An interesting commentary from Mike Blume.......
https://mikeblume.com/prophecy.htm
https://mikeblume.com/70weeks.htm
FUTURIST INTERPRETATION
Most understand that the first sixty-nine weeks brought Israel to the advent of Jesus Christ. However, most depart from this point of belief and head into various directions of interpretation. They believe that God's time-clock that clocked off the seventy weeks stopped ticking at the end of the sixty-nine weeks,
although nothing in the text of Daniel 9 assumes this in any manner whatsoever. Nothing exists in this chapter that indicates anything to do with stopping the clock.
They teach that the Church age began and will continue until the rapture, when Israel begins offering sacrifices again in the temple, causing God to start the time-clock ticking again to finish up the 70th week, or the final seven years. It is primarily from this assumption that people believe in a future seven-year tribulation period.
So there is a
gap, they say, between the 69th and the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy, and it is called the Church Age.
They reason that the Church has nothing to do with God's dealings with Israel, so the clock must stop for the church to be born and exist, since the clock deals with Israel alone. And after the church is removed, the time-clock again ticks away counting time for the period that God foretold He would deal with Israel.
This means that there are some whom God never intended to become part of the Church, and that He has two groups of people -- the Church and another group of natural Israel. Such an idea is horrendously incorrect! It makes it as though the Church is not God's ultimate purpose.
The idea of a gap between the last two weeks of the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 is called the "futurist" interpretation. The gap has been, so far, they say, two thousand years.
FULFILLED INTERPRETATION
Then there is the
"fulfilled" interpretation. This understanding teaches that there is
no gap whatsoever between any of the weeks, let alone the last two weeks. The series of weeks and years continued unbroken until they were totally fulfilled.
The
big difference between both interpretations is found in verse 27 in which we read that a certain individual, only described as "he," confirms a covenant for seven years, stops the sacrifices three and one half years after "he" confirmed it, and one would come to make desolation due to abominations. It then reads that wrath would be poured out.
"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, and for the overspeading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
Those who believe the seventieth week has not yet been fulfilled feel that the "
he" is the ANTICHRIST. They believe Antichrist, noted as "the prince that shall come" in verse 26, will make a covenant with Israel for seven years. Antichrist will break his own covenant three and one half years after confirming it, by committing the abomination of desolation in claiming to be god while standing in the physically rebuilt temple of God.
They feel a temple in Israel will be rebuilt because
there must be a temple in which the antichrist stands and declares himself to be God for this to be fulfilled (2 Thess. 2). With the recent plans in Israel to indeed rebuild a temple, they feel they are right on the mark!
The "fulfilled" league of interpreters feel that the "
he " in Daniel 9:27 is not antichrist, but
is the Messiah, Jesus Christ , as mentioned in verses 25 and 26.
Daniel9:25-27 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
- 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, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Jesus Christ came after 69 weeks and confirmed the New Covenant in His blood with Israel. Three and one half years after Jesus came and first ministered, He ended sacrifices by being the final sacrifice, Himself.
The great question is: Who is the "
he" of Daniel 9:27? Is
he Jesus Christ or antichrist?
After careful, prayerful, evaluation of the picture, it should be evident that the fulfilled interpretation is the correct one, and that the seventy weeks are already completed since long ago. Grammar structure proves that the
he of verse 27 must be the subject of verse 26, Jesus Christ the Messiah.
Let us begin at verse 24 and explain:
