The Seventy Weeks (sermon)

Yesterday

July 25 2004 I

July 25 2004 II

Continuing my reviews from the Grace Baptist Church website, within the sermon archives.

The Seventy Weeks is a subject I have not thoroughly investigated, but the modern dispensational and related views have struck me as highly speculative.

Cited from Pastor Michael Phillips, sermon

These things should be studied and discussed, but they should not divide us. We need open minds to hear out other believers and warm hearts to love them-even when they're wrong.

Agreed.

Within Christian theology and dogma, secondary doctrines should not be elevated to primary (Gospel) doctrines. We are all limited by finite, sinful minds (mind-spirit), in this era, even when guided by the Holy Spirit, to varying degrees, so we have limited knowledge and do not always deal with knowledge correctly or very effectively.

In the everlasting future era, those in Jesus Christ shall remain finite, but be sinless (1 Corinthians 15, Revelation 21-22 in biblical language). As well as immortal in body and soul.

Cited

All believers agree on the principal teachings of the chapter. We all say,

The Seventy Weeks are an End Time Prophecy. 

The Seventy Weeks concern the fate of Israel. 

The Seventy Weeks end with the destruction of Jerusalem. 

Jesus Christ is the Leading Man in the Seventy Weeks.

Cited

THE SEVENTY WEEKS 

The salvation will come to Israel at the end of seventy weeks. What are these weeks? Most scholars take them for weeks of years. In other words, one week equals seven years, and therefore, seventy weeks amount to seventy times seven or 490 years. This brings up a question. Are the 490 years to be taken precisely or more loosely? If the events took place in 487 years, maybe, or 495, would the prophecy be a lie?

Some say it would be. If it's not accurate to the day (or to the year at least), it is a false prophecy. I don't agree with them. The people of that time were not fussy about their numbers. They often rounded them off, and when it suited them, they chose numbers for symbolic purposes. It is not their job to conform to our patterns of thought, but it is our job to understand the way they used numbers. 

Agreed, biblically numbers are often presented in not absolutely plain literal terms.

Bible Study Tool.com

The above acknowledges the trend in scholarship but adds a caution...

In studying the book of Revelation, one is immediately struck by the prevailing bias of many commentators against understanding numbers in their normative, literal way. For example, the length of half of Daniel’s seventieth week is described in a number of related passages (Dan. Dan. 7:25; Dan. Dan. 9:27; Dan. 12:7; Rev. Rev. 11:2-3+; Rev. 12:6+, Rev. 12:14+; Rev. 13:5+). This obvious strong witness to understanding this period in a literal way is simply set aside for another meaning: 

We cannot insist on a literal meaning for the three and a half years of the tribulation period or the thousand years of the millennium. They could be literal, but the numbers function symbolically in the book and probably signify a lengthy period of time that is under God’s control.1 

We are being asked to trade gold for fool’s gold! Rather than understand three and a half as denoting a specific period of time specified by God,2 we are asked to accept the alternate meaning which our interpreter says is probably correct!

Then cited again

The existence of symbols and categorization of writing as apocalyptic genre are not license for jettisoning the primary literal meaning of numbers.

Accepting the caution here, it is well-established that eschatological, biblical literature often uses degrees of literalness. Numbers could be included.

Mounce reasons that most scholars allow for varying levels of literal interpretation in regard to the new creation. (369). This would be a key eschatological subject, as example. Mounce further demonstrates the rather figurative literal (not mythological) nature of this eschatological language in Revelation, which is the key New Testament, eschatological text.

In other words, eschatological biblical texts, both Hebrew Bible and New Testament, at times use degrees of literalness.

Back to the sermon, cited

The great B.H. Carroll made the numbers fit perfectly. But reading him left me with the feeling that he fudged the facts to fit his theory. We have to be careful of that ourselves. In any event, the seventy weeks are divided into three, unequal parts.

Cited

THE SEVEN WEEKS

First we have seven weeks. They start with The going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, v.25. Scholars have split on what command this was and who issued it. Some say Cyrus the Great, others say King Artaxerxes, and still others say it is the Lord who issued the decree.

THE SIXTY TWO WEEKS 

Next we have sixty two weeks (or 434 years) 

THE SEVENTIETH WEEK

Then we have the seventieth week, vv.26-27. If the former weeks were on the dull side, this one was the most exciting and eventful week in the history of the world! What happened? Messiah [was] cut off! Who is the Messiah? It the Lord Jesus Christ. When was He cut off? About 30 AD. How was He cut off? By the crucifixion. Why was He cut off? Not for Himself. In other words, He was not crucified because He was a sinner because He was not a sinner. He died in the place of sinners. 

Cited

Note carefully: The Crucifixion occurred in the Seventieth Week. So? This means it is in our past and not in our future. The prophecy, therefore, is not predicting events in the modern world. It has nothing to do with the rebuilding of the Temple in our future or with the coming of a great dictator. The Temple could be rebuilt some day and history is full of Great Dictators, but they have nothing to do with the Seventieth Week of Daniel. 

Again, as with a previous sermon I reviewed in regard to the Antichrist, this view on The Seventy Weeks is more preterist than futurist, at least preterist in the sense that it took place within the New Testament era, or just after it.

Scholarship debates whether or not all of the New Testament was written prior to 70  AD and the Roman destruction of the temple.

Cited

What do the Seventy Weeks of Daniel mean to us? They mean the Temple of God has been rebuilt. But it is not in Jerusalem. The Temple is our Lord Jesus Christ. In coming to Him, we have our sins forgiven. In coming to Him, we have our prayers answered. In coming to Him, we come to God.

This reads as reasonable biblical theology.

MOUNCE, ROBERT H. (1990) The Book of Revelation, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.