Except Those Days Should be Shortened
By guest author Allen Beechick, author of The Rapture Solution – Putting the Puzzle Together viewable online with free download at
Allen is a pre-trib scholar. Although he and I differ on the timing of the catching up to meet Jesus, I know him to be a loyal humble Christian serving his Lord. This is all that anyone can ask.
I don’t know if I agree with this interpretation of the 4th Trumpet or not. If taken literally, with which I have great reservations, then this idea is plausible. I present it here as an option for consideration.
It is full of grace and personally exciting for me, that even though Allen and I disagree on the rapture timing, we are able to collaborate on this paper. We agree that the coming of Jesus is closer than ever.
Christians must beware dogmatism. Be open minded and warmly receive fellow brothers who interpret futuristic prophecy differently than yourself. In this spirit, I offer a literal interpretation from a pre-trib author for review, by Allen Beechick.
Jay Altieri 2015
In the context of the great tribulationMatthew 24:22 says, "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." What does shortened days mean? Does it mean that the great tribulation will be shorter than three and one-half years?
The great tribulation that Jesus speaks of begins at the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet (Matthew 24:15). If the abomination of desolation is the starting point, then what is the ending point? Daniel asked this question, and the angel answered, “a time, times, and an half” (Daniel 12:7). That means three and one-half years.
Revelation corroborates Daniel’s three and one-half year time period. Revelation 12:7 says, “time, and times, and half a time.” And Revelation 12:6 says, a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” That is 1260 days. That is three and one-half years on the Hebrew calendar. Again, Revelation 11:2 warns that the gentiles will trample Jerusalem for 42months.42 months of authority for the beast is repeated in Rev 13:5. That is three and one-half years, the time span of the great tribulation.
So both Daniel and Revelation prophesy the same time period. Will this time period run its full course? Or will it be “shortened”?
Whatever Jesus meant when He said, “except those days should be shortened,” I am sure that He did not mean to change prophecy. Even God cannot change God's Word. Jesus said,
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Matthew 5:17–18).
By the way, Daniel reveals other specific days after the close of the great tribulation. He speaks of 1290 days and 1335 days (Daniel 12:11, 12). That means reducing the 1260 days would also reduce the 1290 days and the 1335 days. That would be quite a few jots and tittles to erase from our Bibles.
How can we be sure that Jesus did not reduce the number of days? Because Revelation confirms Daniel. About sixty years after Jesus spoke of shortening the days, John wrote of this same period of time. According to him the full 1260 days or 3½ years or 42 months is still intact (Revelation 12:6, 14; 13:5). Any interpretation of Matthew 24:22 which ignores these verses in Revelation is like trying to put a puzzle together with only one piece while ignoring the rest of the pieces still in the box.
If Jesus did not mean to reduce the number of days in Matthew 24:22, then what did Jesus mean? The Bible does not say much about this, but it does give us some possible clues. Amos 8:9 says:
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
If the sun goes down at noon, what do you have? You have a pretty short day, don't you?
There's more. Revelation 8:12 says:
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
From this passage we notice an astonishing thing. If the day is shorter we would expect the night to be longer. Not so here. The day is shorter and the night is shorter too! In other words, instead of a twenty-four-hour day we have a sixteen-hour day. Could this be what Jesus meant when He said, "And except those days be shortened..."?
Can the word "shortened" really take on this interpretation? Of course it can. We can test this by applying it to a different time measure. Suppose I were a mighty king and went about to change the calendar, and suppose I said, "I have shortened the months." Most naturally it would mean that I decreased the number of days in each month rather than changing the calendar from twelve to eleven months. The king shortened each month individually rather than reducing the quantity of months.
Suppose I am holding a bunch of candles in my hand and I say to you, "I have shortened these candles." Naturally you would understand me to mean that I chopped off the candles to make each one shorter rather than reducing the number of candles by throwing some away. Even if I chopped off the candles collectively--with a sharp knife taking one swift slice through the whole bunch-the result is that each candle is shortened individually.
Yes, the word "shortened" easily and naturally expresses shorter days individually rather than a reduction of days. "Shortened" in the original language has the connotation of "amputated." "Amputated days" expresses the idea perfectly. In other Greek literature the word is used of "mutilated stones." (Does this mean fewer stones? No.) A related word is used of "short-horned" animals. (Does this mean fewer horns? No.) Also, "a spear broken off short." (Does this mean fewer spears? No.) Another related word means "an undervest with shortened sleeves." (Does this mean fewer sleeves? No.) Another related word means "dwarf." (Do ten "dwarfs" equal nine men? No. "Dwarf" does not reduce the number. It merely reduces the size.) Another related word means "the stumpfingered." (Does this mean fewer fingers? No, each finger is shorter, precisely the interpretation we suggest for "shortened days.") These examples show that I am not suggesting anything different than what normal language would suggest.
One might object that the days collectively are shortened, not individually. The time is shortened, but the days are not. In response to this, let's ponder a similar phrase in 1Corinthians 7:29, "the time has been shortened." Another word for "shortened" is used here, but the meaning is the same as some propose for our troublesome phrase in Matthew 24. Now in Matthew 24:22, the Holy Spirit could easily have written the word "time" just as He did in 1 Corinthians 7:29. If He meant "time," why did He not say so? "Time" is general, but "days" is specific. He did not say the "time" is shortened, or the "years" or the "months," but He did say the "days" were shortened. All the evidence of normal language with a strictly literal hermeneutic leads me to believe that the object of shortening or amputating is the days.
What if this view is wrong? If you prefer, consider an alternate possibility. As another has expressed it, the days are "shorter than they normally would have been in terms of the purpose and power of the oppressors." In other words, if Satan and antichrist had their way, they would remain in power indefinitely. But God intervenes to cut their plans short and to keep the human race from annihilating itself. This interpretation reduces Satan's days but not God's days.
By either interpretation (literal shortened days or enforcing the time limit on Satan’s plans) it still is precisely 1260 days from the abomination of desolation to the return of Christ to earth to terminate Satan’s insurrection.
If the "amputated-days" view is correct, we see the mercy and judgment of God mingled together. Mercy, because if each day is one-third shorter (per Rev 8:12-13), then men have one-third better chance of surviving each terrible day. "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved."
Not only mercy, but judgment. The Antichrist and his beastly minions will have less time (exactly 1/3 less time, literally) to enact his pogrom of world domination, self advancement and blasphemous pride.
If you have a scientific mind, perhaps you have noticed a problem. If each day is literally shortened, then the earth has to rotate faster. If the earth rotates faster, then it would have more rotations each time it revolves around the sun. The result would be more days in a year. How can this be when God has decreed that 1260 days still come out to three and one-half years? Well, if God can change the rotation of the earth, He can surely change the orbit of the earth also in order to make the number of days in each year remain the same. A shorter orbit would compensate for a shorter day. A passage in Revelation suggests such a change in the relation of the earth and the sun. This is where judgment comes in:
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory (Revelation 16:8, 9).
Comparing this passage with the one previously quoted, Revelation 8:12, shows the involvement in both cases of a fourth angel. This forms additional confirmation that there is some relationship between the length of the day and the heat of the day and aconnection between the 4th trumpet and the 4th vial.
In conclusion, my interpretation of our Lord’s statement about shortened days during the great tribulation is literally to decrease the time span of each day, not to decrease the overall quantity of days. Since Rev 8 specifies 1/3 reduction in both daytime and nighttime, this requires a 16hour day in lieu of a 24hour day.
Judgment and mercy mingled. But the time will come when God will vent His judgment, no longer mingled with mercy. "For he shall have judgment without mercy" (James 2:13). "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb" (Revelation 14:10). If you are not saved, then believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood today, while there is still mercy.
Allen Beechick, 2012. Visit my website here:
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