A year, or "time," according to the Jewish calendar was a year of twelve lunar months of thirty days each, or 360 days. In the symbolic prophecies of the Scriptures, a day stood for a year. (See Ezekiel 4:1-8; Numbers 14:33,34.) A "time" therefore, of three hundred and sixty days in a prophetic sense, would signify 360 years. In the expression under consideration there are three and one-half times, or 1,260 years. The same period is mentioned in Revelation 12:14; it is called three and one-half times (360 x 3.5 = 1,260); in chapter 13:5, it is termed forty-two months (30 x 42 = 1,260); and in chapter 12:6, it is called twelve hundred and sixty days. Bible scholars in general have reached the conclusion that these twelve hundred and sixty years came to an end in the year 1799 A.D.
Noting the fulfillment of this prophecy at that time, and following this clue, a number of students of prophecy believe that the "seven times" (Leviticus 26:17, 18, 24, 28) or 2520 years, in which the Jewish people were to be subject to the Gentile powers and kingdoms, terminated in the year 1914 A.D. (World War 1). The count began when the nation of Israel was captured by Babylon in the year 606 B.C. "Seven times," or two thousand five hundred and twenty years, bring us to the date 1914, when the Jews began to have the freedom to live in Israel and eventually to build a government and nation of their own. Israel will be the nucleus of the coming universal government so frequently referred to in the Bible. Isaiah 2:2 – 3:
"Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the LORD’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."
