BQA7
What are Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and how do they relate to the tribulation?
The word weeks means “sevens,” so Gabriel was speaking about seventy periods of 7 years. Keep in mind that these years relate specifically to Daniel’s people, the Jews, and their Holy City, Jerusalem. In his prayer, Daniel’s great concern was that his people be forgiven their sins against the Lord, the city be rebuilt, and the temple be restored; and these are the matters that Gabriel will discuss. To apply this important prophecy to any other people or place is to rob it of its intended meaning.
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks, prophesied in Daniel 9:24–27, are the framework within which the tribulation (the Seventieth Week) occurs. As noted earlier, the seven-year period of Daniel’s Seventieth Week provides the time span to which a host of descriptive terms are associated. Some of those terms include: “tribulation,” “great tribulation,” “day of the Lord,” “day of wrath,” “day of distress,” “day of trouble,” “time of Jacob’s trouble,” “day of darkness and gloom,” “wrath of the Lamb,” etc. A graphic presentation of the seventy weeks assists greatly in understanding this intricate prophecy.
The chart below of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks presents a premillennial perspective. That is, it shows the rapture occurring before the tribulation and the second coming of Christ occurring before the millennium. Although not all evangelicals hold to a pretribulational rapture, there is agreement that the Antichrist will arise during the tribulation. He may be known, recognized, or even in power before the rapture, but he will only be revealed or manifested as Antichrist during the tribulation (2 Thess. 2:6, 8).
Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
(Daniel 9:24–27)
Explanation of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks of Years
69 × 7 × 360 = 173,880 days
March 5, 444 b.c. + 173,880 = March 30, a.d. 33
Verification
444 b.c. to a.d. 33 = 476 years
476 years × 365.2421989 days = 173,855 days
+ days between March 5 and March 30 = 25 days
Totals = 173,880 days
Rationale for 360-Day Years
Half week—Daniel 9:27
Time, times, half a time—Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 12:14
1,260 days—Revelation 12:6; 11:3
42 months—Revelation 11:2; 13:5
Thus: 42 months = 1,260 days = time, times, half time + half week
Therefore: month = 30 days; year = 360 days
When Jesus died on the cross, He died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2; John 1:29), and therefore we can proclaim the good news of the gospel to sinners everywhere. But He also died for the church (Eph. 5:25) and for the people of Israel. “For the transgression of my people was he stricken” (Isa. 53:8). Jesus died for sinners in every tribe and nation (Rev. 5:9; 7:9), but in a very special way, He died for His own people, the Jewish nation (John 11:44-52).
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