Chapter 5 - Nebuchaznezzar and the Antichrist.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon was the FIRST Gentile ruler of the Times of the Gentiles and as such he and his empire was called the HEAD of Gold. Thus he represented the totality of the Gentile Powers which can be therefore be called Babylon. As the Gentile representative his personal experience of 7 TIMES (2520 days) of ruling over Israel as a beast typified the 7 TIMES (2520 years) of the Gentile nations ruling over Israel as beasts (see Daniel 7 and 8).
Now Daniel’s visions reveal the course of the Times of the Gentiles from their beginning with Babylon, through Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and then finally an end-time Revived Rome that Antichrist will take over. Thus Daniel’s prophecies look forward to the time of the end (the Tribulation) and the final form of the Gentile beast that shall dominate Israel, the kingdom of the ANTICHRIST, which Christ shall personally destroy at His Second Coming to save Israel and establish His Kingdom over all the earth (Daniel 2:31-45; Daniel 7; Daniel 11:36-12:11).
Now it is a matter of great significance that God does not only allocate 7 TIMES to the first Gentile Ruler over Israel, butHe also allocates 7 TIMES to the last Gentile Ruler to rule over Israel as a beast (the Tribulation). This confirms that the7 TIMES has a significance beyond Nebuchadnezzar’s personal experience. It is a repeating pattern of God’s measurement of Gentile dominion over Israel that He has sovereignly ordained.
Thus both the FIRST and LAST of the Gentile world-rulers who dominate Israel during the Times of the Gentiles have a special period of 7 TIMES associated with their rule. As the first ruler (Nebuchadnezzar) stood at the head of the Times of the Gentiles and represented them as a whole, so likewise Antichrist as the final ruler of the Gentile powers, being the full and final manifestation of their power and evil, represents them as a whole.
Therefore we would expect that just as Nebuchadnezzar’s 7 TIMES formed a blueprint (in days) for the whole course of the 7 TIMES of the Gentiles (in years), so Antichrist’s 7 TIMES should also provide a blueprint for the whole of the Times of the Gentiles.
In a later chapter, we will discuss the detailed chronology of the 7 year Tribulation in detail (as revealed in Daniel and Revelation), and we will see that this blueprint provides a stunning confirmation of the initial conclusions that we have made so far about the Times of the Gentiles. For now we will just mention the main features.
The Tribulation is a 7 year period of time marked off by God (Daniel’s 70th Week - Daniel 9:24-27). The 7 years start with a covenant Antichrist makes with Israel (Daniel 9:27) in which she submits to the Antichrist, no doubt for protection and favours. Half way through the 7 years Antichrist breaks the covenant and invades Israel and sets up the Abomination of Desolation in the Temple, declaring himself to be god, and soon afterwards he becomes world-dictator. Therefore the Tribulation naturally divides into two halves of 3.5 years each. The 2nd half of the Tribulation is called the Great-Tribulation, the worst ever period of human history, due to the satanic nature of Antichrist’s rule, the mark of the Beast and the increasing severity of God’s judgements upon his kingdom.
However instead of describing each half of the Tribulation as being 3.5 Years, Scripture describes them as being 3.5 TIMES (or 42 months or 1260 days - a TIME being 360 days). Now this 360-day (ancient Babylonian) Year is NOT the standard year used in the Bible as some say. The use of the TIME in the Tribulation (at the end of the Times of the Gentiles) connects us to Nebuchadnezzar’s 7 TIMES at the start of the Times of the Gentiles, showing that the unit God uses to measure these Times is the TIME and that He measures Gentile dominion as 7 TIMES. Measuring the Tribulation in Babylonian TIMES puts upon them the stamp of Gentile supremacy, confirming that this is a time of Gentile domination.
In addition the Tribulation is a time of world-wide judgement, and in this respect Christ compared it to the one other time of world-wide judgement, namely the Flood (Matthew 24:36-39). Now it is interesting that for the year of the Flood, God used the 360-day year (the TIME) - see Genesis 7:11,24, 8:3,4. Therefore it seems God also uses the TIME to measure times of world-wide judgement. So by measuring the Tribulation in TIMES, God is marking it both with the stamp of Gentile domination and Divine Judgement.
The first half of the Tribulation is described as 3.5 TIMES in Revelation 11:2,3. Daniel and Revelation both describe a number of major events that then happen at Mid-Tribulation during a short Mid-Tribulation Interval that takes place before the 2nd half of the Tribulation begins. The second half of the Tribulation (the time of Antichrist’s world-wide dominion) is exactly 3.5 TIMES, just like the first half (Daniel 7:25, 12:7; Revelation 12:6,14; 13:5). When these days are over Christ will bring the Tribulation to an end by His Return in power and glory (the Great and Terrible or Manifest Day of the Lord).
Now we shall see that it is the revelation in Daniel and Revelation concerning the Interval at the middle of the 7 TIMES of the Tribulation that provides amazing confirmation of the interpretation of the the historical 7 TIMES that we are developing in this book.
Anyone concerned by the apparent inconsistency in saying that the Times of the Gentiles have ended, but that they also still have another 7 years to run (the 7-year Tribulation under Antichrist) should read the next chapter!