UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF REVELATION SERIES:
DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK AND THE GREAT TRIBULATION:
INTRODUCTION:
The Book of Daniel is the Old Testament companion to Revelation. Any in-depth study of the New Testament Apocalypse must consider this book of the Bible.
A COMPARISON OF THE PARALLELS BETWEEN DANIEL AND REVELATION:
“I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire.” (Dan. 7:9).
“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire.” (Rev. 1:14).
• Both Daniel and John had a vision of the wisdom and authority of the Lord.
“I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven!” (Dan. 7:13).
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him.” (Rev. 1:7).
• Both Daniel and John had a vision of the second coming of Jesus.
“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:14).
“and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Rev. 1:6).
• Both Daniel and John had a vision of God’s kingdom, dominion and glory.
“At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:1-2).
“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books… And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:12).
• Both Daniel and John had a vision of the books opened on the day of judgment.
“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end.” (Daniel 12:4).
“And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.” (Rev. 22:10).
Note – the difference between Daniel and Revelation:
• The angel told Daniel to “shut up the words, and seal the book” until a later time.
• The angel told John to NOT seal the words of the prophecy, for the time was at hand.
DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK AND THE GREAT TRIBULATION:
When exactly will the seven year tribulation take place… or has it already??
First of all - where did the idea of the end-times seven year tribulation come from?
“As there is so much secret rapture theology revolving around the seven year period, one would deduce that the Bible must speak frequently of this time period. There is in fact not one single scriptural reference which ties the seven years to the end of the world or the coming of Christ.” (quote from www.secret-rapture.com).
Let’s take a look at the one Scripture in the Bible that speaks of this seven year period:
“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” (Daniel 9:24-27).
What are the Seventy Weeks of Daniel?
• Daniel is told there would be seventy weeks total.
• Each prophetic week = seven years (see Ezekiel 4:6 and Numbers 14:34).
• Seven weeks (49 years) + 62 weeks (434 years) + 1 week (7 years) = 490 years.
• Artaxerxes decree to rebuild Jerusalem happened in 457 BC (see Ezra 7:13).
• From that date, the Jews had 490 years to repent of their rebellion against God.
• Daniel 9:25 says that Jesus would be anointed ‘Messiah the Prince’ after 69 weeks – that is, 483 years from that decree. This happened at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in 27 AD when He was anointed by the Holy Spirit (see Matt. 3:16-17).
• The Jewish probation was 70 weeks (490 years), but Jesus appeared as the Messiah after 69 weeks (483 years). That leaves the final and 70th week for Jesus to minister before the Jews probation ended. What was to happen in the seventieth week?
• “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.” (Dan. 9:27).
• In the midst of the week = three and a half days of years. According to the Bible (see John’s Gospel), the ministry of Jesus lasted exactly 3 ½ years.
• In 30 AD, Jesus was crucified and the veil of the temple was torn (Matt. 27:51), signifying the end of sacrifices.
• Another 3 ½ years led up to the end of the 70 weeks (the 490 years) and the end of the Jewish probation. During that time, the disciples preached the Gospel mainly to the Jews (Acts 1-7), but in AD 34, at the end of the 70 weeks, Stephen was stoned (Acts 7:59), and the Gospel began to be preached to the Gentiles (Acts 8:4).
• The Jews had rejected the gospel message and were no longer God’s chosen people.
• Now the Jews could only be saved as individuals just like the Gentiles.
• The seventy weeks or 490 years was the time God gave His chosen nation to end their rebellion where He would then forgive them for their sins. Notice how Jesus refers to this prophetic time period here in His conversation with Peter:
• “Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven (490).” (Matt. 18:21-22).
So – where did the idea of the seven year tribulation (Daniel’s 70th week) taking place at the end of the ages come from? The dispensationalists say there is a large GAP between Daniel’s 69th and 70th weeks, which is so far at least 2,000 years long. They teach:
• At Christ’s first second coming, there will be a secret rapture of the Church at the beginning of a seven year tribulation period
• At Christ’s second second coming there will be a glorious, triumphant return of Christ to the Earth accompanied by the Church at the end of the seven year period.
• During this seven year period the Antichrist is going to come into power. The battle of Armageddon is a literal national war against literal Israel. National Israel accepts Jesus as the Messiah and enters with Him as His covenant people into the 1,000 year (millennial) reign on earth known as the Kingdom Age. Christ will rule directly over the earth from David’s throne in Jerusalem, where the typical temple services function again.
Note – this premillennial, dispensational theory is one that has been made widely popular through the teachings of Hal Lindsay and the “Left Behind” fiction book series.
However, there is no solid Scriptural evidence to believe in a FUTURE ‘seven year tribulation’.
QUOTES ON DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK:
“The procedure of those who separate the 70th week from the 69th, by an interval already far greater than the whole of the 70 weeks, is altogether unjustified.” (WJ Grier, The Momentous Event).
“Thus the first and last parts of the prophecy are bound firmly together. It is impossible to detach the 70th week from the other 69 without destroying the prophecy as a whole. For if the 70th consecutive week from the starting point was not the 70th of the prophetic period, then none of the six predicted things came to pass within that period. In that view they all happened in an unmentioned gap between the 69 (which brought us "unto the Messiah") and the 70th which is yet future. Thus, according to this view, the prophecy has been completely falsified.” (Philip Mauro, The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation).
“The first coming of our Lord is spoken of in (Daniel 9:24-27) as ordained to be before the seventy weeks were finished, and the city (Jerusalem) should be destroyed; and so it was even as the prophet had spoken… Jesus Christ our Lord, the Messiah, came exactly as it was prophesied, and remained on earth as it was foretold he should do; in the middle of the predestinated (seventieth) week he was cut off, when he had completed three and a half years of saving ministry, and with another period of like length the gospel was p reached throughout all nations, and Messiah’s peculiar relation to Israel was cut off.” (Charles Spurgeon, Messiah’s Glorious Works).
DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK AND THE GREAT TRIBULATION:
If Daniel’s seventieth week doesn’t refer to the a ‘seven year tribulation’ at the end of the age, then what about the ‘Great Tribulation’ that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24:21?
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time.”
Background Passages where Jesus talks about Jerusalem and the Temple:
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city (Jerusalem) and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, "It is written, My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him.” (Luke 19:41-47).
• Jesus said because the Jews rejected Him, the city and temple would be destroyed.
“But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ’Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?” (Luke 23:28-31).
“(The people) said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Rev. 6:16).
• Note the parallel passage in Revelation 6 seems to be describing the same event…
The Context of Matthew 24 – Jesus talks about Jerusalem and ‘this generation’ of Jews:
“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ’Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Matt. 23:37-39).
• Jesus said ‘all of these things would come upon THIS generation.
• This prophecy was directed against Israel generally, and Jerusalem specifically.
• These Scriptures are clearly talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD by Titus and the Roman armies. This is the context for Matthew 24…
Matthew 24:
1. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him, to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2. And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Verily I say to you, There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. *Destruction of the Temple*
3. And while he was sitting on the mountain of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be? *Destruction of the Temple* and what is the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? *Second Coming*
4. And Jesus answering said to them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5. For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will deceive many. 6. For you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you be not troubled; for all these things must happen, but the end is not yet. 7. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in various places. 8. But all these things are the beginnings of sorrows.
Note in Matthew’s passage that the disciples thought that Jesus’ second coming would take place during His prophesied destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. However, in Matthew 24:4-8; Mark 13:5-8 & Luke 21:8-11, Jesus teaches His disciples that His second coming would not take place during the destruction of the temple or Jerusalem, that took place in 70 AD.
Matthew 24:15-21:
15. When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which is described by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, (let him that reads understand,) 16. Then let them who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17. Let not him who is on the housetop go down to carry anything out of his house; 18. And let not him who is in the field return to carry away his clothes. 19. But woe to the women with child, and to them that give suck in those days. 20. And pray that your flight may not be in the winter, nor on the sabbath. 21. For there will then be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world till this time, nor will be.
Luke 21:20: (Parallel passage & cross reference)
"And when you shall see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand."
*Here Luke explains the abomination: Jerusalem surrounded by armies.*
*What is ‘the holy place’? It must be Jerusalem.*
Is there any other evidence that these passages are referring to the destruction of Jerusalem?
Jesus said, “This generation shall not pass away till all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:24).
“Yet the predicted judgment did not immediately follow; for Christ prayed for His murderers in His dying hour, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Lu. 23:34). In answer to that prayer the full probationary period of forty years (A.D. 30 to A.D. 70) was added to their national existence, during which time repentance and remission of sins was preached to them in the Name of the crucified and risen One, and tens of thousands of Jews were saved.”
(Philip Mauro, The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation).
• So what is the exact date of the “Great Tribulation”? 70 AD – in the past!
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
