#6 Daniel 9 Temple - Daniel's 70th week fulfilled?

    In an attempt to draw some to a conclusion on how we, believers, got from the Old Testament Torah (Law) of Moses to a new and different Law in Christ, I have embarked on a journey to demonstrate that the Torah of Moses has been changed in light of the finished work of Christ. As the focus for this demonstration, I have chosen to identify the most tangible aspect of the Torah of Moses, the tabernacle/temple service and ceremony along with all that it entails. The Torah of Moses begins in Exodus 12 and ends in the last chapter of Deuteronomy, about 126 chapters. Of those 126 chapters, approximately 50 chapters are devoted to the tabernacle/temple system. About 40 % of the Torah of Moses is consumed with the laws attached to this system. So then, as I demonstrate in these blogs that there is no future temple, we are faced with the reality that there is no continuance of the Torah of Moses, the way it is written, and there results a new law in Christ. This may seem to some Christians as if it does not matter because they have not been introduced to this subject matter but for those that are true Bible enthusiasts, it becomes obvious that this does matter. It matters because it affects our worship, our focus on either Christ or Moses, our interpretation of prophecy (and therefore our faith and hope), and it affects our defense of the gospel. Yet, this entire subject is wrapped up in some of the most difficult passages of Scripture, prophecy to be particular. 

A Note on How Fulfilled Prophecy Affects Believers

    I, personally, take the view on prophecy that most and possibly all prophecy in the Bible has come to pass. Many people have asked me, "If you are saying that these things are already fulfilled, then what else are we looking forward to?" The answer is simple, we now behold something that we had been waiting for. A prophecy gave hope and direction to a believer when it is first given but once it is fulfilled it becomes faith in the heart of the believer, a monument that makes the biblical prophecy and prophet believable to all generations that follow. Jesus spoke to this effect, stating that all had taken place in His disciples' own generation in Luke 21:22, saying, "these are days of vengeance, so that all things which have been written will be fulfilled." For the disciples' generation, those days of vengeance and writings were fulfilled in their days and before their eyes so that the message of gospel would be seen as true and therefore preached to following generations. So then, prophecy begins as hope for its original hearers but transforms into faith, a reliable source of truth, for all future generations once it is accomplished. Think of it another way, if we believe that the prophets of the Bible are true then we believe this only because their words came to true and thus are believable. If we are still waiting, say, 2,000 or 2,700 years for any biblical prophet's words to come true, then we may begin to ask ourselves if their words are really believable at all. 

Daniel 9 and a Supposed Future Temple

    Daniel 9:24-27 is one of the most famous, if not the most famous, passage from the Old Testament that future temple pundits interpret as speaking about a future temple and a return to temple sacrifice and ritual. It is believed that it speaks of unbelieving Jews who will rebuild the temple and begin offering sacrifices only to have them stopped by the Antichrist who is said to set up the "abomination of desolation". This abomination of desolation is mentioned four times in Daniel (8:13, 9:27, 11:31, 12:11) and is coupled with the stopping of the sacrifices each time. It should be noted that the only place that the Bible allows animal sacrifices is in the temple in Jerusalem. So then, when we read passages that use this phrase, "abomination of desolation", we should also conclude that it is speaking of a standing temple and its near desolation to the context. I have already touched on the abomination of desolation in my blog on Matthew 24:15-16 but here we will be looking at the original text to which Jesus refers and highlight some further misconceptions about this passage. The text reads this way,

24 ‘Seventy weeks (of years) are decreed for your people and 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 prophet, and to anoint the most holy. 25 Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. His end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war, desolations are decreed. 27 He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and in their place shall be an abomination of desolation, until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator.’

 The Future Temple View of Daniel 9

The future temple view foresees the beginning of this prophecy as connected to the second temple which stood from about 516 BC until 70 AD. Yet, this view also sees the final 70th week as still in our future today. Dr. Randall Price, in his book The Coming Last Days Temple, puts it this way, 

"Daniel's 70 weeks (underlined above) are to be interpreted according to Hebrew literary convention as 70 weeks of years. The resulting period of 490 years (70x7) is divided, according to verses 25-27, as periods of seven weeks (49 years), 62 weeks (434 years), and one week (7 years). Christian interpreters have traditionally accepted the context of this passage as Messianic, with the Messiah coming after the 62 weeks (i.e. after the 7 weeks + the 62 weeks=483 years) to die. Futurists would see the words in verse 26 concerning the Messiah's being "cut off" (killed) "and having nothing" to mean dying without inheriting the Messianic kingdom, leaving the fulfillment of this purpose to the final week (verse 27), which depicts the resumption of the Messianic promise for Israel...and may have served as a literary paradigm for the structure of the book of Revelation, and especially the chronological outline of the Temple in the Tribulation as given in Revelation 11:1-2."

     

The late Grant Jeffrey echoes this same view in his book The New Temple and The Second Coming, stating, 

"He (Daniel) declared that this world dictator would sign a seven-year security treaty (covenant) with Israel: "And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease" (Daniel 9:27)."

And Don Stewart writes,

"This passage (Daniel 9:27) tells us the following.

In the middle of the seven-year period, after three and one-half years this final Antichrist will break the covenant with Israel. He will order the sacrifices stopped, and will desecrate the Temple. This act is known as the "abomination of desolation."

So then, the futurist belief is that this prophecy of 70 weeks of years began at the time of Nehemiah's rebuild of Jerusalem in about 457 BC. Both the first and second segments (7 weeks and 62 weeks) continue uninterrupted until about the time of Christ's death. Yet, the final week of the prophecy is divided by an unannounced gap which futurists have termed the church age, an unmeasured period of time not spoken of at all in the text of the Bible. This gap can prolong the prophecy as long as needed until something that resembles a fulfillment takes place. It looks something like this:

Without going into all the details and interpretations of this passage, I just want to point out some of the simple deductions we can take from this passage:

1. First, it is clear from the very first line that this prophecy is enveloped within a 70 week time-frame. We should note that this 70 weeks is a reference to 70 weeks of years, or 490 years rather. It is also clear that the 70 weeks are broken up into three segments; 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and 1 week. It is commonly taught that the first two segments of this 70 weeks of years (i.e. 7 weeks and 62 weeks; 483 years) stand back-to-back in succession to one another but that the last week of years is mysteriously separated by a gap of about 2,000 years thus far. Most Bible teachers teach that we are still waiting for Daniel's final 70th week. Dr. Randall Price and others base their interpretation not on the text itself but on the bias which does not accept the historic fulfillment that has been touted by the church for most of history. Within the context, this seems absolutely absurd and completely unnecessary unless a push to see the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem is in view. I mean, why would the first two segments of time be consecutive but the third segment is, for no reason at all, thrown into the future by nearly two millennia? Does the biblical text even allow for this? The answer is a resounding no. A more appropriate interpretation is to begin the clock on this vision at the time it states and allow for the end point of this vision to fall 490 years later (i.e. some time in the first century AD). Many commentators agree with this and point directly to the finishing point of Daniel's prophecy stating that it absolutely concluded in 70 AD at the destruction of the temple. Dr. Stafford North writes,

"Just as Daniel predicted, in 70 AD, forty years after the anointed one was cut off, the Roman armies marched on Jerusalem. After a siege of 134 days, designed to weaken resistance, the Roman army broke through the walls, destroyed the city and burned the temple. Then, they put their ensigns over the eastern gate of the temple and offered sacrifices to them (Josephus: Wars VI, vi. 1)"

H.L. Ellison agrees, stating,

"The abomination that causes desolation, or 'abomination of desolation', a conscious quotation of Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11, but the 'appalling abominations' is better. This almost certainly means the Roman army (70 AD); see the paraphrase in Luke 21:20."

2. Secondly, the entire chapter of Daniel 9 is focused on the rebuilding of Jerusalem, her second temple and, in finality, her destruction. This is the very thing that Daniel is praying for at the beginning of the chapter to which the angel, Gabriel, gives Daniel his answer, "seventy weeks (of years) have been decreed for your people and your holy city" (9:24). It follows that if the rebuilding of the second temple is the entire subject matter and there is only the mention of its destruction without any further mention of a third temple, as futurists tend to believe, then the end of this prophecy of 490 years must be contained within the second temple time period (536 BC to 70 AD).

3. Thirdly, most of the early church fathers held a past fulfilled view of Daniel 9:24-27. Remember, these are the guys closest to the events and from whom we get some historical framework to interpret Daniel 9 today. In other words, we rely on them to some degree or another but we cannot set aside there works as if they are way off the mark. Dr. Kenneth Gentry Jr. gives a sample of some early references in his book Before Jerusalem Fell (pg. 352n):

(1) The Epistle of Barnabas 16:6; (2) Tertullian, Against the Jews 8; (3) Origen, On Matthew 24:15; (4) Julius Africanus, Chronography (relevant portions preserved in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel 10:10 and Demonstrations of the Gospel 8; (5) Augustine in his 199th epistle.

4. Lastly, Daniel and the New Testament both agree and speak nothing about a future rebuilding of a third physical temple in Jerusalem. The only three so-called future temple texts in the New Testament (Matt. 24:15-16, 2 Thess. 2:4, and Rev. 11:1-2) do not even mention any "rebuilding" and I have dealt with these texts in previous posts. Daniel only speaks of the destruction of the second temple without any further mention of another temple after that. An article found in Amazing Facts News puts it this way,

"Even after God provides all this clear evidence that His temple is a spiritual one, many Christians are waiting for the Jews to receive a construction permit to rebuild a physical temple on the site where a Muslim mosque now sits. However, there is no prophecy, promise, or commandment in the Bible that says the physical temple would ever be rebuilt after the Romans razed it nearly 2,000 years ago."

Without any mention of the temple's rebuilding, what would give us any reason to believe that there is need for another temple with animal sacrifice. Better yet, we have now gone through time for nearly 2,000 years without it, 500 years longer than the Torah's sacrificial system existed from Moses to Jesus, clear evidence that the temple system has passed away and a change in Law/Torah has occurred. Further, the ceasing of the temple points out that an old religion of Judaism has been replaced by a relationship with Christ through His blood and not by a ceremony that required the blood of animals. 

Conclusion

Daniel 9:24-27 simply does nothing to support the notion of a future rebuilding of a temple, the text itself is silent on the subject of a still future temple. The simplest knowledge of math tells us that 490 years cannot be stretched into nearly 2,600 years today, as some would suppose. A plain reading of the entire chapter tells us that Daniel, Gabriel, and God Himself all perceived this prophecy to expire sometime in the first century AD. In the New Testament, when Jesus speaks of the "abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel" (Matt. 24:15), He does not speak of the temple that stood in His day as being destroyed and then later being rebuilt. Jesus' only words were that "not one stone will be left upon another" and it came about just as He said, and this continues even until today. It is a bizarre claim that Daniel prophesied of another future temple and the return of the Torah of Moses and the animal sacrifices that go with it. The spiritually renewed man sees that old system, under the Law of Moses, as symbolic only of something more true and spiritual, a changed heart and a turning from 'abominations that would cause desolations of the heart'. 

What's Next?

As for our journey through so-called future temple prophecies, I will next tackle the most extensive of biblical prophecies on the subject of a future temple, Ezekiel chapters 40-48, also known as Ezekiel's temple. Due to the length of this passage, I will break it into chunks that have been key interpretative factors in seeing it as future. Hope you will join me again!