Nations! Times Of Gentiles by R.K. Phillips Update of Times of the Gentiles, 1978: January 1995; Reformatted: January, 2002 Table of Contents PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................................1 1. TIMES OF NATIONS...........................................................................................................................2 1.1. THE ERA OF THE IMAGE EMPIRES......................................................................................................5 1.2. THE ERA OF THE FOUR BEASTS.........................................................................................................8 1.3. JERUSALEM....................................................................................................................................11 1.4. THE END OF THE SEVEN TIMES OF NATIONS ....................................................................................12 1.5. DISCUSSION – DECEMBER 1994 ......................................................................................................15 i Preface Grattan Guinness and David Davidson are just two people who we know have studied prophecy in detail. While Guinness accurately predicted the deliverance of Jerusalem, he has made errors in other parts of his work. But we do not reject the research done by these men because of such errors. Rather, we go over their work again and again with a view to trying to understand where they went wrong and why, so that hopefully we can advance our collective knowledge of what is happening around us. Thus the effort to understand prophecy is an excellent mechanism for keeping our attention focused on the world around us. We have another great role model in this quest – Daniel himself searched the Word of God to understand his times. He knew when the captivity was to end but there was much that was subsequently revealed to him that he readily admitted he did not understand. This paper was first published in 1978 and now it is time to review it in the light of current events. The original work has been re-arranged to make it easier to follow and expanded with background material that fills some of the gaps in the original presentation. Very little new research material has been added to the body of the original work. The Discussion section at the end draws on some of the new research material arising from a new paper on Daniel and Revelation to be published in 1995. 1 1. Times of Nations It has long been evident that the statement in the footnotes on page 1106 of Scofield’s Reference Bible, The Times of the Gentiles began with the captivity of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar is not correct. Therefore, the assumption that those Times came to an end in 1917, when Jerusalem was delivered from Turkish domination is also wrong. The fact is God warned both Israel and Judah, that if they continued to disobey The Law, they would be punished for Seven Times. We know that Israel’s punishment began when Israel fell in 721 BC, and Israel came out of that punishment in 1800 AD. We also know that Judah’s punishment began when Judah fell in 604 BC and it was her punishment which ended in 1917 – 2520 Solar years later 1. There is no statement in Scripture which says that “The Times of the Gentiles” (Greek text reads Times of Nations) were to be coincident with the Times of Judah’s punishment. That is a logical assumption perhaps, but a mistaken one. For although Jerusalem was delivered in 1917 from being trodden down by the Turks, nevertheless neither Israel nor Judah came into possession of The Holy Land at that time. Great Britain was simply appointed as the guardian or policeman to administer the country on behalf of that “gentile” Organisation, The League of Nations. That task ended in May 1948. Therefore, as Jerusalem is still not possessed by true Israel or Judah, it continues to be trodden down at the present time (1978) and we must look for other start and finish dates for the Seven Times of Nations. Scripture shows that Israel’s punishment began when Israel fell, and Judah’s began when it fell, therefore it is reasonable to expect that the Seven Times of Nations or the Madness of the Nations would not begin until one of those nations which became prominent after Judah also fell. Daniel described those nations which were to dominate the civilised world after Judah had fallen, when he explained to Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of the Great Image the King had seen in a dream 2. Babylon was the head of gold, hence it was the first of the empires represented by the Image. Daniel 2:28 states the dream of the Great Image was to reveal what was to be in the Latter Days. He says that the gold, silver, brass and iron represented four kingdoms that would follow one another in historical sequence. But Dan 2:35 states that the four different metals and the clay, (indicating the residual strength but diminishing quality of those kingdoms), would all be destroyed together, at the END of the Latter Days. Furthermore, in verse 35, when the whole system is to be destroyed, the iron is listed first and the gold is last. This signifies that every feature or element of the kingdoms that survived to the end of the Age (such as the Roman system of law) will be completely and utterly obliterated and replaced by the administrative system of the Stone Kingdom. Later in his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had another dream in which he saw a tree that grew and reached up to the sky. Then he saw a Watcher descend from Heaven with orders to cut the tree down but to leave the stump with its roots in the ground, with a band of iron and brass around the stump. And the Holy Watcher said that he (who represented the tree) was to live as an animal in the field until seven times had passed over him. Daniel explained that the tree represented the king himself. Cutting it down signified that he would be stricken with madness and be driven from his palace, to think and to live like an animal until seven years had passed over him and he learned that The Most High ruled in the kingdoms of men. But because the stump was left in the ground with its roots, he would recover to find his kingdom intact, and thereafter he would give honour and praise to God. 1 The interval of 2520 years is seven Times or 7 prophetic years of 360 days, each day of which represents a year of Solar or Lunar time. The number, 1260, is the half of 2520 and is referred to in Scripture as A Time, Times and half a Time (3.5 times) in Rev 12:14, and as forty-two months (of 30 days each) in Rev 11:2. 2 Bullinger states that it was the secret – the meaning – of the Image that was revealed to Daniel in a vision (Dan 2:19) not the Image itself. 2 The dream was a preview of what was to happen to Nebuchadnezzar himself, but it had much deeper implications. Since he was also the ruler of that kingdom which represented the head of gold of the Image of Dan 2, the dream of the felled tree was also a prefiguration of what would afflict all the kingdoms representing the other parts of the Image. Each of them would be stricken with a madness that came from within them. This madness would prevail in all the world until the seven times had passed over all of them and they also were forced to acknowledge that The Most High ruled in the kingdoms of men. For we are told in Isa 2 and Micah 4:5 that when the Seven Times of Nations are over and The Kingdom of God established again, that is precisely what the other nations of the World will do. The stump of the tree, with its roots in the ground, signified to Nebuchadnezzar that after his period of madness his kingdom would be restored to him for a short time. It also signifies, to us, that the Babylonic Image system will also recover its power for a short time near the end of the Age – but not in what was formerly the land of Babylon. The band of iron and brass around the stump shows that when the stump begins to grow again, it will be in the lands of the iron and brass sections of the Great Image – Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. About 28 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the Great Image, Daniel himself had a vision – recorded in Dan 7 – in which he saw four carnivorous wild beasts rising out of the sea. Daniel was told these beasts also represented four Powers which were to arise on the Earth (Dan 7:17). Unfortunately for our understanding of prophecy, Bible commentators almost invariably dismiss this vision as simply being a different view of the same four kingdoms of Dan 2. This shallow interpretation is wrong because, by the time Daniel had his vision, Babylon (the first of those Image kingdoms) was about to pass into history and Medo-Persia was already in existence and ready to replace Babylon. Therefore the first two of those beast powers could have no direct association with the first two kingdoms of the Great Image. For Daniel was shown (Dan 7:17) that the four beasts represented a new order of four kingdoms or powers which would arise, one after the other, over a long period of time that was still future at the time of his vision. A further distinction is made in Dan 8 between the kingdoms of the Great Image and the beast powers. The second and third Great Image kingdoms are presented as two male domestic animals, the Ram and the He-goat, but the four beasts of Dan 7 are savage, carnivorous female animals. (The Hebrew pronouns and most of the verb forms referring to the beasts are also feminine.) In Scripture, this indicates activities affecting the spirit, spirit powers or temple worship.