Monday, June 8
One of the interpretative keys of historicism is the year-day principle. Many scholars over the centuries applied this principle to the time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. They derived the principle from several key texts and from the immediate context of the prophecies themselves.
Read Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. How does God spell out the year-day principle in these specific texts?
In these texts, we can see very clearly the idea of the year-day principle. But how do we justify using this principle with some of the time prophecies, such as in Daniel 7:25, and Daniel 8:14, as well as Revelation 11:2, 3; Revelation 12:6, 14; and Revelation 13:5?
Three other elements support the year-day principle in these prophecies of Daniel and Revelation: the use of symbols, long time periods, and peculiar expressions.
First, the symbolic nature of the beasts and horns representing kingdoms suggests that the time expressions should also be understood as symbolic. The beasts and horns are not to be taken literally. They are symbols for something else. Hence, because the rest of the prophecy is symbolic, not literal, why should we take the time prophecies alone as literal? The answer, of course, is that we shouldn’t.
Second, many of the events and kingdoms depicted in the prophecies cover a time span of many centuries, which would be impossible if the time prophecies depicting them were taken literally. Once the year-day principle is applied, the time fits the events in a remarkably accurate way, something that would be impossible if the time prophecies were taken literally.
Finally, the peculiar expressions used to designate these time periods suggest a symbolic interpretation. In other words, the ways in which time is expressed in these prophecies (for example, 2,300 evenings and mornings of Daniel 8:14) are not the normal ways to express time, showing us that the time periods depicted are to be taken symbolically, not literally.
Look at the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27. We read that “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince” (Daniel 9:25) will be a literal 69 weeks, or just one year and four months and one week. The prophecy makes no sense when understood that way, does it? What happens, however, when we apply the Bible’s own year-day principle, and the 70 weeks become 490 years?
