When `no' means `no'. Will Christ Come May 21, 2011? Why does the chart not show the end of the world? Because Jesus said, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Mt. 24:36.[4] Notice the double "no". When We read a double "no" in the Bible it means absolutely NO! We may not know the exact day of Christ's Second Coming, but we may only know when it is near. That means that May 21, 2011 will pass like any other day. Why? Because before then numerous prophecies still have to be fulfilled of which we read in Rev. 13 and 14, plus other scriptures. That the end is incalculably "hid from us" [20] has long been recognized. So, what will the calculators of this day do? Will they claim a secret rapture? They use the 7 days Noah was in the ark before the rains came in their calculations, disassociating it from what it really teaches - the perpetual importance of the seven day week crowned by the Sabbath which the wicked slighted like they do today. The danger of setting dates is, then some people come out and join up for the ride to heaven, without thorough conversion. Other dangers include that it gives some ammunition to scoff and deride all of God's saving truths, they are then encouraged in thinking "peace, peace, when there is no peace" (Jer. 8:11), and may chose other religions for they may be fearful to be made fun of. Date setters like that are always 100% wrong. - - How do we know when Creation week was, and the length of a Jewish year and month? [25]
Testing A Prophet - Question: How can we tell if someone is a true prophet? Or how can we know if a prophetic interpretation is true? Does the Bible give us a means to decide?
Answer: To test a prophet we are counseled to check the following: (1) The life of the prophet, is he or she faithful to the Word of God? (Gal. 5:22; Jer. 23:13,16); (2) Is the message in harmony with the Word of God? (Jam. 1:17; 1Cor. 12:4); (3) Do they confirm the deity of Christ and confess it? (1John 4:1-3; Jh. 16:14); (4) Do fulfilled prophecies confirm it? (Jer. 28:9); (5) Or have they uttered false prophecies before and then what? In the case of someone who sees himself as a true interpreter of Bible topics, he had stated around 1994 that Christ would come, therefore, he is a false prophet.
Also apply the physical tests given in Daniel 10:5-8, 16-19 and Numbers 24:4;
Some try to use Revelation 22:18, 19 as a way to test if a prophecy or a prophet is of God. But that text has less to do on how to discover the answer to the question as it has to do with the Book of Revelation and in particular how new versions of the Bible treat it. The prime test to get an idea if someone is a true prophet reads like this, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20
"... whatsoever does make manifest is light (truth)." Eph. 5:13.
So we ought to test their teachings and conduct by the Word of God, which is the Bible. If they teach and behave contrary to Scripture, they are false prophets and `there is no light in them.' In Ephesians Paul is saying, `it is light that makes everything visible.' In other words, those who do not keep even one out of ten, the Ten Commandments, and oppose "the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev.19:10), they have no "light", correct understanding of scripture. That means the inquiring person must read the law of God and check if the person in question keeps all ten of them. Most the time that is easy to do. The key commandment is usually the fourth. - But then, often, them saying the Sabbath was done away with kicks in. Was it done away with? No. See some non Adventist answers to such an idea here!

Considerations people wonder about on how to interpret prophetic time may include:

1. Will Jesus' "parousia", His Second Coming, occur May 21, 2011?
   
2. The date was derived in an unusual way. While the proponents of `Family Radio' imply that they study their Bibles thoroughly, it appears that they use not entirely Biblical definitions on how to interpret prophetic time.
   
3. In order to arrive or derive 2011, the leader of `Family Radio (hence FR)' uses more modern 365 days to a year in his calculations.
   
4. This writer sees no precedent for that change in the Bible.
   
5. The Bible teaches that a month has 30 days and a year has 360 days. That scale is given in the flood account where we read that the Flood waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days (Gen. 7:24; 8:3). It also tells us that the Flood rains began in the 2nd month on the 17th day (Gen. 7:11) for 40 days and standing water did not begin to recede until the 7th month on the 17th day of the same year, Gen. 8:4. That means the 150 days were the number of days counted between 2-17-year to 7-17-same year, exactly five months in duration.
   
6. Therefore, simple calculation shows, when 5 months last 150 days, each month contains 30 days. That is the only, divinely revealed measuring rod we can find revealed in the Bible and any other method is extra-Biblical and of man's devising.
   
7. God's Word does not present difficult data for it was given to make it achievable for all generations and average abilities to figure out His word, otherwise the knowledge of salvation would be only possible for few people.
   
8. Just ask, (a) `Do you believe in the literal six day Creation week?' If he does, (b) `How do you celebrate the Creator who made everything we see?' Or ask, (c) `How do you explain Genesis 2:17 - God warning to eat the forbidden fruit means certain death, and in Exodus 31:15, God warning, to break His law - even His 4th commandment - also means certain death?' Or ask, (d) If God would change His law every once in a while, how can we know how to please Him? Is it not true then that there could never again be any sin if His law is changeable? and no Savior who died because God's law was broken; and never any salvation, and we all must perish?'
   
9. Ask, `The appearance of a false Christ (Matthew 24:24; 2.Thess. 2:4; 2. Cor. 11:14-15) how does that come about or who could be that false Christ?' - `Are there many false Christs (antichrists) or not?' `Perhaps a succession of antichrists?' - `Was Judas a type for the antichrist?'
   
10. Ask, `Why do you never teach about the sanctuary - how it is portrayed on earth and in heaven?' - `Since you teach about the judgments of God, what about being found in tune with God or probation?' - `
    
11. Ask, `What is the wrath of God and the Lamb,' John 3:36; Col. 3:4-6; Rev. 14:10,19; Rev. 12:12?

Continuing from (6), the scale of 30 days per month in Bible times is vindicated by the 3½ times, also referred to as "time, times, and half a time," as well as 42 months and 1260 days.

Let us briefly consider the scriptures.

1. the 1260 days, Revelation 11:3; 12:6.
   
2. 3½ times, Daniel 7:25; Revelation 12:4. Explanation: "time" is one year, "times" are two years, "one half a time" is ½ year = three one half years = (360 x 3) + 180 = 1260 days = 1260 prophetic years.
   
3. 42 months, Revelation 11:2; 13:5.
   
4. The scriptures in green, with interpretations in black, say,
   11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
   11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."
   The temple: in verse 1 is not the church for the church is made visible in connection with the temple of God by the additional words, "... them that worship therein", (v. 1). Thus the temple, therefore, is the literal temple in heaven, and the worshipers inside are the true church on earth.

Measuring the Temple: The character of those inside is going to be measured and compared to some standard, law or principle. That refers to the Ten Commandments, the standard and "the whole duty of man." (Eccl. 12:13) The call to measure the temple means, for God's people it is a prophetic command to pay close attention to the temple of God and all that has to do with it.
How can this measuring be done? With the Ten Commandments alone it cannot be done, but when taken together with the entire message, students find themselves led by it to examine the sanctuary in heaven (Dan. 8:13,14), with the tables of the commandments in the Most Holy (Rev. 11:19) and the High Priestly ministration of Christ in it, Hebr. 9:7,8.
The attention of God's people, diligent and faithful Bible students, is directed to what goes on inside the temple, thus the Gentiles in the outer court are left out as for now. That the court refers to the earth is shown by the fact that the blood of the creature to be slain on the altar was to be ministered (sprinkled) inside the sanctuary. The sacrifice slain as a shadow or type of the real sacrifice on Calvary for the whole world, thus introduces the Gentiles apostasy "who tread underfoot" the forecourt for 42 months.

"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth." Rev. 11:3.

Since we showed the Jewish month has 30 days and 42 months have 1260 days - and that we can read this very number in Rev. 11:3 - we have an additional check on how to interpret prophetic time using only the Bible itself. Thus we have here the biblical confirmation that the Biblical definition of prophetic time is: a month has 30 days and a year 360 days - and all three of these time periods given describe the same stretch of time, God thus implanting a double, triple or quadruple (with Noah's time) check of God's time prophecies for future generations of students of His word to calibrate Bible prophetic time by.

How and When do these periods, the (3½ times, 42 months, 1260 days) = 1260 years begin?

The beginning point is when a Christian or supposedly Christian religious power tramples the court underfoot with false doctrines, and then reigns with a high religious hand for 1260 years. The only historical data which provide such a match of incidental events combining to such type of a reign is fulfilled in history by the papacy of the RCC. As a matter of record, in 538 A.D. the pope of Rome was given the temporal power of the Roman Emperors in addition to the power over his church which he already had.[500] This papal power waxed and waned and waxed again till in 1798 the pope was taken prisoner by Berthier, the commanding general of Napoleon, and all the world thought that was the end of the papacy, but it was only wounded, Rev. 13:3,12-14; . The pope died in a French prison and by 1800 a new pope appeared to deftly and slowly take up the reigns again. During these 1260 years the absolute ecclesiastical papal power over men and kings, the Roman pontiffs

1. combined church and state, to rule the whole world
   
2. undo everything that Protestantism had done to their cause, and
   
3. persecute those clinging to the original faith preached by the Apostles - they do this by proxy religions, institutions and then claim innocence

After the wounding, the papacy has been diligently at work to undo all the Reformation has wrought and regain its three objectives resulting in the total healing of its wound. America is destined to finally heal the wound of the papacy.

[4] In Greek the word for `no, nothing nay' is "oudeis, oudemia, or oudin" or its declinated forms. In Matthew 24:36 it reads, "Peri de tes emeras ekeines kai ras oudeis oiden, oude oi aggeloi tn ouran oude o uios, ei me o pater monos." The underlined words are a double "no". This represents the divinely implanted warning not to fall into such mistakes. Other instances of double emphasis can be found.

[20] THE END HID FROM US - -Again we have been told, that the time of this event (the end of all things) "is not suitable to be revealed," "and it is wisely hid from us." If by the "time" here, "the day and the hour" be meant, the objection can have no fair application to Mr. Miller's calculations; but if it be meant that every thing "about the time" "is wisely hid from us," and "is not suitable to be revealed," the objection deserves a passing notice; though to point out its unscriptural character will be sufficient. Has God commissioned his angels to our earth, to tell the prophets, to whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister, how long it was to these things, and that the wise should understand - have the apostles directed us to these same prophets, telling us that we do well to take heed unto their word as unto a light that shineth in a dark place - has God connected the setting up of his kingdom, the judgment, and the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, with the destruction of all earthly kingdoms, telling us which of those earthly kingdoms in the succession should exist at the time - has Christ pointed us to the signs by which we might know when his coming is near, even at the door, and after all is it hid from us? Has God seen it to be "suitable" to give notice of the time of the flood which was to destroy the world, even to a day, (Gen. 7:4,) and of a famine which should affect only a few nations at most - and of the judgment of Egypt, a single nation, for oppressing his people - and of the final dissolution of the ten tribes, and of the captivity of Judah 70 years in Babylon, and of the destruction of Jerusalem, and is it unsuitable for God to make known to the world the time of its final destruction! And who shall dare to say what is suitable for God to do in such a case! Away with such affected regard for the character of God, which, assuming to guard the portals of the inner sanctuary, dares to dictate to the Sovereign who sits upon its throne; and while it ignorantly claims to be the guardian of his wisdom, impeaches every one of his perfections, as manifested in the express design of his most wonderful and important transactions. How de ye doctors "make void the word of God through your traditions!" Do ye know the scriptures, or the power of God! We defy any man to find in Mr. Miller's works, or even in what is ascribed to him by the ten thousand falsehoods in circulation, any thing more strongly characterized by ignorance, presumption and impiety than this. {1843 Apollos Hale, TSAM 28.3}

[500] Sources on the 1260 day/year period from 538 to 1798: Abbe Joachim von Floris (ca. 1260 AD), Concordia, Vol. II, Sec. 16; Vol. V, Sec. 118; Comments on Rev. 9:10, p. 131b.
The Roman Emperor Justinian removed the influence of the Arian Heruli potentate Odoaker in north Africa (Gibbons, ch. 41, p. 21). After also removing the threat of the Ostrogoths from Rome, Silverius, the son of pope Hormisdas, through the efforts of Theodat, became pope in 536 AD without having been elected. As soon as Belisar entered Rome, the jealous archdeacon Bigilius, a favorite of Empress Theodora, spared no sums of money to get Belisar to depose Silverius who also was accused of sympathy with the Goths. Accused of treason, Silverius was exiled and Bigilius/Vigilius became pope, again, without having been elected. He was not a Christian. We read, "Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal chair under the military protection of Belisarius (538-554)." [Schaff, `History of the Christian Church', Vol. III, p. 327.] With this Vigilius or Bigilius began a new order. Though personally he was humiliated by the emperors demands, and the Papacy itself was brought into a state of subjection that it had not known even under heretical Gothic kings, yet this very arbitrary use of the papal prerogative by Justianian, strengthened the idea that the Pope of Rome was the supreme authority in religion, to speak for the universal church. So we read, "Down to the sixth century all popes are declared saints in the martyrologies. Vigilius (537-555) is the first of a series of popes who no longer bear this title, which is henceforth sparingly conferred. From this time on the popes, more and more involved in worldly events, no longer belong solely to the church; they are men of the state, and then rulers of the state." [Bemont, Monod, Medieval Europe, p. 120. - With respect to Vigilus year 537, the exact date should be 538, as given in the quotation from Schaff's history. "From the death of Silverius (June 538) the Roman Catholic writers date the episcopacy of Vigilius." (Bower, History of the Popes, under year 538.] - - Following Vigilius came Pelagius (556-560), who ascended the throne by "the military aid of Narses," then the imperial general in Italy. And Pelagius, who had been set in the papal see by imperial power, began to demand that the sword of the empire should be used against bishops or members in the church who did not give way to the authority of the Pope. His letters on the subject "are an unqualified defense of the principles of persecution." [See Dictionary of Christian Biography, by Smith & Wace, art. "Pope Pelagius."] We learn here that in 533 came the memorable imperial declaration recognizing that supremacy, and in A.D. 538 came the stroke with the sword of Rome, cleaving the way; and there began the new order of the popes - "men of the state, and then rulers of the state." These decisive events clearly mark the beginning of the prophetic period of the 1260 years. And just 1260 years from the decree of 533, in recognition of the papal supremacy, came a decree, in 1793, aimed against that supremacy; and just 1260 years from that stroke with the sword at Rome in behalf of the Papacy, came a stroke with the sword at Rome against the Papacy by 1798. Let us remember that in 538, on orders (letter) of Justinian, Pelagius I. was "elected" pope in Rome. [See Oncken, W., Allgemeine Geschichte, 1884, Vol. II, 2. 1, 315; Hefele, C.J., Konziliengeschichte, 1886, Vol. II, p. 571.]

The Decree of Emperor Justinian of 533 AD (Decrees are laws which can be quickly passed by the stroke of a pen.):

"We have been sedulous to subject and unite all the priests of the Orient throughout its whole extent to the see of Your Holiness .... For we do not suffer that anything which is mooted, however clear and unquestionable, pertaining to the state of the churches, should fail to be made known to Your Holiness, as being the head of all the churches. For, as we have said before, we are zealous for the increase of the honor and authority of your see in all respects." [Codex Justinian, lib.1, title 1, Baronii "Annales Ecclesiastici", Tom. VII, anno 533, sec. 12 (Translation as given in `The Petrine Claims', by R.F. Littledale, p. 293.)

The Truth of the Matter

We present this material to show that the period of the seven churches reaches over a long period of time and that the opening of the first door mentioned in Rev. 4:1, occurs when Jesus goes through that door to receive his kingdom and deals with the same information we read in Rev. 3:7-8. Then John the Revelator shifts his attention from the opened and shut door to `the synagogue of Satan'. Of course we know that the Jews worship in synagogues, but we also know that the apostle Paul says:

"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ... but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly." Romans 2:28,29.

"Not as though the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children of God ... They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God" Romans 9:6-8; Galatians 3:29