JESUS CHRIST DOES THE WORK OF ANTICHRIST?

A perfectly timed heresy . . . says who?

 

 

By

Doug Krieger

 

Once again, the ugly head of attributing the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ has risen its “wounded head” upon our brethren.  Eschatological nuances of this nature confirm in the minds of prophetic predators like Rick Warren, and other long-distance learners, that we who dabble in this realm of the peculiar should either stay there on the socio-theological periphery or die trying to prove our subtlety.

 

Those who realize such rarified distinction within evangelicalism are not as naïve as we may appear, nor do we consider such distractions as peripheral as our critics charge—for the devil is in the details; and that’s what you’re about to witness.  Food fights over the Book of Daniel, and especially his numerology, and particularly his 70th Week, are ceaseless . . . but times running out on the prophetic clock—the language of pleasantries can no longer be tolerated in this postmodern age of relativism and alleged Christian courtesy . . . just when you thought that unity in the cause of the gospel should take precedence over doctrinal nitpicking of these less visible shadows amongst the holy. 

 

The implications and action corollaries embedded in these nuances are horrific in so far as the Church’s witness to the world concerns—and their ramifications to His One Body are on the line if we discard these prophetic distinctions as transitory sightings on theological radars that involve little or no traffic in the first place.  Not so.  A little unknown carpenter rocked the world and continues to shake the nations—that’s precisely why the discovery of the entire Seventieth Week of Daniel in the Revelation and the ubiquitous desecration of the sanctuary in Daniel will rock the Church in the latter days more so than “the just shall live by faith” rocked the Reformation in its day.

 

Theologically speaking – as Christology was contested in the early Church; as Soteriology defined the Reformation; as Ecclesiology and World Evangelism wrought great changes within the Church in the 1700 and 1800’s – even so, Eschatology has entered the arena as the final event under the unction of the Holy Spirit to take center stage for the battle of the soul of the Church.  Even so, those who claim the current age is the Messianic Age in toto (Amillennialism) or those who dispense with any future Millennium (Post-Millennialism or Preterism) or those Premillenarians who assert that Daniel’s Seventieth Week fully or partially ended will find themselves attributing the work of Jesus Christ to Antichrist; and will, in point of theological fact, discover they have embraced a most wretched heresy! 

 

So let us examine these recent demarcations—these novel and disturbing doctrines which are contrived to support sundry agendas in this final end-time’s battle.  To some who find such hair-splitting beclouded in the elevated shrine of “who cares” or “so what” or “there he goes again” – don’t worry, better to observe these ionospheric platitudes than to have them descend from the mountain upon your unsuspecting and disinterested valley – for then it may be too late to adjust your indifference to what really is very essential for survival, given the impending viscosity of the volcanic mud about to descend upon your village. 

 

And, remember, what Noah Hutchings once said is altogether potently true today:

 

“The reason the 9th chapter of Daniel is the proof test of Bible prophecy is that it tells the exact date when the restoration of Jerusalem would begin after the Babylonian captivity and how long it would take. It informs us of the crucifixion of Jesus, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the 7 years preceding His coming again. All these things were written over 500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. It still stands as the cornerstone of Bible prophecy, proof that God knows all things from beginning to end.” (Lambert Dolphin Library)

 

I would add that Noah’s insightful observation regarding Daniel 9 is matched by its New Testament counterpart and it isn’t Matthew 24 or Luke 21 (i.e., the Olivet Discourse), but Revelation 11.  If Daniel 9 is the proof test, then Revelation 11 is the final exam.

 

DELVING INTO THE CONTESTED WEEK OF DANIEL 9

 

The major difference, for example, of certain brethren who espouse deviant doctrines of partial or the full depletion of Daniel’s Seventieth Week (separating the first 69 weeks from the final 70th week) from those evangelicals who adhere to the total futurity of Daniel’s 70th Week, is centered around the isolation of Daniel 9:27 from other portions of Daniel’s text and hence, the obfuscation of the person and work of the DESOLATOR.  These diluted brethren claim that this prophetic week is either 1/2 completed or completed in its totality, somewhere between the commencement of Jesus’ ministry at His baptism by the John the Baptist up through to the end of the “Great Tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).  I vehemently disagree with them in that their appropriation of the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ is a horrific error and, I affirm, when so radically embraced, as some of them have done, must be viewed as naught but a “doctrine of demons” (I Tim. 4:1 NKJV) – for they have purposefully and/or unwittingly ascribed the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ.

Let me explain - they take the antecedent of “he” in Daniel 9:27 to mean Jesus (Messiah of Dan. 9:26), not Antichrist (i.e., “the coming prince” of Daniel 9:26).  How they do this is to convolute the Scripture here and say that the phrase “to anoint the Most Holy” in Dan. 9:24 refers to the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist which commenced Jesus' 3.5 years of ministry and that at that time Jesus made a covenant with the Jews/Israel for 7 years, giving them opportunity to recognize His Messiahship (i.e., “offering them the kingdom”), but then He was crucified (in the middle of the “7”).  Here, they take the phrases in Dan. 9:27 – “But in the middle of the week HE shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering” to mean Jesus again and that the antecedent here as well (i.e., “HE shall bring an end to sacrifice”) refers to the “once and for all sacrifice” of the Lamb of God (there remains, therefore, no more need for sacrifice).

 

They do NOT recognize their “he” in Daniel 9:27 (“Then ‘he’ shall confirm a covenant with many for one week”) as Sir Robert Anderson’s THE COMING PRINCE (in reference to Daniel 9:26 – “And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary”), but instead commit the “abominable act” of transposing the work of Antichrist to the Christ, the Messiah.  The Messiah has been CUT OFF (crucified) in Daniel 9:26 – yet, “the prince who is to come” shall commit such dastardly deeds, including the ultimate and deceitful imposition of the treaty with Israel’s majority for ONE WEEK but in the middle of the week HE—the future prince who is to come, the Antichrist—shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.   And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate (indeed – Antichrist is now incarnated by Satan himself and not only is the Temple in Jerusalem where the sacrifices have commenced so terminated, but Satan sits “as God in the Temple of God declaring that he is God!”) – Thus begins the REIGN OF THE BEAST and the WRATH OF THE DRAGON (Revelation 12:12).

They miserably fail to acknowledge that in Daniel 9:26 “Messiah shall be cut off” takes place prior to the one-week treaty - here they say that it is true Messiah would be “cut off” (crucified), however, although His “cutting off” or His crucifixion does occur in Daniel 9:26, they then suggest that Daniel 9:27 simply reiterates in detail what led up to that cutting off and subsequently the breaking of the covenant with the many made by Jesus (so they say) takes place in the midst of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.  Yes, this “he” brought an end to sacrifice and offering by offering up Himself as the Lamb of God—thereby terminating the need for animal sacrifices.

This is a vast convolution of the intent of Scripture.

 

DANIEL 9:27 WAS NOT WRITTEN IN ISOLATION

 

First of all, the TERMINATION OF THE SACRIFICE must be read in the context of previous and additional portions of Daniel – to wit:

 

“And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land.  And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them (Note:  This is not simply an allusion or discussion of Antiochus IV Epiphanes - it has “cosmic extrapolations” and is speaking of Satan himself.).  He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and BY HIM THE DAILY SACRIFICES WERE TAKEN AWAY, AND THE PLACE OF HIS SANCTUARY WAS CAST DOWN (or “the place of the Temple was cast down”).  Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the DAILY SACRIFICES; and he cast truth down to the ground.  He did all this and prospered.  Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, ‘How long will the vision be, concerning THE DAILY SACRIFICES and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?’ (i.e., how long between the commencement of the sacrifices and the extent of the desolations)  And he said to me, ‘For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.’ (Daniel 8:9-14). (Note:  I have presented these calculations in detail in our article:  ISRAEL’S TEMPLE SACRIFICE AND THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION.

Without this PRIMARY UNDERSTANDING found in Daniel 8 and its clear and distinct subject as Antichrist, empowered by Satan as the TERMINATOR OF THE SACRIFICES - one simply cannot fathom what is going on in Daniel 9:26-27; likewise, the “prophetic trajectory” has, by Higher Criticism truncated these verses to the Maccabean period only (at best); and, those who have transferred the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ have established the terminus ad quem to be either 3.5 years from Christ’s crucifixion; 3.5 years prior to 70 AD; or a remaining 3.5 years at the close of this age.

Furthermore, one must grasp the prophetic impact of Daniel 11:21-23 and what we call the “adumbrative prophetic language” used here referring or refers not only to Antiochus IV but to that future Antichrist who shall arrive “peacefully” and orchestrate Israel's political and religious peace - AND as Antiochus IV eliminated the legitimate High Priest of Israel at the time of the Maccabeans and made this “office” a political pawn in his hand--he forthwith assumed the title of THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT (Daniel 11:22) - yet, let's read it for what it says and then you will secure this two-fold understanding of both the immediate and the yet future implications of Antichrist:

“And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue.  With the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant (Note:  Not only is this ‘flood’ - the same ‘flood’ - spoken of elsewhere in Scripture – Isaiah 28:15, 18) in reference to the escape of the Woman into the wilderness (Rev. 12:15-16) - but ‘swept away’ is the high priestly office known as the PRINCE OF THE COVENANT – and, so will be fulfilled Isaiah’s pronouncement:  ‘When the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves’  (Isa. 28:15) - so that this title is now subsumed by Antiochus IV and the yet future Antichrist, and within its context, both the politicization and the religious overtones MUST be recognized for what their prescient meanings convey—to wit:  Antichrist becomes the PRINCE (political) of the COVENANT (religious) - here politics and religion truly meet in their awful Babylonian vision foreseen, as well, among the Gentiles in Rev. 17-18-19.).
 

But these passages go on in Dan. 11 ...

 

“And after the league is made with him (Note:  This is a clear reference to “he shall make a covenant with the many for one week but in the midst of the week . . .”) he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people.  He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province; and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers:  he shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches; and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time . . .” (Daniel 11:20-45).  Antichrist - and his personage as the KING OF TYRE (of overt materialism taking the place of God Himself again—Ezekiel 26, 27, 28) - will BUY FAVOR and INFLUENCE with “the many” - MONEY TALKS!

 

Furthermore, and perhaps the most convincing contextual integration and credibility given these passages is that of Jesus Himself, Who speaks of “the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14)—and that reference clearly alludes to Daniel 11:31:

 

“. . . and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation” (Daniel 11:31).

 

Now I say this to implore their reticence to adjust their wrong thinking of Daniel 9:27 in isolation—for in so doing they circumvent the prophetic words of Jesus . . . for as the Higher Critics of the Bible attempted to encapsulate Daniel’s record in part and even in whole to be domiciled and fulfilled within the Maccabean period (cir. 165 BC)—having nothing to do with the future and certainly not, as Daniel claims:  “And in the latter time of their kingdom (the “Kingdoms of the Gentiles”) . . . Therefore seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future” (Daniel 8:23, 27)—even so, today’s subterfuge attempts to limit the Abomination of Desolation to Titus and his legions who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

 

For if indeed the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Jesus refers to the exclusive purview of 70 AD and the happenings surrounding that fateful bloodbath of nigh a million Jews, then what extrapolation of deceit do we witness amongst the Preterists who conjecture that the Son of Man came into His Kingdom at that time and that Daniel’s Abomination of Desolation occurred on that earlier date?  There is altogether ample suspicion that 70 AD is not the terminus ad quem of Jesus’ remarks, for the absolute visibility of His appearing did not occur nor can we say that such a GAP was forecasted by Jesus from the time of Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AD until the appearance of the Son of Man in glory at the close of this age—any clear-thinking person, reading these Scriptures below, knows full well that in time and in history, these cosmic events have not as yet occurred:

 

“For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be . . . immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and THEY WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:27, 29-31).

 

It is a grotesque distortion of both grammar and the spiritual intent of Scripture to claim that these aforementioned events in Matthew 24 have transpired in time (using hyperbolic metaphor as justification for these “heavenly realities”)—and to claim their “heavenly character” alone when their earthly application is so overtly presented—it twists the literal grammatical signatures to such extreme that all sense of meaning of the original language of the Greek is thrown to the wind.  All the tribes of the earth did not mourn in 70 AD, nor did they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory—to assert in the affirmative is a bald-faced lie!

 

The FULLNESS of the Abomination of Desolation was NOT fulfilled in the times of the Maccabeans, nor was it fulfilled in 70 AD – neither by Zeus nor by Jupiter – neither by Antiochus IV Epiphanes nor by Titus of Rome—these were but supreme archetypes, at best, of the final manifestation of the Man of Sin.

 

It behooves me to interject at this time that the original Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, Feast of Dedication or Rededication, was originally instituted by the Maccabeans and this singular feast celebrates—and make no doubt about it—not only the reconsecration of the Temple and its cleansing, but TRIUMPH OVER ANTIOCHUS IV EPIPHANES—the man whose name means GOD IS MANIFEST!  There is one feast day that both Jews and Christians should mutually celebrate—the defeat of Antichrist—past, present and future!  HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Now if you continue to follow these passages which “flow in and out” between Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Antichrist yet future, you will pick up on the “essence” of what is going on here - for this one will yet “sit as God in the Temple of God, declaring that he is God” (II Thess 2:4) -

“Then the king shall do according to his own will:  he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished (i.e., the 1,290th day—the end of abominations—Dan. 12:11); for what has been determined shall be done.   He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women (Why? Because He claims to be God and this “he” has no time for anyone but himself - he needs no counterpart nor does he desire women because he holds no relationship other than himself.), nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all (AND THIS TELLS IT ALL—above all gods, God, and women—he will not procreate for he is the DESTROYER) - and it is here he is known as the KING OF TYRE:  “But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know; he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.  Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for profit (gain)” (Daniel 11:36-39).

 

It is abundantly clear that all these passages interconnect - furthermore, this same unholy intruder who breaks the covenant in the midst of the 70th Week of Daniel—the same one with intrigue, who enters in peaceably and, undoubtedly, with ample resources (money), must be the same one of whom it is said in Daniel 12:11-12:

“And from the time that the DAILY SACRIFICE IS TAKEN AWAY, and the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION IS SET UP, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.  Blessed is he who waits and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty five days.”

 

(Note:  This 1,335th day is the final cleansing of the Temple by the Messiah Himself who “all Israel” shall acclaim at that time:  Hosanna, Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord - and then shall be fulfilled what Jesus pronounced to the Jews at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah - Festival of Lights) in John 10:22-39 - they shall acknowledge the Son of David, as Peter did (Matthew 16:16), that He claimed to be what He said He was and is:  I AM THE SON OF GOD - this declaration of Jesus’ deity will once and for all cleanse His temple of all aspects of the DESOLATOR and BLASPHEMER!  BLESSED IS HE THAT COMES TO THE 1,335th DAY! (Daniel 12:12))

Therefore, as you can well imagine, a number of these brethren not only confuse the antecedents within Daniel 9:26-27 but in so doing they have committed a major prophetic heresy and have stumbled into the camp of the DESOLATOR himself.

I might at this juncture hasten to add that they boldly, along with their pre-tribulational antagonists (both opposed, the one to the other—for the pre-trib. folks affirm the same distortion that these alleged post-trib brethren embrace) - that both with ignorant insistence claim there is NO FULL 70TH WEEK OF DANIEL FOUND ANYWHERE IN THE REVELATION—i.e., they are ignorant of their fool hearty deception to assume as much - and, once again, the one who tempted Jesus on the wing of the temple to blaspheme the Almighty in His limitation (i.e., humanity) by bowing down to Lucifer, the Devil, even Satan, with the promise in so doing “all the kingdoms of the world . . . all will be Yours” (Luke 4:5-8) . . . for such worship (the absurdity of which belies the self-absorption of this impostor), now has these prophetically myopic souls bowing down in the same spirit of Antichrist by the transference of the work of the Abomination of Desolation to the Person and Work of Messiah.

Yet, in the immediate past I have confirmed this vacuous understanding of the absence of Daniel’s 70th Week is not limited to the interruptus of these early fulfillments; unfortunately, a graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary who, in his bland ignorance, sided with these HALF-TIMERS by so blithely declaring:  THERE IS NO FULL 70TH WEEK MENTIONED IN THE ENTIRE BOOK OF REVELATION—only the latter half of the Week; however, by “implication” the 70th Week is there!  The circumstantial evidentiary claim that no actual full-70th Week is found in the Revelation is an immense eschatological blunder on the part of this well-meaning pre-trib brother from Dallas Seminary.

And, indeed the misguided pre-tribulational rapture folks - just as their antagonists amongst those who attribute the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ - wholly discard the truth of the entire 70th Week of Daniel as seen in the Revelation both in “essence" as well as in abject fact:

 

THE FULL 70th WEEK IN THE REVELATION

 

“In the orthodox (pre-millennial) writers, there is clear agreement. Irenaeus and Hippolytus taught that the 70th week would be the last seven years of this age in which the two witnesses would prophesy for the first 42 months, the "abomination of desolation" being in the middle, and the Beast would persecute the Church for the last 42 months, then Christ would return (a clear "seven year" tribulation with a post-trib rapture). Other early writers, including Barnabas, Justin, Hermas, Cyprian, Lactantius, and Victorinus, did not refer to Daniel 9:27, and so no specific mention is made of the tribulation being "seven years." But it is clear that they were expecting a future tribulation at the end of the age, and a literal Antichrist who would persecute the Church. These writers saw the Antichrist's reign as 3.5 years. And the ministry of the two witnesses as also 3.5 years. This implies a seven year tribulation. (Tim Warner - “Dallas Doctors’ Departure Distortions” - The Last Trumpet – 2001)

 

So, where in the Revelation is the entirety of Daniel’s Seventieth Week so mentioned?

 

“‘Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there’ (And here let me disabuse anyone who does not affirm that the measuring of God’s people “who worship there” is clearly involved here—because He has taken full ownership of them.) . . . ‘But leave out the court which is outside the temple (Note:  This is the COURT OF THE GENTILES, the uncircumcised who fail to take that final commitment to sacrifice at the altar, to worship at the altar—by the cutting off of the flesh.), for it has been given to the Gentiles’ (Indeed - these COMPROMISERS are there but they will come back to persecute those at the altar) – ‘and THEY (these same Gentiles) will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months’ (Note:  This is that same HOLY CITY, not simply of Jerusalem on the earth, but that heavenly city of those who are referred to in Rev. 13:6 ‘who tabernacle in heaven’ - i.e., though they be on earth, their “home” or “tabernacle” is in heaven - and against these the Beast commences his blasphemy: ‘against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who tabernacle in heaven."' (Portions from Rev. 11:1-2)

 

But when does he so blaspheme those who tabernacle?  Let’s read on in Revelation 11, and we shall discover the commencement of his blasphemy (which again, is to declare his own deity) . . .

At issue is the obvious - when does the treading of the Holy City, the blasphemy against those who tabernacle in the heavens, commence?  Its duration is 42 months wherein in Revelation 11:7 these same Gentiles are aligned with the Beast “that ascends out of the bottomless pit.”  Indeed, this Beast “will make war against them” - i.e., the Two Witnesses – “overcome them, and kill them.  And their dead body (for in the original Greek it is CORPSE, singular—for He has made of the two, One New Man, so making peace—Ephesians 2:15) will lie in the street of the GREAT CITY which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified . . . then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead body three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead body to be put into the grave . . . now after three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them” (Revelation 11:7-9, 11).

So, what is this period of time known as “three-and-a-half-days?” - I affirm that this is the 3 1/2 days of the final week of Daniel’s prophecy - it is the SAME 42 months wherein the Holy City shall be trampled underfoot in Rev. 11:2.

Now, however, PRIOR to this trampling underfoot for 42 months or 3 1/2 days - there is the triumphant TESTIMONY OF JESUS (Rev. 1:2, 9; 12:17; 19:10) which is committed to the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:7).  Now, the ENTRY of the Beast upon the world scene—is at the final half of the 70th Week of Daniel—both pre-trib, and these post-trib brethren, so concur at this point; however, what neither of them see is the full FIRST HALF OF THE 70TH WEEK OF DANIEL as depicted in the prevailing testimony of the Two Witnesses for 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3):

“And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth - these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth” (Note:  In the next verses, Rev. 11:5-6, we observe their witness and prophecy is so prevailing that NOTHING can harm them—ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!) –

May I query:  Are these Two Witnesses wholly oblivious as bad Samaritans (violating the so-called “Good Samaritan Law” - i.e., seeing someone in danger or bleeding along the side of the rode and YOU DO NOTHING TO HELP THEM)? - That is precisely what these pre-trib and post-trib brethren propose! 

Here you have this utterly prevailing witness of the Two Witnesses - allegedly taking place during the very Reign of the Beast and the Trampling down of the Holy City (concentrated, no doubt in Jerusalem proper in their finite minds) during this 42 months of WAR (as also seen in Rev. 12:6 as 1,260 days; Rev. 12:14 as time, times and half a time - also in Dan. 7:25; 12:7) - for these brethren, with blinders upon their spiritual eyes, superimpose these same 1,260 days to be the same 42 months of Rev. 11:2 and the same 1,260 days of Rev. 12:6; and the same time, times and half a time as Rev. 12:14; Dan 7:25; Dan 12:7)—in sum:  the first half of Daniel’s 70th Week is the last half of Daniel’s 70th Week in their convoluted thinking.

PREPOSTEROUS!

To think that these Two Witnesses would sit idly by while their brethren are enduring unmitigated suffering - WHILE THESE TWO GET OFF SCOT FREE - is absolutely and utterly absurd and, furthermore, grossly distorts their credibility.  Moreover, to think that the Beast makes WAR against two individuals who’ve been breaking this Good Samaritan law during the latter half of Daniel’s 70th Week is the height of prophetic folly, to say the least!  This word WAR in the Greek constitutes a major world-wide conflagration—hardly seen on U-tube by the heathen who shall view their dead body in the street of the GREAT CITY (Babylon the Great) for 3.5 years of open persecution?

IT IS AFTER - IN FULL SEQUENCE - that the Beast who ascends out of the Bottomless Pit - and this is not simply saying that this is the Beast who comes out of the Abyss at the mid-point of the 70th Week and TOLERATES these Two witnesses somehow throughout the entire 1,260 days/42 months/time, times and half a time or the final 3.5 days of the 70th Week of Daniel and that somehow after these Two Witnesses have testified for their 1,260 days (having allegedly witnessed the suffering of the “tribulation saints” and apparently doing nothing to alleviate their suffering) - that AFTER the 70th Week—for it would have so concluded - then this BEAST who originally (as they say) ascended out of the bottomless pit, will now make war against them, overcome them, and kill them at the conclusion of the 70th Week and then allow their body not to be buried for 3.5 days into the 1,260 to 1,290 days of the Wrath of the Lamb or, in their convoluted thinking, kill them on the 1,256.5th day so that their final resurrection would occur on the 1,260th day!  NONSENSE and utter folly upon these loosey-goosey mathematicians, so-called!  These “give and take” eschatologists will stoop to any miscellaneous configuration to fit their absurd schemes!  Math is NOT an absolute science in their craniums – and most assuredly, neither is “biblical math.”

No - these Two Witnesses have fully testified for the full 1,260 days.  This testimony is the first half of the 70th Week of Daniel - THEN THEY ARE OPENLY PERSECUTED FOR 42 MONTHS - which is the latter half of Daniel’s 70th Week - their initial 1,260 days of testimony is finished –

 

“WHEN THEY FINISH THEIR TESTIMONY (1,260 days of it, I hasten to add) THE BEAST THAT ASCENDS OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT WILL MAKE WAR AGAINST THEM, OVERCOME THEM, AND KILL THEM” (Rev. 11:7). 

 

Oh, that God’s people would embrace the CROSS OF CHRIST, put on the helmet of salvation, take the sword of the Spirit and endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ – for if we cannot bear his cross, we cannot bear His crown.  That He would embolden our minds and hearts to “love not our lives unto the death!”  This IS the TESTIMONY OF JESUS!

 

CORRIE TEN BOOM – PREPARE FOR TRIBULATION

 

Radiant testimony shall give way to the embrace of the cross—that the life and death of Jesus Christ be lived out in the “tribulation saints.”  Now, listen to sister Corrie, whose prophetic witness under fire brings forth the challenge to the Church in these latter days:

 

“Betsy (Corrie’s sister) and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.

 “‘Yes, the Lord will heal me,’ Betsy said with confidence.

 

“She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.

 

“It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that.  Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

 

“There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days.  Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.

 

“In China, the Christians were told, ‘Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.’ Then came a terrible persecution.  Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,

 

“'We have failed.

 

“‘We should have made the people strong for persecution, rather than telling them Jesus would come first.  Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes, – to stand and not faint.’

 

“I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it.

 

“We are next.” (Corrie’s complete letter is found, along with Ruth Graham’s validation, at http://endtimepilgrim.org/corrie.htm.)

 

The DESOLATOR, the BEAST puts an end to sacrifices - and that awful 1,290 days of ABOMINATIONS CONCLUDES with the final 30 days thereof to be considered THE WRATH OF GOD - THE WRATH OF THE LAMB.

Yes, they, the Two Witnesses, are RESURRECTED at the commencement of the SOUNDING (the 30-day sounding) of the Last Trump wherein the Dead in Christ are raised; for the Two Witnesses are that SINGULAR RESURRECTION OF THE JUST:  “Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.  And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’  And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them” (Rev. 11:11-12).

No, there is no secret rapture, no multiple resurrections - and this, I am sure, is where my post-trib brethren are in accord - but, likewise, these Two Witnesses have fully testified for the first 3.5 years without harm and most assuredly are NOT disengaged with the saints of the Most High who shall endure, as the Holy City, the 42 months of being trampled asunder - for these Two Witnesses are in point of fact the HOLY CITY THEMSELVES, now prepared, under fire, to persist in leading many to righteousness, even in perilous times. 

 

They are the “saints of the Most High” - these are they who “keep the commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 12:17 – “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.” (Note:  And this is for time, times and half a time - Rev. 12:14 or 1,260 days - Rev. 12:6)).

Yes, there are those preserved of Israel (Revelation 12:6), and there are those of the Church who are “alive and survive” (I Thess. 4:17); but the EMPHASIS is upon the SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST wrought out in His people - for they bear THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS - while the wrath of the Beast overwhelms (Rev. 12:12 - . . . “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea!  For the devil has come down to you, having GREAT WRATH, because he knows that he has a short time”) and rages against the saints, for “It was granted to him to make war (the same war as seen in Rev. 11:7 against the Two Witnesses) with the saints and to overcome them.”)

Again, those brethren who refuse to do their math - who obfuscate the first half of the 70th Week of Daniel - and those pre-trib brethren who for their own foolish reasoning, boldly, and most shallowly, assert there is NO MENTIONING OF THE FULL 70TH WEEK OF DANIEL IN THE REVELATION - (and who, I might add, lend credibility to their “half-hearted” antagonists amongst their alleged post-tribulationalists and as boldly, and as ignorantly as they, claim there is naught but the latter half of the 70th Week which awaits complete fulfillment).

 

AMILLENARIAN ESCHATOLOGY IS ALIVE AND WELL – ELIMINATING THE 70TH WEEK OF DANIEL

 

Before we descend into the intricacies of how the 70th Week of Daniel yet future is abused and eliminated, it would do us well to understand who’s behind this obfuscation—just who is the source of this skulduggery of eschatological nonsense?

 

Several outstanding and concise histories on the evolution and popularity and ultimate demise and then revival of Amillennialism (and its step-child, Postmillennialism) eschatology and its counter distinction, Premillenialism, are forthwith given:

 

“Several forces worked to undermine this premillennialism of the early church. One of these was the association of this teaching with a radical ascetic Christian group, the Montanist, who shortly after the middle of the second century placed a great stress on a new age of the Spirit which they believed was coming among their numbers in Asia Minor. They gathered together in a village in Phrygia, which they named the New Jerusalem, thus proclaiming the establishment of the millennium. There they waited for the Lord's return.  By time of the death of the last of the leaders of Montanism, Christ's return had not yet occurred.” (Eschatology, the Doctrine of Last Things, the Millennium – www.fromdeathtolife.org and throughout)

 

The undermining of a literal 1,000-year rule and reign of Christ on the earth, yet future, was clearly held by the early church fathers – but aberrant teachings like those of Montanus grew in popularity – the desire for the Church to manifest its authority on earth was incessant.  How we interpret the Bible (hermeneutics) had to undergo a violent change; hence:

 

“Another influence that encouraged a change in eschatological views was the emphasis of Origen (A.D. c.185-c.254) upon the manifestation of the kingdom within the soul of the believer rather than in the world. This resulted in a shift of attention away from the historical toward the spiritual and metaphysical. He was perhaps the first to allegorize the passages on which the teaching of the millennium was based. His principle of allegorizing Scripture opened the door for a spiritual millennium and the school of amillennialism.

 

“A final factor that led to a new millennial interpretation was the conversion of the Emperor Constantine the Great (A.D. c.274/280-337) in A.D. 313 and the adoption of Christianity as the Imperial religion.

 

“It was Augustine (A.D. 354-430), Bishop of Hippo, who articulated the amillennial view which came to dominate Western Christianity during Middle Ages. The millennium, according to his interpretation, referred to the Church in which Christ reigned with His saints. The statements in the Book of Revelation were interpreted allegorically by Augustine. No victory was imminent in the struggle with evil in the world. On the really spiritual level, the battle had been already been won and God had triumphed through the cross. Satan had been reduced to lordship over the City of the World, which coexisted with the City of God. Eventually even the small domain of the devil would be taken away from him by a triumphant God.

 

“Augustine early claimed to be a Premillenarian, but he changed to become an Amillenarian. He did not object to Premillenarianism, but he spiritualized the millennium, finding its fulfillment in the church. The millennial reign of the saints was heavenly between the first and second coming of Christ, which period would end in or around A.D. 1000. The first resurrection was the new birth. He wrote in his City of God:

 

“The church now on earth is both the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven..., the saints being with Him now. Thrones (Rev. 20) may not be understood of the last judgment, but by the thrones are meant the ruler's places in the church, and the persons themselves by whom it is governed.... The church which is now is the kingdom of God. Thus then, the church reigns with Christ.... Christ's kingdom is the church.”

(Augustine, The City of God, as quoted in
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, p. 256)

 

“Augustine's allegorical interpretation became the official doctrine of the church during the medieval period. It was more or less modified when Christ failed to return at Augustine's predicted time at A.D. 1000. With the cessation of persecutions, the conviction that the Gospel could probably win the world found a place in the church. The millenarians of this period were of the postmillennial type. Hildegard and Joachim of Floris (A.D. 1130-1202) were perhaps the best known. Joachim innovated what is sometimes called a Trinitarian Millennialism. The Old Testament was the age of the Father; the New Testament was the age of the Son; and the age of the Holy Spirit will be the millennium after which Christ will return. However, in defiance to the official teaching of the church, the earlier apocalyptic premillennialism continued to be held by certain groups. These expressions of premillennialism continued during the reformation period, and was most notably expressed in the rebellion of the city of Munster in A.D. 1534. Jan Matthys gained control of the community, proclaiming himself that he was Enoch preparing the way for the second coming of Christ by establishing a new code of laws which featured a community of property and other radical reforms. He declared Munster to be the New Jerusalem and called all faithful Christians to gather in the city. Many Anabaptists answered his call and most of the original inhabitants of the town were forced to flee or to live in a veritable reign of terror. The situation was so threatening to other areas of Europe that a combined force of Catholics and Protestants laid siege to the place and after a difficult struggle captured the town, suppressing this wave of millennial enthusiasm.”

 

The Munster event undoubtedly led the early Protestant Reformers to unwittingly embrace Augustinian amillennialism—not because of its “Jewish character” but more so because of its social and political ramifications appeared too hostile to Europe’s nobility, let alone the Catholic Church. 

 

“Each of the three main branches of Protestantism of the sixteenth century - Lutheran, Calvinism, and Anglican - had the support of the state and so continued the same Constantinian approach to eschatology. Both Luther and Calvin were very suspicious of millennial speculation. Martin Luther (A.D. 1483-1546) believed that the Book of Revelation was defective in everything which could be called apostolic and prophetic, and was offended by the visions and symbols of the book. He came to believe that the prophecy in the Book of Revelation was an outline of the whole course of church history and that the Papacy was predicted in both chapters 11 and 12, and in the second beast of chapter 13. The number 666 represented the period of papal domination. This "historic" type of interpretation with its application of the Antichrist to papal Rome so dominated Protestant study of prophecy for the next three centuries, that it is frequently called "the Protestant" interpretation. Luther branded the doctrine of a millennium as heresy. The idea of a millennium was rejected as a Jewish opinion by the Augsburg Confession and by the Helvetic Confession. The Augsburg Confession read:

 

“They condemn others also, who now scatter abroad Jewish opinions, that, before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall occupy the kingdoms of the world, the wicked being everywhere oppressed.”
(Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Article XVII).

 

“The Helvetic Confession reads:

 

“We reject all who deny the real resurrection.... We also reject the Jewish dream of a millennium, or golden age on earth, before the last judgment.”
(ibid., Article XI).

 

The reader can immediately grasp that by these confessions the effrontery of a “Jewish dream of a millennium” had insinuated itself into the minds of the reformers.  Now, these reformers not only rejected the full “manifestation of the kingdom” via immediate or rabid social revolutionary reform (e.g., the Munster model), but had become all the more rigid in their embrace of Catholic eschatology and the “Augustinian model” whereby the State and the Church were able to jointly “process” both the earthly and heavenly aspects of the Kingdom of God—enabling the Church to provide “moral covering” for the State—e.g., the “Just War” whereby the State may exercise temporal authority in matters of the defeat of evil with the Church maintaining her celestial presence, while still being here on earth—notwithstanding, the full manifestation of the Kingdom would abide yet future, although the “Messianic Age” or the “Gospel Age” was here and present among us.  Thus, with the Church living in the “Messianic Age” present—there would be no need for a future Millennial Reign on earth, and ipso facto, a complete disconnect of all Jewish prophetic potential.

 

AMILLENARIAN EMBELLISHMENTS OF ALAN MORRISON

 

 In his “State of the World Address – Parts 1 and 2” Alan Morrison elaborates on how Amillenarian eschatology can be embellished upon its original dismissal of a literal millennium and, I hasten to add, why this doctrine predisposed Europe to such vehemence in their quest to abolish the “Jewish dream of a millennium” – I persistently propose that the Holocaust would not have been possible in Europe if this insidious eschatology had not been so wide-spread and entrenched in Protestant and Catholic churches.  With the Jew utterly and prophetically disenfranchised, there was no more need for them—hence, their “chosenness” was an affront to the Church.

 

Let me preface Morrison’s remarks and commentary thereon by noting his direct promotion and association with an otherwise fine organization, SCP (Spiritual Counterfeits Project of Berkeley, CA).  Tal Brooke has apparently, according to Jacob Prasch, either purposefully and/or directly embraced Morrison’s Amillenarian eschatology and its apparent and underlying adjunct, anti-Semitism.  This unimaginable doctrinal distortion needs further clarification on the part of Tal Brooke, especially his support for one, Ted Pike, I am sure—notwithstanding; on the surface it is deeply disturbing . . . for it connotes the insidious persistence of this tortuous eschatology which has befooled, beclouded and befuddled the Church since Origen.  Has Tal Brooke succumbed to the dark side of Amillenarian eschatology and its rejection of the Jew?  What nefarious pursuit abides the legendary cult-fighter, Tal Brooke?

 

Allow me to quote the prickly review of Jacob Prasch of this odd association of Morrison and Brooke and their peculiar compatibilities (My emphasis):

 

“Both Mr. Morrison and Mr. Brooke are too intelligent to demean themselves with the kind of conspiratorial absurdity and anti-Zionism they focus on and in the process they undermine the valuable ministry they both otherwise could and should have in reaching New Agers for Christ in a post Christian/Neo Pagan world. Mr. Morrison overlooks that the biblical scenario for the Eschaton viewed in Daniel and Revelation, places the prophetic significance of Israel as well as that of The Church at the center of world events. There is simply no place for replacement theology in The Word of God generally, and certainly none regarding eschatology specifically. Those propagating unbiblical positions to the contrary are postulating untenable inventions of their own minds. In order to arrive at his misplaced doctrinal theology, Allan Morrison, identical to the Roman Catholic mystics, hyper Charismatics, and New Age theosophers, must engage in the convoluted hermeneutics of eisegetical Gnosticism by spiritualizing what the Scripture plainly teaches about Israel and The Millennial reign of Christ instead of deriving his beliefs from sound exegesis.

 

“Mr. Morrison substitutes an exegetical approach to eschatology with a conspiracy theory based approach where the biblical texts plainly establishing the place of Israel eschatologically are treated in a neo-Gnostic manner based on spiritualization.”  (Jacob Prasch, “A Response to Allan Morrison” – Moriel Ministries)

 

It is the propagation of Morrison’s ideas by Brooke which disturbs; along with what appears to be a conspiratorial video with anti-Semitic overtones (by one Ted Pike), also, according to Jacob Prasch, promoted by Tal Brooke . . .

 

“In the meanwhile, MORIEL is preparing a response to the Ted Pike video alleging Jewish conspiracies and attempting to turn this crusade into an Evangelical Christian cause. Disturbingly, the video is distributed by an organization whose web site is linked to pro Nazi sites carrying Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ on their book lists and claims to be an ‘Evangelical Christian Ministry’. More disturbing still is that the Ted Pike video was circulated by Allan Morrison’s partner, Tal Brooke. Indeed , if I were to follow the trail of links in the manner conspiracy theorists operate and draw conclusions from it, I would have to determine that Tal and by cooperation Allan Morrison are members of a Neo Nazi conspiracy within the Evangelical church. This is of course not my view. But if I subscribed to the kind of conspiracy theory mind set they do, it would be the natural conclusion.

 

Constance Cumbey is not so subtle in her denunciation of Ted Pike’s anti-Semitism:

 

“His (Texe Marrs) new catalog IS ‘New Age,’ -- in the very skimpiest of disguises -- and in the very ugliest sense of the word. It carries as allegedly reputable works books by unashamed anti-Semites such as Des Griffin and Ted Pike. (My Perspective – What Constance Thinks)

 

And, what of this video that Tal Brooke’s promotes:

 

“It’s all here...Ted Pike’s monumental new video documents the whole story of conspiracy by Israel’s false leaders in the Mid-East. From Israeli terrorists to Christian televangelists, this is the incredible account of how Zionist abuses and atrocities, plus evangelical Christian support, have worked together over the past century to incite international Arab terrorism.” (www.truthtellers.com – Zionism and Christianity:  UNHOLY ALLIANCE – National Prayer Network)

         

In point of fact, Theodore Winston Pike’s prolific exposé of Israeli and Christian conspiracies in the suppression of Israel’s Palestinians is overt:  Israel:  Our Duty . . . our Dilemma; Hate Laws . . . Making Criminals of Christians; Why the Mid-East Bleeds; Zionism and Christianity:  Unholy Alliance.  In my reading and research, it is obvious that Ted Pike has used “hate crime legislation” to augment his agenda to implicate the Jews, especially the Israelis, and to clobber Evangelical Zionists in their “unbiblical conspiracy” in support of the rebirth of Israel as a sign of prophetic fulfillment and the coming Messianic Age.  Again, I find Tal Brooke’s involvement in the promotion of both the works of Allan Morrison and Ted Pike’s video, exceedingly disconcerting and would dearly love to disassociate Tal from these individuals—but, to this date nothing to the contrary attests otherwise.

 

The “National Prayer Network” extols the works of Ted Pike and exclaims:

 

“In this unprecedented exposé, author and filmmaker Ted Pike rips the cover off this little-known conspiracy against freedom by the evil Jewish leadership of B'Nai B'Rith and its ‘Anti-Defamation League.’ Now is the time to protest to your elected representatives in Congress - before it is too late.” (Note:  The Rev. Ted Pike is the National Director of the National Prayer Network.)

 

Now, with this Amillenarian-Anti-Semitic backdrop so revealed—and I hasten to add that exploring these links among Ted Pike, Alan Morrison and Tal Brooke are altogether disquieting for this author—we now briefly examine the “Morrisonian form of Amillenarianism.”  Again, taken from his “State of the World Addresses.”

 

“This whole “Rapture” thing is put in its context in Rev.11. We saw in Part 1 of this article that the gospel-witnessing church has been given a great measure of protection while Satan has been bound throughout the gospel age. We saw that the symbolic time span of that age . . . .”

 

Morrison sees no future for physical Israel - the Church, in his estimation would fulfill all the promises of the Bible—both Old and New Testaments.  Notwithstanding Morrison’s ridiculous notion that somehow Satan has been bound for 1,000 years (currently on-going) is classic Amillenarian eschatology.  However, presently, Satan has NOT been bound a figurative 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10) - he is, however, a ‘defeated foe’ - but he continues unabated to walk around:  THE DEVIL WALKS ABOUT AS A ROARING LION, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR.  RESIST HIM, STEFAST IN THE FAITH” (I Peter 5:8)  - this is hardly the Millennium.  In Morrison’s thinking, as in all Amillenarians, there is no literal 1,000-year Millennium.

 

The SYMBOLIC TIMESPAN, to which Morrison alludes, is clarified by his statement:

 

“. . . and witness was said to be “1260 days” (Rev.12:6). It so happens that the church is again said to witness for that symbolic 1260 days in Rev.11:3.”

 

In this brother's eyes he sees the TWO WITNESSES as the Church in sum and substance - he fails to go on to vs. 11:4 of Rev. in which it clearly states:  "THESE ARE THE TWO OLIVE TREES AND THE TWO LAMPSTANDS STANDING BEFORE THE GOD OF THE EARTH" - he would surely assume that these ‘symbols’ simply connote that the Olive Tree represents the Oil of the Holy Spirit and the Lampstand represents the Church - I do not affirm this because of the superabundance of passages in the Revelation, let alone the superabundance of passages which provide Israel a generous role in the coming Millennium.  Morrison sees the 1,260 days as purely SYMBOLIC—just as he sees the 1,000 years of Satan’s binding during the current “age of the gospel” symbolic. 

 

The atrocious supposition on the part of Amillenarians to interpret Revelation 20:1-3 as a “figurative or spiritual millennium” – while claiming that Satan’s “binding” during their current “messianic age” (in which we are now allegedly living in on this planet where evil abounds in all sizes) denies the present reality of man’s inhumanity to man and of the Prince of Darkness who in the ethereal “Age of the Gospel” beclouds the blatant biblical fact wherein “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” (II Corinthians 4:4)  How can we be living in the Messianic Age in which the King of kings shares rule with “the god of this age?”

 

May I remind those who follow the convoluted symbolism of Origen that immediately following the return of Christ in glory (i.e., the Second Coming of Christ) as found in Revelation 19:11-16 and of the subsequent defeat of the armies of the Beast and the Second Beast (the False Prophet) in Revelation 19:19-21 by our Lord Jesus, that THEN and IMMEDIAELY in Revelation 20:1-3 Satan is bound for a thousand years and those that the Beast beheaded “lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4)  Any rational mind can follow this sequence—unless the irrationality of those who detest the thought that a literal 1,000 year rule and reign of Christ on this earth, from Jerusalem, is just too preposterous, too earthly, too carnal for our heavenly-minded brethren who cringe at the thought that the Jews could find themselves prophetically viable!

 

Amillenarians’ conjecture that since the resurrected Christ “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col.2:15) somehow goes beyond His immediate resurrection and binds Satan through the power of His cross.  If so, I suggest that the chain is incredibly long.  Amillenarians claim that Revelation 20 is a flashback to the cross and demonstrates the complete work of Christ; henceforth, we are living in the Messianic Age or Age of the Gospel.  Nonsense!  The binding and restraint of Satan that takes place as a result of the cross is applicable today only to those who believe in Jesus Christ!  “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” . . . does not take place until after the resurrection of the Two Witnesses; after the reign of the Beast; and, after the 3.5 days of the latter half of Daniel’s 70th Week (Revelation 11:11-15).

 

SEVENTY SEVENS

 

Why does the Bible so clearly demarcate that the 70 Weeks are “seventy sevens” (i.e., “Septets” or “Seventy times seven”) – and clearly refers to them as years – each “week” equal to seven years or 360 days for each year?  The Biblical precedent for these “weeks” equal to years is found in Leviticus 25:8:

 

“And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself; seven times seven years; and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.”

 

Therefore, when it is read, it clearly refers to these Seventy Weeks as years:

 

“Seventy weeks (lit. “seventy sevens”) are determined for your people . . . there shall be seven weeks (or 49 years) and sixty-two weeks (or 434 years) . . . and after the sixty-two weeks . . . then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week (i.e., the 70th Week)” (or 7 years) (Daniel 9:24, 25, 27) (for a total of 490 years:  49 + 434 + 7 = 490 years)

 

The 70th Week is still 7 years or 1 week.  Likewise, it is comprised of 1,260 days (the first half) and 1,260 days (the second half) for a total of 2,520 days or seven total years.  The other expressions likewise remain LITERAL – JUST AS THE FIRST 69 WEEKS WERE LITERAL and the outstanding work done by Sir Robert Anderson, Drs. Ice and Hoehner (See Israel’s Temple Sacrifice and the Abomination of Desolation for the precise chronologies between “the decree to rebuilt Jerusalem until the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem” which occurred four days prior to the Gregorian date of 33 AD day of Passover and the crucifixion or “cutting off of Messiah” – Daniel 9:26)

 

Morrison continues . . .

 

“This refers to the whole of the church’s witness throughout the age. That’s how we know that Rev.12:6 and 11:3 are parallel. They both refer to the Gospel Age of witness while Satan is under restraint. (My emphasis.)  As we saw in Part 1 of this article, we also have the idea of the church being under protection from the hideous power of Satan in Rev. 12:14. There, the term used is ‘time, times and half a time,’ (which is another way of saying 1260 days or three and a half years’ time = one year, times = 2 years, and half a time = half a year).”
 

Morrison states these time frames in years but demands they be wholly SYMBOLIC in terms of “eras.”  In this case the spurious period of the “gospel age” allegedly has his Satan “under restraint.”  It is unimaginable to consider Satan so restrained given the past 2,000 history of wars, death, famine, disease, rank materialism, human exploitation, crimes against humanity and gross carnage since the resurrection of Jesus.  His use of the phrase, “the whole of the Church” ipso facto displaces any role for a prophetic Israel—none!  There is no literal seven-year time frame yet future; no literal millennium; and no prophetic Israel—none!

 

Revelation 12:14 is a reference to the WOMAN who is ‘preserved’ unto the coming of the Lord – God’s sovereignty sustains a portion of the Woman (“they that are alive and survive”) - some are “beheaded for the testimony” - others survive – and, most certainly, there is that Jewish element which shall survive until they cry out:  HOSANNA, BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD - this is without refutation!  “You will not see my face until YOU SAY, ‘Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord’” (Matt. 23:39).

 

Morrison persists:

 

“The reason that John uses that image is because it draws on its symbolic use in Daniel 7:25 and 12:7 to describe the persecution of the saints. John frequently takes powerful Old Testament symbols and then transforms them for his own Scripture-writing purposes (e.g. golden lampstands, two-edged sword, thrones, living creatures, beasts, etc.). Occasionally, they mean the same as when they were used in the Old Testament; but mostly he changes aspects of them to fit the context.”

 

It is convenient for Morrison, at this point, to say:  “Occasionally, they mean the same as when they were used in the Old Testament, but mostly he changes aspects of them to fit the context” - therefore, he can say that the Olive Tree in Revelation 11:4 refers to the Oil of the Spirit and not to Israel.

 

“The overall picture in the Book of Revelation is that as the saints witness to the world they are persecuted throughout the entire Gospel Age (the symbolic 1260 days/3 ½ years/time, times & half a time), but that they are also protected from the full blast of satanic destruction during that time, until a brief period of intense persecution at the end of history (the Great Tribulation), when those believers who are alive at the time will be wiped out (Rev.11:7; 13:7; Dan.12:7).”

 

What Morrison proposes—although he is hard pressed to say that the final 1,260 days is this “brief period of intense persecution at the end of history”—is the past nigh 2,000 years is symbolically designed as the 1,260 days or 3 1/2 years or time, times and half a time, or for that matter, 42 months as in Revelation 11:2; and, that the final half of Daniel’s 70th Week will be that “brief period of intense persecution at the end of history” (i.e., the final 1,260 days) – but then, this would be equal to one week (i.e., 1,260 days of the “gospel age” + 1,260 days of the “brief period of intense persecution at the end of history”)—therefore, Morrison cannot quiet bring himself to this mathematical conclusion because it borders on giving credibility to the 70th week and a distant detection of literal interpretation being used in reverse—i.e., justifying symbolic expression.

 

He is utterly Amillenarian - he has confused the time of Jacob's Trouble - i.e., the persecution of Israel during the 70th Week of Daniel (Dan. 12:7) of “time, times and half a time” - which clearly speaks to Israel’s time of persecution (but as well, since there are TWO on either side of the river - to the Church’s trepidations).   One of the two inquires of the Man dressed in linen, insofar as HOW LONG will the following persecution persist—which persecution directly refers to the last days of Daniel’s people, the Jews:  “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people (THE JEWS); and there shall be a time of trouble (3.5 years of it to be exact—Daniel 12:7), such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time.  And at that time YOUR PEOPLE (THE JEWS) shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).

 

DELIVERANCE FOR YOUR PEOPLE AND FOR YOUR HOLY CITY-Dan. 9:24

 

“Deliverance” is the dominant theme of the Hebrews.  Deliverance demands the divine and miraculous intervention into the affairs of man—it demands Messiah: 

 

“And so all Israel will be saved (or “delivered”), as it is written:

 

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins” (Isa. 59:20; Romans 11:26-27).

 

This is the “covenant” that our Lord makes and does not break!  And, this “Israel” speaks not of the Gentiles who have been “grafted in” but of Israel of the flesh, for Paul declares:

 

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25).

 

Far too long well-meaning but deceived brethren have been “wise in (their) own opinion” or “estimation” – they fail to realize that “blindness in part” does not mean “blindness in whole!”

 

“Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).

 

It is that irrevocability, that covenant made to Israel that irks the likes of Alan Morrison and those brethren hereunder mentioned who would persuade us that bits, parts and pieces – yea, the whole – of Daniel’s Seventieth Week have already concluded.  Yet, what Paul quoted in Romans 11:26-27 from Isaiah 59:20 – until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; until “the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets” (Revelation 10:7) – can be none other than the full “Seventy Weeks determined for your people and for your holy city, to . . .

 

“. . . finish 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” (i.e.,--“To seal The Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies”) (Daniel 9:24; cf. Daniel 12:11-12).

 

FOR . . .

 

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins” (Isa. 59:20; Romans 11:26-27).

 

“I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.  They will call on My name, and I will answer them.  I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God’” (Zechariah 13:9).

 

MORRISON’S “GOSPEL AGE” IS NOT THE MILLENIUM

 

The Amillenarian Morrison has made the 1,260 days equate to the “gospel age” (he dare not say the “church age” because it would lend credibility to Dispensationalists!) - for to the Amillenarian there has always been but one Church—“the believing community” - there NEVER can be TWO WITNESSES testifying from whatever perspective (e.g., Israel to the earth—to the Nations; and the Church to the heavens or to the Principalities and Powers in the heavens) at any given time in history—especially during the conclusion of the 70th Week or, in the Amillenarian thinking, the final 3.5 years of human history prior to the Second Coming of Christ - and just prior to Satan being loosed after the 1,260 days or the 1,000 years of the “gospel age” - give or take scores of conflicts and two world wars—Satan has been “relatively restrained” - just ask a Viet Nam vet how much Satan has been restrained!

 

“One has to remember that just as things like persecution, earthly upheavals, false christs and prophets, deception and the many other characteristics of the “last days” described by the Lord Jesus and Paul are present to a greater or lesser degree throughout the age but intensify at the time of the end” so the presence of the “Beast” government and religion have been with us throughout the age in one form or another but will intensify at the end of the age with the appearance of the Antichrist. The two beasts of Revelation 13 do not refer exclusively to the actual Antichrist (unlike the Man of Sin in 2 Thess.2, which does). They refer to the “Beast” government generally too.  This is why the first beast was said to have been ‘given authority to continue for forty-two months’ (i.e. that three and a half years or 1260 days again, Rev.13:5).

 

Yes, strangely enough, the Amillenarian, like Morrison, believes in a final Antichrist - but their eschatology is woefully inadequate and when they get into the 3.5 years, time, times and half a time, 1,260 days, and 42 months, 3.5 days - in sum – they’re all over the map!  The Beast Nation, the Beast, the Antichrist, the False Prophet are, in sum, all mixed up throughout the entire “Gospel Age” and, specifically, at its conclusion.

 

 The Amillenarian does not “see” the Antichrist half way through the 70th Week becoming the Beast (AT THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION) for “after their testimony is finished” (i.e., after the 1,260 days of the “Gospel Age”) - the BEAST ascends out of the Bottomless Pit and makes war on the Two Witnesses, etc. (i.e., the latter half of Daniel’s 70th Week—Morrison’s “brief period of intense persecution at the end of history”) - to them there cannot be an Antichrist and a Beast operating simultaneously and they are right for the wrong reasons.  They say the Beast Nation persecutes the Church and the “Beast” (somehow personified in Antichrist) is there – whereas the Antichrist is apart and separate from the Beast but somehow heads up the Beast Nation.  (Note:  If this sounds scrambled and mixed up, it is!).  We may as well have a “Who’s on first, what’s on second” rendition of Bud Abbot and Lou Costello.

 

The point is this:  The Antichrist has enforced his treaty with Israel’s majority; AND in the midst of the 70th Week (for the treaty commences the 70th Week of Daniel - Dan. 9:27) he BREAKS the treaty.  Amillenarians will insist that the “he” of Daniel 9:27 refers to Jesus Christ and not to Antichrist!  Morrison has a conundrum here—if he too closely associates the Antichrist with the Beast, he will find himself into two 1,260-day time frames equal to seven years at the end of the age—that’s a “no, no.”  However, if he can hide behind the end-time’s Beast Nation, he can somehow “overlap” the two wherein Antichrist and the Beast Nation work side by side, hand-in-glove in cooperation; but, once he admits that Antichrist becomes the Beast—then he must admit that Antichrist has been around for at least 1,260 days (2,000 years) as well as the “spirit of antichrist” (at least).  But Morrison’s personification of the Antichrist at the close of the age is stuck in this “brief period of intense persecution” only.  (Grief, perhaps to have “confirmed the treaty” with Israel at the commencement of the Seventieth Week).  He knows full well that he has to get his Antichrist coming on the scene at the same time as his latter-day Beast Nation; however, Antichrist makes his appearance at the “end of days” just like the Beast does—but 3.5 years prior to the manifestation of the Beast, and the ultimate Beast Nation (Babylon the Great City) has, as Morrison claims, been around since time immemorial—the only thing is this:  Antichrist occupies the first half of Daniel’s Seventieth Week and the Beast occupies the latter half.  He is called “the Beast” because he has committed the Abomination of Desolation; terminated the sacrifice; and thereby has broken the treaty or covenant with “the many.”

 

Finally, Allan Morrison, as are most Amillenarians, abides either secretly, unwittingly or conspicuously anti-Semitic and, most definitely, wholly open to vehement fits of anti-Semitic rhetoric . . . predisposed to eliminating any role for prophetic Israel and wholly bent on today’s efforts to dislodge Israel from her ancient homeland . . . and in obvious support of President Bush’s two-state solution; although Israel’s total abandonment of the Holy Land would be preferable.

 

“This suspension of the final enactment of judgment on the world is the reason that unbelievers will scoff at the very idea that Jesus Christ will return to carry out this task (2 Pet. 3:3-4). However, many believers have also been bewildered by this postponement of the public display of God’s victory over Satan, in which there has been an abeyance of Christ openly taking His place as King of the world and ‘making all things new.’ It is not surprising that the Lord’s people should be perplexed at this ‘delay’ especially those who were alive during Jesus’ post-resurrection ministry on earth.

 

“For example, shortly before Jesus’ Ascension, His disciples asked Him, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ (Acts 1:6).  But they were ignorant of a vast ‘mystery’ which is absolutely central to God’s plan, in His suspension of the final fulfillment of Christ’s victory. (Not to mention the fact that they were, at that time, still also highly ignorant about the end of the old covenant and the end of the nation Israel as the Lord’s people). (My emphasis, Morrison’s writing.)

 

Peppered throughout Alan Morrison’s presuppositions are these virulent and intimidating disclosures of Israel’s current and prevailing apostasy—Israel’s materiality is a horrendous black eye, smack-dab in the face of Amillennialism!  Allan Morrison, Ted Pike and sadly, Tal Brooke, appear hell-bent on exposing the latest “Zionist conspiracy” whereby evangelical Christians side with Israel to the detriment of their evangelical Reformer forebears, and for that matter, their Amillenarian, Roman Catholic heritage!  Hence, the escalation of literature and writings, along with video, which denounce Zionism and evangelical collaboration.

 

LISTEN AND WEEP – STEVE WOHLBERG AND RADICAL SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISM ESCHATOLOGY

 

Listen and allow the Spirit of Christ to cringe within you as they ascribe our Lord’s person and work to that of Antichrist—for Steve Wohlberg (Pastor of the Ft. Worth First Seventh Day Adventist Church) is the perpetuator of this heresy and the unwitting companion of the DESOLATOR in so doing.  In his writings there is the clear impress of and utter despite toward the Jew which borders on Anti-Semitism of the worst order, because it is enshrouded in eschatology and theology that is an offense to the Son of Man!  He has taken the eschatology of Reformational Christianity, blended it with the depersonalization of the Antichrist—having transferred Antichrist to the Papacy of Rome (which is wholly Reformation eschatology a la Historicism-style eschatology) and made the Holy Sea the “System of Antichrist” the real Antichrist (and, embraced the absurd and superficial notion that the “Mark of the Beast” is Sunday Worship)—while utterly disinheriting the Jew, and most certainly, relegating their prophetic destiny to the trash bin of theological irrelevance, even apostasy!  Wohlberg’s eschatology would have been wholly embraced by Hitler as insightful and liberating (Read Wohlberg’s Exploding the Israel Deception and weep!)—I dare say that even Wohlberg’s inclination to the Jewish Sabbath would have been tolerated by the Nazis in this context wherein the Jews are disinherited!

 

I have decided to allow you to read his entire rant and how insidious are his convolutions—indeed, at least he is not a HALF-TIMER—but wholly discards the 70th Week, yet future (Note:  I will interject my condemnations where appropriate!):

 

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” -- Mark Twain (1835-1910).

“Christians often debate about whether Jesus Christ will return for His Church before the seven years of tribulation (the “pre-trib” view), in the middle of the seven years (the “mid-trib” view), or at the end of the seven years (the “post-trib” view). Yet by far the most important question worth asking is: Does the Bible really predict a future ‘seven-year period of tribulation’ in the first place?

“Shockingly, there is no specific Bible text predicting any seven-year tribulation. The entire theory is based on an interpretation of one primary verse, Daniel 9:27, which says: (my bold emphasis, and throughout)

 

(Note:  It is a misnomer on Wohlberg’s part that the Premillenarians to whom he alludes embrace the entire 70th Week of Daniel as “the tribulation”—they don’t; only the final 3.5 years are considered the time of “Great Tribulation”—Revelation 9:14; Matthew 24:21 occurs after the Abomination of Desolation mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24:25; Mark 13:14, 19.  The first 3.5 years of the, yet future, 70th Week of Daniel is the time of the prevailing testimony and prophetic ministry of the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11:3-6.  It is only after they have “finished their testimony” (Rev. 11:7) that “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, over come them, and kill them” in full cooperation, no doubt, with “the Gentiles . . . and they (the Gentiles—i.e., “the Beast Nation” or Babylon the Great) will tread the holy city (i.e., “the Two Witnesses”) underfoot for forty-two months” – Revelation 11:2.  By “overlapping” the testimony of the Two Witnesses and the “open persecution” of these same Two Witnesses for 3.5 days (Revelation 11:9, 11) numerous expositors violate the utter incompatibility of the 3.5 years of unhindered testimony (Revelation 11:5-6) with the 3.5 years of persecution or “treading down”; and, unwittingly make the Two Witnesses totally indifferent to the suffering of God’s people.) – Wohlberg continues:

“He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease….” (Daniel 9:27 KJV).

“Modern interpreters often conclude:

1. “He” is the Antichrist.
2. Antichrist will make a treaty with the Jews for “one week” (the last “week” of the 70-week/490-year prophecy) – meaning seven years of Tribulation.
3. In the middle of the Tribulation, Antichrist will cause the sacrifices of a rebuilt Jewish temple “to cease.”

“Thus Daniel 9:27 is applied to Antichrist, a seven-year Tribulation, and a rebuilt Jewish temple - yet the verse itself says none of this. 

 

(Alas!  The “tail is out” – this phantasmagoric assumption is an absurdity, an utter disconnect – telling me when you are blindfolded that by holding the tail of an elephant you’ve latched onto a small monkey, may make you a monkey’s uncle, but will not make the elephant a monkey!  Wohlberg would have us believe that Daniel 9:27 is the singular verse upon which the rise and fall of Antichrist rests—not so!  Daniel 7 through 12 implicates the Desolator.  What Wohlberg wants us to believe is that the entire argument suggests that the “he” of Daniel 9:27 is the Antichrist; therefore, this makes the argument in full isolation—again, not so, for the entire thrust of Daniel involves the one who breaks covenant in the latter days and must be taken in the context of other portions of Daniel; specifically Daniel 7:8, 11, 17-27; 8:8-14, 19, 23-26; 9:24-27; 10:14; 11:20-45; 12:1-13).  

 

The fact is that countless credible Bible scholars of the past applied Daniel 9:27 to Jesus Christ, not antichrist.

 

(And they were just as wrong as Steve Wohlberg.)

“Matthew Henry’s commentary on Daniel 9:27 states, ‘By offering Himself a sacrifice once and for all, He [Jesus], shall put an end to all the Levitical sacrifices.’ British Methodist Adam Clarke’s commentary says that during Daniel 9:27’s ‘term of seven years,’ Jesus Himself would ‘confirm or ratify the new covenant with mankind.’ The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary also says: ‘He shall confirm the covenant - Christ. The confirmation of the covenant is assigned to Him.’ (Note Wohlberg’s footnotes not included.)

 

(Note:  Nigh all of these expositors utterly deny the Lord’s purpose for Israel of the flesh in any way, shape or form—other than (perhaps) a tortured persecution in the last days to insanely drive them into the Savior’s loving arms!)

“The following ten points provide solid evidence that Daniel’s 70th week doesn’t refer to any future Tribulation at all. Rather, it was fulfilled nearly two thousand years ago.

 

1). The prophecy of “seventy weeks” means seventy straight sequential weeks. There is no example in Scripture (or anywhere else!) of a time period starting, stopping, and then starting again.

 

(Then, pray tell, what is this business of 7 weeks and then another 62 weeks to equal 69 weeks – it does not stop and start – but this logic is inconsequential – the 70th Week does not, and did not, continue with the original 69 weeks, plain and simple—there is NO biblical basis for his statement, none—nor for that matter Wohlberg’s parenthetical hyperbole “or anywhere else!”  The First Coming of Christ is separated from the Second Coming of Christ—this is the most glaring GAP which, apparently, Wohlberg purposefully overlooks?  Naturally, he sees no “gap” here either—since Amillenarians conclude that God’s grace has always had one continuing people and that the Church as a “great mystery” is but a continuance of His one purpose.  In a real sense the “Amils” are correct; however, this does not obfuscate the blatant fact of the First and Second Comings of Christ.)

 

All biblical references to time are consecutive: 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:4), 400 years in Egypt (Genesis 15:13), etc. 

 

(Allow me one further insult:  Indeed, there is no gap between the first and second comings of Christ in Wohlberg’s eschatology (per se) because the Gentiles became the “True Israel of God” immediately at the rejection of the Jews as “God’s chosen people” – and, furthermore, the clarification of that assumption was made plain by the heavenly revelations given to Ellen G. White’s enshrinement of the Seventh Day (i.e., the Jewish Sabbath, the Fourth Commandment)—so that now, they “who keep the commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17) have absolutely nothing to do with “Israel of the flesh” and everything to do with the enlightened Church of Seventh Day Adventism—for the Seventh Day Adventists are they “who keep the commandments of God” – and NO, I’ve never been a Seventh Day Adventist – and you can sure see why by now.)

2). The 70th week follows immediately after the 69th week. If it doesn’t, then it cannot properly be called the 70th week! 

 

(Another illogical and inane assumption – the SEVENTIETH WEEK STANDS ALONE and is so described as THE SEVENTIETH WEEK). 

 

Messiah is crucified (i.e., “CUT OFF”) and then comes the 70th Week where this “he” shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week!

 

Now, look at Wohlberg’s irrationality—he has Messiah being cut off “and then comes the 70th Week where this ‘he’ – (which Wohlberg says refers back to the crucified Messiah) – shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week!”  Why is this so absurd?  Because the “cutting off of the Messiah” makes His future participation in any seven-week covenant null and void—having already been “cut off!”  It is a colossal attempt at “Messianic revisionism” wherein history past (Daniel 9:26) becomes history future (Daniel 9:27) or shall we be churlish and suggest Wohlberg has Jesus going “back to the future?”  Messiah is “cut off” AFTER the full sixty-nine weeks or after the second set of weeks (“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off” – Dan. 9:26).  “THEN he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;” – it is this AFTER—THEN which mandates Wohlberg’s impossible gap!)

 
3). It is illogical to insert a 2,000-year gap between the 69th and 70th week. There is no gap between the first seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Why insert one between the 69th and 70th week?

 

(To prevent people like Wohlberg from distorting the Scriptures!  They who ascribe the person and work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ will henceforth and forevermore be called on this heresy by yours truly until my dying day!  There is a huge gap; and saying there is none holds absolutely no weight whatsoever!  Again, is there not a GAP between Messiah’s “cutting off” “even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the DESOLATOR” – Daniel. 9:26a and 27b—Amplified Version—i.e., a gap between Jesus’ crucifixion and the terminus ad quem of desolations or the 1,290th day, Dan. 12:11?  Between the crucifixion and the Second Coming of Messiah?)

4). Daniel 9:27 says nothing about any “tribulation,” “rebuilt” Jewish temple, or “antichrist.” Zero.   

 

Behold, the monkey’s uncle!  The implication that the sacerdotal rites are terminated in Daniel 9:27 mid-way through the Seventieth Week is clearly outlined in Daniel 8:9-14; as well as the political and religious connotations of this same “despicable person” (Daniel 11:21) who seizes the civil and religious affairs of Israel as “Prince of the Covenant” (Daniel 11:22)—undoubtedly at this same time.  Finally, the termination of the sacrifice is rehearsed at the close of Daniel in Daniel 12:11 when “the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up”—again, coinciding at the mid-point of the Seventieth Week.  The paltry evidence provided by Wohlberg is so terribly isolated compared to the propensity of evidence found throughout the latter part of Daniel, that a conviction of the “he” in Daniel 9:27 is overwhelming:   The “he” is Antichrist!

  

Indeed, if Wohlberg would only read the other passages which I have highlighted which accord absolute proof that there will be a rebuilt Jewish Temple and that Antichrist is alive and well – Mr. Wohlberg, you have taken the bait of the DESOLATOR, and have denied the existence of the personal Antichrist.  Furthermore, allow me to irritate Wohlberg’s professions all the more by asserting that even the rebuilding of this Temple by his disinherited Jews signals the day of redemption for Israel and for the Nations—albeit, Antichrist shall descend upon the celebration of “abundance of life” during their Feast of Tabernacles and desecrate their prophetic effort mid-way through his fallacious treaty—even so, the Messiah shall have the last word in this desecration and the full redemption of His brethren according to the flesh. 

 

As Joseph (Genesis 41-47) disclosed his true identity to BOTH his brothers and his father Jacob, and to the Egyptians, even so, the Son of Man shall, during the crucible of the 70th Week of Daniel (for the SEVEN years of “tribulation” within Daniel’s 70th Week are akin to the SEVEN years which the famine in Joseph’s time afflicted the whole earth—Gen. 41:27), progressively reveal Himself to His brethren according to the flesh, until “all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:25-27)—and the cry from Israel shall go up upon their BLESSEDNESS:  “Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord, HOSANNA!” (Daniel 12:12; Matthew 23:39; 21:15-16; Zechariah 12:10-14; 13:6).

 

Yes, the day comes when we, the wild olive tree, who have been grafted into “among them” (i.e., Israel – Romans, 11:17-24) – yes, we who “know in part and we (who) prophesy in part” (I Cor. 13:9) (and who) “see in a mirror, dimly” (I Cor. 13:12), shall, on that day under “Joseph’s ministry” wholly participate with those “beloved for the fathers’ sake” – with those of Israel in whom “blindness in part has happened” (Romans 11:28, 25) and then shall Zechariah’s prophecy be fulfilled:

 

“Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown (lit. “crowns”), and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest . . . then speak to him, saying . . .

 

“‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, saying:

 

“Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH!  From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the LORD; Yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD.  He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.’” (Zechariah 6:11-13) (i.e., “both offices” – the Kingship and the Priesthood – the “earth and the heavens” – the State and the Church – Israel and the Church – the Olive Trees and the Lampstands)

 

“Now the elaborate crown (lit. “the crowns”) shall be for a memorial in the temple of the LORD

Even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the LORD” (Zechariah 6:5a).  

 

Likewise, the “terrestrial and the celestial” (the earthly and the heavenly) realities of the “temple of God” measured by John via the “measuring rod” given by the angel (Revelation 10:8) to John are clearly delineated as BOTH the earthly “rebuilt Jewish Temple” within the crucible of the, yet future, 70th Week of Daniel (i.e., “measure the temple of God, the altar . . .” Rev. 11:2), as well as the heavenly reality of that Temple (naos) – “measure . . . those who worship there.  But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles.  And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months” Rev. 11:11b-2).  Clearly, the physicality of the temple is not only highlighted and in existence at this yet future time—this is NOT abstract—but, likewise, the “spiritual prospect” of the Temple of God and its spiritual antithesis simply cannot be ignored as wholly within the realm of such measurements; viz. they are “tangible” and “intangible” realities of the earthly and the heavenly.  It is utterly impossible to excise Revelation 11:1-2 relative to “the Temple of God” and thereby spiritualize its significance as wholly abstract, metaphorical, materially inconsequential—and, for that matter, neither is the Church and physical Israel, divorced from “those who worship there” as some sort of ethereal, celestial “body” dealing with their antithetical “court of the Gentiles” who dare to trample the “Holy City” underfoot in concert with “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit” for 42 months (Revelation 11:2b, 7)—i.e., though the “spiritual realities” abide—they are, nevertheless, played out in the physical world of the 70th Week of Daniel; time and space does not extinguish the panoply of redemption throughout the progression of the 70th Week!  So much for Wohlberg’s inane comment:  “Daniel 9:27 says nothing about any ‘tribulation,’ ‘rebuilt’ Jewish temple, or ‘antichrist.’ Zero.”  

5). Daniel 9:24-27’s focus is the Messiah. After the Messiah is ‘cut off’ (referring to Christ’s death), ‘the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.’ This refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies led by Prince Titus in A.D. 70.

 

(Interesting – we are now into 70 AD and then in (6) below Wohlberg becomes retrograde and goes back before the crucifixion of Christ—for he most certainly can not go forward from the crucifixion, lest his entire eschatological canard be discredited and the 69th Week is separated from the 70th week!)

6). ‘He shall confirm the covenant.’ Paul said ‘the covenant’ was ‘confirmed before by God in Christ’ (Galatians 3:17). Jesus Christ came ‘to confirm the promises made to the fathers’ (Romans 15:8). The word ‘covenant’ is Messianic, and always applies to the Messiah, not antichrist.

 

BOLDARDASH!  Has he not read Isaiah 28:15, 18?

 

“Because you have said, ‘We have made a COVENANT (Strong’s same word for COVENANT used countless times - #1285 – including in Daniel 9:27) with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement . . . Your COVENANT with death will be annulled and your agreement with Sheol will not stand.”

 

If this sounds Messianic and an agreement with the Messiah—then I am the monkey’s uncle!

7). ‘He shall confirm the covenant with many.’ Jesus said, ‘This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many…’ (Matthew 26:28). Jesus was quoting Daniel 9:27 specifically.

 

No, this one who confirms such a covenant is the same one in that very same verse (Daniel 9:27) who is the DESOLATOR!  This is the same one who in Daniel 8:11-12 where it says:

 

“He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away (which presupposes they have been reinstituted), and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.  Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground.  He did all this and prospered.”

 

To assert that Jesus was referring to Daniel 9:27 (specifically) when He said “This is My blood of the new covenant” is a quantum leap and, considering Wohlberg’s thesis, isn’t this statement in the “midst of the week” (at Jesus’ “last supper” before Messiah’s being “cut off”) – at the very end of the first half of Daniel’s 70th Week that such a “covenant” is made?  No, this is not an allusion or direct reference to Daniel 9:27.  So, am I to assume that the “confirmation” of the Covenant occurred at the “last supper” in the upper room—i.e., the end of the first 3.5 years or nigh in the “midst of Wohlberg’s 70th week”—or was it “confirmed” at the beginning of Wohlberg’s week at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist?  Sufficient unto the day is the ambiguity thereof!  The answer, as from most Americans, is BOTH!

8). “In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice…to cease.” After 3 years of ministry, Jesus Christ’s death put an end to all sacrifices in God’s sight. He is the final Sacrifice!

 

How cavalier he is in the “3 year ministry of Jesus Christ!”  Christ is the final sacrifice, indeed, but His ministry was for 3.5 years, not 3 years and where does he arbitrarily assert such a calculation?  From the baptism of John (John 1:29-34) unto His first Passover (John 2:13-22) there were six months of “ministry” (from His baptism on the Day of Atonement to Passover is approximately six months) – for did He not perform His first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee before He went up to His first Passover after John’s baptism? (John 2)

9). “For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate” (Daniel 9:27, KJV). It was abominable for the Jewish leaders to put God’s Son to death. This ended their temple. Jesus predicted, “Your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38).

 

Then when did their sacrifices cease – some 37 years later? (i.e. 70 AD). Yes, the Second Temple ended – but it is not the sum and substance of their abominations.  This “overspreading of abominations” at the time of the end, in the latter days – extends from the termination of the sacrifice (in the midst of the 70th Week) until the 1,290th day (Daniel 12:11; 8:13-14).  When Jesus mentions the “Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14)—He is drawing direct reference to Daniel 12:11, as well as Daniel 11:31 and Daniel 9:27.  He speaks of the “midst” of the 70th Week of Daniel yet future, not of 70 AD, nor of Wohlberg’s biblical quote “your host is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38).  No, it was not after the “tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29) that “all the tribes of the earth” mourned – nor was it in 70 AD that these tribes saw “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (as Wohlberg’s allies amongst the Preterists claim—see next section below).

10). “The 70 weeks applied to the Jewish people (Daniel 9:24). Christ’s public ministry lasted 3 1/2 years (Wohlberg’s already said 3 years.) during which His focus was “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). After His resurrection and then for another 3 1/2 years, His disciples preached mostly to Jews (see Acts 1-6) –

 

(Note:  This is the same delusion held by brother Pickle of the Seventh Day Adventists—Daniel’s 70th Week ends at the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles.  Pickle also claims that there never was a separation or “gap” distinguished between the 69th and the 70th Week, nor, for that matter do such gaps occur in Holy Writ—everything is seamless, consecutive; the 70th Week simply follows the 69th Week.  I propose that brother Pickle come to terms with the GAP between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ!)

 

“When the Jewish Sanhedrin stoned Stephen in 34 AD (see Acts 7), the gospel shifted to the Gentiles (see Acts 13:46) - exactly as prophecy predicted.

 

(Another wholly unsubstantiated connection between this alleged gospel to the Gentiles and the 70th Week of Daniel—there is absolutely no connection between Cornelius’ reception of the gospel and the ending of the Seventieth Week of Daniel’s prophecy—NONE!)

“The evidence is overwhelming! (It IS a monkey!) These eight words found in Daniel 9:27:  “confirm, covenant, many, midst, sacrifice, cease, abominations, desolate” all find perfect fulfillment in Jesus Christ and early Christian history.”

 

(What history? – Surely not among the early Church Fathers who spoke so clearly about these things—which things I have pointed out—the entire SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL WAS YET FUTURE!—do your Church History, Pastor Wohlberg.).

 

“One major reason why the Jewish nation as a whole failed to receive its Messiah was because its scholars misinterpreted Daniel 9:27. They failed to see Jesus Christ as the predicted One who would die in the midst of the 70th week! The same thing is happening today as Christian scholars misapply the same prophecy.

 

(Gibberish – and said with Christian integrity and scholarship.)

“The ‘seven-year tribulation theory’ is like a gigantic bubble. Once Daniel 9:27 is correctly understood and the pin of truth inserted, ‘Pop goes the seven years!’ It’s a fact: There is no Bible text that teaches any ‘seven-year tribulation.’ If you hunt for it, you’ll end up like Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth. He never found it.  Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ confirmed God’s covenant, offered His life for the sins of the world, and by so doing, caused all animal sacrifices ‘to cease.’

"May speculative error cease in our minds as we follow His truth."

 

(And may the heretical teachings of one, Steve Wohlberg, who assigns the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ, perish from the face of the earth once and for all!  And, may he allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate Revelation 11 to his finite mind!)

 

THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST IN 70 AD

 

Of all the farcical and aberrant eschatologies perpetrated upon this earthly clod, there can be none other so irrelevant, yet disturbing, than that of the full-out Preterist.  Alas!  The ISOLATORS have united with the DESOLATOR!

 

Prophecy to them was fulfilled in 70 AD and the 3.5 years of Daniel’s 70th Week took place on the lead up to the destruction of the Herodian Temple by Titus in that fateful year (between 66.5 AD and 70 AD)—whereas Wohlberg’s deceit is completed (give or take) 3.5 years after Jesus’ crucifixion.  Oh, and lest I indulge your imagination to its extremity—the full-out Preterist asserts that the Second Coming of Christ occurred in 70 AD (unbeknownst to vast segments of earth’s population—regardless of Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:29-30 wherein “all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”).  This “spiritualized Second Coming” is so far out there that even Amillenarians must reject it!

 

“Daniel 9:27 makes the division of v. 26 explicit, dividing the two events of v. 26 (the death of the Messiah and then the coming of the destroyer of the Temple) into two halves of a week or more literally a ‘seven.’ Here is Edward J. Young’s translation of Daniel 9:27.

 

‘And he [i.e. Messiah] shall cause to prevail a covenant for the many one seven, and in the midst of the seven he shall cause sacrifice and oblation to cease, and upon the wing of abominations (is) one making desolate, and until end and that determined shall pour upon the desolate.’

 

“During the 70th week (in the middle of it) the Messiah would cause the covenant (the new covenant, which was for many, cf. Matt 26:28), to prevail. At this time, after the first half of the seventieth week, God would bring an end to the legitimacy of sacrifice. This happened in AD 30 when, after the three and a half year ministry of Jesus, God put an end to the legitimacy of the sacrificial system by the sacrifice of His Son. The Jews would offer sacrifices for another 40 years but after the sacrifice of the Lamb of God the sacrificial system of the Temple would be invalid in God’s eyes.  In the second half of Daniel’s 70th week would come the one who would make Israel desolate. This would confirm the new covenant, as the old covenant Temple system would totally disappear.” (Duncan McKenzie, Planet Preterist)

 

There are slight variations on this theme amongst these brethren, but the consistent ascription of the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ is incessant, deliberate and uncompromised among them all.

 

Again, the isolation of Daniel 9:27 from those verses in Daniel chapters 7 through 12 and of the Antichrist’s expressions, along with the Gentile World Powers under his sway throughout most of the book of Daniel (and into the Revelation), are all evidence which is swept under the rug of Amillennialism, Preterism, Postmillennialism, historicism and Reformational eschatology . . . all in a vain effort to attribute the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ!

 

“The ‘he’ in v. 27 is the Messiah (of v. 26). He would be confirming the covenant during a seven year period. This is not referring to the Antichrist establishing a seven year covenant with Israel. All subsequent scriptural references to the Antichrist that mention a time period do so in the context of a period of three and a half years, never seven (e.g. Dan. 7:25; Rev. 13:5). Other than a mistaken interpretation of Daniel 9:27, there is absolutely no scriptural support for the Antichrist making a seven year covenant with Israel.

 

“The covenant that would be confirmed (or would prevail) during the 70th week was the new covenant. The new covenant was established in the first half of the seventieth week with Jesus’ three and a half year ministry; this culminated with His once and for all sacrifice. The kingdom of God prevailed in heaven at this time but not yet on earth (cf. Rev. 12:5-12).” (Ibid.)

 

Thus, was the Kingdom of God established in the heavens in 70 AD, but not upon the earth (Although some of Preterism’s allies among the Post-Millenarians would think otherwise—i.e., the Kingdom of God HAS been established on the earth through the Church.)  Preterism’s conjectures are now enhanced by the likes of Hank Hanegraaff whose latest bombast against Premillenarians, accusing them of rank heresy, deserves The Tribulation Network’s counter-accusation and defense of Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey – to the contrary, Hank Hanegraaff has embraced rank heresy himself by attributing the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ.

 

DANIEL’S 70TH WEEK IS ONE-HALF OVER

 

Now, let us listen to the HALF-TIMERS and their deviant instructions which are designed to handle the prolific use of the final half of Daniel’s 70th Week in the Revelation (having come to terms, unlike their Preterist and SDA allies, that the Revelation was undoubtedly written post-70 AD (traditional view) and most probably 90+ AD during the reign of Emperor Domitian, so they exclusively allege that Daniel’s 70th week has already split itself, with one-half already fulfilled – these are the “half pregnant ones” who, as Wohlberg, ascribe the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ, but in a half-hearted fashion (Yes, I’m being sardonic!):

 

“The prophetic period of time here is divided into four sections.

 

“7 weeks or 49 years.

 

“62 weeks or 434 years.

 

“First half of one week - 3 1/2 years.

 

“Second half of one week - 3 1/2 years.

 

“Unto the Messiah, the Prince was to be 69 weeks or 483 years. Jesus Christ became the Messiah at His baptism in the Jordan, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word for Messiah is ‘Anointed.’ The Anointed One - Luke 3:21-23.

 

Naturally, this writer does not see that Jesus was not proclaimed “Messiah the Prince” (Daniel 9:25) by “your people” (Daniel 9:24)—the Jews—until at the close of his 3.5 years of ministry at His “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11).

“The simplest way of arriving at the date of the ‘Commandment to restore and build Jerusalem’ is to measure backward from the anointing of Jesus.

 

“He was 30 years of age at the time of His anointing - Luke 3:23.

 

“Add this to 457 years B.C. at which time the commandment was given - Ezra 7:11-26. This gives us 487 years.

 

“Now subtract the 4 years mistake of our present Calendar. This leaves 483 years, or exactly 69 prophetic weeks.

 

“The last week is seven years.

 

“When Jesus was ‘Anointed’ 69 of the 70 weeks was in the past.  But one week remained to be fulfilled.

 

“The 70th week was to be given for the confirmation of the Covenant.

 

“The First half of the one week Jesus confirms the Covenant.

 

“The Covenant was to be confirmed for 1 week, or 7 years.  Jesus Christ confirmed the Covenant the first 1/2 of the 70th week. From the time of the Messiah, anointing of Christ, to the end of His earthly ministry is exactly 3 1/2 years. 

 

(Note:  These dear brethren are conflicted on WHEN this covenant was made by their Jesus – was it at the beginning of His ministry or at the end of it?)

 

 “In the midst of the week He, Christ, was to cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. This He did by the offering of Himself on the Cross. The sacrifice and oblations were those of the Law of Moses. Nothing could abolish those ordinances but the offering of the real antitypical Lamb of God - John 1:29. The sufferings of Christ satisfied every demand of the Law as it says in Romans 10:4.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

“Thus from the time of the ‘Going forth of the commandment’ to the Crucifixion of Christ 69 1/2 full weeks of 486 1/2 actual years had passed.

“Between the end of the first half of the 70th week and the beginning of the last half of the same week, the entire church age must intervene. Mistaken interpretations are responsible for the placing of the last week in the end of the present age. Just half of the 70th week remains to be fulfilled.

 

(Note:  Unlike the pure Seventh-Day Adventists who dispense of the entire 70th Week within 3.5 years on either side of the cross, and realizing the preponderance of Scripture and latter days’ numerology relative to the 70th Week found in the Revelation, Ken Birks (an espouser of this view), conveniently places the last half of the 70th Week at the close of the age, yet future—i.e., during the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:14))

 

“The Second Half of the One Week the Two Witnesses Confirm The Covenant.

 

(And, again, brother Ken Birks is forced to “overlap” the prophetic ministry of the Two Witnesses with the latter half of Daniel’s 70th Week, because he knows they “prophesy” for “one thousand two hundred and sixty days” – therefore, it is impossible for them to have had a full 1,260 days of unmitigated empowerment in the first half (since the first half is already fulfilled) – and, most assuredly, the trampling of the “holy city” for forty-two months MUST OF NECESSITY take place during the same time frame as the empowerment of the Two Witnesses (who are neither harmed nor is their ministry frustrated one iota—Rev. 11:5-6) – therefore, the 42 months and the 1,260 days of empowerment are CONCURRENT time frames – and, consequently, the Two Witnesses sit idly by while the holy city is trampled under foot for 42 months!  What irks this math teacher is: “What does Birks do with the 3.5 days that their body lies in the street of the Great City?”  He is forced to EXCLUDE it from the latter half of Daniel’s 70th Week because these two have testified for 1,260 days; therefore, it must needs be that on the 1,263.5th day that they are resurrected; or that these final 3.5 days are simply part of their prophetic ministry and therefore fall within the 1,260 time frame.  This is pure nonsense!

 

“Revelation 11:3 ‘And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.’  

 

(Note:  The only problem here is that these Two Witnesses are apparently exempt from the entire onslaught of the Beast from the Bottomless Pit who wrecks havoc upon the “tribulation saints” for 1,260 days.  These two “not-so-nice Good Samaritans” are then killed into the post-1,260 days of Daniel’s 70th Week and their dead body lies in open exposure for 3.5 days or around the 1,263.5-day or POST-WEEK—none of which makes any sense whatsoever!)

 

“The last half of the 70th week given over to the confirmation of the covenant by the Two Witnesses, who confirm it by signs and wonders of the judgments of God.  Even as Jesus confirmed it in the first half in signs and wonders of Grace as it says in Romans 15:8.  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.

“Revelation 11-12-13 chapters bring the last half of the 70th week into view. It is variously designated as 1260 days, 42 months. Times, times, and a half time. It is 3 1/2 actual years. (Ken Birks’ The Explanation of the Seventy Weeks)

 

THREE BLIND MICE—SEE HOW THEY RUN

 

These three excerpts portray the ascription of the work of Antichrist to Jesus Christ – Steve Wohlberg (the entire 70th Week has been fulfilled between the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist unto the baptism of the Holy Spirit of Cornelius and the Gentiles – about 3.5 years after the crucifixion or a total of 7 years – thus was the entire 70 weeks fulfilled); Duncan McKenzie (the full-out Preterist who claims that the Second Coming of Christ occurred in 70 AD wherein the heavens experienced the Kingdom of God and the final 3.5 years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week occurred between 66.5 AD and 70 AD until the destruction of the Herodian Temple); and, finally, Ken Birks’ belated 3.5 years wherein  Birks affirms that the first 3.5 years of Daniel’s final Week ended at the crucifixion of Christ and that the final 3.5 years are still to be fulfilled at the close of the age or latter half of Daniel’s 70th Week yet future.

 

All three ascribe the work of Antichrist in Daniel 9:27 to Christ – all three conclude the final 3.5 years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week differently – and all three are deceived into thinking that Daniel 9:27 stands alone – apart from Daniel chapters 7 through 12.  Their conclusions not only do injustice to the contextual study of the Scriptures, but the Divine intent to disclose the true Abomination of Desolation, the role of Antichrist, and the struggle facing both Israel and the Church in the Latter Days are occluded.   

 

Moreover, all three, upon closer examination, discount any mentioning of the full Seventieth Week in the Book of Revelation (at best only the final 3.5 years remain) and, unfortunately, their protagonists, many pretribulationists or Premillenarians, unwittingly concur that there is likewise, absolutely no, or very little, allusion nor mentioning of the entire Seventieth Week of Daniel in the Book of Revelation—which we have proven there not only is but that it logically and spiritually is dead center in the Revelation (Revelation 11)! 

 

“Prophecy is pretty quiet about the first half of the 70th week; it’s the last half when all hell breaks loose, literally.” (“History, Our Future:  Daniel’s 70 Weeks,” Watchman Bible Study).

 

What infuriates these “three blind mice” is Israel’s incursion upon the stage of world history—ONCE AGAIN!  She must needs be APOSTATE; a fluke of history; a retrograde deviation from the Scripture; a work of the devil; a grandiose distraction; and a preposterous, invasive, intrusion into the affairs of the true people of God, the Church.  Worse, she is a RACIST STATE and a bothersome inflammation wrought by Christian Zionists duped by secular Zionism into believing that God is somehow still working with the sons of Jacob!  What conflict of national interest into America’s foreign affairs—and the affairs of all nations—do such “Christian Zionist” obstructionists cause upon our worldly scene?  Testimony?  What Testimony?  These are the scumbags of history—the rejects we Christians and Moslems, through conquest, dispersion, Crusader-Caliphate purges and expulsions, inquisition, pogroms, holocaust, assimilation and now Jihad, sought and seek to annihilate from the face of the planet!  Alas!  Why contend with these latter-day Pilgrim deviants who’ve resurrected their detestable presence (miserly though their land allotments are) and to plant these JEWS, once again, into their Beautiful Land!  Shame, shame upon the Kingdom of God, upon the Church of the Living God!  Shame upon the Christian English Zionists—those insufferable colonizers; and shame upon the Lion’s cubs (especially the USA) who encouraged and presently persist in Zion’s revival!

 

Let not my facetious outburst alarm—I meant every innuendo embedded in its acidic discourse and that with Christian forbearance and deep concern that brethren who shame our Lord’s person and work shall one day reap the whirlwind of their subtle antagonisms which they bear toward the Jew; while their pious protestations, to the contrary, neither amuse nor persuade me of their blood-guiltiness, and the “doctrines of demons” which they have embraced—for these rejections are real and obvious to them who have understanding of the Latter Days.

 

The entrenchment of this heresy is pervasive amongst Amillenarians and those associated with this deception—even so, the international encyclopedia Wikipedia dabbles in this subterfuge by inserting in its text on the Seventieth Week of Daniel’s Prophecy the following deception wherein Jesus Christ does the work of Antichrist and the destruction of Jerusalem takes place in Daniel 9:27:

 

          B. Daniel 9:27a - Messiah:  And he shall confirm a covenant with the many [for] one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,

          A. Daniel 9:27b - Jerusalem Destroyed:  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.  (Wikipedia:  Prophecy of Seventy Weeks)

 

Carefully note that William H. Shea (an avowed Amillenarian and himself a Seventh-Day Adventist allied with the Biblical Research Institute of the SDA General Conference) has, by editorial insertion in this “anything goes” encyclopedia, usurped quantum eisegesis into Wikipedia and discredited an otherwise outstanding source of information; fortunately, I have purposefully countered his exclusivity and inserted what the vast majority of Premillenarians affirm to be the truth:  The confirmation of the covenant in Daniel 9:27 is made by the Antichrist, not Jesus Christ, the Messiah.   

 

THE GAP BETWEEN THE 69TH AND 70TH WEEK OF DANIEL

 

Some contend, like Steve Wohlberg, that any GAP between the 69th and the 70th Week of Daniel invalidates the message of the New Covenant.  In a word:  Absurd!  The very nature of the First and Second Coming of Christ demands a separation between the 69th and the 70th Week.  “Until Messiah the Prince” (Daniel 9:25) – i.e., Messiah’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem – “and after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off” (i.e., four days “after” which connotes the “inspection of the Lamb of God” and meets the Mosaic requirement of such a four-day inspection—Exodus 12:3-6—prior to the Passover and the “offering up” of the lamb).  It is obvious that the “three blind mice” see NOTHING of these four-days of inspection of the Lamb of God!

 

It is not “until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolator” (Daniel 9:27b) that we abide nigh 2,000 years the Second Coming of Messiah wherein the “Lamb upon the throne” (Rev. 5:6-14) shall be seen “coming in the cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27—and much to the chagrin of most Preterists) and the time wherein it is said:  “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11—much to the consternation of Rick Warren who most likely will be busy about his purpose-driven purposes while condemning brethren “caught up” in the inane notion that prophecy is a distraction or a ploy of the devil).  This “consummation . . . is poured out on the Desolator” occurs during the “Wrath of the Lamb . . . the great winepress of the wrath of God” (Rev. 6:16-17; 16:19; cf. Rev. 14:10, 19; 15:1, 7; 16:1; 19:15) during the 30 days from the close of the 70th Week unto the 1,290th day (Daniel 12:11).

 

Yes, there is a two-thousand year disposition between “My Servant, the BRANCH” (depicted in Zechariah 3:6-9 as Joshua, the High Priest), and “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH” (depicted in Zechariah 6:9-13 when this same Joshua (not Zerubbabel the Governor) is crowned as the Priest-King—“He shall build the temple of the LORD. . . He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both (the kingship and the priesthood).”).  In the first coming of Messiah He came as the suffering servant—My Servant the BRANCH; the second coming of Messiah He comes as the Son of Man with power and great glory:  “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).

 

Oh, may the Lord of the Church, prepare our hearts, as we look unto Jesus in these Last Days—may this rank deception, which comes in a plethora of colors, shapes and sizes, wherein the work of Antichrist is attributed to Jesus Christ, be stripped from the Church’s lexicon as we approach the end of the age—with clarity and resolute defiance in the power of the Holy Spirit, we withstand him who doth accuse, by the power of the blood and by the word of our testimony, as we embrace THE SCRIPTURE OF TRUTH (Daniel 10:21).

 

God bless us all as we affirm the faith once delivered!  The entire Seventieth Week remains yet unfulfilled – but we rapidly approach its commencement.   As “My Servant the BRANCH” laid down His life, taking upon Himself “the sin of us all” (i.e. “Take away (from Joshua the high priest) the filthy garments from him . . . I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes”—Zechariah 3:4-5); even so, now He Who comes with “many crowns” upon His head (Rev. 19:12; Zechariah 6:11—the “elaborate” 3-tiered crown—our Prophet, Priest and King) will be the same One spoken of in Hebrews 9:27:  “So Messiah was offered once to bear the sins of many . . . to those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a SECOND TIME, apart from sin, for salvation.”  HOSANNA:  Bring Salvation NOW!

 

WE’RE LIVING IN THE 70TH WEEK?  WHAT ARE THE 14,000 DAYS?  Or THE PECULIAR TEACHING OF NICK GOGGIN ALONG WITH HERB PETERS PRE-EMPTIVE 70TH WEEKERS – GOD’S PLAN v. SATAN’S PLAN

 

The Watchman Bible Study Group, headed up by editor Nick Goggin of either Chicago, Ill. or Burien, WA, initially comes across as insightful and wholly committed to the Premillenarian interpretation of the Scriptures. 

 

However, upon closer examination, it becomes glaringly apparent that the site is intensely “anti-Judaic” and not so subtle in its anti-Semitic claptrap (although Nick rants and raves about not being anti-Semitic—he’s redefined what being anti-Semitic is but he’s one poor wordsmith).  The “truth teller” himself, Ted Pike, and his battle against “hate crime legislation” shows up on the site—the dynamic duo slips and slides all over their denials of their latent and blatant animosity toward the Jews.

 

What’s so peculiar is the fact that on his “education page” he gives high accolades to the likes of Chuck Missler, Herb Peters, Constance Cumbey (all of whom are enamored with Javier Solana and a Euro-Centric Antichrist, which, apparently, Nick is as well—but let’s face it, all three can spot an anti-Semite miles away; so I have no idea why Nick credits his education from that lot), Charlie and John Zachary who gave Nick insight on the 14,000 days (which we shall discuss), Ron Wyatt, Jonathan Gray, Kent Hovind, William Koenig (apparently running for US President in 2008), Doug Perry with Fellowship of the Martyrs (a brother well spoken of), along with Chip Ingram).  Praise God I’m not on Nick’s education list!

 

That said – let’s take a look at Nick’s intricate way of obfuscating the work of Antichrist and dragging the 70th Week into a whole new dimension of obscurity. 

 

This is a form of Premillenarian pre-emption –listen as Nick expounds:

 

“I would like to point out as well that there is no direct connection to the antichrist's covenant coinciding with the starting of the last 7 years of history where God deals with Israel as a nation again. I also have no reason to believe that the 70th week is marked by the antichrist's covenant with many either. I believe the 70th week of Daniel begins on God’s timing and is indeed even written in the stars as a sign.

 

“The antichrist confirms a covenant with many for one week. But is that week the beginning of the 70th week? Or is that week-long covenant made for seven years independent of the starting and ending of the 70th week of Daniel? I’ll try and explain better... I see it two ways, either the 70th week of Daniel’s beginning and end is based on God’s plans for Israel or Satan’s plans.” (Nick Goggin, History, Our Future: Daniel’s 70th Week, Watchman Bible Study, 11-20-2007)

 

Prophetic Technology (Astronomy Dates – Biblical Events) by John Zachary is the inspiration behind Nick Goggin’s thesis and why Antichrist’s accord with Israel must be “independent” from the commencement of Daniel’s 70th Week—i.e., in Nick’s thinking the 70th Week of Daniel does NOT need Antichrist to commence the 70th Week with a “treaty” or “covenant” with modern Israel—but the stars sure do!  What the commencement of Daniel’s 70th Week needs is 14,000 days from the time modern Israel gave up their Temple Mount in 1967 until Rosh Hoshanah in 2005 (because this 14,000 is similar in time in reference to Israel’s wandering in the Wilderness prior to entering the Good Land, and similar between the “rejection of Jesus as Messiah” by the majority of the Jews until the destruction of their Temple in 70 AD). 

 

In other words, Nick suggests that the “week-long covenant made with the many for seven years by Antichrist” is independent of the commencement of the 70th week of Daniel.  Nick calls this differentiation “God’s Plan v. Satan’s Plan.”   

 

 

AND CULMINATES IN THE 21st CENTURY A.D.!
(Application to 20th Century Events That Reveal Design and Lend Support to the endtime events)

 

Nick sets in motion the blurring of the commencement of Daniel’s 70th Week—as if it has nothing to do with the confirmation of the treaty signed by Antichrist and the actual commencement of Daniel’s 70th Week.  But why?  Because it’s a lead up to his “14,000 day thesis” and is somehow confirmed by Herb Peter’s possible commencement of the 70th Week already begun!  In other words, the commencement of the Daniel’s 70th Week is not subjected to Antichrist’s treaty with Israel.

 

“I think what Herb L. Peters has been presenting fits very snugly in what I found when I combined the 14,000 days and the exact day prophecies from Daniel and John. It’s Satan's reaction to God’s clock starting again. Exactly 14,000 days from their rejection of God’s provision in giving them back the temple mount and Jerusalem (1967), God’s clock for Israel turned on again. One generation after rejecting God’s gift through lack of faith, a new generation takes lead over Israel. Now, after God starts the clock, the long-time leader Sharon is removed from power in early 2006. What’s happening in the Middle East fits right in with the timeline too. I really believe we're building up to the end right now.  If so, we can expect to see the temple going up soon, perhaps within a year or less.  If it does, then that means we’ve been in the 70th week of Daniel since Rosh Hoshanah last year!  (i.e., October 4, 2005)  Prophecy is pretty quiet about the first half of the 70th week; it’s the last half when all hell breaks loose, literally.

 

“It’s (i.e., the 14,000 day theory) based on dates, which are based on the orbits of the solar system. That by itself is incredible to me, however what makes it supernatural is that this very length of time, 14,000 days, was used first in the Bible, to the day, for the wilderness wanderings from Sinai to crossing Jordan and then converged with history the very day Israel gave up control of the Temple Mount to lead us to Rosh Hashanah, 2005! That looks a lot like the precision of the first 69 weeks! And that same 14,000 day length of time follows the end of the 69 weeks. This means that 14,000 days flank both the end of the 69 weeks and the start of the 70th week, completing the prophecy given to Daniel regarding the future of His people, Israel! See more mirrors in the prophetic timeline.”

 

“There is a possible fulfillment right now of Daniel 9:27 with the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) being brought forth by the European Union (EU).  It’s a 7-year funding instrument (effective date:  January 1, 2007) with a mid-term review, which is currently having the effect of bringing people to the table to discuss peace in the Middle East. See News and background here. It’s being spearheaded by Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the EU.  I recommend reading Herb L. Peters free online e-book Recommendation 666. He has been watching the EU for over a decade and studying Bible prophecy. This is another reason why I believe the end-times are now. This fits Bible prophecy AND the timeline I’ve been researching. Herb explains here.

 

“It could be anytime after the children are born, but we see from history that it was much more precise a prophecy than that, it was 14,000 days from the triumphal entry when Christ made this prophecy [April 6, 32 AD] to when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple Mount [August 5, 70 AD]. We have the wholly Biblical first account of a generation when Israel wandered the wilderness for 14,000 days exactly.” (Ibid.)

 

Nick concludes that in 1967 (June 17, 1967—the actual date Israel gave back the Temple Mount to the Moslems) until October 4, 2005 there are 14,000 days with the 14,000th day landing on October 4, 2005.  The only problem with Nick’s time spans is this:  They don’t total to 14,000 days.  Using the Gregorian calendar of 365 ¼  days in a year, there are 36 full years from (1968 through 2004) or 13,154 days + the days remaining in both 1967 (199) and 2005 (278) or 477 or 13,154 + 477 = 13,631 days (approx.).  Since the lunar or sabbatical calendar of the Hebrews is actually less days the figure of 13,631 would be the greater of the two; therefore, where are the other approximate 369 days or additional year?  Perhaps Nick’s Rosh Hashanah is 2006 and not 2005, falling on September 22, 2006.  So, from October 4, 2005 until September 22, 2006 we could add an additional 334 days and a total of 334 + 13,631 = 13,965 days (still short around 35 days but getting close; and, if we start on June 7, 1967 we’d come to 13,975 days).  Notwithstanding my own calculation—let’s say somehow, some way, Nick gets to his 14,000 days—but we have this information to contend with as well: 

 

“On Saturday June 17, 1967, shortly after the end of the Six Day War, Defense minister Moshe Dayan entered the Al-Aksa Mosque for a historic meeting. In a gesture of good will, Dayan sat down on the prayer carpet with five leaders of the Supreme Muslim Council (the Waqf) of what had been Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem. That discussion fixed Israel's policy regarding the Temple Mount, a policy that remains unchanged to this day.” (Preparations for a Third Jewish Temple, Edited by Lambert Dolphin)

 

Nick’s 70th Week kicks off, not with the “Treaty of Death and Hell” but with Ariel Sharon’s removal from office and coma in early 2006; and, since, as Nick claims, “Prophecy is pretty quiet about the first half of the 70th week; it’s the last half when all hell breaks loose, literally” – then things have been relatively calm since October 4, 2005 until the present—or around 800 days or so (at this writing it is now December 9, 2007).  So, the big question is:  When will the half-way mark happen in Nick’s scenario—or does it matter, now that the 70th Week is connected to the stars and not to the Antichrist?  For, in Nick’s world, the Antichrist is involved in a “seven-year treaty” having nothing to do with the 70th Week of Daniel.  In any event, let’s just say Nick’s mid-point in his parallel universe would calculate to something like this:  Take the 1,260 days until the middle of the 70th Week or – October 4, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 = 1,184 days + an additional 76 days into 2009 to account for a total of 1,260 days (1,184 + 76 = 1,260 days).  This would bring us on the Gregorian calendar to March 16, 2009 (because 2008 has 29 days in February).

 

So, what is mid-March, 2009 – anything significant?  Turns out Bach died on March 16 in 1640, that’s all.  But to Nick it doesn’t matter – time will run out somewhere on the 240th day of the year 2012 or on August 27, 2012—not quite on December 21, 2012 the terminus of the Mayan Calendar.  Also, nothing on the Jewish Calendar matched with August 27, 2012 takes place.  Nick doesn’t tell us what happens at the end of the 70th Week in August, 2012; but the key is to get the 70th Week started at the end of the 14,000 day from the time the Israelis gave up control of the Temple Mount to the Moslems in 1967.

 

“The two 14,000 day periods are separated by 1,896.83 years, but the 14,000 days is mirrored on both sides of the gap of time between the 69th and 70th week in Daniel’s prophecy.

 

“14,000 days from giving up the Temple Mount to the Jewish ‘head of the year’ (i.e., Rosh Hoshanah) I believe that God gave Israel back the Temple Mount in the Six-Day-War. However, on the very day that Israel took back Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, they gave up control of the Mount to Islamic control and ever since have been haunted by that decision. I believe that was God’s timing to start the 70th week, but because of that generation’s rejection of God’s provision in giving them the Temple Mount, an extension period of one generation, 14,000 days, was added so that generation would not be in power for the 70th week. This is the same principle as the first mention in scripture which was also for Israel from Mt. Sinai to the Promised Land because they didn’t accept God’s provision, but turned to idols and their own desires.” (Nick Goggin, Mirrors in Prophetic Timelines, Watchman Bible Study, 09-18-2007)

 

Now that Nick has God’s Plan—Nick’s actual beginning of the 70th Week of Daniel which would be somewhere around October 4, 2005 or September 22, 2006 (if we deign to give him more days to reach his 14,000)—Nick now launches into “Satan’s Plan” which is the “seven-year covenant” which has nothing to do with God’s Plan and the beginning of the 70th Week of Daniel’s prophecy.

 

“January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2013 - ENPI - This is a seven-year political instrument that ‘breathes new life’ into the Euro-Med from 1995. It has a mid-term review in 2010. Fulfilled Prophecy - This website is run by Herb L. Peters, who has been watching the developments of the European Union along with Constance Cumby very closely over the past few decades. Read more on the European Union.” (Nick Goggin, The Coming Times, Watchman Bible Study, 11-26-07)

 

At this juncture Herb Peters' Euro-Centric Antichrist ascends to the platform to give Nick the “precise speculation” he needs to commence his “seven-year treaty” (which has nothing to do with the 70th Week of Daniel).  Nick’s Antichrist is, in all likelihood none other than Javier Solana.  Again, what Nick is saying is that his 14,000-day theory somehow allows him to extrapolate the theory that the “week-long covenant made for seven years” by the Antichrist is apart and separate from “the starting and ending of the 70th week of Daniel.” 

 

“Satan’s Plan” is the “week-long covenant made for seven years” – the gap between the end of Rosh Hoshanah in 2005 and the commencement of Herb Peters’ ENPI January 1, 2007 treaty with Israel orchestrated by Javier Solana is irrelevant, since God’s Plan is different from Satan’s Plan.

 

“January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2013 - ENPI - This is a seven-year political instrument that ‘breathes new life’ into the Euro-Med from 1995. It has a mid-term review in 2010. Fulfilled Prophecy - This website is run by Herb L. Peters, who has been watching the developments of the European Union along with Constance Cumby very closely over the past few decades. Read more on the European Union.  (Nick Goggin, The Coming Times, The Watchman Bible Study, 11-26-2007)

 

Finally, the pre-wrath Herb Peters:

 

“So, in this one report, we serious students of Bible prophecy may have all we need to suspect that we could already be in the 70th week of Daniel. And in my opinion, the only arguments that can be raised against this possibility are based either on past speculations, or ignorance of the facts on the ground -- not the Bible.

 

“Does that mean I know for sure we're in the 70th week? Although I believe all the evidence suggests this, I allow room that I could be reading things wrong. However, I know what I see. And so far, what I see matches the prophecy of Daniel’s 70th week.

 

“You see, I believe the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and Barcelona Process could be the covenant with many spoken of in Daniel 9:27. I also believe the European Neighborhood Policy could very well be the confirming process that’s referred to in the above passage. And, I believe the EU's coming budget period could be the seven-year period mentioned in the verse.” (Herb Peters, Confirming a Covenant, Fulfilled Prophecy, What Herb Thinks, 06-23-06)

 

The aforementioned European Neighborhood Policy accord was signed between Solana’s EU and Israel, having been “finalized in October 2006” and taking “effect” on 1 January 2007.  It is considered as a “A Progressive Seven-Year Accord Involving Israel” (European Neighborhood Policy); therefore, was Herb alluding to Nick’s 14,000 day theory which commenced Nick’s 70th Week on October 4, 2005?  He could not have been alluding to October 2006 or 1 January 2007 because “What Herb Thinks” was written on 06-23-06 before those dates.  

 

As you can readily imagine—there is no end to these contemplations!  Any way, shape or form – any Biblical distortion – any chronology which will detach Antichrist from his nefarious treaty and the commencement of Daniel’s 70th Week – any way that the Prince of Darkness can obfuscate the Abomination of Desolation—he will do it and, sad to say; yes, and dearly would Antichrist logistically conceal his true “base of operation.”  We’ve not heard the end of his convolutions!

 

IN CONCLUSION

 

So concludes our twenty-seven chapters of ANTICHRIST – REFLECTIONS ON THE DESOLATOR.  We keep this in mind and spirit, that the future Antichrist—a man yet to be embodied by the Prince of Darkness—is destined to “make war against the saints of the Most High” – against Jew and Christian – but, ALAS!  his forebears have done great damage to the holy people and to those who bear the image of Christ . . . for “you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time” (I John 2:18).

 

We have not laid stress upon those deceits past, but to the impending doom and ultimate glory yet to be revealed.  As Albert James Dager in Media Spotlight has said:  “The spirit of anti-Christ is far more prevalent than most would imagine, insinuating itself into every area of human endeavor including the media, government, and economics, as well as social, political, and military institutions, and every religion including even the Christian churches . . . This does not negate the biblical prophecy of a last-days ‘man of sin.’” (Albert James Dager, “A History of Anti-Christ, Part 1– The Antediluvian Age,” Media Spotlight, Vol. 30 No. 2).

 

Our hope is that our emphasis has paralleled that same allotment given by Daniel and John in the Revelation to this most difficult and terrible of times and personage.  To those who contest this final stress brings additional burdens to bear upon both Israel and the Church in the latter days, and even distracts from the Blessed Hope of His appearing and His coming’s apparent relief – well, allow me to bring to your attention that we are not “ignorant of his devices” (II Cor. 2:11) – for this slithering serpent well would conceal his aspirations to the children of men—and, in particular, “If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you beforehand.  Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.  For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:23-27).

 

Indeed, Antichrist recoils at his exposure by those “valiant for the truth” – surely the Prince of Darkness delights in brethren who would conceal his true identity, and all the more in those who would attribute his workmanship to the true Messiah!

 

Even so, those critics whose accusatory tone declares our folly betrays the true exegesis of Scripture; instead, they bemoan our grandiose attempt at eisegesis and declare it distracts from the true meaning of the text—to them, we admonish to search the Scripture whether these things be so (Acts 17:11); and to “try the spirits whether they be of God or not” (I John 4:1).  We stand upon His admonition to “discern the signs of the times” (Matthew 16:3) and confront the deception and despair descending upon this troubling scene—while holding forth the TESTIMONY OF JESUS at the close of this age.  Our ultimate recourse is to Him Who bears the glory and will, by the breath of His mouth, consume this Lawless One, with the brightness of His coming (II Thess. 2:8); for He has said, “Look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation; for at the appointed time the end shall be.” (Daniel 8:19)  

 

HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT . . .

 

May I leave you with this – deep into the 70th Week of Daniel, when all seems to be lost – there is the superabundant grace of Christ supplying us beyond the outer limits of our ability to withstand – from Corrie’s letter:

 

“In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other.

 
“But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting.

 
“The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian's life.

 

“Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also.

 
“But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

 

“When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says.  Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through.  No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down.

 

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

 

“For I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life.

 
“Hallelujah!”

 

- Corrie ten Boom - 1974