The Seven Last Trumpets

The late Dr. BengelJohann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752), a famous Lutheran pietist and scholar known for his work on biblical prophecy and his attempts to calculate the date of the Second Coming. writes that it consistsOriginal: "bestehet." of 4 common days; but just as the entire Book of Revelation has remained covered and misunderstood—specifically because it was never intended to be understood until our own time—so it is also with this passage. Since this half hour concerns the Lord Christ, as we shall hear hereafter, it is neither a propheticIn historicist biblical interpretation, a "prophetic day" usually signifies a literal year. nor a common half hour, but rather it is a divine half hour.

Since a divine day consists of a thousand years (2 Peter 3, verse 8 and Psalm 90, verse 4), a divine hour therefore consists of 41 2/3 years, and a half hour consists of 20 years, 43 weeks, and 2 days.

Since, however, the text says "about a half hour," it is either slightly more or slightly less than a half hour. It is, however, slightly more than a half hour. In the Prophet Daniel, the matter is fully disclosedOriginal: "ausgeschlossen," here meaning determined or laid out in detail. in Chapter 10, verse 13; the Lord Christ himself speaks: "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days." By the "Prince in Persia-land," the Prince of Darkness original: "Fürst der Finsterniß." A reference to Satan or a powerful demonic entity that rules over worldly empires. is understood, for no earthly prince can offer resistance to the Lord Christ. And Daniel himself says in the 2nd verse of this 10th chapter—when these great things were revealed to him—that he had been mourning for 3 weeks; these 3 weeks also consist of 21 days. However, in Daniel, these are no ordinary...