The "Seventy Sevens" of Daniel 9:24-27
William Diehl
The interpretation that some students of Daniel 9 have adopted that the last "seven" of "seventy sevens" in Daniel 9:24 ends merely with the "stoning of Steven" in AD. 34 cannot be maintained from either the context of Daniel or the interpretation that our Lord and the Apostle Paul placed upon this text.
It is relatively clear that the final "seven" years of the 490 years begins in AD. 27 with the anointing of our Lord as the Messiah in the Jordan. Our Lord Jesus Christ, after His three and one half years of ministry, is "cut off" in the middle of the final seven years in the year AD. 31 when Imperial Pagan Rome with the acquiescence of the Jewish leaders crucified our Lord. This act of "unjustly putting Him to death" (Dan 9:26 TEV) caused the "sacrifices and offerings" for sin in the earthly sanctuary in Jerusalem to cease their "spiritual" Levitical significance since type had met the antitype in Christ Jesus. The "sacrifices and offerings" in the earthly sanctuary in Jerusalem "physically" ceased in AD. 70 by hand of the same Pagan Roman power, thus causing the earthly sanctuary with its "sacrifices" to completely come to an end. If one reads the final verse of the "seventy sevens" prophecy in Daniel 9:27b which relates to the remaining last half of the final week: "and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate (desolator)", some interpreters have generally considered this as the "stoning of Steven" when the Jewish nation completely rejected Christ and the Gospel went to the Gentiles.
The final half of the "seven" clearly however ends with the "consummation" when "that determined" punishment would be "poured upon the desolator". This punishment of the "desolator" at the Consummation can hardly be interpreted to refer to the stoning of Steven in AD.34.
Our Lord in Matthew 24, applied the "abomination of desolation" to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD. 70 by Pagan Rome and clearly intimated that there would also likewise be a "desolator" in the form of a false christ who would seek to deceive His Church in the form of the "Papal" Rome after the fall of "Pagan" Rome.
The Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, applied this "abomination" to the "man of sin" who was already at work in the church in Paul's day and who, after pagan Rome was "taken out of the way", would be "revealed" and would completely infiltrate the Christian church and cause the terrible "falling away" from the true gospel. This "Mystery of Iniquity" would "deceive those who refused to believe the truth by means of a false religion and wicked deceit".
It is clear from the many references to the "1260 days", the "42 months", and the "three and one half years" in Daniel and Revelation apocalyptic literature that this final half of the last "seven" years of the 490 year prophecy of Daniel 9 is to be interpreted allegorically to symbolize the entire Christian era from the resurrection of Christ unto the coming of our Lord on the Final Day.
It is in the final moments of the "hour of God's judgment" (Rev. 14:7) before the "Consummation" (Dan 9:27), when the words of Daniel 9:27b will be fulfilled in the "pouring out" of the wrath of God upon the Antichrist who has "placed the Abomination of Desolation" in the Christian church, persecuted the true people of God, and taken away the "daily" sacrifice, the true Gospel of Christ.
The great theme of Daniel 7 and 8 is the Judgment of God upon the terrible "desolator", the "dreadful ten horned Fourth Beast with the little horn", who not only kills the Messiah in the midst of the "week" but also makes war with the people of God for the remaining allegorical half of the "week".
Thus the same allegorical final "half of the week" of Daniel 9:27b is also mentioned in:
1.) the "three and one half years of Daniel 7:25
2.) the "forty two months" of Revelation 11:2
3.) the "1260 days" of Revelation 11:3
4.) the "1260 days" of Revelation 12:6
5.) the "time, times, and half time" of Rev 12:14
6.) the "forty two months" of Revelation 13:5
All these allegorical time symbols of "three and one half years" are derived from final half of the "seven" of Daniel 9:27b and allegorically refer to the time of Great Tribulation (Matt 24) of the Messianic era which begins at the resurrection of Christ and ends at the second coming of our Lord in the clouds of heaven. It is at the "Consummation" (Dan 9:27b) that He will "pour out that which has been determined" upon the "desolator" and finally and eternally restore the Sanctuary, the people, and the kingdom of God. The kingdoms of this earth will become the kingdom of our God and His people and then "there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an Abomination or a lie." Rev. 21:27
In conclusion, it is clear that both our Lord and the Apostle Paul saw the final "3 and 1/2 years" of Daniel 9:27b as an allegorical era applying to the entire Christian era from the resurrection of Christ unto the second coming of Christ. From the study of the context of Daniel and also from the way that Jesus and Paul applied the apocalyptic term "abomination of desolation", it is clear that Daniel 9:27b is referring to the "1260 days" of Daniel and Revelation and is an allegorical term referring to the Christian era during which God's people struggle and wage spiritual warfare with the dreadful fourth Beast with the "Little Horn" namely, Pagan and Papal Rome. These two aspects of the Antichrist are also called the Desolator "who speaks pompous words against the Most High and shall persecute the saints of the Most High and shall intend to change times and the Law", and also called the "Beast", the Image to the Beast, the "False Prophet" and the "Abomination of Desolation".
Bill D
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