Daniel 9:24-27 - 70 WEEKS PROPHECY | Steve Gregg

we're looking at this the famous prophecy of the 70 weeks in Daniel chapter 9 last time we focused primarily on Daniel chapter 8 and the prophecies there but we also looked at chapter 9 the early part of it actually the majority of it the chapter has 27 verses and most of the chapter up to verse 19 is Daniel's prayer and we looked at that for last time I wanted to save the last part of a chapter to take by itself which is that chapter of the seventy weeks and Daniel's prayer well his prayer was motivated by the desire to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy which at the beginning of chapter 9 daniel was reading Jeremiah's prophecy and Daniel is reading this like 66 or 67 years after his captivity had begun and therefore he anticipated that the seventy years must be coming to an end and that therefore it would be time for God to restore Jerusalem back to what it had been before and so he he prayed and he sort of stood in for the people of Israel he repented on their behalf and he asked God to restore them now while he was praying he received a visitor and this visitor brought him one of the very very most famous prophecies in the Book of Daniel and one of the ones somewhat difficult to identify the fulfillment of so difficult in fact that there are three very different theories about its fulfillment but although all three theories have convincing arguments they can bring and we may not be able to decide between them all of them any of them and all of them demonstrate that this prophecy points to Jesus Christ and actually makes a remarkable set of predictions that came true let me begin at verse 20 Daniel chapter 9 verse 20 says now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God to the holy mountain of my god yes while I was speaking in prayer the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly reached me about the time of the evening offering and he informed me and talked with me and said Oh Daniel I have now come forth to give you skill to understand at the beginning of your supplications the command went out and I have come to tell you for your greatly beloved therefore consider the matter and understand the vision seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even trouble as times and after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince was to come shall destroy the city of the sanctuary the end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined then he confirm a covenant with many for one week but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to the sacrifice and offering and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate some translations the last word is poured out on the desolate or that's the least of our worries so Daniel is told that there is a 70 week period to be considered now a week in the in the Hebrew it it's not the word week it's the word summons we think of a week as being made up of seven days the word weeks here in Hebrew just means 777s and I don't know of any commentators who would think that the sevens refer to anything other than seven years so the weeks are not seven days each but seven years eight and seventy such weeks would be 490 years this is pretty much fairly Universal no matter what people think otherwise about the prophecy the seventy sevens which is a better translation would mean 490 of something and almost all would agree to talk about years why well because Daniel began his prayers and his concerns because he'd been reading about a pair of 70 years he's reading Jeremiah and Jeremiah said that the desolations of Jerusalem would be accomplished in 70 years and now this prophecy seems to piggyback on that and says okay Daniel you are indeed near the end of the 70 years but that that period of 70 years will end with a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem that's how the 70 years ahead but that will be the beginning of another period from the decree to restore and build Jerusalem will be another season another period of time not 70 years but 70 times sudden sounds a little bit like when Jesus said yes forgive not seven times but seventy times seven but in this case Jesus is our the angel is apparently giving a statistical number and although I will say this some commentators usually the ones of a slightly less conservative sort think that the number is symbolic it's not really an exact number of years but seventy and seven are obviously numbers that incorporate the number seven which is has great symbolic value in prophecies so some think it just means a complete number of years and one could argue that way if not for the way it actually turned out I mean one can actually see what happened once this 490 years had run their course we see well it happened in the very length of time that was said or depending on which theory you hold at least in the general period of time some people say that the prophecy actually predicted the very date of the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday we'll explore these theories in detail others say it records the date of Christ's the beginning of Christ's ministry and of his crucifixion in any case depending on which theory you take the prophecy is remarkable and the number of years seems to be literal but if it was not literal it would still be if you'd still have value because it predicts events that did happen and if 490 years or 77 was symbolic well then then so via that we don't have any reason to have to fall back on that the period is 490 years we're talking about so the captivity of Judah is 70 years and the remaining history of Judah is it is another seventy times seven years and that period will end with the destruction of the temple again so it begins with the decree that allows the Jews to rebuild the temple and it ends with the final destruction of the temple that is what it stated where that says in verse 26 the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary that is the city of Jerusalem and the temple so as it had been done by the Babylonians in the time of Daniel it would be done again at a later time but almost 500 years into the future for Daniel now from this prophecy many people have derived their end times viewers they have decided that one of these 7-year periods the last one the 70th week is the future Tribulation Period and it's that primarily that has given rise to the idea that there will be a seven year Tribulation Period certainly Jesus talked about a tribulation in Matthew 24:21 he said then shall be Great Tribulation such as has not been since the world began nor ever shall be and in Revelation chapter 7 and verse 14 it says these are the ones coming up out of the Great Tribulation twice the Bible speaks of the Great Tribulation but neither place mentions how long it lasts there's no reference in the Bible to how long a tribulation will be the idea that it will be a seven-year tribulation arises from the equation of the 70th week of Daniel with the tribulation but that identification seems to me to be lacking in strong support and we will see why but you need to know that some people feel that the 70 weeks runs out at the second coming of Christ and other people believe it runs out at the first coming of Christ that shouldn't be surprising from always studying in the prophets there are passages which one group of Christians believe should be fulfilled at the second coming others believe they were fulfilled at the first coming it's primarily the difference between an amillennialist and a premillennialists although the categories I mean post-millennial feel similarly to the all millennialist and so forth but let's look at the proxy and see what it does say and see what since we can make of it first of all the whole period is mentioned in verse 4 and then we're told in verse 25 it will be broke up into seven weeks and sixty-two weeks so there's seven weeks that'd be a week is seven years seven weeks be 49 years then you add to that another 62 of the weeks that makes it a total how many weeks 69 you've got seven and 62 makes 69 so in verse 25 we deal with the first 69 weeks if a week is seven years then 69 O's weeks makes 483 years so we've got the 70 weeks divided into three segments you've got seven weeks plus 62 weeks and of course there's one week remaining to consider and that is discussed in verses 26 and 27 so the whole period is mentioned in verse 24 the two first divisions are mentioned in verse 25 and then the 70th week in chapter in verses 26 and 27 what is to be accomplished within the span of these 70 weeks or 490 years in verse 24 it says first of all they're determined for your people that would be Daniels people to Jews and for your holy city that would be Jerusalem that is to say Jerusalem is going to have a career of 490 years beginning with the decree that comes from somebody allowing it to be rebuilt one would think that at the end then of this 490 years Jerusalem will no longer have a career Jerusalem will no longer be relevant Jerusalem will be destroyed and it would be over for Jerusalem okay now we know Jerusalem 70 AD and that's going to come into the consideration here but it's interesting that people think that Jerusalem has a future even now that is in God some kind of a prophetic future when the the prophecy actually delimits the length of time that Jerusalem will have significance that this number of years are determined for the remainder of Jewish and Jerusalem significance prophetic significance and what must be accomplished in that time six things are mentioned says to finish the transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness to set up or to seal up the vision prophecy and to anoint the most holy and by the way the term the most holy can be translated the most holy place or the most holy one if it's the most holy one then Jesus is the one that all Christians would see as the most holy one if it's the most holy place is talking about the anointing of the Holy of Holies in the temple now dispensationalists who are the people who speak most frequently about this subject and that you're more likely to hear them than anybody else on it they believe that the first 69 weeks transpired and ended at the triumphal entry of Christ on Palm Sunday but that the 70th week did not follow immediately thereafter the 70th week was postponed and it is postponed until the rapture of the church now when the church is raptured they say then that will begin the 70th week essentially they say that when Jesus wrote into Jerusalem on the donkey that was the last day of the 69th week and then the clock stopped ticking and according to them the clock will start ticking again at the rapture the church and the 70th week will then commit they say this is true because the things that are listed to take place within the 70 weeks these six things they say have not happened yet they believe the accomplishment of these things will be in the second coming of Christ and therefore although the 70 weeks have long since from their course that is 490 years consecutively half 2000 years ago they ended yet some of the things that need to be fulfilled within the 70 weeks have not been fulfilled and therefore the 70th week must be at future there must have been some unmentioned gap now remember the distant stations are the ones who tell us they take the body literally but whenever a gap is needed for the theology they insert one where the Bible doesn't mention one that's not what I would call take the Bible literally they believe there's a gap at the ankles of the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream a gap of over 1,500 years between the ankles and the feet they believe there's a similar gap in the fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7 they believe there's a gap for example of 2,000 years in Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2 you may recall that verse where Jesus said Jesus quoted it it's Isaiah speaking he said the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord God is anointed me to preach the good news to the poor and to proclaim Liberty to the captives and the opening of sight to the blind hoping is the eyes of the blind and the opening of the prison doors it says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the verse goes on to say and the year the day of vengeance of our God so Isaiah 60:1 2 says that Jesus was coming to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God dispensationalists believed the day of vengeance is still the future is the second coming of Christ and therefore they say there's a gap of two thousand years between the first half of verse 2 in Isaiah 61 and the second half of that verse because why well because they believe that that a lot of these prophecies are not fulfilled until the second coming of Christ which a more natural reading what place has been fulfilled at the first coming of Christ but the argument that these six things in daniel 9:24 have not yet happened and therefore the 70th week has not yet run its course it must be future well that's part of the reason why they postponed the 70th week but let's look at these six things and ask why should we say that these things have not happened what are these six things okay what has happened to the 70th week is that the people of Israel have to finish the transgression what what does it mean to finish the transgression well maybe I mean it may be a bit ambiguous I have to admit that it sounds to me that it's our called Jesus was talking about in Matthew 23 in Matthew 23 verse 29 jesus said woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and you say if we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets therefore you are witnesses against yourself that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets fill up then the measure of your father's guilt their fathers have been transgressing against God and murdering the prophets through their entire history and says you are now going to finish the year to fill up the the remainder but what lacks in your father's guilt you're going to finish out there their history of transgressing it seems to me that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the capstone on the historical transgressions of Israel against God and against his prophets and one could certainly see this as the finishing of the transgressions and of course the judgment that came upon the court was shortly thereafter to make an end of sins Matthew if you think that this is talking about you know reaching a time where no one sins anymore then of course we'd have to say this has not yet happened but why should we force that meaning upon this in Hebrews chapter 9 hebrews chapter 9 and verse 26 or verse 25 and 26 it says not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year but with the blood of another he would then have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world but now once at the end of the ages he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself well when putting away sin finally be a roughly equivalent to making an end of sins if you put it away finally once and for all and well the book of Hebrews of course points out that sinning the continous sinning and the continuous need for atoning of sin is what required the day of atonement to be repeated year by year but what the writer of Hebrews argues and he does this completely in the sect in the next chapter chapter 10 is that Christ doesn't have to repeat his sacrifice because once and for all he managed to deal with the sin problem and put it away with his own blood to me that's reasonable to be described as making an end of sin putting away sins through the words of the Hebrew writer uses the third thing is to make reconciliation for iniquity did Jesus make reconciliation do not Paul said in second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 19 that is God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their transgressions to them and is committed to us the word or the message of reconciliation the gospel is the message of reconciliation that is it's the message that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself isn't that making reconciliation for iniquity to me it sounds like it how about to bring in everlasting righteousness now again if somebody I'm saying this to mean that to bring in a set of circumstances world life where there's there's no unrighteousness then everything's perfect we'd have to say that that that has happened of course but again there's no reason to have to impose that meaning on the statement to bring in everlasting righteousness well if righteousness has been introduced through Christ and if that righteousness is everlasting then we'd have to say he brought in everlasting righteousness in Romans 3:21 Paul said but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe now the righteousness of God has now been revealed in Christ and Paul goes on to say in verses 25 and 26 whom God set forth to be a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate God's righteousness because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus God has brought in righteousness he's demonstrated his righteousness and now there's a righteousness of God which is not by the law which has been given to us this is an everlasting righteousness I don't believe the Bible teaches anywhere that this righteousness that Jesus introduced is going to have an end some take this is everlasting righteousness it's been brought in what's the fist thing has to happen in civics to seal up vision and prophecy now once again sealing up is a term that can be used in a number of ways in fact in Daniel a couple I'm sealing up the prophecy map rolling up the scroll and putting a seal on it and put it away whether it means that here is hard to say some think that sealing up the prophecy means confirming the prophecy some think it means fulfilling the prophecy it's not entirely clear what it means but it's not hard to imagine a meaning as reasonable as any other to apply to the phrase that would be in fact fulfill through Jesus Jesus came and he fulfilled prophecy he the prophecy that God made about the coming of the Messiah in the kingdom these prophecies were fulfilled in Christ and Jesus in particular said that the destruction of Jerusalem which was well within the lifetime of his listeners would be the fulfillment of all that was written in Luke 21 and verse 22 that all things that are written might be fulfilled that Jerusalem would be destroyed so it seems to me that whatever seal up the vision prophecy means if it means you put it away because it's been fulfilled you don't need to read it anymore or or simply needs to fulfill it then I'd say that's been done and if it doesn't mean to fulfill it it's not at all clear what it does mean the phrase is ambiguous but to me the most likely meaning is to fulfill the vision and the Prophet put the god stamp of approval on it by its fulfillment and finally to anoint the most holy or the most holy one now dispensation us believe that the 90 most holy place in the temple is for this target and that this is time at a rebuilt temple in either the Millennial temple or a rebuilt temple at the end of the age and that the Holy of Holies will have to be anointed for and consecrated and put into use the dispensations believe that during the millennial reign when Jesus comes back there will be temple sacrifices the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt there will be a little priesthood again there be animal sacrifices again the Holy of Holies and executive service why who can say I can't imagine any reason biblically why the Holy of Holies Jerusalem temple would be of any use the only time is of use was on the day of atonement when the high priest went what's the year in to atone for the sins of the people that's what the Holy of Holies was for and once Jesus has died for God to go back during the millennium and reintroduce a ritual annually of the high priest going into the Holy of Holies a ritual which the papers points out was only done because the job was incomplete and was made you know obsolete by the fact that Jesus offered himself once and for all why God would reestablish that ritual is first of all beyond me and certainly it seems to me anti scriptural this is not about anointing a new Holy of Holies in a rebuilt temple this is something else it's either talk about anointing Jesus the Holy One or about him anointing the Holy of Holies in heaven with his own blood both of which the Bible says have happened and Jesus by the way is the new temple remember he said destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up again the body of Christ is the temple now that where the body of Christ were the temple the temple of God is the body of Christ first him alone when he was here then after he sent his spirit all who were in his body are the temple of God so any anointing of the temple would not be of a jerusalem temple certainly and there's no not the slightest hint in Daniel chapter 9 that there's going to be a rebuild Jerusalem temple in the last days but as far as the anointing of the Holy One that Jesus was anointed is is a given but we can actually find scriptures for if we want actually proof text in Acts chapter 10 Peter is preaching in the household of Cornelius in acts 10:38 as he's telling the story - Cornelius is and how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit in with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed with the devil for God was with him he says God anointed Jesus of Nazareth that's he's the holy one in fact the New Testament refers to him as the holy one Peter himself was preaching a sermon earlier in chapter 3 referred to Jesus as the Holy One and the just one so Peter apparently felt the Holy One had been anointed but if we want to make it a reference to the anointing of the Holy Place that is of the Holy of Holies in a temple then we have that also confirmed in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12 we can read verse 11 and 12 Hebrews 9 11 and 12 says but Christ came as a high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal Redemption so what did Jesus do like the high priests he went into the most holy place but this time in heaven what did the priest do in the Holy of Holies on the day of Tony he sprinkled blood on the mercy seat that's what Jesus is recorded to be doing only he's bringing his own blood and so in other words if we want the last phrase in daniel 9:24 to refer to the anointing of a holy place we've got it in jesus when he went to heaven he sprinkled his own blood in the most holy place in heaven if we want it to be the holy one well then we've got that - Jesus is the holy one here's anointed in other words all six of the things that had to take place within 70 weeks happened in the first century either in the lifetime of Jesus or in the destruction subsequently of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD so that much we can start with Daniels 70 weeks do not have to is the fulfillment does not be postponed to the future because all the things that have to happen in that period time are confirmed in the new testament to have happened already now what we see in verse 25 of Daniel 9 Daniel 9:25 know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command restore and build Jerusalem we have to decide when and that command is given because that's where the 70 weeks begin from the going forth of a command to restore and build jerusalem until messiah the prince there should be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks which of course dispensers with the first 69 of the 70 leaves the 70th week unmentioned up to this point there will be a total of 69 weeks now they are divided for consideration into seven weeks and sixty-two weeks and it's not entirely clear why because we're not told what the difference is between the first seven weeks and the remaining sixty-two weeks but it says the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times some people believe that the building of the city in the wall is to take place within the first seven weeks for the first 49 years after the decree and and then there'd be another 62 weeks to run their course until the Messiah comes in any case what we can see is there's a command that will go forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem after which 69 weeks will run their course and verse 26 is after the sixty-two weeks which of course in a previous verse the sixty-two weeks came after the seven there were seven weeks been 62 it doesn't say after 62 weeks but after the sixty-two weeks the sixty-two weeks mentioned previously that means at the end of the total of 69 weeks are we going too fast this is this is some people get your mind up gets tight and not with this all this stuff but we've got a total of 69 weeks here by the time we reach the end of the sixty-two because there were seven before that there's seven weeks and sixty-two weeks total sixty-nine so after the sixty-two weeks which is after the total of 69 which is 483 years what happens the Messiah shall be cut off now cut off is a term that's used in the Old Testament to mean kill so this predicts the Messiah's death the Messiah was mentioned as coming in verse 50 25 he would come in this within the sixty nine weeks the Messiah but now after the last of those weeks after the 69th of those weeks he will be cut off he'll be killed but not for himself of course Jesus didn't die for himself but for our sins and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary now the city of the sanctuary our Jerusalem and the temple this would be the temple that would be rebuilt in Daniels time or shortly thereafter it's going to be destroyed again by some people and a prince who will come well the people who did that of course were the Romans their prince who is the prince was to come well presumably Titus is the Roman general who later became emperor he could be the Prince who's to come he was the son of the Emperor he's a prince and he was a prince of the Roman people and the Romans came and did this Titus makes a very good identification for this prince although the word Prince is used in a very interesting way in the following chapter of Daniel where an angel who is coming to daniel is resisted by the Prince of Persia the Prince of Persia in chapter 10 is a demonic power apparently some kind of a demon that has some supervisory authority over the nation of Persia and as you read through chapter 10 you'll find that not only is there Prince of Persia but there's also Prince of Greece that's coming the angel says after the prince of persia will be difference of greece which of course must have accompanied the rise of the Grecian Empire conquered Persia it's possible that the following Curren was the prince of rome though he's never mentioned by name it was the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the Prince of the people who were to come could well be that principality that demonic Prince Valiant not the human one it doesn't matter it's only a point of interest it's not really going to change anything about the way we understand the fulfillment of this it's just that Daniels use in chapter 10 of a Prince of Persia and Prince of Greece ship and then another prince that will come if that's talked about the prince that comes after the Prince of Greece ship that's a demon power that will be over the Roman Empire that would fit here - it doesn't matter it could be talking about Titus it can be talking about a demonic principality but the point is it's under the Romans destroying Jerusalem and we know when that happens so the fulfillment of this is not going to be real hard to identify so then verse 26 Chronos is at the end of it will be with a flood and now in prophetic language of flood sometimes means an invasion sometimes it means the dispersion floodwaters can flood in or they can flood out if it's flooding in it's the Romans invading the city when they breach the walls there there's this flood of invaders coming into the city if it's a flood out of the city be a dispersion the Jews actually were dispersed throughout the world because of this defeat in any case the flood would refer to people either soldiers coming in or captives going out it doesn't really matter the term flood can be used either way until the end of the war desolations are determined so it says there's a war is the first time that a war is mentioned but it's implied notice as they destroy the city in the sanctuary there's a war until the end of that war desolations are determined and the desolation is the desolation of the temple it would appear because it goes on to say then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week now we are introduced to the 70th week and a covenant is confirmed of many for this seven-year period this one week this last of the seventy weeks but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate now this line is where we get the idea of an abomination that maketh desolate or an abomination of desolation the abomination of desolation comes from this verse it is a term that's repeated in chapter 11 and chapter 12 and it is applied to a different event 4:11 in Chapter 11 the abomination that maketh desolate is at Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificing a pig in the temple that will be unambiguously a scene when we get to chapter 11 here however this is not a reference to Antiochus because this is after the Messiah has been cut off Antiochus was 168 years before the Messiah came and therefore Antiochus is not in view here but the Romans are they're the ones who destroyed the city's nature so there's two abominations of desolation there's the one of Antiochus Epiphanes and then there's the one of enrollments destroying the city of Jerusalem now one might say wait wait wait it doesn't say that this abomination is the Romans destroying Jerusalem in fact many probably most popular prophecy teachers today are dispensations and say no the abomination of desolation here is the Antichrist setting up his image in a future rebuilt temple in Jerusalem when Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24 to disciples when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel then you who in Judea flee to the wilderness dispensationalists believe that Jesus is talking about an image of Antichrist being set up in Jerusalem in a temple that will be rebuilt in the last days it's not there now but they believe that sometime in the near future probably the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt the Antichrist will in fact make a covenant for one week for seven years with the Jewish people one of the scenarios that is suggested commonly is that there will be an attack on Israel before the rise of the Antichrist by Israel's enemies possibly the GOG Magog war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 Israel will come out of that by miraculous deliverance but after that the the danger that Israel is in will be so so evident to all that the new world leader that will arise the Antichrist will come and make an agreement to Israel I'm not sure why this scenario makes sense since Israel by this view has just been protected by divine fire and brimstone from heaven against our enemies in five six of our invaders have been wiped out according to the scenario of this dispensation this believe I don't know why they would be looking for some man too often with protection when God is so signally destroyed their enemies by supernatural intervention but nonetheless this is the way it was taught to me as a dispensation after the Gog and Magog adventure Antichrist will come as a world leader over a ten nation Confederacy in Europe and he will make some kind of a pact with Israel a seven-year pact it is under the terms of that pact that they will feel secure enough to rebuild their temple so the temple will be rebuilt under the patronage of the Antichrist but he will violate that pact halfway through the seven years after three and a half years he will show himself faithless to the two his promises and he will set up this image of himself in the temple that the Jews have rebuilt thus desecrating it very similarly to the way that Antiochus Epiphanes did in the second century BC and this will be the middle of the Tribulation Period when and when Antichrist sets up his image in the temple this marks the middle part of the tribulation of the middle part of Daniels 70th week and the Jews who are sensible will see that he's no friend and he'll flee to the willness and they will survive they'll be like the woman who fled in Revelation 12 and is sustained by God in the wilderness until the second coming of Christ for three and half years Jesus in other words it's not to come at the end of the 73 but the 70th week is the seven years of tribulation just prior to come to crisis the dispensational scheme now of course a great deal of their scenario of Antichrist is based on a single verse and that is Daniel 9:27 where it says then he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week but in the midst of the week he will bring it into the my son offering so this is saying that he the Antichrist makes this covenant for seven years but he breaks the covenant in the middle but and brings an end to the sacrificial system by desecrating the temple very much like Antiochus Epiphanes did earlier now if you talk to a dispensation us they will always give you this scenario there's a seven-year tribulation the Antichrist is friendly with Israel for the first half he betrays them in the middle in the after three ninth years he sets up his image temple that's the abomination of desolation they say and that's the middle of the Tribulation Period just three and a half years more will be needed before Jesus comes back after that but the worst of the tribulation happens after that now if you ask them show me a scripture where the where anywhere we read of an antichrist setting up an image of himself in a temple they will be a loss there is no reference anywhere to an antichrist setting up an image of himself in a temple when we were talking about revelation I dropped this up but revelation 13 talks about the Beast and how the second beast makes an image of the first beast it requires everyone to worship it that is a part of the scenario the disciple that's a piece of the puzzle that the dispensation was used to put together the scenario I've described you've got the image of the beast is made and all people are required to worship Him of course Revelation doesn't say a word about it being in Jerusalem or in a temple and if you read revelation by itself you'd never get any idea that there was a temple that this image was set up in but rather the image is just it just exists it's just it's just made it could be anywhere it could be in Rome it could be in New York City could be in Hollywood it could be in Baghdad it could be anywhere but reading revelation there's nothing to situate this image anywhere near a temple it's just an image that's made the few abortion just like felt then Daniel 3 Nebuchadnezzar made an image and recorded when to worship it it wasn't in Jerusalem it wasn't even in the temple so revelation 13 doesn't really pay the picture although it gives one element the image of the base in fact revelation 13 is the only place in the bottle that mentions an image of the Beast and so this idea that there is statue or image the Aryan race must come from that passage because it's not found anywhere else but where's the temple part come that comes from second Thessalonians 2 second Thessalonians 2 says that the man of sin will sit in the temple of God proclaiming that he is God now if you had only second Thessalonians and not revelation you'd never get any impression there's an image here the man of sin himself is sitting in the temple of God that's what it says and if someone wants to be a literal Bible interpreter they ought to say not that there will be an image of Antichrist but that the Antichrist himself if this is he if Paul is talking about the future Antichrist as they think then we should say that he will sit not an image of itself its first form 2nd Thessalonians 2:4 2nd Thessalonians 2:4 mentions well the previous verse mentions the man of sin the son of perdition in verse 4 says who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is gone now I would like to say first of all there's nothing in the Bible to necessitate that this son of perdition in Paul speaks of is the same entity as the Beast that revelation mentions this is an assumption dispensations made they're welcome to make it but I just want you to know that there's nothing to support it there's there's no nothing in the Bible that links these two identities secondly the Beast has a statue made of it but there's nothing said of being in a temple the the son of perdition himself sits in the temple but there's no reference in having an image of himself so we don't have any of the elements put together the way the dispensations happen and when you get to Daniel 9 there's no reference to an antichrist at all although the he verse 27 he shall confirm the covenant with many for what the distance I say he is the Antichrist and when it says in verse 27 but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to the sacrifice offering they say he is again the Antichrist but there's a problem with this grammatically whenever you read the word he which is a pronoun it needs to have an antecedent you have to have some noun you have to have some person who has already been mentioned to whom you are referring back when you say he you don't just walk up to someone cold and start saying you know he said this to me that person tell who you haven't mentioned who you're talking about some people do talk that way actually but it's not helpful when there's a he there must be an antecedent to the heat if he is the Antichrist there must be some previous mention the Antichrist is there I find none for do the design where did the dispensationalists find the antecedent to he as the Antichrist it's in verse 26 where it says the people of the prince who is to come they say the prince who is to come that's the Antichrist the future Antichrist and therefore he the prince was to come makes this covenant the people well to a man all dispensations would give this exegesis but is this exegesis is this really a reasonable way to make this passage conform to what they want to say first of all we saw that the people who destroyed the city's nation are the Romans not some future Romans the ancient Romans back 2,000 years ago even dispensations admit this they recognize that the people the people of the prints are the Romans in AD 70 this is not controversial but they say the Romans of 80 70 are the people of a future prince that is he will be a Roman the Antichrist via Roman they say and therefore the people who destroyed the temple two thousand years go were the people of this future print the same race the same group well I mean that could be but is there anything in the passage to suggest this is there anything to suggest that the prince is not the contemporary prince of the people at the time well the only answer has been given by them is as well it's the prince was to come they actually say this now anyone who's a clear thinker it's a flat do people actually say that yes they do they say we know this is not Titus we know this is not the ancient Roman leader because it says it's the prince who is to come that means he's future isn't that a great argument that's the only argument for making this Prince of huge n across because it says he is to come it does not occur to these people apparently that in Daniels time Titus was yet to come this was written before the Romans invaded Jerusalem and therefore both the people and the prince were yet to come from the standpoint of the prophecy to say that something is to come doesn't mean that thousands of years later because they still future Jesus was to come and he came now we recognize he came although prophets before him said he was to come so to say that the princess to come obviously just means from Daniels point of view is the future occurrence and therefore there is really nothing there and by the way even if the prince was the Antichrist which is there's absolutely no reason to believe this even if the prince were identified with a future Antichrist it doesn't mean he would be the he because the prince was to come is not a significant part of the previous sentence the prince was to come it's not even he's not even the actor in the sentence it's his people who just it's the people who destroyed the city of the sanctuary of the prince was to come that's just a prepositional phrase the prince who is that come doesn't function sending more importantly than the object of a preposition he is not the subject who is the subject of the previous verses well you'll notice the shining star the focus of attention in verse 25 and 26 is the Messiah certainly to say he in verse 27 without any further identification who is would naturally assume it means the person that's been under discussion the Messiah he's the one who's coming he's gone who's cut off he's the one who makes the covenant he's the one who causes the sacrifices and offerings to see how so well of course by his death by Jesus death he brought it into the sacrificial system and someone says look that they kept offering sacrifices Advent so what Hagen to do so to this day and some jungles that doesn't mean there's anything valuable about them the point is he brought an end to offerings and sacrifices as far as God is concerned people can offer as many as they want afterwards but God I mean they're just pagan sacrifices after that Jesus put an end to the sacrificial system by his death and that's confirmed in the book of Hebrews emphatically so what do we have here verse 26 and 27 I think I've confused people because they fail to recognize that they are parallel to each other verse 26 mentions the death of the Messiah and the destruction of Jerusalem verse 27 also mentions the death of the Messiah had the destruction of Jerusalem and therefore the two verses talk about the same two events but give different details about them for example verse 26 says and thus I shall be cut off adversary' says in the middle of the week he'll bring it into the sacrifice Navaho these are the same things the death of the Messiah but cutting off of the site is what brought an end verse 26 mentions the people that Prince words to come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary verse 27 talks about the same thing when it says on the wing of abominations shall be makes desolate that is the domination desolation is the Romans coming to destroy the city the sanctuary the same two points are made in both verses they're kind of parallel to each other how do I know the abomination of desolation is the Romans coming well Jesus or we should say Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus in Matthew 24:15 said when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing where it ought not to be you who are in Jerusalem flee but Luke recording the very same statement paraphrases it in Luke 21 it's a very same statement Matthew 24:15 is when you see the abomination of desolation look 2120 look paraphrases and says when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies then know that it's desolation is near and if you read the verses before and after this you'll see it's exactly the same verse that both Matthew and Mark record as the abomination of desolation Luke has clarified what is meant by that it is Jerusalem surround by armies which his disciples some of them would live to see when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies know that it's desolation is near you need a flee man so Jesus identifies the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet as the armies coming against Jerusalem in the first century that means that the seventy weeks of Daniel do not take us any further off into the future than the destruction of Jerusalem and not surprisingly that's what the prophecy said at the beginning seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon the holy city so 490 years are a period of time from Daniels time until the end of the Jewish order and the holy city to expect anything beyond 70 AD is to disagree with the prostitute now but like I said dispensation is say but the the 70 we can still future there's this gap the 69th week ended but then the 70th week didn't come immediately but it's postponed well as I saw as I showed you there's nothing in the prophecy to suggest such again to say well it has to be future because the six things in verse 24 haven't happened that's long they have happened well to say that the Antichrist hasn't come yet that's okay he's not mentioned in the passage there's no Antichrist in the whole prophecy so it's so much simpler than that it means that the 70th week does the same thing all the other weeks did followed the previous one the angel said forty I mean seventy sevens or 490 years is the period of time we're going to discuss but the dispensation say but there's this 2,000 year gap in here so it's not really 490 years is more like 2490 years appeared five times as long as the angel said this is called literal interpretation there's no literal reference to an antichrist but he's all over the place in this past season for dispensations no literal interpretation could render it that way certainly to render 490 years to be more than 2500 years actually that's not literal interpretation either it's as if I asked you to take me to the airport this Saturday and you said well how far is the airport from here I said well I think it's about 40 miles from here it's 40 miles from here now you said yeah I can do that so we get in your car and we drive towards Seattle and we go 35 miles 36 miles 37 miles 38 months thirty nine months you're expecting the airport in the next mile or so where we go 45 miles 50 miles 100 miles 200 miles you say I thought you said the Ebro is 40 miles from here I say oh you didn't understand between the 39th and the fortieth mile there's a distance 200 miles there's a gap of 200 miles between 239th and the 40th mile so the real distance is really 240 miles well you would probably think I had lied to you rather than had given you any information if if the angel is really trying to give information then he shouldn't mislead the angels that there's a whole period of time the whole period times 490 years that's the whole period of time but the dispensation say actually it's about five times that long danger was just hiding some really important details now if if God was in fact misleading about the length of time the total length of time it would have been really kind of God to say nothing about the time at all just say well these things are going to someday happen and that would make be fine instead he gives a period of time and what's interesting is it was fulfilled but how and when now here's what we have to quickly go over because we're almost out of time but on your sheet I've given you your three theories the problem with this understanding this is that there there's a beginning point and an end point to the prophecy and the way it's stated is from the decree to rebuild to restore Jerusalem that's when the prophecy the 490 years begins from a decree the problem with that is there have been three such decrees and there are Christians who attach the beginning of this prophecy to each of them that is our three different camps each begin to prophesy at a different point from three different decrees the other problem is that the prophecy ends with Messiah the prince with the coming of Messiah now what event in the size life are we talking about is it the birth of the Messiah is it the beginning of them sighs public ministry is it his death that is not stated either all we know is that Messiah the Prince is somewhere at the end of the prophecy and a decree to restore Jerusalem is at the beginning and since there are three such decrees therefore three possible starting points and there are at least three different ways one could end it either at the birth of the Messiah the beginning of his public ministry or the end of his public ministry when he died it becomes almost impossible to know exactly how you know the starting point relates with the ending point because the prophecy is sufficiently ambiguous about that one thing that can be said though is no matter which way you take it it ends up pointing to Jesus now the most problematic view is the one that sees the decree as the decree of Cyrus when Cyrus conquered Babylon in 536 BC or 539 BC he made a decree after that and in 536 decree BC he decreed that the Jews could go back and rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem and that is the most significant of the three decrees that were made because of course it is the one that Isaiah prophesied is the ones that ended the captivity and for that reason many scholars have felt that that is the decree to use the problem with it is that if you measure forward 483 years which is the 69 weeks to the Messiah supposed to come remember the Messiah's coming after 69 weeks measure forward 483 years from the Year 536 BC and it ends up in 53 BC which obviously is 50 years before the birth of Jesus and like 80 years before his ministry or death so many would just rule out the decree of Cyrus because it just doesn't work it doesn't reach the proper year the next theory and this was held by Isaac Newton and Halley's Bible handbook and the Treasury sphere of Scripture knowledge and others begins with the decree of artaxerxes which is the decree that allowed Ezra to go back and do some restoration among the Exile who had returned to Jerusalem this was in 457 BC if you measure forward from 457 BC the 69 weeks or for today three years you come to your sixth 26 ad which many scholars believe is the year that Jesus began his public ministry so if you use this first decree of artaxerxes in 457 BC the 69th week ends at the beginning of Jesus ministry in 26 ad that works pretty well but there is there's couple problems one is that decree of artaxerxes was much less likely to be seen as a significant decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem when Cyrus's decree was much more significant happened previously Artic Turkish decree is something of an anti-climax but a strange place to begin the counting but it is a possible place because there is a decree that and the prophecy begins what they decree to restore and build Jerusalem but there wasn't really a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem by this artist the math works out good but it seems like an unlikely starting point given you know the nature of that decree and the significance compared to others now the dispensation is all followed a third starting point which is the second degree of art exert season this is the one that allowed Nehemiah to go back these decrees are all mentioned in Scripture and in the year 444 or 445 BC artaxerxes made a second decree besides the first one it's 12 years later the dispensationalists actually following one of the Church Fathers Julius africanus who is in the early third century Afghanistani that started the 490 years was this to create this third degree of artaxerxes Nehemiah was given permission to go and restore the walls of Jerusalem and so this could be said to be a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and if you start there and measure forward 483 years or 69 weeks you come to the year 39 ad now 39 ad is too late by a few years however Sir Robert Anderson in a book called the coming prince did some my mute calculations and he realized that we're measuring years by our 360 day year calendar the Jews used a 360 day year calendar which means the years passed more rapidly for them than for us every year they are five days ahead of us in starting the next year and those five days accumulate over hundreds of years and he had it figured out including leap years and so forth he calculated that using the Jewish lunar year which would understandably be something the biblical rise might count on this brings the 3980 back seven years back to 32 eighty and the suggestion is that's the year that Jesus was crucified in fact Sir Robert Anderson said the decree of our exerts ease was made a march 14th 445 BC and Jesus entry into Jerusalem on the donkey was on April 6 32 and E on Palm Sunday and the number of actual days between the decree and Palm Sunday is said to have been calculated out to 173,880 days 173,880 days between those two decrees and if you divide that into the years of 360 days each it comes out to 483 years or exactly 69 weeks so Sir Robert Anderson's calculation calculations have been following the dispensation pretty consistently although Scofield who is definitely one of the chief dispensations he held this view first but he later converted over to believing that Cyrus's decreed was the one and we'll talk in just a moment about why although we're out of time we need to think a little bit of time for this one of the problems of course is that there is not universal agreement on scholars as to what year Jesus died and therefore the date of Palm Sunday is not fully agreed upon there are scholars who believe that Jesus died in the year thirty ad that would be you know a couple years too early for Robert Anderson's date they believe Jesus ministry started in 26 and ended and 30 with his crucifixion others believe that he died in 33 AD which is again a year later than Sir Robert Henderson's prediction some or calculations some place Palm Sunday on March 30th 33 AD rather than April 632 ad in other words the actual date of Palm Sunday is not really known for and therefore the calculations of Sir Robert Hansen worked out only if he's got the right date for Palm Sunday which he might I mean it works out pretty well assuming we're supposed to take the 360 day year and all those factors that he used but one of the problems is that this was not a decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem this is only a decree to help repair the walls that have been damaged the city itself had been built for decades previous to that because of Cyrus's decree and therefore Cyrus's decrease seems to be the right one and the view of the dispensationalist is that the 69th week ends at the end of Jesus ministry but thus Palm Sunday dispensationalists had the first 69 weeks running out at Palm Sunday so that Jesus ministry is contained within the 69 weeks and ends with the end of the 69 weeks and then they say there's the postponement of the 70th week it hasn't even started yet the other two ways have calculated this with Cyrus's decree of artaxerxes first degree have the 69 weeks ending with the beginning of Jesus ministry so that the 70th week begins at the beginning of Jesus ministry that Jesus appears and is baptized at the end of the 69th week not not that he dies at the end of the six times a week but he begins his ministry at that time therefore his ministry runs through the first half of the 70th week his three nephew ministry is the first half of the 70th week the second half is hard to know what happened remember this was the seventy weeks were God dealing with Jews and after Pentecost Jews alone revenge lies for a period of time until the conversion of Paul and no one knows exactly when that was but three or three half years after crucifixion is not a bad estimate it is possible that the second half of the 70th week would run its course with simply preaching to Jews before the Gentiles are evangelized and that would fulfill the 70th week dealing with Israel others feel that the second half of the 70th week after the crucifixion of Christ was postponed and that it is the Jewish war because the prophecy does talk about the destruction Jerusalem so that the Jewish war was the second half the 70th week and there is something of a generation yeah one generation between the first half of the second half that may be susceptible to the same mockery as the dispensational idea of a 2000 year gap well I should think the mockery should be somewhat subdued because to say that something was postponed for 35 years is not the same thing as same postponed for 2,000 years and we do have a precedent for this in Exodus when God made the covenant with the Jews at Sinai they expected to directly go into a promised land and could have gotten there in 11 days but because of their rebellion there was a whole generation postponement so that and that was unanticipated it's possible that there was a generation off the Brooklyn after the new covenant was made before the complete destruction of Jerusalem to fulfil the prophecy hi I don't stand by either one of these I say there's more than one possible explanation for the second half of the seventh week but to have Jesus begin his ministry at the beginning of the seventh week and be cut off in the midst of the week makes sense now verse 26 says after the sixty-two weeks which means 69 weeks total the Messiah be cut off that's why the dispensation says that Messiah dies at the end of the 69th week but it doesn't say he dies at the end of the sixteenth week he says after the 69th week it does not say how long afterward the 69th week runs its course and after that we lose the Messiah how long after that what we were told the mercenary seven in the midst of the 70th week so to have this the 69 weeks run out at the beginning of Jesus mystery seems to make more sense than the end of his ministry and therefore it's a different assumption than the dispensational to me this is complicated that's why I gave you no time let me just say this Cyrus's decree would be the most logical decree but the problem is the dates it runs out fifty years before the birth of Christ and yet it is Cyrus's decree that is credited in the New Testament with being the one that released the Jews from captivity into the captivity was with Cyrus's decree Isaiah predicted it Murray Cyrus who would say to Jerusalem you will be rebuilt remember Isaiah 44 and 45 cesari's is my servant saying to Jerusalem you will be rebuilt Cyrus's decree was that Jerusalem would be rebuilt Josephus says that Cyrus gave leave to the Jews to go back to their own country to rebuild their city and the temple of God and in a letter that Cyrus himself wrote to the governors of Syria Cyrus said I had given lead to as many of the Jews that dwell in my country is pleased to return to their own country to rebuild their City and to build the temple of God in Jerusalem on the same place as it where it was before so Cyrus says that he gave a decree that the Jews should going to rebuild Jerusalem and and Isaiah said it would be a Cyrus who do that to make any other decree the starting point would be seemingly unnatural because all other decreased efforts were relatively inconsequential the end of the captivity took place with Cyrus of decree and therefore it seems to be the decree to restore and build Jerusalem but how can we work it out mathematically well there's a couple ways to go one is to say it's not necessarily supposed to be that mathematical that it's a general statement of time code rather than an exact period but there's another thing that many scholars have pointed out and that is that the dates that we have for the for Cyrus all the days I've been giving you are based on Galatians from a a Greek astronomer named Ptolemy Ptolemy lived in the second century AD and all of our ancient dates are based on his calculations now if you try to work out a chronology of ancient history it's a very complex thing to do and Ptolemies dates are the ones that are generally followed by scholars today the problem is that Ptolemy did not necessarily know how long the Persian Empire lasted he said there were ten kings of Persia after Cyrus around the same time clement of alexandria said there were eight kings after Cyrus Daniels prophecy seems to say there'd be three or four we'll see that in chapter 11 when we get to it that there'd be three or four more Kings if this is chapter 11 verse 2 of Daniel and now I will tell you the truth behold three more Kings will arise in Persia and the fourth shall be far richer than them all now it sounds like there's only about half as many kings or less then ptolemy said the records of ptolemy and his and his sources have come into serious question by many historians and it's possible and some believe it is so the ptolemy extended in his calculations the persian empire 80 years longer than he should have that he had bad sources and that in fact we should move all those BC dates forward by 80 years because of Ptolemies miscalculations now no one knows for sure I Colin Tommy didn't know and we don't know we can't really argue that it is so that he made a mistake all we can say is that he gave different information than Josephus then clement of alexandria then daniel and others as far as the length of the Persian reign and if the Persian reign was eighty years shorter than he thought he calculate 206 years the Persian Empire before Alexander if it was rather a hundred and 26 years or something there abouts then and no one knows so this is totally unknown then ptolemies dates could be off by that factor and therefore all the dates BC that we're using are mistaken and should be moved forward 80 years or so whether this should be done or not is anybody's gifts but there are a significant number of older scholars who believe the cypresses decree is the one that was referred to and should be the only one that makes sense to be the one referred to and if Ptolemies dates were wrong and nobody can attribute inspiration to tolerate what we can to Daniel if tall we thought there were ten more kings of Persia but Daniel said to be three or four then the personal reign could be much shorter than to all we thought and therefore the decree of Cyrus might in fact have come 483 years before the beginning of Jesus mystery this is a could be we can't argue that it is so and so we're gonna have to leave it at that uncertain what we can't say is no matter which calculations you use the 70 weeks runs out me in or near the lifetime of Jesus certainly within a century so the same century that Jesus came is when the Messiah would have to have come the exact dating is subject to a number of variables and as I said we can't really know for sure what Wilson you

Channel: SteveGreggVideos

Views: 26,744

Rating: 4.6528301 out of 5

Keywords: Steve Gregg, The Narrow Path, bible, God, Jesus, Christian, Christianity, evangelical, thenarrowpath.com, church, 70 WEEKS, PROPHECY, dispensationalist, futurist, gap, 70th week, 490 years, Daniel, book of Daniel, Daniel 9, prophet, Kingdom of God, body of Christ, Christian church, dispensationalism, antichrist, eschatology, end times, last days, great tribulation, temple, amillenial, preterist, preterism, partial preterist, Cyrus, Messiah, 70 AD, Jerusalem, Israel, Ezra, Josephus, Roman War, Titus

Id: QbTmTEVk8WE

Length: 76min 32sec (4592 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/judewriley]

Any reason for posting this besides having a good laugh at dispensationalists/futurists? I mean, a majority here already agree in one form or another.

I would love to pay attention to the eschatology debates more if I could find some scholarly preterists (or really any non-dispensationalists) who can sit down and parse through the inconsistencies and difficulties of their own particular views. I mean it's easy to point to a view whose interpretive framework you disagree on and say they're wrong. It's a lot harder to look at one's own framework with an honestly critical eye to find things that may not actually measure up to overall Biblical scrutiny or have a context that changes the nuance in ways that undermines one's platform.

[u/terevos2]

The 70 weeks in Daniel is the completion of time. Not literally 70 weeks or even a representation of a specific amount of time.

• 7 weeks - the anointed one will be coming, Jerusalem will be rebuilt, etc. That is the completion and summary of the '70 weeks'.
• 62 weeks - The current age
• After the 62 weeks - Christ's incarnation and the church age. This will be a long time in comparison to the other times
• 1 week - just before the end time (it will be quick)
• 1/2 week - the end time (it will be very quick)