The SEVENTY WEEKS of Daniel
and
SEVEN YEARS of TRIBULATION?
By Danny McDowell
Daniel 9:20-27: An answer was immediately sent to Daniel's prayer, and it is a very memorable one. We cannot now expect that God should send answers to our prayers by angels, but if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised, we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer; for He is faithful that has promised. Daniel had a far greater and more glorious redemption discovered to him, which God would work out for his church in the latter days. Those who would be acquainted with Christ and his grace, must be much in prayer. The evening offering was a type of the great sacrifice Christ was to offer in the evening of the world: in virtue of that sacrifice Daniel's prayer was accepted; and for the sake of that, this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him. We have, in verses 24-27, one of the most remarkable prophecies of Christ, of his coming and his salvation. It shows that the Jews are guilty of most obstinate unbelief, in expecting another Messiah, so long after the time expressly fixed for his coming. The seventy weeks mean a day for a year, or 490 years. About the end of this period a sacrifice would be offered, making full atonement for sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness for the complete justification of every believer. Then the Jews, in the crucifixion of Jesus, would commit that crime by which the measure of their guilt would be filled up, and troubles would come upon their nation. All blessings bestowed on sinful man come through Christ's atoning sacrifice, who suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Here is our way of access to the throne of grace, and of our entrance to heaven. This seals the sum of prophecy, and confirms the covenant with many; and while we rejoice in the blessings of salvation, we should remember what they cost the Redeemer. How can those escape who neglect so great salvation!----Matthew Henry
9:27 He shall confirm - Christ confirmed the new covenant, By the testimony of angels, of John baptist, of the wise men, of the saints then living, of Moses and Elias. By his preaching.By signs and wonders.By his holy life.By his resurrection and ascension.By his death and blood shedding.Shall cause the sacrifice to cease - All the Jewish rites, and Levitical worship. By his death he abrogated, and put an end to this laborious service, forever. And that determined - That spirit of slumber, which God has determined to pour on the desolate nation, 'till the time draws near, when all Israel shall be saved.----John Wesley
These two agents are the "Messiah," and the "prince that should come." But it is not reasonable to suppose that the latter is referred to, because it is said Daniel 9:26 that the effect and the purpose of his coming would be to "destroy the city and the sanctuary." He was to come "with a flood," and the effect of his coming would be only desolation. The more correct interpretation, therefore, is to refer it to the Messiah, who is the principal subject of the prophecy; and the work which, according to this, he was to perform was, during that "one week," to exert such an influence as would tend to establish a covenant between the people and God. The effect of his work during that one week would be to secure their adhesion to the "true religion;" to confirm to them the Divine promises, and to establish the principles of that religion which would lead them to God. Nothing is said of the mode by which that would be done; and anything, therefore, which would secure this would be a fulfillment of the prophecy. As a matter of fact, if it refers to the Lord Jesus, this was done by his personal instructions, his example, his sufferings and death, and the arrangements which he made to secure the proper effect of his work on the minds of the people - all designed to procure for them the friendship and favor of God, and to unite them to him in the bonds of an enduring covenant. ------Barnes Bible Notes
It is broadly taught in evangelical circles, that there will be SEVEN YEARS of tribulation following the rapture. It is further taught that Antichrist will rise after the chaos of the missing millions of Raptured Christians. One of his first tasks at hand will be to establish a seven year PEACE COVENANT between Israel and her Arab neighbors. He will make provision through this alleged treaty, to re-build the Temple of God that was destroyed in 70 AD. This is believed to be accomplished in the first three and one half years of the seven year reign of Antichrist. In the middle of the alleged seven years, antichrist will betray the Jews and set up an image of himself in the temple, thus desecrating the temple and triggering the GREAT TRIBULATION. It is taught that this "time of distress" is divided into TWO time components----the tribulation [first 3 1/2 years], and the GREAT TRIBULATION [remaining 3 1/2 years]. This, they claim, to be supported by Daniel 9:27---"and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he [antichrist] shall cause the sacrifice and oblations to cease". It is vital to know that this scripture reference is the centerpiece of the notion that there will be seven years of tribulation. Let's see what the Book of Daniel truly has to say about the matter.
OT:7657shib` iym. (shib-eem'); multiple of OT:7651; seventy: KJV - seventy, threescore and ten (+-teen).OT:7620shabuwa` (shaw-boo'-ah); or shabua` (shaw-boo'-ah); also (feminine) shebu` ah (sheb-oo-aw'); properly, passive participle of OT:7650 as a denominative of OT:7651; literal, sevened, i.e. a week (specifically, of years): KJV - seven, week.
Dan 9:24 24 Seventy weeks [ shabiym shabuwa] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
SHIBIYM SHABUA------Seventy Weeks are determined on ISRAEL
PURPOSE:
1. finish the transgression
2. to make and end of sins
3. to make reconciliation for iniquity------Isaiah 53
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness
5. to seal up the vision and prophecy
6. to anoint the Most Holy
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
SEVEN/SHEBA------SEVENS/SHABUAH [Seven Weeks of years] = 49 years to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
OT:7651sheba` (sheh'-bah); or (masculine) shib` ah (shib-aw'); from OT:7650; a primitive cardinal number; seven (as the sacred full one); also (adverbially) seven times; by implication, a week; by extension, an indefinite number:KJV - (+by) seven [-folds],-, [-teen, -teenth], -th, times). Compare OT:7658.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
SIXTY TWO SHABUAHS [weeks of years] following the SEVEN WEEKS of years [for rebuilding] = 49 + 434 years = 483 years TO THE COMING OF MESSIAH------and AFTER the SIXTY and TWO WEEKS [49 years +434 years] shall Messiah be cut off [in the midst of the 70th week]------seven weeks/49 years for rebuilding + sixty two weeks/434 years to Messiah + one half week---3 1/2 years to the CROSS = sixty nine and one half weeks/489.5 years from the declaration of Artaxerxes in 458 B.C. to the CROSS! There is one half week [three and one half years] remaining in the seventy weeks of Daniel. Desolations are determined unto the END! That is when the remaining three and one half years will conclude the "seventy weeks of Daniel".
"The PEOPLE of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;" Daniel 9;27
The people who destroyed the sanctuary [temple] were the Syrian wing of the ROMAN ARMY, and their PRINCE was TITUS------70AD. Pre-tribulationist attempt to separate the "people of the prince that shall come"-----from that prince himself, by saying that there is a 2,000 year GAP between the two. They agree that the "people of the prince" was the Roman Army that destroyed the TEMPLE in 70AD, but go on to contend that the PRINCE THAT IS TO COME is none other than a future [un-named] "antichrist" to appear some two thousand years later.
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Note carefully that the verse states "the covenant" rather than "a covenant". This is very critical to know, for the "covenant" spoken of in this passage speaks of an already existing covenant----and not of a FUTURE PEACE AGREEMENT posed by Antichrist.
the covenant
briyth (ber-eeth')
a compact [ made by passing between pieces of flesh] -- confederacy, (con-)feder(-ate), covenant, league.
This "covenant" [bryith] is an OLD TESTAMENT tradition of establishing a binding agreement made by severing the carcass of an animal with the participants passing between the severed halves. It simply CANNOT BE that the "covenant [briyth]" of Daniel 9;27 could be initiated by a Roman [gentile] prince two thousand five hundred years into the future since this "briyth" is a uniquely HEBREW tradition and would NEVER be used in an agreement between Israel and her Arab [gentile] neighbors-----NEVER!
“And HE shall CONFIRM the covenant [briyth] with many for ONE WEEK [one SEVEN/SHEBUA]”
“HE”, being a PERSONAL PRONOUN, can only be assigned to the most recent PERSONAL PROPER NOUN of the passage. That most recent PERSONAL PROPER NOUN is------“MESSIAH”. This linguistic rule is so in English, Hebrew and Greek. Verse 25 holds the most recent PERSONAL PROPER NOUN of the passage. That personal proper noun is "MESSIAH". It is emphatically "MESSIAH" who will confirm the covenant [briyth] with the many, and in the midst of the SEVEN [week of years], he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.
The COVENANT CONFIRMED
in the New Testament
Gal 3:16-18 16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17 And this I say, that THE COVENANT THAT WAS CONFIRMED before of God IN CHRIST, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
FOR MANY
Matt 20:28-31
28Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransomfor many.
- “And HE SHALL CAUSE THE SACRIFICE TO CEASE”
John 19:30
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Mark 15:37-39
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
Heb 10:1-5
10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered?because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
It is MESSIAH that caused the SACRIFICE [for sin] TO CEASE and not some future "prince" as propagated by some!
ABOMINATIONS [PLURAL]
Daniel 9:27
“and for the OVERSPREADING OF ABOMINATIONS[the Temple
abominations] HE [Messiah] shall make it desolate EVEN
UNTO THE CONSUMATION [of time], and THAT DETERMINED
[Jewish exile] shall be poured upon the desolate [the Jews].”
Shall we believe that it is Antichrist that will make the Temple desolate "for the overspreading of abominations"?------how absurd, for HE [himself] IS an abomination!
Luke21: 25
------: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Hosea 3:4-4:1
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
Hosea 6:1-4
6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
After TWO MILLINIAL DAYS the people of Israel would be lifted up------but until then, they would endure desolation [Dan.9;27]
In the “MIDST OF THE WEEK”, HE [Messiah] shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. Three and one half years into Christ's ministry [in the midst of the 70th week of Daniel], he cried out----"IT IS FINISHED". He caused the animal sacrifice for sin to CEASE!
458 B.C.----from the going forth of the decree to restore and rebuild----"
In 458 B.C., the Persian King Artaxerxes decreed that the Jews should "restore and rebuild Jerusalem". It is noteworthy that this starting date [458 BC] places the appearing of the promised Savior and King of the Jews at 26AD. The Gospel of Luke makes it very clear that Jesus was baptized by John and publicly proclaimed to be the promised Messiah in the “fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (Luke 3:1). Tiberius Caesar began his rule in 11 A.D. Therefore the fifteenth year of Tiberius would be 26 A.D. This historical fact brings us to the mathematical conclusion of exactly sixty nine weeks [483 years] from the decree of Artaxerxes [458 BC] to the baptism of Jesus in 26 AD -----sixty nine weeks of years to Messiah. Only the Seventieth week [7 years] remains from that point. Jesus therefore entered the SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL at his baptism in 26 AD. If you do the math in this account, don't forget that there is no ZERO YEAR between 1 BC and 1 AD. It is ONE YEAR between 1 BC and 1 AD, causing this account to be mathematically perfect.
John 2:18-21
18 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
20 The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?"
21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. NIV
In a desperate attempt to retaintheir notion of a future "seven years of tribulation", modern "theologians" will contend that Augustus Caesar died in 14/15 AD and that Tiberius came to power at the passing of Augustus thereby invalidating the claim that the "seventieth week [the baptism of Jesus]" commenced in 26 A.D. noting that according to Luke "John came baptizing in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius"----adding 15 years to the official regency of Tiberius following the death of Augustus in 15 A.D. would bring the baptism of Jesus to 30 A.D. which would serve to DISMISS the decree of Artaxerxes in 458 B.C. from consideration as the starting point of the seventy weeks prophecy. It is true that Augustus did die in 14 A.D but Tiberius assumed the role of "co-regent" to Augustus in 11 A.D. This is a historical fact. This is obviously the starting point of Luke's account of the baptism of Jesus "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius" as we shall discover.
Modern theologians would point to a much earlier decree by Cyrus the Great------[Ezra 1:1-4] decreed in 536 B.C.----- adding the sixty nine weeks [483 years] "unto Messiah" to that date would bring that reckoning to 53 B.C as the conclusion of the sixty ninth week, some decades before Christ was even born. Another "decree" that is used to invalidate the 26 A.D. anointing of Jesus is that decree of Darius in 520 B.C. [Ezra 4:24]. That decree would bring the end of the 69 weeks of years [483 years] to 37 B.C , also much too soon to be prophetically significant. It is only the decree of Artaxerxes in 458 B.C. that brings sanity to the "Seventy Weeks of Daniel".