Going back to the benediction (Rev 1:3), we will now notice its final five words, "because the time is near". In the first and last chapters of Revelation, we have other similar statements: "These things must shortly take place... Surely I am coming quickly..." How does this warning make the book of Revelation of immediate importance and revelance to you? Let's take some time to think about that.
One important time element in prophecy is the three-and-a-half symbol. This is expressed in several forms, including the expression "a time, times, and half a time" which appears twice in Daniel (Dan 7:25 Dan 12:7) and once more in Revelation (Rev 12:14). Let's examine this symbol in detail.
Three-and-a-half times. Most interpreters take "a time, times, and half a time" to mean "one time, two times, and half a time" or three-and-a-half times altogether. There is good reason for this. We discover periods of three-and-a-half in various passages of vision and prophecy where times and seasons are mentioned. Consider the following examples.
Three-and-a-half days. The three-and-a-half symbol occurs in vision and prophecy as three-and-a-half days (Rev 11:9,11). In the famous seventy weeks of Daniel 9, the 70th week has events occurring "in the middle of the week" suggesting that this final symbolic week is divided into two parts of three-and-a-half days each (Dan 9:27).
Three-and-a-half months. In the numbers of days at the end of Daniel (Dan 12:7-23) we find the three-and-a-half symbol as three-and-a-half months combined with three-and-a-half years. Using the symbolic calendar, we proceed as follows: Take 1260 days (three-and-a-half years) from the 1290 days and there are 30 days left, or one month. Take 1260 days from the 1335 days, and there are 75 days left, or two-and-a-half months.
The remainders of days, 30 and 75, add up to three-and-a-half months.
Three-and-a-half years. As we have just seen in passing, the three-and-a-half symbol is also found as three-and-a-half symbolic years. Another example, is the 1260 days of Revelation 12:6. Dividing the 1260 days by 360 yields three-and-a-half symbolic years. The same is true of 42 months (Rev 12:5). Dividing by 12, the 42 symbolic months become three-and-a-half symbolic years.
When we discover the three-and-a-half element within symbolic times, we have done no more than to relate symbols one to another and to see "a time, times, and a half a time" within various symbolic numbers of days, months, and years. We have not turned a symbol into actual or literal time. For example, when we see three-and-a-half years in 1260 days, we have not discovered a literal three-and-a-half years somewhere in history or the future. The three-and-a-half years remain as symbolic as the number they are derived from. You cannot divide symbolic days by 360 and get literal years any more than you can divide Australian cents by 100 and get U.S. dollars.
I would now like to propose to you that the expression "a time, times, and a half a time" is not a code for the three-and-a-half symbol, but rather an explanation of that symbol, showing its internal structure and meaning.
I must admit I get a little bit annoyed when people say, "A time, times, and dividing of time means three-and-a-half years", and then smile as if somehow they have enlightened me. It seems to me that they have missed the point entirely, and got the whole matter backwards. Three-and-a-half is not an insight into the expression "a time, times, and a half a time". Quite the reverse, the expression "a time, times, and a half a time" is an insight into the three-and-a-half symbol, whether in days, months, or years.
The three-and-a-half symbol is shown to have a structure of one, two, and a half. Whatever the "one time" represents, the "two times" also represents except that there is a doubling, intensifying or prolonging. Likewise the "half a time" represents the same thing again, but there is a limiting or cutting short.
We are not supposed to see the one, two, and the half as pieces of a puzzle to be joined together to get three-and-a-half as the solution. Rather, three-and-a-half is the puzzle and we solve it by seeing it as comprising these three parts, each part symbolic of the same thing differently measured. Let me explain...
A time
The "one time" represents a period of trouble, danger, struggle, and testing. Faith is tested in many ways. God's people are not immune from tribulations of various kinds. Even at the best of times, our Christian life is quite a struggle because we are involved in a battle between good and evil. Paul encourages us to "Be strong in the Lord... Put on the whole armour of God... For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against... spiritual forces of wickedness". (Eph 6:10-18).
Times
The "two times" represent "double trouble", pain upon pain. Sometimes suffering and hardship can be very intense, or prolonged with no end in sight. Peter speaks of "the fiery trial which is to try you" (1Pe 4:12). In even the most terrible tribulation, however, we are never forsaken by God or separated from the love of Christ (Rom 8:35-39)
Half a time
The "half a time" represents the same thing as the "one time" or the "two times" but puts it in a different light. It represents a time of tribulation from God's point of view. There are three tribulation principles that in a sense shorten, or reduce our troubles or cut them in half. These are outlined below...
When God's people undergo painful trials, it can feel as though God does not notice or care. However God is certainly there. When we look at our troubles as God looks at them, then what appeared to us as "two times" is seen to be but "half a time".
When we discover the