THE 70 WEEKS PROPHECY OF DANIEL 9 And Stephen's Vision
Acts 7:55-57
Do you realize the significance of Jesus STANDING on the right hand of God the Father in Stephen's vision? The Jewish leaders knew what it meant, which is why they stoned Stephen to death. This is tied kn in with the 70 week prophecy of Daniel.
The 70 weeks of Daniel 9 is an amazing prophecy that provides us with a number of important truths. This prophecy gives us an important starting date for the 2300 day (years) prophecy of Daniel 8 and it also gives us a definitive time frame that God gave to the Jews as a nation to turn to Him and accept Jesus. Most important of all it confirms Jesus Christ as the Messiah. In this amazing study we will find out exactly what happened to the Jewish nation when this time prophecy was fulfilled and came to an end, as confirmed above kn Acts 7.
It is interesting that many orthodox Jews leave this prophecy well alone, because they believe it to be accursed. The tragic thing is, if they really studied and heeded what it said, then they would have realized exactly who Jesus Christ was. This is one reason why Bible prophecy is so important for us to study and find out the truth, because through it, God reveals vital information for us.
Unfortunately today we have so many different interpretations of end times Bible prophecy. And this prophecy of the 70 weeks is no exception. With no authority from the Word of God, many Christians cut off the 7 years from this prophecy and place them in the future. Sadly, many have been deceived by Roman Catholic Jesuit false teachings regarding Bible prophecy. The truth is, the seventy weeks of Daniel are seventy CONTINUOUS weeks of prophetic time. This is so important to grasp. There are no gabs in between this prophecy, but a continuous unbroken time line. There is no scriptural support for the theory that the last week of this 70 weeks prophecy is cut off and placed in the future, like so many people like to believe. None at all! So how long is the 70 'prophetic' weeks? We will find out below. Let's now delve into this fascinating Bible prophecy from Daniel.
Daniel 9:2
Daniel was a student of Jeremiah's prophecies, and understood that the 70 years of captivity for the Israelites had come to an end.
Jeremiah 25:12-12
The seventy years that Jeremiah had prophecies about had now come to an end with the fall of Babylon.
Daniel now comes before God in prayer, saying: Daniel 9:5-6
The Israelites kept falling into sin and disobeying God, and if you study through the Old Testament you will find that they kept falling into apostasy over and over again and that is why they were taken into captivity, because of their many sins, and constant turning from the LORD. So Daniel comes before God to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness. So this is a good lesson for us in that we should be asking for forgiveness for ourselves. Daniel doesn't just pray for himself, he prays for ALL Israel.
Daniel 9:20-22
Daniel was given a vision in chapter 8, and now during his prayer the angel Gabriel was commanded by God to go and give Daniel understanding about the vision. Now we know that this was concerning the vision in chapter 8, because there is no other vision given to Daniel between that time and his prayer in chapter 9. The vision is concerning the 2300 days (from chapter 8), where at the end of the vision, if you read it, you will find that Daniel fainted and was sick and couldn't understand the vision (Daniel 8:27). Gabriel had now come to give Daniel 'skill and understanding' about the vision. We now delve into the actual 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel.
Daniel 9:24
This prophecy of the 70 weeks was given to the Jews to put an end to their sins and accept God's Son Jesus Christ. God chose the nation of Israel to be a light to the World, to take God's Word to the world and bring glory to Him. But as we know the Israelites failed because of their constant sin and apostasy. So now God through Daniel gives them "70 weeks" to put an end once and for all to their sin and apostasy.
Think about it! If God gave you a certain time to put away sin and you don't do it, what is going to happen? God is going to do something st that time isn't He? Let us find out.
STARTING POINT FOR THE 70 WEEKS
Are the 70 weeks of Daniel literal weeks? No, in Bible prophecy a day equals a year. Note the following two scriptures:
Ezekiel 4:6. Numbers 14:34.
One day in Bible prophecy is one literal year. So let's calculate the 70 weeks. 70×7=490. So the 70 weeks = 490 prophetic days, but talking into account that s day is a year in Bible prophecy, then this 70 weeks is actually 490 years. Most Bible scholars are in agreement that this time period is actually 490 years, not days. But when did this 490 years start?
Daniel 9:25. Ezra 7:13,20.
Artaxerxes issued the above decree in 457BC. This is where some people disagree, because the command to rebuild Jerusalem had already been given by Cyrus, and the rebuilding had already started. We find this decree in Ezra 1:3
This decree was given in 539BC. But the Israelites were forced to stop rebuilding the city by Artaxerxes. Ezra 4:21,23. But notice that they were to only stop UNTIL they were given another command by Artaxerxes to continue. So it is at this second command that the 490 year(70 weeks) prophecy begins.
Is there any way we can be sure that we have chosen the right command? Yes! There is a very sure way of knowing that we have chosen the right one, because within this 70 weeks (490 years) prophecy, Christ is revealed as the Messiah. Daniel 9:25.
Did you notice there, from the command until MESSIAH THE PRINCE? This is none other than Christ Jesus. So, we need to do some easy straightforward calculating to work this out. The seven weeks and threescore and two weeks in the above verse is 69 weeks, which amounts to 483 days. Now as we know a day in Bible prophecy = a year. So this 483 days is actually 483 years. So 483 years AFTER the command (second command from Artaxerxes) to rebuild Jerusalem, Jesus would be revealed as the Messiah. This is the important bit as to know which command to choose:
If you choose the first command by Cyrus in 539BC and take away 483 years, we come to 56 BC.
If you choose the second command by Artaxerxes in 457 BC and take away the 483 years, we come to 27 AD.
What happened in 56 BC? Nothing that concerned Jesus.
What happened in 27 AD? Jesus' Baptism! He is revealed as Messiah.
So now you can see why SECOND command by Artaxerxes HAS to be used,and even though we don't need any more confirmation that we are using the right starting point with the second command, God's amazing truth gives us even more confirmation. You see, in Daniel 9:25, the angel Gabriel gives two time periods. One period of '7 weeks' and the other period of 'threescore and two weeks'. A little bit more calculating to do! Seven weeks =49 years (don't forget the day to year rule). From 457 BC (the second command), 49 years would take us to 408 BC. Is this date significant? Yes it is!! It is the date that the restoration of the city finished! Then we have the threescore and two weeks which equates to 434 years. Now if we take 434 from 408 BC (when rebuilding the city had finished), we come to 27 AD, Jesus' baptism! Friend, that is the amazing truth of God right there! Praise God !!
Jesus Himself confirms that this time period from Daniels 70 weeks prophecy had been fulfilled by Himself
Mark 1:9-15
Now we still have one week left to account for in this 70 week prophecy. This is where a lot of Christians now cut off the last week of this prophecy and place it future to us as the very end times. But as we confirmed earlier, this prophecy is a continuous one. There is no scripture support to say we need to cut off the last week and place it somewhere in the future.
What many don't realize is that by cutting off the last "week" of the 70 and placing it in the future, they are attributing the work of Christ on the cross to ANTICHRIST! What abomination, thanks yo the Roman Catholic Church and her Jesuits who invented the false futurist interpretation of this prophecy!
Daniel 9:26-27.
The confusion lies in the wording of the above verses. It starts with Christ being 'cut off' through His death on the cross. Then we see mention of the 'people of the prince come' who would 'destroy the city and sanctuary.' This is a clear reference to the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem in AD70. Then it says .. 'he shall confirm the covenant for one week.' Now read carefully the above verses 26-27 again. You can see it starts with Christ. Then we get an 'interlude' with mention of the Roman army who would destroy the city, and then it goes back to Christ. HE is the one mentioned as 'confirming the covenant', not a 'future antichrist.' The 'people of the prince' is just an interlude. The verses do NOT carry on speaking of this 'prince', it goes back to Christ. This is the correct way to read the verses.
And notice is doesn't say 'he shall confirm A covenant.' It says 'he shall confirm THE covenant.' It is Christ who confirmed THE covenant.
So after the baptism of Jesus (after the threescore and two weeks, which ended in 27 AD), it says that Messiah shall be 'cut off'. Now those words, cut off means to be killed. This can only point to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Notice in the verse it also says that it was NOT FOR HIMSELF that he was cut off (killed). As we know, Jesus died for us to bare our sins. Now if you take this last week of the 70 week prophecy and put it in the future, then you are denying that it is pointing to the cross of our Saviour, which it clearly is. So this last week of the baptism of Jesus, and in the middle of the week, He would cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. At the cross, Jesus put an end to the priestly sacrifice, which included the sacrifice and offerings of animals for sins. The middle of 7 years is 3.5 years to 27 AD, you come to 31 AD. This is the exact year of Jesus sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. The great veil of the temple ripped in two, which symbolized the end of the sacrifice and oblation (offerings).
But Jesus only 'confirmed the covenant' for 3.5 years There is 3.5 years left of this 70 weeks of Daniel. After they killed Jesus on the cross, the Jews were given another 3.5 years to end their sin and accept Jesus as their Saviour. What sn awesome God we have, who is full of grace! Christ confirmed the covenant for the first 3.5 years, and after His dead and resurrection, it was now the job of the apostles to continue preaching the gospel message to the Jews for the last 3.5 years.
Luke 24:46-47. Romans 1:16.
Why to the Jews first? Why begin in Jerusalem? Because the Jews still had 3.5 years left to accept the truth of the gospel, what the apostles were now preaching. Beginning at Jerusalem, the apostles were to continue the work of Christ and confirm the new covenant. So when did the Jews finally reject the gospel message of Christ and when did this 3.5 years come to an end? Let us go back to Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin:
Acts 7:54-57.
Stephen had just given a speech about the gospel from the Old Testament scriptures to the Jewish leaders, and notice what happened. The Jewish leaders 'gnashed on him with their teeth'. The truth that Stephen shared to them 'cut to their hearts' and they shut their ears to the truth and were angry with Stephen for the truth he shared. What happened next? Stephen sees a vision of Christ STANDING at the right hand of God. Do you know what Jesus STANDING meant? Well, the Bible tells us that Jesus went back to heaven to 'SIT at the right hand of God'. (Psalm 110:1, Matthew 22:44, Mark 16:19) so why did Stephen see Christ STANDING? If you read Daniel 12:1, we see that 'standing' is a signal of the close probation. So Christ, by standing in His vision to Stephen, was signaling the close of probation upon the Jewish nation. Not as individuals, but as a nation. The Jewish leaders were no longer the representative of God.
This event with Stephen happened 3.5 years after Christ, fulfilling the prophecy of the 70 weeks. Jesus STANDING in His vision to Stephen is evidence that the 70 weeks were fulfilled at this precise time!
The Jewish leaders knew what Jesus 'STANDING' meant, which is why they stoned Stephen.
The Jews as a nation finally rejected the new covenant message and thus rejected Jesus and this fulfilled the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel. Paul himself, after becoming a follower of Christ, confirmed this. Acts 13:46.
Isn't it interesting that Jesus told Peter to forgive 'seventy times seven.' Matthew 18:21-22.
How amazing is the Word of God! Jesus confirmed the 70 weeks prophecy, revealing that God's mercy was soon to close upon the Jewish nation. Yes, individual Jews could and can still turn to Christ for salvation. But as a nation, the 70 weeks prophecy confirms they are no longer God's special chosen people. ALL who are in Christ are now God's special people.
Romans 2:28-29. Galatians 3:28-29.
The 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel confirms Christ as the Messiah and confirms the close of probation upon the Jewish nation. This means that all modern movements to 'restore' Israel as a nation and as God's people is NOT of God. WE MUST also learn the truth that probation is soon to close for ALL of humanity. Meaning we MUST SEEK THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND.
PROBATION IS SOON TO CLOSE!
Acts 7:55-57
Do you realize the significance of Jesus STANDING on the right hand of God the Father in Stephen's vision? The Jewish leaders knew what it meant, which is why they stoned Stephen to death. This is tied kn in with the 70 week prophecy of Daniel.
The 70 weeks of Daniel 9 is an amazing prophecy that provides us with a number of important truths. This prophecy gives us an important starting date for the 2300 day (years) prophecy of Daniel 8 and it also gives us a definitive time frame that God gave to the Jews as a nation to turn to Him and accept Jesus. Most important of all it confirms Jesus Christ as the Messiah. In this amazing study we will find out exactly what happened to the Jewish nation when this time prophecy was fulfilled and came to an end, as confirmed above kn Acts 7.
It is interesting that many orthodox Jews leave this prophecy well alone, because they believe it to be accursed. The tragic thing is, if they really studied and heeded what it said, then they would have realized exactly who Jesus Christ was. This is one reason why Bible prophecy is so important for us to study and find out the truth, because through it, God reveals vital information for us.
Unfortunately today we have so many different interpretations of end times Bible prophecy. And this prophecy of the 70 weeks is no exception. With no authority from the Word of God, many Christians cut off the 7 years from this prophecy and place them in the future. Sadly, many have been deceived by Roman Catholic Jesuit false teachings regarding Bible prophecy. The truth is, the seventy weeks of Daniel are seventy CONTINUOUS weeks of prophetic time. This is so important to grasp. There are no gabs in between this prophecy, but a continuous unbroken time line. There is no scriptural support for the theory that the last week of this 70 weeks prophecy is cut off and placed in the future, like so many people like to believe. None at all! So how long is the 70 'prophetic' weeks? We will find out below. Let's now delve into this fascinating Bible prophecy from Daniel.
Daniel 9:2
Daniel was a student of Jeremiah's prophecies, and understood that the 70 years of captivity for the Israelites had come to an end.
Jeremiah 25:12-12
The seventy years that Jeremiah had prophecies about had now come to an end with the fall of Babylon.
Daniel now comes before God in prayer, saying: Daniel 9:5-6
The Israelites kept falling into sin and disobeying God, and if you study through the Old Testament you will find that they kept falling into apostasy over and over again and that is why they were taken into captivity, because of their many sins, and constant turning from the LORD. So Daniel comes before God to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness. So this is a good lesson for us in that we should be asking for forgiveness for ourselves. Daniel doesn't just pray for himself, he prays for ALL Israel.
Daniel 9:20-22
Daniel was given a vision in chapter 8, and now during his prayer the angel Gabriel was commanded by God to go and give Daniel understanding about the vision. Now we know that this was concerning the vision in chapter 8, because there is no other vision given to Daniel between that time and his prayer in chapter 9. The vision is concerning the 2300 days (from chapter 8), where at the end of the vision, if you read it, you will find that Daniel fainted and was sick and couldn't understand the vision (Daniel 8:27). Gabriel had now come to give Daniel 'skill and understanding' about the vision. We now delve into the actual 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel.
Daniel 9:24
This prophecy of the 70 weeks was given to the Jews to put an end to their sins and accept God's Son Jesus Christ. God chose the nation of Israel to be a light to the World, to take God's Word to the world and bring glory to Him. But as we know the Israelites failed because of their constant sin and apostasy. So now God through Daniel gives them "70 weeks" to put an end once and for all to their sin and apostasy.
Think about it! If God gave you a certain time to put away sin and you don't do it, what is going to happen? God is going to do something st that time isn't He? Let us find out.
STARTING POINT FOR THE 70 WEEKS
Are the 70 weeks of Daniel literal weeks? No, in Bible prophecy a day equals a year. Note the following two scriptures:
Ezekiel 4:6. Numbers 14:34.
One day in Bible prophecy is one literal year. So let's calculate the 70 weeks. 70×7=490. So the 70 weeks = 490 prophetic days, but talking into account that s day is a year in Bible prophecy, then this 70 weeks is actually 490 years. Most Bible scholars are in agreement that this time period is actually 490 years, not days. But when did this 490 years start?
Daniel 9:25. Ezra 7:13,20.
Artaxerxes issued the above decree in 457BC. This is where some people disagree, because the command to rebuild Jerusalem had already been given by Cyrus, and the rebuilding had already started. We find this decree in Ezra 1:3
This decree was given in 539BC. But the Israelites were forced to stop rebuilding the city by Artaxerxes. Ezra 4:21,23. But notice that they were to only stop UNTIL they were given another command by Artaxerxes to continue. So it is at this second command that the 490 year(70 weeks) prophecy begins.
Is there any way we can be sure that we have chosen the right command? Yes! There is a very sure way of knowing that we have chosen the right one, because within this 70 weeks (490 years) prophecy, Christ is revealed as the Messiah. Daniel 9:25.
Did you notice there, from the command until MESSIAH THE PRINCE? This is none other than Christ Jesus. So, we need to do some easy straightforward calculating to work this out. The seven weeks and threescore and two weeks in the above verse is 69 weeks, which amounts to 483 days. Now as we know a day in Bible prophecy = a year. So this 483 days is actually 483 years. So 483 years AFTER the command (second command from Artaxerxes) to rebuild Jerusalem, Jesus would be revealed as the Messiah. This is the important bit as to know which command to choose:
If you choose the first command by Cyrus in 539BC and take away 483 years, we come to 56 BC.
If you choose the second command by Artaxerxes in 457 BC and take away the 483 years, we come to 27 AD.
What happened in 56 BC? Nothing that concerned Jesus.
What happened in 27 AD? Jesus' Baptism! He is revealed as Messiah.
So now you can see why SECOND command by Artaxerxes HAS to be used,and even though we don't need any more confirmation that we are using the right starting point with the second command, God's amazing truth gives us even more confirmation. You see, in Daniel 9:25, the angel Gabriel gives two time periods. One period of '7 weeks' and the other period of 'threescore and two weeks'. A little bit more calculating to do! Seven weeks =49 years (don't forget the day to year rule). From 457 BC (the second command), 49 years would take us to 408 BC. Is this date significant? Yes it is!! It is the date that the restoration of the city finished! Then we have the threescore and two weeks which equates to 434 years. Now if we take 434 from 408 BC (when rebuilding the city had finished), we come to 27 AD, Jesus' baptism! Friend, that is the amazing truth of God right there! Praise God !!
Jesus Himself confirms that this time period from Daniels 70 weeks prophecy had been fulfilled by Himself
Mark 1:9-15
Now we still have one week left to account for in this 70 week prophecy. This is where a lot of Christians now cut off the last week of this prophecy and place it future to us as the very end times. But as we confirmed earlier, this prophecy is a continuous one. There is no scripture support to say we need to cut off the last week and place it somewhere in the future.
What many don't realize is that by cutting off the last "week" of the 70 and placing it in the future, they are attributing the work of Christ on the cross to ANTICHRIST! What abomination, thanks yo the Roman Catholic Church and her Jesuits who invented the false futurist interpretation of this prophecy!
Daniel 9:26-27.
The confusion lies in the wording of the above verses. It starts with Christ being 'cut off' through His death on the cross. Then we see mention of the 'people of the prince come' who would 'destroy the city and sanctuary.' This is a clear reference to the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem in AD70. Then it says .. 'he shall confirm the covenant for one week.' Now read carefully the above verses 26-27 again. You can see it starts with Christ. Then we get an 'interlude' with mention of the Roman army who would destroy the city, and then it goes back to Christ. HE is the one mentioned as 'confirming the covenant', not a 'future antichrist.' The 'people of the prince' is just an interlude. The verses do NOT carry on speaking of this 'prince', it goes back to Christ. This is the correct way to read the verses.
And notice is doesn't say 'he shall confirm A covenant.' It says 'he shall confirm THE covenant.' It is Christ who confirmed THE covenant.
So after the baptism of Jesus (after the threescore and two weeks, which ended in 27 AD), it says that Messiah shall be 'cut off'. Now those words, cut off means to be killed. This can only point to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Notice in the verse it also says that it was NOT FOR HIMSELF that he was cut off (killed). As we know, Jesus died for us to bare our sins. Now if you take this last week of the 70 week prophecy and put it in the future, then you are denying that it is pointing to the cross of our Saviour, which it clearly is. So this last week of the baptism of Jesus, and in the middle of the week, He would cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. At the cross, Jesus put an end to the priestly sacrifice, which included the sacrifice and offerings of animals for sins. The middle of 7 years is 3.5 years to 27 AD, you come to 31 AD. This is the exact year of Jesus sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. The great veil of the temple ripped in two, which symbolized the end of the sacrifice and oblation (offerings).
But Jesus only 'confirmed the covenant' for 3.5 years There is 3.5 years left of this 70 weeks of Daniel. After they killed Jesus on the cross, the Jews were given another 3.5 years to end their sin and accept Jesus as their Saviour. What sn awesome God we have, who is full of grace! Christ confirmed the covenant for the first 3.5 years, and after His dead and resurrection, it was now the job of the apostles to continue preaching the gospel message to the Jews for the last 3.5 years.
Luke 24:46-47. Romans 1:16.
Why to the Jews first? Why begin in Jerusalem? Because the Jews still had 3.5 years left to accept the truth of the gospel, what the apostles were now preaching. Beginning at Jerusalem, the apostles were to continue the work of Christ and confirm the new covenant. So when did the Jews finally reject the gospel message of Christ and when did this 3.5 years come to an end? Let us go back to Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin:
Acts 7:54-57.
Stephen had just given a speech about the gospel from the Old Testament scriptures to the Jewish leaders, and notice what happened. The Jewish leaders 'gnashed on him with their teeth'. The truth that Stephen shared to them 'cut to their hearts' and they shut their ears to the truth and were angry with Stephen for the truth he shared. What happened next? Stephen sees a vision of Christ STANDING at the right hand of God. Do you know what Jesus STANDING meant? Well, the Bible tells us that Jesus went back to heaven to 'SIT at the right hand of God'. (Psalm 110:1, Matthew 22:44, Mark 16:19) so why did Stephen see Christ STANDING? If you read Daniel 12:1, we see that 'standing' is a signal of the close probation. So Christ, by standing in His vision to Stephen, was signaling the close of probation upon the Jewish nation. Not as individuals, but as a nation. The Jewish leaders were no longer the representative of God.
This event with Stephen happened 3.5 years after Christ, fulfilling the prophecy of the 70 weeks. Jesus STANDING in His vision to Stephen is evidence that the 70 weeks were fulfilled at this precise time!
The Jewish leaders knew what Jesus 'STANDING' meant, which is why they stoned Stephen.
The Jews as a nation finally rejected the new covenant message and thus rejected Jesus and this fulfilled the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel. Paul himself, after becoming a follower of Christ, confirmed this. Acts 13:46.
Isn't it interesting that Jesus told Peter to forgive 'seventy times seven.' Matthew 18:21-22.
How amazing is the Word of God! Jesus confirmed the 70 weeks prophecy, revealing that God's mercy was soon to close upon the Jewish nation. Yes, individual Jews could and can still turn to Christ for salvation. But as a nation, the 70 weeks prophecy confirms they are no longer God's special chosen people. ALL who are in Christ are now God's special people.
Romans 2:28-29. Galatians 3:28-29.
The 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel confirms Christ as the Messiah and confirms the close of probation upon the Jewish nation. This means that all modern movements to 'restore' Israel as a nation and as God's people is NOT of God. WE MUST also learn the truth that probation is soon to close for ALL of humanity. Meaning we MUST SEEK THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND.
PROBATION IS SOON TO CLOSE!
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