To understand prophecy and end-time events you have to understand the book of Daniel. He deals with several subjects concerning the end. So I want to look at the "seventy sevens decreed" and what that means.
Daniel 9:24-27
24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
Daniels Time Table: Divided into three periods
1. (9:24) 70 x 7 = 490 years
2. (9:25) 7 x 7 = 49 years - first period
3. (9:26) 62 x 7 = 434 years - second period
4. (9:27) The Anti-christ shall "confirm the covenant with many for one week" (7 years).This is the time of "Jacob's trouble" and will take place after the rapture of the church when God will again deal with Israel as a nation - third period
First 69 Sevens
"Daniel was told that this 490 year period would begin 'from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem'. In the scriptures are contained several decrees that have to do with the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity.
Decree of Cyrus - 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3
Decree of Darius - Ezra 6:3-8
Decree of Artaxerxes - Ezra 7:7
However, in all these permission was granted for the rebuilding of the temple and nothing was said about the rebuilding of the city. When we turn to the decree of Artexerxes, made in his twentieth year, recorded in Neh. 2:1-8, for the first time is permission granted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This then becomes the beginning of the prophetic time appointed by God in this prophecy.
The Persian edict which restored the autonomy of Judah was issued in the Jewish month of Nisan. It may in fact have been dated from the 1st of Nisan...the seventy weeks are therefore to be computed for the 1st of Nisan B.C. 445." - Dwight Pentecost
The Last Seven
Daniel 12:11-12 - "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of 1,335 days."
12:11 - We realize from scripture that the tribulation is seven years long. The last three and one-half years is referred to as "time, and times, and half time." Daniel adds 75 days to this last half. While the details of what will transpire during this time are not given, it is natural to assume the following: Daniel 12:11, thirty days are added to the 1260 days which make up three and one-half years. This allows time for the cleansing of the city, and for the erection of the Millenial Temple. (Ezek. 40-43; Zech. 6:12, 13) Following this, we have an addition of 45 days, which gives time for the judgments of the nations, along with Israel, and the ushering in of the millenial kingdom. (Matt. 24:31; 25:31-46)
12:12 - The "blessing" in verse 12 refers to the ushering in of the Millenium. Daniel encourages steadfastness and faithfulness during the period of upheaval and adjustment preceding the Millenium. It iwll be such a dark and disorderly time on earth that that person is especially blessed who endures through the tribulation and makes it over into the Millenium.
"This period was 'determined' upon Daniels people and upon the Holy City. This is very important. It discloses the fact that the 'seventy weeks' have nothing to do with the Gentiles or the church. It also discloses another fact that the 'seventy sevens', or 490 years, only cover the period when the Jews are, by God's permission, dwelling as a people in their own land. It does not cover the present period of their dispersion."
-Clarence Larking 1918
That is why I don't believe that the last seven was fulfilled with Antiochus Epihanies in the second century when he persecuted the Jews and desecrated the temple by sacrificing a pig on alter or that we are living in the end times of Revelation.
Isreal, btw, became a nation once again in 1948.
Daniel 9:24-27
24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
Daniels Time Table: Divided into three periods
1. (9:24) 70 x 7 = 490 years
2. (9:25) 7 x 7 = 49 years - first period
3. (9:26) 62 x 7 = 434 years - second period
4. (9:27) The Anti-christ shall "confirm the covenant with many for one week" (7 years).This is the time of "Jacob's trouble" and will take place after the rapture of the church when God will again deal with Israel as a nation - third period
First 69 Sevens
"Daniel was told that this 490 year period would begin 'from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem'. In the scriptures are contained several decrees that have to do with the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity.
Decree of Cyrus - 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3
Decree of Darius - Ezra 6:3-8
Decree of Artaxerxes - Ezra 7:7
However, in all these permission was granted for the rebuilding of the temple and nothing was said about the rebuilding of the city. When we turn to the decree of Artexerxes, made in his twentieth year, recorded in Neh. 2:1-8, for the first time is permission granted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This then becomes the beginning of the prophetic time appointed by God in this prophecy.
The Persian edict which restored the autonomy of Judah was issued in the Jewish month of Nisan. It may in fact have been dated from the 1st of Nisan...the seventy weeks are therefore to be computed for the 1st of Nisan B.C. 445." - Dwight Pentecost
The Last Seven
Daniel 12:11-12 - "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of 1,335 days."
12:11 - We realize from scripture that the tribulation is seven years long. The last three and one-half years is referred to as "time, and times, and half time." Daniel adds 75 days to this last half. While the details of what will transpire during this time are not given, it is natural to assume the following: Daniel 12:11, thirty days are added to the 1260 days which make up three and one-half years. This allows time for the cleansing of the city, and for the erection of the Millenial Temple. (Ezek. 40-43; Zech. 6:12, 13) Following this, we have an addition of 45 days, which gives time for the judgments of the nations, along with Israel, and the ushering in of the millenial kingdom. (Matt. 24:31; 25:31-46)
12:12 - The "blessing" in verse 12 refers to the ushering in of the Millenium. Daniel encourages steadfastness and faithfulness during the period of upheaval and adjustment preceding the Millenium. It iwll be such a dark and disorderly time on earth that that person is especially blessed who endures through the tribulation and makes it over into the Millenium.
"This period was 'determined' upon Daniels people and upon the Holy City. This is very important. It discloses the fact that the 'seventy weeks' have nothing to do with the Gentiles or the church. It also discloses another fact that the 'seventy sevens', or 490 years, only cover the period when the Jews are, by God's permission, dwelling as a people in their own land. It does not cover the present period of their dispersion."
-Clarence Larking 1918
That is why I don't believe that the last seven was fulfilled with Antiochus Epihanies in the second century when he persecuted the Jews and desecrated the temple by sacrificing a pig on alter or that we are living in the end times of Revelation.
Isreal, btw, became a nation once again in 1948.
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