Summary of Terrestrial and Celestial Events for the End-Times and How the Tribulation Can Be Less Severe than Prophesied

Introduction

Daniel’s book is largely a personal testimony through the first six chapters. Thereafter it is mostly prophetic.

The end-times began in the year 2000 with celestial as well as terrestrial fulfillments of prophecy.

Discovery of Terrestrial and Celestial Events which Mark the Common Beginning and Ends of Two of Daniel’s Prophecies

On the first Sabbath eve in the Jewish New Year of 2000, on September 29, Israel’s Ariel Sharon made an unwelcome “showing of a Jewish presence,” meaning he visited, with a security detail of about a thousand, the al Asqa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The visit took away the “daily sacrifice” of praise from the Palestinians for the secure heritage of their mosques on the Temple Mount (Daniel 12:11). The Palestinian response was the start of the Second Intifada of intense suicide bombings on Israel the following day. The 9/29 event marked the start of the 1,290 days of Daniel 12:11, and the 1,335 days of Daniel 12:12. I interpret the “abomination that desolates” (Daniel 12:11) to be the Israeli security barrier around the West Bank, on which I think construction began in the spring of 2003. A posting from Wikipedia says that when completed, the wall was 440 miles long.

The 1,290 calendar days of Daniel 12:11 ended on Easter, April 11, 2004. The 1,335 days of Dan. 12:12, counted as 44-1/2, classical 30-day months, expired on U.S. Flag Day, June 14, 2004. Between the concluding dates, on June 8, 2004, the planet Venus’ shadow crossed the sun’s disk as seen from earth, the first such event since the nineteenth century. There was another Venus “transit” on June 5, 2012, but that was the last until the twenty-second century. In my interpretation, these transits are the “woman clothed with the sun” mentioned in Revelation 12:1. The beginning and endings of the 1,290 and 1,335 days point to the primary western political and religious entities of our times: the Palestinians, Israel, and the United States; Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

The expirations of the 1,290 and 1,335 days and the transit of Venus in 2004 were the first three of ten prominent, mostly same-day clusters of a terrestrial event and a celestial event and a prophetic fulfillment and a culturally significant day: any two or more of these. The two events which stood alone were the Venus transit and the near-central, total eclipse of the moon, which was visible, weather permitting, from the contiguous United States on the evening of Oct. 27, 2004. The ten dates occurred over an unusually short period of seven lunar months, beginning on Easter 2004, when the moon reached waning quarter phase in the evening, but was not yet above the horizon in the 48 contiguous states.

The ten dates culminated on Nov. 4 with a conjunction of the brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, again in the evening in the contiguous states, but not visible until the following morning, when the planets were no longer perfectly aligned. This conjunction occurred on the date of another last quarter moon, except that this time the moon was above the horizon at the instant of last quarter for most places in the Eastern Standard Time zone, at 12:53 A.M. on Nov. 5. So again, the opening and closing dates included a waning quarter moon, that phase wherein the moon is half illuminated on its way back from full to the darkness of new, rises about midnight, is highest in the sky at sunrise, and sets about noon. These waning quarter moons are one interpretation of “the moon under her feet” in Rev. 12:1.

Four Major, Prophesied Tribulation Events and Alternative Outcomes

The opening and closing of the ten dates with waning quarter moons were highly symbolic of possible coming severe judgment on humankind. In the first half of the sixth seal, at Rev. 6:12-14, the sun and moon are totally eclipsed and “the stars of the sky [fall] to the earth,” symbolizing the humbling of the U.S., China, and all the other nations for a time. In the second half, at Rev. 6:15-17—the first major prophesied event—the people, from kings to slaves, hide “in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,” (The New Revised Standard Version) and call to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of God and the wrath of the Lamb. I don’t take this prophecy literally, but believe many will come to wish they could find a place to hide from God and Christ.

The second event is the sixth trumpet at Rev. 9:13-21. This judgment sounds like a one-sided nuclear action because of the exact timing, down to the hour; the massive loss of life; and the impossibly large number of cavalry it would take to do as much damage as a nuclear attack. (The author of Revelation only heard—he did not see and count—the number of cavalry troops.) Another interpretation of the 200 million cavalry is as an indication of how many American adults’ minds will soon be changed when they see the administration’s demonstrated resolve to lead the international community in planning for nuclear and general disarmament.

In considering the second and third prophesied events, it appears to me that two, one-sided nuclear attacks are being foretold. (See Rev. 9:13-19, and Rev. 16:17 and chapter 18.) Yet for civilization as we know it to survive, these outcomes must be avoided. And because we will be stuck with Mr. Trump as president until near the end of the prophesied tribulation on January 20, 2024, he can either lead the rest of the world to a nuclear disarmament treaty, or the rest of the world can bring the U.S. to a similar outcome. Between the two, I’d bet on Mr. Trump. In fact, I even heard him say, in connection with the Korean Peninsula denuclearization talks, that he’d like to rid the U.S. of nuclear arms but couldn’t because then all the other nuclear powers would still have them. So, is it too far a reach to pray that he could have compassion on all the world’s people by negotiating, as his highest priority, procedures to clear nuclear arms from the face of the earth?

Continuing to try to find a way out of the prophesied attack of the sixth trumpet, nuclear disarmament talks could be far enough along to have a discouraging effect on the urge to go to war in a world gone almost insane with anxiety over the COVID-19 coronavirus, collapsing economies, political instability, and the effects of global warming, among other severe difficulties. I think the action of the sixth trumpet is prophesied to take place near the end of tribulation, unless hindered and stopped by the prayers of the saints. So please, dear reader, begin or continue to pray for radical repentance among elected officials, corporate leaders, military personnel, and those involved in weapons procurement, around the world. (See Rev. 5:8 and 8:3-4.) Then the last two of the four prophesied, major events could play out as follows:

Third, the next severe judgment is foretold to be on the world’s cultural and military leader, the United States. Please read Rev. chapters 17, 18, and 19:1-6. In chapter 17, I think the corrupt-at-the-top U.S. economy is the “harlot” who sits and rides on the beast of the federal, state, and local governments. Chapter 18 appears to prophesy the destruction of the U.S. with nuclear weapons because three times, in verses 9-10, 15-16, and 17-18, the “kings,” “merchants,” and “sailors, and all whose trade in on the sea, stood” or “stand far off,… weeping and mourning aloud” (NRSV) over the loss of Babylon, the great city, a metaphor for the United States. I believe the seventh bowl of wrath at Rev. 16:17 is prophesied to be against the U.S. as one of the effects— that is, worldwide radioactive fallout—of an extensive nuclear attack. The rest of these effects are described in chapter 18. If however, the sixth trumpet is stopped by progress toward a nuclear disarmament agreement, then the impetus to attack the U.S. will also be diffused, assuming that discussion toward general disarmament are beginning to progress as well, and that we develop more robust programs of foreign aid. Then Fourth pressures toward the battle of Armageddon, as more literally interpreted from chapter 19 only, will not come to mind among the councils of the nations. The Terrestrial Link of Ancient Times to the Modern Age

I understand the timing mentioned in Daniel 12:7 to mean 3-1/2 times the existence of the Second Jewish Temple. Enabling easy interpretation of the timing given in Daniel 12:7, at least one translation (NRSV) actually states “two times” in lieu of the more common “times.” Therefore the components do add to 3-1/2 units.

The destruction of the second Temple by the invading Romans is well established as having occurred on August 6, 70 C.E. The occasion which might be chosen for the Temple’s inauguration is the arrival in Jerusalem of Ezra in early 466 B.C.E. with gifts to decorate the Temple from the Persian Emperor Artaxerxes in the seventh year (that is, at least six but less than seven years) of Artaxerxes’ reign. A special Jehovah’s Witness’ publication about Daniel’s prophecies places the beginning of Artaxerxes’ reign at 473 B.C.E. It appears Artaxerxes officially began his reign at the Jewish New Year in 473, so Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem four months after the start of Artaxerxes’ seventh year (Please see Ezra 7:7-9.) would probably have occurred in late January 466 B.C.E.

This reckoning puts the duration of the second Temple at approximately 536.5 years (about 466 plus 70-1/2). Multiplying by 3.5 results in a time in “the wilderness” (See Rev. 12:14.) of 1877.75 years. Adding 1878 years to 70 C.E. gives the reasonably expected date of 1948 for the independence of modern Israel!

The “woman” who gives birth to the “male child,” Christ, in Rev. 12:1-6 and 13-17 is Israel. The 12 stars in the woman’s crown represent the 12 tribes of Israel. In the first three phrases of Rev. 12:1, the woman is also the planet Venus.

The 1,260 days mentioned in Rev. 12:6 equal 42, 30-day months or 3-1/2 years, suggesting, as the rest of the verse says, that Israel’s people will be fed in “the wilderness” for the time of tribulation. Likewise, the “time, and times, and half a time” of Rev. 12:14 apply to the era-ending tribulation. And the “42 months” of Rev. 13:5 refer to both the first 3-1/2 years of the Trump presidency and the nearly 3-1/2 years of great tribulation to immediately follow.

As I heard in church on May 22, 1955, many who considered the prophecies of the end-times in and after 1948 were taught that the coming of independence for Israel fulfilled Jesus’ third parable of a fig tree. The fig tree is a symbol of Israel. This parable was told by Jesus at the close of the prophetic portion of His discourse from the Mount of Olives about conditions near the end of the era. He gave this talk to his disciples during Holy Week.

Jesus said that when you see the fig tree’s branch is tender and putting forth leaves, you know that summer is near (Matthew 24:32, Mark 13:28, and Luke 21:29-30). Summer, with its long, warm days, is traditionally considered the golden time of year. Jesus went on to state that “‘when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near [Luke 21:31, NRSV].’” At Matthew 24:34 He says, “‘This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.’” (Scofield Authorized King James Version)

The Meaning of the Number Eight

Greek letters are similar to Roman letters in that some have values to represent specific numbers. All the letters in Jesus’ Greek Name have value, and the values add to 888.

God began to develop the meaning of “eight” at Genesis 17:9-12, where he institutes circumcision to be performed on recently born male descendents of Abraham, beginning with Isaac, on the eighth day of their lives. This commandment is enlarged upon in Luke 1:59-66, where John the Baptist is circumcised “…on the eighth day….” This passage then goes on to picture the celebration upon the naming and reception of the infant into the community, also on the eighth day after birth.

I maintain that these rites are an example of a righteous sacrifice and the lasting blessing which flows therefrom. This is to be contrasted with the finding of Joseph Campbell, who, in his signature work, Hero with a Thousand Faces, found it essentially universal that “from sacrifice comes bliss.” However, it is my conclusion that sacrifices instituted outside of God’s commandments, instead of continuing to produce blessing, get their practitioners into trouble. Prime example: “[Our ancestors] did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. [T]hey poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage; he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them [Psalm 106:34-36, 38, and 40-41, NRSV].” It is crucial for a mature appreciation of God that we imbibe that he does not favor boastful, dramatic actions, but instead the gradual, disciplined accumulation of confidence in his moral laws and conviction in his command to spend time communing with him who is at the heart of our very souls.

God’s commandment to withhold circumcision for a time can be understood as a merciful means to avoid the deepest sorrow in case of neonatal death. For the neonatal period was, and in many places still is, ordinarily that time in life when death is most prevalent. (Sometimes war or an epidemic can bring more death than the few weeks surrounding birth.) More Information on Transits of Venus’ Shadow Across the Face of the Sun; the Mostly Celestial Link of Ancient Times to the Modern Age

Just as eight days are prominent in God’s Word, eight years are prominent in the modern solar transit cycle of Venus, that heavenly body of which the ascended Christ spoke in Rev. 22:16, when he said, “I am…the bright morning star.” (NRSV)

I wish to begin by stating that the appearance of Venus in front of the solar disk as seen from earth is a rare occurrence. In Jesus’ time, transits occurred regularly, every 121-1/2 years. This happened for what are called seven “half cycles,” or from May 22, 426 B.C.E. to November 23, 424 C.E. The convention of doubling the 121-1/2-year interval for a full cycle is derived from the fact that alternate transits in this ancient period occurred almost exactly a whole number of years apart: 243, or three to the fifth power. Furthermore, alternate transits were either ascending, in which Venus appeared on the eastern limb of the sun and moved slightly to the North as it traversed a chord to exit on the West; or, in the case of the other set of alternate transits, descended slightly toward the South while traversing the solar disk, again from East to West. Both the 2004 and 2012 transits were descending.

An intriguing thing about Venus transits has been the secular change in transit seasons, beginning in 554 C.E. In that year, the regularly expected transit of 546 C.E. was followed by a second descending transit: that’s right, eight years later. What happens to cause this change is that a complete cycle actually exceeds 243 years by about a couple of days, so the transit lines which crossed the solar disk quite centrally in Jesus’ time gradually moved toward the southern limb of the sun. At a certain point, this permitted a new transit line to be “born” near the North Pole of the solar disk, eight years removed, less two or three days, from the already occurring transit.

I have found that several of the most prominent events of western political and ecclesiastical history have occurred a few years before; or, more often, after a Venus transit or pair of transits. While the descending series “split” into a pair shortly after the Western Roman Empire went through its death throes, the ascending series did not split until the early modern period, in 1631, when the new transit appeared eight years before the established event of 1639.

In 303 C.E., a descending transit marked the beginning of a decade of official persecution of Christians with three decrees from Roman Emperor Diocletian, and a fourth one in 304. The first of these decrees required the clergy to turn over copies of the Scriptures for destruction, on possible pain of death. Then in 313, the Edict of Milan was issued by Emperor Constantine, in the year after his conversion, establishing religious liberty throughout the empire. The medieval and Renaissance Church sold indulgences to parishioners to shorten their time in purgatory. In 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 Theses for academic debate on indulgences to the door of his church, sparking the Protestant Reformation. There were descending transits in 1518 and 1526.

Perhaps the most interesting period in all of western political history played out in the half century following the transit of 1639, as long-developing England went from a monarchy, through a vicious civil war, to a protectorate, to the restoration, and finally to parliamentary rule with a figurehead monarch and the adoption of a Bill of Rights.

Thus were two pairs of transits per cycle established in early modern times. Furthermore, the 2004 transit was eight full cycles removed from the first transit after Jesus’ time, that of May 23, 60 C.E. The 60 C.E. event heralded, in my understanding, the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. As a modern student of the prophecies of the end-times, I believe the transit of 60 and the destruction of the Temple in 70 constituted the climax of the first of two apocalypses of which Jesus had been alternately speaking before he wrapped up the prophetic portion of His Olivet Discourse with His last parable of a fig tree. For again, Matthew chapter 24 records Him saying, “‘This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.’” The words “this generation” apply both to the generation which heard Jesus speak those words and to our generation, which has observed the rebirth of the Jewish state. Close to half of what Jesus spoke in the Olivet Discourse prior to the parable of the fig tree is in agreement with the history of the Jewish rebellion, siege, and fall of Jerusalem in 66-70.

We may now observe three major occurrences of the number “eight,” one in the written Word (the commandment to circumcise males on the eighth day after birth) and two in the heavens. The second, in classical terms, is 360 times as long as the first—eight days vs. the eight years between Venus transits in a pair—and the third is 243 times as long as the second. There were 243, eight-year periods in the eight Venus transit cycles from the transit of 60 to the transit of 2004.

Therefore, we have returned to a symbol, 888, of Christ derived from New Testament times. While the first two phrases of Rev. 12:1 may be taken to have foretold the heart—the Venus transit—of the marvelous 2004 terrestrial and celestial display which I partially described near the beginning of this essay, Rev. 12:2 speaks of Israel’s, and indeed the whole world’s travail upon the birth of a new age, which the ten, 2004 dates heralded.

The last Venus transit of the century occurred on June 5, 2012. From that date until July 20, 2020, when Donald Trump reached the mid-point of his prophesied seven- year presidency, 8-1/8 years elapsed! (The extra 45 days equal precisely one-eighth of a classical 360-day year!)

Surrendering to the Will of God

At the marriage supper of the Lamb in Rev. 19:7-9, the bride, the church, has finally made herself ready for the Kingdom by submitting to the dictates of the Kingdom, that is, by beginning to consistently obey the commandments of God. The church—the men in her as well as the women—will have become submissive to God.

More Descriptive Astronomy and Its Meaning

At Rev. 22:16, Jesus says, “‘I am…the bright morning star.’” This is a reference to Venus, the brightest planet when seen from earth. However, its rising is never more than about three hours before the sun, and its setting is never more than about three hours after sunset, so that it is never above the horizon from just after local 9 P.M. to just before local 3 A.M.

Last week Monday, July 20, when my first essay was posted, the moon was new, symbolizing darkness in the near term, but possibly a new beginning for a longer period of time. Now it is half illuminated, at waxing quarter. With full moon being the next phase, waxing quarter can be considered somewhat auspicious.

Saturn is the planet of karma. Saturn is brightest when it is highest in the sky at midnight. This alignment opposite the sun occurs approximately every 12.4 months. This year it happened on July 20, adding to the signs suggesting that, on that day, much bad karma began to come due.

Jupiter is the planet of good fortune and optimism. Jupiter is also the planet of expansion and growth, while Saturn is the planet of contraction.

Jupiter and Saturn are aligned on a north-south line from each other (are “conjunct” one another) about once every 20 years. This is the longest such period among the five heavenly planets known since antiquity and is called “the great conjunction.” In a conjunction, the planets’ effects work together to produce an outcome in which, at first, one planet’s influences predominate, then the other’s. A conjunction generates intense energy.

Jupiter and Saturn were last conjunct on May 28, 2000, the year in which the 1,290 and 1,335 days of Dan. 12:11-12 began to be counted. The next such conjunction, in which the planets will appear to be very close, will occur on December 21, 2020, the winter solstice, low in the western evening sky. This event roughly marks the end of the first half year in the final almost 3-1/2 years of the era of warfare. Further information on Venus transits may be obtained from The Transits of Venus by William Sheehan and John Westfall (2004; Prometheus Books, 59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, New York 14228) and Venus in Transit by Eli Moar (2000, 2004; Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540).

For a huge dose of encouragement as to why else the world is rapidly approaching the Kingdom of God, see Factfulness: Ten reasons why we’re wrong about the world—and why things are better than you think by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund (2018; Flatiron Books, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010).

Another book with a very positive outlook on especially the last 50 years and for continued progress far into the future is More from Less: The surprising story of how we learned to prosper using fewer resources—and what happens next by Andrew McAfee (2019; Scribner, An imprint of Simon and Schuster Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020).

July 27, 2020

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

As the waters cover the sea.

(Isaiah 11:9, NRSV)