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Before I go any further, I would like to first say that I am approaching this chapter from the Historicist point of view. There is another view, called the Futurist, which interprets this chapter in quite another way. If you are a Futurist, please bear with me. My intention is only to present an alternative view, not to attack other views.

As we read this chapter we see that Daniel understood something through the reading of some other prophetic books. He even tells us what he understood, and we may also understand the same thing if we read the same books. One of these books was the collection of prophecies made by the prophet Jeremiah, namely Jeremiah 29:10. Daniel understood that the seventy years of captivity had nearly finished, so Daniel prayed that God would remember the captive people in Babylon and bring them back to Jerusalem, just as He had promised to do.

As a result of his prayer, an angel came to Daniel and told him that there would be a time “determined” or severed, or cut off, for: the city, and those who returned to it. (Daniel made this prayer about 600 BC)

Now in the Bible, prophetic time is measured in different ways. In this case days equal years, so one week equals 7 years. See Ez.4:6 and Num.14:34.

The overall time given in Dan.9:24-27 is seventy weeks, which means that the time would equate to 490 years. This time span was to cover : the city and the people. Nothing else. There is no suggestion that the time or the details are to be transposed to any other point in history, or separated into sections and fulfilled at different times and places. The prophetic seventy weeks are just one single, seamless period of time. I am stressing this heavily because the Futurist point of view is to chop this seventy weeks into pieces and shift parts of them about – completely without warrant.

v25. See Ezra 7:11-13. This was the third decree of Artaxerxes in the 7^th year of his reign, 457 BC. For 7 weeks (49 years) the Jews worked at rebuilding. The book of Nehemiah describes this time of rebuilding. By 408 BC things were ready, so the long wait of 62 weeks (or 483 years) began. This long silence is the gap between Malachi and Matthew, as the Jewish nation waited for the Messiah to come. Mal. 3:1 gives the warning that the Lord would suddenly come to his Temple – exactly as history shows, because Jesus suddenly rode into Jerusalem and went to the Temple. He rode a white donkey to signify his kingship. But perhaps his sudden arrival could be dated from about 27 AD when he began his public ministry.

V26. After 62 weeks (or 483 years) Messiah was to be “cut off” which is another way of saying “crucified”, and then, after that, the people of the prince are to come and destroy the city and Temple (sanctuary). Exactly as foretold, Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian came soon after the crucifixion and laid siege to the city, subsequently destroying it. (Jesus also spoke about this event in a parable – Mat.22:7)

V27. Details of the last week are given. (The last seven years of the whole 490 year period). “he” that is the Messiah, did in fact “confirm” a covenant with his people, but instead of continuing for the full week (7 years) he was put to death. Jesus died in the midst of the week, that is, about the middle of the 7 year period he had allotted to his ministry to the Jews. By his death Jesus caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease, because he himself became the sacrifice and oblation.

Here again the Futurists meddle with Scripture. The Living Bible for one actually changes the word “confirm” to “make” and totally changes the meaning. There is a huge difference between confirming – which implies the ratification of something already in existence, and “making” which implies starting something new. Jesus confirmed the terms of the New Covenant by shedding his own blood. The Futurists suppose that some future leader will draw up a treaty with the Jews – something which cannot possibly be extracted from this verse.

After Jesus rose from the dead the Great Commission continued towards his people for the rest of the seven years, and ended when Stephen was stoned to death by the Jews. From then on the gospel went out to the Gentiles. This dramatic change in direction was impressed upon the Church through the vision of the sheet, which God gave to Peter – Acts 11:18.

As mentioned before, some Bible teachers mistranslate, or use a paraphrase to pervert the meaning of Daniel 9:27. They try to make the “he” into some future Antichrist, but this view does not stand up to scrutiny, for the following reasons:

1. The context. The flow of the prophecy is focussed on the Messiah and no-one else,

2. The structure of the passage. It would violate good grammar to read it any other way.

3. The link between “he” and the “Messiah” is very strong. For other examples of a similar link see 2Chron.21:5-8, 1Kings 13:1,2, Mark 2:13, 14 and 7:34-36.

To find the origin of the Futurist teaching we have to go back over a hundred years to the time when the Jesuits were very busy trying to win Protestants back to the Roman church. The Jesuits were ‘invented’ by the Pope as a sort of Secret Service, some say a Mafia, to do the worst jobs. Unfortunately they became so bad even the Pope told them to leave!. Because of their encouragement of, and involvement in, treachery and violence, the Jesuits were expelled from almost every civilized country in the world including Chile. One of these Chiliean Jesuits was a man called Emanuel Lacunza (pronounced Lacuntha), a Chilean by descent, who had become a member of the Order in 1747. Beginning his service at the age of 16 he had risen through the ranks and become a superintendent of the Noviciates. He spent his time training the others in the principles of the Order of Jesuitry.

At the close of his life he wrote a book called “The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty”. He, of course, was steeped in Romish teaching, and utterly faithful to the Papacy, who at that time was being called “the Antichrist” by the Reformers. He did not like to hear so much criticism aimed at his beloved Pope and church, so he decided to contrive a way of shifting the accusing finger away from the Papacy. He consequently changed his name to “Rabbi Ben Ezra” – a suitably Jewish name, and in the preface he claimed to be a converted Jew. The Jews, who knew all their Rabbis were not fooled for a moment, but the Protestants were not so knowledgeable, so they accepted the book at face value. Before the book began to circulate widely in Protestant England, it was printed on the island of Leon, Spain, in 1812, in two volumes, and then it was placed in the index of prohibited books in the Vatican Library. There was a plan behind the placing of the books there. The Protestants concluded that if the Vatican included any books in its index, they must be prohibited, or anti-Catholic. The Protestants fell for the trick. In 1816 a complete edition was published in London by the Diplomatic Agent of the Republic of Beunos Aires, and a copy was put into the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Now if the book had been examined carefully in the light of Scripture it would have been recognised for what it was – a fraud and a false teaching – but the Jesuit had done his homework well. The appearance of a book by a converted Jew was enough to get the false teaching right past the noses of several men of God.

For ten years the book sat on the shelf unread. Then, in 1826 Dr. Maitland the librarian read it and decided it was an interesting and believable theory. He started to teach it. Unwittingly he was expounding a theory which the Jesuits had taught some 250 years earlier, namely that the whole book of Revelation refers to some distant future time. The Jesuits had taught it to take the focus away from the Pope – now a Protestant was doing it for them.

Following almost immediately after Dr. Maitland’s work, a Dr. Burgh in Ireland published an identical book on the “future Antichrist”, and 7 years later in 1833, when the Tractarian Movement started, the book by ‘Ben Ezra’ was used to help shift the blame off the Papacy. The Tractarian Society was also called the Oxford Movement, and in Ireland it was called the Brethren movement, because its aim was to win back the Protestants to the Roman fold. One of its main teachings was that the Papacy was not the Antichrist, and that the Antichrist was yet to come.

For the teaching about the future Antichrist to succeed, it was essential that people be totally ignorant of history, and especially church history. All the expounders of Futurism made sure that details of the Dark Ages and so on were left out. Futurism came under many disguises. It was called Romanism, Anglo-Catholicism, Tractarianism, Brethrenism, and the Oxford Movement. If the true career of the Papacy was known it would not be so easy to convince people that the Roman church was good. Its history of wars, persecution, cruelties, torture, abuse of power, greed, love of wealth, robbery and so on identified it too clearly as quite the opposite.

J.N.Darby, a Romanist who later in life became an Anglican Curate, and who also founded the Brethren Movement, drew on Lacunza’s book for his ideas and interpretations of Scripture. He was also in agreement with Cardinal Newman (who was also part of the Tractarian Movement, and who also published a book which expounded the heresy known as Arianism in the 4^th century. The Arians, among other things, taught that Jesus was not God in the flesh.)

1826 – Dr. Maitland, librarian, uses Lacunza’s book to teach erroneous interpretations

Today – the Futurist teachings are widespread, being taught by virtually all Protestant evangelists. It has become the prevailing view and has so saturated the Western world that virtually every Christian believes it, whether they are aware of its name or not. Futurism has become the theme behind many Christian movies, hundreds of books and lies behind the accepted teaching of whole organisations (such as Radio Rhema).

Transgression is sin, or wrong-doing, but it is also more than that – it is also the breaking of a known law. The only people who had the Law given to them were the Israelites. They were the transgressors of the Law. Is.53”8 – “For the transgression of my people was he stricken”. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, came to make an end of transgression by being “stricken” or “smitten” of God, and “afflicted”. On the cross He died for the transgression of “My people” and also of the whole world. Jesus is the Saviour, and Redeemer of Israel, and Saviour of the whole world – John 4:42, Is.54:5.

Not only did Jesus atone for transgression – the breaking of the known laws of God, he also atoned for all sins, whether sins of commission or sins of omission. Heb.9:26, John 1:29, Is.38:17. Jesus has atoned for ALL sin. There is now only one barrier which stands between sinners and God – unbelief. John 16:9 – “of sin, because they believe not on me”.

2Cor.5:19. Here we have reconciliation for iniquity, not for transgression. This means that all Mankind is embraced, potentially, by Grace. ALL who sin can now be reconciled. We have the gospel of reconciliation to all Mankind – 2Cor.5:18-20. Our commission : Mark 16:15,16.

Is.51:6-8. God says here that his salvation shall be for ever, and his righteousness shall not be abolished. 1Cor.1:30 – Christ is “made unto us . . . righteousness”. Mankind, apart from God, has no righteousness – Is.64:3-6. Righteousness is imputed to us – Rom.4:6-11.

This means that Christ would confirm the message of the prophets, and seal, or end the old dispensation of the Law, opening a new dispensation – that of Grace – Mat.11:13, John 1:17, Mat.5:17-20.

This anointing of the Most Holy, that is Christ, took place at his baptism, when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit – John 1:32,34. This event is linked with the fact that at this age the priests in Israel were anointed and consecrated for their work As soon as Jesus was anointed, he declared his work openly – Is. 61:1 and Luke 4:18.

This anointing, at the end of the 69^th week, left the 70^th week still to run. This was the last seven years of the whole 490 years. In the “midst of this week” Jesus was “cut off” – Is.53:8, or crucified. At the end of the “week” Stephen was killed – Acts 7 - and the gospel began to go out to other nations. Acts 13:45, 46 and Is.42:6 foretold this.