1 John 3:16


"By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Daniel 9

Daniel 9 is written about the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon and from the surrounding nations, to Jerusalem. Daniel received a message from Gabriel that explained that this return was to prepare the Jews for the coming of Christ and the salvation of the elect of Jacob in the ongoing New Covenant.

Daniel was shown that this New Covenant would be fulfilled within 490 years. He was given the time period of 70 weeks. There is broad agreement that each day of these 70 weeks represents one year. See Ezek 4:5-6, where Ezekiel lay on his side one day for each year of the sins of Jerusalem and Israel. God said, “I give you a day for a year.”. So 70 weeks is 490 years.

This time period fits in with the Intertestamental period after Daniel and before Christ came. The 490 years began when King Cyrus of Persia gave the command for Jerusalem to be rebuilt for the Jews to return and was completed when Jesus came to put away sin, fulfil prophecy, receive His coronation and give the Holy Spirit.

Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon the 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. (Dan 9:24).

Dan 9:27 mentions the last week (7 years), in which the covenant was confirmed and sacrifice ended. There are three main views on this verse:

1. Some say that this 7 year period was prophetic of the Roman General Titus who destroyed the temple in 70AD, ending temple sacrifice.

2. Dispensationalists say that this is a period of 7 years that today is still future, in which the antichrist will reign before the Second Coming of Christ. This means that almost 2,000 years are inserted between the 69th week and the 70th week.

3. The 7 year period was the time in which Christ ministered and when He made an end of sin on the cross He put away sacrifice. That is, there is no gap between the 69th and the 70th weeks.

It is clear that Daniel is referring to the coming of the New Covenant and the destruction of Jerusalem soon after the 70 weeks had finished. We speak of this later. Daniel continued in chapter 9 by saying that the people of the prince who is to come (Rome) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (temple).

To agree with the Dispensationalist view that the 70th week is still in the future and will be fulfilled by an antichrist figure just before Christ’s Second Coming, there has to be a gap (of almost 2,000 years so far, maybe more if it continues to delay) between the 69th week and the 70th week.

Daniel does not say anything about this gap. It is not hinted at anywhere in the book of Daniel. This is the point. The whole system of Dispensationalism depends on this gap. Without this gap in Daniel 9 Dispensationalism cannot stand. Therefore, Dispensationalism depends on what the scripture does not say. This is not a good basis for end-times speculations.

This whole hermeneutical framework is built on one supposition. Because Darby and others in the 19th Century began to take a negative view of history, they decided that Jesus could not be reigning now, but must reign when He returns. They then went about to redefine all the traditional views on the texts that we have looked at, to fit this new supposition.

Writing in the 19th Century, when this shift in view began to take shape, Charles Spurgeon said:

It would be easy to show that at our present rate of progress the kingdoms of this world never could become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Indeed, many in the Church are giving up the idea of it except on the occasion of the advent of Christ, which, as it chimes in with our own idleness, is likely to be a popular doctrine.

I myself believe that King Jesus will reign and the idols be utterly abolished; but I expect the same power which turned the world upside down once will still continue to do it. The Holy Ghost would never suffer the imputation to rest upon His holy name that He was not able to convert the world. (From the jacket of Paradise Restored, by David Chilton.).

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