In Daniel 12:9, the Lord said: "Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end."¹ Based on this statement, some scholars say that Daniel's visions of the last days are closed to interpretation.² That was certainly true in Daniel's day. However, at this time of the end, Daniel's visions can now be understood by spiritually sensitive people,³ with the benefit of historical hindsight,⁴ and the added insights from the Book of Revelation.⁵ Ether 14:16 states also that John's visions in the Revelation are to be unfolded in the eyes of all the people in the last days. God's latter-day outpouring of his Spirit upon all flesh⁶ and the latter-day signs of the times⁷ make it possible to correctly interpret the visions of Daniel, including his prophetic timeline for the Great Apostasy in Daniel 12:11-12.⁸

The Great Apostasy was a period in the earth's history when there was a worldwide loss of truth during a time of spiritual darkness that covered the world like a flood of water. The Great Apostasy universally affected all people in all nations, but the effect and duration were not the same among all people in every location. The component parts the Great Apostasy include the Christian Apostasy on the eastern hemisphere described in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, the Nephite Apostasy on the western hemisphere described in , the Lost Ten Tribes Apostasy described in Jacob 5:38-39, and the Jewish Apostasy described by Daniel in the Seventy Weeks Prophesy in Daniel 9:26.

Christ's ancient apostles predicted the Christian Apostasy on the eastern hemisphere that lasted for many centuries after members of Christ's ancient church fell away and his church ceased to exist.⁹ Revelation 13:7 includes a description of this Christian Apostasy as one part of the overall Great Apostasy.¹⁰

Daniel 12:11 describes the timeframe for the Jewish Apostasy as another part of the Great Apostasy with great precision, saying: "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."¹¹ This prophecy does not refer to the abomination that maketh desolate by Antiochus in 168 BC, as many suppose.¹² It refers to the Roman Abomination of Desolation in 70 AD,¹³ when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem as predicted by the Savior in Matthew 24:15.¹⁴

The same Abomination of Desolation in 70 AD is also mentioned in Daniel 9:26, which predicted that after the Messiah was crucified, "the end thereof shall be with a flood."¹⁵ The end thereof refers to the destruction of the temple and the end of the Jewish nation in 70 AD.¹⁶ The 35 years approximately between the Messiah's death and 70 AD was a superlative era of unchecked evil¹⁷ equal to the symbolic period of 3½ years¹⁸ multiplied by ten.¹⁹ Spiritual darkness increased during these 35 years,²⁰ and the end came with a flood of desolation and apostasy that eventually engulfed the whole earth, including the Jews, the Christians, the Nephites and the Lost Ten Tribes.²¹

Daniel 12:11 uses 70 AD as the start date for the Great Apostasy from the perspective of the Jews,²² which then continued for 1290 days.²³ These are prophetic days of years²⁴ that fall within the 2000-year gap of time between the 69th and 70th weeks of years²⁵ in Daniel's Seventy Weeks Prophecy.²⁶ The apostasy prophesied in Daniel 12:11 confirms the existence of a 2000-year gap between the 69th and 70th weeks, since the 69th week ended with Christ's crucifixion followed by centuries of continuing apostasy among, and oppression against, the Jewish people.²⁷ Unfortunately, this correlative clarity has met with many confusing contradictions.

For example, some scholars suggest that the 1290 days of years in Daniel 12:11 are the same as the time, times and a half‒or 1260 prophetic days of years‒in Daniel 7:25 and Daniel 12:7, but they can't satisfactorily explain the extra 30 days of years mentioned in Daniel 12:11.²⁸ The 30 years of difference cannot be harmonized because they don't describe the same events.²⁹ Other scholars mistake the 1290 days of years after 70 AD as 1260 actual days with mathematical adjustments based on solar years rather than lunar years to arrive at the 1290 days.³⁰ This makes for a very short period of apostasy of just 3½ actual years after 70 AD. Finally, some scholars mistakenly connect the 1290 days of years and the 1335 days of years in Daniel 12:11-12 with latter-day events. They say‒with certain adjustments‒that the 1290 days and 1335 days are the same as the 1260 actual days of time, times and half time (3½ years) of the Great Tribulation that precedes the Second Coming in Daniel 7:25 and 12:7.³¹

In a separate but related vein of confusion, many scholars say the 1260 days of years in Revelation 12:6 are 1260 years of the Great Apostasy on earth,³² even though this verse describes 1260 years of premortal apostasy before the War in Heaven began.³³ John describes the actual period of the Great Apostasy on earth in Revelation 13:5-7 as a prophetic period of 42 months, which equates to 30 days x 42 months = 3½ years, which is equal to 1260 prophetic days of years.³⁴

Other scholars say that John's use of time, and times, and half a time or 3½ in Revelation 12:14 also describes the 1260 years of the Great Apostasy.³⁵ That is also not the case. John, as noted above, describes the period of the Great Apostasy in Revelation 13:5-7. In Revelation 12:14, the words time, and times, and half a time describe the apostolic period of 35 years, or 3½ decades, from the crucifixion Jesus Christ in 34 AD until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.³⁶

What then is the connection between John's timeline of 1260 days of years for the Great Apostasy in Revelation 13:5, and Daniel's timeline of 1290 days of years for the Great Apostasy in Daniel 12:11? The inconsistency of 30 years exists because John and Daniel measure the Great Apostasy from two different perspectives. In Revelation 13:5, John measures the Great Apostasy from the loss of priesthood authority on earth for 1260 years.³⁷ This includes the loss of priesthood from among the Christians in Christ's ancient church on the eastern hemisphere, the loss of priesthood among the Nephites on the western hemisphere, and the loss of priesthood on earth among the Lost Ten Tribes. Daniel's prophetic timeline in Daniel 12:11 focused on the apostate Jews. Thus, there is no reason to suppose that Daniel's 1290 years that focus on the Jews must also apply to John's 1260 years among the ancient Christians, Nephites, and Lost Ten Tribes.

John's 1260 years reflect the universal and worldwide loss of priesthood among all three groups measured backwards from the restoration of priesthood authority in the restored church of Jesus Christ in 1830. Since priesthood authority was lost among the ancient church no later than the first century AD and among the Nephites by 420 AD, the universal and worldwide loss of priesthood must have occurred when the Lost Ten Tribes were translated in 570 AD‒that is, 1830 - 1260 years = 570 AD.³⁸ In Daniel 12:11, on the other hand, Daniel measured the period of the Great Apostasy from the perspective of the Jews as a growing flood of oppression and spiritual darkness that lasted for 1290 years from 70 AD to 1360 AD.³⁹

Daniel's measure seems confusing because history has shown that the flood of Jewish oppression and spiritual darkness among them did not end in 1360 AD.⁴⁰ In fact, the spiritual darkness associated with the worldwide Great Apostasy didn't fully end until the light of the gospel was restored beginning with Joseph Smith's first vision in 1820.⁴¹ The long night of spiritual darkness came officially to an end⁴² when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in 1830,⁴³ but not among the Jews. Their apostasy and flood of oppression will continue until the Second Coming. Nevertheless, Daniel's 1290-year timeline predicted that the flood of oppression and spiritual darkness that began against the Jews in 70 AD, also crested or reached its highwater mark and then began to recede in 1360 AD. After 1360, the floodwaters of spiritual darkness began to recede. In other words, Daniel predicted that for 1290 years after 70 AD, the flood of spiritual darkness⁴⁴ and falsehood⁴⁵ would rise throughout the earth⁴⁶ as light and truth diminished.⁴⁷ In 1360 AD, the flood of spiritual darkness crested⁴⁸ like a flood of actual water that reaches its highwater mark,⁴⁹ and then the Dark Ages⁵⁰ began to recede into the Renaissance.⁵¹ History proves the accuracy of Daniel's prediction.

Scholars place the start of the Renaissance in the late 1300's.⁵² Some link the start of the Renaissance to the period immediately after the outbreak of the plague called Black Death⁵³ in Florence, Italy in about 1347 AD.⁵⁴ Thus, when the flood waters of the Great Apostasy were at their absolute high point in 1360 AD, human suffering was at a very low point as millions of people died from the Black Death.⁵⁵ The Jews were blamed for this pandemic and were massacred for that misguided and contrived reason.⁵⁶

The historical context for the Black Death and the oppression against the Jews at that time gives meaning to the second obscure date in Daniel 12:12, which remains a mystery to most.⁵⁷ This verse states: "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."⁵⁸ These 1335 days of years⁵⁹ also run from 70 AD to arrive at the year 1405 AD. Thus, Daniel 12:12 predicted blessings⁶⁰ upon the Jews that survived the oppression of the Black Death, and who lived to see the year 1405 AD during the Renaissance. History again shows the accuracy of Daniel's prediction. The increasing light of the Renaissance in the late 1300's and early 1400's led to cultural and social reforms,⁶¹ as well as religious freedoms.⁶² These reforms blessed the Jews and eased their afflictions as they continued to maintain their cultural identity and religious separation from other people.⁶³

Centuries of spiritual darkness⁶⁴ were dispelled between 1360 and 1405 AD as the light of Christ began to illuminate the earth in greater and greater measures.⁶⁵ Spiritual darkness fled from the light of the rising sun of spiritual illumination.⁶⁶ The spiritual light of the Renaissance was the foundation for the Reformation in the 1500's,⁶⁷ which then paved the way for the full gospel light in the 1800's.⁶⁸ The restoration of full gospel light,⁶⁹ coupled with the restored authority of the priesthood, ended the flood of darkness called the Great Apostasy.⁷⁰ The gospel had to be restored as the only means to end the Great Apostasy,⁷¹ but that end came gradually as the light of Christ increasingly dispelled darkness for almost 500 years.⁷²

Even though the Great Apostasy ended with the restoration of the gospel in the 1830, the Jews remain in a collective state of apostasy that will continue throughout the 2000-year gap of time in Daniel's Seventy Weeks Prophecy.⁷³ The light of the gospel will not go to the Jews as a people and nation⁷⁴ until after the Gentiles (non-Jews) receive the gospel on a preferential basis during the times of the Gentiles.⁷⁵ When those days are fulfilled⁷⁶ at the Second Coming, the gospel will then go to the Jews.⁷⁷ There will, of course, be isolated cases of Jewish conversions before that day.⁷⁸ In general, however, the night of spiritual slumber will continue among the Jews,⁷⁹ together with the desolations that afflict them until the Second Coming.⁸⁰

At the midpoint of the 70th week of 7 years,⁸¹ the Lord will send Two Witnesses to Jerusalem as predicted by John in Revelation chapter 11.⁸² The Two Witnesses will call upon the unbelieving Jews to repent and awake from their spiritual slumber.⁸³ The Two Witnesses will also protect the Jews against the gentile nations gathered against Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation in the second half (3½ years) of Physical Armageddon.⁸⁴