Then I, Daniel, looked; and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?” Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.

Daniel 12:5–7

At the end of all this, Daniel asked: “‘My lord, what shall be the end of these things?’ And [the angel] said, ‘From the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days” (Daniel 12:8–9,11–12).

Let’s look at Daniel’s question. He asked, “What shall be the end of these things?” What would God regard as the end? When the angel pours the last bowl of the Wrath of God on the world, “a loud voice came out of the temple of Heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’“ (Revelation 16:17). This could be understood as meaning, “That’s it! The End!”

In Daniel chapter 2, the return of Jesus was likened to a rock falling from the sky that smashes into the toes of the giant image that represented the empires of the world.

A stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 2:34–35

If no trace of these kingdoms of the world was found, then that really is the end of not just the Antichrist’s rule on Earth and the end of the Devil’s influence, but also the ruling and running of the world by man. When Jesus mounts that white horse of His and charges down to Earth to reclaim what is rightfully His, that really is the end of all these things.

So from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away and the Abomination of Desolation is set up, to the time of the “end of these things” is 1,290 days. That is 30 days longer than the length of the Tribulation, which is 1,260 days. So it could be that this 30-day period is the duration of the Plagues of the Wrath of God. In fact, a few verses previous to this it says, “And when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished” (Daniel 12:7).

To Daniel, the “holy people” would be his own race, the Jews. Not that they were holy in the modern understanding of the word, but they were holy in that at that stage they were the “chosen people of God.” Focusing now on the scenario just before the Rapture, Israel has taken quite a beating, and Jerusalem has been occupied and many of its inhabitants have been killed. Perhaps there are a few Israeli military units remaining that are now in coalition with the AACs at the Battle of Armageddon. It seems, though, that at the end of this 30-day period they have been completely shattered by the Antichrist and his forces, and it is at this time that Jesus and His forces intervene and turn the tide of battle—in fact, the whole war—and completely rout and then annihilate the Antichrist and his armies.

And as stated before, since the destruction of Babylon the Great Harlot seems to occur shortly before or after the Rapture, then the war that results from this between the Antichrist and the AACs will last a little over a month before the Lord and His heavenly army intervene.

And what of the second part: “Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days”? It seems that these “blessed” wouldn’t be the saved who already went up in the Rapture. The saved are already blessed and really have no need to wait any longer to receive blessings. And certainly it is not talking about the wicked who are annihilated. It must be referring to the AAC survivors of this war, whether they are combatants or civilians. Why are they blessed?—Because they survive to live in the new world that the Lord is setting up. If this is the right interpretation, then it will take 45 days from the time the Lord returns until the earth is completely subdued and the last remnants of the Antichrist’s forces and government are eradicated from the earth. For then righteousness and peace will reign and prevail and all who remain will be truly blessed.