Daniel's 70 Weeks: Final

Daniel's 70 weeks is actually ten Jubilees. A Jubilee cycle is 49 years, followed by the Jubilee YEAR, which is the 50th year. But that 50th year is also the first year of the next Jubilee cycle, even as it is the first year of the next "week" (sabbath land-rest cycle).

Thus, ten Jubilees is not 500 years, but 490, with the Jubilee year being the 491st year. While the feast-day years (or religious years) began in the spring when the months began to be counted, the sabbath-years (or civil years) began in the seventh month (September) at the end of the harvest seasons.

And so, Daniel's 70 weeks must be viewed in terms of ten Jubilees. When Jesus died, it was in a time of Jubilee, because His death paid the penalty ("debt") for the sin of the world and set us free. Thus, Jesus is our Jubilee, and He did this on a 490-year cycle.

But this is not the end of the story, because the throne of the Kingdom was usurped by the religious leaders (Matt. 21:38), and the King was falsely accused and crucified. Young's Literal Translation of Daniel 9:26 brings out this concept:

"And after the sixty and two weeks, cut off is the Messiah, and the city and the holy place are not his. . ."

In other words, the ones who cut off the Messiah usurped the city and the holy place. For this reason . . .

". . . the Leader who hath come doth destroy the people; and its end is with a flood, and till the end is war; determined [decided in the divine court] are desolations."

In other words, the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the holy place (the temple) is directly linked to the fact that the Messiah was cut off. The sanhedrin falsely accused Him of a death penalty crime, and so the divine court passed similar sentence upon them, destroying the city, the temple, and the nation itself. Deut. 19:16, 19 says,

" ¹⁶ If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing. . . ¹⁹ then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother."

In the past, the Church was often vindictive in their attitude toward the Jews, calling them "Christ-killers" and other names, instead of forgiving and giving the case to God for judgment. When they did not respond to such name-calling with repentance, then the Church persecuted them. This was not right, and such treatment only created fear and paranoia, breeding more hatred, which has now borne fruit in their similar treatment of the Palestinians. Fear warps the mind of otherwise good people and makes them justify much sin.

However, once we recognize from Scripture that God has blinded their eyes (as a whole), we will have an easier time treating them with love and understanding. This does not mean we should justify them in their unbelief, or excuse their sin of falsely accusing Jesus and murdering Him, but yet we should recognize that all of this was part of the divine plan from the beginning, and that God has turned the greatest sin into an occasion for the greatest good--the salvation of all men.

We ought to continue to work for their repentance, not merely to add Jesus to their Judaism without admitting guilt from the past. If a person is given grace without acknowledging past sin, he is likely to commit the same sin again in the future, because he does not really understand that what he did was wrong.

But such repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit. One cannot force a man to repent by torture, as the Church did during the Spanish Inquisition. And, in fact, this is a prime reason why Daniel's 70 weeks has two beginning points and two ending points. The first cycle ended with the payment of the debt for the sin of the world. The second ended with the commissioning of the apostle Paul, who is a type of post-pentecostal, Spirit-filled overcomer.

Paul's conversion came 490 years after Nehemiah was sent to build the wall of Jerusalem. Nehemiah means "the Comforter of Yah." He is a type of Holy Spirit, building the walls of the New Jerusalem. After 490 years, Paul is filled with the Spirit, and he is called to go "far hence unto the gentiles (ethnos: 'nations')" to bring the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth.

Paul's commissioning toward the end of 46 A.D. is directly linked to the end of 2006 by the 40-Jubilee time cycle. Will we see something occur at the Feast of Tabernacles this year among the overcomers that will fulfill their type displayed by Paul? Will we begin to see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit late this year that will fulfill the type displayed by Nehemiah? Only God knows.

The year 2006 is actually the end of 50 Jubilees from Nehemiah in 445 B.C. This time period has precedent, for it was 50 Jubilees from Adam to the day Israel was supposed to enter their inheritance--the Promised Land. (See Secrets of Time.)

In other words, when Adam sinned, he lost his inheritance, because he was sold into bondage to the earth to pay the debt. God waited about 40 Jubilees to call Abraham and then another ten Jubilees to bring Israel back to the land of their inheritance. But the 12 spies gave an evil report, and so Israel was unable to enter at that time.

This was, of course, all part of the overall divine plan, in order to show us that we cannot receive the true inheritance through the Old Covenant. It is to be fulfilled in us who are of the New Covenant. And so now in 2006 we stand once again at the end of a 50-Jubilee cycle. This next year (2006-2007) is, in this sense, a Great Jubilee year.

What does this mean? Only God knows. But I do believe that we are on the brink of major world events. That is why I want you to be aware of this. I want you to know that Daniel's 70 weeks were only the first ten Jubilees of a 50-Jubilee cycle. Those were the pattern-setters, especially its two endpoints (33 and 46 A.D.).

The next 40 Jubilees are commonly called "The Church Age," but it is more accurately called "The Pentecostal Age." The Church actually began under Moses (Acts 7:38), for it was the congregation of Israel in the wilderness. I call it the Pentecostal Age, because the Passover Age preceded it, and the Tabernacles Age succeeds it.

The Pentecostal Age ended on May 30, 1993 (Pentecost that year). We saw the signs on that day, because, knowing the times and seasons, we were able to be watchful. But now we have come to the second great endpoint in 2006, which (I presume) falls on the Feast of Tabernacles (Oct. 7-14).

I do not mean to imply that Jesus Christ is coming at that time. Frankly, I believe that it is more likely that the Holy Spirit will come at that time, because that is the meaning of the name, Nehemiah. He and Paul are the pattern-setters. The overcomers today are the third witness.

Those of you who are new to these web logs should go back and read the past articles, particularly "Intercession for America" from 6-9-06 to 6-17-06. You may also want to participate retroactively in the online prayer campaign (6-15-06) called God is Able. I think that the Feast of Tabernacles this year will begin to see the answer to this prayer campaign.

The ultimate purpose of these web logs is to give you the foundations of understanding so that you may participate in the New Gideon's Army without being disqualified. If you recall the story in Judges 7, the people were disqualified by fear (7:3) and by not discerning the water of the word (7:5). Fear is overcome by faith, which comes by hearing the Word. Lack of discernment is overcome by understanding the Word of Truth.

Jesus said we are to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Both are important. Some groups specialize in one or the other. To do the job effectively, we need both.