The "Seventy Sevens"

There is the "new view" of a 7 yr. rapture which really gained popularity in 1970 via Hal Lindsey's book titled "The Late Great Planet Earth" where Hal took the last 7 yrs. of Daniel chapter 9 and applied it to the future; however did you know there is also the "old" view where many famous old-time Protestant leaders taught that the last seven years pointed to the Messiah or the Anointed One?

•  I'll start with Matthew Henry's commentaries in 1708-10 - "Some make them to end at the death of Christ, and think the express words of this famous prophecy will warrant us to conclude that from this very hour when Gabriel spoke to Daniel, at the time of the evening oblation, to the hour when Christ died, which was towards evening too, it was exactly 490 years; and I am willing enough to be of that opinion", &  “By offering himself a sacrifice once and for all he [Jesus] shall put an end to all the Levitical sacrifices.” Thus Matthew Henry applied Daniel 9:27 to Christ, not antichrist. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc4.Dan.x.html.

 
 (Pls remember, there is no verse or chapter in the Old or New Testaments which specifically mentions a future seven year "tribulation."

Daniel 9 (Read where all the key words in Daniel are also found in the New Testament):

(1) 70 x 7 = 490 years; 1 day = 1 year; 1 week = 7 years - (Ezekiel 4:6) - "And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year...: " - Heb. a day for a year, a day for a year

(2) Mark 1:10 - "the Spirit descending on Him like a dove" or the Messiah was anointed  Mark 1:15 - "The time has come" or the time has been fulfilled

(3) The commandment to restore & build Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:11) in 457 BC

(4) 7 weeks = 49 years + three score (or 60 x 7) = 420 years, + 2 weeks or 14 years = 483 (*7 years is missing at this point) years or takes us to 27 AD (457 - 483 = 26 + 1 {must count yr.1}).

(5) threescore and two weeks or 62 X 7 or 483 years or again 27AD the Messiah will be killed (cut off)

(6) Rom 15:8 "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers;"  Gal 3:17 "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect."

(7) the covenant or Covenant of Grace - Mat 26:28 - "For this is my blood of the new testament (or the Covenant), which is shed for (8) many for the remission of sins." There is no place in the Bible which states that the Anti-Christ will "confirm" a "covenant" with anyone.

(9) one week or *7 years

(10) in the midst (or middle i.e. 3.5 years) - Jesus died 3.5 years after He was baptized by John in the Jordan river

(11) Mat 27:51 - "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent"; In God's eye, seeing  Jesus' last breath, the daily sacrifices became of no value, forever.

(12) Jesus said in Matt 23:36 "I tell you the truth all this will come upon this generation; moreover in Matt 23:38 Jesus said  " Look your house is left to desolate"

This still leaves 3.5 year for the last *7 years:

In 457 BC King Artaxerxes issued the decree for the Israelites to begin to restore the temple and to allow Jerusalem to begin trading and start again all commerce, the prophecy says it will take 490 years or 70 x 7 which are  "determined upon thy people" (I'll end this first teaching with this point.) If we take 483 - 457 it takes us to the baptism of Jesus Christ or the beginning of His ministry in 27 AD. Jesus was crucified 3 1/2 years later or 30 AD, then 3 1/2 years later in 34 AD, exactly 7 years after Jesus was baptism, Saul was renamed Paul and began preaching to the Gentiles. Acts 9:4 "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?:

KEY Verse - Matt 18: 21 "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." Here we can read that Jesus told Peter he should forgive his brother for 490 years................... very interesting  isn't it? After 490 years God's patience finally wore out with the physical Jews and He finally turned His message (the good news) over to His Church made up of spiritual Gentiles and spiritual Jews with Paul being the main champion!

Daniel 9:27 (the last *7 years):

The entire text of Daniel 9:24-27 is often translated by modern Bible versions (e.g., NIV) to fit the bias of the translators and to support false “Futurist” positions. To avoid these errors and bias, we want to again stick to the King James Version.

“He” in Daniel 9:27 refers to none other than Jesus Christ, “the Messiah” referred to in verses 25 and 26. Our Messiah “confirmed the covenant,” which means the new covenant, and after 3 ½ years of holy ministry He Himself caused “the sacrifice ... to cease” by His death on the cross. This position not only fits the context of Daniel 9:24-27, the facts of history, and New Testament evidence (see Romans 15:8 and Matthew 26:28), but again, is the position of the majority of well-respected older Bible commentaries that have not been affected by modern Futurism (e.g., Matthew Henry, Jamieson, Fausett and Brown, Adam Clarke, etc).

Grammatically, it makes sense that all references to “he” in Daniel 9:27 refer to the same person throughout the text, that is, to Jesus Christ Himself. Simply read the entire verse in the KJV. The “it” that is made “desolate” refers to the Jewish sanctuary. Speaking to the leaders of Israel, Jesus mournfully declared, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). But how could Jesus Christ make the Jewish sanctuary desolate? The answer is simple: By His death on the cross. When Jesus finally cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), the entire Jewish temple service, including its sacrifices, “ceased” to be of value in the sight of God. It was “desolate.”

The entire drama surrounding the fate of the Temple included the Jews, the Messiah, and finally, Roman armies led by Titus that finished the job in 70 A.D. To make it simple, here is the entire text below with explanations in red brackets:

(27) And he [Christ] shall confirm the [new] covenant with many for one week [the last 7-year period of Daniel 9:24]: and in the midst of the week [after 3 ½ years of holy ministry] he [Christ] shall cause [by His death on the cross] the sacrifice [of the Jewish Temple] and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations [of the Jewish leaders who instigated Christ’s death] he [Christ] shall make it [the Temple] desolate [Christ’s death ultimately finished the Temple service], even until the consummation [which occurred 40 years later when the Roman armies led by Titus finally burned the Temple to the ground and killed approximately one million Jews. See War of the Jews by Josephus], and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate [the Jewish nation and its Temple in 70 A.D.].

Christ’s death not only atoned for our sins, but it also meant the end of the Jewish temple service; thus the latter part of Daniel 9:27 deals with mighty cause-and-effect events. The Jewish leaders committed “abominations” by instigating the death of God’s own Son, yet their evil deeds backfired with terrible consequences. Christ’s death not only atoned for our sins, but it also meant the end of the Jewish temple service itself (making it desolate). Finally, in 70 A.D., Roman armies finished the job, thus completing “the desolation.” Jesus clearly predicted the events of 70 A.D. when He forewarned His disciples, saying, “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh” (Luke 21:20). It appears Rome is again in our line of site....

Lessons from the Temple:

• Jesus Christ’s death is everlasting salvation to those who yield to His love, repent of their sins, & have faith in His sacrifice,
• If u chose abominations, remain in sin, and reject His grace, eternal desolation is the inevitable, terrible consequence.
• We will not find any future 7 year tribulation anywhere in the Bible; moreover there is no other place in the Bible in which a set period of time (i.e., days, weeks or years) is broken up, e.g., 40 days and 40 nights during the Flood was a continuous period of time; therefore the prophecy of 490 years was exactly 490 continuous years.

Next we will learn more about the Council of Trent where several Jesuit Priests were given the task of taking the heat off of the Pope (as he was being accused of being the "little horn" or anti-Christ by our Protestant Fathers.) Again, one of them came up with the idea of taking the final 7 years (Dan 9:24) and placing it way into the future with a re-built Temple where Jews will again start sacrificing animals to God; (Key)... this would be a final of denial by the physical Jews (Israelis) that they do not believe Jesus Christ died over 2000 yrs ago as the final blood sacrifice, and if their restarted blood sacrifices and re-built Temple are denying Christ then they would be called Anti-Christ and God could never bless this. 
 

The Papal reaction - the "Counter Reformation" via the Council of Trent.  In an attempt to divert the undermining influence of the Protestant Reformation, a two-pronged counter attack was made. 

The book "Left Behind" has experienced phenomenal acceptance in the Evangelical world because it encapsulates the thinking of most Evangelicals concerning the end times. That is very much the way they understand prophecy. However, this concept raises some serious doubts upon its legitimacy in treating the Word of God. (FYI.. have u been noticing more and more "Christian" leaders are referring to themselves as "evangelicals" instead of "Protestants"?

Two Serious Flaws

Two serious flaws affect their premise of prophetic interpretation. The first is the idea of a literal "man of sin" and the second is that it takes away seven years from Daniel 9:24 which defines 490 years to the Messiah and confirmed favor to Israel. Then it also steals seven years away from Daniel 8:14 of twenty-three hundred years and leaves both prophesies short seven years. It is like trying to take seven years of history and transplanting it somewhere else. Plainly, this violates Biblical exegesis.

A Literal Man of Sin

Why have the Evangelicals discarded the teachings of nearly all Protestant reformers who affirmed Papacy to be the Antichrist? Luther was reticent to attack the mother church until he concluded from his studies about the "little horn," the "man of sin," and the leopard-like "beast" that these prophecies apply to the Roman Catholic Church. Once he became convinced that the Papacy was Antichrist, he boldly set out to reform the mother church.

One thing all Protestant reformers had in common was the belief that Papacy was the Antichrist; the Roman Church did not like being branded the Antichrist.

"In 1590, Ribera published a commentary on the Revelation as a counter-interpretation to the prevailing view among Protestants that identified the Papacy as the Antichrist. Ribera applied all of Revelation but the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the Papacy. Antichrist would be a single person who would be received by the Jews and would rebuild Jerusalem" (George Eldon Ladd, The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1956, pp. 37-38). "Ribera denied the Protestant Scriptural Antichrist (2 Thess.2) as seated in the church of God—asserted by Augustine, Jerome, Luther and many reformers. He set on an infidel Antichrist, outside the church of God." (Ralph Thompson, Champions of Christianity in Search of Truth, p. 89). "The result of his work [Ribera's] was a twisting and maligning of prophetic truth" (Robert Caringola, Seventy Weeks: The Historical Alternative, p. 32). Subsequently, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) followed Ribera's teaching. "The futurist teachings of Ribera were further popularized by an Italian cardinal and the most renowned of all Jesuit controversialists. His writings claimed that Paul, Daniel, and John had nothing whatsoever to say about the Papal power. The futurists' school won general acceptance among Catholics. They were taught that antichrist was a single individual who would not rule until the very end of time" (Great Prophecies of the Bible, by Ralph Woodrow, p. 198).

Through the work of these two Jesuit scholars, we might say that the idea of a literal man would appear at the end time fulfilling the antichrist prophecies. Francisco Ribera has been called the Father of Futurism.

Thus Jesuit Futurism sweeps 1,500 years of prophetic history under the rug by inserting its infamous GAP. The GAP theory teaches that when Rome fell, prophecy stopped, only to continue again right around the time of the Rapture. Thus the "ten horns," the "little horn," the Leopard-like "Beast," and the Antichrist have nothing to do with Christians today. According to this viewpoint no prophecies were fulfilled during the Dark Ages. This remained a Catholic view for some 300 years after the Council of Trent. The plan of the Jesuits was that the Protestants would adopt this idea one day. To their delight it happened in the early 1800s in England, and from there it spread to America. The story of how this happened is both fascinating and tragic:

Then Dr. Samuel Roffey Maitland (1792-1866), a lawyer and Bible scholar, became a librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is very likely that one day he discovered Ribera's commentary in the library. In any event, in 1826 he published a widely read book attacking the Reformation and supporting Ribera's idea of a future one-man Antichrist. For ten years, in tract after tract, he continued his anti-Reformation rhetoric. As a result of his zeal and strong attacks against the Reformation in England, the Protestantism of that very nation which produced the King James Bible (1611) received a crushing blow.

Then came James H. Todd, a professor of Hebrew at the University of Dublin. Todd accepted the futuristic ideas of Maitland, publishing his own supportive pamphlets and books. Then came John Henry Newman (1801-1890), a member of the Church of England and a leader of the famous Oxford Movement (1833-1845). In 1850, Newman wrote his "letter on Anglican Difficulties" revealing that one of the goals in the Oxford Movement was to finally absorb "the various English denominations and parties" back to the Church of Rome. Newman soon became a Roman Catholic, and later even a highly honored Cardinal. Through the influence of Maitland, Todd, Newman, and others, a definite "Romeward movement was already arising, destined to sweep away the old Protestant landmarks, as with a flood" (H. Grattan Guinness, History Unveiling Prophecy or Time as an Interpreter, New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1905, p. 289).

There was also a Scottish Presbyterian minister Edward Irving (1792-1834), considered to be the forerunner of both the Charismatic and the Pentecostal Movements. He accepted the one-man Antichrist of Todd, Maitland, Bellarmine and Ribera. He went a step further and invented a two-phase return of Christ. A secret rapture prior to the rise of Antichrist would constitute the first phase. In this first phase the Lord would rapture all saved Christians. This would be a wake up call to Christians who had not been saved and these would have to become saved during the "Great Tribulation." Where this idea originated is unclear. Journalist Dave MacPherson believes Irving accepted it as a result of a prophetic revelation given to a young Scottish girl named Margaret Mcdonald (The Incredible Cover-Up: Exposing the Origins of Rapture Theories, by Dave MacPherson, Omega Publications, Medford, Oregon. 1980). In any case, the fact is, Irving taught it!

This brings us to John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). He was a bright lawyer, pastor and theologian who wrote more than 53 books on Bible subjects. Darby defended the infallibility of the Bible against a tide of liberalism. He became a leader of a group in Plymouth, England that later were called Plymouth Brethren. Dwight Eisenhower's father is credited with associating with this movement as well as with the Bible Students. Darby was a dispensationalist believing that God deals with mankind in major time periods called dispensations. He called the Gospel age the Church age. Darby laid much of the foundation for the present popular removal of Daniel's seventieth week away from history and from applying to Jesus Christ in favor of applying it to a future Tribulation after the Rapture. This locks Darby in with Francisco Ribera and the Jesuit agenda. What made John Nelson Darby so famous was the fact that Cyris Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921), a Kansas lawyer, who published his Scofield Reference Bible based largely on Darby's writings and his Futurism also found in the writings of Todd, Maitland, Bellarmine and Ribera. This greatly assisted the Jesuits in their endeavor to convince the world that the Antichrist was a future literal man who would bring about seven years of tribulation. Wycliff, Huss, Luther, Knox and Wesley all declared Papacy was the Antichrist. For a list of over eighty reformers who identified Papacy as Antichrist, check Reformers' Interpretations of Anti-Christ.
 

Daniel's 70 Weeks of Years
 

Most Bible scholars have agreed that Daniel 9:24-27 was prophetic when written but historical now. If it is now history, you cannot remove seven years of history and put it were you please. Truths of history cannot be removed in fact. Christians should not try to revise history.

Most scholars recognize Daniel as prophetic covering from the "commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince." Thus Daniel 9:25-27 tells us when Jerusalem and its walls were rebuilt in troublous times to Messiah the Prince would be sixty-nine weeks of years (483). The wall was rebuilt in 454 BC to 29 AD -historically sixty-nine weeks to the time Jesus presented himself at Jordan as Israel's Messiah. - (Note: the math below is also used by many scholars who base the actual "wall" being re-built, however I believe the prophesy actually began when Artaxerxes issued the "commandment" in 457 BC.  With this said, this logic/math is so close to my math/logic that I offer it as additional proof):

Messiah then would:

1.	"Make an end of sin"—"He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself"	(Heb. 9:26).
2.	"Make reconciliation for iniquity"	The iniquities of the Church were cancelled.
3.	"Bring in everlasting righteousness"	Bring in everlasting justification from sin.
4.	"Seal up the vision"	The vision of the 2300 days (years) the first part of which was the 70 weeks (490 years)—literally cut-off from the 2300 years.
5.	"Seal up the prophecy"	This set a seal upon Daniel as a true prophet.
6.	"Anoint the Most Holy"	The Spirit anointed the holy remnant at Pentecost.
7.	"Confirm the covenant with many for one week"	The covenant with Israel was to be confirmed for the last week and no Gentiles were to be accepted until this time frame was completed (29 to 36 AD).
8.	"The midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation cease"	In the middle of the last week (33 AD) Christ His sacrifice would cease or be ended.

How can we take this last week full of historical fulfillment by our Lord and move it to the end time? To do so violates reason and biblical exegesis. It precisely fits into the last seven years covering Messiah who was to be "cut off" in the midst of the week and then the covenant was to be confirmed for the remainder of the week with Israel only. This is history.

Back