Hi BABerean2,
So Israel`s `transgression, end of rebellion & reconciliation, plus the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, and sealing up vision and prophecy and finally anointing the Most Holy,`has all been completed? (Dan. 9: 24)
Marilyn.
Hi Marilyn,
They have all been completed.
Ralph Woodrow, Great Prophecies of the Bible
3. THE MOST HOLY WAS TO BE ANOINTED. We believe this reference is to Jesus Christ. Gabriel announced to Mary: "The HOLY thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Lk. 1:35). Peter referred to him as "the HOLY ONE" (Acts 3:14). John referred to him as "the HOLY ONE" (1 John 2:20). Even demons had to recognize him as "The HOLY ONE of God" (Mk. 1:24).
David spoke concerning Christ: neither wilt thou suffer thine HOLY ONE to see corruption" (Acts 2:27). In Revelation 3:7 he is called "HOLY" and the heavenly creatures rest not from saying: "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY" before this one "which was, and is, and is to come" (Rev. 4:8).
From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto Messiah was to be 483 years. When this time was fulfilled, those who knew this prophecy, were expecting the appearance of the Messiah, that is, the Christ. (Christ is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Messiah.) Thus when John came baptizing, "the people were in EXPECTATION, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not" (Lk. 3:15). John plainly told them that he was not the Christ -he was only the forerunner. When Jesus appeared on the scene, John cried: "Behold the Lamb of God"! The time had now come that Jesus should be "made manifest to Israel" (John 1:29 31). He was then baptized and when he had prayed, "the heaven was opened. And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased" (Lk. 3:21,22).
He had appeared to Israel right on time! Thus Jesus, in evident reference to the time prophecy of Daniel, said: "The TIME is fulfilled" (Mk. 1:15) and as the Messiah, the Christ, the "anointed one", he preached the gospel. When he entered the synagogue of Nazareth, he announced: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath ANOINTED me" (Lk. 4:18-22). Acts 4:27 mentioned Jesus as the "holy" one that the Lord "ANOINTED." And Peter mentioned that "God ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost... who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil" (Acts 10:38).
Daniel's prophecy revealed that the time period unto the Messiah would be 69 weeks (483 years). This measured to the time when Jesus was baptized and anointed to begin his ministry as the Messiah, the Christ, the "Anointed One.
4. MESSIAH WAS TO BE CUT OFF. The 69 weeks (7 plus 62) were to measure unto Messiah "and AFTER" the 69 weeks "shall Messiah be cut off." Now "AFTER" 69 weeks does not and cannot mean "in" or "during" the 69 weeks! If Messiah was to be cut off AFTER the 69 weeks, there is only one week left in which he could have been "cut off"-the 70th week! -after three and a half years of ministry.
The term "cut off" implies that Messiah would not die a natural death; he would be murdered! So also had Isaiah prophesied using an equivalent word: "He was cut off out of the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:8).
The details about how Messiah was "cut off" are given in the gospels.
5. "TO FINISH THE TRANSGRESSION", or literally, "to finish transgression." As Jesus was dying, he cried: "It is FINISHED." At Calvary, Jesus finished transgression by becoming sin for us. No future sacrifice can ever finish transgression; it was finished at Calvary (Heb. 9:15). "He was wounded for our TRANSGRESSIONS" (Isaiah 53:5).
6. "TO MAKE AN END OF SINS." Here the basic thought is repeated. If we understand the glorious significance of what was accomplished at Calvary, we know that here there was truly an end made of sins.
Jesus, who came "to save his people from their sins", accomplished this when he "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Mt. 1:21; Heb. 9:26). "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins... But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever...hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified...And their sins... remember no more" (Heb. 10:4-11). The old system of sacrifices could never make an end of sins, but Christ-by the sacrifice of himself-did make an end of sins, even as the prophecy had said!
John announced him as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). "Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3). He "bare our sins in his own body on the tree" (l Peter 2:24) and "hath once suffered for sins" (3:18). "He was manifested to take away our sins" (l John 3:5). This "end of sins" was accomplished at Calvary.
All of this does not mean, of course, that right at this point men quit sinning. This was not the case. But what the scripture does mean is that at Calvary the eternal sacrifice for sin was made, so that any and all-past, present, or future -who will be forgiven of sins will be forgiven because our Lord' s death almost 2,000 years ago made an "end of sins"!
7. "TO MAKE RECONCILIATION FOR INIQUITY." The word reconciliation used here is the same word that is used so frequently in the book of Leviticus where it is rendered "to make atonement." This, too, was part of our Lord's redemptive work. Surely "reconciliation" is a present reality-because of Calvary!
Jesus, "our merciful and faithful high priest" made "RECONCILIATION for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17). "Having made peace through the blood...to RECONCILE all things unto himself...and you, that were sometimes alienated...hath he RECONCILED...through death" (Col. 1:20-22; Eph. 2:16).
"God was in Christ, RECONCILING the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of RECONCILIATION" (2 Cor. 5:19). Plainly, "reconciliation for iniquity" was accomplished by Jesus, for he "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all INIQUITY" (Titus 2:14), and "the Lord hath laid on him the INIQUITY of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
8. ''TO BRING IN EVER LASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS." This too was accomplished by the redemptive work of Christ! The great redemption chapter of Isaiah 53 had prophesied: "My righteous servant shall make many RIGHTEOUS." Paul put it this way: "By the righteousness of one...shall many be made RIGHTEOUS... unto eternal life by Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17-21). He who came "to fulfill all righteousness'' (Mt. 3:15) and who "loved righteousness, and hated iniquity", was "anointed" of God (Heb. 1:9) and made unto us wisdom, and RIGHTEOUSNESS, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto RIGHTEOUSNESS" (1 Peter 2:24). "Even the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God...through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his RIGHTEOUSNESS for the remission of sins" (Rom. 3:21-26). "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21). "Everyone that doeth RIGHTEOUSNESS is born of him" (1 John 2:29).
Taking all of these verses into consideration, we ask: Did Christ in his coming to earth provide righteousness through his redemptive work? All Christians acknowledge that he did. We ask then: Was not this righteousness that he brought in everlasting? Of course. Surely no Christians would deny that the righteousness of Christ is "everlasting righteousness."
"By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained ETERNAL REDEMPTION "-everlasting righteousness-" for us" (Heb. 9:12). This eternal or everlasting righteousness is contrasted to the old sacrifices under the law which were only of a temporary nature. But Christ, once for all time, offered himself-thus providing, as the prophecy of Daniel had said, "everlasting righteousness."
One only has to read the great redemption passages of Romans, Corinthians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Hebrews to see how an "end" of transgressions and sins, "reconciliation for iniquity", and "everlasting righteousness" were all accomplished at Calvary by our Lord Jesus Christ!
In view of this, we see no basis for the futurist teaching that none of these things have yet been fulfilled, but are to be linked with a supposed seventieth week at the end of the age! To teach such is contradictory and tends to take away from the glory of that great redemption of Calvary which so beautifully and completely fulfilled these prophecies!
9. "TO SEAL UP VISION AND PROPHECY", or literally, "to seal up vision and prophet." The use of the metaphor "to seal" is derived from the ancient custom of attaching a seal to a document to show that it was genuine (See 1 Kings 21:8; Jer. 32:10, 11; cf. John 6:27; 1 Cor. 9:2). Christ "sealed" Old Testament prophecy by fulfilling what was written of him.
Repeatedly we read concerning him: "...that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets." Acts 3:18 says: "Those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer he hath so fulfilled:" Truly Jesus fulfilled what was written in the visions and prophecies of the Old Testament concerning him, and thus he "sealed" them-showed that they were genuine. 'They are they", he said, "which testify of me" (John 5:39). "All the prophets and the law prophesied until John" (Mt. 11:13), then John presented Jesus as he that was to be "made manifest to Israel." Jesus was the one that was to come-and we look for none other. He is the fulfillment of vision and prophecy.