Prophecies Identify Muhammed & Abomination

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Hi all. After a fair amount of prophetic number crunching I thought it would be good to share with you where I am with all of this. So here goes.

1 – Daniel 9, The Sixty Nine Weeks

The prophecy is given in Dan 9:25 as follows:-

25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,[f] the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.

In Nehemiah 2:1-8 a decree to rebuild Jerusalem is given by the Persian king Artaxerxes I, during his twentieth year of reign.  As best I know, this would date the decree as being given around 445 BC.

Back to the prophecy then, and taking “a day as a year” which is quite well known, we can calculate as follows:-

69 weeks x 7 days per week = 483 years.

If the duration is given in “prophetic years” of 360 days per annum then we need to adjust it to our solar year:-

360 / 365.25 = 0.985626

This is the factor I’m going to use for converting Old Testament prophetic times to modern solar years from now on. So then:-

0.985626 x 483 prophetic years = 476.06 solar years.
445 BC + 476.06 solar years = AD 32

Daniel’s prophecy of Messiah gives us a year towards the end of the ministry of Jesus. His ministry would have reached an advanced stage by AD 32 and so we can be confident that the people were quite familiar with Him by then. In other words the message to the people had been delivered - “Here is the Messiah!” It seems reasonable to take this date as being the arrival of Messiah, at least from the point of view of the Jews to whom at that point the presence of and message of Messiah had been made manifest.

Next verse is Daniel 9:26 as follows:-

26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.[g] The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

Seems to imply that some short time after the 62 weeks (ending around AD 32) that Messiah shall be killed or “cut off.” It naturally follows that the crucifixion (circa AD 33) must chronologically follow the arrival of Messiah. The prophecy of verses 25-26 seems to make contextual sense in light of recorded history.
 
2 – Daniel 12, “A time, times and half a time”

The prophecy is given in Daniel 12:5-7 as follows:-

[5 Then I, Daniel, looked; and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. 6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?”
7 Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.

The phrase “a time, times and half a time” is mysterious and seems to cause a lot of speculation, none of which seems satisfactory. Anyway, I think the key to this mystery is found in Revelation 12.  Verses 12:6 and 12:14 seem to describe the same thing; the length of time that “the woman” or the faithful of God would flee the holy land and the forces of Satan, aka the serpent from Rev 12:14.

Therefore, the period of “one thousand two hundred and sixty days” given in verse 12:6 must be the same as the period described as “a time and times and half a time” given in verse 12:14.

So armed with this knowledge, I went back to Daniel and did some more maths.

First I established the date of Daniel’s prophecy to be around 537 BC. This being the third year of Cyrus the Persian in his role as king of Babylon. (Given in Dan 10:1)

Then I considered that 1260 prophetic years is 1241.89 solar years.
537 BC + 1241.89 solar years = AD 705

I looked this year up in history. It turns out that after conquering Jerusalem, the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate began building a set of structures known as the Dome of the Rock, Dome of the Tablets  and the Al-Aqsa mosque  on the Temple mount. The whole project was completed by AD 705. It is interesting, since this would agree with the context of the prophecy too – the power of the holy people was indeed completely shattered by the invading Muslim forces come AD 705. The Caliphate made sure of that.
 
3 – Daniel 12, The Abomination Which Makes Desolate

The prophecy is given in Daniel 12:11 as follows:-

11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.
In the Jewish Tanakh the same verse is rendered a little different:-
11 “And from the time the daily sacrifice was removed and the silent abomination placed, is one thousand, two hundred, and ninety.

The first Jewish Temple of Solomon was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.  So I took that as the year in which the sacrifice was taken away and calculated thus:-

1290 prophetic years is 1271.46 solar years.
586 BC + 1271.46 solar years = AD 686

Interestingly, if the calculation is done again but without converting the 1290 prophetic years, it works out like this:-

586 BC + 1290 = AD 705

A bit experimental, but interesting for two reasons:-

1)   It corresponds exactly to the year AD 705 from the “time, times and half a time” prophecy earlier and
2)   Checking history, it seems that the date range AD 686-705 pretty much frames the time taken for the Muslims to build the Dome of the Rock, Dome of the Tablets and the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount.

The little “Dome of the Tablets” (a shrine to a false god) even stands in the place of the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant would have been. So is this the silent abomination which makes desolate, standing where it ought not? 

Note that I took 586 BC as being the date which the sacrifice is taken away, ie the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. There might be good reason to bring this start date forwards one or two years as there is some evidence that ceremonially clean priests were still available to carry out daily sacrifices for a year or two until the final deportation by the Babylonians. I’m not too sure if the daily sacrifices could be carried out in a destroyed Solomon’s Temple or not though. But if this is valid, then the calculation could work out as AD 688-706 just the same as John’s prophecy I talk about in part 5 below.

4 – Daniel 12, Blessed is He Who Waits

The prophecy is read from Daniel 12:12 as follows:-

12 Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.

Or from the Tanakh:-

12 Fortunate is he who waits and reaches days of one thousand, three hundred, and thirty-five.

This one was a bit trickier since there is no start point in time from which to work from. Just a length of time, being 1,335 years. Considering that the year AD 1948 was a significant one indeed for the Jewish people – the year in which Israel was declared an independent national state for the first time since, well, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon I suppose. After the Nazi holocaust, those Jews who entered the new liberated Israel would indeed be fortunate.

So I just worked backwards from 1948 to see what I would find as follows:-

1,335 prophetic years is 1,315.81 solar years.
AD 1948 – 1315.81 solar years = AD 632
Looking up this year in history reveals that AD 632 was the year of Muhammed’s death!

Next, the same calculation without converting the prophetic years, just to see:-

AD 1948 – 1335 prophetic years = AD 613
Again, I looked up the year in history. I discovered that AD 613 is the year in which Muhammed first started preaching his new religion in Mecca.

So the date range AD 613-632 frames exactly the duration of Muhammed’s active preaching!  So is this prophecy of Daniel essentially saying that ‘blessed is he who sees the holy land delivered from the tyranny of Muhammed and Islam?’ In the context of revealed history and the previous verse about the placing of the abomination which desolates, this does appear quite reasonable
 
5 – Revelation 12, The Woman Escapes

As noted earlier, the prophecy of the woman taken out of harm’s way seems to be written twice by John in Revelation 12. I feel almost certain that this is partly to provide the key for understanding Daniel’s “time, times and half a time” prophecy without being too obvious about it.

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Also, shortly after this:-

13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So I think it’s fairly certain that the woman represents the people of God who at some point must flee some terrible affliction described as a serpent. The serpent and dragon imagery certainly refers to Satan, as per Genesis and other parts of Revelation.

Again I took 1948 as being the end of the 1260 days/years to see what happens:-
1260 prophetic years = 1241.89 solar years
1948 – 1241.89 solar years  = AD 706

Then the same calculation without the prophetic year conversion, just to see:-
1948 – 1260 prophetic years = AD 688

A date range of AD 688-706 emerges which is very close to the date range of AD 686-705 which was calculated earlier from Daniel’s prophecy of the abomination which makes desolate (Dan 12:11). In fact it’s conspicuously close. Note that Daniel’s prophecy could actually work out exactly the same as this if the date that sacrifices stopped can be legitimately advanced a year or two.
 
6 – Revelation 11, Forty Two Months

This prophecy is given in Rev 11:1-3 as follows:

Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood,[a] saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. 2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

The prophecy gives us no start date from which to calculate forwards. However, in these modern times we can look back and see that the majority of Jerusalem and crucially the Temple Mount, was returned to Israeli control quite recently, in 1967.  So 1967 seems like a relevant end-point of the prophecy.

So I then wondered what forty two months could be and perhaps that it is a number of days, taking a day for a year as usual. How many days are there in a month though? In a “prophetic month” (based on a 360 day year) there would be 30 days exactly.  For a modern solar year, a month averages out at 30.4375 days (365.25 days / 12 months). So I did the two calculations:-

42 prophetic months x 30 days = 1260 prophetic years
1967 – 1260 = AD 707

42 solar months x 30.4375 days = 1278.375 years
1967 – 1278.375 = AD 688

The prophecy reveals a date range of AD 688-707. Again the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque! That’s four prophecies so far which have framed the Dome and the Mosque, one of which clearly identifies it as the abomination with makes desolate.

That's it so far. I've attached a diagram I drew which I think gives a better overview.

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Here's another of Daniel's prophecies read from the Tanach:-

Daniel 8:13 Then I heard one holy one speaking, and one holy one said to the anonymous one who was speaking, "How long will be the vision of the daily sacrifice and the mute abomination, permitting the Sanctuary and the host to be trampled?"

14 And he said to me, "Until evening and morning, two thousand and three hundred, and the holy ones shall be exonerated."

I'm pretty certain that the "mute abomination" here is the same as the "silent abomination" mentioned in Daniel 12:11. This prophesy seems also to be about how long until the abomination is placed.

I learned from the prophecies already discussed that the silent abomination was placed by the Muslims during the period circa AD 688-705. So I worked backwards from that time.

I employed a little bit of interpretive experimentation regards the time quantifier of 2,300 evenings and mornings. The phrase "Until evening and morning" may refer to the evening and morning sacrifices. So 2,300 sacrifices at a rate of two per day would yield 1,150 days taken as prophetic years.

So I did the simple calculations on this basis:-

1,150 prophetic years = 1,133.47 solar years
AD 688 - 1,133.47 solar years = 446 BC

Very close to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I (445 BC) which was determined to be the start year of Daniel's Messianic 69 weeks prophecy, ie the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Close enough to warrant more work, so this time I calculated forwards from 445 BC using the same technique as with the other prophecies:-

445 BC + 1,133.47 solar years = AD 689
445 BC + 1,150 prophetic years = AD 706

So a date range of AD 689-706 emerges - once again the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque - the placing of the Islamic silent abomination. A different prophecy, a different start year, a different time period and yet again a contextual prophetic hit!

The phrase "and the holy ones shall be exonerated" is worth mentioning. The word "exonerated" can mean to be relieved from duty or obligation without guilt. This interpretation seems to tie in quite nicely with Jesus' warning concerning the silent abomination:-

Mark 13:14 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  15 Let him who is on the housetop not go down into the house, nor enter to take anything out of his house.  16 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.

In other words don't stay in the Holy Land - get out quickly. Don't feel obliged to stay or defend it from the Muslims.

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Updated diagram attached.

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There seems to be a compelling alternative to this interpretation of the 2300 "evenings and mornings":-

The vision of Daniel 8 as a whole seems to focus on the emerging power of Greece under Alexander the Great which is represented as the single horned goat.  The empire of Media & Persia (the two horned ram) is the existing power and Greece is coming to conquer and replace it. Alexander crossed the Dardanelles to begin his conquest of Asia-Minor in 334 BC. This marks the beginning of the power of the single horned goat (Greece) and the downfall of Persia under Darius III.

So, if we take 2300 days as years and calculate from 334 BC:-

334 BC + 2300 years = AD 1967

It is of course the year in which the newly formed nation of Israel took back Jerusalem and the Temple Mount during the ‘six day war.’

If 2300 years are converted from prophetic 360 day years to modern solar years then the year 1933 emerges:-

0.985626 x 2300 prophetic years = 2266.94 solar years.
334 BC + 2266.94 adjusted years = AD 1933

It is the year in which Nazi Germany was formed, which was the final major persecuting force before the restoration of Israel to the Jews. The beginning of the holocaust...

Intriguingly, it's almost as if this prophecy has a three way meaning: It identifies the Muslim Abomination of Desolation (AD 688-705), the rise of Nazi Germany (1933) and the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967. So one has to wonder, what do Muslims and Nazis have in common? And what do they have to do with the restoration of Israel to the Jews?

In verse 17, Daniel is told that the vision refers to the time of the end. So if 1967 is the end, then the end of what? Perhaps the end of the Israelites' enforced exile amongst the gentiles?