Daniel's Seventieth Week
Prophecy - Signs
Friday, February 22,
2002
Jack Kinsella -
Omega Letter Editor
Sometimes it looks like the population of Planet
Earth has taken a collective vacation from
sanity. The opening shots in the war on terror
on 9/11 were an insane act on the part of
al-Qaeda. The Taliban refusal to turn him over
in the aftermath was an act of political and
personal insanity. India and Pakistan are on the
verge of outright nuclear war – a military and
strategic insanity. The Europeans believe Yasser
Arafat will keep his word to make peace if
Israel surrenders – insane behavior at so many
levels it defies description. But through the
seeming insanity one can detect good, orderly
direction. All one needs to do is recognize the
signs of the times.
The Hebrew prophet Daniel was given a complete
outline of Israel’s future history, broken into
subdivisions of time of seven years each. In
Hebrew, “shabua”, translated as “week” in Daniel
9:26, is a ‘week of years’, in much the same way
the Greek system is in use today. A ‘decade’
denotes ten years in the way a ‘shabua’ or
‘week’ denotes a period of seven years.
Daniel was told by the revealing angel
that “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.” [Daniel 9:24]
In this verse, we see a six-fold purpose
to be accomplished in Daniel’s “Seventy Weeks”
or 490 years. First, to finish Israel’s sin –
the rejection of the Messiah at the First
Advent. Then there is a skip forward in time to
His Second Advent, at which time, an end will be
made of sin, reconciliation will be made for
Israel’s iniquity, everlasting righteousness
will introduced to Israel, Israel’s Scriptures
will be vindicated by the fulfillment of all
prophecy and finally, the return of Christ at
the conclusion of the war of Armageddon, at
which time He will be anointed and will take His
seat at the Throne of David.
The angel went on to lock in the time.
“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 . . . And after threescore and two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:”
[Daniel 9:25, 26].
Beginning at a specific point in history
and moving forward in time from there, the angel
said that after sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years,
the Messiah shall be cut off [killed] but not
for Himself [He was blameless].
History records only one decree that
authorized the rebuilding of the city. “And it
came to pass in the month Nisan, in the
twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king . . . I
said unto the king, If it please the king, and
if thy servant have found favour in thy sight,
that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the
city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build
it. [Nehemiah 2:1, 5]
According to modern dating research, the
20th year of the Persian king Xerxes would have
been 444 BC. The reference to the ‘month of
Nisan’ with no reference to the day indicates
the first day of the month. Using the Hebrew
calendar, the first day of Nisan, BC 444
corresponds to the modern date of March 5.
Counting forward 483 years from 444 BC to AD 33
is 477 years. But BC 1 and AD 1 are the same
year, so deducting that year leaves us with 476
years. Four hundred seventy-six years times
365.24219879 days is 173,855 days. Jesus was
crucified on March 30, AD 33, so there are an
extra 25 days to add to the equation, giving a
grand total of 173,880 days. (Calculations
courtesy of "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" by
Josh McDowell)
So, from the going forth of the
commandment on March 5, BC 444 until March 30,
AD 33 was exactly 173,880 days divided by 360
day lunar equals exactly 483 years.
Daniel 9:26 goes on to say that after
Messiah is ‘cut off but not for Himself’, “the
people of the prince that shall come shall
destroy the city.”
Within a generation of Israel’s rejection
of the Messiah, General [and future Emperor]
Titus of Rome led his legions into Jerusalem
where the city was sacked and the Temple utterly
destroyed.
The ‘people’ identified by the angel to
Daniel are proved by history to be the Roman
Empire, currently embodied by the European
Union. The ‘prince’ of that ‘people’ is the
antichrist.
As an aside, according to the Jewish
historian [and eyewitness] Josephus, the Romans
burned the Temple so completely its ornate gold
fixtures melted and ran between the stones of
the Temple.
To recover this rich booty, the soldiers
dismantled the Temple, stone by stone,
fulfilling Jesus' prophecy of a generation
before; “There shall not be left here one stone
upon another, that shall not be thrown down”
[Matthew 24:2].
The coming prince of Daniel 9:26, the
antichrist, kicks off the Tribulation Period –
and starts the clock running -- with an event as
historically definite as was Artexerxe’s Decree.
According to Daniel 9:27, the antichrist
‘confirms a covenant’ between Israel and her
enemies. This ‘covenant’, or treaty, is
confirmed as an agreement of seven year’s
duration. [Not coincidentally, the exact length
of the Tribulation Period – Daniel’s 70th Week].
The Book of Daniel says that from the
signing of that treaty until it is broken by the
antichrist is three and one-half years [time,
times and a half’ (Dan 12:7)]. To further
confirm it, from the breaking of that treaty at
the midpoint until the return of Christ is
precisely 1260 days – three and one-half years.
We have already seen the precision with
which God counted down sixty-nine weeks of
years. One week remains. There is no reason to
think God has fired His accountant.
So, logically, anyone familiar with the
Scriptures who observes the breaking of the
treaty with Israel by antichrist could know
exactly, to the day, when Jesus was to return.
But wait! What about what Jesus Himself
said of His coming? He said, “But of that day
and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of
heaven, but my Father only” [Matthew 24:36].
Clearly, He could not have been speaking
of the same event that could be so easily
calculated. Is this a contradiction?
According to 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4,
there is a secret return of Christ, the one of
which Jesus spoke.
Paul writes, “For this we say unto you by
the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent [precede] them which are asleep. For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with
the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first: Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so
shall we ever be with the Lord.”
This secret Advent, in which the Lord
comes for His Church in the air, is not the same
event as the one in which He puts His foot upon
the Mount of Olives, splitting it in two
[Zechariah 14:4] Paul’s description of the
Lord’s coming has Him coming in the air, not
touching down to earth.
Paul is referring to what is commonly
called the Rapture of the Church. Since this
secret Advent’s timing cannot, according to
Jesus, be calculated, it cannot be the same
event as the Second Coming. That Triumphant
Return can be calculated precisely one minute
after the antichrist signs the 7-year treaty.
Since the Tribulation Period is the time
of ‘Jacob’s Trouble’ – Daniel’s 70th Week, it is
a time reserved for Israel, not the Church.
Remember, it is to make ‘reconciliation for sin’
and to ‘bring in everlasting righteousness’.
For the Church during the Church Age,
those goals were already accomplished at the
Cross.
But the Tribulation Period is the final
week of the Age of the Law. The Temple will be
in full operation and the Mosaic Law in full
force. The Church Age is concluded with the
antichrist’s treaty.
Given the current situation in the Middle
East, some kind of confirmation of a seven year
agreement [like Oslo] is an absolute necessity,
either to prevent all out war or at the
conclusion of any such war.
Bible prophecy says it will happen. The
Bible also says it begins a time of judgment
against Israel and the Gentile world. The Church
was already judged at the Cross.
Here’s what it all means, boiled down into
a single sentence. At some point before that
treaty is signed, Jesus Christ will descend from
heaven with a shout, and the voice of an
archangel, and all those living who placed their
faith in Christ will be snatched away, to be
forever with Christ.
That treaty could happen at almost any
moment. And that means the Rapture of the Church
is even closer.
What a time to be alive!
----------------------------------------------------
Archives of past issues of The Omega Letter
Intelligence Digest plus many other Omega Letter
member features can be found at:
www.omegaletter.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Omega Letter is published daily by Jack
Kinsella and exists through subscriptions and
free will contributions. ©
www.omegaletter.com