I think the fig tree blooming is talking about people seeing the specific prophecies Jesus announced in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. I don't believe it is Israel becoming a nation again. I think that's significant, but not a fulfillment of the parable of the fig tree.
Hi Luke, Peaceful Sabbath
It's too close to call at this point. The exciting part of it is that we don't have too long to wait in order to find out. In 1969 there was a corporation formed in Israel for the restoration of the old city of Jerusalem, that's a fact. The piece of evidence that remains elusive is Knesset data from that time of the actual vote or official decree.
Newton seemed to be able to figure out the vernacular of Daniel 9:25 without realizing why there had to be a provision in the language for a primary and potential secondary visitation of Messiah. He just seemed to realize that "For Daniel's Prophecies reach to the end of the world; and there is scarce a Prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Christ, which doth not in something or other relate to his second coming" as he put it.
Still, it does seem uncanny that a 1969 decree plus 7 sevens or 49 years is the equivalent of 1948 plus a 70 year "generation". If there was no Fig Tree showing it's leaves in 1948, there wouldn't likely have been a command to restore Jerusalem in 1969.
Sir Isaac Newton
on Daniel 9:
"The former part of the Prophecy related to the first coming of Christ, being dated to his coming as a Prophet; this being dated to his coming to be
Prince or King, seems to relate to
his second coming. There, the Prophet was consummate, and the most holy anointed: here, he that was anointed comes to be Prince and to reign. For Daniel's Prophecies reach to the end of the world; and there is scarce a Prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Christ, which doth not in something or other relate to his second coming."
"This part of the Prophecy being therefore not yet fulfilled, I shall not attempt a particular interpretation of it, but content myself with observing, that as the seventy and the sixty two weeks were Jewish weeks, ending with sabbatical years;
so the seven weeks are the compass of a Jubilee, and begin and end with actions proper for a Jubilee, and of the highest nature for which a Jubilee can be kept:
and that since the commandment to return and to build Jerusalem, precedes the Messiah the Prince 49 years; it may perhaps come forth not from the Jews themselves, but from some other kingdom friendly to them, and precede their return from captivity, and give occasion to it."
"Thus have we in this short Prophecy, a prediction of all the main periods relating to the coming of the Messiah; the time of his birth, that of his death, that of the rejection of the Jews, the duration of the Jewish war whereby he caused the city and sanctuary to be destroyed,
and the time of his second coming: and so the interpretation here given is more full and complete and adequate to the design, than if we should restrain it to his first coming only, as Interpreters usually do. We avoid also the doing violence to the language of Daniel, by taking the seven weeks and sixty two weeks for one number. Had that been Daniel's meaning, he would have said sixty and nine weeks, and not seven weeks and sixty two weeks."
And the JQDC was established in 1969 by the Government of Israel.
http://www.rova-yehudi.org.il/company-profile/
The Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem Ltd. (JQDC)
is the only fully owned government company operating within the environs of the Old City of Jerusalem.
(The company is fully owned by the Ministry of Construction and Housing).
The company was established in 1969, after the liberation of Jerusalem, and is the governmental arm for carrying out governmental policy in the Old City of Jerusalem.JQDC is the primary real-estate leaser of public land, totaling some 133 dunams within the walls of the Old City (zone of appropriation) and an additional 17.500 dunams outside the walls (in the City of David).
The company also acts as a government housing company, and as such it acts as real-estate registrar, conversion and transfer of rights, legal prosecution regarding the appropriation, demands of ownership, evictions and management of the land registration ledgers.
St. Petersburg Times 1969:
JERUSALEM - One of the most dramatic restoration projects in the history of cities is forging ahead in the ancient walled city of Jerusalem. The reconstruction of the Jewish quarter of the Old City, lost to the Jews in the 1948 war after centuries of occupancy, is one of the high priority projects of the Israeli government.
The Jewish quarter, which consist of about 25 acres on the eastern side of the Old City, was confiscated by the Israelis on their entrance into the Old City immediately after the 1967 six day war.
RIGHT NOW, it is made up about equally of the jumbled, picturesque building accretions of hundreds of years and the rubble of destruction. In the future, it will be a meticulously restored historic enclave for modern occupancy by 500 to 700 families and commercial enterprises, or about 2000 to 3000 people.
The rebuilding and reoccupation of the Jewish quarter has particular significance for the Israelis. It represents more than the consolidation of Israel's geographic gains by settling Jews in the eastern part of the occupied territory. It re-establishes a Jewish community in it's ancient and traditional location within the Old City walls and carries a high degree of religious symbolism.
"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"
