The above reckoning has the following advantages over all previous historicist interpretations:—
1. Controverted dates are excluded.
2. The whole period of 2520 years is dealt with, instead of only the latter half (1260), as is usually the case.
3. It confines these “times” to the one place where the Lord Himself put them, viz., “JERUSALEM.” He said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
These “times,” therefore, are confined to Jerusalem. This “treading down” is confined to Jerusalem. It is not the city of Rome that is to be trodden down for 1260 years. Why, then, should these “times” be separated from what is characteristic of their duration, and applied to Rome, papal or imperial? Why should historicists search for some act of emperors or popes in the early part of the seventh century in order to add it to 1260, so as to find some terminal date in or near our own times![86]
We claim that the Lord Himself has joined these “times of the Gentiles” with the city of “Jerusalem,” and we say, “What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. xix. 6).
When Jesus spoke of this treading down, it looks as though it were then still future; for He said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down,” etc., The occupation of Jerusalem by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, was for purposes of government rather than for a wanton treading down. Government on the earth was committed unto them. But when Jerusalem passed from the government of the Roman Empire into the hands of the Turks, it could then be said, in a very special sense, to be “trodden down.” For of any government worthy of the name there has been none; and of desolation and desecration the city has been full. Under the feeble rule of the Turks, all the Gentiles seem to have combined in laying waste the holy city.
Though Jews are returning thither in ever-increasing numbers, they are only strangers there. They have as yet no independent position, nor can they make any treaties. But when these “times” shall end, it means that they will have a position of sufficient independence to be able to make a treaty or league with the coming Prince (Dan. ix. 27); and then the course of events will bring on another treading down of 1260 literal “days” which will thus have had a fore-shadowing fulfilment in years! This is written in Rev. xi. 2. And to save us from any misunderstanding, the time is given, not in days, but in “months.”
The angel, after directing John to measure the Temple of God and the altar, adds, “but the court which is without the Temple leave out, and measure [pg 192] it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”
This refers to a future treading down, which will be limited to the brief period of “forty two” literal “months,” during the time of the coming Prince; and “in the midst” of the last week, when he shall break His covenant with the Jews,[87] set up the “abomination of desolation” (Dan ix. 27; which is still future in Matt. xxiv. 15), and “tread down the holy city.”