70 Weeks Prophecy in Daniel

Thank you again, Mr. Howe. Now, for those of us who are less than 65 years old, and there aren't that many of us in this audience, so a lot of you might have a better memory of this than I do, but we weren't... I guess in my living memory, I don't have that awareness, as some of you might, of how closely children of Bible prophecy, children students of Bible prophecy, really perked up and started paying attention to the Middle East about 65 years ago.

Something pretty surprising happened, well, not for those who'd been following the news, but it was in 1948 that Jewish nationalists in Palestine declared their independence. The United Nations sort of gave them the okay, and the modern nation of Israel was founded. They were immediately attacked by neighboring Arab nations, attacked on all sides, and to the surprise of some people, survived, fought off the attack, and managed to continue.

But it was not just the re-emergence of the Jewish nation after nearly 2,000 years that concerned students of prophecy so much as what they thought might happen next. And they watched, and they waited. And what happened next, as far as what they were looking for, really was nothing much. Nothing much happened. Jerusalem was divided at that time between the Jews and the Arabs, with the Jews being denied access to the old part of the city, including the Temple Mount. And it stayed that way for nearly another 30 years.

Then, in the dramatic Six Days War, in June of 1967, Israeli forces launched a surprise attack, really a pre-emptive attack. It was obvious from the intelligence information that their neighbors were about to attack them, and so they struck first. They captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and, importantly for this message, the West Bank of the Jordan River, including the eastern half of Jerusalem. For the first time in decades, Jews had access to the site of old Jerusalem, and the Western Wall. That wall is often called the Wailing Wall. And interestingly, this was the first time since 70 AD, when the Romans had conquered Jerusalem and destroyed that Temple, that the Jews now had control of that site.

They'd been able to come in and visit, but they never actually had political control over it in all those centuries. Now, followers of Bible prophecy really started paying attention. Now, you might wonder, or many of you are well aware, what were they looking for? They were looking for the building of a new Temple. The old one had been gone for many, many years.

And if not a Temple, perhaps a new altar for the resumption of animal sacrifice. Now, the concern of all these students of prophecy wasn't that they wanted to go join in worship through the sacrifice. They were watching for the sacrifice to begin, but then to be forcibly stopped. This is because some of the few Bible prophecies that actually specify timelines for events give the cessation of the sacrifices in the Holy Place at the end time as a starting point for a countdown to some very significant events.

And today, I want to look at some of those prophecies. There are quite a few. Well, not that many of them. And we often, and I personally tend to look at some of the big prophecies. We look at the Olivet Prophecy. We look at Revelation and see the signs to look for.

And I realize that it's been a while since I've spoken on prophecy, and even longer since I've addressed some of the prophecies in Daniel. So I want to look at these, starting with one that we understand pretty well, or at least we think we do. That's Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy. And this prophecy is one that really started me digging into research to write this sermon, partly because, as you might remember two or three weeks ago, Mr.

McNeely made a reference to it in his sermon, which I believe we had on Cybercast down here. He was speaking of the importance of Israel. I'm not trying to overlap too much with his sermon, but he mentioned that in passing, and I thought, you know, I need to dig in and study that a bit more. We don't bring this one up a lot, partly because so much of the 70 weeks prophecy, most Bible scholars say, well, most of it's been fulfilled.

It was fulfilled when Christ came. And also, some of the things that we learned from it, we find in other prophecies as well. But we could say, maybe there's more to it than some of those people think. And there's another reason, you know, I wanted to study into it, because as I started thinking, I said, you know, my understanding has gotten a little bit vague.

I haven't looked at it in quite a while. And I can give a little insight, you know, it's a part of the reason it was easy for you to get vague. This is going back to my college days. It's funny, my memory is vague on this, because I don't remember why, but I remember that I was absent from a class when we were going over the 70 weeks prophecy. So I came back and I got other people's notes, and I was rushing to catch up. And I got, you know, in the process at the time, I got some things confused, and I later sorted it out.

But if I were to bring in my college Bible, which is my old, you know, King James wide margin that I took, and I put all those notes in. I call it now my wrinkly Bible, because it's so falling apart. But I've got a really good chart that I drew in the margin outlining the steps in the 70 weeks prophecy.

But I put it on the wrong page, in the wrong chapter. And later, so I had to write notes saying, refer this over to chapter 8 to straighten that out. Oh, chapter 9. I knew I was trusting my memory. While you're turning to Daniel 9, let's go there. I want to point out something unique about this prophecy. Well, it's not totally unique, but it's kind of interesting, because this 70 weeks prophecy is one of ones that Daniel was not told that it would be sealed up and that he couldn't understand. So many times he was given a prophecy, and he was like, wow, what does this mean?

And an angel would say, no, don't worry about it, Daniel. This is sealed up to the end time.

This one, Daniel was given understanding of. And that makes it stand out, and that's part of why we're pretty sure we know so much about it.

At the beginning of the chapter, though, actually, Daniel was praying for understanding of a completely different prophecy. And, of course, Gabriel was sent specifically to tell him some of what he was asking for, but a lot of what he wasn't. So let's pick up with the first chapter, or the first verse of Daniel 9.

It says, it was in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. And that's another word, basically, for Babylon. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years specified by the word of the Eternal through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Okay, that prophecy is found in Jeremiah 25 verses 11 and 12. You can turn there, but basically, I've copied out some of it. It says, This whole land shall be a desolation and astonishment. These nations, speaking of Judah and the surrounding nations, will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. So seventy years is set out as a timeline for this punishment. And it says, when the seventy years are completed, I'll punish the king of Babylon.

So we know from earlier in Daniel that God set up Nebuchadnezzar. And he says directly, He made you a king over other kings. He's given you all this domain. And in the great prophecy of the image made out of all the different metals, God showed through Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar and all of us. You know, this framework of history of these great world-ruling empires that would go down through the ages, even concluding with the last incarnation of the Roman Empire.

But it's as far as the Babylonian, he said, seventy years and I'm going to punish them. Now, before I get into this, I should specify, because this is one of the things that I got confused when I was a young student. Seventy years is not the same as seventy weeks. We talk about the seventy weeks prophecy. You don't transmute weeks into years, and it's not like the day-for-a-year principle that we'll discuss later.

They're two totally separate prophecies. But this was of concern to Daniel at the time. In 538 BC, the Persian Empire, remember, the Persian Empire conquered the Babylonian. And the Emperor Cyrus was over all the empire, but he assigned this Darius the Mede to be king over Babylon. So rather than Babylon ruling all, it was a subdivision of the greater Persian Empire. But now, Daniel looked and said, well, Babylon's being conquered. Some foreigners brought in to be king. So he probably would say, clearly Babylon's being punished. Has it been seventy years? Well, if we look at the background, we believe that Daniel was taken captive during one of those early conquests of Judah by Babylon.

If you read in the biblical accounts, you'll see the Babylonians came more than one time. In the early stages, they would take some people captive and then go back. And it was until finally at the end that they destroyed the city and took the last of them. And Jeremiah and a few survivors were left, and they went down to Egypt. And we believe Jeremiah took some of the king's daughters, or at least one, and eventually moved to Ireland.

That's getting into another story. But we think Daniel probably was taken captive around 600 or 604 BC. And the events of Daniel 9 are about 60 or 65 years later. So Daniel's been in captivity more than 60 years. And he says, well, the old prophecies for 70 years is a time yet. So he's fasting and praying to God. He's saying, let me see this. Now, because the angel, when Gabriel appears to Daniel, he doesn't really lay out and answer all of his questions as specifically as he would like. I'll mention, as it turns out, 585 was the year that the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.

And 515 was the year when the new temple was finished and dedicated, which you can read the account in Ezra and some in Nehemiah. So it was 70 years, exactly as prophesied, and the new temple was set up. Now, if Gabriel took the time to explain those dates to Daniel, Daniel didn't write it down in his prophecy. But from what Gabriel did tell Daniel, it became clear that Daniel could be assured the new temple was going to be built and Jerusalem would be rebuilt. Because Gabriel gave Daniel assurance that there would be an order to build a new temple.

Because he mentioned that would be the time to start counting forward what he calls 70 weeks. Here's where I want to drop in Daniel 9 down to verse 21. The early part of the chapter is Daniel's prayer. It's a very humble, beseeching prayer to God. And we see in verse 21, he says, Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, now we know it was an angel who would appear like a man, was manifested in that form.

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. Keep in mind that Daniel mentions the time of the evening offering as a time marker. We believe that was probably around 3 o'clock. He informed me and talked with me and said, Oh, Daniel, I have come forth to give you skill to understand.

And at the beginning of your supplication, the command went out. And I've come to tell you, you're greatly beloved. Wouldn't you like to have God send a messenger to tell you that? But then again, maybe we could say he did. I mean, he doesn't personally, but we see all through the Bible. That's the message. And Jesus Christ made that very clear. But Daniel was told individually he was greatly beloved.

Therefore, consider the matter and understand the vision. And once again, here he's told to understand, not told you won't be able to understand. Now we'll read in verse 24. Seventy weeks are determined. Now, I've got to asterisk by weeks in my New King James, because the word that's translated into English, weeks, here in Hebrew would be seven. It would be seventy-sevens. Because the Hebrew word for week is about the same as seven. But so it's not necessary seventy weeks could be seventy-sevens 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 an everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.

Now, some modern translations include the word place after holy, but it's not there in the Hebrew. So we know that the word wasn't there. There's an assumption. Is it talking about anointing the Holy Place or anointing the Most Holy, which probably refers to something else?

But in essence, that one verse is the prophecy. So he's told seventy weeks are determined for all this. Then Gabriel goes on to give an explanation, which is, like I said, something refreshing in the Bible. In verse 25, he says, Know therefore, understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.

The street will be built again in the wall, even in troublesome times. Now, stopping there, we can see Gabriel sort of breezed past Daniel's initial question. His initial question was, when is the seventy years going to be up? When will the temple be rebuilt? Well, Gabriel just mentions from the time that the order to do that is, and we start counting forward.

So instead of focusing on explaining how long the city would be desolate, he focuses on how long from the time the order to rebuild is until Messiah appears. Remember, of course, Jesus Christ appearing is the central event in the Bible. They weren't worried about his second appearing at this time.

They were worried about him coming at all. Now, we'll have to address that here it says, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. That's a total of sixty-nine, not seventy, although clearly in verse 24 it says seventy weeks. But we know here, basically, we'll have to come back to that later, but basically saying in seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, or a total of sixty-nine, the Messiah is going to appear on the scene. You might remember, if you're reading, you know, look in the Gospel accounts, at the time Jesus appeared, when he did come and begin his ministry, people were looking for the Messiah.

They were saying, when is he going to appear? They were studying their Bibles, and they had this prophecy.

They knew that it should be around that time. Now, there was some confusion, though, or disagreement. When exactly would it be? Because we know now, looking back at history, there was more than one decree given about Jerusalem that they could look to. I'll list them here. First, there was a decree made in 538 BC by Cyrus to build the temple. I'm not going to turn there, but that can be found in Ezra 1, verses 1-4. It's also at the end of 2 Chronicles. There was a second decree made in 520 BC by Darius. That's found in Ezra 6, in the first verse, and also it's extrapolated in verses 6-12. Third, there was a decree made in 457 BC by a man in history known as Artaxerxes Longinimanus. I'm just going to say Artaxerxes, because that extra part is a little tough. That can be found in Ezra 7, verses 11-12.

Then the fourth decree was made in 444 BC by the same Artaxerxes Longinimanus. That account is found in Nehemiah 2, verses 1-8. Actually, that's pertaining more to the actual city of Jerusalem, or the city wall. We believe that the one that counted was the one in 457 BC. Actually, let's turn to Ezra to look at that one. We'll come back to Daniel. Ezra 7, and I'll explain why we're pretty sure that's the one. We've got the advantage of history in hindsight now, that, as I said, in the first century, Jews living in Jerusalem did not have.

Ezra 7, in verse 11, Ezra writes this account. Remember, Ezra was a scribe and a priest who was the one who oversaw the re-establishment of the animal sacrifice and preparing to build the temple. In verse 11, it says, So, we mark the date of that decree, 457 BC. Now, if you count forward, seven sevens, actually, no. Remember, he said from the time of the decree until Messiah appeared would be 69 sevens. And we're going to use the day for a year principle. Without turning there, if you remember in Numbers 14, verse 34, after the twelve spies went into the Promised Land, but ten of them gave an evil report, and they convinced the children of Israel, we can't conquer the Promised Land, there's giants there, we're as grasshoppers. God got fed up with Israel and said, okay, you're afraid to go in and bring your children? I'm going to wait until your children are ready to bring in. You guys are all going to die wandering in the wilderness. You're going to spend one year wandering for each day that the spies were scouting out the land.

Forty days translated into forty years. Also in Ezekiel 4, verse 6, there's a time where God told Ezekiel to lie on his side so many days portraying the siege of Jerusalem. And he said, you're going to lay one day for each year of the punishment. So we see in prophecy a number of times that a day for a year can be translated.

Well, if we start at 457 BC, the first seven sevens is forty-nine years. That comes to 408 BC. Then, moving ahead sixty-two more weeks from there, accounts for 483 years.

Now, earlier scholars said, okay, that brings us to 26 AD, except they forgot there was no year counted as zero.

So it comes to 27 AD. That's the year that Jesus was baptized and began his ministry. He was about thirty years old. So we see, looking back, the prophecy was exactly correct. You know, four hundred and...

I'm going to give the date. Four hundred and ninety. So it would be 483 years exactly from the time of that decree to rebuild the temple, the Messiah began his ministry.

Now, we still have to account for that other week. As I said, I've been saying sixty-nine, and you've got that confusion. I'm back in Daniel 9 again. Verse 24 says seventy weeks or seventy-sevens, but down in verse 25, it says there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Then, from the time that it's rebuilt, the Messiah will appear.

Now, I'm not sure, and I've got a question, and I would invite people to speculate why Gabriel broke it down to first seven weeks and then sixty-two. There is some significance, probably, to that date of 408, but I don't want to stop and dwell on that.

But I want to read in Daniel 26. It says, after the sixty-two weeks, so that's the sixty-two that started after the first seven, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it will be with a flood until the end of the war of desolations are determined. Or until the end of the war, desolations are determined. I think that might have been disappointing to Daniel. He was concerned about ending the desolation of Jerusalem, having it rebuilt, re-establishing the worship of God. Here's a prophecy that that would happen, but in the future there'd be more desolation.

But at least it would be long after his time. Reading on in verse 27, And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.

But in the middle of the week, well, wait a minute, I said, why sixty-nine weeks in one place and seventy in another? Here's that missing week.

Okay, so we had sixty-nine weeks until the Messiah appeared, and then there's a week of Him in action. But it says in the middle of the week, He'll bring an end to sacrifice and offering.

He shall bring an end, and on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate.

Lot said there.

Now, there's been some dispute, but in verse 27 where it says, He'll confirm a covenant with many for one week.

If you turn to Malachi 3 in verse 1, or you can let me read it to you, I just want to read just the first part of that verse. We believe this is speaking of the Messiah, confirming a covenant, or some translations say, making a firm covenant.

There's a well-known scripture that says, Behold, I send my messenger, he'll prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant. So Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is called the messenger of the covenant.

He's the one that makes this covenant. Or, we would say, makes the new covenant with the sacrifice of Christ.

And that's also what we take to mean that the...

...looking down, bringing an end to sacrifice and offerings. How did Jesus Christ bring an end to sacrifice and offerings in the midst of the week? Well, because He was the one true sacrifice. The book of Hebrews spends a lot of space going over that. Matter of fact, let's turn over to Hebrews 9, just to make sure we're clear on that. Hebrews 9 in verse 9. And I'm mentioning it here because there are some scholars who dispute and hold up a totally different interpretation of this prophecy. But it's not just our imagination to say that the Messiah would be the one to make an end to offering. And He makes the end by His perfect sacrifice. In Hebrews 9 in verse 9, it says, It was symbolic for the present, talking about these sacrifices, the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make Him who perform the service perfect in regard to conscience, concerned only with foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinances, imposed until the time of Reformation. But Christ came as a high priest of good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, of the 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. When Jesus Christ was sacrificed, He put an end to all need for animal sacrifice. And it happened in the midst of that prophetic week. If a prophetic week would have come out to seven years, Christ's ministry was three and a half years, and then He was crucified.

In doing so, we could say He accomplished that list of things in Daniel 9.24. Six things are listed there. Finish up the transgression, make an end of sin, He was sacrificed for sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, or, I believe some translations say, atonement, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, or to bring a conclusion to all these prophecies and visions.

Now, some people would say, well, those things aren't fully done. He might have brought about the means to put an end to sin by the sacrifice and by making the Holy Spirit available, but people still sin. And there, you know, He might have brought about the means to seal up and bring a conclusion to all prophecies, but they're not concluded yet.

Well, we would say a lot of these things will be completely fulfilled when Christ returns.

That's part of God's plan. When He returns, He'll bring everlasting righteousness. And He will then bring, you know, seal up vision and prophecy.

And we would say that anointing of the Most Holy refers to one of two things, either to Jesus Christ Himself, who will be anointed, King of kings and Lord of lords. Some people have speculated, knowing that in the latter part of Ezekiel, there's a description of a new temple to be built that we believe will be established during the millennium. I'm not going to turn there and read all of that, but there's a lengthy description of that temple. So we'll have the Most Holy being the King of kings and Lord of lords. We'll also have a new holy place.

You might say there's still a lot left to be done.

But I thought, well, there's still three and a half weeks of that, or still three and a half days of that prophecy left that would account to three and a half years.

Now, that's been an area right for speculation. And I'm guessing some of you who have been around a long time have heard a lot of that speculation. When will those three and a half years be?

Some have thought it will be during a time when members of the church are in a place of safety for three and a half years, and that'll be the final part of Christ's ministry. Others have said it won't be until Christ establishes his rule.

And then there's debate, well, would it be three and a half years and then starts the thousand years of the millennium? Or will the first three and a half years of the millennium, or maybe something else entirely? And I'm throwing it out there because I'm content to wait and find out. I think I can't disprove any of those possibilities, and maybe I'm not saying they can't be disproven, but I haven't done the study to nail them down specifically.

I'm content to wait to find out because I still love it that here's a prophecy that gives us a starting date, then a length of time, and finally a finish.

Now, at this point, out of 490 years given for this prophecy, 486.5 of them have been completed. That's a pretty high percentage. But there does seem to be a delay. There's this gap. So much is done, and there's a waiting period. That waiting period has been stymieing Christians for nearly 2,000 years.

But it is widely agreed that the final part of this is end-type prophecy, as I've been referring to, because it mentions a desolation. It mentions abomination. That sounds very familiar to the term abomination of desolation. We find that in Daniel 11 and verse 31, and also in Matthew 24 verses 15 and 16. We're going to look there shortly. But I do want to mention some modern scholars and commentaries have a different view of the latter part of the 70-weeks prophecy. And it's worth us mentioning. We want to be aware of it. In Daniel 9.27, where it says, He shall confirm a covenant with many for a week. Some people have said that this He is referring to actually the Antichrist, who would make a covenant with the Jews in Jerusalem, allowing them to do animal sacrifice. But that after three and a half years, he would break the treaty and step in and stop them. The church says, okay, that might be a possibility, but we don't think that's right. Our official teaching for years has been that it is the way I first presented it. For a couple of compelling reasons. The first has to do with the Hebrew grammar. And I'm not going to get into that, but it has to do with either partisables that are either singular or plural, and antecedents that basically says that the He, in verse 27, is referring to Messiah, not to the Prince. And actually, it's properly rendered here that the people of the Prince are the ones to bring this desolation.

So the people of the Prince, in other words, the one that's bringing the desolation is the bad guy, not the Messiah. The Messiah will be the one that brings the covenant and who brings an end to the sacrifice because they're no longer necessary. But, and the other important reason why we believe our teaching is correct is that the numbering, not only does the numbering to show that Christ was sacrificed to come to three and a half years in His ministry, but we also know that with that in place, in the year 31 A.D., when Christ was sacrificed, Passover fell on a Wednesday. So Christ was crucified in the midst of the week in two different ways, in the midst of that prophetic 70th week, but also in the middle of just the calendar week on a Wednesday. So in two ways, that matches to make this the fulfillment of the prophecy.

Now then, did I say the 70 weeks prophecy was one of the most understandable? This is after simplification, but I didn't say it was simple. But I like the fact that if you're willing to explore into the chronology and get into the Hebrew grammar, you can bring about some clear conclusions. But it still leaves us at the end time with some unanswered questions. Not only about that three and a half years, but what about this abomination of desolation?

That's a term that's very familiar.

We can learn more about that and tie back into my comments and my introduction about why it seems so important when the Jews gained control of the Holy Place in 1967 when we consider the prophecy of Daniel 11. So I want to turn over a couple pages there. Daniel 11 addresses the abomination of desolation more completely than other prophecies do. And actually, you could say this prophecy is so long, anything it addresses, it does so more thoroughly than most other prophecies. It stretches from the time of the Persian Empire until Christ's return. But just like the 70 weeks prophecy, it has a gap.

We're pretty sure that's there. So let me summarize rather than read all this detail. And the detail of how the prophecies were fulfilled in history is covered in some of our booklets, including the Middle Eastern Prophecy does it very well. And I think our booklet, Is the Bible True?, uses that in showing that the fulfilled prophecy is one of the proofs of the Bible's validity.

And as I said, to summarize, we know that after Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire and extended his empire further than any that had existed before, he died while still young and he had no heir. So this great empire was divided in four by his leading generals. Two of these fall out of the prophecy, but two remaining become known as the King of the North, that was led by Seluchus, also known as Antiochus, with his reign centered in Syria, and the King of the South told him he who had his reign in Egypt. And Daniel 11 describes a lot of interactions between this King of the North and King of the South.

And history confirms all those. We'd like to focus almost most of all on 1131, or it's one of the more interesting. Daniel 11 and verse 31 says, forces shall be mustered by him, this is by the King of the North, and they'll defile the sanctuary fortress. Then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation.

Now, that sounds similar to what we just read in Daniel 8, but it's similar. Well, the fulfillment we think of is in 167 BC, Antiochus IV, who is also known in history as Antiochus Epiphanes, polluted the sanctuary, that is, the temple, by putting an idol there, and he put a stop to the daily sacrifice. The Bible doesn't really address that, but in the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees, although we don't believe that's inspired scripture, it gives a history that is pretty compelling.

The idea is that this king, Antiochus, decided he didn't want these different religions in his kingdom anymore. He was going to impose just one uniform religion, and to do that, he had to make the Jews stop keeping the Sabbath. They were ordered to treat it as any other workday. Also, they were told, you can't have these sacrifices anymore. To do that, they wanted to defile the temple, and the story says that they erected a statue of Zeus in the holy place and sacrificed pigs on the altar.

They did manage to do that, but it sparked a revolt. What's commonly called the Maccabean Revolt, wherein the Jews fought against overwhelming odds, but they defeated and threw off foreign rule. They remained independent until the Romans finally conquered them. This story actually... I'm embarrassed that I hadn't checked the calendar to look at this, but driving down, I was informed this coming Thursday is not only Thanksgiving, but Hanukkah.

It's one of the rare times that those two overlap. Usually, we tend to think in America of Hanukkah as a Jewish version of Christmas, which it's not at all. It's based on the story of the Jews overthrowing the foreign rule and cleansing the temple, and then rededicating it.

Of course, there's the story, which I'm not going to attempt to say it exactly, but of needing to light the lights and having only enough oil for one day and it lasting throughout the whole Hanukkah time. But we consider this to be a dual prophecy, because while this did happen at that time, that was more than 150 years before Jesus was born. But in Matthew 24, verse 15, as part of the Olivet prophecy, he warned of a future abomination that makes desolate, which he said, which you read in Daniel the prophet.

And that's well known to Christians. And he said, when you see the abomination of desolation flee Jerusalem, that tells us that Antiochus was a foretype, an early fulfillment of what must have been a dual prophecy. Or was it just dual?

Maybe there was more than even two fulfillments. Because some people would say, well, the Romans did exactly that in 70 AD, and the Christians fled. Matter of fact, there is a historical account that says they heard a voice saying, Arise, let us leave here. And so he got up and left and went to Pella before the Romans surrounded the city and destroyed it.

But was 70 AD the conclusion of the prophecy, or was it another foretype? Well, to say it plainly, we believe that Daniel 11 clearly shows there will be an end time fulfillment. Let's drop down to verse 40 in Daniel 11.

It says, At the time of the end, so time of the end, this is end time, the king of the south shall attack him, that is the king of the north, and the king of the north will come at him like a whirlwind with chariots and horsemen and many ships. He will enter countries and overwhelm them and pass through. He will enter the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown, and it lists some exceptions. Now, let's pause, because up to this point, all that we read in Daniel 11 can be seen to have been fulfilled by the Greeks and some by the Roman rulers. But to suddenly jump to the end time requires putting that prophecy on hold for nearly 2,000 years. But that's where the significance of 1948 and 1967 comes in. So, it said, Up to that time, for nearly 2,000 years, the descendants of Israel did not rule in Jerusalem. They had been expelled. And where Daniel is writing king of north and king of south, that's relative to Jerusalem. And these prophecies were given for Israelites. So, when the Israelites no longer control that part of that area, the prophecy went on hold. With the Jewish state of Israel reestablished in 1948, it made sense once again to call the Roman Empire or a reincarnation of it, perhaps made of ten modern nations, call that the king of the north. Of course, who then is the king of the south? I've often said that's the $64,000 question. I believe Mr. Armstrong looked to Ethiopia because it was one part of the original kingdom of the south that had never been absorbed by the Roman Empire. Many people today are speculating, could it be some new Muslim Empire that will appear? And of course, after the Arab Spring and all the tumult in Egypt, it makes me think, well, maybe it'll just be plain old Egypt.

I don't know for sure, but we'll find out when the time comes. Whatever power it is, the king of the north will violently overcome it and conquer it. Then in verse 44, after the king of the north comes and takes over all the Middle East, or most of it, says, news will come from the east and the north and trouble him. Therefore he'll go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. We speculate, is this going to fight against the massive Chinese and or Russian armies? Not to mention, India has this huge population. There will be great fighting, but, and we go to verse 45, he'll plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountains, yet he'll come to an end. And no one will help him. It's interesting how abrupt that is. He's doing all this and then he comes to an end.

No one will help him. Well, we know why he'll come to an end, because Christ will return and defeat those armies. I'm not going to turn there, but it's described very well in Revelation 19 and also in Zechariah 14.

But I wanted to stay here in Daniel because just as, after Christ's conquest, his return and destroying the armies of the world are described in Revelation 19, and then in Revelation 20, we read of the resurrection. So we see in Daniel chapter 12, after the King of the North and all the armies that might support him are stopped, it says in 12 verse 1, At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. There will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even at that time. And at that time your people will be delivered.

Everyone who is found written in the book, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Some do everlasting life, some do shame and everlasting contempt.

Now, as I said, this is going basically from Christ conquering those nations, past the great tribulation, into establishing the millennium and the saints being raised to life.

Now, if you can imagine, and I didn't read all of it, but if you can imagine Daniel was pretty well floored by all of this. He's wondering, what does all this mean? And he asked, but he's told this in verse 4. "'You, Daniel, shut up the words, seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, knowledge shall be increased.' He was told, unlike the seventy-weeks prophecy, you're not going to be given an explanation. This isn't for you to know, Daniel.

But he did record some cryptic numbers that we still can ponder and wonder about. In verse 5, "'Then I, Daniel, looked, and there stood two others, one on this river bank and the other in the other bank.

And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long shall be the fulfillment of these wonders be?' The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, where he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever, it shall be for a time, times, and half a time.

And when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things will be finished." I heard, and I didn't understand. I said, Lord, what will these things be? Now, it's interesting that time, times, and half a time. We believe that's a year, two years, and half a year, or three and a half years. And following biblical prophecy, 1,260 days.

But when does it start?

Well, we're not really sure. There's speculation about that. There are a lot of three and a half year time spans that come up. As I said, some say, and it seems to make sense, that it would be three and a half years of the church in a place of safety.

That would be reasonable, although it doesn't say it specifically here. Let's look in verse 11.

It says, to continue with some of these numbers, because, Daniel told, go your way.

You're not going to understand this. It says, from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, this is why we're sure that there's a yet to be fulfilled abomination of desolation. There will be 1,290 days.

Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335 days.

And to that I say, um, excuse me, Mr. Gabriel, why? What's going to happen then?

And I hate to have to say this, but I don't really know for sure the answer to that. I'm not sure that anybody knows for certain.

We've had lots of speculation, but we've got three different time spans here. 1,260 days, 1,290, 1,335.

Now, the 1,260 seems to be specific to the scattering of the holy people.

And we could ask, is it a literal three and a half years, or do you count a day for a year to 1,260 years?

Well, Revelation 12 seems to be a prophecy of that, and it gives reason to think of both. Let's look at Revelation 12.

If I think about it, maybe this should have been a blackboard sermon, because in classes and such, a lot of times, we'd have these numbers put up, and we could look at them and compare.

But I have so many question marks. I hate to write too many of those, but Revelation 12 and verse 6... Now, by the way, all of Revelation 12 is an insert into the timeline of prophecy. It sort of stops and discusses some other things. It says, Hmm. Well, Daniel thought, is it the same? 1,260 days is the woman picturing these people? Let's drop down to verse 13.

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There's another theory that says all these different time spans might start at the same time, but that the 1,290 days and the 1,335 mark events that will occur after Christ returns. What's going to happen after Christ returns? Well, we know things will happen. We wonder, will it take more than a day or even several days for him to defeat those armies? He's God. He could vaporize them in a moment, but maybe he'll do differently. When will he throw the beast and the false prophet into a lake of fire? How long after that will an angel come down and bind Satan and put him in prison? As I said, we've got events and we've got time spans, and we're not told that we can connect any of them specifically. So, I'm not trying to make any new doctrinal teaching, but these have been the subject for discussion and debate and speculation since long before I was in the church, I'm pretty sure. So, I don't know which of these do or don't fit Daniel 12. That might have to be good enough for us. But I do know that there are common elements that appear in several of these prophecies. That's why I'm discussing them together. And it's reassuring to me that one element that appears in all of them, that the good guys win in the end. And I still, one of my most memorable things from a youth is once seeing Mr. Armstrong give a sermon. And I don't know if he did this more than once, but I remember him going and saying, I've read the end of the book and we win. That's very reassuring. But I do want to include one more of Daniel's prophecies, because it also gives a specific number, and it gives specific events at each end of the time frame. That's what's known as the 2300 Days Prophecy. This one is in Daniel 8. That's why I mentioned Daniel 8 earlier. Let's go back to Daniel and further muddy the water a little bit, or maybe get some clarity. Now, Daniel 8 uses symbolism, and then also gives interpretation of most of that. So most of the chapters very clearly a prophecy of the Greek conquest of the Persian Empire. If you remember, the book of Daniel starts off with him in captivity under the Babylonians, and he recounts as a historical event the Persian conquest of Babylon. But here he's foretelling, as he did earlier to Nebuchadnezzar, this process of one empire succeeding another. In it, Persia is symbolized as a ram with two horns. Greece is symbolized as a goat with one notable horn, and it says it moves so swiftly it doesn't touch the ground, which is a good depiction of Alexander the Great and how swiftly his armies moved and conquered most of the world. And then, of course, it says that horn is broken, symbolizing Alexander dying young, and it says four other horns came up to the four winds of heaven. These four leading generals divided up the empire, and there was an east, north, west, and south. All that parallels, though with less detail, Daniel 11. Let's look at the explanation as we get near the end of the chapter. Daniel 8, beginning in verse 17.

That's interesting. Because, as I said, without reading it all, I think you've read it before, and it follows, most of what we read in Daniel 8 was fulfilled by the Greek and Persian empires long ago. But for there to be some part of it, it's end time, there has to be once again this great leap forward all the way to the time of the end. We could call it the gap, which reminds me of riding the subway in London. I don't know if you've ever been there. They've got a recorded voice when the doors are about to close as you step from the station or the car. This voice comes on and says, mind the gap. Well, maybe you have to be there, but it's a source of humor in that area. We usually think of a gap theory, talking about the space of time between Genesis 1 and 1, too. But there seems to be a gap in many of these prophecies. In the next verses, it's revealed. Of course, the angel gives an explanation of much of this. He says, Persia is the two-headed two-horned ram, that it will be conquered by Greece, which is the goat. It will be divided into four kingdoms. All of them, of course, would be absorbed in the Roman Empire. But then, let's read verse 23.

In the latter time of their kingdom. Here's a reference to end time, as we read earlier. When the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understand sinister schemes. This, we believe, is probably the one we refer to as the beast power. He shall destroy the mighty. Oh, a sinister scheme, I dropped it.

In verse 24, his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. Now, how is this power mighty, but not by his own power? Two possible explanations, and maybe both are true. We know from Revelation that this end time reincarnation of the Roman Empire, the beast, will be made up of ten nations. It refers to ten kings who give their power to the beast. So, maybe this end time ruler, he has power because it's given to him from other nations.

But, of course, there's also the very simple explanation that Satan is giving him power. And we know that the beast is going to work miracles, so he has power that's given to him.

And he shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. Probably referring to persecution at the end time. Through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule, and he shall exalt himself in his heart, and shall destroy many in their prosperity.

He shall even rise against the prince of princes. There's only one person that's the prince of princes. That's Jesus Christ. And as we know from other prophecies, this beast power will resist even Jesus Christ when he returns. It says, but he shall be broken without human means. The King James rendered it as broken without hand.

This shows that he'll defy Jesus Christ, but he'll be defeated by God's power. And no other that's going to be God himself, Jesus Christ, who comes and puts an end to all this. Well, all that sounds very familiar. It fits with what we've read so far. As I said, these prophecies overlap and match. But now, the next verse will add something else that's different. In verse 26, And the vision of the evenings and mornings, which was told, is true. Therefore, seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future. And it says, Daniel, I fainted. I was sick for days afterwards.

You might ask, well, what was this vision of evenings and mornings? Is that part of what I didn't read? Well, in a sense, it was. Let's go find it back in verse 11.

Now, if we just read from the start, that would seem like it was just part of the historical process of something that's been fulfilled. And that might be. In verse 11, it says, He even exalted Himself as high as the prince of the host. By Him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. We've read of sacrifice being stopped and the sanctuary being defiled before. Because of transgression, an army was given to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices, and He cast truth down to the ground. He did it all, and His soul prospered. Now, remember, in the 70 Weeks Prophecy, we spoke of sacrifices being stopped because of Christ being the one true sacrifice. I don't think that's what this is talking about. This matches the abomination of desolation when sacrifices are stopped by an evil power.

Probably with Antiochus Epiphanes being the first fulfillment, but an end-time fulfillment yet to come. I believe that's exactly what that is, and in verse 13 we get a little more information.

He said to me, for 2,300 days, then the sanctuary will be cleansed. Now, here's where we have to stop and consider the original Hebrew again, because you could read this and say, well, what's that have to do with that vision of evenings and mornings? Well, because the Hebrew here that's translated into days, and Hebrew says evenings and mornings, exactly as it does in Daniel 8.26.

That's very important, because it's talking about the daily sacrifice that was set up. The one that God commanded to be done continually, every single day, as first described in Exodus 29, but the daily offering was to be offered twice each day, a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice. And it was so common it would be used as a time marker. As we saw, I mentioned in Daniel, Daniel was praying, and Gabriel came to him at about the time of the evening sacrifice. Daniel had that time fixed in his head. So, a proper translation of Daniel 8.13's question to how long is 23 evenings and mornings, not 2,300 days, because it's 2,300 daily sacrifices offered twice a day, which comes out to 1,150 days.

And what happens at the end of that, according to this? The sanctuary will be cleansed. That matches with the other prophecies. We know that that seems to happen by the return of Jesus Christ, forcibly removing the abomination of desolation and conquering the beast power.

Now, we could debate over some of that, but as we said, the last part of this chapter clearly says, this is for the latter time. It seems to conclude with the beast power standing up to the princes and then being broken without human means. As I said, referring to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

And, of course, figuring out when Jesus Christ would return is one of the biggest questions people have been encountering for nearly 2,000 years, trying to find an answer to that.

Now, this doesn't tell us exactly when He'll return, but if our understanding is correct, it tells us exactly how long it will be from the time the sacrifice has stopped until He returns.

1,150 days.

Now, I had to stop and ponder because I thought, well, that's not 1,260 days, or 1,290 or 1,335. You know, it's a bit shorter than the 1,260. 110 days shorter.

I have no idea what the significance of that 110 days is. There probably is a significance, but I'm not sure what it is.

Now, it does seem reasonable to ask, is there a chance this was completely fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes? He did stop the sacrifice, and He stopped it, we believe, in 167 BC until sometime in 164. I couldn't find any accounts that gave the exact number of days, but we know it lasted near three and a half years.

But if so, I would counter. It still would probably be a dual prophecy, because, as we saw, there's so many things saying this is an end-time prophecy.

Now, I also tried to find ways that I could count a day for a year, maybe starting to count from the last time that the sacrifices were stopped, which was 70 AD. Well, I thought, well, if you add 1,150 to 70, that brings you to the Middle Ages. I'm pretty sure Christ didn't return back then. And if, for some reason, it were 2,300 actual days, that would have Christ returning in the year 2370.

I don't know. When I read the newspaper, I say, boy, that seems like a stretch. Now, I can't say that's impossible, but it doesn't seem to fit. And, of course, to say that it means 2,300 would be to disregard what we saw that the Hebrew actually says.

Now, I could go on a side trip, which I think I could fit it in. But in history, there have been some people have said it has to be 2,300.

And since it didn't seem to work otherwise, they found a different starting point.

They found a completely different date. And there's been a group of people that said, well, you're supposed to start counting 2,300 from the year 457 BC.

We did mention that year earlier, didn't we? Now, they lifted that from the 70 weeks prophecy.

Well, if you study into it, and hopefully nothing I've said so far made you think, well, yeah, that does fit. It's a separate prophecy.

But 457, you know, 457 marked the decree to rebuild the temple, not the stoppage of the sacrifice.

But regardless of that, for Americans who were living in the early 1840s, that seemed really convenient.

Because if you start counting from 457 BC and go ahead 2,300 years, you come to the year 1844.

And there was a movement that said that would be the year of Christ's return.

You know, American historians are well aware of it.

It's commonly called the Millerite movement.

Because of Baptist preacher William Miller was the first one to start teaching that.

And it led to these great expectations.

And when 1844 didn't work out, it's known in history as the Great Disappointment.

You know, other followers of William Miller started looking at things and choosing specific dates.

I think the first one was in May. Then they said, no, it's going to be later.

Then October. And each time, Christ didn't return.

Now, many people that are involved in the Millerite movement and the Great Disappointment eventually just gave up any belief that is available.

And his interpretation of these prophecies was correct.

But there were some small groups that said, no, he was right. We just got some of the details wrong.

One of the most notable of these is a group that became to be known as the Seventh-day Adventist.

They now believe that it was incorrect that the idea that the sanctuary to be cleansed was on earth.

The Adventist teaching, which I know at least this was, I don't know that they've changed it since then, was that in 1844, Jesus Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary and cleansed it.

And that he's been there ever since conducting what's called investigative judgment.

Ellen G. White is the one who proposed this.

But to me, this hardly seems worth bothering to disprove.

I found some old articles published by the Worldwide Church of God that do disprove it.

But for that to be true, the heavenly sanctuary itself would have had to have been desolated and trodden underfoot for 2300 years.

That's just not possible.

God never allowed heaven to be overrun and destroyed, and certainly even when Satan challenged him, not for that period of time.

But I wanted to point that out because it goes to show how people can get attached to their own personal interpretation.

You know, and how much they can hold to these numbers that they work out.

Now, God gave us the numbers, so the numbers are there.

But when people get so attached to their own personal interpretation, it's easy to end up looking foolish.

And they lose track often of the most important things.

I stopped and thought as I was working on this, what's more important?

We've been wanting to know when Christ will return.

The return of Jesus Christ is incredibly important.

But for us to know exactly when? Much less so.

Now, it's okay for us to still have unanswered questions.

But I thought Paul in Hebrews 6 listed the fundamental doctrines or basics of the truth.

And he included things like going on to perfection, repentance, faith, baptisms, judgment.

Didn't say a single thing about prophecy.

And during Christ's ministry, a rich young man came to him and said, Good Master, what should I do to have life?

And Jesus said, you know what to do? Keep the commandments.

Know which ones? And he listed several of the Ten Commandments.

And he said, Well, I've been doing this all my life. What more?

And Jesus said, Well, go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come join me.

Now, he didn't do it, but I always found it significant. Jesus didn't say, You've got to go study prophecy and figure out the time order of events and what year I'm going to return.

Now, I'm not saying this to imply that this whole sermon was a waste. I certainly hope not.

It's not a waste of time. God gives us prophecy for very good reasons.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for instruction.

And though we can't mark a date on a calendar for when Christ will return and establish His kingdom, we can understand and learn a lot of important things from the prophecies we've been examining.

And we can put them with several others that we look at.

I want to summarize some of that to wrap these things up.

One thing we can see from these and other prophecies is that Christ gave us signs to watch for, and signs that we see coming.

But He also told us, You've got to always be ready because you're not going to know when I'm coming.

But if we look at the Olivet Prophecy, we know to watch for false teachers, for war, famine, and pestilence.

And even eventually there are going to be heavenly signs.

I think when the stars fall and the earth and the moon turns to blood, that's going to be pretty obvious.

We also have a great framework for end-time prophecy in the book of Revelation, where it describes the seven seals, which overlap with the Olivet Prophecy, and then the seven trumpets and the seven last plagues.

The prophecies in the latter part of Daniel show us, we need to pay attention to Jerusalem.

And that's been part of the culture of the Church for so long, to be honest.

It's always been drummed into me, and I sometimes forget why we do that.

Why do we have to pay attention to the Middle East? Well, these prophecies show us why.

They don't say when the Jews will begin sacrificial worship there again, but they do say that sometime after that, some power will intervene to stop those sacrifices.

And from the day that happens, a specific number of days will be allowed to pass before the climax of all prophecies occurs with Christ's return.

Now, I wondered if that number is 1,150, then perhaps many true Christians will already be in a place of safety, because for them to have 1,260 days, they would have already been there.

I wonder if our understanding of that is correct. Will we even know when the sacrifices stopped?

Well, I should also mention, I haven't looked into it, but we also know that many people think the same 3.5 years of a place of safety will match up with when two witnesses will be preaching the Gospel powerfully to all the world and working miracles in the sight of men. That'll happen for 3.5 years.

And apparently, some other event is either going to happen 30 days before Christians go to a place of safety or 30 days after Christ returns. That explains the significance of the 1,290.

And then the same could apply to 45 days before or 45 days after that for the 1,335.

Although, one thing I'll say, whatever it is that happens on that day, it said, blessed is he who waits and reaches that. So, I want to be blessed. I want to find out what happens at the end of that 1,335.

But I'm not speculating on what these timespans signify, because I don't know for sure, just like we don't know exactly when Christ will conduct the last 3.5 years of that ministry to complete the 70th week of the prophecy.

But we can say these various prophecies and the precision in them, because there's so much precision from parts, we know that God knows. God has a plan. He's got a detailed plan.

He's not been flying by the seat of his pants for all these thousands of years. He knew, thousands of years ago, it was going to go like this. And he planned for a waiting period. He planned for things to come together.

And what encourages me the most out of that is God has a plan, and that plan includes us.

We didn't end up here by accident. He planned for us to be in his plan.

And he's going to fulfill his prophecies. The fact that so many of them that were given in advance have been fulfilled up to a certain point.

As I said, a tremendous percentage of some shows those final percentages will be fulfilled just as well.

And that's going to be exciting because another prophecy, if we want to call it that, is that he will bring many sons to glory.

That prophecy is going to be fulfilled, and that's going to include us. So let's look forward to that exciting time.