The 70 Weeks Prophecy Overview

We have a good mixture in ages here. For those of us that are on the younger side, say less than 65 years old, we'll be on the younger side. We've spent our entire lives hardly aware, and perhaps not aware at all if we haven't studied the history, of how closely students of Bible prophecy perked up and became very alert about 65 years ago.

It was in 1948 that Jewish nationalists in Palestine declared their independence and created the modern nation of Israel. Now, if you study the history, you'll know that, or if you were listening to the news accounts at the time, they were immediately attacked by Arab nations on all sides. They fought desperate battles against overwhelming odds, and perhaps surprisingly to some, they survived. Of course, the nation is still there. Now, it was not just the independence and emergence of this Jewish nation after nearly 2,000 years that concerned students of prophecy, so much as what they were looking for and expected to happen next, and they watched and waited. And what happened next? Well, as far as prophecy goes, nothing much happened. Jerusalem at that time was divided between the Jews and the Arabs, and the Jews were denied access to the old part of the city that included the ancient Temple Mount, and it stayed that way for nearly 30 years. Then, in the dramatic Six Days War in June of 1967, Israeli forces launched a pre-emptive attack because their intelligence indicated that their neighbors were about to attack them, and so they struck first. And very quick operations. They captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan River. Some of those you might be able to see if you look at a map in the back of your Bible. I didn't bring up a blackboard, although this morning I said, this would have been a good blackboard sermon. But that West Bank of the Jordan, that area, includes the eastern part of Jerusalem. And for the first time in decades, Jews had access to the site of old Jerusalem and to the western wall, often known now as the Wailing Wall. Moreover, this was the first time since 70 AD when the Romans had destroyed the city and drove the Jews out of it that the Jewish people had control of their holy site. Now, followers of Bible prophecy really started paying attention. What was it they were looking for? They were looking for the building of a new temple, or at least the establishment of an altar for the resumption of worship through animal sacrifice. Now, I can mention the concern of those who were watching so attentively was not because they were eager to go and join in those sacrifices, but they were watching for them to be forcibly stopped once again.

That's because there are a number of Bible prophecies that actually specify timelines for events, and many of them give the cessation of sacrifice in Jerusalem at the end time as a starting point to count down to other very significant events. So I want to look into that today.

And I want to start with a prophecy that we understand pretty well, or we think we do. And for those of you that will come early in a couple weeks, you can get to understand much better. And that's Daniel's 70-week prophecy. I looked over here when I said that, not this Daniel, the one who wrote the book in the Bible. In the 70 weeks, prophecies started me on this investigation thinking of doing the sermon, partly because of a couple weeks ago when Mr. McNeely was here visiting, and he mentioned it sort of as a side remark in his sermon about why Israel is important. And of course, my sermon is overlapping a little bit with that. And I have to admit that this is one of those prophecies we don't bring up a whole lot, partly because we think it's largely been fulfilled, a large portion of it has. And it doesn't tell us that much that we don't know from other prophecies. But maybe there's more to it than we often think. I think there is. But because of the fact that it's not something we use a whole lot, I have to admit over the years my understanding of it and my thinking about it had gotten a little bit vague. I also have to confess that it wasn't as clear probably from the start as it could have been. And while I think it's humorous, you guys might not find it amusing why that was. But I still remember clearly at the time we were going over this when I was at Ambassador College, I was absent. And I don't remember exactly what it was if I was sick or called home. But when I came back, of course, I was using other people's notes and catching up. And I got the 70 Weeks Prophecy jumbled a little bit with some that are next to it. And if I had my old college Bible here, which I call it my wrinkly Bible. I bring it up every now and then because it's so worn out and everything. In that Bible, I've got a really nice diagram of the 70 Weeks Prophecy in the wrong place. I've got it in the wrong chapter next to a different prophecy. And then later I had to write in notes, look at this chapter when you look at this chart. But while you're turning to Daniel 9, which is where it is, and I'm going to be turning there. I'll point out that this is one prophecy that Daniel was not told he could not understand. Which must have been refreshing or it might have been when he looked back because how many times do we remember Daniel would say, well what does this mean? He would be told, seal it up, it's for the end time, you can't understand this. He was told that he would understand it or he was given understanding. Although, actually when Daniel was praying when this was given to him for understanding of a completely different prophecy. Daniel Gabriel specifically came to tell him this one and barely mentioned the one that Daniel was praying about. So we begin in Daniel 9 and verse 1.

So I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And it continues from there. But he's referring to a prophecy that I won't turn to in Jeremiah 25 verses 11 and 12. The prophecy says, This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then, when seventy years are completed, I'll punish the king of Babylon. Now before I move on, I want to specifically say there's not an equation between seventy weeks in the seventy weeks prophecy in the seventy years. It's not a week for a year type thing, as we'll discuss later, a day for a year principle that comes into play in prophecies. So there's nothing that makes those match up. But what happened, Daniel was curious about this because as we just read, Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of the lineage of the Medes, had been made king over Babylon. That meant a foreigner was now ruling Babylon. Daniel probably thought, it seems like Babylon's being punished. Is that the end of the seventy years? Well, if so, when's Jerusalem going to be rebuilt? Now, Daniel would have wondered about that if we think of the historical background. When Babylon came and attacked the Holy... Judah, it happened more than once. There were different waves, and Daniel was taken captive, we believe, in one of the earlier waves. They would come and attack and take some people captive, usually the upper echelon people at first, then further down and eventually they just wiped out the city and took almost everyone away.

And what were left was, of course, the poor of the land and Jeremiah the prophet. If you remember the account there, Jeremiah's left, and eventually a lot of those who were left say, we're getting out of here, we're going to Egypt. They're afraid worse things are going to happen, which Jeremiah told him, don't do that. But he went along anyways, and it's from there that, you know, legend says, and many people believe, that he took of the king's daughters to Egypt and then to Ireland, where the dynasty of David would be transplanted and still continues today in Great Britain.

But that's an aside. As for the events of Daniel 9, Daniel's getting to be an older man. He's been in captivity most of his life, and he's saying, I'm getting close to 70 years old. When is this going to be over? Now, when Gabriel comes to talk to him, he doesn't address that very directly, so I will give the answer. As it turns out, 585 BC was the year that the temple was destroyed, and in 515 BC is when reconstruction of the new temple was completed and it was dedicated.

So there were 70 years. That's the one prophecy that was completed and very precisely, which is a good thing for us to keep in mind. I want to come to that point when we wrap up, how precise God is when he wants to be. Now, as I said, I don't know that Gabriel took the time to explain that to Daniel.

If he did, Daniel didn't bother to write it down, but Gabriel did give assurance that a decree would be made ordering the building of a new temple and, by implication, the city around it, because that would be the time then to start counting forward the 70 weeks. Let's drop down to verse 21.

Now, of course, for much before this, Daniel had been praying to God and confessing sins and appealing to him for understanding. In verse 21, it says, And while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, of course it wasn't a man, it was an archangel manifested in the form of a man, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.

I'll mention there also. Notice evening offering is a time of day to Daniel. The fact that there were morning and evening offerings for Jews who had grown up in Jerusalem, that was just the way things were done. Anyway, so that's about the time he came and spoke to him. And he informed me and talked to me and said, Oh, Daniel, I've now come to give you skill to understand.

As opposed to saying, Seal it up, you can't understand. And at the beginning of your supplications, the command went out. And I've come to you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore, consider and understand the vision. How many of us would like to have God send us a message here personally to tell us we're greatly beloved? But the thing is, we should know from reading God's word that that is true of all of us, even if he doesn't send an angel to tell us specifically.

Continuing in verse 24, Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for the 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. That's quite a bit. Now, that's one verse, though, of the prophecy. Seventy weeks to accomplish these things. I would have gone into more depth, but as I said in the Bible study, there's going to be a chance to take these things apart and study what all of them are. So I'll encourage you.

So I said we're hoping to get the numbers for that Bible study above the 35 or 36 that it commonly is. And we'll go on to verse 25. Know therefore and understand. Okay? It's not just going to be vague. From the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince. That's what this is about. The coming of Messiah. There are other prophecies about Messiah in the Old Testament.

But now here's a clear time thing. And from that time of that decree until the coming of Messiah, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. And the street will be built again in the wall, even in troubleless times. And if you read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, you know there were troubled times in rebuilding, but it did happen. Now stopping there, we could mention Gabriel breezed on past Daniel's initial question. He was concerned, is Jerusalem going to be rebuilt?

When will it happen? Gabriel was like, well, yeah, yeah, of course it will be. But here's something to think about from the time that order goes out. And he goes on and focuses on explaining how long it will be until the Messiah appears. Now, he does say seven weeks and 62 weeks. And that's another question. It's broken down in a different way. I'm not going to address that. I'm going to leave that for the Bible study also.

That's part of where it was good. As I said, Mr. Call and I talked and said, well, I'm going to leave some things for the Bible study rather than get into them here. And there are, of course, some questions I'm going to raise that it's good for us to study and look into.

But it's 69 weeks. Now, I'll mention this. It's interesting. If you read the accounts of Christ's birth, you'll notice early on people were looking for the Messiah. People in Judah were expecting the Messiah. That's because there were prophecies of a coming Messiah. They expected him to come and throw off Roman rule and save them.

But they also knew it was about the right time because they had Daniel's prophecy telling them they could start counting. Now, you might wonder, well, why didn't they know exactly when he would appear? Well, partly because there was more than one decree about building Jerusalem or the temple.

I'll mention four of them. There was a decree made in 538 B.C. by Cyrus to build the temple. That's found in Ezra 1, verses 1-4, and also at the end of 2 Chronicles. And I didn't write down that scripture, but that's the first one. Then there's a decree that was made in 520 B.C. by Darius. That's found in Ezra 6, verse 1, and then later on in the chapter.

Then in 457, Artaxerxes Longimanus, who we just call Artaxerxes, he made a proclamation. We'll look at it in a moment. That's in Exodus. Sorry, Ezra 7. And there was a final decree made in 444 B.C. by the same Artaxerxes. That's found in Nehemiah 2, verses 1-8.

Let's go to Ezra to see the one that I wanted to just comment on. We're going to come back to Daniel. Matter of fact, we'll be back in Daniel several times if you want to leave a marker there.

Ezra 7, in verse 11. Now, Ezra was a scribe and a priest, and he was very concerned about it, re-establishing the worship of God at the Temple Mount. It says, This is a copy of the letter King Artaxerxes gave Ezra the priest to the scribe, expert in the words of the commands of the Lord, and of the statutes of Israel.

Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and so forth. I always wonder if Artaxerxes wrote, and so forth, or the scribes, that I'm not writing down everything he said, just so forth. It says, I'll mention this is silver and gold, the implements that had been taken from the original Temple.

Now they're to be returned. And if you read on down, which I'm not going to read all of this, he's also given authorization to draw on the king's treasury to have the funds to do all this. So this is a decree. Now, I want to introduce that, well, not introduce, probably most of you are familiar with, in prophecy, what we call the day-for-a-year principle. There are a couple of scriptures that we note for that, and I'll just mention them here and then explain it.

Numbers 14, verse 34. There's the story, of course, when Moses sent spies or scouts into the Promised Land before Israel had come in, and they spent 40 days going, mapping it, and checking it out, and they came back, and 10 of them said, we can't do this. There's giants there. We're like grasshoppers. They're going to kill us. They're going to kill all our children. Joshua and Caleb said, no, we can do this. But the Israelites said, oh, no, we can't do this. We're going to go back to Egypt. So in the end, God decided to punish Israelites, and he said, okay, the spies were out for 40 days.

For each one of those days, you're going to spend a year wandering the wilderness for the next 40 years, until the next generation arises, and I'll bring them into the Promised Land. And similarly, in Ezekiel 4 and verse 6, it's one of the cases where Ezekiel is commanded to act out what God is going to do, and he tells him, lay on your side for so many hundred days, and for each day that'll represent one year of the punishment on Israel. And then, of course, flop on your other side and lay there for so long.

You feel for Ezekiel. That was a long time laying on his side. But anyways, we have this principle in prophecies of a day and a year, symbolically. So if we take that decree by Artaxerxes in 457, we can breeze by the... Well, matter of fact, let me... Let's go back to Daniel 9 rather than me. Yeah, actually, Daniel 9 and verse 26. We'll make sure I've read this. So after the 62 weeks... Okay, remember he said... Yeah, matter of fact, let's go back to verse 25. Therefore, and understand, from the going forth to restore and build Jerusalem till Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.

So there's a seven-week period, then a sixty-two-week period. Why are they separated? I don't really know. It could be worth investigating, but I'm going to leave that out because we know at the end of the sixty-two weeks, which follows the seven, Messiah will appear. So it's sixty-nine weeks. Or sixty-nine sevens. I should mention in verse 24 where you see seventy weeks, the word in Hebrew is seventy-sevens because the word for week in Hebrew is seven, or set of seven. That's seventy-sevens is four hundred and ninety. And less one of those sets is four hundred and eighty-three, right?

You know, I didn't go to college in a math scholarship. But anyways, if you start counting at 457 B.C. through all of those sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three, you come to A.D. 27. Actually, some people come to A.D. 26 because they're counting the year zero, but there wasn't a year zero. In A.D. 27, something significant happened. Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist and began his public ministry.

Now, I have to say, wait a minute. You might be wondering, didn't you call this the seventy-weeks prophecy? So far, you're just talking about sixty-nine weeks. What happened to that other week? Here's where we go to verse 26. I got ahead of myself earlier.

After the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And we know Messiah was cut off, in other words, died not for Himself, not for His own sins, but for our sins. And this is one of those prophecies that a lot of people didn't understand, that the Messiah would die to pay for the sins of mankind. That the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end of it will be with a flood, until the end of the war and desolations are determined. Now, I thought, boy, Daniel must have been upset about this, because remember this all started with him being concerned with Jerusalem being rebuilt.

Now, he said, yes, it's going to be rebuilt, and then there's going to be desolations, and it's going to be destroyed again. Daniel was probably a little disappointed, but let's continue in verse 27. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he'll bring an end to sacrifice and offering. Well, there's our other week. Okay, there's the week that was missing.

A total of 70. We had 69 before he came on the scene. Now he's going to do something for a week, but in the middle of it he's... Well, it doesn't say he's cut off. Let me read this again. He'll know he'll be cut off, but not for himself. And it says, in the middle of the week he'll bring an end to sacrifice and offering. But on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate, until the consummation which is determined and poured out on the desolate.

We believe that this is referring to Jesus Christ's sacrifice. Now there is another interpretation that does bear study. And matter of fact, it's held by enough people that it needs to be studied to prove that it's true. And that's something we're going to leave for the Bible study coming up in a couple of weeks. We believe it was Christ's sacrifice because of what we read in Hebrews 9 and verse 9. If you'll go over there. We believe that when Jesus Christ put an end to sacrifice, it wasn't that he stopped it and it should have been going on, but he removed the need for it.

Because of course he became the one true sacrifice that paid for all sins for all time. Hebrews 9 and verse 9. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscious, concerned only with food and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinances, and posed until the time of reformation.

But Christ came as high priest of good things to come, with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Jesus Christ put an end to all that sacrifice of goats and calves. Now, I should say the need for that, because actually, even after he was sacrificed, the Levites continued doing that at the temple.

Until the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD. But he was cut off in the midst of that 70th week. He was sacrificed after a three and a half year ministry. And doing so, he accomplished the things that are listed in verse 24. Or did he? That's an interesting question for discussion. How much did he accomplish finishing transgression, making an end of sin? Certainly made a reconciliation for iniquity.

The anointing of the most holy. Some translations put the word place at that. The most holy place. But it's not there in the original Hebrew. It can be implied. That leads to the question. Is it referring to Jesus Christ? I'm not pointing to myself, but if he were writing this. He is the most holy, the King of kings and Lord of lords, being anointed in that office.

Or of a rather extensive temple that's yet to be built. And it's described in great detail in the latter part of the book of Ezekiel. A temple that will be built during the millennium and will exist. And of course it will be a holy place. It will be anointed. I'm not sure. As I said, there's things yet to happen in this prophecy. But that shouldn't concern us too much because there's also three and a half years left of it. He was cut off in the midst.

We're told 70 weeks. What's with the other three and a half years? That's an area ripe for speculation. And there's been a lot of speculation. Some have said, well, maybe it will be during the time that the members of the church are in a place of safety for three and a half years. Others think it won't be until Christ has already come and established his rule. Will it be a buffer of three and a half years between then and the start of the thousand year millennium? Or will the first three and a half years of the millennium also be the three and a half years of his ministry?

Or is it something totally different? And that, I'm not going to propose an answer. I'll propose people looking for an answer. I'm content to wait and find out. I do love that this is one of those prophecies that gives us a starting date. And it gives a length of time and things that are going to be accomplished.

When I think about that, you know, most of it's done. We've got 486.5 out of 490 years that have been completed. That's a pretty good percentage. I should have... As a matter of fact, I didn't write it down. I said, if I'd have got my calculator, it's got to be up... Is it above 99%? There's no math whizzes here. I used to have a roommate who could have done that in his head.

But it's a lot done. But there does seem to be a delay. There's a gap. That's going to be a common feature we'll see when we move to some other prophecies. Now, it's widely agreed that the final part of this is end-time prophecy, because it talks about desolation. And it talks about abomination to come in a city that we know is going to, before that, be rebuilt.

And those terms, abomination and desolation, should sound familiar. We read of them in Daniel 11, also in Matthew chapter 24. And I'm going to go there in a moment to some of those.

But I do want to mention, as I said, some modern scholars have put a different interpretation on verse 27. That he shall confirm a covenant. Some have said, this isn't Jesus Christ at all confirming the covenant.

That's the Antichrist who's making a treaty to allow animal sacrifice. And then, halfway through that treaty, after three and a half years, he's going to break the treaty and come in and put a stop to it.

Now, that can seem pretty valid. If there are a lot of commentaries saying that's the interpretation, there must be something to it.

There are a couple of reasons why we think it's not as a church. We teach that this is Jesus Christ, and that he'll confirm the covenant or make a firm covenant.

Now, part of it has to do with Hebrew grammar that I'm not going to discuss. That's one thing I told Kevin Kaul. I said, I'm not going to get into that grammar. But it could be fun. In a Bible study, it would be interesting to get into it. Because it is worth studying. If someone's going to tell you, no, you guys are wrong, it's good for us to know how to disprove it. And the study paper addresses that.

But I'll mention also a thing that I do like that I think is kind of neat. If our counting is correct, which I'm confident it is, and Christ started his ministry in 27 AD, he was crucified in 31 AD, and in 31 AD, the Hebrew calendar worked out so that Passover fell on a Wednesday. He was confirmed, you know, cut off sacrifice in the middle of the week, in the middle of his prophetic week of seven years, but also in the middle day of the week.

It doesn't happen that way every year, but that year it did. As I said, that should remind us, God can be very precise in his prophecies, even if they seem way off and complex and beyond our understanding.

Which I put in my notes, did I say the 70 weeks prophecy was one of the most understandable? Well, I didn't say it was simple. But if we're willing to explore the chronology and the history, if we're willing to get into Hebrew grammar, we can come to some pretty clear conclusions. And as I said, this is one where there's no statement saying you're not going to understand this. So I think Daniel did understand. But it still brings us to the end time with some unanswered questions, some questions that are fun to explore.

But it also brings up that comment, as I said. There's this on verse 27, the wing of abominations and one who makes desolate. What about that abomination of desolation? Well, we can get back to that, and I can finally tie this into my introduction for the sermon. If we look at what happened, well, tie it into my introduction about the Jews gaining control of the Holy Site in 1967, if we just turn over a couple pages to Daniel 11. Daniel 11 gives a long prophecy, often called the prophecies of the kings of the north and the south. Actually, usually I just call it Daniel 11.

That's the shortest name I can think of. Daniel 11 addresses the abomination of desolation more completely than other prophecies do. And that shouldn't be a surprise. The prophecy in Daniel 11 is so long, anything it addresses, it addresses more completely than any other prophecies. It stretches from the time of the Persian Empire until Christ's return.

So it covers a lot of ground. But just like the prophecy we examined, Daniel 11 has a long gap built in in the chronology. Now, I'm not going to read through all of Daniel 11 and explain the historical completion. I'm going to summarize some of it, but I will mention the church produces booklets that do go through it line by line.

Our Middle Eastern prophecy goes into it, and also I believe our booklet is the Bible True. It cites the fulfillment of this prophecy as one of the reasons we can know the Bible is true. As I said, I'll summarize by the fact that we know Alexander the Great led Greek armies and they conquered the Persian Empire. But he died young. He was only in his 30s, and he had no heir. So when he died, his four leading generals divided up the empire into four parts, north, south, east, west.

And in Daniel 11, we lose track of east and west, but two major players are left on the scene. The king of the north, who was Seleucus, or sometimes called Antiochus, with his realm centered in what we now call Syria, and the king of the south, Ptolemy, whose control was centered in Egypt. Daniel 11 tells of many interactions between these two kingdoms that goes on over centuries.

We tend to focus on what happened in verse 31. Let's go to verse 31. And forces shall be mustered by him, that's the king of the north, and they'll defile the sanctuary fortress. Then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there an abomination of desolation. Now, I noticed in the prior prophecy we talked about taking away sacrifice. I gave a very different interpretation than this seems to imply. Now, I think they are different.

Some scholars have tried to equate the two. But we can look at a historical fulfillment of this. In the year 167 B.C., Antiochus IV, also called in history Antiochus Epiphanes, did pollute the sanctuary by ordering an idol to be erected in it, and he stopped the daily sacrifice. Now, we don't find an account of that in the Bible, but the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees does describe it, and we can look at that as a historical document that provides more detail than I'm going to include today. But it implies that the king Antiochus Epiphanes got tired of having these different religions in his kingdom.

He wanted to have just one, so he'd have to squash out the others, including those pesky Jews. So he ordered no more keeping the Sabbath holy. It had to be treated as a regular work day. And he directed them to desecrate the temple. So the story is, they erected a statue of Zeus right there in the Holy of Holies, and then they started sacrificing pigs on the altar, which would be one of the greatest offenses to the Jews. As a matter of fact, it was a great offense.

While many just acquiesced, thinking they couldn't do anything, a revolt arose, which we commonly call the Maccabean Revolt, freedom fighters. And similar to what happened in 1948, they fought against overwhelming odds and were victorious. They threw off the four in rule. They came in and took an idol out of the temple, cleaned it up, and rededicated it. As a matter of fact, I was embarrassed that I'd remembered Hanukkah comes early this year, but I didn't realize or look on the calendar until I heard a story on the radio this morning saying, Hanukkah actually falls on Thanksgiving this year. And they said, unless there's a reform to the Jewish calendar, it won't happen again for another 80,000 years.

So it doesn't happen very often. This story was focusing on combining Jewish cuisine with Thanksgiving, and they talked about how you could do a Manuszewicz brine turkey that makes it purple. They said it's really tasty. But anyways, I think it is appropriate for us to consider, as I said, in America we tend to think of Hanukkah as what Jews do at Christmas time. But it's based on this historical account, and it's a story of heroes trying to free their homeland.

And of course, we don't know if the story is true about the miracle of the oil and the lamp that it lasted. It's supposed to be, they only had enough for one day, and it lasted for eight days, I believe. But it's worth knowing that. And by the way, in Daniel 11.32 we get some of that. The people, verse 33, in verse 32 says, The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.

I just love one of the scripts you use as exploits, because I've always wanted to do exploits. But those people who understand shall instruct many for many days and goes on from there. Now, we consider this to be a dual prophecy, though. As I said, historically we know this happened, and more than 150 years before Jesus Christ came on the scene, the Messiah who was prophesied. But when Jesus was giving me all of that prophecy, in Matthew 24, I'm not going to turn there because we're pretty familiar with it, in Matthew 24.15 he warned of a future abomination that makes desolate, which he said you can read of in Daniel the prophet.

And when you see that, that's when it's time to flee. So that tells us Antiochus was a foretype of a future ruler who would put a stop to sacrifice and who would desecrate the temple. Well, okay. The Romans did that in 70 AD.

I mentioned already the Romans came in and tore down the whole city, destroyed the temple. But was 70 AD the conclusion of the prophecy, or was it another foretype? Well, I'll say clearly we believe that it was a foretype. We believe Daniel 11 clearly shows that there will be an end time fulfillment of that prophecy. Let's drop down to verse 40.

As I mentioned, there's a gap that says, at the end, or at the time of the end, the 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 against him like a whirlwind with chariots and horsemen, with many ships. He'll enter the countries and overwhelm them and pass through. He'll also enter the glorious land. Many countries will be overthrown, but these will escape. Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon.

He'll stretch out his hand against countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. Now, let's pause, because up to this point, all the prophecies that we read, we can see in history, were fulfilled by first the Greek and then Roman empires, mostly the Greek. For us to suddenly jump to the end time requires not just a gap, but a gap of nearly 2,000 years. And that's where the significance of 1948, or possibly 1967 or both, comes into play.

Because up until then, for nearly 2,000 years, the descendants of Israel did not control Judah. They didn't rule there. Now, the kings of the north and south were relative to Jerusalem. If you're north of Jerusalem, that's why they called it the king of the north. The king of the south was south of there. And the prophecies were given for the Israelites. So when the descendants of Israel were no longer there in Jerusalem, the prophecy was put on hold. And not that God didn't know that was going to happen. He's in control. But when a Jewish state of Israel was established in 1948, it made sense to once again refer to the Roman Empire, or whatever ten-nation reincarnation of it might appear on the scene, to call that the king of the north.

Well, who's the king of the south? I wrote in my notes, that's the $64,000 question, isn't it? Who is that king of the south? Now, in the past, I remember Mr. Armstrong noted that the only part of the old king of the south's territory that had not been eventually absorbed by the Roman Empire was Ethiopia. So that's a consideration. Many people are looking at what's going on in the Middle East and saying, perhaps it'll be some combination, this Muslim Empire, that will challenge a new unified Europe for control.

With what's happened in the last couple of years in Egypt, part of me says, well, maybe it'll be Egypt after all. Maybe we've been overthinking it. We don't know, but the king of the south is going to provoke the king of the north, and he'll come down and conquer. Then we read in verse 44, News from the east and the north shall trouble him.

Therefore he'll go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. We look at that, and we think perhaps of the large Russian army, the armies of China or India to the east and possibly to the north. But suddenly in verse 45, and once again we know this is end-time prophecy, he'll plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain, yet he'll come to an end and no one will help him. It amazes me how brief he's going, he's conquering all that, and he'll come to an end. No one will help him. We know what's going to happen.

This prophecy doesn't describe it much, but without turning there, if you would read in Revelation 19 or Zechariah chapter 14, we know that Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth, and he's going to fight the armies that gather against him. Well, it's all commonly called the Battle of Armageddon. It would be nice if everyone welcomed Christ and said, we're so glad you're back. But prophecy shows that the armies of the world will fight against him, probably not knowing who he is.

But if we were reading in Revelation, and I'm not turning there because we've read it many times, but you might remember shortly after all this violence that follows Christ's return in Revelation 19, we move on to Revelation 20, and we read of the resurrection. Let's continue in Daniel 12, because it's the same chronology. There's a little bit of trouble still included.

At that time, Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. There'll be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation. I think that's tied back to all this fighting we described earlier. Even at that time, and at that time, your people shall be delivered. That's almost as abrupt as, you know, he'll come to an end and no one will help him. Your people will be delivered, everyone who's 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 everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like stars forever and ever. Now, that's something. That's something to look forward to. There's the good at the end. Now, stepping back, we know Daniel heard all of this, and he was pretty well floored. Whoa! That's a lot. Then he was told in verse 4, You, Daniel, shut the words, seal up the book until the time of the end.

And he's told later again... Oh, yeah, in verse 9, Go your way, Daniel, the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end. Gabriel didn't say, Now I'm going to make you understand. He said, No, you don't get to understand this. I'm sure he would have liked to have understand. He really wanted to. But what's interesting is, before he wraps up, though, he recorded some cryptic numbers that he heard spoken. And he didn't know what they meant, but they're something that we can ponder.

Starting in verse 5, Then I, Daniel, looked. There stood two others. One on this river side, a river bank, the other on the other river bank, so they're shouting across the river to each other. 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?

So how long is all this going to take? I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river. He held up his right hand and his left to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time. Time, times, and half a time. We tend to say that time would be equal to a year, times two years, and half a time to half a year.

That would come to three and a half years, assuming we're correct on that. And when the power of the holy people have been completely shattered, all these things will be finished. And although I heard, I didn't understand. Of course, he wanted to know. And I said, oh Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And of course, I've already read what happened after. As I said, he's asking.

He wants to understand, but he's told again that he won't, until the time of the end. Now, we tend to think that we're living at least near the time of the end. So maybe we can have some understanding. We think that this time, times, and half a day, times, by the way, adds up, if you count the years that they counted in prophecy, to 1,260 days. Three and a half years. That'll appear later. I wanted to mention how it calculates into days. But when does it start? Well, we're not really sure. But it seems to be tied to this, as I said, that the power of the holy people completely shattered.

Some say this will be when the Church is in some place of safety for three and a half years. That seems reasonable, although it doesn't specifically say it here. But before I go to somewhere else that does talk about that, pick up a couple of different sets of numbers. In verse 11. From the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.

Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335. But you, Daniel, go your way. Okay, so from the time of the abomination of desolation, there'll be 1,290. But blessed is he who waits till the 1,335. And I say, um, why? What's going to happen at the end of that time? And I hate to tell you this. I'm sure you'd love it if I said, now I'm going to tell you.

But I really don't know for sure. Now we've got some guesses, but I don't think anybody in the room knows for certain. We have three different time spans lifted here. The 1260, the 1290, and the 1335. And as I said, the 1260 seems to be specific to the scattering of the holy people. Now is this a literal three and a half years? Or, recalling that day for a year principle, is it 1,260 years?

In Revelation 12, we might find an answer to that. Or a possibilities. Let's go to Revelation 12. I am going to turn to this one. Revelation 12 beginning, and I'm going to begin in verse 6. Although they count at the beginning of the chapter as important. Here we see a woman who we believe alternately could picture Israel, but we believe pictures the true church. And there's a dragon who we're told later does represent Satan the devil. And in verse 6, the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, where they should feed her there 1,260 days.

I've mentioned a place of safety several times already without going to a... There's no place in the Bible that says that, but it does talk about a place in the wilderness where they'll feed and protect someone. And that's where we get that idea. It's 1,260 days, three and a half years. Let's also get down to verse 13. When the dragon saw that he'd been cast down to earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child, the male child being Jesus Christ. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she's nourished for time, times, and half a time.

We read that already in Daniel. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, and he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon had spewed out. So the dragon was enraged with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. There's a reason we've always thought, you don't want to be some of those people. Although, at least they're keeping the commandments of God and have that testimony.

I'd rather be those people than ones who aren't doing either of those things. But we've interpreted this to possibly be one of two different things or both. One explanation is, if it is a day for a year, 1,260 years, there was a time when the church fled to the outer fringes of civilization to be out of reach of government and the church, the great false church that it supported. There are different starting points people have proposed. A common one is 321 AD with the Council of Nicaea leading up to, I believe, now, 1,250 AD to 4 or 5.

I'm terrible at math on my feet. But basically the time when the English Navy defeated the Spanish Armada, throwing off the threat of a Catholic power, putting a stop to the Protestant Reformation. And that would be a day for a year principle when the church was sort of off in the wilderness, you know, hiding, before it could come out into the mainstream. But what we also see is perhaps, and likely, a three and a half year time when there's persecution, but God provides a place of safety for His people.

Or some speculate places of safety. And I don't want to go into the debate whether it could be one place where everybody's gathered or people are protected in separate places. But we know it could be both of these things. And that could explain the 1,260 days it appears both in Revelation and in Daniel. Still wondering about that 1,290 days. Now, I'll mention that the 1,260, no, the 1,290 starts with the stoppage of the sacrifice and the setting up the abomination of desolation.

And of course, we read next in Daniel, Blessed is He who waits and comes to the 1,335 days. And we're wondering what happens. Well, one theory, and here's where I wish I had the blackboard. Some people have said, maybe all those time spans start at the same place, which would be cutting off the sacrifices. But then extend further. Other people would say, perhaps they start at separate times. One starts earlier than the other, then another one starts in the other, and they all conclude dramatically with Christ's return. Well, I don't know. As I said, and a lot of people combine that with the idea, am I throwing too many things in the mix at once?

That's good, because Kevin can clean up my mess at the Bible studies. No, I don't mean that. Actually, I do want to make it as clear as I can, because I don't know that he's getting into this particular prophecy. But as I said, if they start at different times and end altogether, then there might be different things that signal the start of those time spans.

Some people have said maybe they all start at the same time with the abomination of desolation, but they conclude at separate times. We know Christ will return, but then other things will happen. Well, after he appears, how long will it take to defeat the armies of the world? Perhaps God could vaporize them just like that, but maybe for reasons that we don't know yet, it'll take time. After that, how long before he casts the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire?

I skipped over the idea that there's a wedding supper that we don't know how long that will take. How long will it be until an angel comes down with a chain and binds Satan the devil and imprisons him? Perhaps those are things that are being marked by those time spans. And I want to be sure to include that, perhaps, because I don't know. I'm not making any new doctrinal teaching. But I do know there are several common elements in these various prophecies.

And you know what the most important one is? And all of them, the good guys win in the end. And many of you remember, I don't remember if he did this many times, but I still remember Herbert Armstrong giving a sermon, and he just sort of stopped and he said, I've read to the end of the book and we win. And of course, we don't do the winning, God wins. And he shares the victory with us. But before I talk about some of those other common things, I want to include one more of Daniel's prophecies, because it also gives a specific number, and it's one that seems to put events at both ends of the time frame.

And that's pretty rare. That's what we call commonly the 2300 Days Prophecy. That's back in Daniel 8. You'll go with me back there. Now, I'm going to summarize much of Daniel 8 as well. Okay. Here's where I brought my back up. I knew my voice was a bit dry today, but Daniel 8 covers a lot of the same material as Daniel 11, and some of Daniel 9.

It clearly foretells the Greek conquest of the Persian Empire. In the prophecy, Persia will be symbolized by a ram with two great horns, and Greece has a goat with one notable horn. And the ram is there, and it's strong and powerful, and the goat moves very swiftly, so fast it doesn't even touch the ground, and it's furious with the ram, and it just smashes into the little pieces.

And shortly after that, the horn is broken off, and four other horns come up, pointing to the four different directions. As I said, all that parallels very closely what you could read in Daniel 11, but rather than do that, let's get to the explanation, which I've been somewhat explaining as I went. In Daniel 8, verse 17, those great beasts which are four are kings, which arise out of the earth... Oh, no wonder, I'm looking in the wrong chapter. I'm reading Daniel 7. Daniel 8, 17. So he came near where I stood when he came.

I was afraid. That is, Gabriel came back to him. And he said to me, understand, son of man, that the revision refers to the time of the end. That's important. I'll come back to that in a moment. Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground. He touched me and stood me upright. He said, look, I'm making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation, for at the appointed time the end shall be. And then he goes on to explain what that ram was, that it was Persia and what the goat was, and that's the Grecian Empire, and that that notable horn was one great leader, who we know now is Alexander the Great, and he would be replaced by his four generals.

And, of course, later all four of those kingdoms would end up being absorbed into the Roman Empire. And then we skip down to verse 23. And in the latter time of their kingdom, once again, latter time, end it, an end time prophecy here, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understand sinister schemes.

We understand this is most likely the leader of what we call the beast power, this great leader who is overseeing a united Europe, probably. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. Now, what does it mean, not by his own power? Well, once again, I'm referring to a prophecy and revelation of the last incarnation of the Roman Empire, consisting of ten nations, or it says ten kings, who give their power to the beast.

So this is this new government that derives its power from the ten nations that comprise it. Or, maybe I should say, and it's obvious, he's getting special power from Satan, and that beast leader is known to work miracles in sight of men. So we have both of those things. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.

He shall destroy fearfully, and prosper and thrive, and he'll destroy the mighty and also the holy people. In verse 25, Though through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule. He shall exalt himself in his heart.

He'll destroy many in their prosperity. He'll even rise against the prince of princes. There's only one person that can wear the title, the prince of princes, Jesus Christ. So this beast power is going to stand up and defy Jesus Christ, which matches the fighting we talked about in the end of the age, and that we see in Revelation 19.

But he shall be broken without human means. Just so we read, he comes to an end. He'll be broken without human means. That means he'll be destroyed by God's power and no other. Now, this should all sound familiar. We're covering similar ground that we've covered so far. And it goes to show God's consistent. But the next verse is going to add something else 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. What vision of evenings and mornings are you talking about? Is that something you missed?

Well, actually it's something I didn't read, but we want to go back to it. Because I want to make the point, he said, the vision of evenings and mornings is true, and it includes this as all of this end-time prophecy. If we just read it on its own and it didn't go back now, we might think it's just part of the historical fulfillment.

So let's go back to verse 11. Sorry, I was looking for where I was in my notes. Verse 11... Well, actually, let's go back to verse 9. One of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly towards the south and towards the east and towards the glorious land. This is talking about, once again, that great horn. It cast down some of the hosts and the stars.

He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host. And by him, the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. Because of the transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices. He cast truth down to the ground and did all this and prospered.

And I heard a Holy One speaking to another Holy One. He said to that certain one who was speaking, How long will this vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation? Once again, if you notice this, even though it's in the midst of that historical account, we see things that fit with the end time.

You know, lifting itself as high as the prince of the host, and this desolation, abomination of desolation comes in here. How long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? He said, for 2,300 days, then the sanctuary will be cleansed. So as I said, we've got a beginning. When the sacrifice is stopped, there's 2,300 days, and then at the end of that, the sanctuary cleansed.

What does the cleansing of the sanctuary mean? Well, since if this is tied in to the end time prophecy, remember, that's what we said in verse 26. This vision of the evenings and mornings seems to be part of the end time. Wait a minute. What evenings and mornings? Did you mention anything about that? Well, we have to go into the original Hebrew to get that. Sorry, I got confused there. The Hebrew here in verse... where am I at? In verse...

I knew I needed to bring these. Yeah, in verse 13, the daily sacrifice is a transgression of desolation. He said, 2,300 days, where it says days, the actual Hebrew is evenings and mornings. That's the Hebrew that's there, the exact same as is used in verse 26. That's important because it's talking about the daily sacrifice. This daily sacrifice that God commanded to be offered every day, first in the tabernacle, then in the temple when it was set up. But it happened not just once a day, twice a day. Morning and evening. Or, since we count days of starting at sunrise or sunset, evening and morning. That's first described in Exodus 29, if you want a reference to that, verses 38-42. And keep in mind, when I first started reading in Daniel 9, how he mentioned that Gabriel appeared about the time of the evening sacrifice. It was such a part of the culture, you could mention something about the time of the evening sacrifice or the time of the morning sacrifice.

So this could be read, for 2300 evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary will be cleansed. Well, that's a different matter. That's 2300 of the daily sacrifices which occur twice each day, or 1150 days. Maybe I'm drawing that out too much to do a simple division. What happens at the end of 1150 days? The cleansing of the Holy Place. As I said, we could debate what that means, but I'm pretty sure it means Christ returned and taking charge, removing the evil power from the world. Now, this still doesn't tell us quite when that's going to happen. But if our understanding is correct, we know from the time the sacrifice is stopped, until Christ returns will be 1150 days.

Now, I've got to stop because I said, hmm, that's a little bit shorter than 3.5 years, isn't it? Actually, 3.5 years is 1260 days, so it's exactly 110 days shorter. And I have no idea what the significance of 110 days is, any more than I do of 1290 or 1335.

But I imagine it has some significance. And again, God works with great precision. Now, it seems reasonable to ask, could this have already been fulfilled in the historical account?

We know in Tychus Epiphanes, stop the sacrifice in 167 B.C. and that it started up again when the Maccabees cleansed the temple in 164. I couldn't find any account that counts the exact number of days. It's about 3.5 years, so it's pretty close. But what we read at the end of Daniel 8 clearly implies this is an end-time prophecy.

It wouldn't surprise me if the sacrifices were stopped for exactly 110 days. Or 1,000, 1,150. I'm getting my numbers confused. That's why I need a blackboard. And that would have been a foretype of what's to come. Now, I did try to... I thought, what about the day-for-a-year principle? We know the second time this has happened in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed the temple and stopped the sacrifice. Can I figure out 1,150 days from there? Well, you know, if a day-for-a-year... That'd bring Jesus Christ returning sometime in the Middle Ages. I don't think that happened.

Or, what if it really was supposed to be 2,300 after all and I got my Hebrew wrong? Well, that means he'll be returning in the year 2,370. So, go ahead and get your braces on your teeth. That's just a joke. There was a time when we expected Christ to return earlier, and a lot of parents said, I'm not going to bother with braces for my kids. Christ will return. Now, I can't prove that it's not going to happen in 2,370, but if you look around us, watch the news reports, that doesn't seem very likely.

And I think we do have the Hebrew correct. It's 2,300 evenings and mornings. That's 1,150 days. We might not know exactly what it means, but God gets things right. But I do want to take a side track, because there have been groups in the past who said, no, it has to be 2,300. And so they said, we must have a different starting date. And they picked the starting date of 457 B.C. 457, that sounds familiar. We brought that. That's tied into the 70 Weeks Prophecy. That's the next chapter. Now, I never did found an account of exactly why they chose that.

But if you were in America living in the early 1800s, that was pretty convenient. 457, by the way, remember, that's the decree to rebuild the temple. But if you add 2,300 to that going forward, that brings you to the year 1844. There are a group of people that said, that must be it. And the first one who became famous for doing that was a man by the name of William Miller, who was a Baptist preacher.

And the idea became so popular, it became known in history as the Millerite Movement. And others within the movement started setting specific dates. I think the first one was sometime in March. That one went past this. Oh, we recall. It must be this next one. The final one was in October. And when Jesus Christ never appeared in any of them, eventually this became known as the Great Disappointment in history. But it had quite a following. But Christ didn't come in 1844.

At least if he did, that Armageddon wasn't as noticeable as we expect it to be. Now, most people who are involved in this Millerite Movement and the Great Disappointment, when it turned out to be a disappointment, they just lost faith in that interpretation and left it entirely. But I'm bringing it up, not just to be kind of funny, but because there are some people that said, no, it's right.

We just must have misinterpreted some small detail of it. One of the most notable among those is a group that's known as the Seventh-Day Adventist. They said, well, what we must have been incorrect about was where the sanctuary was to be cleansed. And they have a teaching that says in 1844, Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary and cleansed it and began a process that's called investigative judgment. This idea was put forth by Ellen G. White. I didn't have the exact year, but I believe it's still Adventist doctrine, although I haven't been to their church to find out. Now, to me, that heart... I say, okay, Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary and He's been going over the books ever since then, getting ready for His return.

I thought, that hardly seems worth bothering to disprove. Although I found some old articles in the Good News that did exactly that. That's why I'm pretty confident it's not. But just think, for that to be true, that meant for 2,300 years that the sanctuary was trodden underfoot and was desolated. That's just not possible. We're talking about God here. He didn't have evil hosts overrunning heaven and controlling it all that time. But I wanted to bring that out that goes to show how much some people can get attached to their interpretation of a prophecy and how much people can hang on to numbers that they know must be right.

When people do this, a lot of times they end up looking foolish in the end. More importantly, they get drawn away from more important things. And I want to focus on that as we bring towards a conclusion. What is the more important things? Because I do want to say, the return of Jesus Christ is incredibly important. That's not an unimportant thing.

We should think about it. We should pray, Thy kingdom come. But knowing exactly when it will happen, not so important. Now, it's okay for us to still have unanswered questions and us to be concerned. But when I think about what's important, in Hebrews 6, the first couple verses, Paul goes over some things he calls foundational beliefs. He talks about repentance and faith, baptisms, judgment.

He doesn't say anything about prophecy. Now, again, I'm doing this just as a contrast to being so involved in prophecy that you're willing to distort everything. Prophecy is important. But during Christ's ministry, a rich young man came to him once and said, Good Master, what do I have to do to have life or eternal life? And Christ said, Keep the commandments. Oh, which ones? Well, honor your father and mother. Don't cheat. Don't steal the Ten Commandments.

I've been doing that all my life. Christ said, Okay, you're lacking one thing. Sell all you have, give to the poor, come follow me. In other words, come be one of my disciples. Now, he didn't do it. He was too rich. But at no point in Christ's answer to what you have to do to have eternal life did he say, You've got to understand the 70 weeks prophecy.

Or you've got to figure out the date I'm going to return. Now, there's no time in his ministry when he said you shouldn't study those prophecies. I'm sure he studied. I wonder if he ever explained some things to the apostles that they didn't share with us. Although, I don't know, you know, remember they're looking up like this when he left, and the angel had the kids, Hey, stop looking up there.

He'll come back. But in the meantime, you've got work to do. Now, I thought I should write a note to myself to say, I'm not trying to imply that this whole sermon has been a waste of your time. That's not my meaning. God didn't give us prophecy for no good reason. He gave it to us for very good reasons. All scripture is inspired by God. It's profitable for teaching, correction, instruction. And even though we can't mark a date on the calendar for when Christ will return and establish His kingdom, those prophecies are valuable to give a signpost to look for, and we should be looking for them. Christ said, Watch! Be alert!

Don't fall asleep! And the prophecies in Daniel add something that we wouldn't have otherwise. So let's think of some of those things that we do know. And as I said, we have these signs. Although Christ said, While you're watching for the signs, always be ready. I'm still going to show up at a time you don't expect. So always be ready. We look at the Olivet prophecy in Matthew 24, and we watch for false teachers. We keep track of war and famine and pestilence.

We're also aware there's going to be great tribulation, so we won't be surprised by it and lose faith. And eventually there's going to be heavenly signs. That strikes me when the moon turns black, or the sun turns black and the moon turns to blood and the stars fall, I'm pretty sure we might already be counting down from other things by then. We also need to be aware of that framework in Revelation. There's seven seals, and then there's seven trumpets. And those seven seals correspond closely to what Christ described in Matthew 24.

Then we get these seven trumpet plagues, and then the seven final plagues. We'll know what's happening. We don't want to be in the dark. The prophecies in the latter part of Daniel show us that we should also pay attention to Jerusalem. And I said in my introduction, in 1948, people paid attention. And in 1967, even more so, they weren't being foolish.

They should have been paying attention. And some of you in the room were doing it. You were paying attention. I think at least some of our older members.

Because they tell us that when the Jews begin... Those prophecies don't say when the Jews would begin sacrificial worship. But they do say that sometimes afterwards, there's going to be an outside power intervene and put it to a stop. And from the day that happens, we're on a countdown. It seems there's going to be a specific number of days allowed to pass before the great climax of so many of these prophecies. There's only a limited time and we'll know Christ will return. Now, one of those numbers, we look at 1,150. I think if that's the time... That's the number from the time the sacrifice has stopped. And 1260 is the time that Christians will be in a place of safety. Well, it intrigues me because we might not even know the sacrifices have been stopped unless we've got, you know, a good Wi-Fi connection.

But, you know, these numbers have significance. I haven't even mentioned... I've seen there's various three and a half year time frames. Many people think that while the church is in the wilderness, being protected is the same time that two witnesses will be preaching the gospel with great power and working miracles. They are given three and a half years.

Now, apparently, there will be some other event that happens either 30 days before Christians go to a place of safety or 30 days after Christ returns. That'll count for the 1290. And then the same must apply to either 45 days before or 45 days after those things. Whatever it is, you'll be blessed if you wait for it. So, even when we're in the countdown, we want to be patient and wait and watch. Now, I'm not speculating on what exactly is signified. I've tried not to time myself down because I just don't know for sure a lot of things. Just like we don't know how Christ will conduct that last three and a half years of his ministry. But, as I said, I think that's something that will be interesting to come up in the Bible studies. I promised Mr. Call I'd put in a lot of plugs for these Bible studies. I'm only disappointed I won't be able to be here for him because I'll be preaching in another congregation. One thing I can say with these various prophecies is that God does know what they mean. He gave those numbers for a reason. God is a God of great expanse of power, but also of precise planning. He gave those numbers not by accident, not just off the top of his head. He planned it out precisely. He knows what he's doing. And there's a tremendously valuable lesson for us in that. If God knows exactly what he's doing, he has a plan. And that plan includes us. He didn't give those numbers by accident, and he didn't call you into his church by accident. His plan is precise. He wanted you to be in it. He's got a place for you in his plan. And you just need to make sure you fulfill your part of it. Now, I should be saying us. But God will fulfill his prophecy. The fact that so much of it has been fulfilled. Whatever that percentage was on the 70 weeks' prophecy, 483 days out of 490... No, I said that wrong. 486.5. That's a pretty high percentage. I've got to figure he's going to finish the last 3.5 years of it. Once he starts something, he finishes it. And that means all of his prophecies he'll treat that way. And that's good, because there's one... I don't know if we considered a prophecy, but the Apostle Paul wrote that God is going to bring many sons to glory. I consider that a prophecy for you and me. God's going to fulfill that. So until that time, let's watch and let's be ready.