There is justifiable prejudice against time calculations. Many seem to have overlooked or forgotten the Savior's word, "Of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only"; and that He said to His disciples: "It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority." (Acts 1:7.) This restriction, however, does not apply to all the prophecies. In some instances God Himself specified certain time-measures. For example, to Abraham He said, ". . . thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years . . . in the fourth generation they shall come hither again." (Gen. 15:13-16.) Clearly He meant for Abraham and his descendants to know this and count on it. So likewise Daniel "understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years." (Dan. 9:2.) Then, in answer to his supplication it was further revealed to him that "seventy sevens" had been decreed upon his people and on his holy city, from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the full attainment of the promises to Israel, given in [92] Daniel 9:24. Sixty-nine of these "sevens" (as shown in the preceding lesson) lead directly to "the anointed one, the prince"; and after those sixty-nine weeks (it is said) the Anointed One is to be "cut off, and shall have nothing."

      It has already been pointed out that on any reckoning, whether the beginning date were the edict of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1f.) or the commission to Ezra by King Artaxerxes (Ezra 7), or that to Nehemiah, by the same king, about 13 years later--and whatever sort of year is counted, whether our common solar year, or the "prophetic year" of 360 days--by any calculation this time-prophecy brings us somewhere near the time of Christ; so near that if Jesus were not the Christ, then the true Christ must have lived at about the time of Jesus of Nazareth. This fact all but demonstrates the divine inspiration of Daniel's prophecy, and the Messiahship of Jesus.

      We would like, however, to see this count of the 69 sevens (483 years) traced more accurately. Some very interesting attempts at this have been made. The one difficulty is our inability to determine exact dates. But, granting that the Artaxerxes of Nehemiah was the Persian king who is known to history as "Artaxerxes Longimanus," the twentieth year of his reign (Neh. 2) was 445 B. C. (This date is conceded on all hands.) If, further, we grant the date of Christ's death to have been A. D. 32 (the date accepted by many students of chronology)--then the way is clear to the acceptance of the calculation given by Sir Robert Anderson in his volume entitled "The Coming Prince." According to his presentation [93] of the facts:

      (1). The 1st day of the month Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes fell upon March 14, B. C. 445. (This date which marks the starting point for the reckoning of the seventy weeks, was calculated for the author by the Astronomer Royal of Greenwich Observatory.)

      (2). The 10th day of Nisan of the Passion Week (the date of Christ's triumphal entry) was April 6th, A. D. 32.

      (3). The intervening period between these two dates is 476 years and 24 days.

      (4). Add to this the additional days of the 119 leap-years, the result is 173,880 days.

      (5). Now 69 sevens of prophetic years¹ (483 years [94] of 360 days each) from the edict of Artaxerxes to Christ's "triumphal entry" (i. e., to Messiah the Prince, Dan. 9:25) is exactly 173,880 days.

      This is close calculation, perhaps as simple and satisfactory as any count that can be made. But it is not wholly free from objection. Some dispute that the Artaxerxes who gave the edict to build and restore Jerusalem (Neh. 2) was "Artaxerxes Longimanus;" and in that case the 20th year of Artaxerxes would not be 445 B. C. Also the date of Christ's birth and death have not been ascertained to absolute certainty. Some accept the date of B. C. 1; most authorities accept B. C. 4 as the correct year of Christ's birth. Also, we do not know for certain that Christ's ministry was just three and a half years--it probably was according to best inferences; but it is not certain. Therefore we cannot know absolutely whether A. D. 29 or 30 or 32 was the year of Christ's death. So, because of our inability to fix the exact dates, we must be content with approximate reckoning. However, Sir Robert Anderson's close and careful calculation would serve to show, even with our imperfect knowledge, how narrow the margin of error may be, and how very close to the death of Christ that 69th week takes us. And that is sufficient for our present purpose.

      The count of seventy weeks (as shown in the preceding lesson) stops at the 69th seven. The last, the 70th, week is not immediately mentioned. Only we are told that after the sixty-ninth week the "Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing;" [95] and that the people of a certain "prince that shall come" would destroy the city and the sanctuary. It is not said that either of these two events would take place in the 70th week. (The latter of course could not have, for forty years elapsed between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem.) When the 70th week at last is mentioned, it is in connection with that "prince that shall come." When the 70th week breaks that prince is come. It is he (and grammatically there is no other antecedent) that makes a firm covenant with many for one week--the last week of the 70, evidently. Who is this "prince"? Some think it was Titus, leader of the Roman legions that destroyed Jerusalem in A. D. 70. But it is not said that that prince should destroy the city but that "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" That plainly identifies "the prince who will come" as Roman, for it was the Roman people that destroyed the city. Moreover, Titus made no covenant with many, or with any, of the Jews. Again, not a few have taken the position that "the prince that shall come" is Christ. When or where did Christ ever make "a firm covenant with many for one week"? But it is this Roman prince of the last days, who will make a firm covenant with many in that final week, a covenant for seven years. The setting sees the Jews, (many at least) in their land, their city rebuilt (after its destruction after the 69th week) their temple also, and worshipping in their temple after the manner of their fathers, enjoying safety under that seven-year covenant. But a crisis occurs in the midst of the [96] week--clearly a breach of the covenant: that prince stops sacrifice and oblation. Simultaneously the "abomination of desolation" comes in. (See also Dan 11:31; 12:11.) Thenceforth, and to the final limit--the "end" determined (the end of the remaining half-week 3½ years)--"shall be poured out upon the desolate."

      But here we get a side-light from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In His great prophetic sermon (Matthew 24) He touches upon this prophecy of Daniel in the following words:

      "When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains: . . ." (Matt. 24:15, 16.)

      We find three references to an "abomination of desolation" in Daniel: here (9:27), and, more explicitly, in Dan. 11:31 and 12:11. An "abomination" is simply an idol. (See 1 Kings 11:5-7; also Exodus 8:26, the Egyptians' calf.) The wicked king Antiochus Epiphanes (as related in the apocryphal books of the Maccabees, 1 Macc. 1:54, 59, and 6:7) set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar of the temple in Jerusalem; and "they did sacrifice upon the idol-altar which was upon the altar of God." This happened more than a century before Christ. The thing our Lord pointed to was in the future, and is still future. Briefly He tells His disciples that when the "abomination of desolation" of which Daniel spoke, should be seen in the holy place, swift [97] and instant flight from the environs of Jerusalem and Judah only could save anyone; for that would be the signal of a tribulation the like of which the world has never seen, nor ever shall see again. But immediately after that tribulation the "sign of the Son of man" should be seen in heaven, and they would see Him coming in power and glory. (Matt. 24:15-31.)

      The "abomination of desolation" then is the tocsin of the Great Tribulation. To return now to the 70th week--in the middle of that last week, the "prince that shall come" will stop the temple-service, and then, "upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate." As we read later, in Dan. 12:11 "the continual burnt-offering shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate shall be set up." Upon the heels of this, according to Christ's prophecy, follows the great tribulation.

      This tallies perfectly with what is told us elsewhere. The last half of that seventieth week is that "time, times, and half a time" during which the fourth beast (or its "little horn") shall rage, persecuting Daniel's people, the "saints of the Most High," in Dan. 7:25. And, again, this is the same period as the "42 months" of the beasts' unchecked authority in Rev. 13:5. So likewise, the time of trouble "such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time," "shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." Out of this terrible, unparalleled trouble the faithful remnant of Israel [98] shall be delivered. (Dan. 12:1; Jer. 30:7.) Then, by the judgment of God, shall the "beast" be destroyed and the sovereignty over all the earth shall be given "to the people of the saints of the Most High;" "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Dan. 7:21, 22, 27.)

      This is the grand terminus of the seventy weeks. Not by a process of general growth and progress, but by a catastrophic event at the close of the seventieth week shall the six-fold consummation of Israel's hope (Dan. 9:24) be reached, and the great promises upon Daniel's people and their holy city be fulfilled. This glorious goal was envisioned by Moses and the prophets. They foresaw the day when Israel, redeemed by their Messiah, a regenerated, cleansed, holy and righteous nation, shall have entered into the inheritance of all her wondrous promises, and shall be settled forever in the peace of her holy city (then purified and glorified, Isa. 4), and His sanctuary shall be in the midst of her for evermore. (Ezek. 37:26, 27.)

The course of the Seventy Sevens may be presented to the eye in this simple diagram.

[LOD2 92-101]