Oh I don’t know, the Bible does an awful lot of speaking in the present tense. To the Author of time EVERYTHING is in the present...
My opinion is that the Biblical prophecies of the last days refer to the present time and there are two “end time” sequences, one of which already happened with World War II, the other one is unfolding now. This may mean that the millennial kingdom is an allegory for the period between the two end times (not that it lasts a thousand years but it occurs around the millennium).
The 1,260 days for part one would have been Dec 7 1941 to May 20 1945, roughly the duration of the U.S. involvement in the war in Europe, taking 30 and 45 day periods after that you come to the end of the entire war, with the Japanese portion wrapped up. That led to the world we have now, more or less, into which the beast, dragon and false prophet have re-emerged after being confined for a time.
The second 1,260 days may be any period around now and may have already started. One interpretation that I consider valid (untested yet) is that it began with events in China around 2017 and will end very soon, and this fits what we see going on with Trump’s expulsion from power despite probably winning the real election. This points to Chairman Xi as a potential “man of sin” candidate, so if he suddenly disappears that might be a sign of the second coming about to take place.
More pessimistic interpretation is that the 1,260 days are just starting and he who comes will rule for 42 months.
Note that 1,260 days is about 17 days short of being 42 calendar months, and somewhat longer than 42 lunar months (the Moon orbits the earth in 29.53 days, 42 times that comes out to 1,240 days). The 2017 total eclipse that was seen by millions in the U.S. (including me at Baker City OR) was on Aug 20, 2017, the new moon just passed on the 13th was the 42nd month since that event. But there’s another significant total eclipse across the central and northeastern states on April 8, 2024. That is 42 months after the 2020 election. (Biblical prophecy mentions the sun going dark and the moon not giving its light, the only time that happens naturally is at total eclipse).
If we have to endure to April 2024, then the tribulation is about to begin. If the period was mid-2017 to now, the tribulation is about to end. There has been a tribulation, unevenly distributed as it may have been, worse for some than others. I’ve felt it in my life (actually for me it began around 2010).
The thing about Biblical prophecy is that you can always fit the details to some sequence of current events, but whether it actually triggers the second coming is up to God in heaven, and not us doing the interpretation. Some periods seem more potent than others as possible times, but we never know, and in fact Jesus seemed to indicate that as of His first advent, He didn’t know either.
One potential validation would be a time of extreme commotion starting with the inauguration and ending with events we can barely imagine in the weeks that follow it.
As to why this period might have started in mid-2017 and not earlier in the Trump presidency (or Xi dictatorship which went from weak to strong about the same time, Oct 2016), I don’t know, we cannot know all the details of these things, but since the second coming hasn’t happened yet, the earliest start date is 1,335 days previous, and since I don’t see a strong candidate for “abomination that makes desolate” (at day 1,290) then the earliest start date is at least 1,289 days ago. All this depends on whether we are to interpret 30 day multiples as literal day counts, calendar months, or lunar months. The variability at 1,290 days is something like 20 days either way.
The age ended in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple