I was asked if I believe in the 7 year tribulation and encouraged to start my own thread if I didn't believe in it. I believe in a time of tribulation but I do not believe in a 7 year tribulation period. If you want to know why, here you go...
The 70 weeks are not 490 days=490 years. It HAS TO BE a shorter amount of time based on the life of the anointed prince. Look...
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
I had previously believed, like most scholars, that the 70 weeks represent 490 day years based on Daniel 9:24. Scholars then assume that the last week of 7 years is divided into two 3.5 years from Daniel 9:27 and 12:11 because of the ending of the sacrifices seeming to correlate to the half week and the 1290 days given by the angel. There is also the Rev 12:6 and Rev 12:14 reference to 1260 days being the time-times-half a time. Scholars multiply the 3.5 years to make a final 7 year/week of "tribulation".
However that is not consistent to the weeks of Daniel 9 and should not be the sole interpretive measure. Clearly, we can see that the anointed prince's life span is within the 70 weeks forcing them to be 70 literal weeks. This is clear and must be considered. Doing so, it makes the 70 weeks=490 years case wrong as I had also previously thought possible but now have changed my mind. It also makes the 7 year tribulation case wrong since it is based off of the 70 weeks being in year/days.
This has radical implications. This means that there is not a seven year tribulation that the mainstream church has based many sermons, books and movies upon. The assumption has always been based around the speculative framework of Daniel 9's seventy weeks. I see a 3 1/2 year tribulation and a 2300 evening and mornings time frame but not a 'final week' of years as has been so widely taught. I believe that the 3 1/2 years is related to Israel and the 2300 evenings and mornings is in relationship to both Israel and the Gentiles. This can be further discussed in another thread.
This conclusion also rules out the common interpretation that Jesus is the fulfilled anointed prince following the decree in Nehemiah. Again, the life span time restriction does not fit that as a possibility. What many people consider to be Jesus in Dan 9:26, can also be interpreted as the antichrist. The word 'anointed' has also been applied to Satan and Cyrus and doesn't require it to be Jesus. Both have been employed by God to do his service.
Below are further arguments against the traditional futurist view on the 70 weeks.
1. The one and only consequence for breaking the Sabbath land-rest law was that they would be sent out of the land.
2. Based on how most scholars today measure Daniel’s 70 weeks by multiplying 70 broken Sabbath years by 7 years, they surmise a 490 year punishment. However, it would have to mean that the Israelite's had broken the Sabbath land rest for 3430 years. There has not been enough time for them to have been in the land to have broken that many Sabbath land rest years.
3. We have to remember that the 70 weeks is a consequence of judgment and there is also absolutely no mention of Israel breaking the Sabbath land-rest law in future prophecy outside of what scholars proclaim for Daniel 9:24. The fact that they were out of the land for over 2000 years already should have cleared up any land rest issues God might of had. Thus, ruling out the last week of years being necessary for resolving the land laws of rest.
4. There are also many other verses where “weeks” or “sevens”( shâbûa‛) means literal days. We can’t forget that the original Sabbath week was 7 days.
Just so people can see, “weeks’ can mean both days and years linguistically.
Brown-Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon states this for “weeks”:
shâbûa‛ / shâbûa‛ / shebû‛âh
Definition:
1) seven, period of seven (days or years), heptad, week
1a) period of seven days, a week
1a1) Feast of Weeks
1b) heptad, seven (of years)
5. Just because scripture at times uses weeks as years does not mean we can use it anywhere we want to. It must be shown contextually but the context of Daniel 9:24-27 reveals a time table that rules out weeks equaling years. The life span of the anointed prince is paramount in this regard and somehow has been overlooked.
6. The previous 70 years under Nebuchadnezzar was a judgment based on the Sabbath year land misuse but why is there no mention of the land resting for 490 years in the future as it was told of Israel for just the 70 years and repeated throughout scripture. E.g., 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Zechariah and in Daniel?
7. A 7 year Sabbath land rest places Israel back under the law. The law has been done away with when Jesus Christ came to fulfill it. The Jews will follow the Sabbath but God will not require it of them as also the temple they will rebuild, only faith and obedience to His Son Jesus Christ is required now.
-Stop assuming the only allowable interpretation is the land-rest, day=year sabbatical curse. Hebrew weeks have been used for both years and days.
-Stop assuming that the first 7 weeks of Dan 9:25 is irrelevant.
-Stop assuming that the anointed one doesn't arrive after the first 7 weeks. It does not say after 69 weeks but after 7 weeks he arrives.
-Stop assuming that the 62 weeks and the first 7 weeks are combined. Scripture does not say they are.
-Stop assuming that your preselected historical dates have to be fulfilled in order to defend prophecy.
-Stop breaking the text apart into 69 weeks and then a final 1 week. Scripture does not teach this. It teaches 7 weeks to an anointed ruler, then 62 weeks for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, then a final week made covenant with the same ruler.
-Stop assuming that the ruler is Jesus Christ. This is not clearly taught. You are reading this into the text. Cut-off (Karath) simply means exclusion or destroying. It was a term used by God or Israel to remove a person from their community. Exo_12:15, Psa_101:8..
-Stop assuming that you can do to the text something you wouldn't do to any other passage.
-Stop assuming that this passage is not consistent with Daniel 11 and that you can isolate a set of passages while ignoring others.
-Stop assuming that calculators and commentaries are more useful than the context of scripture.
-Stop assuming you can make events fit your constructed timeline of history before rightly interpreting the construction of scripture.
Thank you for reading. May God continue to grace us with understanding in His Word during this time.
~Dewd
The 70 weeks are not 490 days=490 years. It HAS TO BE a shorter amount of time based on the life of the anointed prince. Look...
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
I had previously believed, like most scholars, that the 70 weeks represent 490 day years based on Daniel 9:24. Scholars then assume that the last week of 7 years is divided into two 3.5 years from Daniel 9:27 and 12:11 because of the ending of the sacrifices seeming to correlate to the half week and the 1290 days given by the angel. There is also the Rev 12:6 and Rev 12:14 reference to 1260 days being the time-times-half a time. Scholars multiply the 3.5 years to make a final 7 year/week of "tribulation".
However that is not consistent to the weeks of Daniel 9 and should not be the sole interpretive measure. Clearly, we can see that the anointed prince's life span is within the 70 weeks forcing them to be 70 literal weeks. This is clear and must be considered. Doing so, it makes the 70 weeks=490 years case wrong as I had also previously thought possible but now have changed my mind. It also makes the 7 year tribulation case wrong since it is based off of the 70 weeks being in year/days.
This has radical implications. This means that there is not a seven year tribulation that the mainstream church has based many sermons, books and movies upon. The assumption has always been based around the speculative framework of Daniel 9's seventy weeks. I see a 3 1/2 year tribulation and a 2300 evening and mornings time frame but not a 'final week' of years as has been so widely taught. I believe that the 3 1/2 years is related to Israel and the 2300 evenings and mornings is in relationship to both Israel and the Gentiles. This can be further discussed in another thread.
This conclusion also rules out the common interpretation that Jesus is the fulfilled anointed prince following the decree in Nehemiah. Again, the life span time restriction does not fit that as a possibility. What many people consider to be Jesus in Dan 9:26, can also be interpreted as the antichrist. The word 'anointed' has also been applied to Satan and Cyrus and doesn't require it to be Jesus. Both have been employed by God to do his service.
- Isa_45:1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
- Eze_28:14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
- Jer_25:9 behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.
- Jer_27:6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.
- Luk 21:21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.
- Luk_21:23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.
Below are further arguments against the traditional futurist view on the 70 weeks.
1. The one and only consequence for breaking the Sabbath land-rest law was that they would be sent out of the land.
- Lev 26:34 "Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.
- Mar_13:14 "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
2. Based on how most scholars today measure Daniel’s 70 weeks by multiplying 70 broken Sabbath years by 7 years, they surmise a 490 year punishment. However, it would have to mean that the Israelite's had broken the Sabbath land rest for 3430 years. There has not been enough time for them to have been in the land to have broken that many Sabbath land rest years.
3. We have to remember that the 70 weeks is a consequence of judgment and there is also absolutely no mention of Israel breaking the Sabbath land-rest law in future prophecy outside of what scholars proclaim for Daniel 9:24. The fact that they were out of the land for over 2000 years already should have cleared up any land rest issues God might of had. Thus, ruling out the last week of years being necessary for resolving the land laws of rest.
4. There are also many other verses where “weeks” or “sevens”( shâbûa‛) means literal days. We can’t forget that the original Sabbath week was 7 days.
- Lev 23:3 "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.
- Lev 23:15 "You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.
Just so people can see, “weeks’ can mean both days and years linguistically.
Brown-Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon states this for “weeks”:
shâbûa‛ / shâbûa‛ / shebû‛âh
Definition:
1) seven, period of seven (days or years), heptad, week
1a) period of seven days, a week
1a1) Feast of Weeks
1b) heptad, seven (of years)
5. Just because scripture at times uses weeks as years does not mean we can use it anywhere we want to. It must be shown contextually but the context of Daniel 9:24-27 reveals a time table that rules out weeks equaling years. The life span of the anointed prince is paramount in this regard and somehow has been overlooked.
6. The previous 70 years under Nebuchadnezzar was a judgment based on the Sabbath year land misuse but why is there no mention of the land resting for 490 years in the future as it was told of Israel for just the 70 years and repeated throughout scripture. E.g., 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Zechariah and in Daniel?
7. A 7 year Sabbath land rest places Israel back under the law. The law has been done away with when Jesus Christ came to fulfill it. The Jews will follow the Sabbath but God will not require it of them as also the temple they will rebuild, only faith and obedience to His Son Jesus Christ is required now.
- Eph 2:15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two (Jew and Gentile), so making peace,
- Heb 10:10-14 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (11) And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. (12) But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, (13) waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. (14) For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
-Stop assuming the only allowable interpretation is the land-rest, day=year sabbatical curse. Hebrew weeks have been used for both years and days.
-Stop assuming that the first 7 weeks of Dan 9:25 is irrelevant.
-Stop assuming that the anointed one doesn't arrive after the first 7 weeks. It does not say after 69 weeks but after 7 weeks he arrives.
-Stop assuming that the 62 weeks and the first 7 weeks are combined. Scripture does not say they are.
-Stop assuming that your preselected historical dates have to be fulfilled in order to defend prophecy.
-Stop breaking the text apart into 69 weeks and then a final 1 week. Scripture does not teach this. It teaches 7 weeks to an anointed ruler, then 62 weeks for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, then a final week made covenant with the same ruler.
-Stop assuming that the ruler is Jesus Christ. This is not clearly taught. You are reading this into the text. Cut-off (Karath) simply means exclusion or destroying. It was a term used by God or Israel to remove a person from their community. Exo_12:15, Psa_101:8..
-Stop assuming that you can do to the text something you wouldn't do to any other passage.
-Stop assuming that this passage is not consistent with Daniel 11 and that you can isolate a set of passages while ignoring others.
-Stop assuming that calculators and commentaries are more useful than the context of scripture.
-Stop assuming you can make events fit your constructed timeline of history before rightly interpreting the construction of scripture.
Thank you for reading. May God continue to grace us with understanding in His Word during this time.
~Dewd
