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| Robin Schumacher |
Despite the best effort of critics to challenge the authorship and
re-date the Old Testament book of Daniel to something written after the events
that were prophesied in the book, the conclusion of one of the most careful and
educated theologians I’ve ever known – Dr. Thomas Howe – says in his 700+ page
commentary on Daniel: “There has not been an argument that has offered a
reasonable alternative to the traditional view that Daniel, of the
6th century BC, is the author of this book.”[1]
It’s no wonder that
skeptics want to challenge the book of Daniel. Its astonishingly accurate
prophesies about the rise of various empires and political leaders such as
Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes are enough to give a heart attack
to anyone who attempts to rest comfortably in their anti-supernatural
worldview. If there is a book in the Bible that more than stands up to the
poorly thought out atheistic challenge of, ‘Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence’, it’s Daniel.
In my opinion, the
most noteworthy section of Daniel is a set of four verses in chapter nine. The
prophecy Daniel received at that point summed up the most important headlining
events for the world that were yet to come. At the time, the predictions were
hundreds of years in the future.
Today, we can look
back and see how the first three were precisely fulfilled down to the letter,
which leads to the reasonable conclusion that the last verse will be as well.
Let’s take a quick jet tour through these four verses that sum up the world’s
future from God’s perspective.
The First Verse
“Seventy
‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish
transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in
everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the
most holy” (Daniel 9:24).
The first verse lays
out the general landscape of the prophecy and timetable. There are three things
to notice in this verse.
First, the timetable
is “Seventy sevens” or 490 years. While some translations use “weeks” as the
word for “sevens”, the literal Hebrew word is ‘sevens’[2], and nearly all
Biblical commentators – whether conservative or liberal – agree that 490 years
is the amount of time being discussed.
Second, the prophecy
specifically targets the Jewish people and their city, Jerusalem (“for your
people and your holy city”). However, don’t misunderstand – these predictions
also greatly impact the entire human race.
Third, there are six
things that will be accomplished in this 490-year timeframe, three of which are
bad in character and the other three good:
Bad
-to finish transgression
-to put an end to sin
-to atone for wickedness
Good
-to bring in everlasting righteousness
-to seal up vision and prophecy
-anoint the most holy
The next three verses
offer more detail about what is to come.
The Second Verse
“Know
and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven
‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench,
but in times of trouble” (Daniel 9:25).
The second verse
provides insight into what starts the 490-year clock ticking and breaks that
same 490-year period up into distinct segments of time. The initiation of
everything begins with “the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem”.
While historians cite
four decrees made by various rulers in reference to the Jews / Jerusalem, only
one fits with the verse’s description to totally rebuild the city and its
accompanying infrastructure – the one made by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 5,
444 BC, and described by Nehemiah (Neh. 2:1-8).
There are two
divisions of timing referenced in the verse: seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two
‘sevens’ that equate to 49 and 434 years, and total 483 years. The first 49
years may very well reference the total time to restore Jerusalem while the
subsequent 434 years run up “until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes”.
Who is the “Anointed
One”? In his commentary on Daniel, Dwight Pentecost does the math between the
issuing of Artaxerxes’ decree and the ending of the total 483 years and
convincingly shows that the end point is March AD 33.[3]
Not coincidentally, at
that time a Jewish carpenter named Jesus was entering Jerusalem on a donkey and
allowing Himself to be publicly proclaimed for the first time as the Messiah
(Zech. 9:9; Mark 11).
The Third Verse
“After
the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.
The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and
desolations have been decreed” (Daniel 9:26).
The third verse states
that at the end of 483 years, the Anointed One will be “cut off and have
nothing”. This is exactly what happened to Jesus: He was crucified and received
nothing where His kingdom on earth was concerned; His ministry seemed (wrongly)
to have been in vain.
Jesus Himself ratified
Daniel’s next prediction (Matt. 24:2, Luke 21:24), which was that a people of a
future ruler would come and destroy Jerusalem and the temple. No historian
refutes that this is exactly what happened in AD 70 when the Romans, led by
Titus, devastated Jerusalem and literally flattened the Jewish temple.
All of these things
were in the future when Daniel was given the prophecy. We have the privilege
today of looking back and seeing God’s predictions play out in perfect detail,
which gives us confidence that the fourth and final verse given to Daniel will
literally happen just as the other three.
The Fourth Verse
“He
will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’
he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he
will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is
decreed is poured out on him” (Daniel 9:27).
The fourth verse
supplies a window into the final ‘seven’ of Daniel’s timetable. The “he”
referred to at the start of the verse does not refer to the Anointed One in the
prior verse, but instead references the “ruler who will come” in verse 26. This
future ruler will do three things: (1) make a covenant with Israel for seven
years; (2) stop Jewish religious practices after 3.5 years; (3) do something
blasphemous that will be an ‘abomination’ in the eyes of God that causes some
kind of major destruction that ultimately results in his demise.
History reveals that
these things did not occur after Jesus’ death in Jerusalem in AD 33 or during
the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Further, the finishing of the six
infinitives described in verse 24 did not take place either. Did Daniel’s
prophecy fall flat at verse 27 after the precise fulfillment of the prior three
verses?
Not at all. Jesus
Himself said that after its destruction, “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the
Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). Howe
says, “Since the seventy sevens is decreed upon Israel and Jerusalem, and since
the present age is focused upon the Gentiles, it stands to reason that a gap
would be introduced between the end of the sixty-ninth and the beginning of the
seventieth seven.”[4]
The last ‘seven’ of
Daniel’s prophecy is reserved for our future and involves a coming world leader
who will make a pact with Israel (something that likely starts the ‘seven’)
that he will break about halfway into it. Scripture says he will end Jewish
worship by entering the temple of God and will display Himself as being God (2
Thess. 2:4; see also Jesus’ reference as to this being a future event spoken by
Daniel in Matt. 24:15).
At that point, the true
Creator responds to this future ruler’s challenge and brings about the
cataclysmic judgments found in Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation.
Conclusions
What should we take
away from these four verses in Daniel? In my opinion, I see three applications.
First, these verses
confirm that the Bible is a supernatural book. No amount of forward-dating or
other skeptical argumentative gymnastics can obscure the clarity of Daniel’s
predictions in this particular set of verses or the book in total.
This leads to the
second point – they verify a sovereign God’s hand in our world and lives. A
purposeful God has decreed that these things will take place, and nothing can
stop them from happening. As God says in Isaiah, “I am God, and there is no
other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My
purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure”
(Isaiah 46:9–10).
The third and final
point is knowing that a future dictator and judgment is coming, we should be
living right before God as Peter says: “Since all these things are to be
destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and
godliness” (2 Peter 3:11).
So, there you have it!
Four verses that sum up the world’s future key events, three of which have been
fulfilled and can be historically validated.
Is there any doubt
that what the Bible says about our future in the final verse will play out the
same way?
[1] Thomas
Howe, Daniel
in the Preterist’s Den (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2008), pg.
37.
[2] See
discussion of šābûaʿ in the Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament (TWOT).
[3] Dwight
Pentecost, “Daniel” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Logos Electronic
Edition).
[4] Howe, pg.
440.
* Robin Schumacher is a software executive and Christian apologist
who has written many apologetic articles, appeared on nationally syndicated
radio programs, and presented at various apologetic events. He holds a Master's
in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament.
