But how did the Israelites according to the flesh treat God? We read:
"There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower and let it out to the husbandmen, and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. ... But last of all he sent unto them his son ... But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him."
Matthew 21:33-38
What is the lesson Jesus told the Jewish leaders? The people of the nation of Israel were indeed God's chosen workers. But they had become unfaithful and Jesus laid it out for them. If they reject the owner of the vineyard, God, they will be rejected as God's chosen nation.[50]
"Therefore I say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
Matthew 21:43
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ... But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly."
Romans 2:28-29
Thus God forsaw the calling forth of a `spiritual Israel', a people who would have a heart religion, one which loves God.
Back in the days of the Israelite kings, the people became worse and worse in their unfaithfulness to God. So God let them know through his prophets that he was going to send them into a 70 year captivity in Babylon.
The sad situation is this. Even today people in Israel think that it is something immensly important to have been born in the blood line of their forefathers. One man I read about said he was of the line of king David. We may think, so what? Well, in their mind that makes them a favorite of God. They probably think that they will be in heaven just because of that. I could not think of a worse deception.
In this section we study how the prophets point forward to Jesus Christ, the Messiah with mathematical accuracy, and yet, even these numbers the enemies of God managed to turn into something ungodly. With the Protestant Reformation all Reformers and later influential clergy recognized the papacy to be the fulfilling of the antichrist. Reformers like John Wycliffe (1324-1384) [100], John Huss (1369-1414), Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546), Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), John Knox (1505-1572), William Tyndale (1494?-1536), Isaac Newton (1643-1727), Thomas Newton (1704-1782), John Wesley (1703-1791).
But then, about a hundred years ago, a change set in and today probably all Protestant denominations, which formerly saw the papacy to fulfill the role of the antichrist, changed their position and teach now, that the antichrist is not a system but a future, single person. This change came about by means of Jesuit influences and infiltration of their centers of learning. They taught according to their own records, that they, under Ignatious Loyola, were set up to stop the reformation. [200] The reformation taught some principles one of which was that the pope was the man of sin and antichrist. Ignatious Loyola, who was a former Jew, decided we will not only destroy the Protestant Reformation, but we will make black look like white. And they trained Jesuits to believe that, if you are loyal enough to the Catholic Church, you would believe that black was white.[230] That is the ultimate in hypocrisy if your conscience is telling you something and you deliberately submit your mind to another man who would tell you exactly the opposite, a 180 degrees turn around. Ignatious Loyola wrote a book titled `Spiritual Exercises.' In that book it says, we will make them (the Protestants) believe that black is white. Today, if one would ask Protestants and ask them who is the antichrist they may say that he is a non-religious Jew who is going to come down at the end of earth's history. And we ought to listen carefully to this because there are many things which some want God's people to believe today as Protestants, which were never ever believed by Protestants 400 years ago. There is a verse in the Bible which says, "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness." Isaiah 5:20. That is what the Jesuits have done.
It was part of their fogging process to stop the black and white's of Protestantism when they all pointed their finger on the spot light of the papacy and the pope and were now redirected to somewhere in the future called now `Preterism', that antichrist was some Caesar in times of old. Today's Protestants have lost their grip on their heritage.
It was the beloved prophet Daniel to whom God revealed the time allotted to the Jews to get their act together and convert and love and obey God. Daniel quotes the words of Gabriel:
"
Seventy weeks [1] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make a reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy [2].
Daniel 9:24-26
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the [3] commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks [4], and threescore [5] and two weeks [6]: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times [7]. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off [8], but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."
1) 490 years.
2) the agenda of the life of Jesus Christ for our salvation.
3) 457 BC.
4) 7 weeks = 49 years from 457 to 408 BC.
5) 60 weeks = 420 years .
6) 2 weeks = 14 years.
7) The time it took to rebuild the temple area and the walls of Jerusalem for the returning Israelites to feel safe, from 457 to 408 BC.
8) Added up: 49+420+14=483 years, which reach from 457 BC to 27 AD, not 26 because no year zero. The Messiah shall be cut off after the year 27 AD. The exact point of the cutting off is explained later, in Daniel 9:27, where it is explained to happen in the middle of that last, 70th week, which reaches from 27 to 34 AD. In 31 AD Jesus was crucified.
Summation: 70 weeks does not imply a 2000 year "gap" at the end. It is logical for the 70th week to follow the 69th week since the focus of Daniel 9:24-27 is Jesus Christ, not the Antichrist. Daniel 9:27 does not mention the Antichrist or 7 years of "tribulation." Nowhere in the Bible does the Antichrist make a "covenant" with anyone. It is only the Messiah who makes "a covenant", "He shall confirm the covenant with many ... .""This is my blood of the new testament [covenant], which is shed for many." Mt. 26:28. Jesus used the same words, because He knew He was fulfilling Daniel 9:27. This is what Jesus did! Jesus Christ came "to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." Romans 15:8. Daniel 9:27 has been perfectly fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus Christ!
Those who claim that the Sabbath is no longer binding also claim that all scriptures speaking of the Sanctuary events are to be related to the Seven Years of Tribulation after the Rapture and the re-establishment of the temple in Jerusalem upon the Temple Mount. It appears that most of these interpreters are not entirely straightforward with the text of Scripture. They want Christ's death to have taken place in 33 AD because it would coincide with their ending of the 69th week of Daniel 9. Their beginning date is not 457 BC. To support their position that the 70th week comes after the Christian era and their interpretation of Daniel 9, they require this latter time period. The events in Daniel 8 are then either attributed to the Sanctuary during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes or to the Sanctuary at the time of the 70th Week of Tribulation. But these interpreters do not understand the `Day of Atonement'. - Please follow the updated links to read up on more details.
What does that all mean?
As it is general knowledge and we stated already in various papers, Daniel was among the Jewish captives in Babylon. From the writings of the prophet Jeremiah he knew that the captivity of the Jewish people in Babylon was to last for 70 years, Jer. 25:11-14. Toward the end of that period, Daniel, now an old man, prayed to God pleading for the safe return to their homeland. In response to this prayer, the angel Gabriel was sent to reveal to him the time frame of what was to happen of the people of Israel. The starting point was a commandment by the secular, ruling king to let the Jewish people return to their homeland and rebuild their city of Jerusalem and the temple. This commandment or royal decree was issued in 457 BC by the ruling Persian king, Ezra 7:11-13.[300] Some of the main constructions to be accomplished were to take seven weeks. The prophetic time used in the Bible is explained in its pages. When God says something once, we ought to take note and obey. When God says something twice, we are to double our attention and obey straight away. When God says something three times, we are to listen up immediately and believe it. Prophetic time is explained two times in the Bible. We read:
"... I have appointed thee each day for a year."
"After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise."
Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6
"And in the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years: and he begat sons and daughters." Gen. 5:4-5 (Hebrew: "iom adm chayah ... shanah" `the days Adam lived ... years').[350] Here we learn the common Hebrew usage of this concept that sometimes days are spoken of when years are meant.
The next item we should understand is the old English language using the word `score' for the number 20. A score of weeks are 20 weeks, threescore weeks are 60 weeks. All that remains is to add up the figures given in the above prophecy.
Accordingly
It took 49 years for the City of Jerusalem to be build up enough for the Jewish returnees to feel home and protected again within its repaired and/ or rebuild walls. This time period, therefore, stretches from 457 BC to 408 BC. [400] The next `threescore and two weeks' represent
60 weeks + 2 weeks = 62 weeks = 434 day/years
For easier figuring we can now add the previously mentioned 7 weeks to the 62 weeks and get 69 weeks. These stretch from the decree to rebuilt Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince.
Therefore
69 weeks x 7 days/week = 483 year/ days, i.e. 483 years.
Counting 434 years from 408 B.C. takes us to the year 27 .AD. In that year Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River as a signal to start his ministry for his people. But the total weeks given to the Jewish people to get their act together and convert to God as we read above in Daniel 7 Verse 24, is 70 weeks. The last week, the one remaining week after the 69 weeks are passed, represents of course also years, i.e.
1 week x 7 days/ week = 7 years.
As we already noted, Jesus began his Messianic ministry for his people in 27 A.D. The Jews had now 7 more years to fulfill Daniel 7 Verse 24. But the angel Gabriel tells Daniel, that after the end of the 69 weeks, 483 years after 457 B.C., "... the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself." What does that mean?
Not to be cutoff for himself means of course that Jesus did it for us. Jesus did not die for himself, but for us, so we may live. This, his `cutting off' death, was to take place in the middle of this last week, the 70th week. Since a prophetic week has seven year/days, the middle of such a week would be 3 ½ years. We know that Jesus died 3 ½ years after having been baptized by John the Baptist in 27 AD.
"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
Daniel 9:27
This Bible Verse underwent a curious re-interpretation by the efforts of the Jesuits in order to rid the papacy of the image as being the antichrist as all the reformers viewed them. The Jesuits began to teach that the word "he" (in red above) referred not to Jesus but to the individual person of Antichrist and that the phrase "one week" (in hot lavender) belongs ca. 2000 years into the future to the time of the end. This interpretation is now taught as `Futurism' in probably all Protestant denominations since ca. 100 years ago.[500]
If you would ask them why the change, their answer would be incredulously vague and involved and remind one of artificial conjecture. Its is somewhat akin to what Jesus said,
`Ask them, If they don't believe the prophets, do you think they would believe someone raised from the dead?'
In other words,
`If today's Futurists don't believe the reformers, do you think they would believe the Daniel 9:26 assertion that the "he" in Verse 27 is the Messiah, Jesus?'
The Story of the Reformer and the Futurist
The following illustration may explain the effect this new interpretation has.
A classical Reformer meets a Futurist. He says, `Well, I have to go now, you see its 70 miles to my hometown about one hour's worth of driving.'
The Futurist says, `Well, that should take you about 3 ½ days.'
Incredulously the reformer says, `Three and a half days? Are you out of your mind? I am not going to walk this distance you know?'
`Sure - Still, it will take you 3 ½ days,' the Futurist repeats.
`No, no, no, not at all. I am driving in my car of course and not 2 feet per hour. I will go 70 miles per hour and shall arrive about one hour later in my hometown.'
`No,' the Futurist insists, `it'll take you 3 ½ days.'
`Well, you better tell me what you mean,' says the Reformer.
`Ok. You see, people don't realize that after you drive for 69 miles, there come 2000 miles in between before you finish the 70th mile.'
Such trickery with numbers is involved for those who believe in the 7 year period of tribulation. They, without reason, cut off the 70th week and move it away from its 69 weeks moorings and transplant that 70th week into the time of the very end of the world. This is done in order to make someone else then the papacy the antichrist.
But there is more.
A Christian knows, now is the acceptable time. Now we must take our stand for Jesus, for tomorrow may never come. He knows that the 70 weeks of the Book of Daniel took place one week after the other, there is no disruption at the end and no one will have seven years to convert and accept Jesus. The 70th week was so special and singled out because it encompasses the Messianic work Jesus did for His people from the day of His baptism to the taking of the gospel to the gentiles. In other words, all of the 70 weeks have been fulfilled already between 457 BC to 34 AD, the stoning of Stephen, after Jesus ascended to heaven.
Many Bible reading people may remember the words of Jesus when He said, "... he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matthew 24:13. These words of Jesus should cause us to ask what does "enduring (Gr. Hupomeno)" mean? Does it have to do with enduring boring sermons? Not at all! Jesus never uses words in vain. While the Greek word `meno' by itself means `to remain', `hypo' means under, `to remain under' something. With respect to end time events, what could Jesus mean His people would have to endure, remain under? The end that Jesus is referring to is the end of this age. Jesus also taught that the harvest would take place at the end of the age. That harvest, as described near the end of Revelation Chapter 14, takes place after a specific time of three and one-half years [610] of great tribulation during which believers in Jesus are encouraged to maintain their faith and perseverance. The harvest at the end of this age takes place after the great tribulation, not before. We must understand that the Bible clearly teaches that It is after the great tribulation of those days that Jesus sends His angels to gather His elect.
When troublous times increase, we must not think, `Why haven't I been raptured yet?' We need to welcome that time for it is the beginning of the birthing process Jesus talked about.
Jesus is warning His disciples of a sequence of events at the very end of the age which He compares to birth pains of increasing intensity, during which they will be persecuted and put to death and hated by all nations. These are His words about what lies ahead for His disciples. Those of us who are His disciples and who are alive at the end of this age should expect to see these things. His word settles it. Even though He warned us, many will fall away and the love of most will grow cold. Even though it sounds like a time of desperate hopelessness, it will not be, because a birth is not an event of hopelessness but of expectation and joy. The process, however, is not painless.
"Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world."
John 16:21.
Jesus did not give these warnings to frighten and discourage us, but rather to warn and encourage us so that we do not stumble and fall away when these inevitable events do come. He has set before us the joy of being birthed as the children of God, but we must endure the birthing process. It was for the joy that lay ahead that Jesus endured the cross. This must also be our attitude as we enter the very end of this age.
"Behold, I have told you in advance ..."
Matthew 24:25
The Church finds herself in this condition as the very end of the age draws near. We are beginning to see and experience the increasing pressures of the birthing process, but we are confused and are seeking a way to avoid it. Paul wrote that the whole creation is groaning, as in the pains of childbirth, for the revealing of the sons of God. He described his own agonizing, as in pains of childbirth, until Christ would be formed in the Galatians. It is the birth of the saints into the likeness of Jesus that is in view in these Scriptures, and we must allow provision at the end of the age for our promised births as the children of God, even though it means enduring the temporary discomfort of birth pains.
As we already said, the last week of the 70 week prophetic period has been detached from its moorings and moved forward some 2000 years into future time. Furthermore, the "he" in Daniel 9:27 has been made into the antichrist and thus the true identity of that one word, Jesus himself, has been assigned to His enemy in what sounds like a Satanic plot. Such a godless act of misconstruing this prophecy leads many Christian people today to look upon the events and history of the modern Jewish state as if it is still fulfilling prophecy [620] when they should be focusing on the `dragon' and the `lamb like beast speaking like a dragon' powers of Revelation chapter 13.
First we shall underscore that the modern Jewish state is not part of particular divine prophetic attention anymore. The apostle Paul laid it out in his epistles that the Jewish nation had forfeited their `favored nation status' with God Almighty. Even though the Jewish leadership had Jesus crucified, God did not cut them off from His divine forbearance until he sent them one more of his messengers in order to try one last time to bring them to repentance and conversion. The history of the work and message of this divine messenger is found in Acts 6:7-15 and 7:1-53. The sad reaction of the Jews and the end result is recorded in Acts 7:54-60. These verses describe at length the final opportunity for the Jewish nation of rectifying their mistakes to avoid being cut off from the protective care of God. What once was their promise was now given to the Christian church who took the place once held by the Israel after the flesh (Romans chapters 2 and 9; Galatians 3:6-7; 4:4-31; Exodus 19:3-6; Acts 8:1-4). Thus the Christian church became the spiritual Israel fulfilling the words of Jesus,
"Jesus said unto her, `Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. ... the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.'"
John 4:21-23.
Jesus says, `the hour is coming', not time, day or year, he says `hour', underscoring the nearness of the fulfilling of this revolutionary change for the Jewish and Samaritan people, for He knew that His chosen people would not change their ways and repent even if given the opportunity by his ministry. Will the Christian church follow through with their high calling and remain true to God? As we saw, the Christian church too, forsook God's Word and followed their own wisdom and that hissed unto them by the arch deceiver. [700]
Fallen Christianity made `the spirit' into an immortal entity when the Bible clearly states that only God is immortal and `the spirit' is our God given power of choice, reasoning and our ability to think abstract thoughts and has nothing to do with some immortal ghost inside of us. The falling away of nominal Christianity endures already for a much longer period (some 2000 years) than the nation of Israel (some 1500 years) endured. Will fallen away Christianity repent? This is what the Book of Revelation is all about and we do well to heed its message for it appears we are getting mighty close to the final events of these centuries old dramas.
Having abandoned correct prophetic interpretation by re-interpreting the one word "he" of Daniel 9:27 which obviously references the "Messiah" of verse 26, wrenching the personal article from its subject and teaching the awful concept that the word "he" now points away from Jesus to the antichrist is a terrible abomination in itself. Yet Christians follow this wicked interpretation for they seem to neglect to study the Bible themselves and merely follow their deceiving leaders. 
We said already, to pull off their deception fully, they also had to cut off the 70th week of the prophecy mentioned above and single it out and assign it to the time of the end, an act which results in redirecting the attention of the Protestant churches to look upon modern Israel as if it is still prophetically spoken of after the time of Stephen when God cut off the nation of Israel from His divine care and protection. This is the spiritual struggle, a spiritual truth we ought to consider and rectify in our own lives.
The misinterpretation of Daniel's prophecy of the 70th week, reaching from the baptism of Jesus Christ to the stoning of Stephen in 34 A.D., the 7 years time span in which the gospel of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was preached to the Jewish people, leads those who teach this way into believing that they will not be on earth during the time of trouble or tribulation. Far from it, the time of trouble will be experienced by all people who are alive during that time. The only difference is that those who took the side of false religion [800], will be the cause of trouble for God's people, just for a season, before they will be slain by "the brightness of His coming", 2.Thess. 2:8. This is what the reformers believed who were well acquainted with the beast power persecuting those who based their faith on the Bible. The spiritual descendants of the reformers, however, did not complete a true reformation in which all of God's truths were to be excavated out of the whole body of holy scripture. They fell short, relying again on tradition and loving their unrepentant family members or friends more than they did on God and his truths. They did not mend the fences. They did not apply the law of God and let it lead them to repentance and conversion. They denied God the Creator of all and kept the day of tradition instead of God's holy day.
This way it is strange how today's Protestantism quotes freely from the Old Testament, avoiding the Book of Acts, and when it comes to the Sabbath, they cry foul when Sabbath keepers quote from the Old Testament.
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