Are We Living in “the Time of the End”?

“As for you, O Daniel, make secret the words and seal up the book, until the time of the end.”​—Daniel 12:4.

THE diner was confused. As he looked out the window of a mid-Manhattan restaurant overlooking Times Square, New York City, his eyes darted back and forth between three separate digital clocks, all flashing the time in oversized letters. One clock read 11:28. Another, as though doubtful of the lateness of the hour, lagged behind at 11:26, whereas the third was impatiently running ahead at 11:29.

‘A minute or two does not really matter,’ you may say. Try convincing a person of that, however, who has just missed his bus, train, or plane, not by minutes but only by seconds! Knowing the correct time is important. Knowing where we are in God’s timetable is even more so.

The Possibility of Doomsday

Of course, as you may know, people have been talking about “the time of the end”​—some say ‘the end of the world’ or ‘doomsday’—​for centuries. The prophet Daniel spoke about it 25 centuries ago. (Daniel 12:4) But nowadays, according to free-lance writer James David Besser, “it no longer takes religious or supernatural faith to accept the possibility of doomsday; it merely requires access to the television news.” Do you not agree?

Without doubt, television makes world news more accessible by transplanting the action right into our living rooms. It makes problems seem more immediate and more personal. It reminds us that the city or town disintegrated in a possible nuclear holocaust, the son or daughter brutalized in a possible crime wave, the mother or father held hostage in a possible terrorist attack​—potentially, all these problems could be ours. Still, these possibilities in themselves do not prove that doomsday will soon be upon us. But they do make it seem more likely, causing the question, Are we living in “the time of the end”? to take on greater urgency.

Jesus, Daniel, and the End of the World

Over 19 centuries ago, the disciples of Jesus asked him: “What will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things [“the end of the world,” King James Version]?” (Matthew 24:3) In giving them a sign, Jesus spoke of numerous evidences, all of which in a composite way would indicate that we had reached “the conclusion of the system of things.” Turn in your Bible to Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Mark chapter 13, and Luke chapter 21, and read about them for yourself.

You may be surprised to discover that what you read sounds almost like a summary of today’s television news. You will read about wars, great earthquakes, pestilences, and food shortages​—all occurring on a global scale. You will also read about “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out,” and about people becoming “faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.” Could you find more appropriate words to describe the world situation, about which today’s television programs tell us so much?​—Luke 21:10, 11, 25, 26.

This strong circumstantial evidence that we are living in “the time of the end” is not all that we have. As we have noted above, we find corroborative evidence by going back another 500 years to the days of the Jewish prophet Daniel. Jesus referred to him by name, and pointed to the fulfillment of his prophecy. (Compare Matthew 24:3, 15, 21 with Daniel 11:31; 12:1, 4.) By doing this, Jesus showed that he did not consider Daniel’s “Old Testament” words to be out of date or insignificant. Neither should we.

Notice the similarity in the words of Daniel and those of Jesus as set out above. Then ask yourself, ‘Were they not speaking about the same thing?’

It is obvious that Daniel and Jesus both foretold the same thing, “the time of the end,” during which time Christ would be present in kingly power. At the end of that time period, he would annihilate all his enemies here on earth in a great tribulation. But God’s people would survive.

Do you want to be among those survivors? Then consider the evidence that Daniel presents about “the time of the end.” It helps us to know exactly where we are in the divine timetable.

[Box on page 4]

DANIEL

“In the time of the end . . . Michael [Jesus Christ] will stand up . . . and there will certainly occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation. . . . And during that time your people will escape.”​—Daniel 11:40; 12:1.

JESUS

“What will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things? . . .

“There will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning . . .

“Unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but . . . those days will be cut short.”​—Matthew 24:3, 21, 22.

A Dream Reveals How Late It Is

“JEHOVAH is . . . the living God and the King to time indefinite.” (Jeremiah 10:10) At no time has he relinquished control of his universe, a fact that King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon failed to recognize. To impress upon that pagan king that “the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind,” God caused him to have a dream and enabled His servant Daniel to interpret its meaning.​—Daniel 4:17, 18.

The dream involved an immense tree. Its “height finally reached the heavens, and it was visible to the extremity of the whole earth.” At divine command, the tree was cut down, but its stump was bound with bands of iron and of copper. These were to remain in place until “seven times” had passed over that stump, after which the tree could grow again.​—Daniel 4:10-17.

“The tree that you beheld,” Daniel explained, “is you, O king . . . and your rulership.” Nebuchadnezzar was to be cut down. He was to lose his kingdom, yes even his sanity, doomed to roam the fields as a wild beast for “seven times.” Only after the set time period had elapsed were the symbolic bands to be removed, permitting the king to regain both his sanity and his throne.​—Daniel 4:20-27.

Just as foretold, “all this befell Nebuchadnezzar the king.” (Daniel 4:28) The Lexicon Linguae Aramaicae Veteris Testamenti says that the “seven times” of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream were seven literal years. Since Nebuchadnezzar reigned for 43 years (624-581 B.C.E.), this is a reasonable conclusion.

Of What Meaning Is This to Us?

Jehovah has always exercised his universal sovereignty as he sees fit. For a time he did this on earth through the nation of Israel, whose earthly rulers were properly said to “sit upon Jehovah’s throne.” (1 Chronicles 29:23) When Israel turned apostate, however, Jehovah allowed its dynasty of kings in the descendants of King David to be overthrown.

How appropriate, then, that shortly thereafter God would give some indication to King Nebuchadnezzar​—the very one permitted to destroy His typical kingdom—​that this in no way meant that God’s rightful sovereignty had come to an end. How important to impress upon him and upon all the Gentile nations that would afterward trample upon God’s representative kingdom that this state of affairs was only temporary!

Thus, the point of time when the dream was given, the person to whom it was given, and the theme of divine sovereignty that it stressed, argue for a significance far beyond the meaning it had for Nebuchadnezzar. They suggest that like a cut-down tree with bands, divine rulership as had been expressed in Jerusalem, now destroyed, would not be restored until those bands of restraint were removed after “seven times.” At that time, God’s representative Ruler, “the lowliest one of mankind,” a reference to the promised Messiah, would be set up in his Kingdom. As to when God would do this, Jesus’ disciples requested a sign.​—Daniel 4:17; Matthew 24:3.

There are also other indications showing this far-reaching application of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to be correct. The prophecy recorded at Daniel 9:24-27 pinpointed the exact year of Messiah’s arrival over 500 years later.a Now if the time of Messiah’s coming as a human was foretold with such precision, is it not reasonable to conclude that the time of his more significant invisible return in Kingdom power would be foretold with equal precision? Who could more appropriately do this than Daniel? Remember, too, that after recording his visions and dream prophecies, including Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about the tree, Daniel was told: “Make secret the words and seal up the book, until the time of the end.” Why until then? Because during that time “true knowledge will become abundant.” If what Daniel wrote was to remain sealed, not understandable, until “the time of the end,” would that not indicate that his writings would be of prophetic importance during that period?​—Daniel 12:4.

The “Seven Times”​—From When to When?

While giving his sign, Jesus spoke of the “seven times,” calling them “the appointed times of the nations.” He said: “Jerusalem will [continue to] be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24) A footnote in the Oxford NIV Scofield Study Bible (1984) tells us that “the ‘times of the Gentiles’ [King James Version rendering of “appointed times of the nations”] began with the captivity of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar. . . . Since that time Jerusalem has been, as Christ said, ‘trampled on by the Gentiles.’”

How long were the “seven times,” or “appointed times of the nations,” to last? Plainly, they would extend much longer than 7 literal years of 360 days each (as Biblical years were calculated), which would amount to 2,520 days. Scriptural precedent indicates that we should substitute one year for each day. (See Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6; compare Revelation 12:6, 14.) Such a calculation would mean that the “seven times” lasted 2,520 years. If they began with Jerusalem’s destruction in 607 B.C.E., they would end in the year 1914 C.E.

For over three decades before 1914, Jehovah’s Witnesses called attention to the significance of this date. Interestingly, however, the book International Crisis, by Eugenia Nomikos and Robert C. North (1976), says that there was “little or no evidence of a steady rise or a ‘snowballing’ of conflicts and tensions leading directly to the outbreak of war.” On the contrary, “by late 1913 and early 1914 . . . relations among the major powers appeared to be more settled than they had been for many years.” Yet today, seven decades later, historians do indeed say that 1914 was a turning point in human history. The German reference work Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon, for example, says that “the effects of World War I were literally revolutionary and struck deep in the lives of almost all peoples, economically as well as socially and politically.”

The political ramifications of the events of 1914 are well known. The social changes it brought about are mentioned in Virginia Cowles’ book 1913: An End and a Beginning. “The year 1913 marked the close of an era,” she writes. As regards economic consequences, Ashby Bladen, a senior vice president of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, writes: “Before 1914 the monetary and the financial systems were compatible. . . . If one takes August 1914 as marking the dividing line between them, the contrasts between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries are striking. In many aspects of human affairs there has been a complete reversal of trend. . . . One major reason was the severance of the linkage between the financial system and money with intrinsic value that began in 1914. . . . The breaking of the linkage was a momentous event. . . . 1914 marked a radical, and in the end catastrophic, transformation of that system.”

How Late Is the Hour?

Evidence that Jesus’ sign is now undergoing fulfillment is as easily available as is newspaper or television news. And it offers conclusive proof that the chronological evidence in support of 1914 as revealed in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is correct. So today, in 1986, this means that we are already 72 years into “the time of the end.” Jesus promised that some members of the generation of people old enough to witness its beginning would still be alive when the great tribulation brought it to its completion.​—Matthew 24:34.

What an incentive this should be for us to keep ever alert, our eyes focused on the divine revelation of how late it is! How vital that we avoid becoming impatient, trying to speed up the divine clock, only to suffer disappointment! On the other hand, how important that we guard against becoming complacent, trying to slow it down, only to miss out! Remember, far more is at stake than the danger of missing a bus, train, or plane. The danger is that of missing everlasting life in God’s new system of things. And that will be something simply too good to miss!

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 6]

When Did the “Seven Times” Really End?

Some people argue that even if the “seven times” are prophetic and even if they last 2,520 years, Jehovah’s Witnesses are still mistaken about the significance of 1914 because they use the wrong starting point. Jerusalem, they claim, was destroyed in 587/6 B.C.E., not in 607 B.C.E. If true, this would shift the start of “the time of the end” by some 20 years. However, in 1981 Jehovah’s Witnesses published convincing evidence in support of the 607 B.C.E. date. (“Let Your Kingdom Come,” pages 127-40, 186-9) Besides, can those trying to rob 1914 of its Biblical significance prove that 1934​—or any other year for that matter—​has had a more profound, more dramatic, and more spectacular impact upon world history than 1914 did?

[Chart on page 6]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

607 B.C.E. 33 C.E. 1914 C.E. 1986 C.E.

[Pictures on page 7]

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream has a far-reaching application that affects you!