Concerning the 3½ years. Satan, defeated by the angels, prepares to make his last stand on Earth during the last 3½ years. TO CONFIRM THE COVENANT GOD REMOVES ANY CLAIM BY SATAN TO HOLD TERRITORY IN HEAVEN SO HE GOES AFTER EARTH WHERE HE WILL ONCE AGAIN BE DEFEATED. THIS WAR SIGNALS THE TIME TO GO TO THE PLACE OF SAFETY. IT BEGINS THE TIME OF JACOB'S TROUBLE.

Use this link to go back to the summary.

Because this chapter links to many confusing parts of the Bible I want to highlight some things at the outset. I believe that the intention of this chapter is to deal with how Satan completely loses ground in heaven and finally on Earth and how it affects the Church. The initial effect is that the Church is persecuted for 3½ years but the final effect will be that when the saints are installed he will have nowhere to go. I talk about the abomination of desolation and the ending of the daily sacrifice as these tie in, but these are not the subject. These are only important here in so far as they support the premise that there will be an angelic war to come. I had started to touch on some points earlier in the series but will concentrate on clarifying them now. Among them are:

1. The abomination of desolation starts in the first 3½ years and reaches its consummation in the final 3½ years.   
   
2. The abomination of desolation climaxes with the death of the two witnesses.

I will emphasize Daniel 8 and Daniel 9. Daniel 8:13-14 demonstrated that Daniel 8 (dealing with the abuses of Antiochus) is not referring to the same trampling or the same type of trampling as Revelation 11 (which deals with access to Jerusalem and with the two witnesses) nevertheless they are all connected to Revelation 12. Daniel 9:26-27 is employed to help us understand the role of Antiochus, the Messiah, and the abomination of desolation. Christ's redemptive work fits into 7 prophetic years of which 3½ are left. This fact is critical because actions outside of that period must be discounted with explanations. It also shows us that there is only one 3½ years that God is concerned with and so whenever we see it, it is the same 3½ years.

There are some critical scriptures that will keep coming up. From Daniel 12:11-13 the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up in 1,290 days. Those are  blessed who reach 1,335 days. From Daniel 8:13-14 the sanctuary and the host is to be trodden under foot and cleansed after 2,300 days. With Daniel 9:26-27 the covenant is confirmed in 1 week = 7 years (2,555 days) but the Messiah cut off in middle (1,260 days) and also causes abominations to cease. 7 years is 2,555 days but the Jewish year is actually only 360 days except for leap years. The middle of 2,555 is 1,277.5 and since that does not reach 1,290 I propose that 1,290 is not the 3½ years. I use 360 x 3.5 = 1,260 as the 3½ years although that ignores leap years but it is based on Revelation 11:3 where the Two Witnesses prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Recap of Daniel

This is a convenient place to do a recap of Daniel to get a synopsis of the book and extract some facts pertinent to understanding Revelation 12.

• In Daniel 1 he was taken among the first wave of captives to Babylon.
• In chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar had his dream of an image of gold, silver, bronze, and iron mixed with clay. Daniel told him that he (Nebuchadnezzar) was the head. The other three parts are generally understood to be the Persian, Greek and Roman empires.
• In chapter 3 we have the fiery furnace and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
• In chapter 4 God turned Nebuchadnezzar into a beast for a time because of his pride, then he was eventually restored to the throne showing that HE (God) is in charge (Daniel 4:17).
• In Chapter 5 we have Belshazzar, who Daniel describes as Nebuchadnezzar's son, weighed in the balance and deposed by God for his insolence. This brought in the Medes and Persians with Cyrus and Darius which heralds the end of the 70 years for which the Jews were to be in exile. This occurred during the time of Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Medes and Persians. Darius was caretaker for a short time.
• In chapter 6 Daniel is once again raised to a prominent position but now under Darius, and because of envy was thrown into the lions' den.

Daniel 7 (the lion, the bear, the leopard and the monster)

In chapter 7 Daniel goes back to the time of Belshazzar and starts to talk of his own visions. Belshazzar was co-regent for only two years before his death by the Medes and Persians in the beginning of his third year. In Belshazzar's first year Daniel saw four beasts (lion, bear, leopard and monster with 7 heads and 10 horns) which God interpreted as the four empires (Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome) the last of which will be deposed by Christ. The kings exactly match the parts of the statue from Nebuchadnezzar's vision of Chapter 2. Daniel was told that the final evil kingdom would be terminated by a world ruling government that would be controlled by God's people (Daniel 7:27). So Daniel is given an overview and from Daniel's perspective this would be the same as Israel returning from exile and being established as the Kingdom of God.

Daniel 8 (the goat and the ram)

Daniel 8 goes into greater detail on the Kingdom of God but it only deals with two main entities. It presents the exploits of a ram and a goat. It is striking to me that the imagery concludes with Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greek, and does not continue to the Romans who are the monster with the heads and 10 horns from Daniel 7, or the feet of the statue of Daniel 2. This tells me that in this portrayal Greece (and not Rome) represents the end-time and the actions of Antiochus portray an the end-time event. To state this another way, I am saying that from one perspective (Daniel 2 and Daniel 7) God shows us impressions of kingdoms that will emerge as history progresses up to the return of the Messiah and the establishment of the Kingdom. From another perspective (Daniel 8) God shows Daniel a detailed account of the future with the change from the Persian to the Greco-Macedonian Empire and emphasizes that this particular set of events and actors are symbolic of conditions and figures of the end time and the establishment of the Kingdom.

Daniel's vision
• Media-Persian Empire (Verses 3-4)
• Greece
  • under Alexander (Verses 5-7)
  • Alexander's generals (Verse 8)
  • Antiochus Epiphanes (Verses 9-12)
• 2,300 Days (Verse 13-14)

Daniel's Interpretation
• Verse 17-18 says The vision was for the time of the end not the time of Antiochus Epiphanes alone
• Media-Persian Empire (Verse 20 It is Ram)
• Greece (Verse 21(a) The Goat is Greece)
  • Verse 21 (b) It starts with Alexander a great conqueror
  • Alexander's Generals (Verse 22 divided by Alexander's Generals)
  • Antiochus Epiphanes (verse 23-25; the one that assaulted the Kingdom of God)
• The 2,300 Days - the Time of the End

The prophecy says in Daniel 8:11 that he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. Because Antiochus fits the prophecy of the Abomination of Desolation in one regard does not make him the complete fulfilment. Daniel chapter 8 does not speak of any abomination and Antiochus lacks several things about it, but the match is very close when comparing the Antiochus of history with Daniel 8:10-11 and Daniel 8:23-25.

All this was long before the birth of Christ the Captain of the host of the Lord (Joshua 5:14) which I propose is the same as the prince of the host and the prince of princes. Antiochus died in 164 B.C. In verses 10 to 12 we read of some things that no human could do, so in addition to the fact that it says so in verse 17, it must be dual where Antiochus foreshadows one who is greater at the end time.

In the interpretation we again see duality. The vision of the evening and the morning is the same as the daily sacrifice mentioned in verses 13-14 where it was allotted 2,300 days.

There is an alternative fulfilment to using Antiochus, this one having a focus on the prince of the host as Christ. It accounts for the missing pieces for the Abomination of Desolation absent from the Antiochus fulfilment. In verses 25-26 the prince of princes can only be talking of Christ and I propose that it refers to the same individual as the prince of the host. By the time of Christ Antiochus would be long dead, but because it was quoted in days Daniel would still expect the time of the end to be soon, and possibly in his time, so the angel explained that it was a long way off, it shall be for many days. Daniel Chapter 8 gives us one complete picture of history leading to the Kingdom of God being restored. This picture stops before the Romans, who will be introduced in Daniel 10-12 and who were a combination of all of the beasts. This indicates that all would be repeated under the Romans.

The 2,300 Days

The fulfilment of the 2,300 days is satisfied in type several times before it becomes finalised and consummated. To me the importance of the 2,300 days (almost 7 years) is that once it is identified all of the work of cleansing the sanctuary must fit into it. In Daniel 8:10-12 a whole vision is given which includes treading under foot and casting down. Then in verses 13-14 a conversation takes place where a saint refers to the whole vision but identifies it by a summary. To be more precise he identifies which vision he is talking about by saying that it concerns a few of the things that happen in the vision. He is told that the whole thing is a process leading to a cleansing of the sanctuary after 2,300 days.

Daniel 8 is not referring to the same trampling as Revelation 11

After the vision Daniel said that he sought for the meaning (Daniel 8:15). That is obviously the reason why he heard a supernatural voice afterwards giving him an explanation. Continuing to read the rest of Daniel 8, you soon see that this person stands up against the Prince of Princes and is defeated (Daniel 8:25). Consider that treading a whole army under foot does not make literal sense except for in the aftermath of Armageddon in Revelation 16, or some other disastrous war. Bear in mind, however, that Nave's Topical Bible defines the Hebrew noun mirmac translated as trodden under foot in Daniel 8:13 to be abasement (the act or the thing).

Daniel 8:10 talks about a time when host of heaven was stamped on, and this is translated from Hebrew word ramac not the Greek pateo used in Revelation 11:2 and Revelation 19:15. However the verb form of the same Hebrew noun used in Daniel 8:10 is used further down in Daniel 8:13 to refer to the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot. Trodden under foot is therefore the same as stamped on and could therefore be how Satan treats those under him, and so we are no longer limited to war, it could apply to any situation. When this interpretation is applied throughout Daniel 8 then Daniel 8 matches what is being said in Revelation 12, where the dragon gets cast out after being defeated by Michael and his angels. He had sought to accost (i.e. stamp on) the Church and it went to a protected place (Revelation 12:6). After being defeated he again goes after the Church in Revelation 12:13 onwards. On the other hand Daniel 8 does not match Revelation 11 where in verse 2 the court which they tread under foot was given to the gentiles (which is the reason why it was built in the first place) for 42 months (3½ years). The gentiles are not trying to desecrate because they do not go into the sanctuary, just into the city. This is not a unique style of expression since it is similar to what happened in Revelation 19:15, where a wine-press is tread (which is why that was built) so it is not abused by treading it. What Christ does with the wine-press and what the gentiles do in Revelation 11 is natural. What happens in Daniel 8 is abuse. In Daniel 8 we also discover that somebody challenged the Prince of the Host, cast out some of the host of heaven and got kicked out of their sanctuary for their trouble (verse 10-11). To interpret this I believe that we must use information that comes in Daniel 9 about the seven years in which the Messiah has to confirm the covenant. This 7 years is broken into two 3½ year periods. The sanctuary was to be cleansed after 2,300 days which is almost the full 7 years (verse 14 quoted above) i.e. Christ comes and the host once stamped on by Satan can rejoice. It is possible that one phase of the cleansing occurred when Satan first went after the Church and another is to happen when he goes after it again. This is reasonable since Revelation 12 indicates that he goes after the Church twice (Revelation 12:6 followed by Revelation 12:13). It all relates to this kicking-out.

Daniel 8 relates to the same Church as Revelation 12

I just said that Daniel 8 matches Revelation 12 especially when we interpret trampling to mean abasement or debasement. In both cases an abusive person gets brought low. This interpretation benefits from a particular understanding of the 2,300 days. Having suggested that the seven year ministry (2,555 days) identified in Daniel 9, must be used to understand the 2,300 days in Daniel 8 (Antiochus' chapter), I go on to address matters that might improve that understanding.

Accounting for the difference between the cleansing (2,300 days) and the Ministry (7 years=2,555 days)

Remember where this 2,300 days came from. In Daniel 8:10-14 it states that the sanctuary and the host is to be trodden under foot and cleansed after 2,300 days. One saint told the other that the whole vision is a process leading to a cleansing of the sanctuary after 2,300 days. The cleansing process therefore lasts 2,300 days but the work of Christ is longer, since it is 2,555 days or 7 years. In the process an individual was cast down (which I am saying is the same as kicked out) in Daniel 8:11. The completion of the cleansing process therefore follows the treading under foot and being kicked out. In the same verse the vision refers to an assault (i.e. magnify himself and stand up against) on the prince of the host (the same host that was trodden under foot in Daniel 8:13) which prince I am convinced is Christ and is also the Prince of Princes introduced in verse 25 of the same chapter. Consequently in looking for a fulfilment of the prophecy, any attack/assault on Christ's work is therefore a candidate to be considered. If the Temptations was such a challenge then it is a candidate for when somebody must have been kicked out (which is part of the sequence to the cleansing) but would all of the facts fit? They would not. There are more than 2,300 days from the Temptations to when Christ comes because the Temptations are at the start of the 2,555 days. Christ is who does the cleansing and He does it when He comes at the end of the 2,555 days, so that does not work. The difference between the cleansing period and the work of Christ is 8½ months (2,555 - 2,300 = 255 days) / (30 days in a month) = 8.5. For convenience I will call that 8½ months the cleansing bypass. The facts do not fit because of this cleansing bypass but if we account for it then there are no other problems. That bypass must occur at the beginning of Christ's work because the cleansing is completed at the time when the seven years ends at Christ's return. There is no support for the 8½ months cleansing bypass being the final events of the seven years of His work given the detailed record in Revelation. That is to say there is no possibility of a cleansing completed 8½ months before Christ's return that John did not point out, so the 8½ month difference must fall at the beginning of the period.

The diagram above illustrates the facts that we know. If we chose the Crucifixion or Resurrection as the start of the 2,300 days, that would push the cleansing way past the second coming and that does not make sense. By the time of the Crucifixion the first 3½ years is almost up. Christ would have only the second 3½ years (1,260 days) of the total 7 years left available to complete His work. 2,300 days goes past that by (2,300-1,260=1040), 1,040 days. Since all redeeming work must be completed in 7 years, the cleansing has to start before the the Crucifixion or Resurrection, but must also fit between the beginning of His ministry, i.e. the beginning of His work, and the end of those 7 years which we know is when He returns. The diagram also shows that all of the differences occur in the first 3½ years and everything lines up with Christ's return. Because of that, in order to adjust for the differences we only need consider the first 3½ years because there are no differences in the second 3½ years.

The period of testing. Satan loses territory and God's people gain

The Crucifixion/Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost are all candidates for ending Christ's 3½ year ministry. Because I view this ministry as His earthly ministry I choose Ascension. If the ministry is defined as the building of the Church then it would be Pentecost. So the basic framework that I am presenting depends on how that ministry is defined. The holy people are not people exclusively of Jewish descent, they are in reality Christians. There is more than one period of testing during the seven years of Christ's Ministry. From the explanation given by Gabriel we know that this testing that I just mentioned is represented by the actions of Antiochus, because history reveals that he is the king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences in Daniel 8 verse 23, that emerges under the Greeks to destroy the mighty and the holy people (verse 24). But this king described in Daniel 8 is not normal. He flips between natural and supernatural and the supernatural part is obviously Satan. We know that Antiochus portrays something culminating in the final 3½ years because it was for the time-of-the-end (Daniel 8:17), but also spans the whole ministry because he is part of the transgression of desolation that causes the treading under foot that ends in 2,300 days i.e. almost the whole 7 years (Daniel 8:13-14). It is progressive. Substituting for Antiochus with Satan and comparing with Christ's ministry we know that following the crucifixion, history tells us that the Church fled into the wilderness once before, and prophecy shows us that it will either happen again or progress to something worse and it is caused by Satan as the dragon. What does the Bible mean by fled into the wilderness? The wilderness is the place where the children of Israel went between leaving Egypt and inheriting the Promised Land. Israel did it for 40 years and Christ did it for 40 days. A similar period of testing (forty days according to Acts 1:3) came on the disciples at the beginning of the Church when Peter went fishing. For Israel It was a time of final testing for the Promised Land and most failed. The period of testing is God's way to replace something corrupt with something holy and so it has to face His test of holiness (i.e. meeting God's standards) before it is accepted. The Church in the wilderness did not inherit immediately after it was formed and neither does the Church now, but we continue to endure trials of the wilderness until Christ comes. Verse 11 then of Daniel 8 is dual (or triple or multiple) and in the future it will again involve a supernatural prince/king and a supernatural sanctuary along with a human puppet being controlled, like Antiochus and later Annas or Caiaphas for example. Antiochus represents something that happens in both 3½ year cycles and in each case it is a prelude to a phase of God recovering His Kingdom (the objective of all Daniel's visions) and Satan losing ground. If the first testing was when the Children of Israel left Egypt and the second is in Christ's Temptations and another when the Church was formed, then the persecution and fleeing to the wilderness to be tested in the future 3½ years must be expected to have something to do with Satan losing control to Christ over something too.

Breaking down the first 3½ years

Using the information that we have uncovered above, let us first explore how the prophecy relates to the first 3½ years and that may give insight to how it works with the future 3½ years. My first objective is to account for the entire 3½ year period that begins the ministry. I want to account for the whole-year parts and then the remaining ½ year part. Later I go on to integrate the 8½ month difference into what I would have established. In Daniel 8:13-14 some 2,300 days is given until the sanctuary is cleansed and we showed that this falls 8½ months short of seven years. The problem is establishing exactly where this 8½ months goes, i.e. how much is before or after the 2,300 days. I have already provided evidence that the 8½ months, which I called the cleansing bypass, must have occurred at the beginning of Christ's ministry. Now Christ was baptised by John so what does baptism begin? That starts His personal period of testing in the wilderness and if we start from there how do we deal with the 8½ months? After baptism He was tempted for over a month (40 days). After He was tempted there was a passage of time until John was put in prison. The completed Church fled into the wilderness after Christ's resurrection but the Church started with His first disciples not at Pentecost. It was completed by Pentecost but construction started before. Before Pentecost the presence of God was with them bodily in Christ but it was with them only in spirit after Pentecost. Christ actually had disciples before John was put in prison. The calling of the disciples appears in Matthew 4:18–22, Mark 1:16-20 and Luke 5:1–11 on the Sea of Galilee but John 1:35–51 tells us that the first encounter with two of the disciples was in the presence of John the Baptist. Look at this extract from it.

It is after John was put in prison that Christ started preaching in Galilee (Mark 1:14-15) but He already had disciples which provided something for Satan to go after. The work of cleansing the Sanctuary began when He started to replace the corrupt with the Holy and to me that applies to the disciples being prepared to replace Judaism under Rome with Christianity. Their hearts had to be cleansed for work in the New Temple. Bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19.

How long was this wait from when Christ was baptised to when the cleansed Church was set up? I explain what I mean by set up later but it is about beginning. Was it 8½ months? I propose that the reference point to start the calculation for when it was set up is the same as that to use for when the cleansing begins. I use Christ's baptism as that reference point, but when was that? We said earlier that His first disciples came as a referral from John the Baptist. Did the cleansing begin when He started to call disciples and create a New Testament Sanctuary to worship Him in? The physical temple had all of the stones shaped and cut before it was assembled so building actually began with quarrying the first stone. John refers to three Passovers but that only covers two years for sure i.e. 1 to 2 is one year and 2 to 3 is another. The first is just after He turned water into wine and He already had disciples.

The next is when He fed the five thousand.

Followed by the one just after He raised Lazarus when the Scribes and Pharisees decided that He was to be murdered.

That was Christ's last Passover. The rest of the book of John recounts the circumstances surrounding Christ's death and resurrection.

I want you to bear in mind that the Gospels are largely the recollections of the apostles. If they were not yet called at His first passover then logic would suggest that nothing of it would be recorded, and this seems to be just what happened. At the first Passover after His ministry began, the Jews (represented by their leaders) would have rejected Him as messiah and so their sacrifices would have been in vain.

They were not offering their sacrifices to Him because He was right there baptized and ready. John the Baptist had told them but they disregarded it.

Before we proceed with accounting for the 8½ month difference I need to consolidate the facts that we have uncovered and tie down the whole 3½ year period (the first half of the week) as I said earlier was to be my first objective. I want to account for the whole-year parts and then the remaining ½ year part. To do that I use from one Passover to another to identify a whole year and then I patch the remaining ½ year (six months) around them. I end up with the following diagram.

In this document I continue to use Pentecost because people are more comfortable with that but we are really talking about Chavuot. Christ lived with, died with and left us Chavuot. Pentecost and Chavuot are not identical. Now to break down the diagram. In the table the 💧character represents Christ's baptism.  We know that his entire ministry was 42 months. That is entered in column 10 in the last row. We know that there is a Passover every year and I break the years up in the third row. Then I start and end each year with a Passover because Passover to Passover is one year. I put that in the row above the last one, row 2. I know that there is a partial year of 6 months, but until I work out how much of that comes before passover and how much comes after, I am letting you know that the before-Passover part goes in column c1 and the after-Passover part goes in column c9. I will use the end of His ministry as His ascension. Ascension is 10 days before Pentecost and Pentecost is 50 days from Passover so Ascension is 40 days from Passover. By the second Passover (which is the first recorded one) He already had a relationship with His disciples hence He must have been preaching of the Kingdom for some time. Understand what I am getting at: Christ's ministry is always for 3½ years. His earthly ministry ended with the Ascension, 10 days before Pentecost and the building of the Church was completed by Pentecost. His work therefore continued for 40 days (I use that as roughly 1½ months) after His death at Passover. That amount now goes in column c9 of row 1. We have now accounted for 3 years and 1½ months (37½ months) of His time and that takes us to the absolute end so any extra time that He worked must go at the beginning of His work. We know that the total time is 42 months so we subtract the 37½ months that we have accounted for in the table and that leaves 4½ months. That has to go at the beginning because we have already accounted for the end. We left the space for that in column c1 so we put that in there. We can now make a tally in column c10 to check back our totals. That gives us a complete breakdown of how the 42 months was spent with regard to Passover. I use the earthly  work to define Christ's ministry so I was able to establish the point at which the work ended. The work continued for 40 days (50 for Pentecost less the 10 for His Ascension) after His death, i.e. roughly 1½ months until work stopped at His Ascension. Using that as the end point I was able to work backwards and that reduced the time before the first Passover to 4½ months.

So now that we have established how the 3½ years ran we have an 8½ months to account for from the difference between the cleansing (2,300 days) and the whole ministry (7 years = 2,555 days) i.e. (2,555 - 2,300 = 255 days) /30 (days in a month) = 8.5 months. I am claiming that both the cleansing and the 7 years end with the return of Christ. The end of the 7 years is the same as the end of the second 3½ years since the two join to make the 7 years. If both the 2,555 days and the 2,300 days end together then they cannot begin together since the ends overlap. That means that the final 3½ years of the 7 years overlaps with the end of the 2,300 days and is the same. The difference comes in the first 3½ years. We can therefore ignore the second 3½ years and adjust for the 8½ month difference using the first 3½ years alone. That 8½ month difference must exist at the start, i.e the first 3½ years must begin 8½ months before the 2,300 days. We also have a 4½ months that we just worked out. That gives us the starting point of the work and comes before the first Passover and that pinpoints the beginning of the work i.e. the beginning of the first 3½ years. The 2,300 days must therefore start 8½ months after that beginning of the work. How does that fit into the scheme of what we already know?

The work must begin 4½ months before a Passover in order to satisfy my formulation. My formulation accounts for the 6 months excess over 3 whole-years in how they relate to Passover. So now that we have that 4½ months that must come before the first Passover as our starting point we can use it to pinpoint the start of the 8½ months. I called the 8½ months the cleansing bypass because it comes before the start of the 2,300 days and we have to skip past or bypass that to start the 2,300 day period of cleansing. The cleansing bypass must begin 4½ months before a Passover leaving 4 months after the Passover to complete the 8½ month bypass. The first Passover is not recorded and I am saying that it falls within the 8½ months before the sanctuary began to be cleansed and that the cleansing started after He was rejected by Israel at the first Passover and He turned to build the Church from scratch. The initial 4½ months began with His baptism. He started to call disciples after being rejected at the first Passover. If only just over two years are accounted for then there is over 1 year for which there is no record. It is therefore possible that His work started at His baptism but the ending of the daily sacrifice started after the first Passover when they offered sacrifices but not to Him. They might have been given the 4 months between that Passover and the beginning of the cleansing to repent before it was officially recorded. The cleansing began around 4 months after that Passover when He began to identify disciples. In my opinion that is the basic framework. We have no authoritative point at which His ministry officially ended, just a range. It could have ended at some ceremony in heaven five days after His ascension and five days before Pentecost. We just don't know. So we have:

• Christ baptised beginning the 2,555 days (7 years)
  
• Passover 4½ months later caused ending the daily sacrifice
  
• 4 months later the cleansing began with the first disciples identified. This reaching out for disciples begins the 2,300 Days that ends when Christ comes.
  
• Type of cleansing ends when His earthly ministry ends ten days before Pentecost, about 1½ months after Passover, Acts 1:1-5
• Type of cleansed Church built by Pentecost ends the type for the 2,555 days. The reality is when Christ comes.
  

There is some biblical support for this view from the cleansing of the Temple. Jesus is recorded to have cleansed the Temple twice. The first time was during the Passover which followed His first recorded miracle, which would make it the first Passover after the cleansing began by my framework. The cleansing had begun.

Meanwhile, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say that one took place place just days before Christ's Crucifixion and hence His final Passover. This was the second one recorded and the cleansing is continuing.

Interestingly there is no cleansing recorded for the first Passover which would have to be around 4½ months into His ministry by my reasoning, and hence still 4 months before the cleansing would be expected to start. The Temple was not completely cleansed before Christ was crucified but He had started and Christ declared His actions to cover the whole of His Father's house. This implies the sanctuary too. Christ started the cleansing in the first 3½ years and the second is yet to come.

The end of the 2,300 days marks the cleansing of the sanctuary which will come to consummation when the saints replace the minions of Satan. Christ would have had disciples with cleansed hearts to begin the fleshly Church but now we look forward to the spiritual Church being cleansed and ready. There was no ritual cleansing recorded of the Herodian Temple and one wonders if that was even possible given the state of the priesthood under the Romans (e.g. Annas and Caiaphas), so this has to be symbolic of a heavenly event. The earth is a sanctuary for Satan. The Church is the cleansed Temple/Sanctuary of God. If there is a sanctuary on earth that needs to be cleansed it could have been here from before the time of The Garden of Eden and the pollutants would have been around since that time. The Sanctuary of the Temple in Israel would have been made to represent that. Is God replacing or eradicating those pollutants? Notice that it is required to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot. I propose that the first host trodden under foot was the demons, followed by mankind out of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and next was the nation of Israel, then the current one is the Church and this did not exist until the disciples were called. The word translated church in the English Bible is Greek: ekklesia. It is formed from the Greek word kaleo (to call), prefixed with Greek ek (out). The word therefore means the called out ones. That could be as little as one person but appears to have been two to begin with for mankind and two as the first two disciples. The importance of this interpretation of the 2,300 days is that all of the cleansing of all these hosts is done during one period and Satan will no longer be able to cast down or tread under foot after that. Notice however, that the sanctuary contains two cherubim that protect the Most Holy Place/Holy Holy Place. The rest of the contents relate to man but the sanctuary cannot be completely cleansed if these cherubim are connected to Satan even remotely.

Daniel 9 (the seventy weeks prophecy)

I gave a general interpretation of the seventy weeks when we covered Revelation 10 so we are not investigating that calculation here. It is in Daniel 9 that we are introduced to the abomination, not Daniel 8. The problem is that a character like Antiochus is represented in both Daniel 8 and Daniel 9, and so some assume that he is portraying exactly the same thing in both places, but the perspectives are actually different.

In Daniel 8 the vision ends with the little horn which is interpreted as fulfilled by Antiochus. The character representing Antiochus appears in verse 9 in the vision as a little horn and in verse 23 in of the explanation as a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences. Daniel 8 was recorded in the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar (Daniel 8:1). The Bible presents Belshazzar as the king of Babylon and son of Nebuchadnezzar, but history records him as the son of Nabonidus, a successor of Nebuchadnezzar. When Nabonidus went into exile (550 BC), he entrusted the throne to Belshazzar. We are therefore talking of around 547 BC when the vision came to Daniel. This was over 10 years before the reign of Cyrus. The Antiochus character is in the end of the vision, in the latter time of their kingdom, which corresponds with the end of the Greco-Macedonian empire.

In Daniel 9:1 we are told that this is the first year of Darius. Before I go any further let me admit that this Darius is not accepted as historical by some scholars as no additional king can be placed between the known figures of Belshazzar and Cyrus. I do not find that as a deterrent because in my lifetime and in my research this has always been resolved in favour of the Bible without any apology from scholars. Apparently Darius ruled either all Babylon, or Judah only, as caretaker under Cyrus at this time. Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire and king of Persia from 559-530 BC. In 538 B.C., the first year of his reign over Babylon, after Cyrus freed the Jews from exile in Babylon, they returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple. The reign of Cyrus therefore indicates that this is coming to the end of the 70 years. The focus of Daniel 9 is the Seventy Weeks Prophecy. It is not about empires or an empire at all but about the Messiah. The Antiochus character is imposed on it because of the phrase the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate. Antiochus is linked with the abomination of desolations from Matthew 24:15–16, which is presumed to be caused by Antiochus Epiphanes. My intention is to show that the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate along with everything else in the chapter concerns the messiah. In Daniel 9:2, Daniel said that his actions were being prompted by Jeremiah's prophecy that the Jews would be exiled for 70 years, and so he prayed for the restoration of Jerusalem. He had been given a view of the duration of man's life on this earth and the 70 years that he associated with that were almost up but evidence that Israel would become what his dreams implied was nowhere in sight. He could not see how Israel would soon fulfil its role according to the prophecies and the covenant, so he appealed to God because of the covenant that He had made with them (verse 4). Gabriel was sent to Daniel to give him the understanding that he craved (Daniel 9:22) which would include the events of chapter 8 and by extension all of what went before. So in Daniel 9 he is writing during the Persian Empire but Chapter 8 was over 10 years before when he was in the Babylonian empire and the explanation there ended with the Greeks, the empire that follows the Persian Empire.

These visions all give the world view for when God's kingdom is established, which is linked to Israel returning from exile, and Daniel would have expected that this would coincide with the end of the 70 year captivity. The Greek dynasty of chapter 8 ends with Antiochus, so as far as Daniel now knows that will be when the messiah comes, i.e. when the Persian Empire falls. Chapter 9 has the same objective of enlightening Daniel about God's arrangement to establish His kingdom as chapter 8, which is synonymous with delivering Israel, but is given from the perspective of the Messiah who is the one to ultimately restore Jerusalem and keep His covenant. A key thing to note is that somebody confirms a covenant and fulfils a week. Looking back we know that there was no covenant between Antiochus Epiphanes and the Jews. The covenant is the promise of Genesis 12:3 and Genesis 28:14 which points out that in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed, and which was passed on through Abraham and on to Israel.

Daniel 9:27 and 9:26

There are two verses in Daniel 9 that are especially important. Daniel 9:26-27 is crammed with information to help us understand the role of Antiochus, the Messiah and the abomination of desolation. Verse 26 sets the boundaries of the work by allocating 62 weeks but reduces the work to be done by Christ to 7 weeks and breaks that into two equal parts of 3½ weeks interpreted as 3½ years. Verse 27 introduces us to a covenant as well as a sacrifice and an oblation ended and something made desolate by someone.

I will now attempt to deal with these in the order that they are given.

Antiochus did not fulfil any week and he confirmed no covenant

In Revelation 8, I concluded that the fulfilment could not be Antiochus because it was for the time of the end. The person in the prophecy actually acted for the whole week to confirm a covenant. It is Christ that causes the desolation (of the Old Covenant Temple worship) which results from the overspreading of abominations and He starts it at the end of the first week (His crucifixion) or the beginning of the second half of the week, i.e. at the beginning of the final 3½ years, or both. The crucifixion qualifies because the marriage relationship with the Old Testament God died with Christ. The overspreading of abominations of man and especially the Jews and the condition of the Levitical priesthood, led to the final abomination of His death. Antiochus had no covenant and he did not fulfil any week, neither did Titus in 70 AD. As far as the beginning of the 3½ years is concerned, Revelation 11 dealt with the two witnesses and I started what I presented by comparing those witnesses to the two witnesses in Zechariah 3 and 4, and applying some knowledge of the operation of Temple. They all tie back to the Temple and the work of the two cherubim. The two witnesses in Revelation fulfil the prophecy in a similar manner to how Christ did with His sacrifice. Christ was the true abomination that made desolate and the two witnesses have the same destiny.

Antiochus did not fulfil any week and he confirmed no covenant. On the other hand the two witnesses polluted God's holy sanctuary (the place of safety) with their dead bodies and fulfilled the covenant of preaching the Gospel to the world for 3½ years (half of seven). Christ makes them satisfy the requirements when He shocks the world through their ministry and martyrdom. The ultimate fulfilment is Christ who was cut off in the middle of the week and comes back to finish the prophecy. All that He does then will be a shock, nobody will expect it and it will be appalling. It will be a combination of surprise, disgust and amazement. Combining Matthew, Mark and Luke who describe the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, (particularly Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, Luke 21:20) and tying in what was said by Daniel to the future fulfilment should make that clear.

the sacrifice and the oblation

I am going to repeat what I originally said in Revelation 8. For a more thorough explanation of offerings in general please look at my article on sacrifices. The Hebrew for oblation in Daniel is not the same as used in Levicticus and Numbers where the Hebrew is qrbn or qorban. According to wikipedia, in Judaism qorban is any of a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah. So in the Torah it could be any sacrifice. In Isaiah there are two Hebrew words translated as oblation. Isaiah 19:21 and 63:3 both employ minchah or mnche which means 1. a donation, 2. euphemistically, tribute, 3. specifically a sacrificial offering (usually bloodless and voluntary) according to Mickelson's Enhanced Strong's Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries (Mickelson). On the other hand in Isaiah 40:20 the Hebrew is truwmah for which Mickelson says that it means a present (as offered up), especially in sacrifice or as tribute. This is the same Hebrew used throughout Ezekiel. Daniel and Ezekiel are contemporaries and would both know Isaiah, who was a prophet to the lost Ten Tribes. So Isaiah presents two meanings one of which is in common with Ezekiel. Daniel uses the other word minchah used by Isaiah so Daniel is not intending to convey a meaning of blood sacrifice. According to the JewishEncyclopedia.com under the caption Burnt Offering, (@ 2016), bloodless offerings were made only in connection with the blood offerings i.e. you typically only made a bloodless offering if you had a blood offering to make as well.

The oblation was an additional sacrifice typically done to support the main sacrifice, but the blood sacrifice was the one to atone for sin. There is only one sacrifice for our sins and that was done by Christ alone at His death. Anything else would have to be an oblation. It can be bloodless or of blood. The oblation was a daily activity (Daniel 9:21). The daily oblation was typically a meal offering except perhaps in the case of the peace offering [Leviticus 3:1] and could also be jewels [Numbers 31:50]. The oblation is typically a voluntary offering and usually bloodless as in Christ's work on earth or the work of the two witnesses. Christ's death was the main sacrifice that followed but it is also seen in the two witnesses. A renewed oblation continues right now with Christ as our advocate but we do not have time to go into that in detail. Martyrs like the two witnesses would be an oblation but the most important oblation is Christ's intercessory work as our advocate.

Any work that we do in support of Him must of necessity fall into the realm of oblation.

Desolation or Stun/Shock

The true abomination and sacrifice was Christ's death which created the New Covenant; And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. [16] For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. [17] For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth(Hebrews 9:15-17 [KJV]). From Daniel 9:27 abominations will follow the Church until something happens to the desolate. Back in verse 26 we saw who does all of this.

All of that applies to Christ but only parts may apply to Antiochus. Christ was crucified ending the first part of His week, then the physical destruction of Jerusalem occurred over thirty years after. Emperor Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, lasted only two years so he was gone as quickly as a flood. Until the end of the war/battle there will be desolations. Then in Daniel 9:27 the cutting off of the messiah spoken of in verse 26 of that chapter, is further clarified. It will occur half-way through the final week. So Christ dies in the middle of that week leaving half to go to completely confirm the covenant, but remember from above that it is also He that shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate. It is Christ who will end the sacrifice and oblations, not a man, and it is Christ that will cause the desolation, not a general. This is not to say that some human is not also actively involved. He has already done the main sacrifice but these oblations continue.

According to Mickelson, desolate is translated from Hebrew shamem which means to stun (or intransitively, grow numb), i.e. devastate or (figuratively) stupefy (both usually in a passive sense). KJV: make amazed, be astonished...

Combine that with what Isaiah said. The same word is translated as astonied in Isaiah.

Using the translation from Isaiah, verse 27 of Daniel 9 says that Christ stuns or stupefies or astonishes or shocks, not destroys. Christ shocked them with what happened to him in that beating among other things and many other shocking things will happen until the absolute consummation. They will be shocked by His return. One of those things will be the two witnesses that we discussed in Revelation 11. The first time the consummation was His death but the final time it will be His coming as king. Notice the difference between KJV and the NET. The one who maketh desolate (i.e. shocks or stuns) will come on the wings of abomination and will continue until the decreed end or consummation on the person that maketh desolate or stuns. This cannot be Antiochus Epiphanes. This resolves to Christ who came over a century later and the next people to stun will be the two witnesses working as His representatives. Antiochus only contributes to half of a week at best but this person does the whole week. The morning and evening sacrifice of importance that stopped was the one in heaven. Under the old testament/covenant it was stopped when there was no God to offer to, since He was on earth and they did not receive Him. How do you sacrifice if you have rejected the one to receive the sacrifice and the person is suffering your abuse? His death ended it completely. It will happen again in the end-time but what triggers it is where we need to reduce the obscurity. It seems to involve the two witnesses. God is a master at language and one prophecy tells two stories. Depending on whether you focus on desolation or on shock you get a different story, but both stories are true. One is of Christ and the other is of the evil one.

I cannot remember where I heard it or read it but I find it useful. When someone from the east is presented with information that resolves to two different solutions they accept that both are true. People from the west assume that one is false. The Old Testament was written by people from the East for people from the east. In the matter of the abomination of desolation and related matters the solution lies primarily in Christ but also resolves to human actors.

Daniel 10-12

Even though Daniel 10 is a separate chapter it is linked to Daniel 11-12. Daniel 10 was revealed in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia and advances its objective as informing Daniel of the angels' intention to make known that which is noted in the scripture of truth (Daniel 10:21) and the resistance that they had so far encountered. In other words he was not being neglected but circumstances were frustrating their efforts to make that information available. The specific information that Daniel desired appears to be the same thing that he sought after since Chapter 2, i.e. understanding of how the kingdom of God will be established. In spite of that they were determined to get it for Daniel and were hence in a conflict over it. Cyrus was king of many things, King of Anshan, King of the Medes, King of Babylon. I would have to assume that in Daniel 10 it means his third year as king of Babylon, which is around two years after the Jews were liberated. According to Daniel 11:2, Chapter 11 seeks to fulfil the promise made in Daniel 10:21.

The vision of Daniel 11 occurred the same time as that of Daniel 10, i.e. in the third year of Cyrus which is the same as the third year of Darius, even though it starts out with Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede. That quotation refers to how long the angel said that he had supported Darius i.e. since his first year, Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him (Daniel 11:1 [KJV]). In the vision Daniel talks of the King of the North and the King of the South as the dominant answer that Gabriel provided to his promise in Daniel 10:21, and the story continues on to the end of Daniel 12. Since the revelation of Daniel 10 was given 2 years after the captivity ended (Daniel 10:1), Daniel was no longer puzzled by Isaiah and the 70 years of captivity, but by the status of the nation of Israel in the world, and the absence of the expected king and messiah. We will see that this vision has the same overall objective as Daniel 8 and Daniel 9 but seeks to give Daniel more details. According to the Bible the seventy years ended during the reign of Cyrus (2 Chronicles 36:20-21, Ezra 1:1, Ezra 3:1). Daniel 10-12 was all given in the third year of Darius. We know from Daniel 5, the chapter with the MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN, that the first year of Darius was the year that Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians because In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. [31] And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old, (Daniel 5:30-31 [KJV]). The first year of Darius and the first year of Cyrus are therefore the same but nevertheless Daniel makes the distinction. I propose that in Daniel 10:1, he dates the scenario by the reigning emperor of the whole empire while details are linked to Darius, who had actually taken the city and was to remain as its caretaker. Darius had the assistance of Gabriel (Daniel 11:1) who apparently ensured that the instructions in the Scripture of Truth were implemented. There is more than one Antiochus in the history of the Greeks but the infamous one associated with the Bible in most minds is Antiochus IV Epiphanes whom I refer to as just Antiochus in this article. Actually the Bible does not mention Antiochus at all. Antiochus appears in Daniel 8 as the little horn and as the King of the South in Chapter 11. Daniel 10-12 presents the King of the North and the King of the South and goes past the Greeks (where Daniel 8 ended) through to the Romans. The Romans now represent the end time and Antiochus is now represented in a time-frame with the Romans.  Antiochus enters the story in Daniel 11:21. In Daniel 11:18-19 his father Antiochus III turns his attention to the Mediterranean by invading Greece in 192 BC. The Roman Republic (not the empire as yet) recognised him as a threat and defeat him at the Battle of Thermopylae (191 BC) and the Battle of Magnesia (190 BC). Antiochus III is forced to sign the Treaty of Apamea (188 BC) in which he relinquishes territory, has his army and navy downsized and is forced to pay the costs of the war. He also has to surrender hostages, one of whom is his younger son Antiochus who later becomes Antiochus IV Epiphanes, this article's Antiochus. Antiochus, who was actually a Greek, lived from 215 B.C. to November/December 164 B.C. and was a king of the Seleucid Empire from 175 B.C. until his death in 164 B.C. The Roman republic was founded in 509 BC and was dissolved to form the Empire which existed from 27 BC to 476 AD and exists as an extension of the King of the South in the Bible. In Daniel 11:33-35 we are introduced to the Church since some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white. This would be under the Roman Empire and the angels had not yet settled on the details of that. The abomination that maketh desolate appears in verse 31, before the Church or Messiah but the King of the South associated with Antiochus continues to the end-time. In other words, in Daniel 8 which was revealed in the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar, Antiochus is represented in the Greek Empire in verse 23-25 as the one that assaulted the Kingdom of God. In Daniel 9, which was revealed in the first year of Darius (Daniel 9:1), there is no Antiochus, just the Messiah and the end time (although Antiochus can be imposed on it). In Daniel 10-12 Antiochus is active as a Greek in a period ending with and dominated by the Roman Empire. Antiochus is introduced in Daniel 11:21 and dominates the stage up to the end of the chapter but subject to the Romans. After the time of the Romans Michael is introduced in chapter 12. Before this Daniel apparently thought that the end would not be far, perhaps in the Greek dynasty, but now he understands that it is far off (Daniel 11:1-2). It would end as a cycle of the Roman system which would be hundreds of years off. Chapter 10 ends with a promise that Daniel would be given to understand what was noted in the scripture of truth. The events of Daniel 11-12 are intended to satisfy that promise and appear to show Daniel the truth(Daniel 11:2) that was so far recorded there. These archangels had been pressing to get as many details as possible into the scripture of truth so that they could pass them on to Daniel. Apparently Michael and Gabriel were contending at the time of Daniel 10 (Daniel 10:20) with whoever was responsible for the future of Persia to establish more details of the truth. We know that they avoid disputes with Satan, Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee (Jude 1:9 [KJV]). It is reasonable to assume that they would not engage in needless battles and this is most likely a dispute of the type just mentioned or like the Temptations was to Christ where one resorts to it is written. Look at the Hebrew word used. It is Strong's H3898 lacham which is defined as 1. to feed on. 2. (figuratively) to consume. 3. (by implication) to battle (as destruction). They were going back to feed mentally, i.e. to extract and consume information and destroy opposition and misinformation. Since they appear to be responsible for the implementation of the details, they were also keen to have them recorded (i.e. the scope of works). They had been wrangling with the one who was controlling the destiny of Persia and would go back to deal with the one controlling the future of Greece. From the details of Daniel 11 they had that pretty much sewn up. I assume that they dealt with Rome following that and so were able to provide the details of Revelation to John when that time came. This should tell us about our world. The destiny of nations is apparently debated and a chronicle is written in the scripture of truth. Whatever is written there is made to become the reality. As it became more detailed Daniel was getting clearer reports. It means that through prayer we can affect what is written in that book and hence our destiny. You can compare the events following the Last Supper where Christ prayed that He would not have to suffer crucifixion but when it was set did not resist any more. Now getting back to what is written there.

The background to receiving the prophecy is found in Daniel 10. In the third year of Cyrus we have Gabriel again sent to Daniel to explain what will happen to Israel over the same period as before (Daniel 10:14), that period is the deliverance of Israel and the establishment of the Kingdom according to God's covenant. It does not appear as though Daniel had understood before but now he thinks that he does (verse 1) although not completely (Daniel 12:8). He told Daniel that what he was passing on was already written in something called the scripture of truth (Daniel:10:21). What he actually told Daniel about the future abomination written in that book is found in Daniel 11 and 12. Concerning Antiochus it is recorded that , And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate, Daniel 11:31 (KJV).

The Sanctuary of Strength

The main predictions concerning the developments to the reign of Israel are found in Daniel 11 where the antagonists are referred to as the King of the North and the King of the South. These predictions proceed to the Roman Empire and the time of Christ, then in Daniel 12 there is a conclusion. The human perpetrator of the abomination is the same Antiochus Epiphanes because he is who assaults Israel, therefore this is at least a parallel, but more likely an interlocking or intermeshed, prophecy to the ones before. Daniel 11 tells us that they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength. The sanctuary is a place of protection or Place of Safety as in the place prepared of God in Revelation 12:6. Strength is translated from a word that means fortified. By replacing sanctuary with place of safety and replacing strength with fortified we get that in the future this army will pollute the fortified place of safety and I believe that it will be with the two witnesses' corpses.

Antiochus Epiphanes, Christ and the two witnesses

It is clear that Antiochus Epiphanes and Christ are linked in these prophesies and that is well accepted, what might be new to readers is the link that I have drawn to the two witnesses. From Daniel we know that it is talking about events at the time of the end (Daniel 8:17) and Antiochus Epiphanes does not survive until the time of the end. From history we know that the role played by Antiochus does not satisfy the prophetic character in full. Antiochus had no covenant with the Jews and he did not fulfil any week. Christ fulfils it all in that he did both of those as well as the desolation/shock which resulted from the overspreading of abominations.

The true fulfilment of the events of Daniel 12 occur long after Antiochus Epiphanes. Remember from Daniel 9, that there will be an overspreading and a consummation, so there is a continuation to a worse desolation caused by a worse abomination down to a final conclusion. I say worse here in a broad sense which could simply mean on a larger scale. When the book was written there were no chapters. Daniel 11 ends with He will pitch his royal tents between the seas toward the beautiful holy mountain. But he will come to his end, with no one to help him, (Dan 11:45 [NET]). This person pitches his tent in the area of Jerusalem and is undone. At that same time Michael steps in according to the next verse which is Daniel 12:1. Revelation 12:7 indicates a fight with Michael against the Dragon. Daniel 12 describes the consummation (the final conclusion) and it seems clear from verse 1, And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation . . ., that Michael will have to fight, and so this will also be a fight of angels. There is no fight of angels after Christ returns and takes over so this has to be before. The and at the beginning of the verse is linking what follows, and we know that it is the 3½ years because it is the worst time that there will be. The position of the and in Daniel indicates that the fight just precedes the 3½ years. Revelation 12 and Daniel 12 are linked because Revelation 12 says And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,(Rev 12:7 [KJV]). Furthermore we will see later that the context of that verse in Revelation also indicates a fight immediately before the 3½ years. Getting back to Daniel 12, then in verse 5 Daniel asks Christ about the timing of the end (i.e. the consummation) and He tells him. The Hebrew word translated as set up has a wide range of meanings having to do with establishing or beginning something but Mark and Matthew use Greek and talk about standing which could just mean remaining.

The mere fact that Matthew and Mark mention it as a future event tells us that it was not really fulfilled by Antiochus. Half of the prophecy is fulfilled by the combination of Christ's work and the actions of Antiochus Epiphanes but the second part has never been done. John wrote the Book of Revelation in exile on the Isle of Patmos about 95 A.D. and he does not specifically mention the abomination of desolation, but that does not mean that it has been fulfilled. Some identify the fulfilment as the destruction of Jerusalem led by the the then future emperor Titus in 70 A.D., but that is a red herring because all of the real work has to fit into the seven years of Christ's ministry and he was long resurrected by then. If this abomination of desolation is so important as to be repeated in Matthew and Mark then why would John ignore it? The answer is that he does not. The prophecy in Revelation focuses on its future fulfilment which involves the other half, Christ again and some new actor identified as the beast, so it has to be there.

We saw earlier from Daniel 9:27 that it is Christ that is responsible for the desolation/shock which results from the overspreading of abominations and He starts it by the end of the first half of the week when He was cut off, i.e. before the beginning of the final 3½ years. In Daniel 11:31 the initial abomination is performed by Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes) in 167 B.C. causing the shock/desolation, so does the abomination of desolation take place before or after the final 3½ years?

These verses seem to say that it happens before (i.e. before 1,290 days), but Luke says: Luke 21:20 (KJV) And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. The armies surround Jerusalem at the end when Christ comes. In my opinion the answer is that it starts at the beginning of the final 3½ years (or at the end of the the first 3½ years or both) and progresses and intensifies over the period. The previous abomination (the death of Christ) was set up 3½ years before, when His ministry began and it was consummated by His death. The next one will start with the ministry of the two witnesses and climax with their deaths and end with the return of Christ. This makes even more sense in light of Matthew 24:28, For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together (KJV), and Mark 6:29 where in both cases the word carcase refers to a corpse, as would be with Revelation 11:8-9 where it refers to the bodies of the two witnesses. The proper translation of Strong's G105 used in Matthew 24:28 is actually eagle, not vulture as sometimes happens with its Hebrew counterpart. Eagles are predators so this is talking about the result of a kill. The eagle will stand over its kill. The normal daily sacrifice in heaven that covers the Church would have been focussed on (i.e. ensuring the success of) the work of the two witnesses as an oblation. In addition if Michael kicks out Satan and he no longer has a place in heaven, then any daily sacrifice/oblation that required him (Satan, let's say as the presenter or even as prosecution or an accuser) can no longer be conducted in heaven. The contending is on Earth between Satan and the Two Witnesses who stand over him from Revelation 11. I talked earlier about the morning and evening oblation where that has to do with the Holy Spirit and Christ's intercessory work as our advocate in heaven. The daily sacrifice in heaven (with Christ as our advocate defending us against the accuser) is therefore pre-empted in a way, because Satan cannot go there to carry out his job as accuser or prosecution. It (the daily sacrifice) continues with the work of the two witnesses, who act directly on behalf of Christ on Earth against Satan from the beginning of the 3½ years. By Revelation 12 Satan gets cut off from access to heaven, hence the daily sacrifice (whatever ritual he was involved in a functionary) is interrupted, then for the 3½ years the two witnesses are able to operate on earth unhindered by his meddling from heaven. He cannot go behind their backs. So to summarise: Christ's death, resurrection and ascension ends one 3½ years and work jumps forward to the second 3½ years at which time Satan is kicked out and and he has to deal directly with the two witnesses who are then above him, at least in the respect that he cannot harm them. He cannot pull any stunts from heaven to be included in the scripture of truth.

Many people use the above quotation to substantiate their interpretation of ending the daily sacrifice as an earthly event but we have to pull all of the pieces together. First notice that this seems to be a kind of reference to the 3½ years, a time, times, and an half, and I will deal with that shortly. Next notice how it ties in with the message to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 3 and 4. The extract above begins in verse 5 with Christ, who was introduced in Daniel 10:4-5, now joined by two others who also have an interest in supporting the work (olive branches Zechariah 4:12). But hidden beneath the obscure words is a more striking connection to the two witnesses. In verse 7 Christ holds up two hands to heaven. Why two? Then He talks of the hand of the people being scattered according to the KJV. Did He say scatter or shatter? The Hebrew word naphats translated as scatter also means shatter. The Hebrew word yad translated as power actually means hand, but has three secondary meanings in Hebrew. You can find this in the Hebrew virtual Library at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yad.

(1) The pointer used by the reader to indicate the place during the reading of the Torah (see *Torah Ornaments)...

The other two meanings are (2) A memorial or a monument and (3) The Mishneh Torah of Maimonides. The traditional shape of the pointer - from meaning (1) - is a long arm with a closed fist at the top except for the index finger pointing. I would say that each hand will be shattered. It will be the right hand first with Christ followed by the left hand of the two witnesses. The two witnesses act as the single pointer that will be shattered next. They keep people focussed on where they are from the Bible. Their ministry lasts 1,260 days so by the end of the 1,290 days they will already be dead. Christ and the two witnesses are involved in the abomination of desolation from the perspective of shock or astonishment while the Antiochus character is the cause of desolation.

Resolving the 2,555 days and the 2,300 days with the 1,260 days and the 1,290 days

From Daniel 12:11-13 we get [i] the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up (1,290 days), [ii] a blessing for reaching 1,335 days. We will be dealing with the 1,335 days shortly but not right now. We have used Daniel 8:13-14 and discussed it's reference to 2,300 days for cleansing the sanctuary. From Daniel 9:20-27 we have discovered that there was 7 years (2,555 days) allotted for Christ to work with. My next steps will be an attempt to rationalise this information with Revelation 12.

First let me recap some of the points that I have tried to establish:

• The events of Daniel 8:13-14 (where there are two thousand and three hundred days until the sanctuary is cleansed), demonstrated that Daniel 8 describes to the same process to the establishment of the Kingdom found in Revelation 12 hence the 2,300 days apply to both.
  
• The difference between the 2,555 days and the 2,300 days is 255 days giving 8½ months (I call it the cleansing bypass) short of the seven years
• The process of cleansing and ending of the sacrifice has to start before the resurrection (because that would push it past the second coming) but after the beginning of His ministry and fit into the 7 years hence I proposed:
  • Christ baptised beginning the 2,555 days
  • Daily sacrifice ended about 4½ months (6 months overspill from Passover - 40 days between Passover and Ascension) later following the next passover, at which Jews would have sacrificed to another God
  • Beginning of the cleansing was 4 months after that. He begins to call disciples which begins the 2,300 Days
  • Ministry ends ten days before Pentecost at His Ascension, or at Pentecost (Acts 1:1-5) ending the first 3½ years and is the type for the full 7 years
    
• The end of the type for the 2,300 days (Christ's ministry) representing the cleansing of the sanctuary
• All of the cleansing of all these hosts is done during the 2,300 days period (the full almost 7 years) and Satan will no longer be able to cast down or tread under foot. Notice however, that the sanctuary contains two cherubim that protect the Most Holy Place

The 2,555 days is the seven years and is fixed for Christ's ministry. The 2,300 days is fixed for cleansing the sanctuary. Consider that in Revelation 8:2-6 we have an unexpected event. The angels appear as though they will do the daily sacrifice but instead the High Priest throws the coals into the earth indicating that there is no regular sacrifice. In Daniel 12:10-12 it shows that the sacrifice will be taken away for 1,290 days, i.e. about a month (30 days) before the 3½ years when Christ starts back His work. The full cleansing of the sanctuary takes almost seven years (Daniel 8:13-14) but in discussing Daniel 8, I showed that it will be finished when Christ comes just as the type was finished by Pentecost. Daniel 12:11 (daily sacrifice taken away AND abomination set up) ties the ending of the daily sacrifice to the abomination of desolation. That being so, then the High Priest of Revelation 8:3-4 (where he cast the coals into the earth thereby taking away or ending the sacrifice) and the protagonist of Daniel 9:26-27 (Messiah cut off, the sacrifice and the oblation cease, confirm the covenant etc.) act as a unit and in my opinion refer to the same person, Christ. Revelation 11:3 says that the two witnesses prophesy for 1,260 days so the ended daily sacrifice (1,290 days from Daniel 12:11) covers the time that they preach plus some extra time. We know that the ending of the daily sacrifice is a yet future event and we know that Christ has only 3½ years (1,260 days) left for the work of redemption so something is out of sync. Consider also that there is an issue to be resolved between Daniel 8 and Daniel 12 and maybe these can all be resolved together.

The 1,260 day and the 1,290 day conflict

I have illustrated the essence of the second phase of establishing the kingdom in the following table.

We are now focusing on the 1,290 days in Daniel 12:11 quoted above. It depends on taking away the daily sacrifice and having the abomination of desolation set up. I believe that I have established that Christ ends the daily sacrifice. If it is work that He does then it must fit into the 7 years that He has available to work. Going back to Daniel 8, ending the daily sacrifice falls short of the seven years by (2,555 - 2,300 = 255 days /30 = 8.5) 8½ months. Fall short means fall within the time He has available so this is no problem. Matthew and Mark (Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14) push the abomination into the future and so it also applies to the coming 3½ years. In Daniel 12 it is using the time and times and a half to represent the same 3½ years or 1,260 days and 1,260 - 1,290 = -30. This is really odd because when 1,290 is compared to the time allowed for ending of the sacrifice it overshoots the last 3½ years that He has by 30 days. The work of ending the Daily sacrifice etc. has to be finished by Christ's return. We have shown that whatever Christ does that is required for ending the daily sacrifice starts 8.5 months into His ministry (the first 3½ years) but now we see some other process needed to end it starts one month before the final 3½ years begins. This cannot be done by Christ. If you accept that the two witnesses operate within the 1,260 days it cannot be attributed to them either. Somehow it seems that there is a month of work which does not relate to the redemption of man (which is Christ's ministry) but is critical to cleansing the sanctuary and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Christ starts the cleansing in the first 3½ years and has a final 3½ years to go. If we use 3½ years = 360 x 3½ = 1,260 as in Revelation 11:3, we get an excess of 1,290 -1,260 = 30 days of work required to cleanse the sanctuary, but that cannot be done by the Messiah in His 7 years of redemptive work for mankind and it cannot be done by the two witnesses. 30 days is a nice round number for a month but . . .

I have resolved this 1,290 days to my satisfaction. To me Michael does his part in expelling Satan during the heavenly signs of the sixth seal when the 1,290 days begin but the 3½ years of Christ's work will not start for another ½ hour. I am referring to the half-hour of silence of Revelation 8:1 where there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour and that may be just enough time to set up the two witnesses and seal the rest of the Church. It is during that same half-hour where there are heavenly signs and where Satan and Michael fight. It is sad. What does that half-hour translate to? The Jews divided daylight into 12 hours. Christ asked His disciples, Are there not twelve hours in the day? (John 11:9) i.e. from sunrise to sunset. In Matthew 20:1-12 the householder went out from early to hire workers and continued doing so until the eleventh hour (verse 9) so that they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. There were apparently an additional 12 hours in the night. Luke says that it was at the third hour of the night (Acts 23 :23) that they prepared to send Paul safely to Felix. Hours in daylight could not have been the same length as those at night nor were they the same length throughout the year so we are talking about something that is naturally imprecise. We worked out that the seven days were seven years by using a principle of one year in real time for a day in the prophecy. That was for Daniel 9 but maybe it extends to Revelation 8. Half an hour in prophecy could therefore be 1/24 of a year i.e. ½ of a month or 15 days. But remember that an hour in time can vary considerably in real elapsed time and it might have been used in order to be intentionally vague. By one calculation we just got 30 days for the ½ hour. That calculation used something from Revelation 11:3 (3½ years as 1,260 days) to work out something stated in Daniel 12:11 (1,290 days). Daniel does not give us 1,260 days for 3½ years. I can precisely calculate half of 7 years (i.e. the 3½ years) to be 2,555/2 which is 1,277.5 by using time from Daniel alone. What if the correct value to use for the 3½ years when calculating the half hour of silence is 1,277.5 instead of 1,260 days? 1,290 - 1,277.5 = 12.5 days which is very close to 15 days for ½ hour which we worked out by using the day-for-a-year principle of Daniel 9. We also demonstrated that it could be an intentionally imprecise duration. The pieces fit for an angelic fight in Revelation 12 and Daniel 8 is part of what sets up the abomination, but does not bring it to consummation. That half an hour is technically not in Christ's redeeming work of 7 years, but it is definitely something that must never happen again, hence it is so serious that it has a seal dedicated to it, but in so as far as the redemption of earth by Christ is concerned, it is pretty lights in the sky. It is done by angels to redeem what goes on in the heavenly sanctuary, so for man the details are irrelevant. Up to this point (the sixth seal) the seals represent things that occur all through history but then certain isolated events begin.

In my opinion there is a fulfilment of the ending of the daily sacrifice early on in the first half of Christ's seven year Ministry but the final phase of ending of the daily sacrifice, and the final phase of cleansing of the sanctuary, develops around the final 3½ years. It may well begin with this development in heaven where Satan can no longer perform any duties in heaven and the Saints are not yet there to fill the void. There must be reports for Earth (Job 1:6, Job 2:1). There may be no earthly sacrifice at all. From the time that the abomination is set up or set in motion and the daily sacrifice ends, there will be 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11) to its consummation. We will read of the increasing desolation/shock from death and destruction caused by war, insects and other disasters culminating with the death of the two witnesses. The consummation could alternatively include when the city is ravaged following the death of the two witnesses, or when Christ utterly destroys soldiers in the valley, or just His appearance on earth as King of Kings, but I believe the climax or definitive event to be the death of the witnesses.

The 1,335 days

I have also included this in the table above illustrating the final phase. I have just set the 1,290 days to end the same time as the return of Christ. There is also a period of 1,335 days (Daniel 12:12) which is 45 days longer than the 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11).

It does not state the purpose of this period or say specifically how this period starts or ends but in my opinion the context suggests that it starts the same time as the 1,290 days which I claim is the part of ending of the daily sacrifice performed by the angels. I believe that it ends with the re-establishment of God's government including  sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem again. My assumption introduces an error of up to 30 days because it could also start at the 1,260 days for the the 3½ years based on Revelation 11:3, but remember that Daniel gives no 1,260 days. I believe that the context implies that the blessing will be on those who see the whole thing through, from start to finish. In other words it covers everything that is left to do in order to properly organise the Kingdom. Daniel 12 is talking about the 3½ years, which we just demonstrated has a half hour wait of activity preceding it relating to the Kingdom of God. This 1,335 days must begin with that because that sets everything in motion for the second half of the work, so we subtract the 1,290 from the 1,335 days giving 45 days. If we assume that the 1,290 days ends with Christ's return, then we take away the 10 days for the Day of the LORD and there are 35 days left (just over a month). This is just enough time to install the new world leaders, organise the new world governance system and fix the ailing Earth. How does that fit? If Christ returns on trumpets (the first of the 7^th. month) then the Feasts will end on the 22^nd. of that same month. If there is a double Feast it will end on the 29^th. So what could be so important? The Millennium is the future 1,000 years of peace when They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9 [KJV]), and I propose that this is its official beginning.

Breaking down Revelation 12

Now that I have finished recapping Daniel I can move on to deal directly with Revelation. The recap was intended to show that John is continuing from Daniel and has been given an update on what was written in the scripture of truth to pass on to us. Our challenge is to establish where Revelation 12 fits in.

Daily oblation

We cannot cover this topic (Daily Oblation) thoroughly here so I am only making a point that there is a daily oblation (additional and bloodless sacrifice) in heaven. We know that the daily sacrifice took place twice a day

we also know that there was a daily oblation at the time of Daniel.

And we know that an oblation is not necessarily a blood sacrifice although it typically accompanies a sacrifice.

And we know that Satan accuses the brethren night and day.

But it cannot be all night and all day because his access to God is controlled.

It seems like Satan accompanies the other senior angels when they appear before God. This could be something that occurs twice a day and at that time Christ defends us against any accusations.

Since an oblation is a type of sacrifice this is a hint that there is a daily oblation in heaven. If we go on  to read Hebrews 10 it becomes even more evident. I will just reproduce a snippet here.

That actually continues on from Hebrews 9:14-27. The point that I am making is that the oblation continues with Christ's work as advocate of the New Covenant and if similar work was conducted under the Old Covenant then that work was an oblation too. It is obvious from above that angels participated. If you want more evidence you can read onward from I Kings 22:20 concerning the participation of demons in the death of Ahab.

Working Within a System

The system that exists is God (Christ and the Father supreme and incomparable) the archangels (Michael, Gabriel and Satan until he is removed) followed by other angels under them. The angels under Satan are called demons. Another system is being set up under Christ apart from the archangels. Christ starts Revelation 12 by giving some background. He introduces the Church first but then a great red dragon appears on the scene. This dragon is obviously Satan (Revelation 20:2). The Greek word used for dragon according to Mickelson's Enhanced Strong's Dictionaries of the Greek and Hebrew Testaments is Strong's G1404, Greek: δράκων, drakon: a fabulous kind of serpent. Why is this dragon around?

Christ tells the disciples don't be surprised that Satan and his demons are no threat to Him. Satan was dealt with summarily but apparently Christ did not do it, He just saw it. From the context of Revelation 12:4 the demons were Satan's co-conspirators. As I see it God (Christ or the Father) does not need any help to deal with Satan and all of his demons put together, nevertheless the scripture does not say that it was the Father that dealt with him either, although I believe that it was. I believe that most of that threat was addressed by Michael and Gabriel. If their job is to defend the mercy seat (seat of Atonement), any attack would have to breach them first. It may be that Satan used the demons as a diversion to occupy them while he approached God the Father and got a severe whipping. What Christ describes is the result of an almighty wallop with pinpoint accuracy like a Lawn Tennis ace from a backhand. It describes a blinding strike to instantaneous acceleration followed by being brought to a sudden and abrupt stop at a precise pre-determined location. This was a no-contest. It was not evenly matched. I believe that Michael and Gabriel did their job and continue to do their job successfully as is represented in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle but missed dealing with Satan before. He breached them. Remember that the Tabernacle is a house for God. It was built on a pattern of heavenly things i.e. it represents how God lives in heaven. Evidently Satan set out to overthrow God. Satan is the prince of this world and His actions will cause him to be cast out from that position.

Isaiah can be interpreted to suggest that the resurrected saints will be amazed that they once feared Satan.

Isaiah and John are both referring to the same thing. In Revelation 12:5,12:12-13 we see that it had not yet happened when the brethren were being accused before God day and night. The brethren are accused to their master because He is the one who can take action (proverbs 30:10). While it does not say this specifically, this suggests to me that Satan accuses the brethren over the life of the Church up to the end and hence must have access up to the end.

By access to the end I do not intend to claim direct or continuous access up to the very end. By the time he is cast down he used to accuse them night and day. That implies that his status changed.

Michael is an archangel.

Gabriel also appears to be of the same rank.

They seem to be called chief princes in the book of Daniel.

Now this happened during the reign of Cyrus the Persian king. Cyrus' kingdom was being controlled by a spiritual being. Spiritual wickedness in high places.

Michael and Gabriel avoid open confrontation with Satan.

But Satan intends to hold on to power. In the time of Cyrus preparations were already in place for the next kingdom which would be Greece (Grecia). As he told Christ at the Temptations, he controls earth, and from all evidence in and out of the Bible, he has no intention of losing it.

Tracing the word prince in the book of Daniel tells an interesting story. It starts out in Daniel 1:3 as H6579 (Hebrew partam: a nobleman of the highest order). At this point it describes Daniel and the other captive youths. In the rest of Daniel 1 (verses 7-18) H8269 (Hebrew sar: any type of head person) apparently refers to Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs. Throughout Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 there is H324 Hebrew achashdarpan: a satrap or governor of a main province. In Daniel 8 sar (head person) is used once again. In verse 11 it says that Satan magnified himself to the prince of the host, just prince, but in verse 25 he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, i.e. head-person of head-persons implying head-person of ALL head-persons. Is this the same as the New Testament King of Kings and Lord of Lords in 1 Timothy 6:15 and Revelation 17:14, 19:16? In Daniel 12:1 sar is used as in Daniel 8. If this is true then Satan never actually reached Christ the first time that he challenged heaven but will stand up against (not battle) God/Christ vehemently. In Daniel 12:1 Michael stands up but for God. Michael and Gabriel together have the responsibility to protect the mercy seat and, as I see it, that means protect Israel and defend access to God. In Daniel 9 prince is found in verses 25 and 26 but here it is H5057 (Hebrew nagiyd) referring to a commander that is on the front line, and the word translated people means people as a congregated unit like a tribe, or troops. It is once again used in this context in Daniel 11:22 when speaking of the kings of the North and South. The remaining places are Daniel 10:13 and 20 cited above where sar is used to refer to the ones really ruling Persia and Greece. Take special note of sar.

Now to tie back to what is meant by Daniel 8:11-12. Remember that Christ only saw what happened even though He is captain of the Lord's host (Joshua 5:13-15). Perhaps angels bring daily offerings/oblations to God and Satan engineered his attack to coincide with that. The daily oblation would have been made to the mercy seat by a representative and at that time it seems to have been all angels. It appears that Cain and Abel and their sacrifices duplicated the attitude of Satan versus that of the other archangels.

Compare the NET version.

Daniel 8:11 says that Satan magnified himself to the Prince of the host, but in verse 25 Daniel talks of the Prince of princes. From Joshua 5:14 the captain of the host of the Lord is Christ who I also believe is ultimately the Prince of the host, but I am also claiming that verse 11 indicates that this is an action of Satan advancing against Michael or Gabriel a prince, and hence a prince of the host at a lesser level, and somehow disrupting the daily oblation of angels. For support you can examine these following verses.

This is not the same event as Revelation 8:3-6 in my opinion. Whose sanctuary was cast down? A sanctuary is something placed around or about a holy thing or place to protect it or a place of refuge or safety. God's safety has never been in question. On the other hand Satan's protective influence over holy things was cast down and his offerings rejected. His daily sacrifice ceased. This may be a daily report and offering of what they have produced. Prince is singular so it is only one, and most likely Michael, because his name is mentioned in battle. There is no continual daily sacrifice on earth for man now, but our advocate defends us night and day in heaven. From Job some event seems to happen regularly. Maybe the process is assisted by Michael.

Notice that this prince standeth for perhaps meaning presents progress reports on Israel. If this prince has to be otherwise occupied then it could mean that the daily sacrifice would be interrupted because of lack of representation. Notice that the demons readily present obstacles to God's intentions and delayed this action by three weeks. God cannot tolerate that when He is dealing with the resurrection. It must happen in the twinkling of an eye.

It will be one or both of these chief angels that will help direct the resurrection.

Since Michael has this responsibility he is the one that is named to make sure that every loophole is plugged and Satan is properly restricted before the resurrection (Revelation 12:7-17).

Now we could go into the two cherubs that protect the garden of Eden and the two cherubs marking the way to the mercy seat. Interestingly there were two men with Christ when he ascended, Acts 1:6-12. Two cherubim protect the Mercy Seat. I can't say for sure that God did not promote someone to archangel when one rebelled or if there were three before but it certainly seems that only two remain; so let us start instead at Leviticus 16 and combine Revelation 6 and Revelation 8 with Revelation 12 to settle the perspective.

Recap Revelation 6

When we were discussing the sixth seal in Revelation 6:12-17, I said that we would be discussing a more likely reason for the stars falling than a meteor shower. I said that it could have been God repositioning the planet but I also said that I thought that there was another explanation. This explanation is the subject of Revelation 12. In Revelation 6 God shows what happens when the sixth seal is opened but notice that the seventh seal is not opened until Revelation 8. By Revelation something had already happened that caused the sacrifice there to be aborted. That something had to have happened before and caused the expected sacrifice to cease, so we can look for it in the sixth seal. In the sixth seal there were heavenly signs. Islands shook (Revelation 6:12) and verse 13 says that the stars of heaven fell. Why? Whatever happened in the sixth seal caused the 144,000 to be sealed for their protection in Revelation 7. I am proposing that this is the angelic battle that is mentioned in Revelation 12. It does not say that any human beings were hurt or that it was God's intention to hurt humans, only that they were terribly afraid (verse 15-17). In verse 14 the mountains and islands shaking could be that God also takes this opportunity to begin altering the orbit of the earth although I believe that the majority of this happens later.

Review of Revelation 8

Revelation 8 starts with a half hour of silence in heaven. Was it in honour of something or were they waiting for something that never appeared? It was now the seventh seal and it was associated with terminating/ending a regular sacrifice (verse 3-5) which I propose is the daily sacrifice, and blowing of the trumpets (verse 8). An angel came and stood at the altar and we knew that it was Christ because He had the golden censer. He was supposed to offer incense but the sacrifice was abandoned, instead He took coals from the golden altar and threw them into the Earth where Satan lives and there was an indication that some angry things happened (verse 5). Why would He throw it into the Earth and nowhere else? Depending on whether this is understood as a final rejection of a sacrifice offered by Satan or the prayers of saints (discussed before) speculations can differ. The trumpets/angels of Revelation 8:7-13 begin the 3½ years (which starts with the seventh seal) so it would not have started yet when the fire from the altar was thrown into the earth. In Daniel 8 verses 11-14 we have 2,300 days associated with the cleansing the sanctuary. That started with Christ calling disciples, but does Christ do everything for cleansing the sanctuary alone? It is during this period that the angelic responsibilities to the sanctuary would logically be cleansed as well. I identified this earlier as starting at Christ preaching the Gospel on Earth and ending with His return.

Digest Leviticus 16

Leviticus 16 outlines the Atonement ritual. Two goats were chosen. God selects one for the sacrifice and the events of the sacrifice proceed. This happens in verses 1-19 but by the time the other goat is lead away the sacrifice is already completed. The selection and sacrifice of the first goat take place in verses 1 to 19 and in the beginning of verse 20 it says in Leviticus 16:20 (KJV), And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. I propose that reconciling and cleansing is the same. From the time Christ is crucified it begins and ends with the taking away of the live goat. One fulfilment of verses 1-19 started to happen at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Now after all of that the live goat has to be lead away but it does not say how soon after and can begin any time after the Crucifixion. It is lead away by a fit man which might mean an archangel that subdued him. We must bear in mind that the absolute fulfilment happens after he (the high priest) has otherwise completely reconciled the temple or sanctuary on Earth, which is made after the pattern of the heavenly, so the heavenly sanctuary must be done likewise. Any unresolved issues with the most Holy Place (for example a challenge to the authority of the cherubim because of the vile heart of a goat) must also be reconciled before the sanctuary can be considered cleansed, hence the heavenly goat must also be lead away. This must happen within the 2,300 days allotted in Daniel 8:13-14 for the host and the sanctuary which are trodden under foot to be cleansed. So I ask myself why is the spirit of Satan not present during the millennium? It is no longer in heaven and it is not on Earth, why? We know that during the Millennium there will be no priest like Nadab or Abihu who will offer strange fire among the saints and nobody in heaven to accuse them. We may see when he is led away from Earth but when is he driven from heaven?

Digest Revelation 12

In Revelation 12:1-12 we see Christ AND the Church appear. Then Satan appears with his demons and tries to destroy Christ first. When he is bested by Christ as a human he goes after the Church but the Church gets protected a thousand two hundred and threescore days AND (i.e. in addition to this) there is a war and Satan gets kicked out of heaven by the other angels headed by Michael. This is what is being referred to in Daniel 12:1 where Michael stands up. There is a huge time span between Revelation 12:4, when ⅓ of the angels were initially cast down, and Revelation 12:9, when Satan is completely cast out and the heavenly sanctuary thereby cleansed. The description of Satan in Revelation 12:3 is one that implies that human kingdoms exist, because it follows the Church described in verses 1-2. Revelation 12:9 has not happened yet. God does not get involved in this war, only Michael's name is mentioned.

This issue with Satan, Michael and Gabriel (the two Cherubim/archangels and the ex) needs to be settled to purge the sanctuary forever but God does things smoothly and within a system. Job shows that Satan knows his place in subjection to God. He lost his standing in heaven (although he is not yet completely driven out) and wants it back. He thought that he could bamboozle God and trick his way back in when Christ went through the Temptations. He now thinks to defend his position against the other archangels and preserve his status when the time comes. You can tie in Daniel 10:13 here and see that it took two archangels to get the message to Daniel. This tells us two things. First there is no way that Gabriel would leave Michael to fight alone if he was not otherwise occupied (Daniel 10:13); and secondly Satan perhaps thinks that he can handle one. Satan has a temporary home on Earth. Michael and Gabriel need to prove that they are worthy to do their job of defending the heavenly sanctuary , especially at the resurrection when all must be accomplished flawlessly in the twinkling of an eye. In order to guarantee that Satan will be kicked out and so will not be able to disrupt plans in heaven. This will be when people on earth see the fireworks in the sky and the islands will shake because Satan, supported by the demons, will be driven to Earth. Maybe Gabriel will be on damage control to protect people from harm while Michael is on the attack. The stars that fall to earth will be the demons getting similar treatment from Michael and his angels to what happened to Satan in Luke 10. People will not necessarily come to any harm but it will be frightening. The only place left for Satan and his demons to live will be the earth but the Church will be the heirs of that so guess what they will do?

The thousand two hundred and threescore days

Revelation 12:6 mentions 1,260 days which translates to 42 months or 3½ years. A literal interpretation would be that the New Testament Church was driven into the wilderness for 3½ years after the resurrection. While the events surrounding the Bar Cochba revolt of AD 132-135 could be applied to this, that is only weak historical support since the Church endured persecution for much longer than that. The Jewish revolt which started in 66 AD and was crushed in AD 70 also creates a 3 year window to represent the 3½ years, but John would have known about this as history at the time of the writing of Revelation about AD 95. In any case there is only one 3½ year period that is left to account for Christ's work. Nevertheless there is some historical support for these views. The wilderness is certainly not literal but the reference in the Old Testament was to the harsh area between Egypt and the Promised Land where Israel went to worship God until they were allowed to enter the Promised Land (Jeremiah 2:6-7). The flood would translate to an army and the remnant would be those who remained in Jerusalem at the time.

The Jewish War of 66-70

In C.E. 66 the Jewish revolt broke out; in spite of some early successes, it was put down by the overwhelming force of the Roman legions in C.E. 70. Jerusalem was leveled and the Temple destroyed. Profound dislocations followed for the Jewish religion, which thenceforward was obliged to function without the Temple and its ceremonies, so central in ancient Jewish practice. Dislocations were also experienced by the Christians, for whom Jerusalem had been the center. A last desperate revolt by the Jews followed in C.E. 132-135, under Bar Cochba. It also was cruelly suppressed. A Roman colony was established on the ruins of Jerusalem, a temple to Jupiter was erected, and Jews were forbidden to enter the city.

the editor(s) of paulonpaul.orgThe History of Palestine in New Testament Timeswww.paulonpaul.orghttp://www.paulonpaul.org/booth/jewish_background.htmOct 15, 2011

The abomination that made the whole temple area desolate to Jews is to be considered for its prophetic value but bear in mind that the real work fits into the seven years. There are only two 3½ year periods and these make up the seven years to confirm the covenant in Daniel 9:20-27. The seventy weeks (or sevens) is broken down in to 62 weeks, 7 weeks and one remaining week. The 62 and the seven are accounted for in verses 25-26 where we have Command to rebuild + 7 weeks (49 years) --> Holy City Completed + (62 weeks) 434 years --> Messiah + (one week) 7 years -->covenant confirmed. AD 70 is way out of any 3½ year or any 7 year period in prophecy and hence it is not what Daniel and John are referring to.

In verse 26 we are told that messiah will somehow be cut off after the 62 weeks period and in verse 27 it is explained that this will be in the middle of the remaining week. This is the crucifixion after 3½ years. This leaves one half week (3½ years) remaining not many 3½ year periods so those in Revelation are the same period.

Ending of the Daily Sacrifice

In discussing Revelation 8 I pointed out that it is Christ who will end the sacrifice, not a man, and it is Christ that will cause the place to be desolate, not a general. I will repeat the background from Daniel 12 here as part of my introduction.

Once again I resorted to the quotation above that many people use to substantiate their interpretation of ending the daily sacrifice but there is also another part to be added.

In verse 27 of Daniel 9 the cutting off of the messiah spoken of in verse 26 of that chapter, is further clarified. It will occur half-way through the final week. So Christ dies in the middle of that week leaving half to go to completely confirm the covenant, but notice that it is also He that shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate. He began the work and will finish it but now He has a new tool, the Holy Spirit that can work through the Church. The first part made sure that the Spirit, as an inseparable part of the Church, was available to do the second part with.

That is the gist of what was said in Revelation 8 and for Revelation 12 I go a bit further. There must be a daily sacrifice for God's people continuing in heaven if a daily sacrifice is a requirement for their survival. When Israel was in captivity and the Temple destroyed God still preserved them. In all of the years of mankind when there is no earthly Temple God ensures that man is preserved. What does it? Only the Daily (morning and evening) sacrifice has been given as the remedy therefore when there is none on Earth there must still be one in heaven. Let us look at some possible situations that fit the ending of the daily sacrifice.

At Satan's Rebellion

The first point at which we can consider the daily sacrifice ending is at Satan's Rebellion. The Bible says that Christ was slain BEFORE the foundation of the world. I understand that to be before the age of mankind, this age. He certainly was not physically crucified when the morning stars (angels) sang in Job.

If the crucifixion of Christ is considered as occurring before the foundation of the earth then the cause of that must have occurred even before. The ended sacrifice before Satan's rebellion could represent termination of his duties on behalf of the Earth. If Satan was officially fired from his duties then that could have brought an end to the daily sacrifice for Earth in some form. The evidence is that Satan just let things run to ruin. A subsequent form of it might have begun when Christ renewed the Earth. Following Satan's dismissal the Earth came under a curse from God which brought on the destruction that we see corrected when Christ renewed the Earth 6,000 years ago.

There is a difference between a sacrifice and an oblation. An oblation is a free, usually bloodless gift while a sacrifice typically atones for something, however sacrifice is a general term which also includes what is meant by oblation. Consider that in Revelation 8:2-6 we have an unexpected event. The angels appear as though they will do the daily sacrifice but instead the High Priest throws the coals into the earth indicating that there is no regular sacrifice (using the word to include oblation). Maybe the High priest recognised that the incense is polluted and refuses to accept it. I assume that this is what Satan did, pollute the incense, that caused him to be thrown back to Earth. Recall that incense is the sweet smell that God expects and it was added to the sacrifices. Remember Cain. He might have attacked God if he could.

The Crucifixion

The next time to consider as ending the daily sacrifice is the Crucifixion. Christ was physically sacrificed two thousand years ago. This was not a daily sacrifice but a one time Sacrifice ending the daily one for man. Satan's rebellion demands that God redeem the Earth and that was to be through mankind. Covering mankind's failure over Satan required Christ's sacrifice. As far as Daniel is concerned this sacrifice was during Christ's work on Earth (Daniel 9:20-27) and particularly in the last week of the seventy-weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:27).

In Hebrews 10 we are told that Christ ended the sacrifice because He only needed to do it once. As long as men exists their sacrifice is now covered once and for all but God still requires a memorial at Passover. It reminds us that if we sacrificed every animal that exists for as long as we live it could not match the sacrifice of Christ done only once. We cannot atone but we can all give oblations of gratitude, loyalty and devotion on a daily basis. Our advocate in heaven manages this for us.

In one sense it was at the foundation of the world but in another it was 2,000 years ago. God can talk like this because They are eternal and because of Their commitment to scripture of truth. Antiochus polluted the temple with swine and caused the sacrifice to cease and caused the Temple to be cleansed and rededicated. God sees it as one problem and both times apply.

Just before the second 3½ years

Just before the 3½ years is another time to consider as ending the daily sacrifice. We offer prayer as oblations every day, but in this case the oblation is performed by the Two Witnesses when they supplement Christ's ministry (as our advocate and intercessor) as witnesses, and as I see it, His left hand. As a witness and an oblation each preach for 3½ years and are dead for 3 days (actually 3½ days) similar to Christ. It is consummation work, supported by the work of all of the other martyrs whom Christ worked through over the years, and will happen only once. Christ's last 3½ years, in the Two Witnesses, brings together all of the work that He has done in all of the Church recorded throughout time. Christ has worked through witnesses since Abel as as He does in the Two witnesses and throughout the Bible. The service of the Two Witnesses is during the 3½ years but something important happens just before.

The other ending of daily sacrifice immediately precedes the Two Witnesses and is caused by the war between Satan and Michael. There is no time for sacrifices when there a war going on hence they would end for at least a day. If Satan is a necessary functionary that is driven out then that would pre-empt the sacrifices permanently, at least from the Earth. Following the battle Satan no longer has direct access to heaven and therefore loses his right to present in heaven on behalf of Earth, as he currently appears to do before God (Job 1:6 and Job 2:1). Satan is now the God and prince of the Earth as he demonstrated to Christ at the Temptations and would therefore be the obvious choice. That is not to say that he may not be demanded to appear as needed but it will no longer be a right. Remember that he will still own the Earth but cannot represent it in heaven.

Just After Christ's Baptism

I also propose that the daily sacrifice could have ended 4 months after Christ's Baptism. Since He was God and the Jews rejected Him as a human, they were not offering their sacrifices to Him because He was right there baptized and ready. John had told them who He was. By the second Passover (which is the first recorded one) He already had a strong relationship with the disciples hence He must have been preaching of the Kingdom for some time. Christ's ministry was for 3½ years. The cleansing began when He began to preach and call disciples I will repeat what we have:

• Christ baptized beginning the 2,555 days (7 years)
  
• Passover 4½ months later caused ending the daily sacrifice
  
• 4 months later the cleansing began with the first disciples identified. This reaching out for disciples begins the 2,300 Days that ends when Christ comes.
  
• Type of cleansing ends when His earthly ministry ends ten days before Pentecost, about 1½ months after Passover, Acts 1:1-5
• Type of cleansed Church built by Pentecost ends the type for the 2,555 days. The reality is when Christ comes.
  

Ending the daily sacrifice has developed progressively and combines all of the situations described above and God can consider it at any point.

Resolving some dates in Daniel

We have already examined the 1,290 days but there is a bit more to it. In Daniel 12:10-12 it shows that the sacrifice will be taken away for 1,290 days. That is about a month longer than the 3½ years if we use 3½ years = 1,260 days because 1,290 days - 1,260 days = 30 days i.e. about a month. On the other hand if we use the fact that 7 years is 2,555 days then 3½ years (which is half of 7 years)  =  2,555 ÷ 2 = 1,277.5 days. Using that in the calculation instead of 1,260 gives 1,290 days - 1,277.5 days = 12.5 days which we saw is a reasonable representation of the half hour wait in Revelation 8. Daniel 12:11 ties the ending of the daily sacrifice to the abomination of desolation. Revelation 11:13 says that the two witnesses prophesy for 1,260 days as their 3½ years, so the ended daily sacrifice covers the time that they preach and must start before. One possibility is that the wait of about half an hour is to allow the 144,000 to be sealed. After that the fire is cast into the Earth and then some things happen to begin the second 3½ years with the two witnesses. In my opinion the Crucifixion and the Baptism stand out as candidates for the ending of the daily sacrifice and it may well mean both of them taken together, one occurring at the end of the first 3½ years and the other at its beginning. The Baptism lead to the wilderness where Satan was defeated. The Crucifixion lead to the Resurrection and whatever took place when Christ was accepted back in heaven. The ultimate ending will be when Christ returns.

The Temple on Earth was a shadow of the Temple in heaven. There is no real need for an earthly sacrifice at all. From this time to the consummation of the abomination of desolation will be 1,290 days but 3½ years for the Two Witnesses are only 1,260 days. The extra 30 days, which lie outside of Christ's 7 year work, can occur any time after that. The Resurrection also signals the end of one 3½ year phase approaching and the imminent final 3½ years of Christ's work in confirming the covenant. Remember that this timing is for Christ's work and the intervening years are irrelevant. We will read of the increasing desolation of the area from death and destruction by insects and other disasters. The consummation could either be when the city is ravaged following the death of the two witnesses or when Christ utterly destroys soldiers in the valley or even when a new Temple is set up.

There is also a period of 1,335 days which is 45 days longer than the 1,290 days. It does not say how this period begins or ends but in my opinion it starts with the 1,290 days, covers the work of the witnesses, includes the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the new Temple and finishes with the restoration of Earth. If the Day of the LORD is 10 days ending at Atonement, then there are 45 days after the 1,290 days which mark a significant point to Christians. Look here for the Jewish Calendar. The 1,290 days ends at Trumpets, the 1^st day of the 7^th month, when Christ returns. By Atonement (10^th day of the 7^th month) the saints will be established and Satan gone. It is during the next 4 days, ending the 15^th day of 7^th month, that I believe that the Ezekiel Temple will be built in time for dedication for the Feast. Seeing that massive structure materialise in 4 days will be astounding but it must be there for the healing waters to go out from the Temple as required by Ezekiel 47. By the end of the Feast abundance will return to Jerusalem. We see elsewhere that the healing waters will go out to the sea etc. maybe beginning on the eighth day of the Feast, and maybe the whole sea and air will be cleansed by the end of those remaining 35 days following Atonement.

A flood

Another puzzling thing for some that read Revelation is the reference to a flood, not Noah's flood. What could that identify allegorically?

From Daniel we can see that the flood refers to an army. As a matter of fact, in Daniel 11:22 a proper translation of arms is force so arms of a flood corresponds to force of an army. Nahum uses the same analogy.

The reason appears to flow from a concept in proverbs.

Here overwhelming is translated from the same Hebrew as flood in Daniel.

Remember that when we were dealing with Revelation 8:5, where the angel threw the burning coals into the earth causing thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. I wondered at that time if that was the earthquake that swallows up the army and prevents it from obstructing the Church from fleeing to safety in Revelation 12:17 or the one in in Revelation 6:13 onward where stars of heaven fell unto the earth, the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places because of the sixth seal. I also wondered if these were connected? Considering the connection between flood and army we will revisit this.

The Woman

To explain the woman in Revelation 12:1, metaphorically a woman is a city.

The sun rules day, the moon rules night.

Revelation 21 is talking about a city that has continual light.

That city is the beginning of the New Jerusalem which is a bride, a female. Jerusalem is represented as a woman and the Church is represented as a woman e.g. Ephesians 5:23-32 and 2 Corinthians 11:2.

In Revelation 12 the woman was clothed with the sun (Revelation 12:1). This is an allusion to Luke 24:49 where Christ promised that they, the Church, would be endued with power from on high. The word translated endued literally means clothed. This power on from high is recognised as the Holy Spirit, so in v1 there is so much of the Holy Spirit that it is like the sun. Something similar happened to Moses when his face shone after being with God (Exodus 34:29).

The woman in Revelation 12 is therefore differentiated from any other woman. In Luke I believe that Christ is also being prophetic and pointing to the place of safety.

War in Heaven

One problem that I find in understanding Revelation is that because of our past knowledge we have a tendency to impose preconceived time-frames on Revelation 12. If you follow the sequence of what it says there is no reason to assume that it is anything but chronological with inserts indicated by the wording. I am one of those that for years would not accept that Revelation 12:4 happened long before Revelation 12:9 and that the war of Revelation 12:7 has not yet happened but that is how it reads. Notice that this casting to the earth in Revelation 12:4 is by Satan, the dragon, not Michael. We know from Luke 10:18 that Christ saw Satan cast out and he apparently dragged ⅓ of the angels with him. What happened in Revelation 12:4 is not a war. Satan was thrashed (perhaps most likely by the Father since Christ only saw it [Luke 10:18]) and he beguiled ⅓ of the angels, either before or after, to follow him. We take Christ's power for granted but consider what type of person asks this question:  Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?, Jeremiah 32:27 [KJV]. Thrashing Satan is certainly included in the things not too difficult for Him. That is a given. He and the Father are the same and anyway the Father probably already demonstrated His ability in that area. There is an arrangement for Satan to fight someone more in his class but the result of that is also a foregone conclusion. From Job 38:7 we know that the angels (morning stars) existed before the earth. Furthermore, in my opinion Genesis takes it for granted that we understand that Satan was Satan before man was created, and this is emphasized by the context of Job 38:4-11. Revelation 12:7 is stating that there will be a war in heaven and the result has been determined by God.

Isaiah adds some more clarity to the situation but this is a scripture that I also misunderstood because I accepted what I was told about it. I was told that it happened already. Now let us look at it just as it is.

First of all the word Lucifer does not appear in the Hebrew, nevertheless I believe that this scripture can only refer to Satan because it speaks of ascending to heaven and other supernatural achievements. Next, notice that there are nations existing. That had not happened before man had nations! That means after the flood. He had only said it when Isaiah wrote this but did not attempt it yet. God divided the world into nations by confusing the language and scattering the people at Babel. The division of the nations is found in Genesis 10. Genesis 10:32 [KJV] says These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood, therefore this is the source of all the nations of the world. By the way you can see that there were not three nations or races as the racists try to impose. Returning to Isaiah, it is clear that this person weakened nations and was subsequently brought down. He can only be talking about the war in heaven in Revelation 12.

At the time of Ezekiel we learn from Ezekiel 28:16 that Satan had not yet been cast out from his position of authority in heaven because God said . . . therefore I will cast thee as profane out. The mountain of God and the stones of fire are related because they are used in the same sentence to show one outcome. If the mountain is government then the stones of fire must also be related to government. Satan could have been a stone in God's breastplate. Note that the stones on the High Priest's chest showed who the High Priest was over and hence defined the bounds of his authority as over the 12 tribes. Satan is part of God's government.

When Satan was cast out in Luke 10:18 he fell to Earth, but It seems clear from Job 1:6 and 2:7 that he retained some measure of authority in heaven. In Revelation 12:4 we will see that he dragged the demons down to earth. From what was said in Matthew 4:8-9 and Luke 4:5-6 during Christ's temptations about him being willing to give the Earth to Christ, we know that he still had dominion over the Earth when Christ was human. The stage is now set for that status to be removed by war.

Satan's current status

To get a handle on this I find it useful to consider some scriptures written by John.

Now when we combine these we know that Satan still controls the world but was to be cast out from somewhere following the Crucifixion, based on what Christ said just before His death as per John 12:27-31. Since Revelation 12:12-13 follows Revelation 12:5 (. . . caught up unto God, and to his throne), the casting out also follows the Ascension. It is possible that Christ did some part of casting out when He returned to heaven but I do not believe that Revelation 12:12-13 refers to then. From the context of verse 7 at that time . . . there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought . . .. This is the casting out by Michael and that happens just before the terrible persecution of the 3½ years. Persecution of the Church started since the time that the Church was officially formed at Pentecost, but there was no war in heaven recorded then. This is the great persecution erroneously called the Great Tribulation. Christ has begun a process to cast Satan out (cleanse the sanctuary) from the Temptations, but He sees His work it in the context of the 7 years allotted (3½ years and 3½ years), while we tend to see the thousands of years in between. The Crucifixion created the environment for the casting out to begin but Christ did not cast out Satan when He was on Earth, it was not His job since He is only dealing with Earth, instead He expects it to be done by the time He begins the second 3½ year phase. Satan is not yet cast out, because he still accuses the saints in heaven based on what John wrote in Revelation 12:10 almost a century after Christ was born, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. In the present arrangement Satan is our accuser and Christ is our advocate or defence lawyer. Satan still has access to God but Christ defends us.

That describes Christ's role in relation to Satan. You do not put on war clothes unless there is an adversary. It is an historic role described in allegory by Zechariah in chapter 3 which I will put below in its entirety. In verses 1 and 2 we get the gist of the adversarial attitude of Satan as he directly opposes Christ as High Priest. This is the relationship that must persist until the return of Christ when He establishes Jerusalem as a brand plucked from the fire.

So as Christians we have to defend against his immense power in relation to ours. He is the god of this world and the prince of everything that breathes (power of the air).

God names things what they are. The Hebrew word translated as Satan is a generic noun meaning accuser or adversary. The corresponding verb primarily means to obstruct, oppose. That is his nature and whenever we see that word we can exchange it for accuser or adversary. Satan is an angel with a particular type of disposition. He opposes Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel 24 God sends an angel to administer a three-day plague on Israel killing 70,000 people as punishment for David having taken a census, but it is in 1 Chronicles 21:1 that we find out who was behind it.

From Job 1-2 we know that Satan has direct access to God but we see the type of direct interaction in the story of the death of Ahab. The specific incident is recorded in  1 Kings 22:19–25

We can only imagine what someone with that power and attitude combined with unfettered access would potentially do if they were in a position to affect the activities for the resurrection which must occur in the twinkling of an eye.

Going to the Place of Safety

Now I can put together some things that were left out when dealing with the Place of Safety in Revelation 10. In Revelation 10 there was an angel with one foot on the sea and the other on land. He indicated that it was not yet the days of the seventh angel. He had pillars of fire coming from his feet and he was clothed in a cloud. I interpreted this as an angel guiding God's people to the place of safety where the 3½ years of protection in the second phase of the redemptive work will begin. What sign will he use?

In Revelation 6 which we discussed above, God records the sixth seal where there are many heavenly signs and the islands and mountains shake. This is not describing the same thing as Matthew 24 and Luke 21. It cannot be if the record is chronological in Luke and Luke states that he intends to be ordered. In the first verse of the first chapter he claims that others have gone before that attempted to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us and the context of the first few verses present him proposing to follow in their footsteps i.e. to write unto thee in order. I Look at Luke first. Consider the time of the Gentiles.

This statement about fulness of the Gentiles is very similar to what is found in Luke 21:24.

Putting together the two it appears that the times of the gentiles has to do with the time that Israel is blinded and hence ends when Christ comes AND the Kingdom is set up. As I see it then Luke records this ordered history from Luke 21:1 up to Luke 21:24 when the Kingdom is set up. Then in Luke 21:25-28 he writes of some general things to look out for over the whole period that may occur at any time of the prophecy.

Matthew records the same conversation with Christ. From Matthew 24:3 he is setting out an ordered history up to Matthew 24:28, then in Matthew 24:29-31 he does the same the same thing as in Luke 21:25-28 but with a diferent period.

Matthew focuses on immediately after the 3½ years when the darkness of the Day of the Lord will begin - verse 29. In Revelation 16 during the Day of the Lord there will be terrible things on the earth that will kill many but in Revelation 6 no death is spoken of.

Here we have mountains moving but not being levelled and islands shaking but not disappearing as happens in Revelation 16:20. We have people being terribly afraid but nobody dies here in Revelation 6! Revelation 6 (especially verse 17) makes it clear that this is before the Day of the Lord, before the great day of his wrath, and during the sixth seal while Luke makes it clear that the other heavenly signs come after the tribulation and during the Day of the Lord, during the Seventh Seal when Christ comes. Heaven rolling back or departing like a scroll cannot mean that heaven blows up leaving only the earth. If you roll up a scroll you can no longer see the contents of the scroll so this is a general blacking out of heaven by a phenomenon that is unprecedented. What is it that is being hidden? We then talk about stars falling to the earth. What kind of stars? Certainly not real stars but what about meteors? The conditions on earth do not endorse the type of damage caused by meteors on the scale which is suggested here, which would be terrible destruction of people and property as massive explosions from impact causing craters to occur everywhere. I believe that these stars are angels while meteors would cause that type of catastrophic destruction which happens during the seventh seal but that has not yet come during the Sixth Seal. The seventh seal is what corresponds to the 3½ years of horror. This is not Matthew 24 when Christians are told to flee Jerusalem because of what will happen just before Christ comes, but this is talking about people on the earth being generally terrified but without loss of life. I believe that it is the same set of events reported on in Revelation 8:5 where the angel threw the burning coals into the earth causing thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. Because of the danger to the heavenly Temple the contaminants were thrown into the earth causing dramatic visual effects and physical unsteadiness in the earth but mankind was generally protected. The Church in particular was protected from the aftermath. 

Revelation 6 matches Revelation 12 in dealing with the impact on earth of the angelic fight. It will be a sign to us to leave for the place of safety. Other people will be terrified and trying to hide and that will make it easy for us to escape without lots of people in our way.

Only Two Cherubim

Now this is just my opinion but some people may find it useful. I believe that there are currently only two remaining cherubim of an original three that guarded God's most precious things. The basic evidence for this is Ezekiel 28:14 where Satan used to be an anointed cherub that covereth and now we have Michael and Gabriel still doing a similar job. So how then is the Tabernacle covered with them on the inside? Remember Revelation 4 with the 24 elders etc.; combine that with the rest of what we know of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was basically divided into three parts. The outer court was the area opened to all Jews and is where sacrifices were made but the other two parts were only accessible to the High Priest's family. The end of Revelation shows that the two inside parts are preserved with the coming of the New Jerusalem. The inside parts are eternal and picture something that is eternal while the courtyard with its sacrifices represent something carnal. Of the two inside parts the sanctuary or Holy Place represent things that exist only since the age of man. The candlestick is the Church/Israel from one perspective and we went through how the other items each conform to the saints. The saints of Revelation 4 will become ones close to God and will be the ones that cover the inside of the sanctuary even after the earth is destroyed by fire. You can fill in the details but that is the outline of my perspective.

I have written a separate series on angels. Even so some prefer to reject that information and may use songs or poetry that David wrote to claim that cherubim, and angels in general, are like animals.

These are songs and in songs people use poetic licence. Job shows that all angels are God's children not beasts of burden. Cherub is a word that has a meaning and it can be a person's name.

The typical representation of cherubim show that God dwells between two of them and it indicates that these are all they presently are. Some creatures in Ezekiel have faces like cherubim. There are four cherubim described as coming out of the firestorm in Ezekiel's vision. In my opinion again (which may not be worth much at all) it was a representation of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and showed that those who escape would be ones close to God. From what I have been able to dig up (which I admit is sparse) I believe that the word cherubim means something like ones close to God.

I believe that the word angel means messenger and not winged creature from heaven. What it looks like and who it is depends on the message. Sometimes it is people. The whole package, including what it looks like and who it is, is part of the message. So now let us get into the meat of Revelation 12.

Dissecting Revelation 12

One way to break down Revelation 12 is to examine it in stages.

Satan is cast out

The context of the first four verses is established by (v4) which says that Satan already existed as the dragon at the birth of Christ. At the time of Christ's birth all that was written before had already happened. The Church was ready to  produce the Messiah, the first-born of many. Satan had therefore already cast down the angels with his tail by the birth of Christ. Whatever event that caused him to become Satan (the adversary) had already occurred. That event apparently included being thrown to earth (Luke 10:18). He had already been thrown to Earth and had dragged down the angels that followed him. Demons live on earth with him and it can be established that they lived here since before creation. The transformation to Satan and demons happened long ago. This is brought out by Ezekiel 28:14, Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. This speaks of a heavenly society that pre-dated this Earth with matter and with wonders that are more glorious than anything that presently exists. It is clear that Satan was cast out of heaven and now lives on Earth. Christ was crucified from the foundation of this age (1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8), the age of man. In 1 Peter 1:20 and Revelation 13:8 the Greek word kosmos used for world means an orderly arrangement or system. It does not mean planet, so from the time that God orderly arranged this system, the system of man, Christ was crucified. To accuse a system of sin it must do something that you can blame the system for. Suppose we have a food court which contains a McDonald's and a Burger king. Suppose an individual from one fast food store goes to the other and misbehaves. Let's say it is the person from McDonald's that misbehaves then sin is ascribed to McDonald's even though it occurred in Burger King. The reverse would be the case if the antagonist was from Burger King. The two systems have the mall in common but it is the system (either Burger King or McDonald's) that gets the blame because someone from that system misbehaved. That general scenario is what we need to apply to the sin of man. Sin entered the kosmos of man through the sin of a man, Adam (Romans 5:12), but Satan sinned before Eve who sinned before Adam. Even in the garden of Eden Satan lied to Eve and opposed God's will before Eve sinned. Hence Satan has to be the product of a separate kosmos (system) which bears responsibility for him, or else he would be the one who brought sin into this age by sinning first. It is the same Earth because that is where Satan was cast (Luke 10:18, Revelation 12:4) but a different time or age and a different system or arrangement, making Earth a feature of both systems. Since Satan sang at the creation of the Earth then his system must pre-date man's system, because man came after the creation of the Earth. So that even though he started sin (he committed the first ever sin) in his system, it had to be transferred to man's system by a human. Satan's sins are ascribed to his system i.e. the orderly arrangement made for his kind of beings. Since the origin of Satan included him being cast to Earth then the Earth had to exist in some form during his kosmos, however the Bible is about man's kosmos, hence the details of an alternate one (or some alternate ones) are not included. Some attempt to use 2 Peter 3 to refute this but the context of that passage is either the flood or a previous Earth that was destroyed and became watery. So 2 Peter 3:3-7 actually supports tohu and bohu or else it is talking of the flood.

Revelation 12:4 forms part of a sequence of information that prevents us from hitting a wall. When combined with some other scriptures it helps create a new perspective.

If you read 2 peter 2:4 in context you find the same sequence:

Notice that it is sequential:

1. spared not the angels
2. spared not the old world
3. did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah

and the remainder of the picture is filled in with Ezekiel 28:14, Luke 10:18, Daniel 8:10-12 and Revelation 12:4. Satan was cast to earth with the demons. According to Daniel 8:12 he has a host that opposes the atonement of man (i.e. the daily sacrifice), tramples on truth and prospers. That is the world that we live in.

Defeated by Christ as a Human

Christ comes to earth and every effort to destroy Him is thwarted. He overcomes Satan at his best in the wilderness and builds and protects the Church despite him. This takes us down to verse 6. Satan knew that Christ intended to destroy all his works.

He tried to use the wise men and Herod as his instruments to destroy Him. The wise men came to worship the infant Christ as future king having been led to Him by the appearance of a special star (Matthew 2:1-12). If the wise men knew that He was to be king then it is reasonable to assume that Satan also did. The wise men were led to Herod for directions. He did not know of Christ but tried diligently to find him. He tried to enlist the wise men in a scheme to kill Christ so he lied to them claiming that he also wanted to worship Him, asking them to bring him word of His whereabouts. The wise men were warned and did not go back to Herod so Herod killed every infant in Jerusalem hoping that one would be Christ. In the mean time God had sent Christ and His parents to Egypt. They eventually returned after Herod died and were miraculously guided to live in Nazareth as was prophesied (Matthew 2:13-23). The claim that something was prophesied is made in Matthew 2:23, a difficult scripture to interpret. The fact that He will be called a Nazarene is not found in scripture, is the source of the difficulty. What is clear from history is that Nazareth was an ignoble town except for its connection with Christ, and from the scriptures Christ lived there until His baptism (Mark 1:9). Could such a great person come from such an inferior place? That was the question that came to Nathaniel's mind when Philip told him of the messiah.

This point about Christ's obscure beginnings appears to be the aim of Matthew's comment. Note well that when Matthew said And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23 [KJV]), he was not binding us to the Old Testament writings, although he might be referring to extracts from the Old Testament which indicated that Christ would be of humble origins. A better appreciation of what Matthew said comes with an understanding of the meaning of the law and the prophets. What Moses wrote (the first 5 books of the Bible) is typically but not exclusively considered to be the Law and the remainder of the Old Testament is the prophets. The Law and the Prophets meant the whole Bible. The same Matthew recorded, Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil, Matthew 5:17 [KJV]. That is a statement attributed to Christ and the context points to it meaning the whole Bible. Luke also records the same treatment of the Bible by Christ when He said And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, Luke 24:27 [KJV]. This treatment was not unique to Christ or the original 12, or the Jews, because Paul also used it writing to the Romans i.e. gentiles,  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, Romans 3:21 [KJV]. Matthew did not say the Law and the Prophets and he did not say written. The prophets could therefore mean simply that, i.e. the prophets of God that had been recorded in some fashion. The Jews also had oral traditions and what he was referring to could also have been recorded in them. The rabbinic side of these, called The Oral Torah, has been recorded most prominently as the Mishnah and the Gemara, jointly known as the Talmud. At the time of Matthew there could have been much more than the Talmud recorded as prophetic. Rabbinic Judaism (the origin of the Talmud) is derived from Pharisaic Judaism only, and the Pharisees were only one sect of the Jews, others being Essenes, Sadducees etc. In addition there were other books respected by the Bible authors even from ancient times e.g. The Book of Jasher mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18 and also quoted from in 2 Timothy 3:8.

The real pivotal challenge was the Temptations. It is here that Christ established His dominance and immunity to Satan's craftiness. He never stooped to Satan's level and fought him by using the scriptures i.e. it is written. This phrase was used to introduce each of Christ's counters to Satan. It was a mental exercise because there was no way that Satan could fight Him physically on equal terms and it was apparently limited to what was recorded in the Bible. Satan could not find anything in what Christ had recorded for men that He could twist to subvert Jesus. The battle was fought based on the scriptures that He had given men to live by and the capacity of a human with the heart of God. Christ showed Satan that even as a human He was superior and capable of being perfect while Satan was not, hence on merit He was the better person for the job of governing the Earth. Furthermore, as a human He obeyed the creator and was entitled to the tree of life in His own right, which He could share with others, whereas Satan did not have that right.

Defeated by Michael (The war in heaven)

The next event is war in heaven. It is introduced in verse 7. This is the part that is alluded to in Revelation 6 with the heavenly signs. It occurs in the sixth seal around the beginning of the 3½ years. A voice speaks from heaven on behalf of heaven pointing out that Satan is to be kicked out. In verse 12 the voice also expresses how glad they are for heaven but how sorry they are for Earth. Even though Satan was cast down many years before, he had retained certain powers that gave him access to God and heaven. We see him repeatedly present in Job (Job 1:6, 2:1) and represented in the decision to kill Ahab.

After this battle Satan will no longer have direct access to God. He will not be able to present himself to heaven. The battle shows that if he was able to try he would be driven back to Earth, the domain which he controlled as made clear by, In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them (II Corinthians 4:4 [KJV]), as he told Christ.

Satan makes a last stand

Having lost in the war to hold on to his position in heaven Satan takes his frustration out on the Church. He is now cornered with Earth as the only place that he can live and only 3½ years to go.

Line by line commentary

Satan had not lost his place on Earth by the time of Job and we saw earlier that he still had considerable influence at the time of Ezekiel and the time of Christ on Earth.

When God asked Satan where he came from he confirmed that it was Earth. He had to present himself because his domain was Earth. He lost it at Pentecost or Passover but the new tenants have not yet come to occupy.

Gabiel and Micahel are doing Satan a favour. This is God saying get this situation under control before I have to step in. If He did then Satan would really be in trouble.