Prophecy 4
– The Seventy Weeks
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Second,
nothing is written in Prophecy 3
indicating when the 2,300 days would
begin or end because God was not
finished with the vision in Prophecy
3. The vision in Prophecy 3 was
deliberately left incomplete for
about eleven years! Just before the
seventy years in Babylon ended, God
wanted to reveal a very important
message to His people through Daniel.
He wanted to give them hope. So,
Gabriel was sent to Daniel with some
very important words.
Daniel
learned that Jerusalem would be
restored and rebuilt. Seventy weeks
after a decree to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem, Messiah would appear. Of
course, there was a caveat. By
starting two different prophetic time
periods with the same decree, God
hung the destiny of the world on
Israel’s behavior. If Israel
cooperated, Plan A would be fulfilled
and the book of Daniel would have
remained forever sealed. If Israel
rebelled, Plan B would be initiated
and after 2,300 years expired, the
horn, which is Lucifer, would
physically appear out of nowhere at
the appointed time of the end.
Third,
excluding the book of Daniel, most
people fail to realize that the
entire Old Testament (Plan A) says
nothing about a Second Coming. There
would not have been any need for a
Second Coming if Israel had met the
terms and conditions set before them
in Plan A. According to Plan A, Jesus
would have come to Earth and begun
establishing the kingdom of God on
Earth in A.D. 27. In anticipation of
the fulfillment of Plan A, God sent
John the Baptist[12] ahead
of Jesus to announce this marvelous
truth! If Plan A had been fulfilled,
all of the Old Testament prophecies
would make perfect sense just as they
read! The history of mankind after
the seventieth week would have been
entirely different if only Israel had
welcomed Messiah.[13]
When Daniel
humbled himself according to the
conditions presented in the covenant
and interceded on behalf of his
people,[14] God was
pleased to honor Daniel and He
remembered His covenant with Israel.
God returned Israel to His land.[15] God
granted the nation of Israel a final
opportunity to repent and fulfill the
trusteeship for which He called them
out of Egypt.[16]
Daniel 9:24
Seventy
weeks 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.{24} Gabriel
said to Daniel, “Seventy weeks
are ‘cut off’ of the 2,300
days for the benefit of your people.
During this time, God will do
everything possible to help Israel
fulfill their trusteeship. In return,
they must cooperate with the Holy
Spirit and be transformed into a
people who love God supremely and
their neighbors as themselves.
Gabriel warned, “Israel must
stop rebelling against God’s
ways (finish transgression), your
people must live righteously (put an
end to deliberate and defiant sin),
your people must provide atonement
(restitution) for wickedness as God
requires (atone for your wrong
doing), your people must purify their
hearts and minds to bring in
everlasting righteousness, and if
they do, they will have the joy of
anointing the Holy One of Israel. If
your people will do these things, the
visions and prophecies found in this
book (containing Plan B) will be
sealed up and never come to
pass.”
Daniel 9:25
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.{25} “About
eighty years from now, a Persian
king, having the name Artaxerxes,
will issue a decree in the seventh
year of his reign[17] to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem. God
will move on the king’s heart
and make it possible for Israel to
return to their homeland in a year of
Jubilee.[18] His
decree will be issued on or about
Nisan 1 during the Sunday year, 457
B.C. Ezra, a priest of God, will
leave Babylon to go to Jerusalem on
Nisan 12.[19] Even
though four decrees will be given to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem, only
one decree will be given in a Jubilee
year.[20] Watch
for it because this decree will start
the seventy weeks and the 2,300 days.
After King Artaxerxes issues the
decree in 457 B.C., one complete
Jubilee cycle of seven weeks (49
years) will pass, then another
sixty-two weeks (434 years) will
pass, and finally, the seventieth
week will arrive. The seventieth week
will begin on Nisan 1, A.D. 27, a
Sunday year in God’s calendar.
During the fall of the year in A.D.
27, John will baptize Messiah and His
ministry will begin.[21]
“Your beloved city, Jerusalem,
will be reconstructed, but during
troublous times. The Lord will use a
high priest named Joshua and a king
named Zerubbabel to rebuild the city.[22] During
Israel’s exile in Babylon,
warlords have occupied the land of
Judah and naturally, they will do
everything possible to keep Israel
from rebuilding, but the city and the
temple will be rebuilt – not by
human prowess, but through God’s
enabling Holy Spirit.[23]
Daniel 9:26
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.{26} “Regrettably,
your people, Daniel, will not comply
with God’s covenant. When
Messiah arrives, they will ridicule
Him and reject His teaching. He will
speak the words which the Father
gives Him and the leaders of your
people will be unwilling to listen to
the Word of God. Messiah will be
murdered. He will be cut down by His
own people. Because of stubborn and
persistent rebellion, Israel will
bring down God’s wrath upon
their own heads. According to the
terms and conditions set forth in His
covenant with Israel,[24] God
will send the Romans against
Jerusalem and they will destroy His
temple. Rome will utterly destroy the
nation of Israel in A.D. 70. No one
will be able to prevent it.
Destruction will come upon your
people like a mighty flood. Wars and
desolation will trouble the city of
Jerusalem until the end of the world,
and from time to time, the city will
be reduced to ruins. This has been
decreed.
Daniel 9:27
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.{27} “Messiah will
appear, right on time.[25] As the
Lamb of God, He will reconcile the
world to God[26] and
confirm the covenant of salvation
first given to Adam and Eve.[27] Messiah
will die in the middle year of the
seventieth week, which is a Wednesday
year, A.D. 30. Jesus will bring the
Levitical laws and the sacrificial
system with its obligations and
animal sacrifices to an end.[28] A few
years before Messiah begins His
ministry, King Herod will lavish
great wealth on the temple in
Jerusalem to win the favor of the
Jews. But the Romans will burn the
temple and destroy the city in A.D.
70. They will pull every stone in the
temple apart to remove the melted
gold.[29] God has
decreed that the second temple shall
not stand and a third temple will
never be rebuilt on Mt. Zion.”
The year of
Messiah’s death is important for
several reasons: First, the death of
Jesus aligns A.D. 30 with a Wednesday
year. Because this alignment is
beyond dispute, 457 B.C. becomes a
Sunday year. The year 457 B.C. also
aligns with the year of Jubilee in
Hezekiah’s day (702 B.C.), again
emphasizing 457 B.C. as a Jubilee
year. Second, the year of
Messiah’s baptism is beyond
dispute. A.D. 27 is a Sunday year,
the first year of the seventieth
week. Finally, the decree issued by
Artaxerxes was issued on or about
Nisan 1, 457 B.C. Because the seventy
weeks are cut off of the 2,300 days,
the books of record were opened and
the cleansing of Heaven’s temple
began on or about Nisan 1, A.D. 1844.
Bible history
reveals that Israel did not reform
during the seventy weeks granted to
them. Thus, God abandoned Plan A and
Plan B was implemented. Plan B is
based on a new covenant and the books
of Daniel and Revelation contain the
prophecies and promises for Plan B.
Merging Plan A prophecies with Plan B
prophecies produces insurmountable
confusion because both plans are
separate and distinct. Soon, the
Great Tribulation will begin, and
when it does, the judgment of the
living will begin.[30]
The
Rules of Interpretation
Please
consider how the Rules of
Interpretation (which are discussed
in the Introduction) are observed in
this prophecy:
Rule
One says an apocalyptic
prophecy has a beginning point and
ending point in time and the events
within the prophecy occur in the
order given. This vision contains a
starting and ending point in time and
there is a sequence of events.
Notice:
- The
decree to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem and the temple
begins (457 B.C.).
- Seven
weeks of years will follow
(49 years).
- Sixty-two
weeks of years will follow
(434 years).
- Messiah
will appear (484th year or
A.D. 27).
- Messiah
will be cut off in the middle
of the seventieth week
causing sacrifices to end
(A.D. 30).
- The
city and the temple will be
destroyed (A.D. 70).
- Wars
and desolations will continue
throughout Israel and
Jerusalem until the end of
time.
We can be
100% sure that Gabriel’s visit
in Daniel 9 is related to the
vision recorded in Daniel 8. Daniel
wrote, “While I was
still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I
had seen in the earlier vision,
came to me in swift flight about the
time of the evening sacrifice. .
.‘Daniel, I have now come to
give you insight and understanding.
As soon as you began to pray, an
answer was given, which I have come
to tell you, for you are highly
esteemed. Therefore, consider the
message and understand the
vision [that was
previously given to you – Daniel 8:26,27].’
”[31]
Daniel
8 is intimately connected to
Daniel 9 for another reason:
Gabriel said, “Seventy
‘sevens’ are decreed for
your people.”[32] The
Hebrew word for decreed is chathak and
it means to cut off, to measure from,
to determine size or value.
Therefore, in this context, chathak means
the seventy weeks must be cut
off from a larger time
period. Only one time period is given
in the previous vision. The shorter
time period (490 years) is cut
off from the longer time
period (2,300 years). Both time
periods share the same starting date.
Ultimately,
the only people who really need to
understand 1798, 1844 and the
appearing of the stern-faced king
from the north is the final
generation. The idea that the
seventieth week is still future is
fiction. Plan A, with its promises
and prophecies, was abandoned when
Jesus was on Earth.[33] This is
true because Jesus initiated a new
covenant that contains better
promises and prophecies. Plan B is
always better than Plan A. Unlike
Plan A, Plan B is unconditional. In
other words, God’s timing in
Plan B is not dependent upon the
behavior of His trustees.
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