Things real quick, we will not make it very far this evening.
That's okay, Lord Willem, we always have next Wednesday.
So the stuff that we're going over right now, I would never go over on a Sunday morning
because that's not the purpose of a Sunday morning, but Wednesday is a time when we can
grow and learn more and deepen our knowledge of Scripture and our understanding of redemptive
history.
If you'll remember, we're going through the different views of the end times because this
is the purpose.
We said that your view of the end times greatly influences how you read Revelation.
So if you have one view, you're going to read Revelation one way, but if you hold to a different
view, well then you're going to read Revelation a different way.
And so how you think about the end times, it actually really greatly influences how you
understand and read the book of Revelation.
And last week, we started talking about the rapture.
Y'all remember that from last week?
Of course, you remember everything I said.
So you know it, but we talked about the rapture and we started looking at dispensationalism
because we said it's a premillennial position and so we need to start with the premillennials
and then we'll make it down to the postmillennials.
You started at the beginning, right?
So dispensationalism and we were talking about their view of the rapture and you remember
they have the view of the rapture of what's commonly known as like a secret rapture or
an invisible rapture.
There's a lot of different nomenclature for it, but basically Jesus returns partway,
you remember, to the clouds and he calls up the church.
So any Christian on earth disappears, they meet Jesus in the clouds, he takes them back
to heaven and then starts the time of the seven year tribulation.
And so we said we just kind of want to go in order of events according to the view, right?
So if the rapture is the first event, what's the second event?
Yeah, someone said it, tribulation, right, yeah, absolutely.
So tonight we're going to be talking about the tribulation because this is something
we need to understand.
You can hold to whatever view you want of the end times, it does not matter to me, I
just want to make sure you back it up with Scripture.
I respect every single person who has a view and they back it up biblically and with Scripture
and they are convinced by Scripture, I have the utmost respect for you.
The problem is we're living in a culture today where a lot of Christians just believe something
but they don't necessarily know why they believe it, right?
They might believe it because they heard it growing up or it's what they've always thought,
it's what they've always been told, it's what they were exposed to, but if you were to ask
them hey, you believe this, can you show me in Scripture, they might not be able to point
it out, right?
They might not even know where to go in order to defend or prove their own beliefs.
So we need to make sure that whatever we believe comes from the Bible and can be defended
by Scripture.
So we come to the idea of the tribulation.
How long, man, I already gave the answer away, how long does the tribulation last?
Seven years, you bunch of scholars, you got it.
Seven year tribulation.
So the question is where does the idea of a seven year tribulation come from?
Now I specifically did not have you open up to the book of Revelation, anybody know why?
Well, yes, because we're going to Daniel.
So you can be turning to Daniel chapter 9 if you want.
But it's because there is nothing in Revelation that specifically mentions a seven year tribulation
period.
The word tribulation is used a number of times, but there is no specific seven year tribulation
period mentioned in Revelation.
In fact, that phrase, the great tribulation, it only occurs three times in Scripture.
It occurs in Matthew 24, 21.
It occurs in Revelation chapter 2, verse 22, and then Revelation 7, 14.
But that's just the phrase, great tribulation.
It doesn't say a seven year tribulation will take place at this point.
So where, you bunch of scholars, where does the idea of a seven year tribulation come
from?
The book of Daniel.
That's right, good job guys.
The book of Daniel.
But this is where the idea of the seven year tribulation comes from.
So if you have your Bibles, you're going to want to be looking at this because this is
notoriously one of the easiest sections of Scripture to understand.
Everybody gets it first glance, okay?
If you know this section, you know that's not true.
But starting in verse 24, Daniel chapter 9, verse 24, this is what the Bible says.
70 weeks are decreed about your people in your holy city to finish the transgression,
to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to
seal both vision and profit into anoint a most holy place.
Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the Word to restore and build
Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince there shall be seven weeks.
Then for 62 weeks, it shall be built again with squares and a moat, but in a troubled
time.
And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary.
This end shall come with a flood and to the end there shall be war.
Desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week.
And for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end
is poured out on the desolator.
Do we even need to explain it?
It's not dry, right?
There's a lot of stuff going on here, right?
So let's just try to break it down and remember it's important.
Context is king.
Whenever you're reading the Bible, remember that phrase, context is king.
Context matters, okay?
So the context of this vision occurs in a famous passage of scripture, Daniel chapter
nine, which is a notorious, a famous prayer of Daniel.
It's a prayer of repentance.
And he's praying this in light of Jeremiah's prophecy about the exile time lasting 70 years.
You remember that from the book of Jeremiah?
Well Daniel even starts in Daniel nine verses one and two, and he says that he's praying
this prayer in according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet.
So he heard the prophecy of Jeremiah.
He understood the exile would last 70 years and he offers his prayer.
And we don't have time to go through the prayer, but he's praying a prayer of repentance on
behalf of the people because they were the guilty ones.
They sinned against God and their exile was a right and just punishment from God for their
sins.
But at this point, the exile has lasted about 66 years.
And he just heard from Jeremiah that the exile is going to last 70 years.
And so he realizes that the exile time is nearly over and he begins to pray that God
would restore Jerusalem, that the temple would be rebuilt and that God's people would be
a restored people.
And so that's the context of this prayer.
So you have to understand that as fun as it is to dig into end time stuff and to look
at charts and whatnot and try to map it out, you have to understand that this vision about
the 70 weeks is a direct answer from God concerning the prayer of Daniel for the restoration of
Jerusalem, the temple and the people of God.
That's the context.
That is why we have this.
And I want you to notice you have it on your sheet there.
There are six purposes to the 70 weeks, right?
You see them there on handout number one that is not labeled handout number one, but you
see the six purposes.
This is the whole reason for the 70 weeks to finish transgression, to put an end to sin,
to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal vision and profit,
to anoint a most holy place.
And so if we're trying to think about the 70 periods of seven, the 70 weeks, it'd probably
be a good question to ask, when did they start?
Wouldn't that be good to know?
When did they start?
If there's going to be 70 weeks and all this stuff is happening, well, when did they start?
Well, this is what the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 36-23.
I don't think I wrote that down so you can make a note of that.
2 Chronicles 36-23.
Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms
of the earth and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him, let him go
up.
And so notice what is happening here.
Cyrus is issuing this decree that the people are free to return to the land and begin to
rebuild the temple and the city and make their own place again.
That's the decree that's going out here and that happened in 538 BC.
So 538 BC is when Cyrus issued his decree.
And so you have to understand that because this is the decree that frees the people to
return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple, it marks the end of the 70 years
of exile as well as the beginning of Daniel's 70 weeks.
So it would seem.
But dispensationalists, most of them, you could have, again, there are variants with
every single position.
In general, most dispensationalists would say, well, that's not actually the decree that
marks the 70 weeks.
Instead, they would say that the 70 weeks begin with the 20th year of art exertcies
in the year, I'll put it here, 444 to basically, forget the year, doing it backwards, 445
to 444 BC.
That was when art exertcies was in his 20th year and he issued a decree to go back and
actually begin to rebuild the city, not just the temple.
And so if you do a little math here, and I've given you a little math there on your sheet
because I know personally everybody loves math.
So here's what happens.
Dispensationalists will say, OK, we have 70 periods of seven or 70 weeks.
You following me here?
And they say, well, we need to make sense of that.
And so basically it equals a year.
So if you have 70 times seven and they're all years, that equals, anybody can do math,
490 years.
And so here's the cool math of this is if you basically go from art exertcies, hard to say,
if you go from his decree and you go 490 years that way, you end up at AD 32, specifically
in the spring.
What might have happened in the spring of AD 32?
But right the like a week before, just back it up a week.
What happened a week?
That's right.
Died for our sentence.
He entered into Jerusalem, the triumphal entry.
So the cool thing about this position and the math that they're able to do here is if
you go 490 years from art exertcies and you go all the way forward, you end up in the
spring of AD 32, which could have been when Jesus entered Jerusalem during Holy Week before
he would die on the cross for our sins.
And so basically if you just look at our nifty little chart here, you have the decree to
rebuild.
And then you have the 69 week period that has to take place because remember it said
there was going to be seven years that passed and then 62 more years and then that equals
69.
Then you have the coming of the Messiah.
Then you have the death of the Messiah.
You have the destruction of Jerusalem.
Then this isn't on your chart so you'll have to add it.
You have the rapture.
So remember the church goes up, Christ comes down, they meet here in the middle and then
they are transported back for the duration of this.
But then you have the beginning of the seven year tribulation period.
And that they say is going to account for the last week of the 70 weeks.
This would be week 70 here.
So if you want to just put a 70, this is week 70.
And this is going to be the anti-Christ.
And then this is Jesus coming again.
So this is essentially the dispensationalist view of the 70 weeks.
So it begins with art exerties.
You have the 69 weeks that pass.
You have the coming of the Messiah specifically entering into Jerusalem.
You have Jesus dying on the cross.
You have the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the rapture, anti-Christ, Jesus coming
back.
This is an important part here.
This ongoing gap time slash church age, one of the ways that they try to account for everything
because there are 70 weeks to account for is that they'd say well 69 weeks have passed
here.
And this is the beginning of the 70th week.
So they propose that there is a gap time here in between the 69th week and the 70th week
that compromises the entire church age.
So 69 weeks pass.
There's a gap time.
That's the entire church age.
And then you had the beginning of the 70th week.
And I believe that is a fair representation of the dispensationalist view of the 70 weeks.
And so during that time, you just think about a few things that happen.
We remember the six purposes we just talked about of the 70 weeks.
Most of them would say that almost all of those purposes are going to be fulfilled at
a future time, maybe even during the millennium itself.
They would say that the destruction of the city that we read about in verses 26 through
27, it refers to the Roman destruction that happened to Jerusalem in 8070.
They would say that an antichrist is to come at a later time, at some point in the future,
you know, during the tribulation time.
And then this is how they reconcile these verses.
They'll say that the antichrist is to come and he's going to arise out of anybody know
what city or territory, kingdom he's going to rise out of.
Babylon or Rome, there are two different views on that.
So it could be Babylon, could be Rome, but a newly revived Babylon or Rome.
The antichrist rises to power.
There's like a one world order type situation going on.
It says that he would make a covenant with the Jews.
During this time period, the Jews would rebuild the temple.
They would anoint the temple.
They would reinstate the sacrificial system and sacrificial offerings.
But then halfway through that seven year period, what happens?
Well, he doesn't die at this point, but he breaks the covenant.
He breaks the covenant with Israel and the Jewish people.
And then he persecutes the Jews fiercely until Jesus returns at the end of the seven year
tribulation period where he then binds Satan.
Pretty cut and dry, right?
Yeah.
So you just break it down.
He makes sense of it, right?
So I want you to notice everything that we just talked about.
Is all of this based on Scripture?
Yes, it is a view and I want to be fair.
They try to read Scripture and make the best sense of it and propose this as a solution
to what they read.
So let's be fair.
Again, still man other people's position.
It is a biblical position.
However, I do think that we could offer some critiques.
So first of all, I would say, do you remember one of the key components of dispensational
lessons?
One of the key characteristics is to interpret everything, remember, literally, right?
So you interpret everything as literally as possible at all times.
The problem is a couple of things.
Like for one, where it says in the beginning, verse 24 there, 70 weeks are decreed about
your people in your holy city.
Well, the problem is, as you can see, I wrote it out in Hebrew for you so you don't even
need me to fill it in.
But it doesn't actually say weeks.
It says 77s, which is really difficult when you're reading Hebrew and you're like, alright,
77s are ordained for you.
And you're like, well, what does that mean?
You have to initially begin asking the question, well, what does this 7 represent?
Hours, days, weeks, months, years, could be any of them because it literally just says
77s are ordained for you.
So that's one thing.
So, initially, right at the start, if you're a dispensationalist and you want to interpret
everything literally, you can't because it never says year.
You have to be the one to propose that a 7 represents a year to get to the 490 years
that goes along with their view here.
So that's one thing.
But then another thing about this, and if we're thinking literally here, it's hard to imagine,
so just track with me, it's hard to imagine that this would be 69 or basically 483, 490,
depending on how you do the math and where you start it, it's hard to imagine these being
490 literal years, although the math looked really good, though, didn't it?
I mean, if you started in a certain place, you ended in a certain place, that looks good.
That's appealing, is it not?
We can all agree on that.
But if this is 490 literal years, what happens here?
Why do we go from being literal here to symbolic here back to literal here?
We have to come up with that, don't we?
We have to be the ones to impose that on that system.
And so you start off with, again, 490 literal years, but then you go to an indefinite period
of time.
Currently we're at 2,000 plus years right now in this period, and so not literal years
anymore.
Then for this final week, we go back to seven literal years, one week equals seven years.
So if you're trying to interpret this literally, that doesn't really mesh, does it?
You have to choose what's literal and what's not within the same system, and so a week
represents something in verse this, but not verse this.
You see what I mean?
Makes sense?
It's going back and forth between literalism and being symbolic.
So the other thing here is that the dates are not as precise as we want them to be.
For instance, if you start with the coming of Jesus about 80-30 or 80-32, somewhere around
there when he's going into public ministry or entering into Jerusalem, and you work backwards,
you come to a date of about 453 BC.
Write that down because we have a lot of room.
453 BC is where you would end up if you're working back.
You're working backwards from 80-30 or 32.
And that's very close in time to the ministry of Ezra and Nehemiah.
And you remember that Ezra was primarily rebuilt in the temple, Nehemiah primarily rebuilt
in the city, and that ministry going on of rebuilding.
But notice here that we see Gabriel saying that the Restoration is going to begin with
the end of the 70 weeks.
And assuming that these weeks are literal, you come in close proximity to art exercies,
but not exactly.
And you discover that throughout the prophecy of Daniel and Ezra and Nehemiah, the original
decree to leave and go back to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple and restore the
nation of Israel, it was not art exercies who was first, it was Cyrus.
And you see that on your sheet, that Cyrus was actually, he gave the original decree
to go back in 538 BC.
Now, there is an objection here because a dispensationalist might say, well, the decree
of Cyrus specifically pertained to rebuilding the temple, but not necessarily the city.
Okay, fair objection.
But keep in mind that the Israelites hardly made any distinction between the temple and
the city.
The temple was the center of city life, and the city was what brought people, or the temple
is what brought people to the city.
The city fueled the temple, the temple fueled the city, the two were inseparable.
And if you want another idea of this, just to prove it, look how Daniel starts his prayer
in chapter 9 verse 2.
In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books of numbers of years
that according to the word of the Lord of Jeremiah, the prophet must pass before what?
Before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.
So in Daniel's mind, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he saw that with the end
of the 70 years of exile came also the end of the desolations to Jerusalem, meaning it
would begin to be rebuilt at that time.
So there is no hard and fast distinction between rebuilding the city and rebuilding the temple,
the two go together in the Israelite mind.
So if you think about this idea that we're proposing here with the dispensationalist
view, the dispensationalist, remember, would say that during the seven year tribulation
time, after the Antichrist makes a covenant with the Jewish people, that they're going
to rebuild the temple and re-institute sacrificial offerings, right?
But do you also remember that the dispensationalist said that the seven year tribulation time
was for the purpose of bringing the Jewish people to Christ, that they might understand
the gospel and receive Jesus as their Messiah?
Well, why would we think there's going to be a future temple when the Bible clearly
says that in heaven there is no temple?
God is the temple.
Why would we reinstate offerings and sacrifices when the Bible clearly states in the book
of Hebrews that Jesus offered himself once for all times, and there is therefore now
no more sacrifice or offering for sin?
If they go and reinstate all this, that's pushing them further away from Christ, not
drawing them to Christ.
And so it's hard to imagine that there's going to be another temple and more sacrifices
and offerings when Christ has already died once for all time.
And then you remember they said that there's going to be an anointing of the temple, right?
That they're going to rebuild the temple, they're going to anoint it.
Well the problem is there's no place in all of Scripture where the temple is ever anointed.
You didn't anoint the temple.
You never had the power to imagine you would begin at that time.
And then this idea that the Antichrist is making a covenant with the people of Israel.
Does anybody see a problem with that?
Anything you can think of biblically or to give you a hint linguistically?
Who has their Bibles open to Daniel 9 still?
Okay, not you.
Who's using a KJV?
Anybody have a KJV on them?
Daniel 9?
Yeah.
All right, yeah, yeah.
All right, when you get there, go to I think, yeah, verse 27 and just read the first part
of verse 27.
Have you chosen a covenant covenant that's made for one reason?
Yes, very good.
All right, did you notice the difference there?
This person who is to come is going not to make a covenant.
The word here, if it's in your Bible, it's also in my Bible that says make a strong covenant.
Not exactly a good translation there because this word does not mean it is literally never
used to make a new covenant.
It is only used to reaffirm or confirm a preexisting covenant.
Well, that calls us a lot of issues, right?
Because if it is the Antichrist who is doing this and he is confirming a covenant, which
the Bible is saying he does here, it would mean that the Antichrist would have to have
a preexisting covenant with the Jewish people in order to confirm said covenant at that
time.
Do we see anything in Scripture that says that the Jewish people have a covenant with
the Antichrist?
And if they do, we don't read about it, we don't know about it, and it's nowhere revealed
in Scripture that it's ever going to happen other than right here.
And this just says it's going to be a covenant that's confirmed, not a covenant that's made.
So again, these are all just little critiques to say there might be another way.
There might be a better understanding of this passage.
And that's what we're going to get into next week because we don't have time this week.
But I will just leave you with this idea because I think we can get here.
The question is, is there a better way to understand the 77s?
We have 77s, whatever that means.
Is there a better way to understand it?
And I think a better way, possibly, again, I'm not saying it's the only way, I'm not
even saying it's necessarily the right way, but it could be, is to think about this theologically
rather than chronologically.
We like chronological stuff because we can map it out and put it on there, but perhaps
this is speaking to us theologically.
So my question is, if the Lord is revealing this to Daniel and to us as his people today,
why did he choose to reveal it as 77s?
That's a key question, right?
Why can't he just be clear?
Maybe he was.
Maybe the reason we don't understand this today is because we're not as ingrained in
Old Testament thought as we should be.
Maybe we're the problems, not God.
I think this passage would be a lot clearer if we had a better understanding of the Old
Testament because is there anything that you can think of that comes to mind that is theologically
significant about periods of seven in the Bible?
Creation, that's one.
But that's just one.
What would be periods of ongoing repeated cycles of seven that was very significant for the
Jewish people?
Mr. McKinney knows that I see him gritting on it.
What is it?
Yes, that's it.
Theologian of the night, Mr. McKinney.
The jubilee here.
If you don't remember what this is, let me just read you very quickly.
You can mark this down, Leviticus 25, 8-12.
Notice that book of the Bible that everybody loves to skip.
Leviticus 25-8-12.
The Bible says, and I want you to just initially hear how similar this sounds to what we read
in Daniel 9.
You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of seven
weeks of years shall give you 49 years.
Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the 10th day of the seventh month on the day of
atonement.
You shall sound the trumpet throughout your land.
And here's what you'll do.
You shall concentrate the 15th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its
inhabitants.
It shall be a jubilee for you.
When each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan,
that 15th year shall be a jubilee for you.
In it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from
the undressed vines, for it is a jubilee.
It shall be holy to you.
You may eat the produce of the field.
So in other words, the jubilee year meant the return of all property to its original
owner.
It meant the release of Jewish slaves.
It meant the cancellation of debts and the rest of the land.
And the jubilee became the symbol in Israel of the Lord's ultimate redemption and release
and restoration that God himself would bring about for his people.
And so you should immediately see the connection here, right?
Did you notice the similarity in language between the sevens in years and even the 49
that could be put a zero on the end?
You get 490 and you get these cycles of seven.
Do you see the similarities here that are going on?
And I want you to notice this.
The Bible is saying here, what is seven times 70, right?
It's 490, we know that.
But it's seven tenfold, right?
It's ten sevens.
Tenfold is a number of like perfection.
It's the ultimate.
It's the grandest.
It's the best.
And so the Bible is saying here, you're going to have a tenfold jubilee.
There's going to be 70 periods of seven.
It's the ultimate tenfold jubilee.
It is something that the people had anticipated and waited for and expected.
And the Bible is saying God is going to bring that to pass.
And that's what this passage is saying to us.
This 70 periods of seven is referring to an ultimate jubilee that is coming.
And if you want another clue that this is what God has in mind and that it is the ultimate
ends of this 70 periods of seven, let me just remind you of what Jesus read in Luke
chapter four, verses 16 through 21.
One of the most famous passages in the Bible, it's great.
All right.
So this is what the Bible says, Luke chapter four.
It says that he came to Nazareth being Jesus where he had been brought up and as was his
custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him and he unrolled the scroll and he found
the place.
So he knew where he was going.
He knew what he was looking for.
He knew the passage, right?
He goes there and this is the passage that Jesus chose to read at this occasion.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to
the port.
Do you remember the jubilee passage about proclaiming liberty and good news?
Keep that in mind.
He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
out liberty those who were oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, which is another
way of saying the year of jubilee.
That is what Jesus came to do.
He rolled up the scroll, he gave it back to the attendant and sat down in the eyes of
all the synagogue were fixed on him and then he said, today this scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing.
And so what the Bible is saying here is that God's ultimate jubilee has come in Christ.
He is the one who will bring about ultimate redemption and release and restoration.
And so I think when we think about these 70 periods of seven, we need to be thinking about
the jubilee.
We need to be thinking theologically and understand that these are God's purposes that he's going
to accomplish in and through Christ.
And I think when we begin to think theologically rather than chronologically, this passage
makes a lot more sense.
So next week what we'll do is we'll do this number right here.
We'll flip the board over and we have a much simpler chart that I think will help us make
sense of this passage and we will understand it in light of what Christ has done, which
really frees us up from thinking so much about dates and timings and all this kind of stuff
and lets us just focus on Jesus and what he has done and rest in the good news that the
jubilee has come in Christ, that the captives have been set free, that those who were in
bondage and enslaved to sin have been set free by Christ, that he has done it and accomplished
it and we'll talk about how that 70 weeks or those 77s play out in redeptive history.
So again, just a short summary, that is the dispensational view.
We did a quick critique and next week we will look at what I think might be a slightly better,
another, I won't say better, that's unfair, another alternative to how to understand the
70 weeks as being a fulfillment in Christ through the jubilee.
So Michael Stevenson, how about closing us in prayer?