The 70th Week of Daniel – Fulfilled 2000 Years Ago
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In January 1971, thanks to the ministry of a Christian group called the Navigators, I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. The Navigators fed me with the milk of the Word of God. As an organization they didn’t get into eschatology. Their motto was and still is, “To know Christ and make Him known.” I think this is indeed a worthy motto to live ones life by as a Christian! I was in the U.S. Air Force at the time. My Navigator buddy and I would go door to door in the barracks and talk to young airmen about Christ. Most of them were willing to talk. Most of them were single and had a lot of time on their hands when not performing their military duties. I know that was true of me, only 21 years old then.
From 1974 after I was discharged from the Air Force, I began to fellowship with other believers, Christians who had more of an emphasis on Endtime doctrines, eschatology, the science of last things. It was then I studied the prophecies of Daniel, specifically Daniel chapter 2 and 7-12. I learned about the 70 Weeks of Daniel.
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.
I was told this was a Messianic prophecy except for the final week which is about the Antichrist making a treaty with the Jews and world religions, some kind of peace pact with the Muslims, in order to rebuild the Temple of Solomon to resume animal sacrifices for the Jewish religion. I was told that the Antichrist would after three and a half years decide to break his treaty, enter the Temple, and declare himself to be god!
There are variations of this scenario. Some believe that Christians will be raptured out before the Antichrist rises, others believe we will be raptured at the midway 3.5 year point, and still others believe the rapture won’t come till the very end of the tribulation just before the Wrath of God descends. The latter is what I used to believe. This is what the pastor who I loved used to teach. Why should I doubt it? I didn’t learn a different view of the 70th Week of Daniel until 40 years later.
It was on December 13th, 2014, after 40 some years of study of eschatology, that I finally realized the 70th Week of Daniel is not part of the Endtime scenario!
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.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
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.
The “he” of verse 27 has been interpreted by most fundamental Bible teachers as being the Antichrist and the “covenant” as some kind of Endtime religious agreement the Antichrist makes with the various religions of the world to ensure world peace. But a pronoun is only understood when the noun or name of the person is first identified. That name is clearly written in verses 25 and 26 as “Messiah”! It is Jesus Christ who confirmed the Covenant, and that Covenant was the Covenant God made with Abraham! This is the very same Covenant in verse 4 of the same chapter of Daniel 9!
Daniel 9:4 ¶And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul clearly says that Covenant was confirmed by Christ!
Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ,…
Why would Christians today believe the 70th Week of Daniel is something that will be fulfilled in the Endtime? I’ll tell you why: It was a false doctrine planted into the Church by a Jesuit named Francisco Ribera to get the Protestants’ eyes off the Pope as being the Antichrist! It is one of the doctrines of Futurism as opposed to Historism. Allow me to paraphrase and simplify the teaching from http://www.champs-of-truth.com/books/3schools.htm
There are three methods of interpreting prophecy –the Praeterist, the Futurist and the Historical (or continuous).
The Praeterist maintains that the prophecies in Revelation (and Daniel) have already been fulfilled.
The Futurist interpreters refer to events which are yet to come.
The Historical or Continuous expositors believe the Revelation a progressive history of the church from the first century to the end of time.
So great a hold did the conviction that the Papacy was the Antichrist gain upon the minds of men (who held the historicist view), that Rome at last saw she must bestir herself, and try, by putting forth other systems of interpretation, to counteract the identification of the Papacy with the Antichrist.
Accordingly, toward the close of the century of the Reformation, two of the most learned (Jesuit) doctors set themselves to the task, each endeavoring by different means to accomplish the same end, namely, that of diverting men’s minds from perceiving the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Antichrist in the papal system. The Jesuit Alcazar devoted himself to bring into prominence the preterist method of interpretation,…and thus endeavored to show that the prophecies of Antichrist were fulfilled before the popes ever ruled in Rome, and therefore could not apply to the Papacy.
“On the other hand, the Jesuit Ribera tried to set aside the application of these prophecies to the papal power by bringing out the futurist system, which asserts that these prophecies refer properly, not to the career of the Papacy, but to some future supernatural individual, who is yet to appear, and continue in power for three and a half years. Thus, as Alford says, the Jesuit Ribera, about A.D. 1580, may be regarded as the founder of the futurist system of modern times.
…It is a matter for deep regret that those who advocate the futurist system at the present day, Protestants as they are for the most part, are really playing into the hands of Rome, and helping to screen the Papacy from detection as the Antichrist.” Rev. Joseph Tanner, Daniel and the Revelation, pp. 16, 17.
I learned about Jesuit Ribera and his Futurist view from 2 or 3 years before the final revelation on December 13, 2014, and I knew the reason he created this view was to get people’s eyes off of the Pope and the Papacy as being Antichrist, but until December 13, 2014 for some reason, I never connected it to the 70th Week of Daniel. It was thanks to my new friends, Michael Adams, Walt Stickel, and especially to David Nikao’s article, “The 70th Week Of Daniel Prince Deception” that opened my eyes to the truth!
Because Jesus fulfilled the 70th Week of Daniel, several things I’ve held as truth about the last 7 years before Jesus returns fall flat.
- There is no more need for a rebuilt Temple of Solomon and the Antichrist desecrating it.
- There is no more need for the Antichrist to make some kind of 7 year religious covenant, pact or agreement.
- There is no more need for a 7 year final reign of the Antichrist with 3.5 years of tribulation after he breaks the so called covenant.
Wow! What a difference from my former mindset!
Christians have already had two thousand years of tribulation ever since the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7! The Devil has always tried to kill God’s children from the time of Cain killing Abel!
Christians have always lived in the time of Antichrist. First John 2:18 makes that very clear.
1 John 2:18 ¶Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
The Abomination of Desolation
Update on Dec. 19th, 2014: Today I saw something for the first time in the Word that thrills me to pieces! If we compare the 3 synoptic Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke which talks about the “the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate” of Daniel 9:27, Luke clearly identifies what the Abomination of Desolation is!
Matthew 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Mark 13:14 ¶But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
Luke 21:20 ¶And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Luke chapter 21 is talking about the exact same events as Matthew 24 and Mark 13. The abomination was the Roman army (abomination to the Jews) and the desolation was what the Roman army did to Jerusalem! God’s very Word tells us exactly what the abomination of desolation is!
I hear that it was only the Christians in Jerusalem who escaped the wrath of the Romans in 70 A.D. when the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Why were the Christians the only ones who fled from Jerusalem and Judaea? Because they heeded Jesus’ warning written in Luke 21:21, and fled into the mountains! “then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:” — Luke 21:21. Notice it says “Judaea”? I never saw the meaning of this verse so clearly before!
A big thank you to David Nikao who pointed this out to me in his article The Abomination Of Desolation Deception
I now see the Endtime scenario as a world getting more and more darker in deception. It’s pretty dark now considering that evangelical Christians think the person who confirms the covenant with many for one week is the Antichrist when it’s actually Jesus Christ! Talk about delusion! And folks, it originated from a Jesuit by the name of Francesco Ribera circa 1580 a.d. See also http://amazingdiscoveries.org/RT_encyclopedia_Futurism_Jesuit_Ribera
The information on this page may be hard for a Christian to accept without knowing more background information. A really great article that encapusulates all the important information you need to know is The Evil Empire of Jesuit Futurism If that link ever gets broken, here is a text file you can download.
The Timeline of Daniel 9:24-27 Illustrated
This meme is courtesy of David Nikao Wilcoxson 70thweekofdaniel.com
For much more articles about the 70th Week of Daniel:
Related posts:
What early Protestants had to say about the 70th Week of Daniel
The 70th Week of Daniel Delusion
Seven Facts that Led Me to Conclude the Seventh Week of Daniel was Fulfilled by Christ and His Apostles
The 70th Week of Daniel is all about Christ, not the Antichrist!
Famous Preacher and American Politician, Chuck Baldwin, changes his position on the 70th Week of Daniel and the State of Israel
Some Awaiting the 70th Week of Daniel Are Blind to Current Events
Daniel Chapter 2 – An Outline of 2500 Years of World History!