Daniel Chapter 9
Before I go any
further, I would like to first say that I am approaching this chapter from the Historicist
point of view. There is another view, called the Futurist, which interprets
this chapter in quite another way. If you are a Futurist, please bear with me.
My intention is only to present an alternative view, not to attack other views.
As we read this chapter
we see that Daniel understood something through the reading of some other
prophetic books. He even tells us what he understood, and we may also
understand the same thing if we read the same books. One of these books was the
collection of prophecies made by the prophet Jeremiah, namely Jeremiah 29:10.
Daniel understood that the seventy years of captivity had nearly finished, so
Daniel prayed that God would remember the captive people in
As a result of his
prayer, an angel came to Daniel and told him that there would be a time
“determined” or severed, or cut off, for: the city, and those who returned to
it. (Daniel made this prayer about 600 BC)
Now in the Bible,
prophetic time is measured in different ways. In this case days equal years, so
one week equals 7 years. See Ez.4:6 and Num.14:34.
The overall time
given in Dan.9:24-27 is seventy weeks, which means that the time would
equate to 490 years. This time span was to cover : the city and the people.
Nothing else. There is no suggestion that the time or the details are to be
transposed to any other point in history, or separated into sections and
fulfilled at different times and places. The prophetic seventy weeks are just one
single, seamless period of time. I am stressing this heavily because the
Futurist point of view is to chop this seventy weeks into pieces and shift
parts of them about – completely without warrant.
The seventy weeks
are divided this way:
v.24 70 weeks = 70 x
7 = 490 day/years
v.25 7 weeks + 62
weeks = 49 day/years = 483 day/years
v.26 1 week = 7
day/years
v2.7 1 week cut in
the midst = 3 and a half day/years
v25. See
Ezra 7:11-13. This was the third decree of Artaxerxes
in the 7th year of his reign, 457 BC. For 7 weeks (49 years) the
Jews worked at rebuilding. The book of Nehemiah describes this time of
rebuilding. By 408 BC things were ready, so the long wait of 62 weeks (or 483
years) began. This long silence is the gap between Malachi and Matthew, as the
Jewish nation waited for the Messiah to come. Mal. 3:1 gives the warning that
the Lord would suddenly come to his
V26. After 62 weeks (or 483 years) Messiah was to be “cut off” which is
another way of saying “crucified”, and then, after that, the people of the
prince are to come and destroy the city and
V27. Details of the last week are given. (The last seven years of the whole
490 year period). “he” that is the Messiah, did in fact “confirm” a covenant
with his people, but instead of continuing for the full week (7 years) he was
put to death. Jesus died in the midst of the week, that is, about the middle of
the 7 year period he had allotted to his ministry to the Jews. By his death
Jesus caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease, because he himself became the
sacrifice and oblation.
Here again the
Futurists meddle with Scripture. The Living Bible for one actually changes the
word “confirm” to “make” and totally changes the meaning. There is a huge
difference between confirming – which implies the ratification of something
already in existence, and “making” which implies starting something new. Jesus
confirmed the terms of the New Covenant by shedding his own blood. The
Futurists suppose that some future leader will draw up a treaty with the Jews –
something which cannot possibly be extracted from this verse.
What about the
remainder of the week – the other 3 and a half years?
After Jesus
rose from the dead the Great Commission continued towards his people for the
rest of the seven years, and ended when Stephen was stoned to death by the
Jews. From then on the gospel went out to the Gentiles. This dramatic change in
direction was impressed upon the Church through the vision of the sheet, which
God gave to Peter – Acts 11:18.
As mentioned
before, some Bible teachers mistranslate, or use a paraphrase to pervert the
meaning of Daniel 9:27. They try to make the “he” into some future Antichrist,
but this view does not stand up to scrutiny, for the following reasons:
1. The context. The flow of the
prophecy is focussed on the Messiah and no-one else,
2. The structure of the passage. It
would violate good grammar to read it any other way.
3. The link between “he” and the
“Messiah” is very strong. For other examples of a similar link see
2Chron.21:5-8, 1Kings 13:1,2, Mark 2:13, 14 and 7:34-36.
Where did the
Futurist teaching come from?
To find the origin
of the Futurist teaching we have to go back over a hundred years to the time
when the Jesuits were very busy trying to win Protestants back to the Roman church.
The Jesuits were ‘invented’ by the Pope as a sort of Secret Service, some say a
Mafia, to do the worst jobs. Unfortunately they became so bad even the Pope
told them to leave!. Because of their encouragement of, and involvement in,
treachery and violence, the Jesuits were expelled from almost every civilized
country in the world including
At the close of his
life he wrote a book called “The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty”.
He, of course, was steeped in Romish teaching, and
utterly faithful to the Papacy, who at that time was being called “the
Antichrist” by the Reformers. He did not like to hear so much criticism aimed
at his beloved Pope and church, so he decided to contrive a way of shifting the
accusing finger away from the Papacy. He consequently changed his name to
“Rabbi Ben Ezra” – a suitably Jewish name, and in the preface he claimed to be
a converted Jew. The Jews, who knew all their Rabbis were not fooled for a
moment, but the Protestants were not so knowledgeable, so they accepted the
book at face value. Before the book began to circulate widely in Protestant
England, it was printed on the
Now if the book had
been examined carefully in the light of Scripture it would have been recognised for what it was – a fraud and a false teaching –
but the Jesuit had done his homework well. The appearance of a book by a
converted Jew was enough to get the false teaching right past the noses of
several men of God.
For ten years the
book sat on the shelf unread. Then, in 1826 Dr. Maitland the librarian read it
and decided it was an interesting and believable theory. He started to teach
it. Unwittingly he was expounding a theory which the Jesuits had taught some
250 years earlier, namely that the whole book of Revelation refers to some
distant future time. The Jesuits had taught it to take the focus away from the
Pope – now a Protestant was doing it for them.
Following almost immediately
after Dr. Maitland’s work, a Dr. Burgh in Ireland published an identical book
on the “future Antichrist”, and 7 years later in 1833, when the Tractarian Movement started, the book by ‘Ben Ezra’ was
used to help shift the blame off the Papacy. The Tractarian
Society was also called the Oxford Movement, and in
For the teaching
about the future Antichrist to succeed, it was essential that people be totally
ignorant of history, and especially church history. All the expounders of
Futurism made sure that details of the Dark Ages and so on were left out.
Futurism came under many disguises. It was called Romanism, Anglo-Catholicism,
Tractarianism, Brethrenism, and the Oxford Movement.
If the true career of the Papacy was known it would not be so easy to convince
people that the Roman church was good. Its history of wars, persecution,
cruelties, torture, abuse of power, greed, love of wealth, robbery and so on
identified it too clearly as quite the
opposite.
J.N.Darby,
a Romanist who later in life became an Anglican Curate, and who also founded
the Brethren Movement, drew on Lacunza’s book for his
ideas and interpretations of Scripture. He was also in agreement with Cardinal
Newman (who was also part of the Tractarian Movement,
and who also published a book which expounded the heresy known as Arianism in the 4th century. The Arians, among
other things, taught that Jesus was not God in the flesh.)
Summary of the
timeline:
1747 – Lacunza joins the Order of
Jesuits
1812 – Lacunza’s book reaches
1816 – Lacunza’s book reprinted in
1826 – Dr. Maitland, librarian, uses Lacunza’s
book to teach erroneous interpretations
1833 – the Anglo-Catholic Movement uses Lacunz’a
book
Today – the
Futurist teachings are widespread, being taught by virtually all Protestant
evangelists. It has become the prevailing view and has so saturated the Western
world that virtually every Christian believes it, whether they are aware of its
name or not. Futurism has become the theme behind many Christian movies,
hundreds of books and lies behind the accepted teaching of whole organisations (such as Radio Rhema).
The six things which Jesus the Messiah undertook to
accomplish:
1. “To finish the transgression”
Transgression is
sin, or wrong-doing, but it is also more than that – it is also the breaking of
a known law. The only people who had the Law given to them were the Israelites.
They were the transgressors of the Law. Is.53”8 – “For the transgression of my
people was he stricken”. Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, came to make an end of transgression by being “stricken” or
“smitten” of God, and “afflicted”. On
the cross He died for the transgression of “My people” and also of the whole
world. Jesus is the Saviour, and Redeemer of Israel,
and Saviour of the whole world – John 4:42, Is.54:5.
2. “To make an end of sins”
Not only did
Jesus atone for transgression – the breaking of the known laws of God, he also
atoned for all sins, whether sins of commission or sins of omission. Heb.9:26,
John 1:29, Is.38:17. Jesus has atoned for ALL sin. There is now only one
barrier which stands between sinners and God – unbelief. John 16:9 – “of sin,
because they believe not on me”.
3. “To make
reconciliation for iniquity”
2Cor.5:19. Here we
have reconciliation for iniquity, not for transgression. This means that all
Mankind is embraced, potentially, by Grace. ALL who sin can now be reconciled.
We have the gospel of reconciliation to all Mankind – 2Cor.5:18-20. Our
commission : Mark 16:15,16.
4. “To bring in everlasting righteousness”
Is.51:6-8. God says
here that his salvation shall be for ever, and his righteousness shall not be
abolished. 1Cor.1:30 – Christ is “made
unto us . . . righteousness”. Mankind,
apart from God, has no righteousness – Is.64:3-6. Righteousness is imputed to
us – Rom.4:6-11.
5. “To seal up the vision and testimony”
This means that
Christ would confirm the message of the prophets, and seal, or end the old
dispensation of the Law, opening a new dispensation – that of Grace –
Mat.11:13, John 1:17, Mat.5:17-20.
6. “To anoint the most holy”
This anointing of
the Most Holy, that is Christ, took place at his baptism, when he was anointed
with the Holy Spirit – John 1:32,34.
This event is linked with the fact that at this age the priests in
Israel were anointed and consecrated for their work As soon as Jesus was
anointed, he declared his work openly – Is. 61:1 and Luke 4:18.
This anointing, at
the end of the 69th week, left the 70th week still to
run. This was the last seven years of the whole 490 years. In the “midst of
this week” Jesus was “cut off” – Is.53:8, or crucified. At the end of the
“week” Stephen was killed – Acts 7 - and
the gospel began to go out to other nations. Acts 13:45, 46 and Is.42:6
foretold this.