July, 1939
T H E K I N S ' S B U S I N E S S
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made by our Lord when He began His earthly ministry, and that by His death He caused the Jewish sacrifice to cease, breaks down because there is no reference to such a covenant in the Gospel records, and also because the death of Christ did not cause the Jewish sacrifices to cease. They continued in fact until the destruction of Jerusalem nearly forty years later. And, since according to this theory Christ died “in the midst of the week,” the sacrifices should have ceased immediately. But they did not. In the third place, to insist that Messiah was the maker of this seven-year covenant necessarily puts the entire 70th week in the past, immediately following the 69th week. But this is impossible, as we have seen already from arguments set forth in the preceding article in this series. The 70th week is still in the future, not in the past, according to the word of our Lord Himself in Matthew 24. The maker of the “firm covenant” de scribed in Daniel 9:27 cannot be "Messiah the Prince.” His covenants with His chosen people are everlasting, not limited to a period of seven years. The one who makes the seven-year covenant is the Ro man prince, the one “that shall come.” It is he, not the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the subject of verse 27 and the chief actor in the terrible events of its seven-year period. (So say Godet, Hofmann, Tregelles, and others.) W e are ready now to consider the 70th and last week of the prophecy. Seven Significant Years 1. This 70th w eek is a period o f seven years which lies prophetically between the translation o f the church and the return o f Christ in glory. In the preceding article of this series we have seen that this 70th week of years must still be future for various reasons which need not be rehearsed here, but parti cularly because our Lord Himself places the “abomination of desolation” of the 70th week at the end of the present age just prior to His return in power and glory (Matt. 24:15-30). But now examining more closely its exact location in relation to the events of the end-time, we shall find that the 70th week cannot begin to run its course in fulfillment of the prophecy until the true church has been taken out of the world by translation. Keeping in mind that Daniel’s prophecy pictures the 70th week as the definite period of the revelation and career of this terrible Roman prince, let us turn to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-9 where the Apostle Paul discusses his revelation in relation to the career of the true church upon earth. Verses 6 to 8 read as follows in the American Standard Version: “And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming.” Now since the restraining power men tioned in this remarkable passage can be nothing else but the true church indwelt by the Holy Spirit, it is clear that the coming Roman prince cannot be revealed as the
man of sin” as long as this restraining power is operative on earth. But when this “one that restraineth” shall be “taken out of the way” (as the church shall be taken one of these days, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), “then shall be re vealed the lawless one.” The language is unmistakable and indicates two important facts: First, the coming prince cannot be revealed until after the removal of the true church from the earth: and second,: his revelation must follow the translation of the church very speedily if not immediately. Therefore, since the identity of the Roman prince will be clearly revealed the moment he makes his seven-year covenant with the Jewish people, and since the making of this covenant will mark the beginning of the 70th week, it follows logically that the 70th week Cannot begin until after the re moval of the true church from the earth. It is also certain that this 70th week must come to an end at the return of our Lord from heaven in glory, for the follow ing reasons: First, Daniel 9:24 names cer tain great blessings which will come to Israel when the whole period of the 70 weeks has run its course, and a study of these blessings shows that they are the very ones which are to be brought by Mes siah at His second coming from heaven in great power and glory. Second, since the awful power of the Roman prince con tinues to the full end of the 70th week (Dan. 7:25-27; 9:27 ), and since he is to be “destroyed” by the manifestation of our Lord’s coming (2 Thess. 2 :8 ), it follows that this glorious coming of our Lord will take place at the end of the 70th week. In fact, it will be the glorious second coming of Messiah which will terminate the entire period of the SeMenty Weeks. The Harmony of Daniel and the Book of Revelation 2. This 70th w eek also provides the exact It is a fact, open to all who can read, that the only chronological data of these chapters are in every case based upon a single measure of time which is variously stated as "a time, and times [dual], and half a time” (Rev. 12:14), “forty and two months” (11:2, 13:5), and “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (11:3, 12:6). Now disregarding for a moment all the fine-spun theories about the meaning of these phrases, and sticking to the com mon-sense meaning of words, it is evident that we have just one measure of time, that is, exactly three and a half prophetic years of 360 days each. These are the simple facts. But what have interpreters done with them? There are, roughly speaking, three schools of opinion. One school regards all prophetic numbers as merely symbolic and therefore meaningless from the standpoint o f chronol ogy. A second school, holding to the un- scriptural "year-day” theory of prophetic interpretation, have proceeded to erect all kinds of fantastic chronological schemes covering the present age, even to the extent of setting dates for the coming of the Lord. A third school, noting that the three and a half years of Revelation are exactly one- half of seven years, and remembering that ■chronological framework for the great events recorded in chapters 6 to 19 o f the Book o f Revelation.
Daniel’s prophecy divides the 70th week into halves, have used Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks as a point of departure and the inspired key to the interpretation of the Book of Revelation, which was the obvious and sensible thing to do. There is one question, however: Since the chronology in the Book of Revelation is always stated in terms of one-half of seven years, do the events of the book cover only one-half of the 70th week, or can both halves of the week be identified? 1 believe that the entire 70th week of seven years can be located in the Book of Rev elation and that the key passage is 11:2, 3, which reads as follows: “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not: for it is given unto the Gentiles [nations]: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two wit nesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth." Now since the " forty and two months" of verse 2 constitute a three-and-a-half- year period during which Gentile powers shall "tread under foot” the holy city, this must refer to the last half of Daniel’s 70th week, because it is in the middle of the 70th week that the Roman prince stops the Jewish sacrifice and becomes their persecu tor (Dan. 9:27). It is likewise apparent that the “ thousand two hundred and threescore days" of verse 3 must refer to the first half of the 70th week, because the two witness es bear their testimony during this period, and they cannot be slain until the Roman Beast comes to the height of his power when it is “given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” (Rev. 11:7, 13:7). Thus we have here clearly the entire 70th week: the first half as the period of the rising power of the Ro man prince and the testimony of the two witnesses, while the second half is the period of the Beast’s absolute dominion over the world and his terrible persecution of Israel. The exact middle of the 70th week is marked by the killing of the wit nesses and the sounding of the “seventh angel” (Rev. 11:1-15). A further question remains: Can we locate the beginning and the end of this 70th week in the record of the Book of Revelation? Since we already know that the week will end with the glorious ap pearing of the true Christ from heaven, it is clear that the seven-year period must end in Revelation 19:11-21. And since the period begins with the revelation of the False Christ, as we have seen above, the 70th week must begin in Revelation 6:1, 2 where the Roman Beast begins his ruth less ride to world power. Thus chapters 6 to 19 of Revelation cover the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy, an exact period of seven prophetic years divided into two equal halves at the sounding of the “seventh angel.” Borne along by the same Spirit of prophecy, Daniel furnishes the chrono logical frame, and John fills in the details. If we separate the two, prophecy becomes an insoluble enigma. [In the forthcoming final installment in this series, the author will discuss the prob able terms o f the covenant which the Ro man prince will make with Israel .— E ditor .]
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