3215.- Prophetic or Symbolic Time

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 9, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 31.

3215.— Prophetic or Symbolic Time

What is the meaning of the time mentioned in Rev. 12:14, time, times, and half a time, and Dan. 7:25?

The same period of time is mentioned in Rev. 12:6 as a thousand two hundred and threescore days, and in Rev. 13:5 and 11:2 as forty and two months, each of them making twelve hundred and sixty days of prophetic time. They are all used in connection with the symbols of great empires, and in symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year, according to Eze. 4:6. Ezekiel himself became a symbol of Israel, and the time that Ezekiel used became a symbol of the longer period. God uses short-lived animals to represent long-existing kingdoms. It is very proper and befitting that He should use short periods of time to represent long periods. Therefore He has taken, according to His own rule, “a day for a year.” This, however, is not the case in Revelation 20. Revelation 20 is giving us a future history of Satan and his work. All symbols of time and empires are in the past. Everything, in fact, connected with the history of the earth and its great climax would show that the time of Revelation 20 is literal, while the connection and particulars of Revelation 11, 12, 13, and Daniel 7 are symbolic. History has established the year-day period without question.