The Seventieth Week

Sixty-nine weeks, some things happen, then one more week

Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed. And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.” Daniel 9:25-27

The first part is what we concentrated on in Part 1, with all the history in Daniel: the sixty-nine weeks are perfect to show when Christ comes. See The Sixty-Nine Weeks. Then the Messiah is cut off, Christ killed. Then some things happen, and then a final week. It is called Daniel's seventieth week.

Notice the order. After the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah is cut off. Then the people of the prince who is to come destroy the city and the sanctuary. Daniel 9:26 That happened in AD 70. Then "he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering." Daniel 9:27 Premillennials read that one week as the seven-year tribulation, still ahead.

So the text itself gives a sequence. Sixty-nine weeks, then those events, then one more week. What it does not do is put a week number or a length on the stretch in between. That stretch is not counted in the sixty-nine, and it is not counted in the final week. Premillennials often call it the gap. Daniel does not use that word, and he does not say how long it runs. But the order is right there in the text.

Promises to Israel

When premillennials read through the Old Testament, they see many unfulfilled prophecies of Israel. Israel has not yet had its time living in the entire land God gave them. Christ has not yet ruled on David's throne.

The angel promised Mary, "The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!" Luke 1:32-33 Amos ends with, "I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them." Amos 9:15

The other positions will generally say you can switch Israel and the church, that they are basically interchangeable in these prophecies. So it does not matter that a promise has not been fulfilled in Israel. It can be fulfilled in the church age, with the people of the current age. So there is no need to refocus back on Israel.

Premillennials also point to Jesus' words that Jerusalem "will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled," Luke 21:24 and to Paul: "A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved." Romans 11:25-26 The word "until" suggests a change after this age. Other views read those verses differently.

Next: Ezekiel 38 and the Stage.