Seventy-Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9 - Part 5

Welcome to Discerning the Times. My name is Brian Thomas, alongside cohost, Dr. Bruce Logan, and it is always a blessing to be with you each week. And we want to thank you for tuning in. And we're looking today at a great prophecy as we are wrapping things up in the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter nine, looking at the 77s prophecy of Daniel. If you are joining us for the first time on this episode, I want to encourage you to go to our YouTube channel, discerning the times and look for the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel, start with part one and work your way up to where we are today. And we think you will be blessed by it. So we're going to get into today's topic shortly, but before we do, I want to remind you that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. If you have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, I encourage you to receive him today. Otherwise you will exist eternally in the lake of fire separated from God. And the Bible tells us that it is the Lord's wheel that none should perish. And it is our desire that all will come to know him as Lord and savior.

So will you please come to Jesus Christ on today? So we're going to get into Daniel chapter nine, verse 27. So doc you're ready to dive into the very deep end of the pool as we are looking to wrap up this great prophecy.

Yes, sir. I can't wait. I've been so excited and time has gone by so fast.

It's been so awesome. And I just can't wait to, to, to, um, dive into this final, uh, uh, chapter of Daniel, the 70 weeks. Yeah, absolutely. And to our audience, we encourage you to please take notes.

So whatever it may be, if you're doing it the old fashioned way by pencil and paper, grab your, your material, or if you're doing it electronically, grab your device. And we want you to take notes as we walk through the scriptures, because as we've been stressing, this is a complex prophecy and it may not come to you right away, but you know, you, you may have to go back and review it and, and go through it several times. But, but we are confident that the Holy spirit will open your eyes to it.

If you will put forth that effort to, to study God's Holy word. So as we look at verse number 27 in the 70 weeks, prophecy of Daniel, Daniel chapter nine, verse 27 says, 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, he is poured out on the desolate. So, as I said last week, that's a mouthful. And please folks, if again, if you've missed previous episodes, go back and listen as we've explained the weeks and the time frames and what all that means. But, but just for anyone who hasn't listened to the previous episode, we do want to share that this is talking about a prophetic week. And when you talk about prophetic weeks is actually talking about weeks of years. So what, what we're looking at here in verse 27, when it says one week, you have to translate one week into seven years.

So when you look at the one, one day is equivalent to one year. So you're talking about a period of seven years. So as we're, we come to this prophecy, this last verse is referring to the future is referring to what is yet to come. Everything else that we've looked at prior to this 490 year period, those 483 years, those things have already taken place.

They've been completed, but this is talking about the future. What is still yet to come? So we're looking at the period from the end of the 69th seven to the beginning of the last seven. And, and doc, that's a period of time in there because we know we said, well, the 69th seven ended when Jesus Christ, the Messiah was crucified.

And so now we're waiting on that last seven. So unpack that and explain to our audience what we're looking at and why there's this, this large timeframe that we're speaking of. Yeah, that's actually, I like to refer to it as the elephant in the room because it's been nearly 2000 years since Jesus was crucified. And so, you know, a lot of people would stop to think, well, that can't be accurate because you know, that's, that's a little bit more than seven years.

So what's going on here? Well, as we can see, and from what history has really pointed out to us is that we're entered into a space that we refer to in the church age or in our church time as the age of grace. In other words, the prophetic clock at 490 year prophetic clock. God stopped the clock at 483 years, which means there's another seven years that God still has to tick off of that 490 year prophetic clock. But because of His grace, because of His love and mercy to pass all human understanding, He has paused the clock.

He has stopped it. So if you can imagine an hourglass and the sands in the hourglass, it stopped, you know, at 483 years, it stops. And because there's plugged stuff, you know, the little hole that the sand comes down, God put a plug there. But there's going to come a time at some point in the future where He's going to unplug and it's going to allow the sand of that last seven years to pour through that hourglass. And that is the last seven year period that's being referred to here in verse 27. It's referred to, you know, in Bible prophecy terms as Daniel 70th week, because we know that 69 weeks have already been fulfilled, leaving one more week that has to be fulfilled or one more seven year period that has to be fulfilled at some point in the future.

Now, in a previous episode, I alluded to a term that I would just like to unpack just a little bit more. I refer to it as the doctrine of progressive revelation. What do I mean by progressive revelation? It means that throughout the Old Testament, God would give prophecies, but then He would just give various, you know, a little bit here, a little bit there. But as time would go on, He would give, He would progressively reveal additional details about a prophecy that He has already given. So for an example, in Daniel chapter, or in previous chapters of the Book of Daniel, chapter 2, chapter 7, and chapter 9, God gave Daniel a series, well, the first one He gave to Nebuchadnezzar. Then He gave Daniel a series of affirming prophecies that added additional detail to the prophecy that He gave Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2. But I just wanted to point something out about, in the first interpretation of Daniel's prophecy in Daniel chapter 2, or Nebuchadnezzar's dream when Daniel affirmed what the dream meant, or what the dream meant, rather.

In Daniel chapter 2, verse 34, it says, you know, and of course, Daniel was describing to the king, he told the king what the dream was, and then he went on to give the king the interpretation of the dream. In Daniel chapter 2, verse 34, and I just want to just throw this real quick, it says, Thou saw till that a stone was cut without hands, key part of the verse, or key part of the passage, a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon the feet that were of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. And of course, he's referring to the image that as we, if you go back and study, represented four future kingdoms, one kind kingdom and three future kingdoms, the Babylonian kingdom, the Medo-Persian kingdom, the Greek empire and Romans, so represented a world kingdom that will come and go. And then in verse 35, it says, Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, which were all part of the statue, which represented one of the four empires that were represented.

They were broken in pieces together, referring to earthly kingdoms, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And then it goes on to say, And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and fulfilled the entire earth. That's Daniel chapter 2, verses 34 to 35. And then if we jump down in verse 34, Daniel is now given the revelation of exactly what that all means. And he says in verse 44, And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people or other kingdoms, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

That's Daniel chapter 2 and verse 44. And so when we fast forward now to the 70 weeks prophecy, Daniel 9, 27, now we get additional or progressively revealed information about this future kingdom and how that last seven years is going to unfold and what is going to be the conclusion of the entire matter. And what you will hear a term out there that some will define this period that we're living in as a prophetic gap, which is like an undefined period of time. And that period of time is being fueled by the church age. And like you said, Doc, the great mystery is when, when does the last seven start? Because as you, as you pointed out, the pause button was pressed on the prophecy when Jesus Christ was crucified, then the church age came in.

That's when salvation was brought to the Gentiles. And that's the great mystery. When Paul speaks in the New Testament of a mystery, he speaking about the church because the old Testament prophets, they, they were not made aware of the church. They were not made aware of the church age.

It was not revealed to them. And you will hear a lot of Bible prophecy teachers sort of illustrated in the way of, if anyone has ever been driving towards mountains and you look ahead and you see the peaks of mountains and from a great distance, when you're several miles away, those peaks look almost side by side, pretty much right there next to one another. But as you get closer and closer, you realize, no, there's actually a great valley in between.

There's a great distance in between those two mountain peaks. And so the, the prophets of the old Testament, they didn't see the first and second coming of Christ. They only saw the Messiah coming and establishing the kingdom. But what has happened is that in between the first and second coming, the church age is being, is being filled within that prophetic gap. So we just wanted to point that out to, to hopefully help it make more sense as to why the prophecy was Paul's and, and what's happening with the timeline and what is still yet to come.

So once, once the pause button is pressed again, or as you said, once the, the hourglass is released to where it continues to flow, then this seven year period, this last week, which is the tribulation period is going to begin. And it will start by a covenant that will likely involve Antichrist offering protection and peace to the nation of Israel from its surrounding Arab nations. And I think the Jewish nation is going to eagerly accept this treaty after having just faced relentless attacks from, from so many years by their enemies.

But we know that the scripture that the scripture tells us is going to turn out to be all a deception where the Antichrist, he is going to turn on the Jewish nation. And so that is what we are looking at in these verses. So we're going to pause for a brief announcement, but don't go away. We're going to come back and wrap things up with verse 27 of Daniel chapter nine, the 77 prophecy of Daniel.

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For more information, please visit our website, lessons to Israel.com or write to us at lessons to Israel, PO box two 66, Knightdale, North Carolina, two seven five four five. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Welcome back to discerning the times.

My name is Brian Thomas alongside cohost, Dr. Bruce Logan. And we are looking at the 77 prophecy in the book of Daniel. So before the break, I was explaining that anti-Christ is going to make a treaty. It's going to make a covenant as the scripture tells us with many for a period of one week, which is seven years. And I think it'll likely again, be to protect Israel from their enemies and many in the Jewish nation will accept him as Messiah.

But what is going to happen? The scripture tells us that halfway in the middle of the seven year period, in the middle of one week, as the text tells us, he is going to turn against the nation of Israel. They will realize that it has been a deception and it says he will put an end to the temple sacrifice and offering. He will enter the temple and announce that all should worship him as God.

So doc, what are your thoughts? Well, also just to add to what you just said, because you pointed out that he was going to end the temple offering, but one of the things that's significant as we view it from the vantage point of the time that we're currently living in, that there is no temple because the last temple was destroyed by Titus, as you pointed out in the previous episode. So that would give us an indication that there is going to be another temple constructed. And if you just follow the trends of what's happening in the Middle East, where the temple mount is currently located, the Dome of the Rock is actually on that space. And so apparently there's going to be some sort of treaty made by the Antichrist that's going to allow the Jews, and of course, keep in mind too, one of the things we failed to mention, because this is going to happen after the rapture.

So all of this is going to, you know, begin to initiate. But that also would seem to indicate, because we know that there's going to be a temple built, but we know that there is currently not a temple, but we also know if you just kind of follow what's happening over in Jerusalem, that they are literally preparing for the coming temple. I mean, they have the artifacts constructed. I mean, they are literally preparing for that time when the new temple will be allowed to be constructed. But also currently that that area around the temple mount is hotly contested. I mean, you know, because the Muslims, they guard that area, I mean, like with their blood.

I mean, that's a very hotly contentious area of real estate, to say the least. And so the fact that a temple was going to be built and authorized by the Antichrist on that spot would seem to indicate that some sort of major peace treaty is going to be announced at the beginning of this tribulation period, in which something is going to happen. It's going to pacify those Muslims who are dead set on not allowing a temple to be built on that location.

And so it's going to be a major, major type of agreement that's going to be made. But once that, at the end of the three and a half years, and we're not certain exactly how long it would take to construct the temple, obviously, it will be, you know, a couple years, maybe, I'm not really certain as to how long, but they're going to reinitiate all the Old Testament sacrifices and feasts and so forth. And at the three and a half year mark from the day they signed the treaty, that the Antichrist is going to have set himself up in the throne and set himself up as God. And at that point, the Jews are going to realize that they were deceived and the real and actual Messiah was crucified 2,000 years ago.

Yeah. And yeah, and that's a great point, too, that you pointed that out that, yeah, I do think as part of that treaty, Antichrist will allow them to rebuild their temple. And again, folks, you should be paying attention. You see today, they are people that are making preparations in Israel for the new temple. So these things are unfolding.

They're taking place right now in our lives. And as you said, they're going to become outraged. They're going to revolt against the Antichrist when they realize that he has deceived them. And that is when this, this great assault is going to take place upon the Jewish nation, which the Bible tells us two thirds of them will be killed.

And this is the period in which Jesus called the time of Jacob's trouble. He said it would be the worst time that the earth has ever seen or ever will see. And it'll be this three and a half year period in which Antichrist is going to rule the great tribulation. And he's going to bring more persecution to the Jews than they have ever seen, which is mind blowing when you think about how bad it was during the Nazi Holocaust, but it's going to be even worse than that. And he's going to terrorize everyone who does not accept the Mark of the beast, but his reign will come to an end. Of course, when Jesus Christ returns and he's going to put an end to it all and usher in the millennium. But I find it interesting to note that the rule of the Antichrist is going to be three and a half years. Now, if we think about Jesus Christ, how long was his ministry?

It was three and a half years. So Antichrist is going to mimic Jesus Christ. And you've seen that throughout history where the devil tries to do things to mimic God, just like we talk about, he's going to set up this image, apparently for people to worship. And he is going to appear to give it life, but I believe only God can give life. Satan does not have that power, but it's going to be through deception. He's going to make it appear to be alive. And, you know, doc, a lot of people are talking today about artificial intelligence might be the mechanism by which that will happen.

You know, I don't know. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I could see that being the case. And, you know, it's just the thing when you look at these things unfolding and taking place, and you just see these examples of how Satan again, throughout history, he's tried to imitate Jesus Christ. He's trying to take the place of God, but he cannot do so. And we're going to see those things unfold during the tribulation. One of the things that, you know, to piggyback on what you just said, one of the things that's just so amazing when you think about the day and the time that we are currently living in is that we are actually literally for the first time in human history living, and you mentioned AI, artificial intelligence, we're living in the first time in human history where all of the technology is readily available to bring everything in the book of Revelation to deal with that last seven years to bring all of that to pass. I remember when I first started studying this back in the 80s, we never, you know, Bible prophecy, some of the bigger ones, Hal Lindsey and so forth, those teachers never really understood exactly how it was going to be for an example that every eye shall see him and how it was going to be that everybody can receive a mark of 666 to give another example. But nobody is asking or debating those issues now because you'll be able to hold your smartphone, even people living in rural areas, people living in destitute areas, in caves in Afghanistan, oh, I have cell phones.

It's amazing when you think about it. Or they have satellite TV, and they're going to be able to see that literally everybody on earth is going to be able to see with YouTube, Facebook, you know, social media, satellite, everybody is going to be able to see the Lord when he comes because the technology is available. And when it comes to the 666, I mean, you know, it doesn't take, you know, a scholar to see that that technology is readily available to receive a mark, but in order to be able to buy and sell. I mean, that is just, and the way that they're tracking us, the way that the government is tracking, you know, everything that we do, everything that we do and say, everything that we purchase is being tracked and recorded and being identified.

And it's almost going to be no way that if you miss the rapture that you're going to be able to avoid, you know, not being able to or not having to make a decision whether or not to take the mark because, you know, everybody is being tracked by, you know, just from all different governments and so forth. And so we can see that we're living in a time. And another thing that's interesting is because Jesus said in Matthew 24 and verse 15, in reference to the same period of time, that when you therefore see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, stand in the holy place and whosoever reads, let him understand.

Then let him which is indeed a flea into the mountains. And of course, that concludes in verse 21, said, for there shall be, and this is what's going to be the conclusion of this entire seven-year period, is that there should be great tribulation such as not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall it be. That's Matthew 24 verse 15 through 21.

And Daniel is just pointing this out. Gabriel has given Daniel this revelation of this 70-week prophecy and the conclusion of this last seven years after he breaks the treaty in the middle of the week or in the middle or in the three-and-a-half-year mark of the last seven years, then as they say, all hell is going to break out here on earth. And even Jesus himself said it's going to be like a period that's never occurred here on earth before. And that's really scary when you stop to think about it because we've had two world wars. I mean, we've had invasions over in Europe by the Huns, and there's been so much atrocity that's happened on earth. And to say that a period is coming that's going to be unlike any other period that we've ever experienced here on earth is enough to let you know that you don't want to be here when that time comes.

And so, I mean, this is just very powerful. And it's going to happen because everything else that was quoted in Daniel's prophecy has happened except this last seven years. So we have no reason not to believe this is not going to happen exactly as God said.

Miles Yeah, those are great points. And in this 77's prophecy is one of the things that I point to when people try to debate about the timing of the rapture. Again, this is not something that this series we are doing is focused on. But when you look at this prophecy, it is all about the nation of Israel. And we see that when the prophecy went on Paul's, what happened? Salvation came to the Gentiles, and that was when the church began, the church age came in. But when the prophecy restarts, there's no reason for the church to be here. So the church is taken out of the way so that God's plan for Israel will be completed.

The church has already received Jesus Christ and recognize him by definition as the Messiah. But the time period of that seven years is for Israel to recognize him and receive him as Messiah, as we've outlined in the previous weeks. So that's going to wrap it for the series. But Doc, any final thoughts before we close out 77's prophecy of Daniel? Daniel No, I think we pretty much outlined it pretty well. I mean, this is a subject that we can talk about for six months and still not cover everything.

But I think we all reviewed it pretty well. But this is something that if you are a listener, if you really want to learn more about this, I would just recommend going back and just studying the prophecies in Daniel and beginning in Daniel chapter one, and especially focus on chapters two and chapters seven, eight, or seven through 12, especially, because more detail, I mentioned about progressive revelation, more detail about this last week or this last seven year period is given in Daniel chapter 12. So Daniel was not even finished receiving progressive revelation about this last seven weeks because he's going to receive more information when it comes to, or in fact, chapters 10, 11, and 12. He's going to receive more information about this time period. More of the blanks are going to be filled in.

And it's just really incredible to study. Yeah. Amen. Amen.

All right. Well, on that note, we are going to sign off for this week. But Doc, always great talking with you and looking forward to being back next week. And to our audience, please come back and join us as we continue to encourage you to discern the times by viewing life through the window of the Bible until then remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning into Discerning the Times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.