Home

Our Pastor

Sermons Online

Church Covenant

Statement of Faith

Our Mission

Our Ministries

Searching for a
reformed church in
New England? See the New England
Reformed Fellowship

 

 

Pastor Lars Larson, PhD                                                                                       FBC Sermon #629
First Baptist Church, Leominster, MA                                                                    September 18, 2011
Words for children: Jerusalem, desolation, coming                                                  Text: Matthew 24:15-28
Scripture reading: Isaiah 44:24-28; 45:1-7

The Gospel of Matthew (93)
God’s Judgment upon Jerusalem (cont.)

Our current progress through Matthew:

I.  Prologue (chs. 1, 2)
II.  The Kingdom Comes (chs. 3-7)
III.  The Works of the Kingdom (chs. 8-10)
IV.  The Nature of the Kingdom (chs. 11-13)
V.  The Authority of the Kingdom (chs. 14-18)
VI.  Kingdom Blessings and Kingdom Judgments (chs. 19-25)
            A.  From Galilee to Jerusalem (chs. 19, 20)
            B.  The King enters Jerusalem (chs. 21-23)
            C.  Fifth Discourse: Kingdom Judgment, the Olivet Discourse (chs. 24, 25)
                        1.  Signs of the “End” (24:1-31)

************************

          We have sought to show in our current study of the Olivet Discourse that our Lord was foretelling both the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 as well as His second coming to the world at the end of the age.  Not all who study this discourse of our Lord believe what we are espousing regarding these matters.  First, there are those, not very many in number, who believe that the entire Olivet Discourse is a prophecy of the events of AD 70 only, when the Romans destroyed both the Jewish temple and the city of Jerusalem.  They do not see the second coming of Christ taught in this passage.  Second, there are others who do not believe our Lord spoke at all of the events of AD 70, but all of our Lord’s words were prophecies of an end time tribulation period which concludes with the second coming of Christ.  Thirdly, there are those that believe our Lord was speaking of both events together, of the fall of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, but there is a double fulfillment of these words in an end time tribulation and the second coming.  My position is distinct from any of these three.  I believe that our Lord was speaking of the events that His disciples would experience in AD 70 but then He also speaks of His second coming; this position requires the difficult task of determining at what point in the discourse our Lord shifts from speaking of first century events to end time events.  But please recognize, that all of these positions have “problems” or “difficulties” in interpretation.  One reason for this is that when our Lord taught his disciples these words, they probably saw all of these events as concurrent with one another.  But we have the perspective of history, knowing that although our Lord judged Israel, its capital of Jerusalem, and its temple in AD 70, He did not return then literally and physically.  His second coming is in the future.  And so, it is necessary for us to sort through these verses with our knowledge of history.

          Now, before we proceed further, let me reinforce this important point.  Although sincere Christians differ significantly on these points, all should avoid making a view on end time prophecy a test of fellowship.  Too often Christians dismiss and distance from others based upon these things.  I believe this is wrong.  We can have different opinions on our understanding of prophecy and continue to have good, biblical fellowship with one another.

          Let us now look further at this…

            C.  Fifth Discourse: Kingdom Judgment, the Olivet Discourse (chs. 24, 25)

                        1.  Signs of “the end” (24:1-51)

          We have (a) the setting for the discourse in 24:1-3.  Our Lord declared that the temple buildings that were before their eyes would be destroyed to the extent that not one stone would be left standing upon another.  A little while later the disciple approached Him and asked, (1) “When will these things be?”  And (2) “What will be the sign of your coming?  And (3) "What will be the sign of “the close of the age?” 
          Our Lord foretold of (b) the events that are not signs of “the end” (24:4-14).  In these verses our Lord was not giving signs to identify the end times, rather, He was telling His disciples of the kinds of things that they themselves would experience as they sought to live for Him. The end of Jerusalem would occur after the words of verse 14 were fulfilled: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end (of Jerusalem, in my opinion) will come.”  By the time that Jerusalem fell in AD 70, our Lord’s followers were in great number and were largely Gentile from “nations” all over the known world (cf. Col. 1:5f).  The fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish temple brought a full end to the old covenant system that had been initiated through Moses.  The new covenant that our Lord established with His disciples was now established and widespread throughout the world.  The time for Jerusalem’s end will have then arrived.

                                   c.  The coming great tribulation-- the “end” of the temple and Jerusalem (24:15-28)

          15“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  17Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.  19And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!  20Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.  21For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.  22And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved.  But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.  23Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  24For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.  25See, I have told you beforehand.  26So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out.  If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  27For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  28Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.  (Matt. 24:15-28)

                                                (1)  The abomination of desolation (24:15-20)

          Our Lord gave reference to a prophecy from the book of Daniel of “the abomination of desolation.”  This is one of those phrases that is the subject of fanciful speculation of evangelical end time pundits.  It is commonly taught that the abomination of desolation is an incident that will happen in Jerusalem in the middle of a future seven year tribulation period, an event that the antichrist perpetrates on the Jewish people.  It is commonly said that this is an event which occurs through the actions of a future antichrist.  The common interpretation is that the antichrist, having become the world leader through political skill, deception, and intrigue, seeming to have the solutions to all of mankind’s problems, initially makes a pact with Israel to allow them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and reinstitute their sacrifices.  But in the midst of the seven year tribulation period just prior to the coming of Christ, the antichrist will show his true, evil character.  He will come to Jerusalem, set up an idol of himself in the rebuilt temple, proclaim himself to be god and demand to be worshipped by all in the world.  Then he will turn upon the Jews who had wrongly thought him to be their deliverer, and he would persecute them with fierce hostility.  It is believed that the antichrist would have destroyed the Jews had not the Lord intervened by His second coming to the earth, in which he overthrows the antichrist and his armies in a great end time battle of Armageddon, which will take place in the valley of Megiddo, in northern Israel.
          Last Lord’s Day I read of some examples of this teaching from several different books that are in my library.  But to illustrate how common this view is, I will recount an excerpt from an email I received from a pastor friend just several days ago.  They are the comments of a man for whom I have the highest regard, John MacArthur, although I differ with him on his interpretation of the Olivet Discourse.  Here are a few of his comments on the parallel passage of Matthew 24, which is in Luke 21.

          Then He (Jesus) says, “When you get near the end of this period, near My return, look for a specific sign.”  Verse 20, “Jerusalem surrounded by armies and the desolation of Jerusalem at hand.”  Matthew and Mark also record this and they record the fact that it is connected to the prophecy of Daniel in an event called the abomination of desolation.  Look for that.  That is an event that occurs in the mid-point of a final seven-year period.  It sets off a triggering of judgments that become worse and worse and worse.  So the general signs, verses 8 to 19, a specific sign in the future will come in a generation yet to come in which they will see desolation in the land of Jerusalem imminent because the armies of the world will be surrounding that city with a threatening force.  They will then desecrate the holy place.  The Antichrist will set up an image of himself there in the holy place of a rebuilt temple and call the whole world to worship no one but him.  That blasphemy and that sacrilege will trigger the final three and a half years of divine judgment on the earth.  So that specific sign is featured in verses 20 to 24.  It ends up, of course, with death and destruction for Jerusalem.[1]

          In the above statements Macarthur ignores the historical context of Jesus answering His disciples’ questions about when the temple buildings they were observing would be destroyed, ignores the events of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in AD 70, and he then projects fulfilled prophecy as though it were unfulfilled, that our Lord’s words were speaking of events in an end time rebuilt temple in Jerusalem in an end time tribulation period that he believes will transpire over a seven year period.  He made reference to Daniel’s prophecy of “an abomination of desolation”, from which his opinions are based.  It is Daniels’ prophecy, therefore, to which we should give our attention, if we are to understand the source and cause of these differing interpretations of our Lord’s words.
          And so, let us give our attention to what our Lord said about these matters that unfolded in the first century.  In Matthew 24:15f we read our Lord’s words, “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”  The Lord Jesus refers to prophecy that the Old Testament prophet, Daniel, had given over 500 years prior to the occasion that our Lord sat with His disciples and told them of the temple’s destruction. 
          As we pointed out last week, when we turn to the book of Daniel, we may find this expression, “the abomination of desolation” in three verses.  They are as follows:

Daniel 9:27.  “And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

Daniel 11:31.  “Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.”

Daniel 12:11.  “And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.”

          Of these three references, the first two listed, in Daniel 11 and 12, are prophecies that looked forward from Daniel’s time to the terrible events that were inflicted on the Jewish people by a conqueror in the second century BC, whose name was Antiochus Epiphanies.  He had led his army to capture Jerusalem and its temple.  In fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, Antiochus defiled the temple by intruding into the temple court and sacrificing a pig upon the altar.  That event, which took place in 168 BC, was the abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of in both Daniel 11 and 12.  I believe that Daniel’s prophecies of Antiochus Epiphanies that have all been fulfilled, are assumed to be unfulfilled prophecies of an end time antichrist.
          But apart from the two references in Daniel 11 and 12, the description of the abomination of desolation in Daniel 9 is in a different context entirely.  I would suggest that this is the passage that our Lord was referring to in Matthew 24:15f, when He said, “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” 

************

Excursus: Daniel’s prophecy of Seventy Weeks in Daniel 9

Introduction:   Daniel had been deported with other young Hebrew youths after Judah and Jerusalem had been defeated by the Babylonian Empire in 605 BC.  God’s judgment was upon the nation for it having broken its covenant with God.  Daniel arrived to Babylon as a teenager, but God blessed him there and he rose to become one of the leaders of the empire.  Years later, when Daniel was an old man, he had been reading a copy of Jeremiah’s prophecy when he learned of God’s intention and promise to restore His people to their land after seventy years in exile.  Let us consider the meaning of Daniel 9.

1.  Daniel learns of God’s promise to restore His people to their land (Dan. 9:1-2)

          1In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans-- 2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

Daniel knew these 70 years were coming to an end and he expected that God would soon restore His people to their land.[2]  And so,…

2.  Daniel confesses the sins of his people, Israel (Dan. 9:3-19)

          Daniel did not presume upon God’s mercy, but he began to pray that God’s will would come to pass for his people.

          3Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.  4And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.  6Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.  7O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day-- to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.”
          8“O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.  9To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.  10We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.  11Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.  12And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.”
          13“As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.  14Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.  15And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day-- we have sinned, we have done wickedly!”
          16“O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.  17Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.  18O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.  19O Lord, hear!  O Lord, forgive!  O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

3.  The angel Gabriel comes to Daniel with a detailed message of God’s timeline in bringing salvation to His people (Dan. 9:20-24)

          20Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.  22And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand.  23At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:

24Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.

          Gabriel told Daniel that although Israel would be returning from exile after 70 years, in reality God would restore His people fully to Himself by atoning for their sins not after 70 years, but the time frame would be 70 weeks of years, in other words, a total of 490 years.  Only then would their transgression be forgiven for them having broken their covenant with God.  Only then would their sins be fully forgiven and their relationship with God would be restored.  Only then would all of the promises of God respecting their salvation be realized; in other words, “To seal up vision and prophecy.”  Only then would the Messiah come and accomplish their redemption from sin, removing God’s curse from His people.  Did this occur?  Of course it did.  And the early Christian witness was that Jesus of Nazareth had fulfilled all that the holy prophets had foretold would come to pass.

4.  The angel Gabriel gives detailed explanation to Daniel about the prophecy of the seventy weeks of years (Dan. 9:25-26)

25“Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.

26“And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off,
But not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
27Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.” 

           The angel Gabriel makes reference to “the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem” (Dan. 9:25).  This is probably a reference to the formal decree of the Persian emperor Cyrus, who commanded that the captive Jews from the Babylonian exile be permitted to return to their homeland and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its temple.  According to the record of Josephus, after Cyrus the Persian had conquered the city of Babylon, he was shown the prophecy of Isaiah 44:24-28 and 45:1-7, which Isaiah had penned two centuries before hand.[3]  There Cyrus read a prophecy which included his own name.  Isaiah foretold that God would raise up a leader named Cyrus, give him victory over all of his enemies, and then Cyrus would enable the exiled Jews to return to their land and rebuild their temple.  Cyrus, upon reading this prophecy, did just that—He issued a decree that permitted the Jews to return to their homeland.  This decree is recorded for us in Ezra 1:2-4. 

           “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.  3Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel--he is the God who is in Jerusalem.  4And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

          Now, according to Daniel’s vision, this would signal the beginning of the time frame of “seventy weeks” of years, or 490 years before the Messiah would come to restore His people to enjoy an eternal relationship with their God.  From this initial decree “until Messiah the Prince”, 69 weeks of years, or 483 years, would transpire.
          Gabriel divides these initial 69 weeks into two divisions of 7 weeks and 62 weeks.  The seven weeks speak of an initial 49 year period in which the city of Jerusalem was re-inhabited and rebuilt, which takes us through the book of Nehemiah, who led the people in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem.  You can read of the difficulty and the “troublous times” that Nehemiah and the Jews endured even as they rebuilt the walls of the city.  And then after the city is reestablished in its fortifications, another 62 weeks, or 434 years, are specified “until Messiah the Prince.”  These 69 weeks of Daniel’s prophecy, therefore, take us from the “official” return of the Jews from the 70 year Babylonian captivity until the appearance of Jesus Christ the Messiah, when He began His earthly ministry of proclamation and reconciliation.
          Verse 26 declares that “after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.”  After 69 weeks would place this event in the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy.  The 69 weeks of years took history to the onset of Jesus’ ministry, and then when the seventieth week of Daniel began, the Messiah was performing His ministry in the regions of Galilee and later Judea.  The Messiah would be “cut off, but not for Himself.”  This is a clear reference to sacrificial and substitutional death of Jesus upon His cross in which He died to reconcile His people to God.
          What happens next?  The Prince determines to bring about the destruction of Jerusalem, the desolation of which would be total and lasting.

And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

It was our Lord Jesus who pronounced judgment upon Jerusalem and its temple.  We saw this in Matthew 23:37-39, in which our Lord declared, “Your house is left to you desolate.”  The city was destroyed within a generation of our Lord’s words.  As the risen and enthroned Lord of heaven and earth, He sent forth the Roman armies that brought to pass the desolation of Jerusalem and its temple that He Himself had pronounced.

         But what of Daniel 9:27, which reads:

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.” 

This speaks of the seventieth week of Daniel, which began with the onset of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus.  This last seven year period in Daniel’s time frame included our Lord’s entire 3½ year public ministry and, I would argue, approximately 3½ years afterwards.  Our Lord initially “confirmed” a covenant with many Jews.  Jesus had announced to His disciples who he sent out on a short term preaching mission to go only to Jews.

“These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Matt. 10:5-7)

Later He would tell a Gentile woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24).
          But in “the middle of the week”, that 70th week of Daniel, Jesus Christ was crucified, “having brought an end to sacrifice and offering.”  As Hebrews declares: “But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26).  But then the desolation of Jerusalem and its temple would take place.  Even the city and temple, that Daniel prophesied would be rebuilt “in troublous times”, would be destroyed once again.  

And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.”  (Dan. 9:27)

          But what of the second half of the seven year period?  If Jesus Christ was crucified half way through the seventieth week, what occurred in the latter 3½ years?  I would argue that for the first 3½ years of this church age that the primary emphasis of mission took place among Jews, because God was fulfilling His commitment and promise to them.  Peter would himself declare to gathered Jews, “God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness” (Acts 3:26).  The early church went to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile.  But approximately 3½ years after the crucifixion, the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul, and called him to become the apostle to the Gentiles.  It would be Paul’s later decision when the Jews refused to hear and respond to the gospel that he announced,

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.  Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.  For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”  48And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Act 13:46-48)

          Why was it “necessary” that Paul first offer salvation to the Jews?  Because the Lord Jesus had confirmed the covenant with the Jews for “one week”, which was from the onset of our Lord’s earthly ministry to His crucifixion and through the ministry of the early church.  That seventieth week had come to its fulfillment, and God now determined that this Gospel would be preached in all the world, and then the fall of Jerusalem would take place, which occurred in AD 70.

          Now I just described the historic reformed (i.e. Protestant) view of Daniel 9:24-27.  In summary, the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 is a prophecy of the first coming of Christ, His ministry and death, and then of a temporary ministry to the Jewish people with a message of salvation.  All 70 weeks of years (490 years) were fulfilled from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile (a. 460 BC) through the appearance of Christ at His baptism, His “anointing” for His ministry, His death for others, and then 3½ years of ministry to the Jews before the Gospel went chiefly to the Gentiles.  All 70 weeks of years were a continuous time period fulfilled in their entirety.

          Over against the historic reformed position in the interpretation of dispensationalism.  How do they interpret Daniel’s seventy weeks?  They understand the seventy weeks to be two separate time periods, the first being 69 weeks of years, from the time of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the crucifixion of Christ and the 70th week, the second time period is the “one week” of seven years after the end of this church age.  They believe that because the Jews rejected their Messiah, their promised King, the kingdom that Jesus “offered” the Jews was postponed.  With the end of the 69th week, they say that God’s prophetic time table paused or stopped, and these past 2000 years+ have transpired.  They say that God’s prophetic clock will not resume again until after a secret rapture occurs in which Jesus would take His church to meet him in the air, and then the final 70th week would transpire, which would be an end time 7 year tribulation period, culminating in the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth.
          How does this position, therefore, deal with the passage of Daniel 9:25-27?  First recognize that they are in agreement with the reformed understanding that verse 25 is a prophecy of the coming Christ.  The reformed and dispensational positions are in agreement here.

          25“Know therefore and understand,
          That from the going forth of the command
          To restore and build Jerusalem
          Until Messiah[4] the Prince,
          There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
          The street shall be built again, and the wall,
          Even in troublesome times.

          However, there is a slight difference in the details.  Whereas the reformed view sees the end of the 69 weeks as the onset of Jesus Christ’s ministry when He was baptized, that is, “anointed” with the Holy Spirit, the dispensational position believes that the conclusion of the 69th week occurred at the crucifixion of Christ.  The reformed position sees Daniel 9:26 as saying that the Messiah would be “cut off”, in other words, killed, sometime “after” the 69 weeks, half way through the 70th week (after 3½ years of His earthly ministry).
          But here lies the major difference.  The reformed position understands verse 26 to speak entirely of “Messiah the Prince” who was identified in Daniel 9:25.  Daniel first identifies “Messiah the Prince” in verse 25, then he again mentions the “Messiah” in verse 26, and then refers to him as “the Prince who is to come”, which is also in verse 26.  The reformed position also sees Daniel prophesying of the risen and enthroned Lord Jesus sending “His” armies, which are the Roman forces under the Roman general Titus, to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the temple, which transpired in AD 70.  Jerusalem would remain desolate, void of God’s presence from then even unto the end of the age.  Again, verse 26 reads as follows:

          “And after the sixty-two weeks
           Messiah shall be cut off,
           But not for Himself;
           And the people of the prince who is to come
           Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
           The end of it shall be with a flood,
           And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

          Interestingly, and I think devastating to the dispensational view, they view verse 26 to be a prophecy of both Christ and the antichrist.  Whereas they are right in viewing verse 25 to speak of “Messiah the Prince”, and in verse 26 the reference to “Messiah” is also understood rightly to be a prophecy of Jesus.  But amazingly, they interpret the reference to “the prince who is to come” in verse 26, as not a reference to Messiah the Prince, but it is the introduction of the antichrist.[5]  And so, they believe that between the clauses of verse 26, that end with the words “not for Himself” and the words “and the people of the prince”, one needs to insert 2,000 plus years of church history.  In my opinion, to make the second “prince” a different person than the first “Prince” is a terrible abuse of the context and it ignores standard rules of grammar.  The antichrist is nowhere spoken of in Daniel 9. 
          The entire context of Daniel’s 70 weeks is a prophecy of the coming Messiah the Prince who would remove the curse from His people through the sacrifice of Himself and then He would bring God’s judgment upon all those Jews who refused to acknowledge and submit to Him.  The elder Simeon would later pronounce a prophecy respecting the infant Jesus that he held in his arms, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34).  Daniel 9 foretold of this work of salvation and judgment. 
          Let us look at one more verse in Daniel 9 and see how these two differing interpretations deal with its meaning.  Daniel 9:27 reads,

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate. 

          The dispensational interpretation sees this as a prophecy of the antichrist at the end of the age.  The covenant he “confirms” is with the Jews at the beginning of the seven year tribulation period.[6]  The antichrist is the political leader of the western world, who gives permission to the Jews to rebuild their temple and to reinstitute their Old Testament sacrifices in Jerusalem.  But in the middle of the seven years, the antichrist reveals himself as the evil leader that he is.  He forbids the Jews from sacrificing any longer, bringing “an end to sacrifice and offering.”  He will then set up an idol of himself in the temple, which the dispensationalists see as “the abomination of desolation”, and he will then persecute the Jews for the remainder of the tribulation period until Jesus returns the second time at the end of the seventy years.
          In contrast to the dispensational interpretation the reformed view see verse 27 as continuing to speak of the first coming Christ.  Jesus came to confirm the covenant with many, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, fulfilling God’s promises of salvation to the Jews, as Romans 15:8 reads, “Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers.”  “In the middle of the week” Christ died on the cross, which brought an end to sacrifice and offering.  As Matthew 27:50 and 51 record, "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.  And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.  And the earth shook, and the rocks were split." And then Daniel foretells the Lord’s rejection of the Jewish leadership and of Jerusalem as an emblem of the Jewish hegemony (priority) in the purpose of God.  Its desolation, both physical and spiritual abandonment by God, would continue through this age.  Daniel 9:27b reads,

And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate. 

Jesus had pronounced His judgment upon Jerusalem just prior to His Olivet Discourse, when He said, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matt. 23:38).
                        Whereas the dispensational view sees “the abomination of desolation” a future end time antichrist who sets up an idol in a rebuilt Jewish temple, by which he demands all people everywhere to worship him as god, the reformed position has a different view.  In fact, there are several proposals about “the abomination of desolation.”  Some reason that the “abomination” that resulted in Jerusalem’s “desolation” was (1) the abominable act of the Jews in rejecting and crucifying their Messiah.

                  Now as He (Jesus) drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Other reformed interpreters see (2) the “abomination that makes desolate” are the actual Roman armies that bring desolation to the land and the city in AD 70.  Others still understand the abomination of desolation to be (3) the Roman ensigns and emblems of “eagles” on their banners when the conquerors brought them into the temple area at the end of the siege.

Conclusion:  Someone might argue, “What is the point of all this debate and speculation?  What difference does it make?

            1.  In my opinion, to deny the fact that God used Daniel to prophecy of the events surrounding the desolation of Jerusalem by the risen Lord Jesus is to fail to give God the glory for the great things He has done.  We are to recognize and acknowledge who our God is and what He has done for His people in history.  A dispensational view of Daniel 9 denies the glory due His name.  It blames the antichrist for unjust persecution upon Jews rather than glorifying Christ for administering His righteous judgment upon a sinful nation.

            2.  It leads believers to focus wrongly and needlessly on imagined false views of the future.  There is a tremendous waste of resources upon end time prophecy that lulls people in thinking that  they are going to escape God’s dealings in history, falsely assuming that they are going to be “raptured” out of this world prior to an end time tribulation period.

            3.  It fails to recognize a major manner in which the Lord Jesus was vindicated respecting His arrest, trial, and crucifixion.  The judgment of Judea and Jerusalem confirmed that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah, the Prophet who was foretold to come, the one who was raised and then enthroned over the Kingdom of God from which throne He now controls the events of history.  To deny the significance that Jesus foretold of these days of AD 70 is to deny His office as a prophet and it strips away one of the biblical means that proves Jesus is indeed risen and enthroned as Lord over all.

            4,  The classical dispensational view teaches that our Lord failed to inaugurate the kingdom of God, because He was rejected by the Jews.  It is taught that He will be “successful” when He returns a second time when He then will establish the kingdom that He failed to do when He first came.  To me this is near to blasphemy.

            5.  The dispensational view has led to political positions of evangelicals whereby they give unqualified endorsement to the secular, political state of Israel, even to encouraging Israel to exclude all non-Jews from borders that were at one time the legitimate possession of the Jews.  The right possession to Israel of the promised land was contingent upon their keeping the Mosaic covenant, which they broke.  The curse they endured and that still abides on them can only be removed through faith in their Messiah, Jesus Christ.[7]

            6.  Christ is currently Lord of lords and King of kings.  His kingdom was not postponed, but was inaugurated.  He declared. “All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth” (Matt. 28:18).  The Jews rejection of Jesus did not thwart Jesus Christ becoming King; their rejection of Him and crucifying Him was the very means and grounds upon which the Father raised Him from the dead and gave Him all kingly authority in heaven and on earth.  To the ones who rejected Him and to the ones who refuse to submit to His Lordship, God expresses His will and purpose in Psalm 2.

1Why do the nations rage,
 And the people plot a vain thing?
2The kings of the earth set themselves,
 And the rulers take counsel together,
 Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
 And cast away Their cords from us.”

4He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
 The Lord shall hold them in derision.
5Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
 And distress them in His deep displeasure:
6“Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”

7“I will declare the decree:
 The LORD has said to Me,
 ‘You are My Son,
 Today I have begotten You.
8Ask of Me, and I will give You
 The nations for Your inheritance,
 And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9You shall break them with a rod of iron;
 You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

10Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
 Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11Serve the LORD with fear,
 And rejoice with trembling.
12Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
 And you perish in the way,
 When His wrath is kindled but a little.
 Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. (Psalm 2:1-10)