Hi, John -

Hal Lindsey, in The Late, Great Planet Earth suggested that the 1,335 day period of time mentioned in Daniel 12:12 will begin in the middle of Daniel's 70th week.  He offered this conjecture because it was consistent with the end-time chronology he developed in the book.

Many of his ideas have since been abandoned, first and foremost his idea that a "terminal generation" of "about 40 years or so" began in May of 1948 when Israel became a nation.  But he and others asserted that the final seven years would be "tribulation" and that the last half of the 'week' would be particularly severe.  After the second three-and-a-half year period of 1,260 days of God's wrath, he believed, was a 30-day period which he saw as perhaps related to, or maybe just similar to, the 30-day period of mourning following the death of Moses (see Deut 34:8) and then another 45-day period.  This makes a total of 1,335 days.  For Lindsey, this "last-half-plus-75" was what Daniel referred to in Dan. 12:12 - Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.

This, to me, is straining the data to fit the conjecture.  It really makes common sense to see that the 1,335th day is counted from Day #1, rather than from some mid-week point.

We believe for good reason that when Jesus returns, He will fulfill the last three feasts on their appointed days, just as He fulfilled Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits when He came the first time.  If that's true, and if the feasts are to be fulfilled in a Jewish context, then we need not expect the Rapture to occur in conjunction with or in fulfillment of any of the feast days.  But the "day of blessing" should be for all of us.

The Hebrew calendar has two "parts" sort-of.  The first part is all the time encompassed by the feasts, starting at Passover in the month of Nisan, and ending with the Feast of Tabernacles in Tishri.  The second part runs from the end of the last feast to the beginning of the next feast cycle.  If we see these as the "Jewish" portion (Passover through Booths) and then the "gentile" portion (everything else) we would see them come together on Shemini Atzeret.  This one day, I think, is an excellent candidate for Daniel's "Day of Blessing."

Having said that, I offer you and your readers the following conjecture:  The day of Shemini Atzeret which falls on October 7, 2023 is the day identified in Dan. 12:12.  If this is the 1,335th day of Daniel's 70th week, then Day #1 is this coming February 10, 2020 which is less than three months from now.  That would then be the day when the covenant is confirmed, and we can expect a rapture before that day if we are correct in assuming that the fullness of the Gentiles must come in and the church must be removed before the confirmation.  I understand there are differing conclusions on this matter.

Obviously, I'm not setting a date for the rapture.  I've had no dreams or visions or visitations, nor do I claim any special knowledge or wisdom.  If this conjecture is close (it may even be correct!) then we should expect confirming lines of evidence.  The next sign I expect is the one described in Revelation 12:3 which should be immediately followed by overt global hostility against the true believers, then the rapture, and then the escape of "the woman" to the wilderness for 1,260 days.

Jesus Christ is LORD!

Steve