24 "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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 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." NIV

 

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel do several important things. First, they completely demolish the growing belief that Jesus of Nazareth never claimed to be the Messiah. Of course he claimed to be the Messiah! Riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and encouraging the crowd to embrace Him as their King was entirely messianic. Second, the fact that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the very specific day that was predicted by Daniel is proof that Jesus not only claimed that He was the Messiah, but he in fact was and is the Messiah, the Saviour of the human race. Third, the fact that there is a final week, a final seven year period that is unfulfilled in Daniel's prophecy, helps to illuminate the context of the catastrophic judgements that will befall the earth as predicted in Revelation.

This final seven year period is divided precisely in half by an event known as the Abomination of Desolation. It is predicted by Daniel and also by Jesus in Matthew 24:15-21. Jesus refers to Daniel and says that when the Abomination is set up the world would experience the worst time of trouble that it has ever seen. The words of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and the predictions in Revelation 13 combine with the words of Jesus and Daniel to make it clear that the Abomination of Desolation will be an image, or an idol of the Antichrist, which will be set up in the Holy Place of a rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The setting up of the Abomination divides the final seven year period into two halves of exactly three and a half years each. These time periods are referred to throughout Daniel and Revelation as either "a time, times and half a time," "42 months," or "1260 days." From these references we know that the prophetic year of the bible is exactly 360 days long, and that Jesus Christ will return exactly 2,520 days (7 x 360) after the final seven year period begins.         

A. The Introduction: Daniel 9:24, "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."
        First of all, we need to understand that the Hebrew word that is translated here as "sevens" is the word shebua. This word means a period of seven, either seven days or seven years. Many translations simply interpret it as "week." The Jews observed a seven-day week, resting on the seventh day Sabbath, and they were also required to observe a seven-year week, where every seventh year they allowed the fields to lie fallow in order for the ground to regain its nutrients. In the context of this prophecy we can be sure that the "sevens" described here are yearly "sevens" and not daily "sevens." In other words, this prophecy encompasses Seventy Weeks of years or 490 years. 
        Another important thing to note about this prophecy is that it applies to Daniel's people and the holy city. From this we know that everything about this prophecy refers to the Jews and Jerusalem.
        The last thing to learn from this verse is that the prophecy ends when six things take place. 1- transgression for the Jews will finish, 2- sin for the Jews will end, 3- the Jews will atone for wickedness (repent), 4- everlasting righteousness will be brought in, 5- vision and prophecy will conclude and, 6- the Most Holy Place of the Temple will be anointed. All six of these things will happen at the Second Coming of the Messiah. The important conclusion to be made from this prophecy is that Jesus Christ will return at the end of the Seventy Weeks.

B. The timing of Messiah's First Coming: Daniel 9:25, "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."
        Here we are told that "the Anointed One, the ruler," will come after a total of 69 weeks from the "the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." The original Hebrew here is Meshiach Nagid, which is translated in the King James Version as "the Messiah, the Prince."
        Daniel was told that the prophecy would begin when the command to rebuild Jerusalem was given. It would be rebuilt "with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble." This command was given years later by King Artaxerxes of Babylon and it was recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8. Only the command of Artaxerxes fulfilled the description predicted by Daniel. Fortunately for us the exact date of this event was given as being in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes' reign. When the day of the month is not given in Jewish chronologies, then it can be assumed that the first day is meant. The 1st of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon corresponds to March 14, 445 BC.  Sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years later, the Messiah would come.
        How long are the years? Mankind has used hundreds of different ways to calculate the passing of the years, and all of them are different. To calculate this prophecy we need to turn to the Bible and find out how the biblical prophetic calendar was laid out. From Genesis 7:11,24, 8:3-4, Revelation 12:6,14 and other texts we know that the Bible uses a simple calendar of 360 days per year. With this in mind we can be more precise and find out the exact day that the Messiah was predicted to come. 360 days times 69 years gives us 173,880 days. If we add that number to March 14, 445BC we come to April 6, 32AD. This calculation has been verified by many unbiased sources including the British Royal Observatory of Greenwich, England.
        "Comes" to where? The Messiah was predicted to "come" exactly 173,880 days after the command to rebuild Jerusalem. The entire prophecy is focused on the Jews and Jerusalem, so we can conclude that the Messiah would "come" to Jerusalem. Furthermore, he is referred to as "the Anointed One, the ruler" so from this we know that he would come as a ruler or King. The prophet Zechariah predicted the manner in which this would take place saying, "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey..." (Zechariah 9:9).
        According to Luke 3:1, Jesus of Nazareth was baptized in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, who was crowned Emperor on August 19, 14AD. The year from August 19, 28AD to August 19, 29AD was Tiberius' fifteenth year. Jesus was believed to have been baptized in the fall season, which would have been the fall of 28AD. Jesus’ ministry lasted for 3½ years and he was crucified in the spring of 32AD on the eve of Passover. In 32AD Passover fell on April 11. April 6 would have been the Sunday we now commonly celebrate as Palm Sunday, this was the day, April 6, 32 AD, that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey claiming to be the Messiah. As Jesus was entering the holy city the crowd cried out, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Luke 19:38). This was the first time that Jesus publicly acknowledged that He was the Messiah. Previously He had privately revealed this to His disciples (Matthew 16:13-20), and His entire ministry was focused on presenting proof of His Messiahship to the religious leaders (go here for an excellent study on this), but the triumphal entry was the first time that Jesus publicly claimed to be the Messiah to the city of Jerusalem and to the nation of Israel as a whole.
        Jesus had many faithful followers who recognized and proclaimed Him as the Messiah, but the leaders of Israel, and thus the nation as a whole, had rejected Him. That is why before He entered the city He looked out upon it and wept saying, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes." (Luke 19:42). Notice that Jesus referred to a specific day. It was the very day that Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled.
        Then Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem (v.43) saying that this would happen, "because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation," (v.44). Daniel's prophecy is the only prophecy that pinpoints the exact time of Messiah's coming. Even Jewish rabbis have commented on this fact.  One, Moses Abraham Levi, wrote, "I have examined and searched all the Holy Scriptures and have not found the time for the coming of Messiah clearly fixed, except in the words of Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, which are written in the 9th chapter of the prophecy of Daniel."
        It is important to understand that this prophecy was written down about 2500 years ago around 535 BC. In the late 1940s the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves east of Jerusalem. This collection of scrolls contained numerous copies of every book in the Old Testament except Esther. These scrolls were hidden in caves to protect them from the Roman armies which devastated Israel in 70 AD. They were protected from decay (for almost 1900 years) by the dry weather of the Dead Sea area and because they were kept in sealed clay jars. This collection of scrolls contained eight copies of the book of Daniel which date to at least the first century AD and paleographers have established their age as no later than 125 BC.
        It is often claimed that the Bible is unreliable and that it has been rewritten, changed and lost in translation over the centuries. The Dead Sea Scrolls prove that this claim, as far as the Old Testament is concerned, is false.

The 70^th Week of Daniel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks is described in Daniel 9:27,
        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.

A. The rebuilt Temple, future sacrifices, and the Abomination of Desolation

The 70^th week begins when the False Prophet "confirms a covenant with many." This is understood to be a document or treaty with the Jewish people which will allow for the rebuilding of the Temple and the renewal of their practice of animal sacrifice. In the middle of this treaty the False Prophet, under orders from the Antichrist, will stop the animal sacrifices and set up the Abomination of Desolation in the Temple. There are seven other texts which confirm the fact that a new Temple will be built, that the sacrifices will be abolished and that the Abomination of Desolation will be set up.

1. Daniel 8:11-12, speaking of the Antichrist,
       It set itself up to be as great as the Prince of the host; it took away the daily sacrifice from him, and the place of his sanctuary was brought low. Because of rebellion, the host [of the saints] and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.

2. Daniel 11:31
        His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation.

3. Matthew 24:15-21
        So when you see standing in the holy place `the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel--let the reader understand-- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains… For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now--and never to be equaled again.

4. Mark 13:14-19
        When you see `the abomination that causes desolation' standing where it does not belong--let the reader understand--then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains… because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now--and never to be equaled again.

5. 2 Thessalonians 2:4
        He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

7. The Abomination of Desolation is defined further in Revelation 13:14-15
        He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.

B. The Antichrist will rule for three and a half years

Day 1 is the day that the Antichrist "confirms a covenant with many." It is the first day of the 70^th Week. The Second Coming will occur on day 2520. This is exactly seven prophetic (360-day) years after the beginning of the 70^th Week (7 years X 360 days = 2520 days).

Day 1260 is the middle of the Week. On this day the False Prophet will abolish the sacrifices and set up the Abomination of Desolation in the Temple. From this point on, for 3 ½ years, the Antichrist will have power over the entire earth, (save for the desert refuge of Daniel 11:41 and Revelation 12:6,14). This fact is confirmed by two texts:

Daniel 7:25
        He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. The changing of the "set times and the laws" is probably a reference to a future change away from a   calendar that dates from the birth of Jesus Christ. The year will probably be reset to "0" to date from the Antichrist's proclamation of a New Age. There may also be a change away from a 12 month calendar to a 13 month calendar that better corresponds with the moon. Both changes are even now being proposed by numerous New Age groups.

Revelation 13:5
        The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.

       
C.  Jews who flee the Antichrist will be protected
       
There will be many Jews living in Israel who heed the warning of Jesus in Matthew 24:15-21 and Mark 13:14-19 and flee out of Jerusalem when the Abomination of Desolation is set up by the False Prophet. God will protect those who flee for the entire last half of the 70^th Week. This is shown by three texts:

Daniel 11:41, This is a description of the mountainous desert to the east of Jerusalem. This is where the Jews will flee.
        … Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand.

Revelation 12:6
        The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

Revelation 12:14
       The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.

D. The Wedding Feast and the gathering of Israel

Immediately after the 2^nd Coming Jesus will preside over the wedding feast. It will take place on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. Two texts make this clear:

Revelation 19:7-9
        Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, "Write: `Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."

Isaiah 25:6-8
        On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.

The Church which accompanies Jesus on His return to earth will partake of this feast, as will the Jews who hid in the desert according to Jesus’ instructions. Jesus will also send His angels out to gather all of the scattered Jews throughout the world to this feast as he personally describes in two texts:

Matthew 24:31
        And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Mark 13:27
        And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

This gathering is mistaken by some to be a post-tribulation Rapture. This is not the case. The "elect" here is a reference to Israel. There are several Old Testament passages which refer to Israel as the "elect," (Isaiah 45:4, 65:9, 65:22) and there are many more that predict a gathering of Israel prior to the Messianic Kingdom, (Isaiah 11:11-12:6, 27:12-13, 43:5-7, Jeremiah 16:14-15, 23:3-4,7-8, 31:7-10, Ezekiel 11:14-18, Ezekiel 36:24, Amos 9:14-15, Zephaniah 3:18-20, Zechariah 10:8-12).  Jesus’ words simply predict that these Old Testament prophecies will be fulfilled after His 2^nd Coming. Compare His words in Matthew 24:31 with Isaiah 27:12-13 here,
        In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Both texts predict a "gathering" and a "trumpet." The fact that Jesus says that the elect from "the ends of the heavens" (Mark 13:27) will also be gathered tells us that the resurrection of the Old Testament saints will occur at this time as well. The Resurrection which occurred prior to the tribulation at the Rapture was only a resurrection of the "dead in Christ" (1 Thessalonians 4:16), the Church Age saints.

Prior to the wedding feast those who have perished during the tribulation will also be resurrected and will be allowed to partake of it. This resurrection is shown in Revelation 20:4.

Jesus mentioned this wedding feast in Luke 22:15-18 at the Last Supper,
        And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."


E. The gathering and judgement of tribulation survivors

After the Battle of Armageddon the Antichrist and the False Prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20) and Satan will be bound in the Abyss. The kings of the earth who supported the Antichrist will be captured and imprisoned, Isaiah 24:21-22,
       In that day the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.

These kings will be imprisoned until they are judged. The great assemblage and judgement of the peoples of the earth is shown in two texts. It will be a judgement of Gentiles only because by this time if you are truly a Jew then you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour and have already been gathered to the wedding feast. There is no judgement for the true Jew prior to the Messianic Kingdom.

Matthew 25:31-46,
        When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world… Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels… Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Joel 3:1-2
        In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.

F.  The removal of the Abomination of Desolation

Daniel predicts that six things will be fulfilled by the end of the 70 Weeks (Daniel 9:24). The sixth thing that will occur is the "anointing" of the Most Holy Place of the Temple. Jesus Christ will do this when He returns on day 2520. However Daniel 12:11 tells us that the Abomination remains in place for 1290 days and this means that the Abomination remains in place until day 2550:

Daniel 12:11
        From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.

Jesus tells us (Matthew 24:15) that the Abomination will stand in the Holy Place. The Most Holy Place and the Holy Place are two different rooms in the Temple. Upon His return on day 2520 Jesus cleanses the Most Holy Place but allows the Abomination to remain in the Holy Place until day 2550.

I believe he does this so that the peoples of the earth who are gathered in the Valley of Jehoshophat, as well as the kings of Isaiah 24:21-22, can see the removal of the image of the man that they have worshiped. The removal of the Abomination then signals the start of the Judgement of the Tribulation survivors.

The angel told Daniel (12:12), "Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days."

Of the righteous sheep who survive this judgement Jesus says (Matthew 25:34), "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."

From these texts I believe that the judgement of the Gentiles lasts from day 2550 (the 1290^th day of the Abomination – Daniel 12:11) when the Abomination is removed, until day 2595 (1335 from the Abomination – Daniel 12:12).

G. The date of the renewal of Temple sacrifices

There is one other cryptic number that is given by Daniel the prophet: 8:13-14,
        Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, "How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled--the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host that will be trampled underfoot?" He said to me, "It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated."

Day 1- The Roman False Prophet (Daniel 9:27) "will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’" It will allow the Jews to rebuild their Temple and renew the animal sacrifices.

Day 250- The Jews begin the animal sacrifices.

Day 1260- The False Prophet abolishes the animal sacrifices and sets up an image of the Antichrist in the Holy Place, an image that is known as the Abomination of Desolation.

Day 2520- This is the end of Daniel’s 70^th Week. On this day Jesus Christ returns to earth with the Church (raptured and resurrected Christians). He defeats the Antichrist and his armies and anoints the Most Holy Place of the Temple. The Antichrist and the False Prophet are thrown into the lake of fire and the kings which followed them are imprisoned "for many days" (Isaiah 24:22). The elect are gathered to Jerusalem and the wedding feast begins soon after.

Day 2550- The Abomination is removed from the Holy Place of the Temple and with this Jesus begins the judgement of the people and the kings of the earth who have been gathered at the Valley of Jehoshophat.

Day 2595- This is the end of the judgement of the people of the earth. The wicked have been destroyed and if you make it this far Daniel and Jesus both say that you are "Blessed." (Daniel 12:12 and Matthew 25:34).

Day 2596- This is the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom, and Jesus Christ will rule it in righteousness and truth for 1000 years.

Four possible start dates have been suggested:
1.   Cyrus’ decree of 538BC, (2 Chronicles 36:20-23, Ezra 1:1-4, 6:1-5).
2.   Darius’ decree confirming the decree of Cyrus in 520BC, (Ezra 6:6-12).
3.   Artaxerxes’ decree of 457BC, (Ezra 7:11-26).
4.   Artaxerxes’ decree of 445BC, (Nehemiah 2:1-8).

            1. The decree of Cyrus has been suggested by some because prior to receiving this prophecy Daniel had prayed to the Lord upon realizing that the seventy-year desolation of Jerusalem as given by Jeremiah was soon to end. Some scholars say that this prophecy would logically begin when Cyrus issued this decree and the desolation ended. This is a hasty assumption and the problem with this view is that in the texts that record this decree the rebuilding of the city is never mentioned, only the repatriation of the Jews and the rebuilding of the Temple.
            2. Several years later Darius is approached by the Jews, asking him to allow the Temple to be finished according to Cyrus’ decree. Darius allows it, but again no mention is made of the rebuilding of the city.
            3. Artaxerxes decree of Ezra 7 again fails to mention the city and is also focused on the Temple. In fact, Ezra 4:7-23 (chronologically this passage belongs between Ezra 7 and Nehemiah 1) states that the unauthorized work that had begun on the city, following the return of Ezra   should be stopped, "… so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order." (v.21).
            4. This order to rebuild the city itself is never given until 445BC in the 20^th year of Artaxerxes. In Nehemiah 2:1-8 Nehemiah asked the king for permission to rebuild the city and received a letter granting him safe passage and building materials for the city gate and the walls. Some argue the letter was not actually (as the NIV reads) a "decree" and should be disregarded as a possibility. The Hebrew word in question is ‘dabar," and it appears 1439 times in the Bible. Of those times, the KJV translates it 807 times as ‘word,’ 231 times as ‘thing,’ 63 times as ‘matter,’ 51 times as ‘acts,’ 38 times as ‘chronicle,’ 25 times as ‘saying,’ 20 times (including this one) as ‘commandment’ and 204 times as miscellaneous. As you can see, a ‘dabar’ is much more than just an official royal proclamation. The letter to Nehemiah is considered by many to be this ‘dabar,’ but I believe that this 'dabar' was simply the verbal permission Artaxerxes gave in response to Nehemiah’s request of (2:5), "If it pleases the king… let him send me to the city… so that I can rebuild it."
         Conclusion: The only time a "dabar" was given to "restore and rebuild Jerusalem" was in 445BC in the 20^th year of the reign of King Artaxerxes as described in Nehemiah 2:1-8.

Recognizing that this prophecy could only apply to Jesus Christ, only three possible termination points will be investigated:
1.  The birth of Jesus Christ circa 7BC to 1AD.
2.  The baptism of Jesus circa 27-28 AD.
3.  The appearance of Jesus Christ to the city of Jerusalem at His triumphal entry around 31-33AD.

            Matthew 16:13-20, When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven… Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

            After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were  waiting to take his life. But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, Jesus' brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." For even his own brothers did not believe in him. Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testifythat what it does is evil. You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." Having said this, he stayed in Galilee. However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.

            Here Jesus’ unbelieving brothers challenged Him to publicly present Himself to Jerusalem as the Messiah, but He responded saying, "My time has not yet come," and then He entered the city in secret. If Jesus had already fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy and the people of Israel were to understand that the Messiah had come, then why did Jesus refrain from going public with His identity and His mission? Clearly Daniel’s prophecy had not yet been fulfilled.

            This prophecy predicted the manner in which the Messiah would fulfill Daniel’s prophecy. When Jesus purposely fulfilled this prophecy He was making an unequivocal statement about who He was claiming to be. There was no coming in secret and there was no instructing His disciples to remain quiet. In fact, when the Pharisees in the crowd asked Jesus to rebuke His disciples because of the praise they were giving Him, Jesus responded (Luke 19:40), "I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Verse 41 continues,

            The KJV records the first part of this passage as, "… If thou hadst known… in this thy day..."  What day was Jesus speaking of? He was speaking of the very day that Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled, the day of the coming of the Anointed One to the Jews and Jerusalem..

            If we convert the scope of Daniel’s prophecy (483 years) to days, using the historical (Genesis 7:11,24 and 8:3-4) and prophetic (Revelation 12:6,14) Biblical calendar of exactly 360 days per year we arrive at a total of 173,880 days from the beginning of the prophecy until the coming of the Messiah.

            Artaxerxes’ decree was given on March 14, 445BC. Adding 173,880 days to that date we arrive at April 6, 32AD. These calculations have been verified by the British Royal Observatory.

            According to Luke 3:1, Jesus was baptized in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, who was crowned Emperor on August 19, 14AD. The year from August 19, 28AD to August 19, 29AD was his fifteenth year. Jesus was believed to have been baptized in the fall season, which would have been the fall of 28AD. Jesus’ ministry lasted for 3½ years and he was crucified in the spring of 32AD on the eve of Passover. In 32AD Passover fell on April 11. April 6 would have been the Sunday we now commonly celebrate as Palm Sunday, the day that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey claiming to be the Messiah.

            Daniel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks is the only prophecy that pinpoints the exact time that the Messiah would appear to Israel and Jerusalem. This has been well noted by many scholars throughout history. Even a Jewish rabbi, by the name of Moses Abraham Levi, wrote, "I have examined and searched all the Holy Scriptures and have not found the time for the coming of Messiah clearly fixed, except in the words of Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, which are written in the 9th chapter of the prophecy of Daniel."
            When Jesus declined the challenge by His brothers to make a public appearance to Jerusalem in John 7:1-10 by responding "my time has not yet come," He could only have been referring to Daniel’s prophecy. And when He wept over Jerusalem in Luke 19, crying because the city "did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you," (…the time of thy visitation…" in KJV), again, Jesus Christ could have only been referring to Daniel’s prophecy, the only prophecy to specify the time of the coming of the Messiah.
           
            Conclusion: "... until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes..." could only have been fulfilled at the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem, when He publicly presented Himself to the Holy City and the Jews as the Messiah.

           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.

            The ‘He’ at the beginning of this verse can only refer to the previous subject, which is the ‘ruler who will come’ of v.26. This ‘he’ does three things in v.27: 1. Confirms a covenant, 2. Puts an end to sacrifice and offering, and 3. Sets up an abomination that causes desolation in the Temple. This ‘he’ is the False Prophet who takes orders from the Antichrist. Daniel 8:11-12 and 11:31 both show that the Antichrist orders the stoppage of the sacrifices in a future Temple, and 2 Thessalonians 2:4 speaks of the Antichrist in connection with the Temple as well. Daniel 11:31 also mentions the setting up of the abomination of desolation on orders from the Antichrist, and Jesus, in Matthew 24:15-21 and Mark 13:14-19, warns of the abomination of desolation in the context of end-times events. Verse 27 can only describe the actions of the False Prophet who carries out the Antichrist's orders (Revelation 13:14-15), and the entire prophecy ends by telling us that his career will not last forever, but only "…until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
         Daniel’s 70^th Week is a future prophecy, and this seven years is the basis of the biblical teaching of a final seven year period which will
take place after the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Luke 21:24, Romans 11:25). A proper understanding of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks also shows that Replacement Theology, or the belief that the Church has completely replaced Israel, is dead wrong. Israel still has a part to play in God’s plan.