April, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
134
I Daniel s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks* I TH E F IR ST S IXTY -N IN E WEEKS AND TH E COMING OF TH E MESSIAN IC PRINCE
By A LV A J. M cC LA IN Akron, Ohio
into the land of Babylon. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar had utterly desolated the city of Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:17-21). Ac cording to an earlier prophecy uttered by Jeremiah these “desolations” were to last for a period of seventy years (Jer. 25:11). The ninth chapter of Daniel opens with a reference to this very prophecy (9:1, 2). The prophet Daniel, now a man grown old in the service and court of the Babylonian kings, understands from his study of the "books” that the period of divine judg ment must be nearing its close; and he prays to the God of Israel for light as to the future of his “city” and his “people” (9:3-19). It is a marvelous prayer, but unfinished; for while the petitioner “was speaking in pray er," an angelic messenger came with the divine reply (vs. 21-23). And since the divine reply contains a prediction of the coming of Christ, it is wholly appropriate that the messenger should be Gabriel, the same angel who several hundred years later would announce His birth by the Virgin Mary (Lk. 1:2 6 ). Thus it was Gab riel, not Daniel, who first uttered the great prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The pass age appears as follows in the Authorized Version, with the exception of a few changes selected from the American Stand ard Revised Version and indicated by par enthetical marks: “24. Seventy weeks are determined
this prophecy the whole case of the critics goes to pieces. For if even so much as one predictive prophecy is established, there remains no valid a priori reason for denying the others. A Key to Prophecy Finally, with reference to its importance, I am convinced that in the prediction of the Seventy Weeks we have the indispens able chronological key to all N ew Testa ment prophecy. Our Lord's great prophet ical discourse, recorded in Matthew and Mark, fixes the time of Israel’s final and greatest trouble definitely within the days of the SEVEN T IETH Week of Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15-22; Mk. 13:14-20). And the greater part of the Book of Revelation is simply an expansion of Daniel's prophecy within the chronolog ical framework as outlined by the same SEVENT IETH Week which is divided into two equal periods, each extending for 1260 days or 42 months or 3J^ years (Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14; 13:5). Therefore, apart from an understanding of the details of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, all attempts to interpret New Testament prophecy must fail in large measure. The prophecy of the Seventy Weeks was given to Daniel under circumstances which were most remarkable. Daniel and his people had been carried away captive
THE V ERY brief but famous proph ecy c£ the Seventy Weeks, recorded in Daniel 9:24-27, has always been a fo cus of interest to interpreters of the W or d, regardless of th e ir theolog ical bias. But today more than ever, in the face of signifi can t tend en cies
Alva J. McClain
both in the world and the professing church, the passage is attracting fresh at tention especially from those who still be lieve in the reality of “predictive prophecy.” Probably no single prophetic utterance is more crucial in the fields of Biblical inter pretation and Christian apologetics. In the first place, the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks has an immense evidential value as a witness to the truth of Scrip ture. That part of the prophecy relating to the first sixty-nine weeks has already been accurately fulfilled (as I expect to show), and in this remarkable fulfillment we have an unanswerable argument for the divine inspiration of the Bible, it being in fact nothing less than a mathematical demonstration. For only an omniscient God could have foretold nearly five hundred years in advance the very day on which the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem and present Himself as the “Prince” of Israel. Yet this is precisely what has been done in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Again, this great prophecy is the infalli ble rock upon which all naturalistic theories o f prophecy are shattered. These theories deny the possibility of any “predictive ele ment” in prophecy. And since the Book of Daniel did forecast many well-attested his toric events, the critics sought to save their theories by denying to Daniel the author ship of the book and moving its date down to a point subsequent to the events de scribed. In this rather easy and summary fashion they hoped to get rid of the trouble some specter of “predictive prophecy." But no critic has ever dared to suggest a date for the Book of Daniel as late as the birth of our Lord. And Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks predicts to the very day Christ's appearance as the “Prince” of Is rael. Therefore, let the critics do their worst, no matter where they place the date of the book, the greatest predictive proph ecy of the Bible is left untouched. And on *All rights reserved. [This present discussion opens another series of prophetic articles by the President of the G race Theological Seminary. — E ditor .]
Photo by Adelbert Bartlett
THE M ESSIAH 'S GATE Jerusalem's present walls, built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (circa A.D. 1540), are marked by the Golden Gate (central in the above picture) at the traditional point at which the Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem in triumph. That the "day" of the procession was an exact fulfillment of a prophecy uttered five hundred years earlier is the view of the author of this present series of articles. The Golden Gate is now sealed, for the Arabs have a tradition that a conquering king will enter this gate. Yet it was the King of kings who wept over this very city "because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation" (Lk. 19:44).
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