Seven Facts that Led Me to Conclude the Seventh Week of Daniel was Fulfilled by Christ and His Apostles
I’ve been having exchanges with a brother in Christ who is a Futurist. He believes the prophecy of Daniel 9:27 is an Endtime event, and I believe it was fulfilled in the past. The Devil has deceived many Christians today through ignorance of history and Jesuit false doctrines that have crept into the Church to think prophecies of Daniel, Matthew 24, II Thessalonians 2, and nearly all of the prophecies in the Book of Revelation are yet to be fulfilled in the future. And why would Satan do that? To stop Protestant Christians from calling Papal Rome “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” of Revelation 17:5, and to stop calling the popes of Rome “that man of sin … the son of perdition” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
Up till the beginning of the 20th century, sound eschatological doctrine among Bible reading Protestants still prevailed. It changed dramatically after C.I. Scofield published his Scofield Reference Bible.
Here are seven facts I shared with my friend about the Futurist interpretation of Daniel 9:27 which he holds, facts that I consider irrefutable.
- It was my pastor who taught me the Futurist view of Daniel 9:27 and the 70th Week of Daniel about the Antichrist making a seven-year-covenant with the Jews and Israel to rebuild their temple which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. He taught me there is an undetermined gap in time between the 69th Week and the 70th Week. I first heard this from him circa 1974 when I was young and without knowing any alternate interpretations of the 70th Week. I had no reason in my mind to question him because he was more learned than I was. In 2005 an email friend told me there is no gap of time between the 69th and 70th Week of Daniel. I rejected the idea then due to my cognitive bias and because my friend was a SDA. I thought he was giving me an SDA-specific doctrine. It was 9 years later when I learned he was telling me standard Protestant interpretation of the 70th Week.
- The very same pastor 19 years later in 1993 confessed that he got that interpretation of the 70th Week of Daniel from C.I. Scofield, a man who also taught the evil doctrines of Zionism and pre-tribulation secret rapture. These were two doctrines from Scofield my pastor threw out the window over 20 years earlier! The pastor also stated that his interpretation of the 70th Week is only a theory. In spite of that, I was not motivated at the time to search for alternative interpretations. I had no access to other resources because I was living in Japan then, a land with limited English libraries. The Internet was not yet popular. I didn’t start using the Internet to gain information until 1997, four years later.
- It was finally in December of 2014 I learned from articles on the Internet that up to the 19th century, most Bible commentators taught that Daniel 9:27 is a Messianic prophecy that was fulfilled by Christ and His Apostles. One reason I think I received it then is because a couple years before that I learned that 19th century and earlier Protestant Bible commentators taught that the prophecy of the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4 is talking about the office of the papacy. I believed they were correct. That took me halfway to understanding Daniel 9:27.
- Scripture interprets Scripture. Verse 4 of Daniel chapter 9 says, “keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him.” This is clearly the same covenant of verse 27! “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:” Notice the definite article “the” before covenant in verses 4 and 27? This is indicative that the covenant that was confirmed was already in existence. The covenant of verse 4 is the same covenant of verse 27, namely the covenant God made with Abraham, the covenant of grace through faith. Jesus Himself confirmed this covenant with the Jews when He preached the Gospel to them! Paul confirms this in Galatians 3:17 when he says “And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ…” It was Jesus, not Antichrist, who caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease in the middle of the “Week” or seven-year period when He was crucified on the Cross of Calvary. His Apostles continued to openly preach the Gospel for three and a half more years until major persecution of the believers and followers of Christ began with the stoning of Stephen, thus ending the 7-year confirmation of the covenant with Israel and the beginning of Paul’s ministry of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.
- Jesuit Francesco Ribera around 1585 concocted the Futurist interpretation of Daniel 9:27 to put the Antichrist into the unknown FUTURE, to stop the Protestants from calling the popes of Rome the Antichrist. It also diverted attention from papal Rome, the so-called “Holy See” of being “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” of Revelation 17:5.
- The Futurist interpretation of Daniel 9:27 was largely REJECTED by Protestants until the 20th century when it was proclaimed by C.I. Scofield in his Scofield Reference Bible, a Bible filled with false interpretations of prophecy that blinded the Church as to who the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is. It and Scofield’s other dispensational doctrines such as Christian Zionism was and continues to be promoted by the prestigious Dallas Theological Seminary which wrongly influenced nearly all the popular preachers of today.
- The false Jesuit Futurist interpretation of Daniel 9:27 is held by the majority of evangelicals today which is why many churches are apostate churches.