When
the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who
had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great
eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where
she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the
serpent's reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to
overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped
the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had
spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off
to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments
and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 12:13-17
The “time” phrase spoken
of here is found in Daniel.
"He
gave me this explanation: 'The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will
appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will
devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are
ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise,
different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. He will speak
against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times
and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and
half a time." 'But the court will sit, and his power will be taken
away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power and
greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the
saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting
kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.' Daniel 7:23-27
The
man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right
hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives
forever, saying, "It will be for a time, times and half a time.
When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things
will be completed." Daniel 12:7
People want to make
“time, times and half a time” into three and half years, or 1,260 days, then
claim that one day = one year, changing it into 1,260 years. Then they say Jesus died around 28 or 30 AD
(no one knows) and claim Jesus is returning 1290 AD? Unfortunately, he didn’t. So more dates and arbitrary impositions are
used to make prophecies come alive. THEY
DON’T WORK! We can't get into the
numbers game.
Time, times and half a
time safely means…a long time. It could
mean a Three Act structure of life, so John is saying this is the final act
that began at the time of Daniel. Or it
could be for time (persecution under Rome), times (persecution for centuries)
and a half of time (final, future persecution before God decides to end it all
before we know it). We just can't apply
hard numbers to this. It wasn't meant to
be read that way.
Satan attacks the saints
for a long time. It’s still going on.