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Welcome everyone. This is Russ Scalzo Chronicles of the End Times. Good to be with you today. I hope you're doing well.
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We're going to continue our study in the book of Daniel in chapter 9, and we're going to begin with verse 20. This is a fascinating and exciting seven verses. It takes us through time. When they began to restore the temple and Jerusalem, right on through to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his resurrection, and his second coming. That is very cool. Let's take a look at it. While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel, and making my request to the Lord, my God, for His holy hill, while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision. So, Daniel is in intercessory prayer for the nation of Israel, for their future, and for the restoration of the temple.
01:31
Worship and Gabriel shows up. He comes in in what Daniel describes as swift flight. He rushes into the scene as if it is very important that he gets this message at this particular time. He encourages him and tells him don't worry Daniel; the Lord thinks very highly of you. I don't know about you, but if I see the angel Gabriel coming to me in swift flight, I'm going to be startled out of my mind. But immediately the angel puts him at rest, telling him don't worry, you're highly thought of by the Lord. He tells him the prophecy: Seventy-sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, 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. Wow!
02:26
In that one paragraph, Gabriel goes through over 2,500 years of history and future history. Seventy-sevens, these are 70 weeks. That's what he's talking about. There are 70 weeks of years that are coming, and he goes on to break them down. So, what we're looking at is 490 years total. Now, these 490 years are broken up into sections, and this is what we're going to get into now. He picks it up in verse 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 62 sevens. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble, after the 62 sevens, the anointed one will be cut off and will have nothing. So, he's telling us there's going to be 69 of these weeks, or 483 years, from the time the decree comes from Cyrus, the king to the anointed one, the ruler comes. What's amazing about this is that Isaiah predicted this great event, even mentioning Cyrus by name, some 150 years before Cyrus's time. God watches over his word to perform it. So, Cyrus, the king of Persia, made it possible for the Jews to return home from their exile in Babylon. God rules over the kings and princes of this world. What an incredible prophecy. So, how do we figure all this out? Well, we know that there are 70 weeks and that each day in that week represents a year. So, we have a total of 490 years in this prophecy. And how do we break it down?
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If you've looked into this, you may be familiar with Sir Robert Anderson. Interesting guy. He was the assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard from 1888 until his death in 1918. Interestingly enough, one case he worked on was Jack the Ripper. This was a pretty interesting dude. He wrote a lot of books; he was a devoted evangelical Christian and was very interested in Daniel's 70 Weeks, and he is probably the most quoted when it comes to studying this piece of scripture. He was able to figure out exactly when this started and track it all the way down to when Jesus came in on Palm Sunday and was hailed as the Messiah. The scripture clearly states that the Messiah was to be cut off after 69 weeks, with a seven-week period remaining unfulfilled, which would be fulfilled in an unspecified time. That week. That's hanging out there. We call the tribulation of seven years. So now we need a starting point. So, Sir Robert figured out that it had to be a 360-day year.
05:35
The Jewish calendar was based on the cycles of the moon. Sir Robert believed that in God's perfect order, a month was always 30 days, and a year was always 360 days, and this is what he used for his computation. So that's how we get the 69 weeks being 483 years, and the final seven, which is the tribulation, being seven years, for a total of 490. For a total of 490. So, then he computed the time that the decree was given in BC 445 on the 14th of March. 173,880 days, which would be the 483 years times 360 days. So, Robert had help from the astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. He was able to fix the date on the Julian calendar. This is really crazy. In BC 445, the new moon, by which the Passover was regulated, was on the 13th of March, and, according to, the first of Nisan may be assigned to the 14th of March. So, we now have a start date, the 14th of March, 445 BC. And then he added his 173,880 days. And what did he come to? The 6th of April 32 AD. This is what he believed was the date of Christ's entry into Jerusalem.
07:03
Like with many prophecies, there are different interpretations. Some historians say that the Jews never relied purely on the lunar calendar as the Muslims do. They reference the fact that the Jews used a solar slash lunar calendar. Their months are 30 days long, but they insert what is called an intercalary month. Every so often, they adjust for the true solar calendar. They make adjustments for the true solar calendar. The argument is that for the Jews, this is absolutely necessary because their major festivals, Passover, Sukkot, and the autumn harvest festival, are directly related to agricultural cycles. And if they didn't make the adjustments, their festivals would be all screwed up. Their Harvest Festival would fall during their seed planting time and would get very confusing. This is exactly the case for the Moslem calendar, which is a purely lunar calendar. Their sacred festivals of Ramadan circulate around the year. You can see that with what's going on today, one year will be in August, the next in September, the next in October. So, the Jews added this intercalary month to make those adjustments. It gets very complicated. If you look into it, it gets a little crazy.
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But we always have to be careful to look at the big picture. As Jesus said, we don't want to be straining on the gnat and swallowing the camel, and that's lots of times. What happens? When we get into nitpicking this or that or the other thing with these prophecies, we fail to look at what God is trying to tell us. Instead, we argue over whether Jesus was crucified in 31 AD, 32, or 33 AD. So, my counsel is let's look at the big picture. What is he trying to tell us? Let's break that down.
08:58
Seventy-sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. What does all that mean? As we said before, that span covers over 2,500 years. It is directed at the Jewish people and the holy city of Jerusalem. We understand that it's going to finish transgression, put an end to sin, and to atone for wickedness. Okay, so that would be the cross of Jesus Christ, the coming of the Savior of the world, his death on the cross, which will finish transgressions and put an end to sin and atone for wickedness.
09:48
Now, when he says put an end to sin, obviously, we know what he's talking about: the punishment of sin because we know after the cross of Jesus Christ, there certainly was sin, and there will continually be sin until the New Jerusalem because if you break it down in the future, there's certainly sin. Now, there'll be sin in the last week, the 70th week, when the Antichrist is reigning. There's no doubt about that. During the millennial reign, after the battle of Armageddon, when Jesus comes to rule and reign on the earth with a rod of iron, there will still be people who will sin and rebel, and that is proven at the end of the millennial reign when the devil is released, and he deceives the nations once again. And then, of course, the final judgment, the white throne judgment, where all the dead shall be judged. From there, we go into the new Jerusalem, new heavens, and a new earth, and that's a completely different system, a completely different age where there will be no more sin.
10:47
So, when he says he's going to put an end to sin, that's through the blood of Jesus Christ that he's going to put an end to sin. That's through the blood of Jesus that he's going to atone for wickedness and bring everlasting righteousness, eternal life, and eternal forgiveness. Our sins are gone, washed away, never to be remembered against us again in everlasting righteousness. What a promise to you and me, considering who we are, the things that we do, and the sins that we commit. Even after we know Jesus, he gives us everlasting righteousness.
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Now, the next part is to seal up vision and prophecy. So that would be the revelation of Jesus Christ in the flesh. There'll be no more need for visions or prophecy because he will be here and also to anoint the most holy. Some versions say the holy place. Either way, it's the anointing of Jesus Christ on the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What a glorious moment that will be His coronation, where he will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Here on the earth, we already know that he is and has been down through eternity, but here, before all the nations of the world, he will be declared King. It will be an amazing time when he will be recognized by the entire world as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I'm sure there'll be a great outburst of worship that'll go on for who knows how many days a tremendous celebration.
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These are the true issues of this chapter. You can get into dates and things like we've been discussing, and it's kind of fun to look into that stuff. I believe in studying to show yourself approved but never losing the vision of what God is truly telling us. Let's read on, beginning with verse 25. There will be seven sevens and 62 sevens, so that's 69 sevens or 483 years. It will be built with streets and his trench, but in times of trouble, and this is described in the book of Ezra, although they had permission to go back, they faced a lot of adversity. And it says after this time, the anointed will be cut off and will have nothing.
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This talks about the death of Jesus and the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. So, the people of the ruler who will come. Many of you may have read about the Roman Empire coming back, and this is where many believe that the European Union, or something very similar to that, will be a revision of the old Roman Empire. And this prince who is to come, who we know is the Antichrist he talks about the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. So, the ruler who's to come is the Antichrist. He will rise up out of the old Roman empire, and we know that in 70 AD, the sanctuary was destroyed, burnt down, and millions of Jews were slaughtered. It goes on to say that the end will come like a flood, war will continue until the end and desolations have been decreed. We're going through all that now.
14:03
Then he jumps to the 70th week. There's a giant space between week 69 and week 70, and that is the dispensation of the church, the time of the Gentiles, where we have our opportunity to know Jesus. That 70th week is what we have designated as the tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, where God will deal with Israel. That's his number one priority, but also the rest of the world will have one last opportunity to accept Christ. And this is where we get our reference to Revelation, where he talks about the covenant. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven, and in the middle of the seven, he will put an end to the sacrifice and the offering. This is what Jesus talked about when you see the prophecies of Daniel being fulfilled basically run for your life.
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We see it in Revelation, where he talks about the covenant of one week. Isaiah refers to it as the covenant of death. So once the temple is built, once the Antichrist has lured Israel into this false peace, he will declare himself God in the sanctuary, and he will defile it. And that is the abomination that results in the desolation, really, of the entire world, and that will continue until the end. That is decreed is poured out on him and we see that described in great detail in Revelation.
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God's wrath will be poured out on the kingdom of the Antichrist, especially in Revelation, chapter 16, where the loud voice comes out and tells the angels to go pour seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth. We have to look at who is it centered on. The first angel went out and poured his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful swords broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped his image. Then the second one, his bowl was poured out on the sea, and it turned the sea to blood. And the third angel poured out on the rivers and the springs of water and they of blood. And a third angel poured out on the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch the people with fire. They were seared by intense heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and worship him. And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores.
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Then, ahead to verse 21, it says from the sky, huge hailstones, about a hundred pounds each, fell on men, and they cursed God on account of the plague of hail because the plague of hail was so severe. So, you can see that God is pouring his wrath out on those who have made the deal with the Antichrist, and three different times in this chapter, they curse God. So, it's not a matter of whether they believe God exists or that he's really there and the one that they're serving is not truly God. That's quite a revelation, right? They were so infatuated with the Antichrist and the false prophet and Satan himself, and now, with all these plagues coming down, they curse God three different times. So, they actually recognize, yeah, that we know that this is not really God. But there is a God in heaven, and we curse him. That's what you call true rebellion. God's wrath is God's wrath against the wicked. It is not persecution. People are suffering from persecution all over the world. It's not the wrath of God. It's the wrath of the enemy and the people who are inspired by him. Wrath of the enemy and the people who are inspired by him.
17:47
When we look at this final week in Daniel, chapter 9, it's like the prophetic clock had stopped when the church began, and then it picks up again at the very end of time, because the 70 weeks are assigned to Israel. They're not assigned to the church. That's where a lot of people get confused. God loves Israel. We need to remember that, and this is what the Lord says in Jeremiah, chapter 31. He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who declares the moon and the stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that it makes waves roar, the Lord Almighty is his name. Only if these decrees vanish from my sight, declares the Lord, will Israel ever cease being a nation before me. Let's pray for Israel in these terrible times, for God never goes back on his promises to the church or to Israel. God bless. This is Russ Scalzo for Chronicles of the End Times. Keep looking up. The King is coming.
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