The entire concept of end-time prophecy finds it's roots in a period of 70 weeks or "seventy sevens" that God showed Daniel. Keeping in mind our foundational principles that we have learned, let's look first at the immediate fulfillment of these scriptures and then see if there is any scriptural reference to a distant fulfillment. We will take the verses one at a time and apply their immediate fulfillment to Jesus Christ.

"Seventy weeks" literally reads "seventy sevens" in the Hebrew. God was telling Daniel that there was a period of 490 years (70 x 7) that would pass before the Messiah would be born. From these prophecies it would have been possible to pinpoint Jesus Christ's first coming to within a few years and it was probably a discovery and understanding of these scriptures that enabled the wise men to be looking for a star that would signal the birth of the Great King! It is interesting that the period of 490 years is not an accident. In fact, God has always dealt with natural Israel in periods of 490 years. Before we continue on in our study of the fulfillment of the 70 weeks, let's look at how God dealt with Israel in such periods throughout their history:

From the birth of Abraham to the Exodus was actually 505 years (Genesis 12:4; 16:3; 21:5). But by deducting the 15 years while Abraham's mistake, Ishmael, was Abram's seed delaying the seed of the promise, we find that 505 - 15 = 490 years!

In the Wilderness 40 years

Under the Judges 450 years

King Saul 40 years

King David 40 years

King Solomon 3 years (to the laying of the foundation of the temple)

(I Kings 6:1, 37)

The total of these years is 573 years. However during the times of the Judges, the children of Israel were led captive to various groups of people because of their idolatry. They were captive under:

Cushan (Judges 3:8) 8 years

Eglon (Judges 3:14) 18 years

Jabin (Judges 4:3) 20 years

Midianites (Judges 6:1) 7 years

Philistines (Judges 13:1) 40 years

So Israel spent 93 years under the control of other nations in the time of the Judges because of their idol worship. Subtracting these 93 years from 573 years, we arrive at 480 years from the Exodus to the laying of the foundation of the temple.

The temple was in building 7 years (I Kings 6:38) and was still at least another 3 years for the furnishing and completing of the work (I Kings 7:13-51). 7 + 3 = 10 years of work on the temple after the foundation was laid. When we add the 10 years of the work on the temple to the 480 years from the Exodus from Egypt until the laying of the foundation of the temple, we find that

480 years + 10 years = 490 years! (Not counting the years spent into captivity)

From the dedication of the temple to Nehemiah returned in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes' reign was 560 years (Nehemiah 2:1). Because of their idolatry, the children of Israel were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12 Daniel 9:2).

Subtracting the time of captivity we find that 560 years - 70 years = 490 years!

This brings us to Daniel's 70 weeks which represent the final period of 490 years of God's dealing with the nation of Israel. God told Daniel that from the "going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem" until the coming of "Messiah the prince" would be "seven weeks" or "seven sevens" and "threescore and two weeks" or "sixty-two sevens." Realizing that God is referring to prophetic years, that means that it would be 49 years (7 x 7) plus 434 years (62 x 7) or 483 years from when Nehemiah received commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah would come.

According to Daniel 9:24, the Messiah would come to "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy." Jesus' Christ's first coming perfectly fulfilled all of these prophecies. He finished the transgression or "restrained evil" by His preaching and through the preaching of His disciples. He made "an end of sins" and "reconciliation for iniquity" when died upon Calvary as the spotless Lamb of God. He provided a new plan of salvation by which men can find "everlasting righteousness." He "sealed up the vision and prophecy" by fulfilling the many prophecies that had foretold of His coming. (Also make a note of the terminology of "seal" here, because we will come back to this verse later in the study of the seven seals of Revelation). And of course as God in flesh, the humanity of Jesus Christ was anointed of God in a way that no man had ever been or ever will be! Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled these scriptures so far, but let's move to the next verse.

God told Daniel that after the 483 years, the Messiah would be cut off but not for his own sake! And so it was exactly after the allotted time period, the Messiah was crucified and killed for the sake of others having eternal life! Then a "prince" shall come and destroy the city and the sanctuary of the temple, and the result of the war will be the ceasing of all sacrifice and "oblation" or sacrificial worship in the temple! These scriptures find their immediate fulfillment in A.D. 70 when the Roman General Titus marched to Jerusalem in response to a Jewish revolt against the Roman government and completely destroyed Jerusalem and the temple so that not "one stone was left upon another" as Jesus had predicted (Matthew 24:1-2)!

Verse 27 of Daniel is where the prophecy gets interesting. The verse is worded so that "he" can refer to either the Messiah or the prince. I believe that it refers to the Messiah in it's immediate fulfillment and to "the prince" in it's distant fulfillment. In the immediate fulfillment, it says that the Messiah would cause the sacrifice to cease in the "middle of the week." That is, halfway through a seven year period or three and a half years. Jesus Christ's ministry was almost exactly three and a half years in length and the Crucifixion at the end of these three and a half years effectively ended the need for blood sacrifices and related Mosaic-style worship. Jesus ended these sacrifices by entering into the temple as our High Priest and the veil that had separated God and man was forever rent in two (Matthew 27:51). Immediately before these events, Jesus had walked into the temple many times and proclaimed that He was God (for one example see John 10:30-33)!

Notice however that the immediate fulfillment of these prophecies are incomplete because they only account for 486 and half years of the 490 years allotted. This incompletion is because of the Law of Double fulfillment of prophecy. Because the Jewish people rejected Him, Jesus Christ is coming again! Remember that all of prophecy must be viewed in light of both of Jesus Christ's coming. So let's move on to the distant fulfillment of these scriptures and how they relate to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

After Jesus foretold of the destruction of the temple of His day, the disciples began to ask Him about the signs of His second coming. The response of Jesus is found in Matthew chapters 24 and 25 and is known as the "Olivet Discourse." It is a very important chapter on prophecy and will be the foundation of our studies. Let's begin in verse 3 and quickly go through the first part of chapter 24:

Notice that Jesus is now going to tell them the signs of the "end of the world." The Greek word for "world" here literally means "age." So Jesus is outlining the end of some specific age. The question that must be answered is "is it the age of Law that Jesus is referring to?" or "is it the end of the age of Grace, the time of the Gentiles?" We will find our answer in the next few verses.

There are a few basic clues in these verses. The end of this age that Jesus Christ is talking about will be characterized by people claiming to be "Christ." There will be many wars and rumors of wars and famines, sicknesses, and many earthquakes throughout the world. This could apply to either the time of the end of law or the present day time of grace!

Here are the first hints that Jesus is not talking about the end of the age of Law, but of the end of Grace, for no disciples were killed for "His name's sake" during Law!

Here is the clarification for which we have been looking! The "gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" and THEN, that is, AFTER the gospel is preached in all the world, "THEN shall the end come!" The ministry and preaching of Jesus Christ only reached the land of Israel, so this can only refer to the work of the disciples and apostles in the age of Grace! Without a shadow of a doubt, then, Jesus is telling of events that will signal the end of the Dispensation of Grace! Keeping this in mind, notice His next words:

In talking about the end of the time of Grace, Jesus tells us that when we "shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place!" In other words, Jesus quoted Daniel 9:27 that we studied earlier and alluded that it would be fulfilled in the future as a sign of the end of the age of the Gentiles! This is absolute proof that there is yet to be a distant fulfillment of Daniel 9:27! Jesus Christ fulfilled the scripture in it's immediate fulfillment, but the scripture will be fulfilled in another way near the time of Jesus' second coming! And Jesus adds some information that Daniel did not give us, for He said we would see the abomination of desolation "stand in the holy place." That is a direct reference to the Holy Place of the temple! This teaches us an interesting point about future prophecy and the end of the age of the Gentiles, because as of the current time of this writing (A.D. 2003) there is no temple in Jerusalem! That means that in the future, a physical temple will again be built in Jerusalem. We will study this future temple and other scriptures that predict it's building in later lessons.

Right now, let's focus on WHO will stand in the holy place. The question then is, "who is the person associated with the future fulfillment of the "abomination of desolation." It is obvious from Jesus' description of him as "an abomination" that it is NOT a reference to Himself. Following our foundational principles, let's go to another scripture which tells of the same event and gives a little more detail:

Paul is writing the church in Thessalonica and is warning them to not worry that the "day of Christ" or the "day of the Lord's coming" is "at hand." In other words, Paul was telling the church in Thessalonica that there were some things that had to happen before Jesus Christ's second coming.

The day of Jesus second coming would not come UNTIL two criteria were fulfilled: 1. There must come a great falling away first and 2. A "man of sin" the "son of perdition" be revealed. I believe that the first criteria has already been met. When we studied church history (Dispensation Bible Study Part II Lesson #36), we discovered that during the Middle Ages (A.D. 600 - 1500) the vast majority of people did not even own a Bible, nevertheless obey the scriptures! Some preachers teach their people to expect a massive backsliding right before Jesus comes again, but the scriptures teach us to expect quite the opposite! There are way too many prophecies to list here, but the Scriptures teach us that there will be a great harvest of souls in the last days (see Daniel 11:32-33 for one)! You get what you preach, and if you preach that people will backslide, then you might experience it in your own church, but I will choose to preach that a great harvest is coming!

The second criteria is that which we are particularly interested. The scriptures say that a "man of sin" or the "son of perdition" (which means sin) would be "revealed" before Jesus Christ's second coming. Verse four gives us the extra information that we needed to realize that this passage of scripture is describing the same "abomination of desolation" as Daniel and Jesus. It says that he will "oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped" and that he will "sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" In other words a man will arise who claims to be God and exalts himself above any other religion and god. He will "reveal" himself by sitting in the temple of God and proclaiming that he is God almighty! This by anyone's definition is the "Antichrist." The spirit of the antichrist "doth already work" but there is no doubt that the actual Antichrist will be a physical man who steps into the temple and proclaims that he is God himself!

Let's add this information to what Jesus told us in Matthew 24:15. Jesus said that the "abomination of desolation" would "stand in the Holy Place." So obviously when the Antichrist comes he will step into a rebuilt Jewish temple (that has not yet been built) and will step into the Holy Place and proclaim that He is the true God, the Messiah! Unfortunately many of the Jewish people will believe him because by rejecting Jesus Christ as their Messiah, they still believe that they are under Mosaic Law. That means that they still believe that they must have a physical temple, sacrifices, and a veil in order to be saved. That's not true because the work of Jesus Christ on Calvary completely abolished the ceremonial law, but the Jews do not understand those principles. They think that God will still strike anyone who wrongly goes into the Holy Place and when the Antichrist walks into the Holy Place and God does not kill him, many of them will be deceived into thinking that he really is the Messiah. Of course, the reason that God will not kill him immediately is because God no longer dwells in physical temples made with hands and the law of Moses has been rendered obsolete by the blood of Jesus Christ!

Now that we somewhat understand what future event Jesus is talking about by referring back to Daniel's prophecy of the Abomination of Desolation, let's move on in Matthew chapter 24 and see why Jesus told us to watch for this event! (Keep in mind that this warning is for us today because Peter and the disciples would die long before the end of the age of the Gentiles).

Jesus said that when we see the Antichrist walk into the temple and proclaim that he is God (the abomination of desolation), then those in Judea (the modern day Westbank of Israel) are to run into the mountains!

The people of Judea need to flee so fast that they do not even bother to pack. Those that are working away from their house are warned not to return to their homes. It will not be good for those mothers who have small infants in that day, and they should pray that it does not happen during the winter or during a time of festivity or celebration! It is clear that Jesus is trying to get across the importance of getting out of Judea when the abomination of desolation occurs, but why? He answers that in the next verse:

For then shall be "great tribulation!" And unless those days be shortened, no flesh would be saved, yet those days will be shortened! Jesus said that the abomination of desolation, that is, the Antichrist going into the Holy place of a rebuilt Jewish temple would be what would start the period known as the time of "great tribulation!" That is important to remember: the event that begins the Great Tribulation is the abomination of desolation.

Now let's return to our original prophecy in Daniel now armed with much more knowledge:

It is now very obvious that in the distant fulfillment of this prophecy, the "he" refers to the Antichrist. He is going to try to be like Christ in every way. He will follow the example of the work of Calvary and the ministry of Jesus Christ's first coming by proclaiming that he is God in the temple and also causing the renewed sacrifice of Moses to stop! Notice that the verse says that "he will confirm a covenant with many for one week." We will discuss this covenant or agreement that the Antichrist will make when we study the rebuilt Jewish temple. The important point to realize is that it also says that the sacrifice and worship will stop in the middle of the week. That is, the abomination of desolation will happen at the MIDDLE of the seven year period. Jesus taught that the abomination of desolation would be the event that STARTED the Great Tribulation. What this means is that the Great Tribulation is NOT a period of seven years like most people teach! Daniel's 70th week is a period of seven years, but the Great Tribulation does not start until the abomination of desolation which occurs in the MIDDLE of the seven years. That is, the Great Tribulation is a period of THREE AND A HALF YEARS, the final three and a half years of the seven years of Daniel's 70th week! This is an important fallacy of the pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation theories because they falsely teach that the Great Tribulation is a period of seven years, but this directly contradicts the teaching of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24!

It is also becoming increasingly obvious that the Great Tribulation is not the "wrath of God" but is the persecution of the Antichrist primarily on the Jewish people of the Judea region. Most prophecy teachers say that the Great Tribulation is when God will begin to pour out judgment, but we will see in our study that this is not true. The Great Tribulation is a time of persecution from the Antichrist upon the Jewish people of Judea that do not accept his claim of being the Messiah. The Wrath of God, which is entirely different from the Great Tribulation, will be poured out upon the whole earth (we will study the Wrath of God in detail in a later lesson). As we will see, the Antichrist will not have complete control over the entire earth and will mainly focus on persecuting the Jewish people. Remember that the time of Daniel's 70th week refer to God's dealing with the Jewish people. Throughout history, the time that they spent among the Gentiles either in captivity or in idolatry did not count toward the periods of 490 years!

So to finish our last period of 490 years, it was 483 years from the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah was cut off and the nation of Israel officially rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Because of that rejection, God has now temporarily turned to the Gentiles. After the undetermined interval of time of the Gentiles (as of now close to 2,000 years and running) then God will deal with Israel for a period of one more week of years (7 years). Midway through this week, the Antichrist will be revealed and then at the end of the 490 years Jesus Christ will return the second time to judge the nation of Israel.

483 years + the 7 years of Daniel's 70th week = 490 years when not counting the present time of the Gentiles!

There is one other phrase in Daniel 9:27 that we need to mention. The scripture says that the Antichrist will "confirm the covenant with many for one week." That is, he will either make a new covenant, or pledge to abide by an older covenant with many nations and people for seven years. He will break this covenant after only three and half years by causing the worship and sacrifice in the temple to cease. Even though we do not know exactly what this covenant that he will confirm will be, it is very obvious that it has something to do with Israel, the temple mount, and the reinstitution of Mosaic sacrifices. Two small points in this verse give us a clearer picture of this time. First, he makes the covenant with "many," and not "all." Not every nation is going to be on the Antichrist's bandwagon! He will not control every inch of the earth. Second, he is the perfect model of peace for the first three and a half years and it is not until he breaks the covenant and causes the sacrifice to cease in the middle of the week that "Great Tribulation" begins. This means that it will be very hard to identify the Antichrist and his covenant during the first three and a half years of Daniel's 70th week, so speculation about who the Antichrist might be is right now pointless. We will know without a shadow of a doubt, though, who the Antichrist is when a world leader who was formerly known because of his love of peace, suddenly steps into a rebuilt Jewish temple and proclaims that he is the Messiah. That is the sign that Jesus wanted us to understand! That is the sign that those in Judea are about to come under great persecution from the Antichrist.

So, in summary, we have learned that there is still a period of seven years determined upon natural Israel before God judges them. This is known as Daniel's "70th week." In the future, a male world leader, will become known as the "prince of peace" and will solve the many problems in the land of Israel and the Arab world. He will sign or join a covenant with many people that will allow a new Jewish temple to be built (it is obvious that another temple will be built because he cannot cause the sacrifice to cease unless it has restarted!). For the first half of Daniel's 70th week, everything will be peaceful. After three and half years, however, this world leader will conclusively prove that he is the Antichrist when he "stands in the Holy place" and proclaims that he "is God." Because God's presence no longer dwells in Mosaic temples, the Antichrist will not be killed for stepping into the Holy place and thus will deceive many people. Some will not believe however, and the Antichrist will then begin a time of extreme persecution against those who do not believe that he is the Messiah. This persecution will begin in Judea and, at first, will be primarily against the Jewish people. This time of great duress was called by Jesus "Great Tribulation," and it will last for the remaining three and a half years of Daniel's 70th week. After which the final period of 490 years of God's dealing with the Jewish people will be finished! The key event during this period is when the Antichrist steps into the rebuilt Jewish temple and proclaims that he is God and causes the sacrifices and worship to stop. This even was referred to by both Daniel and Jesus as the "abomination of desolation." It will identify the Antichrist and be the event that begins the Great Tribulation.