DANIEL’S 70 WEEKS – FUTURE OR FULFILLED?
A friend sent me an e-mail link the other night. The subject was end times. That’s what got me going on this subject again. My friend still believes the things I used to believe. Certain teachings, thought false, are difficult to challenge because they are held so dearly. I thought this article was pretty clear, and a good witness to the truth.
Daniel’s 70 Weeks Future or Fulfilled?
by Ralph Woodrow*
* Quoted from the book “Great Prophecies of the Bible” by Ralph Woodrow.
Excerpt:
. . . those who say that the confirming of the covenant and causing sacrifices to cease in the midst of the 70th week refers to a future Anti-Christ, completely destroy this beautiful fulfillment and are at a complete loss to show where in the Old Testament the time of our Lord’s death was predicted.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.theologue.org/Dan70Weeks-RWoodrow.html
* * *
Hi Cathy…
I have that book, Great Prophecies of the Bible by Ralph Woodrow.
An elderly gentleman i met on a Christian board some years ago, sent it to me from Canada. It was one of the most interesting little books i’ve read…you should see my copy–it has highlights and notations made by myself all through it. lol
At the time i received it, i had already been questioning the rebuilt temple theory, and the fact that no where in scripture did i see it fore-told. Also the ‘he’ in Daniel 9:27-
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
It had always appeared to me that the ‘he’ was Christ, who was indeed ‘cut off’ in the midst of the ‘week’ [after 3 1/2 years]…
I’m still not sure…
All i do know is the ‘7 year gap’ theory is something which i just don’t see in the scriptures.
“IF” and i say ‘if’ because im not sure, there is a time yet to be fulfilled, then to me if the ‘he’ is Christ, then there only remains 3 1/2 years. [does that make sense?]
This is a little long pj
. . .
I don’t have clarity about certain future prophecies that I hear taught, (the Anti-Christ, the mark of the beast, even the tribulation.) I’m still attempting to untangle what is true, false, fulfilled, unfulfilled. But I think the following verse would indicate that the seventy weeks were completed over 2000 years ago. I believe Dispensationalism is the root of the popular teaching that tells us Daniel’s 70 weeks have not been completely fulfilled.
I was reading Matthew Henry yesterday . Here’s a portion of what he says:
Blessings,
I read something on a board i lurk on tonight Cathy…in the verse you quoted, notice the last phrase:
Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
“…and to anoint the most Holy”
Dispensationalists see this as this future built temple which will be anointed..the “Holy place” or Holy of Holies”
But doesn’t it stand to reason that this is referring to Jesus?
Messiah means the anointed one. And we find Him being called in the NT “Holy”. We also find that He was anointed:
Acts 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Acts 3:14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
Acts 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Acts 4:30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
1 Jn 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
Lk 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Acts 4:30 …whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together
Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Heb 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Jesus was anointed High Priest and King by God after the order of Melchisedec before He began His earthly ministry:
Ps 45:7 Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Heb 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
(notice that hebrews 1:9 is quoting psalm 45:7!)
Is 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; (and Jesus spoke this word for word in luke 4:18!)
(quoted from the person on the board tonight…)
Isn’t it amazing that in the dispensationalist view that Jesus can’t have anything to do with the Jews until His Second Coming and that all of the OT prophecies are of His Second Coming, or just before it during the GT, when He supposedly comes just to restore their kingdom to them!
Dispensationalist scholars will not allow the many prophecies of the OT concerning the 1st Coming of Christ if they speak in anyway of Israel within the same prophecy. In other words, they will not allow the 1st Coming of Christ to be connected with the Jews.
Without Daniel 9:24-27 dispensationalism would fall apart. It did for me in 1999 when I finally read through Chapter 9 and looked for the Jews restored millennial kingdom with Jesus sitting on His throne inside the most holy place in the rebuilt stone temple in v. 24.
I couldn’t find a gap between the 69th and 70th weeks. I couldn’t find where God’s prophecy clock stopped for the Jews anywhere in Daniel 9:24-27.
No antichrist is mentioned. No 7 yr. GT is mentioned in v. 27 but this is dispensationalist foundation for a 7 yr. GT just before the 2nd Coming of Christ. Nor do we find in v. 27 of Daniel 9 or in Daniel 11 the antichrist signing a 7 yr. peace treaty with Israel and then breaking the peace treaty in the midst of the 7 years and stopping their sacrificing at the temple. Nor do we see the antichrist going into the holy of holies inside of the temple and proclaim himself to be their God.
Dispensationalist’s scholars accept the demonic, antichrist Talmud interpretation of the OT which does away with Jesus and His First Coming over what the OT actually says and how the NT interprets the OT.
Millions of Christians are so deceived into believing what some dispensationalist scholar writes, teaches and preaches. It is time that all true Christians everywhere wake up and realize that God has given us His written word and His Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.
PJ, what you write is excellent, and true. I may make a separate post out of your comment. False teachings are repeated over and over again. We must also repeat truth in our efforts to contend for the faith.
Have a great day!
I must admit that I have wondered when people would be catching on to the lie about all the “supposed events” that are to occur before the “end times”. One thing I have found to be interesting is the proclamation that we will one day have to profess Christ or die yet people (other than modernized nations) have to do that daily. Nations like China, Sudan, and others have been posing that question for decades…No one has been “ruptured” yet and it has been going on longer than 7-years. I try to keep my ministry simple…If it will not preach in every part of the world, I do not preach it! Jesus, holiness, and repentance will preach anywhere and anytime…The whole rebuilding the temple, tribulation time, and secret rapture severely limits and hampers what God really wants humanity to experience…His Son! Why does it hamper? Because their message is totally dependent on unnatural fear and manipulated emotion…
Stephen
So true. Thank you for your comment.
Cathy
I have been pondering the same (Daniel 9:24-27)
Found this site’s exegesis very helpful, but will continue to search scriptures for confirmation.
Yes we have been pondering the same, and we also search the scriptures for confirmation.
I’ll take a look at the link you sent. Thanks.
Just a few points. Otherwise, I agree with PJ Miller and also her opinion of dispensationalim. The very scary part is that Christians with a heart for God are taught and led to attend ‘bible college’ which from their historical beginnings we learn were set up to primarily dispense this doctrine. They began as a continuation of the Niagrara Prophecy Conferences which ended because of the disagreements about these doctrines. There are many benefits that can be obtained by intense study in God’s word, but to apply a ‘degree’ to such things that are to be applied to LIFE seems to be a antithesis. Very great are the risks of false doctrines being interjected into the study. Furthermore, it has been shown that there could be a very strong direct connection between the Scofield Bible and the zionists/judahites themselves through Scofields associations and supporters.
Now about Dan 9. In Jhn 4:26 we read that Jesus acknowledge his being the Messiah. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am [he]. Also when John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to Jesus asking him to confirm of him being ‘the one’, he testified that he was according to his works.
Thus, Jesus was already the Messiah during his teaching time and the final 7 yrs of the 490 yrs would have had begun. The annointing would have been at his baptism, when Jesus came out of the wilderness to begin his public ministry. During Johns baptism the voice of God was heard and directly afterwards Jesus quoted Ps 61.
Many feel that the crucifiction ‘ended’ the final week, but I believe the Baptism began the final week. Using Philip Mauro’s and Antseys’s chronologys, one can arrive at such dates as they ascert that Ptolemy was off by about 80 yrs. Google Philip Mauro chronology for more info.
I believe that vs 26 and 27 are to be read in Parallel and the beginnings of both refer back to vss 24 and especially the Messiah of vs 25. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=67&letter=P
Thus, the Messiah is both cut off sometime after the 69th week (but not for himself) and confirms the everlasting covenant His teaching, his crucifiction, resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit. In Jhn 6:45 Jesus confirmed that His teaching and His person was the New Covenant, again stating that He Himself was God in flesh.
Jhn 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
All this was primarily in Jeruslalem, the Holy city (vs 24) for a few years up until possibly the stoning of Stephen signified the end of the spread of the Gospel in that city and spreading it into Judea. This time would have also been the confirmation of the Holy Spirit as also being the teacher of the New Covenant. It may be very significant that the apostle to spread the gospel to the nations was there hearing the Gospel message at the very stoning of Stephen and who’s conversion was shortly afterwards.
In vs 27, in the midst of the week he does something that ’causes’ the sacrifice and oblation to cease. That I believe would be hHs crucifixion although there are other angles of reading it especially in the context of the desolation when the sacrifices actually ceased.
In Numbers 35:33 we read that the blood of animals cannot cleanse the land from sin of murder but only the blood of those who committed the murder. This is in the context of the laws and temple service of the old covenant in which the animals were offered for atonement sacrifice.
So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye [are]: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Thus, the animals never did offer atonement for sin against God or against fellow man. Only a Just shedding blood for the unjust would both both satisfy the law of sin and death and set the guilty free eternally.
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ . . .
I am so pleased to see that there is an awakening to these lies that have especially been rife in the USA for decades. I have done a Th.D on the subject of the Church as God’s people with special reference to the Ephesian letter. I had to wrestle with all the confusion that now seems to be “mainstream” doctrine. I am so pleased to see that you agree with my thoughts around the misinterpretation of Daniel’s “weeks”.
Yes, there is much confusion. Thank God for His Spirit who leads those, whose hearts are open, into all truth.
The problem with the dispensationalist “doctrine” is that it is absolutely based on eisegesis, reading into chosen fragments of Scripture a bias of what Darby, Scofield and Chafer wanted to find in Scripture, rather than what Scipture truly says within ther context of the whole of Scripture and so the gist and essence of the gospel is clouded by jumping to conclusions about eschatological matters. There is no biblical foundation for what they are saying so they have to err hermeneutically and exegetically to “prove a point” that is not clearly found anywhere in the Bible’s message. It is surprising that so many “Christians” follow blindly as they were taught in their churches as children without ever exploring the truth and discovering the simplicity of truth in Christ.
Very well said … thank you.
It’s been about five years since the Lord showed me through the Scriptures that the theory of a pre-trib rapture is false and unbiblical. I now hold to what I refer to as a co-2nd advent resurrection. Basically this would be the same as post-tribulationism rapture belief, but I don’t like to use the word rapture. And this is not because the word “rapture” is not found in the Bible, but because that word has become synonymous with some secret “ethereal” escape plan for Christians that is apart from the second coming of Christ!
Having believed in a pre-trib rapture for almost 30 years, it wasn’t until last week that I shook off some of the vestiges of Darbyism, Scofieldism, Riberaism and allowed God to show to me that the 70 weeks of Daniel have already been fulfilled completely and terminated at the stoning of Stephen. This false diabolical doctrine had my mind so clouded that even though I had ceased to believe in a pre-trib rapture, I still was seeing things from a “muddled” mind of a futurism that was made up to draw away attention of the Catholic Church being the Antichrist.
I was glad to find this forum and find like-minded Christians!
The Lord has shown my husband and I the similar things. We pray often that the Lord will open the eyes of believers to the great deceptions they have and are embracing wrongfully as truth. I know it takes time to unravel all the error we have ingested. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness to lead us into all truth!
Also, it is distressing to see the heretical Scofield commentary listed along side the mainstream commentaries, and to know that the Scofield Bible is so widely used among Christians. What has happened is that the false teaching in the commentary notes has replaced the Word of God and become “Gospel” truth to many. We live in very apostate times.