The anti-Christian kingdom will be cut short

There is a time marker given in the text for the rule of this beast. Revelation 13:5b: And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. That is the same as 3.5 years or 1,260 days (as Revelation has it in other places). It is also the same as Time (one year), times (two years) and half a time, as the book of Daniel puts it and Revelation 12:1–17 also. All three are various ways of describing the same amount of time. References that, if you look them up in the various places, and time markers that are used not to refer to a literal three and a half years, but to the entire New Testament period. The anti-Christian kingdom is in a sense coming all throughout this New Testament period. Satan is working throughout all the New Testament time to bring this kingdom about. And there is slow progress to the accomplishing of this purpose throughout all the New Testament times, as we clearly see around us. But the reason why the Scriptures say three and a half years (time, times and half a time) is to point out that when Satan is loosed and this beast rises out of the sea at the very end, the time of this kingdom will be cut short. It is half a time at the end – not a full time. His kingdom will be cut off and it will be destroyed. God will not allow it to go on for very long. Long enough to show the cup of iniquity full, which is God's purpose with it, but then Christ will return and will destroy that kingdom.¹

Cory Griess