For Fair Use Discussion and Educational Purposes

A serious Student of the Bible knows that there are many well learned teachers of God's Word that may be a part of this denomination or that denomination, which the person has chosen because it adheres the most closely to their own understanding of God's Word.

Yet, there are the narrow minded believers that will not even consider the truth of what is being taught, according to God's Word, because it is not their own denomination; in fact, it may well be branded 'none Kosher' because of one very strong Biblical truth.

The Seventh Day Adventist understand and teach two subjects that they have researched thoroughly and to their credit are spot on regarding the Sabbath and the 70th Week of Daniel. I would like to invite you to step out and take a look at the 70th Week of Daniel.

While I do ask you to read his work, please understand that I do not agree with his number 10 paragraph completely. Here is why.

Because, in these End Days, when knowledge is being made known to us which we never quite understood before or even considered, I cannot agree with his statement that Jesus gave up on His people.

Jesus never gave up on HIS people, the Lost House of Israel whom, had been scattered amongst the Gentile nations. Jesus' own Words tell us that He came unto the Lost House of Israel and His gospel has continued to go out to them and any gentile that was grafted into the Living Temple of God. To deny this is to go against the Word of God.

And to get a grip on that teaching, one must put aside the false belief that all of Israel are Jews. They are NOT. That term "Jew" has been so loosely used that most of the world hates the True Jews because of usage of a word that they did not understand.

How often have we been trying to show everyone that the Jews make up the Southern Kingdom which was split after the reign of Solomon? They are the ones still in apostasy, not the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel. You may be one of them and like Jeremiah hinted, you don't even know it. Here is an excellent article on the 7 Years of Tribulation. Once you really understand that Jesus Christ came during that 70th week and stopped animal sacrifice mid-way at the 3 1/2 year mark when He fulfilled the Covenant He made with the prophets of the Old Testament, you just may question your own heritage. Yes, it is a bit long but well worth a careful study on your own. The Holy Spirit will help you to understand it. I have added more to the bottom of this article. Thank you for considering.

Gerlinda

.......................................

7 Years of Tribulation?

By Steve Wohlberg

A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake. – Confucius (551-479 B.C.)

The concept of a seven-year Tribulation is the underlying foundation of the entire Left Behind scenario (and all other pro-rapture books and movies). The theory is: rapture first, then seven years of horror.

Book Two of the Left Behind novels declares, “The disappearances have ushered in the seven-year period of Tribulation” (The Tribulation Force, inside cover). Book Three reveals, “…the seven-year Tribulation is nearing the end of its first quarter…” (Nicolae , inside cover). Book Six tells us, “It’s the midpoint of the seven-year Tribulation” (The Indwelling, inside cover). Book Eight begins with, “…the dawn of the second half of the seven-year Tribulation” (The Mark, inside cover). Book Eleven opens “six years into the Tribulation, two and one-half years into the Great Tribulation” (Armageddon, p. Vii). Thus this New York Times , USA-Today , and Wall Street Journal bestselling series of end times, prophecy books, endorsed by well-respected church leaders worldwide, is built entirely around this seven-year framework.

Where does this “seven-year” concept come from anyway? It may shock you, but if you look for “seven years of tribulation” in any Concordance, you won’t find it.

The truth is, from Genesis to Revelation, there is no exact passage that specifically mentions a seven-year period of tribulation at all. Amazingly, the entire theory is really based on a rather speculative interpretation of two little words in one single verse. The text is Daniel 9:27; and the two words are, “one week.” Let me explain.

The Book of Daniel was written while the Jews were in Babylon—in exile because of their sins. Daniel 9:24-27 contains a prophecy from the angel Gabriel to encourage the Jewish people that they would be given a “second chance” to return to Jerusalem, rebuild their temple, and ultimately, receive their Messiah (Jesus Christ). This highly controversial prophecy literally reads:

“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.

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 [62 weeks] : the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 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.

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 out upon the desolate (Daniel 9:24-27 KJV).

Thus we have a prophecy about “seventy weeks.” Gabriel then subdivides the period into three smaller periods of seven weeks (verse 25), sixty-two weeks (verse 25), and one week (verse 27). 7+62+1=70.

Seventy weeks = 490 days. A day in prophecy represents a year (see Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6). Thus 490 days are really 490 years. Without going into all the chronological details here (I will get more specific in a later chapter), the prophecy starts with a direct “commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” (verse 25) after the Babylonian captivity and reaches down to the first coming of Jesus Christ.

After 69 weeks (after 483 years), “shall Messiah be cut off” (verse 26). All Christian scholars apply this to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

After our Lord’s agonizing death, “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” (verse 26). While there are differences of opinion as to who “the people of the prince” refers to, the majority of scholars nevertheless apply the destruction of “the city and the sanctuary” to the second destruction of Jerusalem and its rebuilt sanctuary by Roman armies under Prince Titus in 70 A.D.

So far, we have seen 69 weeks fulfilled. That leaves “one week” left, otherwise known as the famous “70th week of Daniel.” Again, that highly controversial text literally says:

“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… (Daniel 9:27 KJV).

Based on the day-year principle (which is valid), the “one week” remaining in this prophecy must refer to a period of seven years.

Pro-rapture promoters claim this is the seven-year period of tribulation. Their idea is that while the first 69 weeks (or 483 years) did reach to the first coming of Jesus Christ, the prophetic clock has stopped because the Jewish people largely rejected Him.

Then they slide the 70th week (the last seven years) all the way down to the End Times, call it the tribulation, and say it applies to the Jewish people after we’re gone.

Rapture teachers interpret Daniel 9:27 as follows:

(1) “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” “He” is the antichrist who will make a covenant (or peace treaty) with the Jews during the seven years of tribulation.

(2) “In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…” In the middle of the seven-year tribulation, the antichrist will break his covenant, turn against Israel, and stop their animal sacrifices.

(3) The phrase, “he shall cause the sacrifice…to cease” is viewed as irrefutable proof that a Jewish temple (which includes sacrifices) must be rebuilt on the Temple Mount inside Jerusalem.

Bestselling author Hal Lindsey in his The Late Great Planet Earth reflects this current view when he writes about “God’s last seven years of dealing with the Jewish people before the long awaited setting up of the kingdom of God (Daniel 9:27).” (The Late Great Planet Earth, p. 46) According to Mr. Lindsey, during those seven years ” ‘the Antichrist,’ breaks his covenant with the Jewish people and causes the Jewish temple worship, according to the Law of Moses, to cease (Daniel 9:27)…We must conclude that a third Temple will be rebuilt upon its ancient site in old Jerusalem.” (Ibid.)

Therefore, according to countless modern interpreters, Daniel 9:27 is applied to a future antichrist, a future peace treaty made with Israel, a future seven-year tribulation, and a future rebuilt Jewish temple inside Jerusalem.

And all of this will supposedly start with the rapture. Honestly, that’s a lot to interpret from that single verse, especially when Daniel 9:27 says absolutely nothing about any seven-year tribulation, antichrist, or rebuilt Jewish temple!

Could there be something wrong with this picture?

Prophecy-minded Christians all over Planet Earth often engage in a fierce debate about whether Jesus Christ will return for His Church before the seven years of tribulation (the “pre-trib” view), in the midst of the seven years (the “mid-trib” view), or at the end of the seven years (the “post-trib” view). Yet by far the most explosive question few seem to be asking is: Is an end-time “seven-year period of tribulation” really taught in the Bible in the first place?

In 1945, after months of agonizing deliberation, U.S. President Harry Truman finally issued orders to drop two atomic bombs upon Japan in an attempt to end World War II. On August 6, the “Little Boy” fell on Hiroshima. Three days later, the “Fat Man” was released over Nagasaki. Approximately 130,000 people were instantly vaporized. Many heated discussions have occurred as to whether or not it was the right thing to drop those bombs. One thing’s for sure, in the minds of those who made that fearful decision, they believed it was for the ultimate good of America.

Dear friend, it is for the benefit of Christians everywhere that God’s bomb of truth should now be released over what I have come to call, “The 70th week of Daniel Delusion.”

As we have seen, the entire 7-year theory is based on Daniel 9:27, which says:

“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… (Daniel 9:27 KJV ).

This may shock you, but historically, the vast majority of well-respected Bible scholars have not applied Daniel 9:27 to a seven-year period of tribulation at all. Neither have they interpreted the “he” as referring to a future antichrist (as many do today) Instead, they applied it to Jesus Christ.

Notice what the world-famous Bible commentary written by Matthew Henry says about Daniel 9:27: “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. Another famous commentary written by British Methodist Adam Clarke says that during Daniel 9:27’s “term of seven years,” Jesus Himself would “confirm or ratify the new covenant with mankind.”

Another dusty Bible commentary reveals: “He shall confirm the covenant—Christ. The confirmation of the covenant is assigned to Him.”

Here’s one more statement from a book called, Christ and Antichrist, published in 1846 by the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia. On page 2, under Recommendations, are endorsements from many Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist ministers, including an official representative of the Southern Baptist Convention. Commenting on the final week of Daniel 9:27, that ancient volume states:

“…sometime during the remaining seven, he [the Messiah] was to die as a sacrifice for sin, and thus bring in “everlasting righteousness.” Here are allusions to events so palpable, that one would think, the people among whom they occurred, could not possibly have misapplied the prophecy.

Okay, here we go. The following ten points provide logical and convincing evidence that Daniel’s famous 70th week has no application to any future seven-year tribulation at all. Rather, this great prophetic period was definitely fulfilled nearly two thousand years ago.


1.The entire prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 covers a period of “seventy weeks,” or 490 years. Logic requires that “seventy weeks” refers to one consecutive block of time, in other words, to seventy straight sequential weeks. There is no example in Scripture (or anywhere else!) of a stated time period starting, stopping, and then starting again. All biblical references to time are consecutive: 40 days and 40 nights (see Genesis 7:4), 400 years in Egypt (see Genesis 15:13), 70 years of captivity (see Daniel 9:2), etc. In Daniel’s prophecy, the “seventy weeks” were to begin during the reign of Persia and continue to the time of the Messiah.

2.Logic also requires that the 70th week follow immediately after the 69th week. If it doesn’t, then it cannot properly be called the 70th week!

3.It is illogical to insert a 2,000-year gap between the 69th and 70th week. No hint of a gap is found in the prophecy itself. There is no gap between the first seven weeks and the following sixty-two weeks, so why insert one between the 69th and 70th week?
Note: If you told your child to be in bed in 70 minutes, you obviously would mean 70 consecutive minutes. What if five hours later your fully awake son said, “But dad, I know 69 minutes have passed, but the 70th minute hasn’t started yet!”? After receiving an appropriate punishment, he would be swiftly sent to bed.

4.Daniel 9:27 says nothing about a seven-year period of “tribulation,” a “rebuilt” Jewish temple, or any “antichrist.”

5.The stated focus of this prophecy is the Messiah, not the antichrist. After the Messiah is “cut off” (referring to Christ’s death), the text says, “And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” In the past, this has been consistently applied to the destruction of Jerusalem and the second temple by Roman armies led by Prince Titus in A.D. 70.

6.“He shall confirm the covenant.” Paul said “the covenant” was “confirmed before by God in Christ” (Galatians 3:17). Jesus Christ came “to confirm the promises made to the fathers” (Romans 15:8, emphasis added). In the King James Version, Daniel 9:27 doesn’t say ” a covenant” or peace treaty, but ” the covenant,” which applies to the New Covenant. Nowhere in the Bible does the antichrist make, confirm, or break a covenant with anyone. The word “covenant” is Messianic, and always applies to the Messiah, not the antichrist.

7.“He shall confirm the covenant with many.? Jesus Christ said, “This is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many…” Matthew 26:28 Behold a perfect fit! Jesus was specifically quoting Daniel 9:27

8.“In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” After exactly three and a half years of holy ministry, Jesus Christ died on the cross, “in the midst of the week [in the middle of the seven years].” At the exact moment of His death, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…” Matthew 27:51. This act of God signified that all animal sacrifices at that moment ceased to be of value. Why? Because the Perfect Sacrifice had been offered!

9.“For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate.” See Matthew 24:15 “The abomination of desolation” is not a simple subject, yet we know that Jesus clearly applied this event to the time when His followers were to flee from Jerusalem before the destruction of the second temple in A.D. 70. In a parallel text to Matthew 24:15, Jesus told His disciples, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies [Roman armies led by Prince Titus], then know that its desolation is near ” Luke 21:20 (emphasis added). The disciples did “see” those very events. Because of the “abominations” of the Pharisees, Jesus told them, “See! Your house is left to you desolate” Matthew 23:38. Thus Gabriel’s statement in Daniel 9:27 about Jerusalem becoming “desolate” was perfectly fulfilled in A.D. 70.

10.Gabriel said that the 70-week prophecy specifically applied to the Jewish people (see Daniel 9:24). During the period of Christ’s public ministry of 3 ½ years, the Master’s focus was largely upon “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). After His resurrection and then for another 3 ½ years, His disciples preached mostly to Jews (see Acts 1-6). After that second 3 ½ year period, in 34 A.D., the bold Stephen was stoned by the Jewish Sanhedrin (see Acts 7). This infamous deed marked the then-ruling Jewish leaders’ final, official rejection of the gospel of our Savior.

Then the gospel went to the Gentiles. In Acts 9 Saul became Paul, the “apostle to the Gentiles” Romans 11:13 In Acts 10 God gave Peter a vision revealing it was now time to preach to the Gentiles. See Acts 10:1-28. Read also Acts 13:46. Thus approximately 3 ½ years after the crucifixion— and at the end of the 70-week prophecy given for the Jewish people—the gospel shifted to the Gentiles exactly as predicted in Bible prophecy.

The explosive evidence is overwhelming! Point by point the events of Daniel’s 70th week have been fulfilled in the past. These eight words found in Daniel 9:27: “confirm…covenant…many…midst…sacrifice…cease… abominations…desolate” all find perfect fulfillment in Jesus Christ and early Christian history.

In the words of that 1846 Presbyterian publication,

“The seventy weeks of Daniel therefore, have certainly ended many centuries ago. We are not to look to the future for the fulfillment of these predictions. We must look to the past. And if to the past; where is there one who can have any adequate claims to being the subject of these prophecies, but Jesus? He, and he only can claim them; and to him they most certainly refer.

“…one would think, the people [the Jews] among whom [these events] occurred, could not possibly have misapplied the prophecy. But they did. In fact, one major reason why the Jewish nation as a whole failed to receive its Messiah was because its scholars misinterpreted Daniel 9:27. They failed to see Jesus Christ as the predicted One who would die in the midst of the 70th week! Amazingly, the exact same thing is happening today. Sincere Christian scholars are now misapplying the very same prophecy.

The entire “seven-year period of tribulation” theory is an end time delusion, a massive mega-myth. It may even go down in history as the greatest evangelical misinterpretation of all time. The whole concept is like a gigantic bubble. Once Daniel 9:27 is correctly understood and the sharply-pointed pin of truth is inserted, “Pop goes the seven years!” It’s a fact: There is no text in the Bible which teaches a “seven-year tribulation.” If you hunt for it, you’ll end up like Ponce de Leon searching for the mystical Fountain of Youth, but never finding it.

The current debate and tremendous confusion over pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib is really a smoke screen of the enemy to hide the real issue. What is the real issue? We’ll find out when we study what the Book of Revelation truly teaches about Israel, Babylon the Great, and Armageddon

......................................

Now regarding this sentence in point #10 "Then the gospel went to the Gentiles", is where I must disagree and I do so because of God's own Word.

Jesus said, Matthew 15:24 "But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel.".

Perhaps at the time that Steve Wohlberg wrote his commentaries, he did not have a complete understanding that NEVER did Jesus give up on those Lost Ten Tribes of the Northern House of Israel. He called them His Sheep. They were of His Sheepfold. They were driven for the much larger purpose. God had chosen the Hebrew people for a purpose and that was to make known He was the One True God and to teach His Word.

Granted, they, over-all, did a very poor job of it yet the Gentiles until being grafted in, didn't even have that much knowledge. Jesus said that they were lost but He came to them, not the Jews that accosted Him during His 3 1/2 year ministry. His Word declares it, we must accept the fact that they were found and converted and in turn they would also reach the Gentile whom became the grafted into the Olive Tree, of which the root is Yeshua, the Messiah.

We know from knowledge being made more clear to us now in these End of Days, that these Lost Sheep don't even know who they are. And the Gentiles whom insist they are a separate entity, also don't even know who they are. The sheep are all one in Jesus Christ. One thing for sure, they will continue to spread the gospel until such time as when Christ will, finally pour His Wrath upon an unbelieving world.

I believe when this is understood and accepted as being an integral part of God's purpose for mankind, then the time-line of Daniel can be understood as it was meant to be known.

You see, there is no need to insist that Jesus didn't confirm the Covenant made long ago to the prophets, because there is no longer a need to think of the two, House of Israel and Gentiles grafted in are not all the recipients of that Covenant.

There is no need to keep insisting that the prophetic confirming of a Covenant points to the A/C and his false prophet. Sure, they are going to imitate what Christ did and declare some Peace deal but it is all a charade to keep fooling the sheeple.

Gerlinda

Disclaimer: Rapture Bible Prophecy Forum, ( http://www.rapturebibleprophecyforum.com ) does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article posted on this site. We do however, encourage a healthy and friendly debate on the issues of our day. Whether you agree or disagree, we encourage you to post your feedback by using the reply button.