" pictures a year, the "month" pictures 30 years, and the "year" is counted as a year (1 + 30 + 1 = 32). See under "Times" below for an explanation of why a month in a prophecy of duration denotes 30 years.
When we examine the many other examples of time-based prophecies in Scripture, it becomes clear that they are consistent in the terminology they use for the duration of prophesied and typified events.
Days
In a prophecy where a day refers to the duration of an event, that day pictures a year.
In the Churches of God this is generally known as the "day for a year" principle.
God gives us this principle in Numbers 14:33-34 where He states, "your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years".
He repeats this principle in Ezekiel 4:5-6, saying, "I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year". The 390 inclusive years of Israel's iniquity began in the 29th year of Solomon's reign in 953BC, and ended when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 564BC. The 40 inclusive years of Judah's iniquity began with the death of Christ at the hands of the Jews in 31AD and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD.
As mentioned above, the "day" in the phrase "the hour, and day, and month and year" in Revelation 9:15 denotes one year of the 32 year period between 1914 and 1945.
In Daniel 8:13-14 we read, "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed". The passage literally reads, "for evening morning two thousand three hundred". This is similar to the language found in the Creation account in Genesis where we are told that "the evening and the morning were the first day" and "the evening and the morning were the second day" etc. Therefore, this is just another way of saying 2300 days, foretelling a 2300 year period of religious defilement of Jerusalem at the hands of foreign forces. This commenced with the rule of the Holy Land by Alexander the Great in 333BC, and ended with the liberation of the city from Gentile control in the 1967 Six Day War. For more on this see the page "BIBLE CHRONOLOGY".
Likewise, the "1290 days" and "1335 days" in Daniel 12:11-12 denote 1290 and 1335 years. These are related to the timeline of the Islamic "Dome of the Rock" on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the ending of "the shattering of the power of the holy people" (Dan 12:7, RSV). This is explained in "DANIEL 11 & 12 - KINGS OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH".
In Revelation 2:10 the brethren of the Smyrna Church era are told that they "shall have tribulation ten days". This refers to the enormously destructive ten year persecution unleashed by Roman emperor Diocletian in 303AD, which lasted until the Edict of Milan in early 313AD. Since Biblical years run from spring to spring, and as the new year of 313 had not yet commenced when this persecution ended, the ten years ran from 303 until 312 inclusively.
The two periods of "1260 days" mentioned in Revelation 11:3 and 12:6 both indicate 1260 years. These periods are explained respectively in the articles "THE TWO WITNESSES" and "REVELATION 12 - THE WOMAN".
In Revelation 11:9,11 we see a prophecy about "three and a half days". This was fulfilled by the three and a half years it took for the Jews to re-establish themselves as a nation in the Holy Land and Jerusalem after WW2, i.e. from May 1945 until November 1948. During this period other nations were reluctant to come to the Jews' aid and allow them to have a homeland or place of rest, described figuratively as "shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves" (v9). Again, see the page "THE TWO WITNESSES" for further explanation.
Weeks
In a prophecy where a week refers to the duration of an event, that week pictures seven years.
There is only one such prophecy, namely the Seventy Week Prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27. It does, however, refer to three separate periods that are all given as weeks: 7 weeks, 62 weeks and 1 week. During these periods the Jews were predicted to "restore and to build Jerusalem", to "seal up the vision and prophecy", to endure "troublous times", and to continue to descend into "transgression", which God in the final period would bring to a "finish" by the destruction of Jerusalem. This would at the same time "confirm the covenant", i.e. the New Covenant that Christ would make through His death.
Although the interpretations of this prophecy are many and varied, the fact that the seventy weeks foretell a period of 490 years (70 x 7 = 490) is not seriously disputed in Christian circles.
What I believe to be the correct chronological interpretation of this prophecy can be found on the page "FULFILLED PROPHECIES".
Months
In a prophecy where a month refers to the duration of an event, that month pictures thirty years.
As already mentioned above, the "month" in the phrase "the hour, and day, and month and year" in Revelation 9:15 denotes 30 years of the 32 year period between 1914 and 1945.
In Ezekiel 39:12,14 a period of "seven months" is predicted, which refers to the time from the beginning of the Hasmonean Dynasty in 140BC, until 70AD, when the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple. This 210 year period (7 x 30 = 210), which saw virtually unrestricted practice of the Jewish religion in Jerusalem, is explained on the page "GOG IN EZEKIEL 38 & 39".
In Hosea 5:7 we read concerning the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel, "now shall a month devour them with their portions". As Hosea prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Hos 1:1), and Samaria was conquered by the Assyrians in the 6th year of Hezekiah, this places the commencement of this 30 year progressive loss of territory by Israel in the 51st year of Uzziah. See the charts on the "CHRONOLOGICAL CHARTS" page for the details.
Zechariah 11:8 states, "I dismissed the three shepherds in one month". This is referring to the last thirty years of Christ's life, as explained on the page "ZECHARIAH OVERVIEW".
In Revelation 9:5,10 a period of "five months" is foretold as the duration of the "fifth trumpet". As fully explained in the article "THE HISTORICAL SEVENTH SEAL (THE SEVEN TRUMPETS)", this is prophesying 150 inclusive years of Crusader battles over Jerusalem. This period ran from 1095, when the first Catholic crusade was launched to liberate Jerusalem, until 1244, when the last crusader battle of that era was fought over the Holy City.
Revelation 11:2 states that Jerusalem "is (lit. "was") given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months". This is talking about the 1260 year period (42 x 30 = 1260) during which all seven heads of the Gentile "Beast" powers came to rule over Jerusalem. This is fully explained on the page "THE TWO WITNESSES".
Revelation 13:5 says that the "Beast" powers were given "a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months". This is speaking of 1260 years of independent Papal persecution of the people of God. It is explained further in the article "REVELATION 13 - THE BEAST".
Years
In a prophecy where a year refers to the duration of an event, that year is a literal year.
As already stated, the "year" in the phrase "the hour, and day, and month and year" in Revelation 9:15 denotes one year of the 32 year period between 1914 and 1945.
In Genesis 15:13, God tells Abraham, "thy seed shall be (lit. is) a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years". As shown on the chart on the "HOME" page, this prophecy covers 400 literal years of affliction, from Ishmael's persecution of Isaac (Gal 4:29) until the year of the Exodus from Egypt.
In Genesis 41:29-30, God tells Joseph, "Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. And there shall arise after them seven years of famine". The remainder of the chapter shows that this came to pass as prophesied, over two periods of seven literal years.
In Jeremiah 25:11-12 it is prophesied, "this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations". These were 70 literal years of the land of Judah lying desolate and of servitude to Babylon during that time. It is also speaking of a slightly different period of 70 years starting from Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem until Babylon's conquest by the Medes and Persians.
Jeremiah 29:10 prophesies, "thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place".
Daniel 9:2 says, "In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem".
And II Chronicles 36:21 states, "The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah" (NIV).
The last three passages of Scripture listed above apply to 70 literal years from when all the Jews had been removed from Judah, leaving it uninhabited, until the year before Persian king Cyrus allowed them to return to their land. See the chart on the "HOME" page for the exact details.
As years in prophecy refer to literal years, we can be sure that when Revelation 20:2-4 tells us that Satan will be bound for "a thousand years" and that Christ will rule for "a thousand years", these also mean literal years.
Times
In a prophecy where a "time" refers to the duration of an event, that "time" pictures 360 years.
A "time" is the Biblical unit of measurement that denotes future years on Earth.
The method by which God instructs the measuring of time to take place is by observation of the sun and the moon (Gen 1:14). This is fully explained in the article "THE CALENDAR OF GOD", but here is a brief overview:
A full rotation of the Earth around the sun is a solar year. Its length is constant at just over 365 days.
A full rotation of the moon around the Earth is a lunar month. Its length varies, but averages just over 29 and a half days.
The Biblical year begins in spring in the Northern Hemisphere (Ex 12:2). The sighting of the first crescent of the moon after the spring equinox begins the first month of the year. Then the cycle of the moon is observed in order to determine the length of each month and the beginning of each following month. A year most often has 12 lunar months, but a 13th month is added if the 12th month cannot be clearly seen to have extended beyond the next spring equinox.
We see when studying the account of Noah on the ark in Genesis 7-8 that 30 days per month should be counted when no observation of the new moon can be made. The Jewish Mishnah also informs us that this method was employed, when necessary, during the time of the second Temple.
Therefore, unless observation shows otherwise, a future year has 12 months and a future month has 30 days.
Thus, a year that is yet future, i.e. a Biblical "time", consists of 360 days (12 x 30 = 360).
In Daniel 4 we find the 360 day "time" in a troubling dream experienced by Nebuchadnezzar, which includes a prophecy that he will be driven away from human society, "be given the heart of a beast" and "eat grass" (v25). He is also told, "seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men" (v25,32).
The wording shows that this does not refer to the duration of the prophesied event, but rather to when the event will occur, i.e. when Nebuchadnezzar will "know" that God is the one who has given him his power. Therefore, it denotes 2520 literal days (360 x 7 = 2520). The story informs us that this Babylonian king lost his mind, began to graze like an animal, and grew his hair and fingernails long, until "at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me" (Dan 4:34).
Nebuchadnezzar's 2520 days were to humble him and to teach him a lesson, but they also picture something much bigger:
The king's 2520 days are a type of the total duration of the Gentile "Beast" powers trampling down God's people who are pictured by the "grass", or vegetation. See the account of the third day of Creation on the page "THE SEVEN DAY BLUEPRINT" for more on this. As this type involves the duration of an event, the 2520 days are counted as 2520 years.
Therefore, just as Ezekiel lay on his left and right sides for 390 days and 40 days respectively, to picture periods of 390 and 40 years (Eze 4:4-6), so the 2520 days of Nebuchadnezzar picture the 2520 years of "the times of the Gentiles" (Lk 21:24). These were 2520 consecutive years during which the Jews were to lose control of Jerusalem as it was conquered by a succession of Gentile powers, of which Babylon was the first. It is fitting that this prophecy was given to Nebuchadnezzar who was king of Babylon at the time of that first conquest of Jerusalem. Please see the chart on the "HOME" page, "DANIEL 2 - INTERPRETATION ERRORS" and "THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES" for a more detailed explanation.
In Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24 and 28, God states four separate times that Israel would be punished "seven times" if they disobeyed Him, and so we see that the Daniel 4 typology ties in perfectly with Leviticus 26. The four prophecies in Leviticus 26 all involve duration of prophesied events, and therefore apply to four separate 2520 year periods:
1) the break-up of Israel and Judah in the year of Solomon's death, causing the loss of much of Israel's "power" (v19) for the decreed "seven times".
2) the fall of Samaria and the Kingdom of Israel in Hezekiah's sixth year, leading to Israel becoming "few in number" (v22) until the restoration of their fortunes at the completion of their "seven times".
3) the fall of Jerusalem in Nebuchadnezzar's eighth year, causing Judah to be "delivered into the hand of the enemy" (v25). This is the same 2520 years typified in Daniel 4, as described above.
4) the destruction of Jerusalem in Nebuchadnezzar's 19th year, after which God would "scatter you among the nations" (v33) for 2520 years.
All four of these prophecies, including their beginning and end points, can be found on the chart on the "HOME" page.
We find another example of "time" in Daniel 7:25, which concerns a "little horn" into whose hands God's people "shall be given ...... until a time and times and the dividing of time". More modern translations say "time, times and half a time". This is half of "seven times" and so refers to 1260 years. Church of God brethren know, as did Protestants of old, that the "little horn" refers to the Papacy, whose long-term persecution of the people of God is prophesied here. The full explanation of the 1260 years can be found on the page "THE TWO WITNESSES".
Daniel 12:7 also speaks of "time, times and half a time", which refers to the 1260 inclusive year period from the construction of the Dome of the Rock in 691AD until the restoration of sovereign Jewish government over Jerusalem, followed by the proclamation of Israel's "Law of Return" in 1950. At that point the first stage of bringing to an end "the shattering of the power of the holy people" (RSV) was accomplished. Two more stages were predicted to follow until the power of the holy people would be completely restored. See "DANIEL 11 & 12 - KINGS OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH" for more on this.
In Revelation 2:21 we read, "I gave her space to repent" (KJV). However, the word "space" is the Greek word chronos which is usually translated "time". As explained on the page "THE TRUE CHURCH ERAS", this "time" is really "a time" and refers to 360 years of punishments inflicted on false Christianity by God, from the beginning of the first Crusade in 1095, until the first printing of the Scriptures in 1455. This period included the worst of the Inquisitions and the most destructive plague of all time, the Black Death.
In Revelation 10:6, part of the sixth trumpet narrative states, "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer". This is prophesying the end point of the "seven times", i.e. 2520 years, of Judah's punishment. Therefore, at that precise moment in history, God says there will be "time no longer". This occurred in 1945 and is more fully described on the page "THE TWO WITNESSES".
And finally, Revelation 12:14 states, "And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent". This prophecy concerns the first 1260 years of the 2520 year period of Judah's punishment, commencing with Jerusalem's capture by Nebuchadnezzar, during which God protected His faithful people. See the page "REVELATION 12 - THE WOMAN".
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To summarise:
In a prophecy or type that predicts the duration of an event:
A day of Creation pictures a thousand years
"X days and X nights" indicates X days
A day denotes a year
A week denotes seven years
A month denotes 30 years
A year remains a year
A time (360 days) denotes 360 years
So the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11:3 did not prophesy for only a literal "1260 days". If they had, it would have been expressed as "1260 days and 1260 nights". Rather, they prophesied for 1260 years.
By the same token, the Two Witnesses did not take a literal "three and a half days" to stand on their feet. Rather it took them three and a half years.
A thorough study of all the occurrences of the words "day/days", "week/weeks" etc in the Bible reveals only a few instances that may appear to challenge the rules stated above:
1) In Genesis 3:14 God states, "So the Lord God said unto the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life".
The meaning is the same here, whether it is taken as days or years.
2) Exodus 16:4-5 says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily".
Are these literal days? Yes they are, because no duration of the event is stated. Instead a seven day cycle is foretold, with regard to the manna, that lasted as long as Israel was wandering in the wilderness.
3) Numbers 11:19-20 states in regard to the second occasion on which God promised to send quail, "You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you".
The literal Hebrew in this verse says "unto a month of days". This wording, like the previous point, seems to indicate that quail would be consumed every day of the month until by the last day it would have become loathsome to the Israelites. Therefore literal days appear to be the intended meaning.
4) II Chronicles 21:15 prophesies regarding king Jehoram of Judah, "you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day". Verse 19 adds, "Then it happened in the course of time, after the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his sickness; so he died in severe pain".
Does the phrase "day by day" in this passage indicate a general progression of the sickness, or does it refer to a specific period of time that the sickness lasts? If it refers to a period of time, then it must be two years, which would then be confirmed by verse 19.
5) Isaiah 34:8 reads, "For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion".
This is speaking of a particular point in time at which God intervenes on Zion’s behalf, not the duration of an event, and therefore is not a "day for a year" prophecy.
6) Isaiah 61:2 says, "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God".
Much like the previous point, this concerns the specific timing of particular events, not their duration, and so is also not a "day for a year" prophecy.
7) Hosea 6:2 says, "After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight".
This prophecy does not indicate duration, and therefore refers to literal days. Both Christ (Lk 24:45-46) and Paul (I Cor 15:3-4) refer to this verse in regard to Christ's resurrection.
8) Jonah 3:4 says, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”.
As explained in the introduction of this article, this is not a prophecy of duration, and therefore denotes 40 literal days. However, as with the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar eating grass for 2520 days, there is also typology here, with the 40 days foreshadowing a period of 40 years. The explanation of this is given on the page “THE REAL SEVEN SEALS”.
9) Luke 13:32-33 reads, "And He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected ("reach my goal" - NASB, NIV).’"
Christ is here referring to individual days, rather than giving the duration of the whole period. Had He said, "I will perform cures for three days", it would have meant three years.
10) John 2:19 states, "Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up".
This refers to literal days, as it concerns a specified future time when the event prophesied will occur, rather than the duration of the prophecy.
So we see that there are logical explanations for Scriptures that might initially appear problematic. The rules of prophetic interpretation are consistent, which is exactly what we would expect from the perfect Creator God who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb 13:8).
Knowing the principles of time found in prophecy enables us to understand God's stated intentions, and to appreciate how careful He has been in recording their precise details in His Word.
All the pages on this website that deal with prophetic interpretation employ the principles outlined in this article.