1. The entire prophecy covers a period of seventy prophetic weeks (490 years). There is no example in Scripture of a stated time period starting, stopping, and then starting again. All biblical references to time are consecutive: 40 days and 40 nights (Gen. 7:4), 400 years in Egypt (Gen. 15:13), 70 years of captivity (Dan. 9:2). Logic requires that “seventy weeks” refers to seventy sequential weeks.
2. If the 70th week doesn’t immediately follow the 69th week, it cannot properly be called the 70th week.
3. No hint of a 2,000-year gap is found in the prophecy itself. There is no gap between the first seven weeks and the following 62 weeks, (Vs. 25), so why insert one between the 69th and 70th week?
4. Daniel 9:27 says nothing about a seven-year period of Tribulation, a future rebuilt Jewish temple, or any antichrist.
5. The stated focus of Daniel 9:24-27 is the Messiah, not the antichrist. (See “The Kingdom of God is at Hand” in this issue.) After Messiah is “cut off,” Vs. 26, (referring to Christ’s death), the text says, “and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” Notable Bible commentators such as Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, and Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown as well as early Christian expositors and the Protestant Reformers have consistently applied this to the destruction of Jerusalem and the second temple in ad 70.
6. “He shall confirm the covenant….” Vs 27. Paul said “the covenant” was “confirmed before by God in Christ.” Gal. 3:17. (See also Rom. 15:8.) Daniel 9:27 doesn’t say “a covenant” or peace treaty, but “the covenant,” which can only apply to the new covenant. Nowhere in the Bible does the antichrist make or confirm a covenant with anyone. The word covenant is Messianic, and always applies to the Messiah, not the antichrist.
7. “He shall confirm the covenant with many.” Jesus Christ said, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many….”Matt. 26:28, italics added. Jesus was quoting Daniel 9:27 specifically.
8. “In the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Vs. 27. After exactly three and a half years of ministry, Jesus died on the cross in the middle of the prophetic week (where 7 prophetic days = 7 years). At the exact moment of His death, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom….” Matt. 27:51, NKJV.
9. “For the overspreading of abominations He shall make it desolate….” Vs 27. Jesus clearly applied this event to when His followers were to flee from Jerusalem before its destruction in ad 70. (Matt. 24:15). In a parallel text, Jesus told His disciples, “When you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that its desolation is near.” Luke 21:20, NKJV, italics added. The disciples did see those very events. Because of the abominations of the Pharisees, Jesus told them, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Matt. 23:8. Thus, Gabriel’s statement in Daniel 9:27 about Jerusalem becoming “desolate” was perfectly fulfilled in ad 70.
10. Gabriel said that the 70-week (490-year) prophecy specifically applied to the Jewish people. (Dan. 9:24.) In the last prophetic week, which started in ad 27, Christ started his 3.5-year public ministry, focused largely upon “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” After His resurrection in ad 31, His disciples preached mostly to Jews for another 3.5 years. (Acts 1–6.) At the end of the 7 years in ad 34, the bold Stephen was brutally stoned by the Jewish Sanhedrin. (Acts 7.) This infamous deed marked the Jewish nation’s official rejection of the gospel and the end of the 70-week prophecy.
These eight words found in Daniel 9:27—confirm, covenant, many, midst, sacrifice, cease, abominations, desolate—all find perfect fulfillment in Jesus Christ and early Christian history.
Adapted from Israel and the End of the World, by Steve Wohlberg, White Horse Media, 2018, www.whitehorsemedia.com.
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