Four Rules for Calculating Time-based Prophecies
The Book of Daniel reveals five major time prophecies:
- The 2300-day prophecy
- The 70-week prophecy
- The 1260-day prophecy
- The 1290-day prophecy
- The 1335-day prophecy
These time-based prophecies are the subject of much debate. As I’ve begun studying these prophecies, I realized there are five simple rules that we must follow in order to properly interpret them. Here they are:
Time-based prophecies will never give us the day and hour of the Second Coming
Regarding the Second Coming, Jesus declared, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Mark 13:32
According to the above text, there is no time-based prophecy found in Scripture that reveals the time of the Second Coming. If you are being told that there is a prophecy in the Bible that informs us of Christ’s return, you should know that the individual who is relaying that information is either misinterpreting Scripture, or they are trying to deceive you. In either case, you are dealing with error.
A Day is often calculated as a year in Bible prophecy.
There is a Biblical principle called the day-for-a-year principle. Notice how the Bible presents this concept:
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, and ye shall know my breach of promise. Numbers 14:34
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. Ezekiel 4:6
Please understand that not every time-based prophecy follows this principle; however, if we determine that a prophecy fails its fulfillment when it is calculated literally, then it may be logical to calculate the prophecy using prophetic days (day for a year).
A prophetic year consists of 360 literal days.
Today’s calendar years have a variation of days. Most years have 365 days but there are also leap years with 366 days. When calculating prophecy, it can become difficult to properly interpret time if we have to determine it by using today’s standards.
In times of old, the days were calculated as 30-day months and 360-day years. We know this because Genesis 7:11 reveals the flood started “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month…”
Then the same book reveals the day the flood subsided:
“And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.” Genesis 8:4
Month two to month seven is five months. Now notice how Genesis calculated this five-month period:
“And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” Genesis 7:24
So according to the text, the five-month period was 150 days. Now, in order to determine how many days the months consisted of, all we would need to do is divide 150 by five.
150 (days) ÷ 5 (months) = 30 (days)
According to the Bible’s calculation, each month consisted of 30 days, and thus we conclude that each year had 360 days (12 months of 30 days).
This is important to understand how many months are in a year when you are calculating prophecies that are given in months (i.e. Revelation 13:5).
Years are counted backward in the BC era.
Whenever you are counting years in BC, they always decrease numerically. This system of calculating BC backward was derived during the Middle Ages. In order to calculate the BC to AD transition, we can view the years as a negative-to-positive graph (see below).
Please also notice there is no year zero. When calculating the BC to AD transition, your calculation should go from 1BC directly to 1AD.
These are the four rules that you must understand when calculating time prophecies.
