That Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks is the most amazing prophecy in the Bible is almost universally heralded. I, for one, would add my voice to the heralds of this prophecy as the most amazing in all of Scripture. Yet, I fear it is also the most misinterpreted prophecy in all of Scripture, resulting in most of the eschatological error in the evangelical church today.

The word eschatology simply means the study of the end times or last things. The most popular school of eschatology within the contemporary evangelical church is undoubtedly premillennial dispensationalism. Premillennial dispensationalism is an interpretation of biblical prophecy that was unheard of before 1830. Although much controversy surrounds its origin, it is usually attributed to John Nelson Darby, one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren movement. Though attributed to Darby, its modern-day popularity is attributable to a trio of sources: the Scofield Reference Bible (1917), Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth (1970), and Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins Left Behind series (1995-2007).

A key component in premillennial dispensationalism is a belief in a seven year period prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ known as the Tribulation. In fact, the removal of this seven year period, for all practical purposes, would dismantle this most popular school of eschatology. The question must therefore be asked: "Where is this key component of premillennial dispensationalism—the so-called Tribulation—found in Scripture?" The answer may surprise you; It isn't!

I've always found it interesting that we are hard-pressed to find in God's Word much of what we believe today about the end times. For instance, the word "rapture" does not appear anywhere in the Bible. It comes from the Latin Vulgate, which was a fifth century translation of the Bible into Latin by Jerome. It served as the main Bible of the Latin speaking medieval Western Church until the time of the Reformation. In the Vulgate, the Greek word for “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is translated into the Latin word “rapere.” It is from this Latin word that we get our English word “rapture.” Still, in spite of its conspicuous absence from Holy Writ, the secret "Rapture" of the church, just like the seven year "Tribulation" period, is a key component of premillennial dispensationalism.

While the Bible has much to say about "tribulation" and even"great tribulation," nowhere does it designate a seven year period as the "Tribulation" or the last half of that period as the "Great Tribulation." To show just one of several glaring holes that Scripture shoots through the Premillennial Dispensationalist's Tribulation theory, consider the following.

As any serious student of the Bible knows, the number seven has great significance in the Scripture. Therefore, Scripture’s failure to specify anywhere on its sacred pages a seven-year period as the “Tribulation” should create serious questions over this key component of premillennial dispensationalism. Not even the Book of Revelation, which is not only the Bible's most famous book on prophecy, but also a book of sevens, mentions a seven-year period. It mentions seven Spirits (1:4), seven churches (1:11), seven golden candlesticks (1:12), seven stars (1:16), seven seals (5:1), seven horns (5:6), seven eyes (5:6), seven angels (8:2), seven trumpets (8:2), seven thunders (10:3), seven thousand slain (11:13), seven heads (12: 3; 13:1; 17:3), seven crowns (12:3), seven plagues (15:1), seven bowls (15:7), seven mountains (17:9), and even seven kings (17:10). Yet, it never mentions seven years.

To overlook the conspicuous absence of any mention of this seven year period in Scripture is a leap of faith in the likes of John Nelson Darby, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye that I'm just not willing to make. Others might, but I won't, nor do I believe that any Berean should (Acts 17:10-11). As the ancient Prophet Isaiah said, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).

Where do premillennial dispensationalists turn in the Bible to substantiate their belief about a seven year Tribulation period? The answer is Daniel's amazing prophecy of the seventy weeks (Daniel 9:24-27). This prophecy alone provides them with their lone prooftext.

By cutting the seventieth week of Daniel's seventy weeks away from the rest of the sequential prophecy and posting it at the end of time, premillennial dispensationalists provide themselves with a single piece of scriptural evidence for distinguishing the seven years prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as the "Tribulation" period. Without this, they are without a scriptural peg to hang their "Tribulation" hat on. Their theory falls to the floor without any scriptural support.

Granted, at this point, all of my premillennial dispensationalists friends are screaming bloody murder. They will argue that the Scripture is rife with references to the "Tribulation." However, each reference they sight, apart from Daniel's seventy weeks, will be a verse or passage devoid of any distinguished and defined seven year period, as well as a verse or passage that they are viewing through the lens of premillennial dispensationalism and prejudicially interpreting with their preconceived assumption that John Nelson Darby was right.

Perhaps, a good place to start with Daniel's amazing prophecy of the seventy weeks is with what scriptural justification there is, if any, for ripping the final week from the other sixty-nine.

In response to Daniel's prayer about God's future plans for the Jewish people, the Angel Gabriel is dispatched to inform the prophet that God still has "Seventy weeks…determined [for his] people and [their] holy city" (Daniel 9:24). It is commonly believed that the "weeks" in this amazing prophecy are not weeks of days, but weeks of years. This is based on two strong arguments.

First, the Hebrew word used for "weeks" is "heptads," which literally means "sevens." There is no specification in the original text as to whether seventy sevens of days, weeks, months or years are intended. Since there is no corresponding meaning that can possibly be associated with the prophecy pertaining to a period of 490 days, 490 weeks or 490 months, but only to a period of 490 years, it is believed that the weeks spoken of in the prophecy are to be understood as weeks of years.

Second, interpreting the prophecy, as we shall see in the days ahead, as a period of 490 years, results in such an amazingly accurate accounting of Israel's history from the time of the prophecy's commencement—"the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" (v. 25)—until the time of the prophecy's consummation—"even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate" (v.27)—that it makes any other interpretation of the prophecy's seventy weeks completely untenable. The amazing historical accuracy of this prophecy leaves no question as to its divine inspiration nor its intended time frame.

As we shall easily prove in the days ahead, the first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel's amazing prophecy are to be understood as sequential. The prophesied period begins at a certain point in time and continues uninterrupted until its completion. Of this, there is little doubt or debate among modern-day evangelicals. Yet, when it comes to premillennial dispensationalists, they insist that the final week of the prophecy is not sequential, but must be cut away from the preceding sixty-nine consecutive weeks and stuck at the end of time. It is, they argue, to be understood as separate from the other sixty-nine weeks, representing, according to them, the final seven years immediately preceding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This contention by premillennial dispensationalists necessitates the question: "On what grounds do they justify such a belief?”

Premillennial dispensationalists will answer this question by arguing for their belief in the dichotomy between Israel and the church. In other words, they will insist that Scripture be interpreted to conform to their beliefs, not that their beliefs be conformed to what Scripture says. They will, therefore, take a prophecy of consecutive weeks and cut the last one off in order to keep their preconceived theory intact, arguing, all the while, for the complete orthodoxy of their position.

In our next blog in this series we will explore the scriptural grounds premillennial dispensationalists stand on when arguing for their belief in the dichotomy between Israel and the church. Make no mistake about it; this conviction of theirs serves as the coal that fuels their engine. It not only necessitates their belief in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church and the ripping away of the final week of Daniel's prophecy to the end of time, but it also serves as a cornerstone in the foundation of premillennial dispensationalism itself. If it is removed, their whole eschatological theory collapses.

As we've already noted in this series of blogs, today's most popular school of eschatology, premillennial dispensationalism, is normally attributed to John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). For instance, one of premillennial dispensationalism's most ardent champions of the twentieth century, the late Dr. John Walvoord, admitted that his view of the end times was formulated by Darby and unheard of before Darby's time. One cannot help but appreciate such candor from so excellent a biblical scholar, one who served as the president of the prestigious Dallas Theological Seminary for years. Unlike Dr.Walvoord, many contemporary premillennial dispensationalists would have us to believe that their theory of eschatology was preached as early as the first century by none other than the Apostle Paul.

John Nelson Darby started out in the ministry as an ordained Anglican priest, but became famous for helping to launch the Plymouth Brethren movement, a movement launched from informal worship services conducted in homes. Along with being instrumental in the founding of the Plymouth Brethren, Darby is also known today as “the father of dispensationalism.” Dispensationalism is a school of biblical interpretation that not only insists upon interpreting all Scripture literally, but also rightly dividing it by limiting its application to the particular age or dispensation to which Scripture is speaking.

According to dispensationalism, history should be divided into separate dispensations or ages. In each dispensation, man is tested by God as to his obedience to God’s revealed will for that particular period of time. Although some dispensationalists belief in as many as nine dispensations, all believe in at least seven:

(1) THE AGE OF INNOCENCE – Creation to the Fall

(2) THE AGE OF CONSCIENCE – The Fall to the Flood

(3) THE AGE OF GOVERNMENT – Noah to Abraham

(4) THE AGE OF PROMISE OR PATRIARCHS – Abraham to Moses

(5) THE AGE OF LAW – Moses to Jesus

(6) THE AGE OF GRACE OR THE CHURCH AGE – The Incarnation to the Second Coming

(7) THE KINGDOM OR MILLENNIAL AGE – The Millennial Reign of Christ, which commences at Christ’s Second Coming.

Perhaps, the best example, not to mention the most essential component of dispensationalism, is the Israel/Church dichotomy. According to Darby, nothing that God ever said to Israel should be applied to the church and nothing that God ever said to the church should be applied to Israel. God’s plans for Israel (His earthly people) and the church (His Heavenly people) are totally different and must be kept separate from one another at all times. In addition, these separate plans can never operate concurrently upon the earth, since an eternal God only works in one dispensation at a time.

Once the above school of scriptural interpretation is swallowed, it necessitates a belief in the church being taken out of the world in order for God to return to His plan for Israel. This current dispensation—the Church Age—must end before God can fulfill His literal promises to the physical descendants of Abraham. Obviously, this school of biblical interpretation spawns the belief in a secret rapture of the church prior to the premillennial dispensationalist's supposed seven-year tribulation period. Only in the church's absence can God turn his attention back to Israel during the final seven years before Christ's return.

Although premillennial dispensationalists cringe at the mere suggestion, their pet doctrine—the secret rapture of the church—did not originate with the "father of dispensationalism," John Nelson Darby. Instead, it was first articulated by Edward Irving, a defrocked Presbyterian pastor, who appears to have received it from a Scottish lassie named Margaret Macdonald. Irving was teaching it to his followers, who later became known as "Irvingites," before Darby ever incorporated it into dispensationalism. Still, despite the fact that he cannot be credited as the originator of the secret rapture doctrine, John Nelson Darby is undoubtedly the man who birthed, systematized and proliferated premillennial dispensationalism.

Darby and his Plymouth Brethren were preaching premillennial dispensationalism in Ireland as early as 1831. Soon thereafter, they were propagating it to other parts of the world.

John Nelson Darby visited America at least five times. Although he won few converts to his new views of biblical interpretation and eschatology, he was able to win over some influential American evangelicals. One of these, John Inglis, used his magazine, Waymarks In The Wilderness, to introduce premillennial dispensationalism to North America. Another, James H. Brookes, pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri, organized the Niagara Bible Conference for the express purpose of disseminating premillennial dispensationalism in this country.

One of Rev. James Brookes’ parishioners, who also attended the Niagara Bible Conference, was a lawyer by the name of Cyrus Ingerson Scofield. C. I. Scofield became so enamored with premillennial dispensationalism that he devoted himself to the publishing of an annotated study Bible containing his own study notes on premillennial dispensationalism. Published in 1909 and revised in 1917, Scofield’s Study Bible proved to be a literary coup for premillennial dispensationalists. Nothing in the history of this country has ever done more to legitimize premillennial dispensationalism than the Scofield Reference Bible.

Whereas the Scofield Reference Bible may be credited for doing more than anything else to legitimize premillennial dispensationalism, it was Hal Lindsey’s 1970 bestseller, The Late Great Planet Earth, that did more than anything else to popularize premillennial dispensationalism in this country. Lindsey’s book not only sold millions of copies, but was also adapted into a motion picture narrated by Orson Wells in 1979. Unlike previous books on prophecy, which were sold only in Christian bookstores, Lindsey’s book was sold in secular bookstores right along side gothic romances, cheap westerns and books on dieting, organic gardening, and UFOs. It could even be picked up along with the latest celebrity scandal sheet in the checkout line of your local drugstore or supermarket. As a result, Lindsey’s book exposed a far wider audience to premillennial dispensationalism. It wasn’t just Christian prophecy wonks who bought and read Lindsey’s book and paid to see the movie adaptation, but scores of unbelievers as well, people who had no previous knowledge of Bible prophecy nor any interest in it.

Much like Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ recent series of Left Behind novels have exposed millions of people to premillennial dispensationalism. Incredibly, over 40 million copies in the series have been sold to date. In 2000, the first novel in the series was made into a full-length motion picture, Left Behind: The Movie. However, due to the movie’s dismal performance at the box office, two subsequent sequels have been released straight to video and DVD, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force and Left Behind: World at War. Truly, LaHaye and Jenkins’ books have done what Lindsey’s book did before them, leant credence to, as well as publicized the beliefs of premillennial dispensationalism.

Unfortunately, premillennial dispensationalism has become so popular with today's evangelicals that many of them equate it with doctrinal orthodoxy. In other words, any disagreement with this widely accepted school of eschatology is paramount in the minds of many evangelicals to heresy on the part of all dissenters.

Adherence to premillennial dispensationalism necessitates a “rightly divided” interpretation of God’s Word. All Scripture must be exclusively applied to its dispensation alone. In the premillennial dispensationalist’s mind, some Scripture speaks exclusively to one age, other Scripture speaks exclusively to other ages, and no Scripture speaks to all ages. Thus, what God says to Israel has no application to the church and what God says to the church has no application to Israel. The twain shall never meet; if they should, premillennial dispensationalism would be blown to smithereens.

This Israel/church dichotomy is of paramount importance to premillennial dispensationalists. As we noted in our last blog, to them, God’s plans for Israel (His earthly people) and the church (His heavenly people) are totally different and must be kept separate at all times. In addition, these separate plans can never operate concurrently upon the earth, since an eternal God limits Himself to working in only one dispensation at a time.

It is easy to understand why all classical premillennial dispensationalists are pretribulationists. They believe that God cannot turn back to His plan for Israel until the church is removed from the world, bringing to an end this current dispensation—the Church Age. Only then can God fulfill His literal promises to the physical descendants of Abraham. If the premillennial dispensationalist cannot keep God’s plans for the church and Israel separate from one another at all times, then the rug is pulled out from under his feet and dispensationalism’s house of cards comes crashing down.

Premillennial dispensationalism is undoubtedly the most popular school of eschatology in the world today. Many of today’s most popular preachers and Christian authors are premillennial dispensationalists. As stated above, this widely accepted view of the end times is equated with doctrinal orthodoxy in many evangelical circles. In other words, to disagree with premillennial dispensationalists is to run the risk of being accused of heresy, a potentially ruinous accusation that has a very chilling effect on all honest debate.

Premillennial dispensationalism is the belief that God’s New Covenant with the church—His heavenly people—is a mere parenthesis or footnote in His ultimate plan to fulfill His Old Covenant promises to Israel—His chosen and earthly people. This belief exalts Jewry so much in the minds of premillennial dispensationalists that many of them equate any disagreement with them over God’s favoring of the Jewish people over all other people as anti-Semitism. In spite of the fact that the Apostle Peter plainly declared in the Gentile home of Cornelius, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), premillennial dispensationalists insist that God is a respecter of persons, making such a huge distinction between Jews and Gentiles that His plan for the former is primary and for the latter only secondary.

To illustrate the inordinately high pedestal that premillennial dispensationalists have erected for the exaltation of the Jewish people, permit me to share a couple of quotes from one of their foremost proponents. In a 2006 newsletter, Dave Hunt, a prolific author and popular premillennial dispensationalist apologist, wrote, “Unquestionably, Israel is the major subject of God’s Holy Word.” I find Hunt’s statement to be far from unquestionable; in fact, I find it to be indefensible, especially in light of the fact that Jesus plainly declared Himself to be the major subject of God’s Holy Word. In John 5:39, Christ clearly states, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” The whole purpose of the Scripture is to testify of Christ, so that all men, both Jews and Gentiles, will come to Him.

In Hunt’s August 2006 newsletter, he went so far as to suggest that Christ “is coming in power and glory to punish the world for its abuse of His people Israel.” I thought Christ was coming back to judge the world for its rejection of Him. Isn’t our eternal destinies determined by what we do with Jesus, rather than by how we treat Jewish people? Don’t get me wrong, the mistreatment of Jewish people, just like the mistreatment of any people, is an inexcusable crime against God and humanity. Like all forms of racism and fascism, anti-Semitism is equally deplorable. Nevertheless, it is not the reason for God’s impending judgment upon our world. It is our world’s rejection of Jesus Christ alone that has put us in the crosshairs of divine retribution.

Sometime ago, my administrative assistant shared an email with me from a retired Baptist minister. Although I was unfamiliar with the man, I was able to easily discern that he was a member of the premillennial dispensationalist’s camp. In his email, he alleged that the “primary reason the United States has been so blessed by God is [because] it has been a safe haven for God’s people, the Jews.” He went on to add, “That’s about the only thing left that stays God’s wrath from coming big time on [our] country.” Now, I don’t know about you, but to suggest that a nation’s treatment of Jewish people, regardless of how it treats other people, is the determining factor in whether it is blessed by God or judged by God is way over the top to me.

No one who believes the Bible can deny that Israel plays a special role in God’s plans and purposes. Furthermore, as Paul indicates in Romans 9-11, Israel’s role in God’s plan is not yet played out. Still, in spite of the undeniable importance of Israel in the plans and purposes of God, there is no justification for the preferential status and inflated importance that premillennial dispensationalists assign to the Jewish people in the divine program.

God has a special plan for your life and mine, but this doesn’t mean that he favors you and me over other people. Neither does it mean that our need of Christ is any less than anyone else’s or that God sees our standing in Christ as superior to any other Christians. Likewise, God’s special plan for the Jews should not be misinterpreted into some kind of divine discrimination against Gentiles. Neither should we erroneously conclude that Jewish people somehow need Christ less than others or that Jewish Christians are somehow given a superior standing in Christ.

Along with condemning everyone as being anti-Semitic who disagrees with them over God’s preferential treatment of the Jews, many premillennial dispensationalists also condemn everyone as being a heretic who refuses to elevate Old Testament shadows over New Testament substance. Despite the fact that the Book of Hebrews teaches that the New Covenant is a “better covenant” with “better promises” (Hebrews 8:6), premillennial dispensationalists insist that the Old Covenant with its inferior promises actually takes precedence over the New. In fact, many suggest that God just threw in the church and the New Covenant until the time comes for Him to turn back to Israel and the Old Covenant.

This explains the premillennial dispensationalist’s preoccupation with:

(1) National Israel, instead of the church, which Paul calls “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16)

(2) The naturally born physical seed of Abraham, instead of the supernaturally born spiritual seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:29)

(3) Middle Eastern real estate, instead of a “better” and “heavenly” country (Hebrews 11:16)

(4) The earthly city of Jerusalem, instead of the “heavenly Jerusalem,” a city “whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10, 12:22)

(5) A rebuilt Jewish temple, instead of the church, which is the “holy temple” and “spiritual habitation” of God in the world today (Ephesians 2:19-22)

(6) Reestablished animal sacrifices, instead of the once and for all sacrifice of Christ upon the cross of Calvary, which has done away with all other sacrifices for sin (Hebrews 10:10, 26)

(7) A reinstituted Levitical priesthood comprised of Levites alone, instead of the “royal priesthood” comprised of all believers in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9)

(8) And, whether Jews or Gentiles are governing Palestine, instead of whether Jews and Gentiles are going to Heaven!

As the above clearly illustrates, premillennial dispensationalism does great violence to the progression of Bible prophecy. Instead of going from the shadows of the Old Testament’s types-of-Christ to the substance of Christ Himself in the New Testament, and then from the New Testament substance to the spiritual realities that are ours in Christ today, premillennial dispensationalism teaches that the ultimate fulfillment of Bible prophecy is found in a return to Old Testament types and shadows. Such a hypothesis flies in the face of Scripture and shifts the divine text into reverse. It is tantamount to telling someone with an earned PhD that a repeat of preschool will prove to be their ultimate educational experience.

In our next blog, we will take up Daniel 9:24-27, the text of Daniel's amazing seventy-weeks prophecy, in earnest. Permit me at this point, however, to conclude today's blog with a simple timetable of how premillennial dispensationalists paint up the playing out of the end times.

(1) THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES –The Church Age (Luke 21:24)

(2) THE RAPTURE –The First Part of the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

(3) THE TRIBULATION – The Seventieth Week of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27)

(4) THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION – The Antichrist’s Desecration of a Rebuilt Jewish Temple (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14)

(5) THE GREAT TRIBULATION – The Last Three and a Half Years of the Seven Year Tribulation Period (Matthew 24:21)

(6) THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON – The Gathering Together of the World’s Forces Against God and His Anointed (Revelation 16:16)

(7) THE REVELATION – The Second Part of the Second Coming of Christ (Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26)

(8) THE BEAST AND THE FALSE PROPHET THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE (Revelation 19:20)

(9) THE MILLENNIUM – Satan Bound (Revelation 20:1-6)

(10) GOG AND MAGOG – Satan Loosed (Revelation 20:7-9)

(11) SATAN THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE (Revelation 20:10)

(12) THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT – The Judgment of the Lost (Revelation 20:11-15)

(13) THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH – The Eternal State (Revelation 21:1-5)

In this blog, we will begin to take up the text of Daniel's amazing seventy weeks prophecy. As we've already observed and discussed, the Angel Gabriel is dispatched and sent in answer to the Prophet Daniel's prayer about God's future plans for the Jewish people. The angel reveals that "seventy weeks" have been decreed by God for Daniel's people in the divine program (Daniel 9:24). These weeks, as we have already shown, are believed, for good reason, to be weeks of years not weeks of days. Therefore, Daniel is told by the angel that God's future plan for Israel will span a period of 490 years.

The commencement of the 490 years is specifically pinpointed by the angel. It begins with "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem" (Daniel 9:25). We know from history, as well as from the Word of God, when this decree took place. It happened in 445 B.C., when the Persian King Artaxerxes I commanded the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1-8).

According to the prophecy, we are to count out "seven weeks" or 49 years from the time Artaxerxes I decreed the rebuilding of Jerusalem. If we do so, we come to the year 396 B.C., which marks the end of the ministry of the Prophet Malachi.

As the last of the Old Testament prophets, the end of Malachi's ministry marked not only the end of the Old Testament period, but also the beginning of a period of silence between the Testaments that lasted more than 400 years. During this time there was no prophet. This prophetic silence was finally broken, however, by the "voice" of John the Baptist "crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3).

The next thing we are instructed to do by this amazing prophecy is to count out 62 weeks—"threescore and two weeks"—or 434 years from the end of Malachi's ministry in 396 B.C. We are told that the addition of these 434 years (62 weeks) to the initial 49 years (seven weeks) will bring us from "the commandment" of Artaxerxes I "to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem" unto the coming of "the Messiah the Prince" (Daniel 9:25). Incredibly and inexplicably, apart from divine inspiration, the 69 weeks or 483 years brings us to the year 29 A.D., which happens to be "the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar" and the very same year that Christ was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan (Luke 3:1-22).

To arrive at 29 A.D., one must convert our solar calendar to the Hebrew's lunar calendar and factor in our western calendar's miscalculation of the birth of Christ. Once one does, the prophecy amazingly pinpoints the commencement of our Lord's public ministry and the anointing of "the most holy" (Daniel 9:24). Remember, John the Baptist said, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him" (John 1:32).

The next thing that the prophecy predicts is that "after [the] threescore and two weeks," which follows the initial "seven weeks," the Messiah shall "be cut off, but not for himself" (Daniel 9:26). This is an unmistakable reference to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, who did not die for Himself, but for the sin of the whole world (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2).

Before moving on, we should point out that there is another possible interpretation of the Hebrew in this verse. It may also be interpreted to mean that the Messiah shall "be cut off, but without the kingdom," which would have been a real eyebrow raiser for the Jews of Daniel's day. Today, however, we understand that though the Kingdom commenced with the first coming of Christ (Matthew 4:17; Luke 11:20) and continues today in the hearts of Christians (Luke 17:20-21), it will not be consummated until Christ returns again (1 Corinthians 15:24).

Up until this point, there is little disagreement over the meaning of Daniel's amazing prophecy. From this point on, however, there is much disagreement, controversy and confusion. Unfortunately, there doesn't need to be. The prophecy actually makes perfect sense if understood sequentially and interpreted in its context, as we will plainly show in subsequent blogs in this series. Yet, it is the preconceived ideas of premillennial dispensationalists that forbid such an interpretation of the text and force upon us another interpretation, one that is absolutely imperative if they are to keep their end time theory intact.

The premillennial dispensationalist's interpretation of this amazing prophecy not only does extreme violence to the text itself, but is also unsupportable by any other Scripture; that is, any other Scripture not viewed through the presuppositional lenses of premillennial dispensationalism. I intend to prove this supposition of mine by asking premillennial dispensationalists questions that will prove scripturally unanswerable to them at the end of this series. Stay tuned!

When it comes to Daniel's amazing prophecy of the seventy weeks, everything is running along smoothly until we come to these words in Daniel 9:26, "…and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." Suddenly, without explanation or scriptural justification, premillennial dispensationalists insist that we cut this portion of the prophecy off from the natural sequence of the text. In addition, they also insist that we jump all of the way to the end of time to find the fulfillment of this "prince that shall come" in an end time world ruler dubbed by them as the “antichrist."

History plainly shows that such scriptural contortions are absolutely unnecessary for the proper understanding of this incredible prophecy. We know for a fact that after "Messiah [was] cut off"; that is, after Christ was crucified, a "prince" (Titus the Roman) came with his "people" (the Roman Legions) and "destroyed the city" (Jerusalem) "and the sanctuary" (the temple) in 70 A.D. What easier or more natural interpretation could there be of this portion of the prophecy? It falls effortlessly and perfectly into place. Why then should we go through scriptural contortions to accommodate the proponents of premillennial dispensationalism?

One of the key proponents of premillennial dispensationalism is its teaching of an end time world ruler called the "antichrist." What may come as a surprise to you is that the word "antichrist" is only found four times in all of Scripture. It occurs three times in 1 John and once in 2 John. In 1 John, it is found in 4:3 and 2:22, as well as 2:18, where the plural "antichrists" is also found. Its lone reference in 2 John is in verse 7. The only New Testament writer to utilize the term is the Apostle John. Interestingly, John never mentions it in his Gospel or the Book of Revelation, but only sparingly in two of his three New Testament epistles.

We may safely gather from John's use of the term in his first two epistles that he considered anyone who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as an antichrist, regardless of their professed belief in God, even if their professed belief was in God the Father (1 John 2:22-23). To deny Christ, according to John, was to deny the Father. On the other hand, to acknowledge Christ was to acknowledge the Father who had sent Him (John 5:23).

In addition, John obviously ascribed other meaning to the term "antichrist." First, he used it to describe the growing spirit of antichrist in the world, a spirit that is reaching its peak in our own day in the world's escalating animosity toward Christ and His church. Second, he used it of the growing number of false teachers who embody this spirit. Finally, it may also be concluded, without taking liberties with the Scripture, that John also used the term to describe the crest of this antichrist spirit which would break over the whole world in a final and consummate false teacher and possible world leader.

In light of the above, I believe that the premillennial dispensationalist's use of the term "antichrist" does indeed have scriptural foundation, but it is their proliferation of the term and application of it to everything from Daniel's "prince that shall come" to Paul's "man of sin" (2 Thessalonians 2:3) that I find scripturally suspect. For sure, there is no scriptural justification for closing our eyes to the obvious fulfillment of Daniel's "prince that shall come" in Titus the Roman and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Likewise, there is no scriptural reason to force upon ourselves the premillennial dispensationalist's contrived interpretation of this portion of Daniel's prophecy as futuristic, pointing to a supposed end time world ruler who will destroy a presently nonexistent Jewish temple.

Now, at this point, my premillennial dispensationalists friends will cry, "Foul!" They will insist that the violence they do to the plain meaning of the text of Daniel's amazing prophecy is necessitated by our Lord's teaching in the Olivet Discourse. Did He not say, "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:)" (Matthew 24:15). Yes, He did, but, once again, the premillennial dispensationalist's problem is seen in the fact that he approaches this text, like all others, with his preconceived ideas. In our next blog, we will begin to show that these words of Jesus were actually referring to Titus the Roman's destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., not, as premillennial dispensationalists suppose, to some future antichrist's destruction of a rebuilt Jewish temple.

In Matthew Chapter 23, our Lord decimates the hypocritical religious leaders of Israel. Following His fiery sermon of eight "woes" to the "scribes and Pharisees," He announces to His generation, which He castigates as a "generation of vipers," that it will be the recipient of the wrath and judgment of God for "all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias."

Next, our Lord boldly announces that "your house"—the Jewish temple—will be "left…desolate." It will be a spiritual desolation, as it has been ever since its destruction by Titus the Roman in 70 A.D. For instance, standing on the Temple Mount today is the third holiest site in all of Islam, the Mosque of Omar or the Dome of the Rock. Acribed on its stone walls for all of the world to read is this Christ-rejecting proclamation: "GOD HAS NO SON.”

Do you remember the chilling words of the Jewish people to Pontius Pilate in Matthew 27:25, "His blood be on us, and on our children"? There is probably no better testimony to the seriousness of rejecting Christ than the tragic history of the Jewish people. Christ's blood upon them and God's judgment of them is clearly seen not only in the nearly 2,000 year spiritual desolation of their temple site, but also in their own spiritual dearth.

The percentage of religiously devout Jews in the world today is miniscule. By far the vast majority of modern-day Jewry is secular, not spiritual. Right or wrong, Jewish people are not normally seen as religionists, but as materialists; and it is the power and influence associated with wealth that often spawns the horror of anti-Semitism. Contrary to popular opinion, it is Zionism, not Judaism, that gave rise to the modern-day state of Israel and it is just as unlawful to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a street corner in Jerusalem as it is on a street corner in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

None of this should be misinterpreted as anti-Semitism. Also, no one should miscue what I'm saying to mean that the Jewish people are the crucifiers of Christ. It was the sins of the whole world, the sins of Jews and Gentiles, that nailed Christ to the tree. We, both you and me, are as guilty of Christ's crucifixion as the Roman soldiers who took up the hammer and drove the wooden spikes. Still, we should not, as premillennial dispensationalism suggests, exonerate the Jewish people and disregard the facts of history simply because of some erroneous eschatological teaching that makes God out to be a respecter of persons and the Jewish people out to be His favored race.

Following His fiery sermon in Matthew 23, the Bible tells us that "Jesus went out, and departed from the temple" (Matthew 24:1). He never returned to the temple again! His disciples, as is proven by the fact that they attempted to persuade Him to turn back and once again look fondly upon "the buildings of the temple,” understood what was happening. Christ was turning His back on the religious center of Jewish life, having declared it spiritually desolate.

In response to the pleas of His disciples to return to the temple, Jesus said, "See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Matthew 24:2). To the disciples this comment of Christ must have seemed incomprehensible. He was radically proclaiming to them that their cherished temple was no big deal! It no longer mattered.

It was this same amazing message that resulted in the stoning of Steven, the first Christian martyr (Acts 7:1-60). The Jews became so enraged at Stephen that they stoned him to death simply because he declared that "the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Don't forget that it was the Jews' mistaken belief that the Apostle Paul had desecrated their precious temple by soiling its sacred terrain with the Gentile sandals of a companion that caused them to riot in Jerusalem and nearly beat Paul to death (Acts 21:27-34). Apart from divine providence, the only thing that prevented Paul's death on this occasion was the intervention of Roman troops.

Despite the fact that the crowd continued to call for Paul's death after he was taken into Roman custody, they did quieten down enough to listen to his defense until he dared to utter the word "Gentile" (Acts 21:35-22:22), at which time they once again broke out into an uncontrollable rant—"Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!" Of course, all of this resulted in the two-year imprisonment of the Apostle Paul.

The moral of both Paul and Stephen's stories is that you shouldn't speak against the brick and mortar of a Jewish Temple or for the equal standing of Gentiles in the eyes of God. Interestingly, the only people toeing this line today, apart from a miniscule amount of orthodox Jews, is premillennial dispensationalists, with their exaggerated elevation of Israel and the sensational significance they readily ascribe to a rebuilt Jewish Temple.

Contrary to the teachings of premillennial dispensationalism, the Bible plainly teaches us that ever since the Incarnation the temple of God has been the body of Christ, not some man-made building. Whereas it was Christ’s physical body during His earthly sojourn, it is His spiritual body—the church—today!

During our Lord’s earthly life, God was alive in a man, the man Christ Jesus. It was Christ’s physical body that served as the temple of God. This explains our Lord’s response to sign-seeking Jews demanding confirmation of His claims—“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Although the Jews mistook our Lord’s promised bodily resurrection for a three day rebuilding of their cherished temple, John clearly points out that Jesus was speaking “of the temple of His body” (John 2:20-21).

Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, premillennial dispensationalists mistake a temple in Jerusalem for the true temple of God, which is the body of Christ. Of course, premillennial dispensationalists are referring to a predicted rebuilt Jewish temple, which they insist will be the temple of God. This, despite the fact that it will be rebuilt by the Jews in absolute rejection of Christ and His atoning sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for the sins of the world.

Rather than being alive in a man, God is alive today in men. The temple of God is still the body of Christ. It is no longer His physical body; however, it is now His spiritual body. Christ lives within Christians today in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit, making our bodies the temples of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16). All of us together comprise the church, which is the spiritual

body of Christ, as well as God’s “holy temple” and spiritual habitation within the world today (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 2:19-22).

The true temple of God today is not some impressive edifice like St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome or some future rebuilt temple on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Instead, it is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is comprised of all born again believers; that is, of all who are indwelt by the Spirit of God as a temple of God.

In Ezekiel 1-11, the Prophet Ezekiel has a vision of the Shekinah—the glory of God. He watches as it comes to the threshold of the temple, leaves the temple, leaves the city of Jerusalem, goes up to the top of the Mount of Olives, and finally ascends into Heaven. The meaning of the vision is clear. The glory has departed from Israel. "Icahbod" may be written over the city and its sanctuary.

In Matthew 23 and 24, we are told about the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy. As Simeon declared in Luke 2:32, Christ, the Messiah, is "the glory of [God's] people Israel." Here, in these two chapters of Matthew's Gospel, we are told about Jesus leaving the temple, leaving the city of Jerusalem, going up upon the Mount of Olives and giving to His disciples His famous Olivet Discourse. It is no coincidence that Christ later ascended into Heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:9-12). All of this was done in perfect fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy.

The glory has departed from Israel. "Icahbod" may be written over both the city of Jerusalem and its sanctuary. Although the Gospel was born there, it was eventually spread from there by a Spirit-empowered church to "all Judea…Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8), as the Book of Acts clearly testifies.

The Christian faith is a universal faith. Whosoever will may come (Revelation 22:17). In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile (Galatians 3:28). No earthly city is anymore important than any other. Though some may play a special role in God's plans and purposes, none represent earthly real estate in which God is more or less interested. Jesus is not into earthly edifices, but into His Father's house. The city that is important to Him is the celestial one, not any terrestrial ones.

Thanks to Christ, we have moved from the shadows of Old Testament types with their fading glory to the ever-increasing glory of New Testament truths. We've moved from Old Testament Israel to the new "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16), from the naturally born physical seed of Abraham to the supernaturally born spiritual seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), from the circumcision of the flesh to the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:28-29), from a physical temple to a spiritual temple (Ephesians 2:19-22), and from an earthly city of Jerusalem to the Heavenly city of Jerusalem (Hebrews 11:10; 12:22). Thus, no matter how hard premillennial dispensationalists attempt to shine up the departed glory of Old Testament types and shadows, it shall ever remain tarnished and dull in the light of the ever-increasing glory of New Testament truths (2 Corinthians 3:7-11).

The disciples thought that they were asking Christ a single question when they asked: "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age," (Matthew 24:3). They believed that the destruction of their temple—"when shall these things be?"— would mark "the end of the age." We know today, however, that such was not the case. Though the temple was destroyed almost 2,000 years ago, our world still awaits the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the end of the age.

Unbeknownst to them, the disciples actually asked two questions. They asked when their temple would be destroyed and when the Second Coming and the end of the age would occur. Therefore, to rightly divide our Lord's Olivet Discourse requires us to determine what part of the text is in response to which question. Only then can we properly interpret and understand Christ's answers to both questions.

It has been rightly observed that the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. What the Bible says in one place it explains in other places. To interpret the Bible in the context of the whole is the only way to come to a proper understanding of each part or passage. Thus, the question that we need to ask ourselves is: "Where else in Scripture can we turn to find the scriptural insight needed to correctly divide and interpret Christ's Olivet Discourse?”

In Revelation Chapter Six, we are given a summary of the events that will signal the end of the age and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The parallels between the signs in this chapter and those articulated by our Lord in the Olivet Discourse could not be more pronounced. Consider the following

(1) In Matthew 24:4-5, Jesus says, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." The sixth chapter of Revelation begins with Christ's breaking of the first seal and John seeing a rider on a white horse, who symbolizes a false Christ.

(2) In Matthew 24:6-7a, Jesus says, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…" In Revelation 6:3-4, the second seal is broken and John sees a rider on a red horse, who symbolizes war.

(3) In Matthew 24:7b, Jesus says, "…and there shall be famines." In Revelation 6:5-6, the third seal is broken and John sees a rider on a black horse, who symbolizes famine.

(4) In Matthew 24:7c, Jesus says, "and there shall be…pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." In Revelation 6:7-8, the fourth seal is broken and John sees a rider on a pale horse, who symbolizes death.

(5) In Matthew 24:8-14, Jesus warns of the great persecution that will come against those preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth. In Revelation 6:9-11, the fifth seal is broken and John sees "under the altar" in Heaven "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.”

(6) In Matthew 24:29-31, Jesus describes His Second Coming in a way that is almost verbatim with the description of it in Revelation 6:12-17, a description that follows Christ's breaking of the sixth seal.

Notice, we skipped Matthew 24:15-28. The reason we did so is because it has no parallel to Revelation Chapter Six or to the breaking of the first six seals.

The traditional dating of the Book of Revelation is around 95 A.D., a dating almost universally accepted by premillennial dispensationalists. If the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., twenty-five years before John wrote Revelation, what need would there have been for John to have referred to this past event in his prophetic writing? Obviously, there would have been none. Can we not therefore conclude that this parenthesized passage has no parallel in Revelation Chapter Six because it does not deal with the future Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but with the past destruction of the Jewish temple?

I believe that this conspicuous parenthesis—Matthew 24:15-28—in the midst of the Olivet Discourse's parallels with the signs of Christ's coming and of the end of the age in Revelation Chapter Six, clearly marks the portion of this passage in which Christ answers the disciples' initial question. In other words, it is here that He addresses the destruction of the temple.

By dividing this portion from the rest of the passage we can determine what part of the Olivet Discourse deals with which question. The parallel passages with Revelation Chapter Six deal with the question about Christ's Second Coming and the end of the age. The parenthesized passage deals with the question about the destruction of the Jewish temple.

This key to properly dividing and interpreting Christ's Olivet Discourse; namely, the parenthesized passage, begins with a key verse that is not only essential to understanding the Olivet Discourse, but also Daniel's amazing seventy weeks prophecy. This verse, Matthew 24:15, will be the subject of our next blog in this series. Don't miss it!

Our Lord's famous Olivet Discourse is recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke. In each Gospel, the words of our Lord correspond and coincide until Christ's statement: "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:)." While Matthew and Mark's Gospels continue to correspond and coincide (see Matthew 24:15 & Mark 13:14), Luke's parts company with the other two at this point. The parallel verse in Luke's Gospel reads: "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh" (Luke 21:20).

Why does Luke's Gospel differ at this point from Matthew's and Mark's? Matthew and Mark were Jewish authors writing primarily to a Jewish audience. Therefore, their readers understood what was meant by "the abomination of desolation." Luke, on the other hand, was a Gentile author writing primarily to a Gentile audience. His readers were unfamiliar with the expression "the abomination of desolation." Thus, he goes to the trouble of explaining it in his Gospel.

According to Luke, "the abomination of desolation," which Matthew and Mark says was "spoken of by Daniel the prophet," would be fulfilled when Jerusalem was surrounded and destroyed by armies. Of course, this occurred in 70 A.D., when the Roman armies surrounded and destroyed Jerusalem.

The thing that infuriated Osama bin Laden against America was American troops stationed on Saudi soil. To him, as well as to all Islamists, this was an abomination of desolation—the feet of infidels desecrating the sacred ground. Likewise, to the Jew, Gentiles were forbidden from trotting upon sacred soil. Remember, it was the Jews’ mistaken belief that the Apostle Paul had desecrated their precious temple by soiling its sacred terrain with the Gentile sandals of a companion that caused them to riot in Jerusalem and nearly beat Paul to death (Acts 21:27-34).

If a mere Gentile footprint on the sacred soil of the Temple Mount was an abomination of desolation to first century Jews, how much more so would the Roman Legions' complete destruction of Jerusalem and its temple be? For a Gentile to step foot on the sacred soil was one thing, but for them to trod it under their feet was something else altogether. It was bad enough for it to be desecrated, but much worse for it to be destroyed and left desolate, as the Prophet Daniel had predicted more than 500 years before it occurred.

So far in this series of blogs, we believe that we have rightly divided our Lord's Olivet Discourse, enabling us to determine what portion of the passage is dealing with which question. The disciples' initial question about the destruction of the temple is being answered in Matthew 24:15-28. Their second question, about Christ's Second Coming and the end of the age, is answered in Matthew 24:4-14, 29-31, the portions of our Lord's Olivet Discourse that perfectly parallel with the summarization of the end of the age in Revelation 6:1-17.

When we add to the above the light that Luke shines on the true meaning of Daniel's predicted "abomination of desolation," Matthew 24:15-28 takes on a whole new meaning. It is easier understood and the Jewishness of the passage suddenly makes perfect sense. For instance, consider the following:

➊ "Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains" (v. 16). This verse makes perfect sense when seen as a reference to the Romans' subduing of Judea prior to attacking Jerusalem. It makes no sense, however, if seen as a reference to an end-time antichrist desecrating a rebuilt Jewish temple, in which case it would be too late to flee.

➋ "Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house" (v.17). This makes perfect sense when seen as a reference to Jewish homes within the first century's walled cities. The homes, having flat roofs and being sandwiched together, formed a continuing terrace to the outer walls of the city. One's flight could therefore be expedited by following this elevated highway to the city's gate.

➌ "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day" (v. 20). The Jews of the first century would have been hindered in their flight by the inclement weather of winter and the rigid laws of the Sabbath.

➍ "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (v. 21). In writing about the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem in the introduction to his Wars of the Jews, the Jewish historian Josephus, who was an eyewitness to the calamity, wrote, "It appears to me that the misfortunes of all men from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to those of the Jews, are not so considerable as they were.”

It is obvious that our Lord is speaking here of Jewish tribulation, in particularly the pinnacle of it, which fell upon Jerusalem when it was under siege and subsequently destroyed by Titus the Roman in 70 A.D. Christ is not speaking, as is commonly believed, of a general tribulation that will exceed all others in scope or magnitude, since no calamity in history has reached nor will reach the magnitude of the flood, where only eight souls survived.

➎ "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (v. 22). Although this verse may be seized by premillennial dispensationalists as a refutation of our suggested interpretation of the Olivet Discourse, it is actually another strong piece of evidence for its substantiation.

In light of the first part of the verse—"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved"—consider the historical fact, as it is recorded by the famous Jewish historian Josephus, that almost the entire population of Jerusalem was annihilated during the Roman siege. In addition, consider the fact that Josephus saw the hand of divine providence in the cutting short of the siege and consequential sparing of a Jewish remnant.

In commenting on the inexplicable abandonment of Jewish strongholds by Jewish forces, which substantially cut short the Roman siege, Josephus writes: "They did wholly deprive themselves of the security they had in their own power, and came down from those very towers of their own accord, wherein they could never have been taken by force…They left those towers of themselves; or rather they were ejected out of them by God Himself.”

The second part of the verse—"but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened"—makes perfect sense when applied to the Christian community living in Palestine at the time of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. For instance, the Christian historian Eusebius wrote: "The whole body…of the church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation [our Lord's Olivet Discourse], given to men of approved piety there before the war, removed from the city and dwelt at a certain town beyond the Jordan, called Pella.”

The words and warnings of our Lord's Olivet Discourse were explicitly followed by the Christians of Judea and Jerusalem. The whole Christian community, under the leadership of Symeon, a cousin of Christ, withdrew to the village of Pella in Perea, which lay in the mountains east of the Sea of Galilee. As a result, not a single believer perished when Jerusalem was destroyed. If "those days" had not been "shortened," however, even the elect would have perished from a lack of basic necessities under the widening wrath of the Roman sword.

❻ "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (vs. 23-27).

The initial word of this passage—"then"—is of utmost importance. Christ's has already warned of the plethora of phony prophets and false Christs that will appear throughout time (Matthew 24:4-5, 11). Here, however, he is speaking specifically of those who would appear during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.

Many messianic impostors rose up during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. Many of them, according to Josephus, were "suborned by the tyrants [Jerusalem's leaders]…in order to keep [the people] from deserting." In view of God's manifold past interventions on behalf of Israel, the phony predictions of impending divine deliverance and the sleight-of-hand signs and wonders of these messianic pretenders was made easily believable to Jerusalem's gullible masses. Yet, Luke makes it plain in his inspired rendition of our Lord's Olivet Discourse that the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem would not be another time of great exploits by God on behalf of Israel, but a time of God's wrath upon a Christ-rejecting people.

Luke quotes our Lord as describing this time as "the days of vengeance" (21:22). He also includes our Lord's explanation of the "great distress" that was coming upon "the land" as a consequence of God's "wrath upon this people" (21:23). All of this adds up to the foolhardiness of Jerusalem's inhabitants looking for divine deliverance through phony messiahs while suffering divine retribution for the rejection of their promised Messiah.

According to Josephus, many people, having heard that the Messiah would appear in "the desert," deserted into "the desert" during the siege of Jerusalem. Tragically, all who did so were quickly captured and put to death by the Romans. The fires of such deception were undoubtedly fanned by the wilderness ministry of John the Baptist, whom many mistook for the Messiah (Luke 3:15; John 1:19-28). That this deception was prevalent even before the fall of Jerusalem can been ascertained by Acts 21:38, where one of these desert deceivers is said to have "led out into the wilderness four thousand men.”

Along with being enticed to go out into the desert, many inhabitants of Jerusalem were also enticed to go to the temple, having heard that the Messiah was hiding there in some "secret chamber." For instance, Josephus refers to one messianic pretender who "made a public proclamation in the city that God commanded them to get up upon the temple," so that they could "receive miraculous signs of deliverance." Unfortunately, the 6,000 who responded were not delivered, but burned alive when the Romans torched the temple.

To remove all ambiguity about His Second Coming, Christ boldly declares that His return shall be "as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west." It will not take place in a remote desert or a secret chamber of some temple. Neither will it be shrouded in secrecy or obscurity. Instead, it will be spectacular and as instantaneous as a flash of lightening across the eastern sky. It will be so obvious that there will be no question about its occurrence.

❼ "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (v. 28). These words of our Lord are perhaps the most pointed and solemn of all of His words in regards to the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus the Roman in 70 A.D. The Roman legions always carried ensigns into battle. Mounted upon them was the symbol of Rome; namely, the eagle. When Jerusalem saw itself surrounded by "eagles" mounted upon Roman ensigns it would know that it was "the carcass" upon which they had gathered to feed. The judgment of God had come, as well as "the abomination of desolation," which was "spoken of by Daniel the prophet.”

Today, we'll review what we've covered thus far in this series of blogs. Then, we'll return to Daniel's amazing prophecy of the seventy weeks in the concluding blogs of this series.

I am keenly aware of the fact that this series is proving quite lengthy and extensive; perhaps, too much so for today's light readers of Holy Writ. Yet, the subject before us is far too serious for casual consideration and demands our careful investigation. Thus, we plan to throughly travel this trail to the end without taking shortcuts with the Scripture. It is our hope that you will hold on and go on with us until the conclusion, at which time we'll welcome your comments and criticisms.

So far in this series of blogs we have endeavored to show the following:

(1) That without the sole prooftext of Daniel's amazing seventy weeks prophecy—a prooftext that fails to stand the test of sound biblical exegesis—the Bible contains no reference to the premillennial dispensationalist's seven year tribulation period. It is not even mentioned in the Book of Revelation, which is arguably the Bible's most important prophetic book, not to mention a book of "sevens."

(2) That today's most popular school of eschatology, premillennial dispensationalism, was unheard of before the year 1830 and that many of the chief terms it employs, such as "the rapture," are nowhere to be found in all of Scripture.

(3) That dispensationalism relegates the church, which Paul identifies as the eternal purpose of God (Ephesians 3:2-13), to a mere footnote in the divine program, while elevating the land of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants, in spite of Scripture's teaching "that God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34), to the preferred property and people of Heaven.

(4) That premillennial dispensationalism actually does such violence to the Scripture as to shift the divine text into reverse by advocating the preeminence of the departed glory of Old Testament types and shadows over the ever-increasing glory of New Testament truths and substance.

(5) That the seventy weeks of Daniel's prophecy should be interpreted as seventy weeks of years not seventy weeks of days. This conclusion is substantiated by two strong arguments. First, the Hebrew word used for “weeks” is “heptads,” which literally means “sevens,” leaving no specification in the original text as to whether seventy sevens of days, weeks, months or years are intended. Second, interpreting the seventy weeks as weeks of years (490 years) results in such an amazingly accurate account of the history of Israel as to leave no question concerning the prophecy's divine inspiration and intended time frame.

(6) That the seventy weeks of Daniel's amazing prophecy are to be interpreted sequentially as consecutive years and that there is no scriptural justification for severing the seventieth week from the other sixty-nine, much less, as premillennial dispensationalists insist, repositioning it at the end of time.

(7) That the only scriptural justification offered by premillennial dispensationalists for severing the seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy from the other sixty-nine is their misinterpretation of Jesus' reference to Daniel's "abomination of desolation" in the Olivet Discourse. Far from pointing to some future desecration of a rebuilt Jewish temple by an end time antichrist, as premillennial dispensationalists teach, Luke makes it plain that Jesus' reference to Daniel's predicted "abomination of desolation" was actually pointing to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus the Roman in 70 A.D. According to Luke, Christ described this then future event, predicted by Daniel more than 500 years before, as “the days of vengeance,” the time when God would pour out His “wrath upon" an unrepentant and Christ-rejecting Israel.

(8) That there is little disagreement over the first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel's amazing prophecy. The first seven weeks being seen as the forty-nine years between the command of Artaxeres I "to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem" to the end of the ministry of the Prophet Malachi. The following sixty-two weeks being seen as the 434 years that commenced with the closing of the Old Testament period, continued through more than 400 years of silence between the Testaments and concluded with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist at the River Jordan in “the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar.”

(9) That all the controversy over Daniel's amazing prophecy, in particularly its seventieth week, is caused by an interpretation forced upon us by premillennial dispensationalists for no other reason than to keep their end time theory intact. Yet, if the prophecy is viewed without premillennial dispensational prejudices and interpreted sequentially and contextually, it falls naturally, effortlessly and perfectly into place. It makes perfect sense, as we will endeavored to show in the concluding blogs of this study.

We've come to an crucial juncture in our understanding of Daniel's amazing seventy weeks prophecy, its final verse (Daniel 9:27). We've shown how everything up till now falls perfectly into place.

❶ God's seventy weeks (490 year) plan for Daniel's people, Israel.

❷ The first seven weeks (49 years) is the time between the command of Artaxeres I "to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem" to the end of the ministry of the Prophet Malachi.

❸ The following sixty-two weeks (434 years) is a time that commenced with the closing of the Old Testament period, continued through more than 400 years of silence between the Testaments and concluded with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist at the River Jordan in "the fifteenth years of Tiberius Caesar.”

❹ Although we've not taken the time to elaborate on every point, it should be clear to the serious student of Scripture how all that Daniel predicted—"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"—was fulfilled in Christ.

❺ Once the Messiah appeared, at the conclusion of the sixty-two weeks, He was "cut off, but not for himself." He died on the Cross of Calvary for the sin of the world.

❻ After Christ's crucifixion, in 70 A.D., the "prince" (Titus the Roman) came with the Roman Legions and destroyed "the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary [the temple].

❼ Since that time, the Temple Mount has remained a spiritual desolation, which is the "abomination of desolation" predicted not only by Daniel the prophet, but also by our Lord Himself.

When we get to the initial words of verse 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," it is imperative that we correctly identify the one to whom the prophecy is referring. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not some end time antichrist, who, as we have clearly shown, is not even mentioned in the passage. Such an insertion at this critical juncture is contrived from the premillennial dispensationalist's misinterpretation of "the prince that shall come" as an end time world ruler rather than Titus the Roman.

When it comes to Titus the Roman, he is obviously not the one being referred to here in verse 27. Far from confirming a covenant with the Jews, he mercilessly destroyed their capital and its temple in 70 A.D.

The only viable option left us is Christ, the Messiah, who is, after all, the subject of this whole passage, not to mention of every other passage in the Bible (John 5:39-40). The purpose for which Christ came, as the Scripture clearly testifies, was to "confirm the covenant"; that is, to establish God's promised new covenant with His covenant people (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:4-13; 12:18-24). The seventieth week of Daniel, therefore, commenced with the coming of Christ to establish God's promised new covenant.

According to Daniel, three and a half years into this seventieth week—"in the midst of the week"—the Messiah, who has come to establish the new covenant, will "cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." It is no coincidence that the ministry of our Lord lasted three and a half years and ended with Him doing away with sin once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross of Calvary (Hebrews 9:26; 10:10). According to Hebrews 10:26, now that Jesus has died on the cross for the sins of the world, "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." In other words, Christ's crucifixion has caused the cessation of all other sacrifices and oblations.

But what about Christ confirming "the covenant with many for one week," you protest. Well, I'm glad you asked. The fact that our Lord came as the promised Jewish Messiah is indisputable. He said Himself, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24). He initially commissioned the twelve to "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 10:5-6). All of Christ's original disciples were Jews, the church was born in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and all early believers were either Jews or Jewish proselytes.

Three and a half years after the crucifixion of Christ, which brings us to the end of Daniel's seventieth week, a week which began at the baptism of Jesus, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death. While dying, Stephen declared that he saw "the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). The Apostle Peter had previously preached to his fellow-Jews that if they would repent of rejecting their Messiah, God would immediately "send [back] Jesus Christ" and the "restitution of all things" would take place (Acts 3:19-21). Yet, the tragedy of the Jewish story is their refusal to repent of their rejection of Jesus Christ, a "stiffnecked" rejection of their promised Messiah that culminated in the stoning of Stephen.

Until the stoning of Stephen, Jesus had not sit down, but remained standing. He was willing to immediately return if the Jews repented of their rejection of Him, their promised Messiah. Yet, they never did. Although He confirmed the new covenant with many Jewish believers during Daniel's seventieth week, the seventieth week came to an end at the stoning of Stephen, God's predetermined plan for Daniel's people ended, a new age dawned, Jesus sit down and the Gospel was taken to the Gentile people of the world.

After the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, we are told in the very next chapter, Acts 8, that the Gospel was taken for the first time to someone other than Jews. Philip takes it to the Samaritans. In the next chapter, God's chosen vessel and apostle to the Gentile people of the world is converted on Damascus Road, Saul of Tarsus. In the next chapter, Peter takes the Gospel for the first time to Gentiles, learning, much to his own chagrin, that "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). From this point forward, the rest of the Book of Acts tells us the remarkable story of how the Gospel was taken to all of the world, both Jews and Gentiles.

Today, "whosoever will" may come (Revelation 22:17). It makes no difference if you are a Jew or Gentile. All that matters is that you believe in Christ. In Christ, all believers are one. The ground at the cross is level. All Christians are equal!

In our concluding blog of this series, we will deal with the final words of verse 27, which all commentators agree, is the most difficult part of the passage. We'll also challenge our premillennial dispensationalists friends (and I do mean friends) with a couple of scripturally unanswerable questions.

The final words of verse 27—"and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate"—which serve as the concluding words of Daniel's amazing seventy weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27), are the most difficult to understand and interpret, as all commentators agree. To begin with, the meaning of the original Hebrew is unknown. This obscurity of the original has resulted in divers translations of the text that suggest a variety of possible interpretations.

The one thing we can be sure of is that there is nothing hidden in the obscurity of this final comment that unravels the sound exegesis of the rest of the passage. Although some premillennial dispensationalists desperately attempt to proof otherwise, the prophecy's obscure conclusion must be interpreted in the clear context of all that precedes it.

One of the reasons I turned from my previous stint as a dyed-in-the-wool premillennial dispensationalists was the frequency with which I found myself hanging on white-knuckled to obscure biblical passages as prooftexts for my espoused eschatology. It seemed to me that if my eschatology was right it should be clearly seen in Scripture. I shouldn't have to pull it out of obscure passages like a magician does a rabbit out of a hat. Thus, I abandoned my "abracadabra" eschatology, my attempt to change what the Bible says to fit into my beliefs, for sound biblical exegesis, changing my beliefs to fit into what the Bible says.

Though the obscurity of the text prevents anyone from being dogmatic about it, I do believe it lends itself to an interpretation that is in perfect harmony with the prophecy as a whole. For instance, the famous Jewish historian, Josephus, says the following about the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by Titus the Roman: "The Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and all the buildings round about it, brought their ensigns into the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there they did offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus Imperator with greatest acclamations of joy.”

These events, as Daniel predicted, served as the completion of the spiritual desolation of Jerusalem and its temple. Having suffered the wrath and judgment of God for their rejection of their Messiah, spiritual desolation was "poured" out "upon the" spiritually "desolate" Jewish people. Furthermore, their spiritual desolation will continue "until the consummation"; that is, until Christ's returns and the surviving Jewish remanent finally recognize Him as their Messiah, repent of their rejection of Him, have their sin removed in a day, and all Israel is saved (Zechariah 3:9, 12:9-13:9; Romans 11:26-32).

One final thing may be noted, the Hebrew word used for "overspreading" implies a "wing" or "pinnacle." It suggest that the "abomination" or spiritual desolation shall spread or continue until something occurs that corresponds with the pinnacle of the temple. Do you remember the tempter's temptation of Christ to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple in an attempt to prove Himself the Promised Messiah (Luke 4:9-12)? Although our Lord resisted the temptation, having come in His Father's name and not His own, He predicted that another would one day come in his own name (John 5:43). When he does, according to Jesus, the Jews will "receive" him, a phony messiah, in spite of the fact that they rejected Christ, their promised Messiah. Is this what marks "the consummation" of the Jewish rejection of Christ and the "pinnacle" of their spiritual “desolations"?

As promised, we conclude this series of blogs with some questions for all of our premillennial dispensationalists friends:

❶ How can a rebuilt Jewish temple, built in complete rejection of Jesus Christ by Christ-rejecting Jews, possibly be called "the temple of God”?

❷How can the "abomination of desolation" be committed in such a spiritually desolate place?

❸ And why would God not be angry at the reinstitution of temple sacrifices by Christ-rejecting Jews rather than at their stoppage by some end time world ruler?