Prophecy & Eschatology, Part Three

a lecture series by Dr. Michael S. Heiser

This is part three of a four part series on prophecy and eschatology. Click here to watch part one and here to watch part two.

In this lecture, Dr. Heiser covers issues surrounding interpretation of the 70 Weeks of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27) as it relates to eschatology.

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Transcript:

Michael Heiser 0:00

How

many of you

have seen the movie? The Princess Bride?

Okay, most of you.

Do you remember the albino in The Princess Bride?

Okay, who can tell me who the albino was? You remember the albino was?

I know, you know?

What was the albino in charge of

the pit of despair.

Okay, otherwise known as Daniel nine

verses 2427. Okay.

This is I know, I'm joking, but I've actually seen this passage referred to

in scholarly articles as things like a dismal swamp,

and basically no man's land.

So my goal tonight is not to straighten all that out, because I'm not about to straighten all that out.

The whole point is that it can't be

known with certainty.

But this passage is a key element

for prophetic views in general, but especially when people start talking about a tribulation period, and a rapture, and even things as esoteric as signs in the heavens and biblical chronology and Jubilee years and all sorts of weird stuff associated with prophecy. My goal tonight is to tell you expose you to some things that you probably haven't been exposed to you or to. Because when you pick up a typical book on prophecy, again, like I said, a couple of weeks ago, and last week, I guess, you pick up one of these books and everything looks beautiful. It all fits together. Just this wonderfully coherent, every question addressed sort of thing. That is, and all of the views are subject to this. It's contrived, in places it works, because it needs to work. Everybody cheats, and this is one of the playgrounds for cheating. Okay, and what I mean by that is, this is so complicated, and so obtuse. And so mind bending and even mind numbing, that I hope that you go away thinking, Man, this was so clear when I walked in, and I don't know what the thing, they all have done my job then because there's a lot of things you just are not told about the difficulties in this verse. And I'm going to give you a few of them, not all of them. I'm gonna give you a few of them. And hopefully, you'll see how, again, as we other two weeks, you'll see how your view works. And you'll see how other views work, and what decisions are made with respect to what questions and at what points in the passage, you have to stop, think about something and then decide something, everybody does it. The variety of views come from raising different questions at different points and giving different answers to them. So with that said, let's jump in here. I was dreading popped off on me. There we go. You saw this diagram earlier. And this is your standard pre mill, a return of Christ right here prior to the millennium, so pre mill, pre trib prior to the tribulation rapture, pre mill, pre trib Rapture. So we have two events. The person who holds this position is going to be a splitter. As we learned last week, are you a splitter or a joiner, you have one event associated with a second coming or two. So here we have a splitter. We've got two events rapture, second coming, here's our millennial kingdom. And we have the eternal state out here. And then there's this thing called the Tribulation. And that's where we're going to park tonight because what many familiar voices familiar writers and prophecy talk about when they talk about the tribulation? Is they connect this thing called the tribulation to the 70th week of Daniel and that's why this period is considered to be seven years long. Now the term primarily comes from passages like Matthew 24. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now. Immediately after the tribulation, in those days the sun will be darkened moon will not give it slight stars fall from heaven, so on and so forth, then will appear in heaven, the sign of the Son of Man, and all the tribes is Earth, one more, they'll see the Son of man coming upon the cloud. So this is parsed as the Second Coming. In this view, which is after this tribulation thing, you say, well, the seven years where does that come from? It comes from Daniel nine. And the passage is familiar. We have 70 weeks. A week is a period of seven days. So a week in Scripture is often but we'll find out tonight not always described as a period of seven, this case period of seven years, so 70 weeks or decreed about your people, your holy city. Can the angels speaking to Daniel, to do these things, finish the transgression, put an end to Sanatana for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal the vision and the Prophet and the most holy place. We have here after the 62 weeks, and anointed one shall be cut off this word is mushiya, which is the Hebrew word for Messiah Anointed One. It's not a very common word in the Old Testament. It can be used if a Jew or a Gentile, Isaiah 45. One is the best example for a Gentile Cyrus the Persian who was a pagan is called God's mushiya Because he's the one shows and release the Jews and send them back. Cool. Let's think about some assumptions. We've got going back here, this 70 week thing looks like we've got something messianic going on course, I'll come back and ask if that's the case or not. Let's start simply, we've got the seventh eighth week thing is it the tribulation? The reasoning goes as follows 70 weeks or 770 periods of seven years, almost everybody's going to agree on that. There's one exception I'll share with you tonight. So almost everybody is going to agree with that. And since these weeks are seven years, it makes sense that the 70 at the week would also be seven years. Right? Simple. It's fair, it's coherent. It's very understandable. But you'll notice in Daniel nine, you could go there to just keep tracking as I proceed. There's no reference here to a tribulation. So what happens is we go from these two obvious points to these. Well, if these are true, the Great Tribulation is seven years long. That's just assumed. Therefore the seventh eighth week of Daniel is the Great Tribulation. Now why is this assumed? Well, if we go back, it's assumed. Because we have this event here, we've got some messianic events, Messiah, Messiah, Messiah, Messiah. And so the reasoning is, well, all the weeks that have come to this point had something to do with the Messiah. So the last one must do. So let's go back here. We have a series of four thoughts that go into this equation. And the question is, does it work? Is there any evidence for it? Well, these two I think are fairly secure. These are the two that are the problem. If we run a search and Dale cover your eyes here you'll know why. If I can get my mouse here, you'll know why I'm saying that in a moment. This better work. Let's go back here. Come on.

Okay, we got here. The highlights not show up and on my desktop. So right here's our word tribulation. Phillipses, we're in Matthew 13. Okay. So what do you see that that's the word and if we, let's Well, let's go back there. Let's just run a search on that one. So I can show you something here.

Okay, everywhere that this word occurs, I want you to see something that's kind of interesting. It's maybe a little smaller, we can get more on here. You can see the green highlighting here. If you go through, there's 45 hits, if you go through these, all the occurrences of this word tribulation. And it's the same as in Matthew 24. Right? Here's our Matthew 24 Verse down here, several of them that we started with, you'll find that this word never occurs with the word seven. And it never occurs with the word weak. Ever. So if you're going to make that equation, you have to either you have to say, I know that the words never match up, I know that there's no actual verse that equates the seventh eighth week with the tribulation. But it makes sense for other reasons. Okay, that's that's how you have to argue. If you're on the other side, you say, that's all I need. There is no verse connecting them. That's where I'm stopping. So this is decision one. Do I accept this equation? If you do, and again, the way you have to argue with argument is it makes sense on other grounds other than having a verse for it. If you do accept this, then it's going to take you in a certain direction in regard to interpreting the seventh eighth week, when you go back to Daniel, if you don't, that's going to take you in a different direction. assumption to this one's kind of mind blowing. Is there one set of 70 weeks? I think, of course, there's only one. What kind of a dumb question is that? I've never heard of anything else. There's only of course, there's seven weeks. Look at Daniel nine, it gives you 70 Right in there. Yeah, it does. But watch. Here's what we usually do with Daniel 770 weeks are decreed about your people, your holy city, so on and so forth. So there's our first reference to 70. Now we have seven weeks down here, and then 62. And then one, what we'll usually do is we go okay, he gave us the 70 here. And now he's just breaking them up, and we add them up. And we see that that equals 70. So this and this are talking about the same thing. Sure, you can that's completely possible to do that. This is the normal way of looking at it. If you look at it that way. Then you make some other assumptions you assume. And we'll come back to this one later. You assume that verse 24. Here is talking about atonement in the sense of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. As soon as you assume that, and you assume one set, then the issue comes to verse 25, where it says from the from the going forth of the decree to rebuild the city. You have these these weeks coming out. So then you have a choice, where do I start the 70 weeks? Where do I start the 490, or countdown, the only one you can choose to make it end in 33 ad, which is a viable crucifixion date. It's not the only one, but it's probably the most popular. The only way you can make this equation 490. It's about Jesus work on the cross. And it ends at a date that works in chronology is to choose number three. This is where you have to start. Just by definition, you can't even think about these other options. Because you need it to work in conjunction with the crucifixion. Again, so what are the assumptions we've made? We're assuming we've got one set, that's 490 years we only have to think about 490 years. We're assuming that verse 24 is about Jesus work on the cross. That means we have to start here to make it work here. And that's the that's pretty much what you're going to see in You know, most study Bibles or you know, at least in terms of have a favorable pre trib pre male position and other other people who have other positions will represent this fairly I don't want to say that they don't. But that's that's probably the most common way of looking at it. Now, number three here aren't a Xerxes commissioned to Ezra. Remember Ezra was a leader of one of the returns from captivity back to the promised land. If you actually read as a seven to 11, verse 26, you can go there if you want. I'm not going to flip there, if you read that. There is nothing in the passage about rebuilding anything. Now what that does, is it forces you to look back at Daniel nine. And I know I know it has to be about Jesus, and others 490 years and there's this thing about from the going forth of the decree to rebuild the city. rebuilding the city must not be literal, it must be referring to like rebuilding the people to repopulating the land. That way, it doesn't matter if Ezra 711 to 26 really says anything about building any structures. I'm off the hook. My view works. Well, if it's me, if I was over the shoulder, that person I would say, that's a great cheat. Because I'm going to say that to everybody. Okay, everybody's going to have their way to cheat through the passage when they need to, because not it never works in any view really tightly. You have to make certain little jumps of faith to make it work. What if there's two sets? Two sets in the world? Would you do that? For my next trick, watch 70 weeks or decreed, got that down? It's easy. What if we separate verse 24? From the rest? We have 70 weeks here, that result in this anointing the most holy place or whatever. And then we've got another sequence of 70. Well, never thought of that. Very few people have, but there is one chronologist, who takes this view. So I thought I would throw it in. Because it's kind of interesting. If you take that view, here's what you come out with. The first 70 weeks are 70 years, a catch that the first 70 weeks or 70 years, that means a week is only one year. But the second set is 490. That means those weeks or seven years is a lot. It's kind of cheating. I mean, it's the same phrase, why does it? You know, why do I have to say the first set is 71 week per year, and then the second set, I get to make that seven a pop. So I get my 490. And here's what it looks like you have the exile. And right here. That's a biblical date. We can be relatively sure about seven years, we get the coming of Nehemiah. And then from Nehemiah is trip down here to ad 25 which is a possible crucifixion date. Guess how many years? That is? 490. Wow, isn't that neat? To see, well, that just looks like it's cheating. Yeah, I know. There's actually a way to argue it. Again, all the views are trying to work from the text. Nobody's just like, hey, I don't like that one. Let's like have a game of marbles or checkers and come out with another view. No, they're all trying to do something with the text in front of them. Now the first option here, this 70 the weeks are just one a pop one year per week. There is chronological evidence and I'll show you in a second that seven in this phrase 70 weeks could refer to every seventh year, one year out of seven, one year out of a week.

If the person believes that the reference in Daniel Is to a sabbatical cycle, sabbatical cycle something that's discussed in Leviticus 25. There is also evidence that the sabbatical cycle was multiplied by seven. Getting out of the very next chapter in Leviticus, Leviticus 26, which we looked at the first week. That was the passage that talked about that linked the Abrahamic covenant to the obedience of the Sinai covenant. And the whole question of do we have a kingdom or not? Is the Abrahamic Covenant still in effect or not? Illustration, Leviticus 25 talks about sabbatical years, there are certain things in the Israelite religious calendar. There were not a sabbatical years, they were every seven year, seven year cycle, every seven years something special was called for seven sabbatical cycles, or 49 years was called the Jubilee, the great Jubilee cycle. The Jubilee was the maximum period of time where Israelite land could be retained by someone else other than its original owner. So in the Jubilee Year, everybody got their land back, it went back to the original owner, and you had to release your slaves and stuff like this there. This is out of Leviticus. In Second Chronicles, 36, which many would say Daniel nine is tracking on we read this. It's about the exile, all the vessels of the house of God, you know, sent into Babylon right there. He took into exile in Babylon, those who had escaped from the sword, they became servants to him talking about Nebuchadnezzar God's instrument here. They became servants to him and his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia. Persia was the one that got rid of the Babylonians to fulfill the word of the Lord, by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbath. All the days that it laid desolate all the days that the land of Israel was unpopulated because of the exile. We're 70 years. Now we know the exile was 77 years they were in Babylon seven years. But this passage, and it's alluding to something that Jeremiah said, citing the Jubilee cycle, not the Jubilee cycle, but the sabbatical cycle. Apparently, it connects the exile to the seven years back to this whole Leviticus thing of every seventh year. From the chroniclers notion that the desolation made up the sabbatical rest of the lead, it might be inferred that the reference was to 70, sabbatical years from a famous commentary on Daniel. So the 70 weeks might be 70, and not for 90. Now, if you believe in only one set, if you take this view, you're done with 70 years. If you take two views, then you can have the 70 and the 490. Or you can just decide to junk, the whole sabbatical year thing and go with your traditional 490. Up to the crucifixion, thinking that verse 24 is about Jesus. So you got a lot of options here. This is why it's the pit of despair. Okay, because it's like well, what's wrong? What's why and I'm I'm only tonight, I'm only going to give you three or four things to think about. In the annual i This is this, it doesn't get much more complicated than this. I don't know if it's a relief or not. Now, go back here the second option, what about the foreign ID? Well, now we go to Leviticus 26. If you will not listen to me and do all these commandments, you're going to be in big trouble. Okay, to sow your seed in vain your enemies believe that I will set my face against you used to be struck down before your enemies. Again, this is forecasting the exile. Those who hate you shall rule over you you will flee. When none pursues you you're going to be skittish. And if in spite of this, you will not listen to me I will discipline you again seven fold for your sins. So some people look at this verse and say, okay, Leviticus 26 is about the exile. And I know that 70 sabbatical year thing because this prior chapter, I read about that, but I think what God's saying here is I'm gonna multiply it by seven. Now you got 490 Now the pre mill pre trib errs, love this passage, but they don't do much with Leviticus 25. And the reverse is true for the other positions like that one, not that one. Give me that one. Don't worry about that one. And some will actually say, hey, I want them all. Okay, I want two sets of 70. So I don't offend anyone, the writer of Leviticus 25 and 26. Okay? You're happy with me because I'm taking both. So that's why you would come out to this. If you take both. It still ends in Jesus. But guess what? The seven years are done with Jesus, there is no 70 a week future tribulation out there. That's connected with the rapture and a second coming. If you tie it into it to this to this to Leviticus 26. You are done right here. There ain't no seven more remaining. So again, you've I know this is quick, but I've given you like three or four options. That all compete in what's published and what's preached. I mean, none of none of this is like Mike's making it up. So you can fill airtime here, okay, this is all out there. You're going to depending on which study Bible you'd buy, you'd you'd run into one, two, or maybe all of them. Assumption three. Verse 24, is about Jesus atoning sacrifice. Okay, give me a chance to rehearse verse 24, in your mind again. Look at the phrasing, finish the transgression, put an end to sin, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and the Prophet anoint a most holy place. What do you think? Is that about the crucifixion? Well, assuming we have 490 years, let's go with that. And then it has something to do with the end with the crucifixion. How does verse 24 If it speaks, how does it work? If it speaks of Jesus atoning death? Let's take them one by one. What is the scope of Jesus atoning death? You tell me? What to do? It's not a trick question. What did it do?

For the sins of the elect, there's a brave soul right there

were the Alexa saved? Oh, I can. Don't go there. Don't hold yourself in here. Okay. I'm all right now. Who else? Come on, volunteer? Well, let's play with the elect a little bit. I won't go work. I'm not gonna go there. I'm not gonna go there. We're the elect Jews. Does it include Gentiles? All the elect Jew or Gentile? Okay. We can live with that for the sake of the illustration. Anybody else want to say it differently? Are we content with that? It's okay with me.

70 weeks are decreeing about your people in your holy city? Oh, you better be careful here. Who's your people? Israel, who's What's your city? Jerusalem? Is there a disconnect there? Here's why I have to be careful. It's very obvious that we have Jews in Jerusalem right here. Gabriel is talking to Daniel, who else would it be talking about? You know? If what's going on is about the death of Jesus. And we don't want to apply it just to Jews. And I don't see how we could I mean, come on. We got this thing called the New Testament. And there's this thing called at church. Do you realize what that does, though? That puts that makes an equation that draws an equation. That's a strong word equation. We could say it creates an analogy to make it weaker between the church and Israel. Oh, we were down that road in week one. Where is the church distinct from Israel? Or isn't it if it's not there? The Church inherits the promises given to Abraham. And you don't really need an earthly millennium. So do you want your church's really equation here? But not with the Abrahamic covenant? I'm sorry, but you can't have both. Here's where I am the game show hosts and I have to say you got to pick door number one or door number two. Okay, you don't get to pick door number one and five minutes later pick door number two. You've got to make a choice

put an end to sin. Did Jesus put an end to sin?

The pit of despair. That's what you'll go away with the albino and the pit of despair. Did he make an end of sin? This is what Daniel 924 says. did Jesus do that? Come on, somebody argue for it. I mean, I'll grant you it. You can sort of make an argument you got to play with words. Well, that's, I mean, that's really bad to just play with the text. Yeah. Everybody does it. Say it again.

So you would prefer the word conquered sin? If it's if it's if it Okay, well, see, now you're adding over, I'm trying to I'm trying to get you to not add one and still get your boy. If we change this, put it into if we make it conquer? Does that make anybody feel better? Okay. So now you're adding a word to? You got the point, though you have it depends how you define the terms. You really have to play with them. You got to massage them. Or if you're a scholar, you say things like, I'm just doing exegesis. I'm using semantic reasoning. What you're doing is you're playing with the text. Okay, let that's what you're doing. You're doing what everybody else does. So just admit it. Well, if you think, you know, it's about, you know, ending transgression, putting it into sin that nobody ever sins anymore. Well, the obvious answer is no. He doesn't put it into sin. But if you define it a different way, conquering the problem of sin or something like that. Oh, and you can kind of get there, you know?

I would say you couldn't be saved by hearing 100% of the Mosaic Law. I know. I know. I know where you're going. Here's another one. Another question did the death of Jesus atone for iniquity? Now this is the one that lowers everybody in? Well, sure, you know, of course it atone for iniquity. So this phrase in Daniel 924 That's the one that makes us latch on to the crucifixion. We almost don't even see these and even ask about we're just drawn to that atone word Yeah, I know what that's about. We get tunnel vision there. Did the death of Jesus do the rest of the stuff in Daniel nine? Did it bring in everlasting righteousness did it anoint the most holy place? It seal up the vision and the prophecy. Well, it just a term it just depends on what you mean. Yep, it sure does. Dogs

Unknown Speaker 34:20

things we have to have the years and sort of standard.

Michael Heiser 34:27

You'd have to have the 483 and whether

Unknown Speaker 34:37

to start with

Michael Heiser 34:42

that's the easiest fit. Some would say it's the only fit depending on how time

Speaker 1 34:54

but then you're taking the next position to your leapfrogging to do

Unknown Speaker 35:06

later in the game,

Michael Heiser 35:09

it's it's later, it's later in the game, depending on where you start and how you define the weeks.

Speaker 2 35:15

So what you're saying is, what if you didn't come out? differently? Medical years? Your second guy didn't handle this, like as people who, right,

Michael Heiser 35:31

because what you're saying is going to factor into the next assumption, the princess, because that's going to decide whether you take the seven year you cut them up 6767 Right. That's what DAX is saying it depends on if you view them as a unit, or if you view as a separation between the 69th and the 78th. And that, in turn depends on what you do with the prints that's coming up. We'll get there. Here's another view. And this one will take the 70 as complete 70 weeks are determined for your holy city, okay, or your people. To finish the transgression, putting into sin, tone for iniquity and do all this other stuff. Some would say that it was about the end of the exile. So let's plug that in 70 weeks, and that assumes that it's 70 years to remember the Leviticus 25 thing. Or decree decreed about your people in your holy city. Okay, to finish the transgression, okay, what transgression Well, the reason they got sent into exile, right, they're done now, put an end to that sin. That particular one where you're forgiven. Now, atone for inequity, it's another way of saying transgressions forgiven, bringing everlasting righteousness. Now this one, you have to assume that the Jew thought and here's the assumption for the non pre trib, pre male view, you have to assume that the Jew thought when we go back, we are reestablishing the kingdom of God on earth. Because we're the we're the chosen people, we're gonna go back to the land that God gave us the covenant, God was remembering the covenant. God is going to be there with us, the kingdom of God is gonna be there on earth. And since we're forgiven, and the Lord is back with us, he's not going to leave again. It's going to be everlasting. And you have to you have to think in these terms to make this view word. Seal both vision of the Prophet Well, whose vision which Prophet? It depends, is he talking about Daniel? Is the angel Gabriel talking about Jeremiah, who prophesied the 70 year, captivity, seal it up? It's done now. Vision is all over with, is he talking about that? Maybe he's talking about the passage in Chronicles. I mean, who knows, but that's how you have to think about it. Anointed most holy place, oh, we got the temple back. This is an easier fit. But it still has as many guesses you're guessing that this is sort of the consciousness, that that the thing that would be in the head of the of the writer, and of course, would correspond to the reality. You can make that work nicely, but you have to assume that's how to parse the words. That's how to go through the passage. That's the filter you create to go through the passage in your head. Here's our fourth one, the prince issue. The Anointed One, a verse 26. A is not the prints of 26 B. Same verse. You assume that these characters are distinct and different, as opposed to talking about the same guy. So you got to make a choice here. Notice in this verse, you know, therefore understand the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince notice that Anointed One and Prince are juxtaposed. They're oppositional. The Anointed One is the prince is the same guy, when they occur right next to each other, it's a way of redefining the prior term. That one is fairly straightforward. He's associated with the first seven weeks. So this one, you know, we can pretty much dispense with because we want to know if the end of the 70 weeks or future, you know where that happens the first seven, who cares, okay? The issue is right here, verse 26, after the 62, and now we have seven and 62. So after the 69, the week is done. After the 62, an anointed one shall be cut off. Anointed One is MASHIAC, same as back here. And this is again is assumed to be the crucifixion by many views, this would be at the end of the 69th week, the other views are going to be at the end of the total 70. What we have here, an anointed one gets cut off. And many people assume that refers to put to death. Okay, or crucifixion. So people look at this and they see the Messiah, in this verse because of this phrase. Now, here's the trick, that's 26, A, the people of the prince who has to come shall destroy the city. And the sanctuary. So the assumption is, this guy can't be this guy. Even though both terms anointed and prints were fused back here. Here, we separate them into two guys. So that's, that's one view one assumption, even though they're joined here, I need to split them here. So that one of them is crucified. And the other one is some future, the Antichrist. Okay, is what is how this is usually applied? Well, again, you can create a scenario where that works and needs to work and flows nicely. What if they're not different? Okay. And this is what the second prince does, again, this is why we associated with the Antichrist, the abomination down here. What if it's the same guy? If it's the same guy, then this can't be the Messiah, because obviously, Jesus didn't walk in there and destroy the city and the temple and all that stuff. So if you think, you know, I feel compelled to catch my wording here, because this is where some people are at, I feel compelled to treat them as the same because the terms are fused back here, I have no right to split them here. And so I'm going to make it all the same. And therefore, Daniel nine cannot be talking about the crucifixion. And if you make that choice, it's going to take you in a completely different direction, than if you see Jesus here. In terms of the timing with the weeks. Day one view, you have a crucifixion event at the 483 and then you have seven years yet future. Okay with the preacher premier view, that would be the future tribulation. The other view doesn't have anything like that, because Jesus is not even in the passage at all. It's a bad guy. It's a real nasty, dude. It's not the Messiah. Say, Well, how can happen, you know? How can you get an evil guy called, you know, anointed, because you got people like Cyrus, who was a pagan, he's not a believer, the guy's a pagan king, pagan emperor. He's anointed because he's God's instrument. It's all it means. I've chosen you to do a task, you're anointed to do that task, and I'll get off your butt and do it. That's what it means. And you can have a bad guy do that because you've had a bad guy before. In fact, Isaiah, you know, some will try to unite those two to this. I don't think you can really get away with that. But there's at least a precedent here for a pagan person being called anointed, God's chosen to do whatever it is God wants him to do. And those are our four assumptions. Yes, tax. You're gonna, you're gonna you're gonna press it, you're going to press it all into anti Vegas. And you're going to say anti Vegas is a type of probably Titus, you know, again, if you're gonna press it all into antike as the propensity is that you're going to be a preterist. Anyway, when you get to Revelation, do you all know what I mean by a type? By the way, some of you okay, let me let me explain it this way. When we talk about prophecy, we usually think of things that are written out or uttered a prophetic utterance that says the Lord bla bla bla bla bla, and then that stuff that said is a prophecy. That's easy. A type is a non verbal prediction.

A type is an event, a person, an institution, that prefigures something that will come down the road. Best example is the Passover lamb, Passover lambs not laying there uttering prophecy. He's just laying there dead. Okay. The Passover lamb, though, is a prefigured, it's, it's a foretelling. It's a pattern. It's a prefiguring of something that's going to happen in the future. And what is that? It's Jesus on the cross. Paul says pet Christ is our Passover lamb. So it sometimes in the Old Testament actually have a fair number of them. You have a personal event or an institution whose life or circumstances forecasts something greater. And so many people will take the Daniel nine thing and say, all the events of Daniel nine are fulfilled in Daniel 11. Because Daniel 11 is a description of things that happen. In the mid one hundreds, BC remember, Daniel had those four kingdoms, okay, Babylon, the media person and the Greeks and then the Romans. Well, if you actually track that through the rest of the book, when you get to the third king in the Greco Roman period, that's in the mid one hundreds BCE. It's not in biblical history. It's in the intertestamental period, there was a guy named Dan Tikus epiphanies who was the ruler of 1/4 of Alexandria degrades empire. He lived up in Syria in the north, he came down and cutting to the chase. desecrated the temple, slew a pig on the altar, you know, made it a death penalty offense to circumcise and to observe that the Passover and all this kind of stuff. He was viewed as the great cosmic enemy that Daniel was talking about. The one who commits the abomination. If you're going to take that view, and practically everybody thinks anti, this is important. You're going to say all of Daniel nines fulfilled with anti Vegas, but what he does is a prefiguring. It's a type of something that's going to get happen. Because when Jesus is here, in Matthew 24, he says, You've heard it spoken up by Daniel the prophet, okay, and he talks about the abomination that Jesus knows what happened 150 years prior to him being there, he knows about anti Vegas, but he still says, That's the future. And so what many predators do is they'll say, what anti Vegas did and to fulfill Daniel line was sort of a warm up or a prefiguring of what Titus will do in 70. Destroying the temple, this time for good, destroying the city. So that's how you would you would stay in the passage but not be, you know, future tribulation Go ahead.

It Yeah, it depends where it would depend on your starting point. And, and the amount of literalness you attribute to the numbers to make it work. Other questions? If that's gonna work for me I'm getting a red circle. That's not good. Okay, we already talked about, there's no verse that makes the equation but again, maybe that equation deserves to be made on the on the basis of other things. So it's an open question. Other questions would be why is there no mention of seven years in the book of Revelation? So that's kind of odd. If you actually search for the number seven, you won't you won't, you won't find it associated with the years and the book of Revelation. You will find three and a half years. Well, that's half a seven, so sevens floating around there somewhere. Again, maybe you can make the argument and other bases but you don't actually have a reference to seven years. Why is there no mention of weeks in Revelation? Well, you don't need them. No, it's just seven years, we don't have seven, we got the three and a half a couple times. So it's good enough for me. Maybe it is. Why is Daniel 924 to 27? Not quoted in the book of Revelation? That one's kind of odd. Who cares if the events are described, you don't need the verse quoted, if, if lots of things are described that sort of go with Daniel nine, it's good enough. Maybe it is. Can you just have to come down somewhere. Now the other side. We just sort of warmed up to this the seventh eighth week, if you're a preterist. preterist, means you believe that most, and perhaps all prophecy has already been fulfilled. The only ambiguity is really the Second Coming. So you believe all the events of Daniel nine have been fulfilled, and a lot of Preterists are on Miller's. So I've lumped them together for the sake of the of the slide. Seven Youth Week expires around the crucifixion. So they're going to take that view, or maybe around the time of Paul's conversion, give or take. It's not too many years different. So most preterist are going to take this view seven, eight weeks over with crucifixion of Jesus, some say, seventh eighth week refers to this period here 66 to 73. It's when rom takes over and destroys a lot of Jews and the temple because halfway, you get the temple destroyed 70 ad, and isn't that kind of coincidental? 66 to 73, three and a half years, then you get the temple destroyed, and three half years later, it's all over. Okay, so some of them are gonna go there. The key verse for any of these views, is 926. Because there's a reference to the destruction of the city in the sanctuary. And everybody knows that happened in 70. And so they'll say, that's when the passage was finally fulfilled, could have been fulfilled with anti Vegas. antagonists, this kind of a war of opinion, destroy the whole city, but he stood a lot of things. And, you know, salute the leader say Antichrist was a warm up a type to Titus, or they'll put off the seventh eighth week to right here, and then get the destruction of the sanctuary there. Either way, this depends on really one thing. Well, not not only one thing, but really, really, really vital. When the book of Revelation was written, and the key passages revelation 11, two, if you want to flip there, you could, I'll show it to you, but you might want to keep your might want to have in front of you. Then I was given a measuring rod, like a staff and I was told, rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship there, but do not measure the cord outside the temple. Leave that out for it is given over to the nations and they will trample the holy city for 42 months, maybe three and a half years. Here's a reference to the temple, right there. Now, here are the two views. Some believe that the book of Revelation was written prior to 70 ad. And everything in the book of Revelation, except maybe the second coming, is already fulfilled. They think that the events of the book of Revelation are a way of describing the destruction of 70 ad. And to do that, you know, it helps if it's written before, here are the arguments that are used. Whoever's writing, this would have been crazy to mention the temple. If there was no tumble. Why would they do that? Because somebody like living after 70 ad would read that and go, what does that really mean to have a temple? What's that? Let's be an error. It assumes the reference is literal, that the temple here is like the structure. They also would argue on the basis of 666, and some manuscripts read 616 They don't all read 666 for the number of the beast. But both numbers are ciphers for the name of Nero. You can make both numbers work with Nero's name because Nero had a couple of names you know and depends how you spell them and how long they are used the abbreviated form or not. Again, you're cheating the whole way. So Nero live before 70. So the book had to be written before 70. They'll also argue that Babylon, the great whore, represents apostate Jerusalem, not Rome. So that the pictures of Babylons destruction throughout the book portray the destruction of Jerusalem. That's one view. The other view that you're probably more familiar with, because this is the one that is held by, I think it's fair to say all futurists when it comes to looking at things like a rapture and a tribulation, they're all going to interpret the Revelation, the book of Revelation as forecasting a distant future, or perhaps an imminent future set of prophecies. That view has the book written in the 90s. Here's the evidence after 70 ad, Babylon, used by Jewish writers for Rome exclusively. In other words, in all the other ancient literature out there, outside of the New Testament, Babylon, is used by Jewish writers and the writer of revelation would have been Jewish, only for Rome. So it's completely opposed to this point here. You will not find a Jewish writer using the term of Jerusalem, you find it a lot used of Rome. And the reason they do that is because as Babylon destroyed the temple, and Jerusalem, so did the Romans back back in 70 ad, because the author's writing in the 90s he sees a clear analogy there. So for him, Babylon is Rome, it's the Roman Empire. It's not the Catholic Church, by the way. There was no Catholic Church. In the 90s. AD, it didn't exist. The Roman Empire existed, but the Catholic Church did not. There's no instance before or after 70 ad for Babylon being symbolic for Jerusalem, just more generally. This this point is really lacking on the other side. And probably the one piece of evidence that is most used is this one, the Church Fathers Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Eusebius. All say it was written in the 90s. Irenaeus discusses 666. And the beast, he goes through a number of interpretations as to what this beast thing means with the 666. He doesn't even consider Nero as an option. In fact, he rejects any equation with any Roman Emperor. If you're living in the 90s, that would make sense, you'd have to go and look historically as to why that is because the Roman Empire was in turmoil. You pretty much had Roman emperors like we had Soviet premieres back in the 80s. You know, they last about two weeks, and they're gone kind of thing. They just kept dying like flies. So there's no powerful Emperor until you get around 100 or so then you have some serious power, with throne, but up until this point, during the 90s, it's like, you got to be kidding. One of these guys was the beast, I mean, good grief. You know, he was weak, it didn't last long. So rRNAs doesn't even have any time for it at all.

That's your trip to the pit of despair. This is probably the most complicated gets. But I think you can see, this is really important that any of you have prophecy, where in the world am I going to land. And it's not that you have to pick. It's not that you have to make four or five separate decisions. What you may have caught, what I didn't really stress was, as soon as you make one, it kind of forces you to make this one over here. And if you put those two together, well, then I gotta take this one back in number, you're sort of trapped you. There's only a finite number of ways that all of the decisions work together. So you have to it's kind of a dicey proposition as to where you're going to land because everybody wants to be consistent in what they're doing, the way they approach Daniel and all these other passages. And that's tricky. Even getting past the fact that I'm making these decisions because I think it's the best guess It's a reasonable gas, it looks, I feel like I can defend that gas pretty well. And that's okay. Everybody has to defend their gas. What what I don't want you to go away with is thinking that your guess is somehow more biblical than somebody else's guess. Or you have some sort of inside track that makes your guess better. Everybody's guessing they're just trying to do the best they can. So that's why we got here last year with the elders. You know, this is no hill to die on. None of these are hills to die on it. You just need to be charitable. I don't know where anybody's out here. Except me my wife. But she doesn't. So, any questions? Any pleas for mercy? Me Please for help. Okay, no questions. You're free to go. Thanks for coming.