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A Gap - A Waiting Period

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A Gap – a Waiting Time (A Daniel 9 Study)

 
Introducing New Sacred Times
 
The last of the laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai included two new sacred calendars. One, a sacred sabbatical year; the other, a Jubilee year. Since both involved the land, which actually belonged to God, some call these new timing requirements “The Law of Land Use.”
 
The Sabbatical Year (Leviticus 25:1-7)
 
The sabbatical year is alluded to in Exodus 23:10-11, where it is described as a period the land would lie fallow (or rest). In Deuteronomy 15:1-18, it is called a Shemita (or release), where it notes additional things were to occur.[1] Collectively, this year included:

Graph 1.png 2     [2]
During that Sabbatical year there was to be no planting or harvesting. The volunteer crops could be gleaned by the poor, servants, masters, visitors, etc., even the animals. The year was to be a holy rest and refreshment to uniquely honor God. God promised that in the preceding sixth year the crops would have two times their normal yield to cover the next two years!

The Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25:8-17)
 
The word “Jubilee” means “blowing the ram’s horn.” They were to count 49 years. On the last year (the seventh Sabbatical), on the Day of Atonement, the horns (shofars) were blown. It commemorated the descent of the Lord on Mount Sinai to unite with His people in a covenant of grace.[3] The morning of that first day of the Jubilee year, all sins were forgiven and removed from the sanctuary and camp (the atonement rituals). Then its celebration began. Dramatically:

  • All land was to be returned to the original tribes.
  • All slaves were set free (Jewish and Gentile).
  • Again, all debts were cancelled.
  • The land was to continue in a “rest” for a second year (Sabbath year plus Jubilee year).

The sixth year of that last sabbatical cycle would this time produce three times the crops, feeding the people to the ninth year, when a new crop would finally be yielding. In the array of rites, the year actually became a “year of redemption” and “restoration.”
 
These two new periods were filled with detailed sacred regulations. They were so important that God foretold curses for their defiance (Leviticus 26:14-39; Deuteronomy 28:15-68, 29:18-28). These could include:

  1. A sudden terror
  2. Wasting diseases that might include fever, blindness, the draining away of life
  3. Defeat by enemies – taken captive into their land
  4. Wild animals taking their children
  5. The land becoming desolate, with the cities lying in ruins
  6. Many deaths
  7. Famine

Though this sounds gruesome, it typifies the seriousness of God’s judicial wrath, portrays the thoroughness of His final end-of-time wrath, against sin and sinners (cf. Revelation 8-9, 14-16). Why does God have such devastating reactions against His apostate people? It reveals His determined plan to eventually cleanse the universe of all sin and sinners. His intent is graphically described in the third apocalyptic angel’s message of Revelation 14:9-11 at earth’s final history.

  • Those ancient Biblical Sabbatical and Jubilee experiences are important timing metaphors of the great apocalyptic prophecies just ahead.
  • And – their timing links have distinct parallels to other prophecies, such as Daniel 9 – unique to us today.  Graph 2 4


Defiance of those New Sabbaths
 
For hundreds of years apostasy infiltrated the precincts of those chosen people. God had warned and reminded them ahead of time that Israel [the northern ten tribes] would be attacked if there wasn’t a change. Then, reality hit:

  • “And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day” (I Chronicles 5:26).
  • “In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria” (II Kings 15:29).

“The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian monarchs Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V. The later Assyrian rulers Sargon II and his son and successor, Sennacherib, were responsible for finishing the twenty-year demise of Israel's northern ten-tribe kingdom. They did not overtake the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem was besieged, but not taken. The tribes forcibly resettled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes.”[4] Their grace would end as well.
 
God, through Moses, said, “‘If, however, you do not obey me and keep all these commandments – if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep all my commandments and you break my covenant – I for my part will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.’ (Leviticus 26:14-17 – NET).
 
The remaining tribe of Judah and a remnant of Benjamin finally crossed a divine threshold. Jeremiah was identified before he was born to be God’s warning prophet (Jeremiah 1:4-5). The backsliding and apostasy deepened.

  • I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward (Jeremiah 7:23-24 – NIV).
  • After nearly forty years into his prophetic mission, Jeremiah said: This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11; cf. 29:10).

Judah was told that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, would attack Jerusalem and take away captives (fulfilled in 605 B.C.). II Kings 24:10-17 states that the Babylonian king took:

  1. Judah’s King Jehoiachin, his mother, his wives, servants, princes, and officers.
  2. Treasures of the house of the Lord.
  3. Jehoiachin’s mighty men of valor and his skilled craftsmen.

All told, 7000 individuals were taken in this first attack. This included Daniel and his three friends.
 
There are stunning Scriptural apostasy details of God’s people. Especially noteworthy:

  • “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy” (II Chronicles 36:16). God’s mercy had ended.
  • “To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years” (II Chronicles 36:21).

That 70-year captivity represented 70 Sabbaticals the people of Judah defied. The land had not rested for 490 years. They spurned 70 sacred years that God established through Moses ~800 years before!

  • 70 Sabbaticals = 490 years
  • That would also mean 10 Jubilee years were missed. Those were restoration years.

God’s 70-year curse forced the land to have its Sabbath rests. In turn, they had 70 years to reflect on their contempt of God’s requirements.
 
The End of that Seventy Years
 
Daniel was likely in his eighties as this period was drawing to a close. He was inspired to study the writings of the seers regarding this time, especially Jeremiah.

  • “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:1-2).
  • Intriguing – as Daniel is studying those prophecies, the Babylonian Empire had just fallen (539 B.C.), and the Medo-Persian Empire rose to world power.

Darius (historically, Ugbaru) and Cyrus were the noted first kings of this Empire. Darius was the friendly king who was sympathetic to Daniel through the lion’s den saga. That king died a short time later.

  • Daniel, realizing that the captivity would soon end, began to pray earnestly for himself and God’s people (Daniel 9:3-19).
  • It is assumed that he also had been studying Isaiah, who long before had said that Cyrus would rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (Isaiah 44:28, 45:13; cf. Jeremiah 30:18).

The promises of God that they would return were claimed by Daniel, and he prayed for its fulfillment (anticipated in ~ 3½ years – 536 B.C. – the end of the 70 years).

  • “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:1-4).
  • Daniel apparently brought this convicting message to Cyrus.

“‘The chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised’ – these were the goodly remnant, about fifty thousand strong, from among the Jews in the lands of exile, who determined to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity offered them ‘to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.’ Their friends did not permit them to go empty-handed. ‘All they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things.’ And to these and many other voluntary offerings were added ‘the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem; … even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, … five thousand and four hundred’ in number, for use in the temple that was to be rebuilt. Ezra 1:5-11.

“Upon Zerubbabel (known also as Sheshbazzar), a descendant of King David, Cyrus placed the responsibility of acting as governor of the company returning to Judea; and with him was associated Joshua the high priest. The long journey across the desert wastes was accomplished in safety, and the happy company, grateful to God for His many mercies, at once undertook the work of re-establishing that which had been broken down and destroyed. ‘The chief of the fathers’ led out in offering of their substance to help defray the expense of rebuilding the temple; and the people, following their example, gave freely of their meager store. See Ezra 2:64-70.”[5] 
 
If the 70-year captivity ended and if the prophesied Cyrus was about to help rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem, why did Gabriel then come to Daniel and give additional restoration prophecies (Daniel 9:20-21)? God had future restoration purposes for His people that would come right into our day!
 
Gabriel’s Divine Message
 
The people are returning to Canaan. They have been delivered by Cyrus, whom God, in prophecy, called His shepherd (Isaiah 44:28), was raised in righteousness (Isaiah 45:13), and was a deliverer (Isaiah 45:13) – all symbolic of what Christ the Messiah would later be to the saints.
 
What follows in Daniel 9:24 becomes a very solemn warning to those returning “home” and for God’s people today waiting to “go home.” That prophecy represents a “final chance” for God’s people. Many scholars see that as referring not only to Daniel’s people, the Jews (and it does apply to them) – but in a deeper, end-time understanding, applying directly to “spiritual Israel.”[6] (Daniel 12:1 clarifies “thy people” as all those written in the book (of life).]
 
Gabriel speaks: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity” (Daniel 9:24a,b). A simple overview:

  1. To finish or make an end to transgression (pesha) means an end to all rebellion against God (an allusion to the first four commandments of the Decalogue).
  2. To make an end to sins (chattaah), which are mainly against man (an allusion to commandments five to ten).
  3. “Reconciliation” is a challenge to many expositors. For teaching purposes, everything is done to make amends for past sins, bring restitution where possible, seek forgiveness, receive atonement for sins (from God and man).

Many denominations and expositors see all this as a “completed work” by the Messiah at the first advent. That’s a problem. He is not the subject of the challenge – the corrective action that is to be taken. What now follows is Messianic initiated because of His life and death.
 
Within a probationary period of 70 weeks of years or another 490 years, wonderful divine restoration blessings would come. That outcome?
 
“… to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (Daniel 9:24c).
 
The subject remains God’s people and His church (not the Messiah). The verb for “to bring in” is bo and is in the hiphel tense infinitive. That is “causative.” It suggests that when God’s people address the first three sin issues, the outcome (the result) will culminate in everlasting righteousness!
 
This is an important transition in Daniel’s study. It dramatically opens promises of major salvific results! Though provision for man’s complete atonement is already implied in this verse, it shows that his choice and response is what activates the power of the Cross.
 
This message signals that at the end of the “seventy sevens,” everlasting righteousness will exist with God’s people and His church. That new probation time has another ten restoration Jubilee periods. With the onset of this time decreed as 458–457 B.C. and knowing that that objective has not yet been accomplished, a timing gap is in evidence. The purpose of that 490-year period has not yet been completed. Any other conclusion removes this prophecy from its context.
 
“to seal up the vision” – “The vision” in this phrase is ha hazon (H) – referring back to Daniel’s encounter with the ram, he-goat, little horn visions and “time of the end” prophecies in chapter 8. When God’s people have addressed the sin issue, when everlasting righteousness has come in – then – in present tense, the ha hazon vision will be finished. That is stunning! That is the end of Satan’s work on earth. Daniel 8 prophecies represent the final conflict between Christ and Satan. It will have ceased! This is still pending.
 
Daniel also asked later when God’s deliverance and special resurrection would come (be finished) (12:6). Jesus then said that the persecution would last 3½ years and then “all these things,” final conflict, deliverance, and resurrection, would have been completed – would be finished! This relates to the same terminus of the 490 years. Gabriel shows how we can bring these two visions together.
 
“to anoint” (mashah) is a special Hebrew verb. Biblically, anointing has deep spiritual significance:

  1. It separates and sets aside individuals and objects for God’s holy service.
  2. It draws attention to God as the authorizing power or agent behind the anointed.
  3. It opens the door for a special endowment of His Spirit on the anointed.

“the most Holy” – The Hebrew words for “Most Holy” is qodes qodasim (the Most Holy Place).
 
Daniel had prayed, “Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake” (Daniel 9:17). The anointing or cleansing of the Most Holy (the place where God’s presence resides) is during a final atonement still in waiting.

Here, it becomes an anticipated promise!
 
Garnering all the symbols within this phrase suggests that the anointing of the Most Holy is when the sanctuary, God’s church, His bride, is finally cleansed. That will culminate with all the sins of God’s people being placed on the scapegoat. Jesus will no longer be burdened as the “sin bearer.” Everything will then be ready for the wedding (Revelation 19:7). The heavenly sanctuary will be free of atonement activity. Holiness will be vindicated (Daniel 8:14).

That is when the everlasting covenant is completed.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: … For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:10, 12).
 
“The derisive jests have ceased. Lying lips are hushed into silence. The clash of arms, the tumult of battle, ‘with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood’ (Isaiah 9:5), is stilled. Nought now is heard but the voice of prayer and the sound of weeping and lamentation. The cry bursts forth from lips so lately scoffing: "The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?’”[7]
 
Question: “Have God’s people addressed those sins, causing these three great promises to be fulfilled?”
 
timing gap again appears to be in evidence. Something is still anticipated. A stunning reminder: This 490-year period also has:

  1. 70 Sabbaticals
  2. 10 Jubilees

For those who believe that this probation was finished in ~34 A.D., was there a final Sabbatical? Was there a final Jubilee, when all these things were fulfilled?
 
A Messianic Advent Predicted
 
Gabriel goes on:
 
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times” (Daniel 9:25).
 
Since Cyrus’ decree (~536 B.C.) was for the building of the literal temple and Jerusalem, what might this verse allude to?
 
The Jewish nation defied that Sabbatical year and, in turn, through idolatry mocked God and His pastoral shepherding over that “flock.” In mercy almost beyond comprehension, God is giving them 70 more chances to “play heaven.” This would be part of their steps towards holiness. Thus, the beginning of that restoration must contain deeply spiritual directives. There is one decree and one only that matches that requirement! It is recorded in Ezra 7. And in amazing language from a secular pagan leader, it orders the Jewish people to get back to theocratic life and worship and to re-establish their loyalties to God. It is a covenant restoration decree from King Artaxerxes I! There is nothing in that decree about rebuilding the physical city Jerusalem!
 
Verse 25 begins with an exhortation for Daniel to “know and understand.” Daniel is now given details related to periods that go up to the time of the Messiah.[8]
 
Daniel prays – Gabriel responds: “This is what you have to do” (vs 24a); then “If you do that, this is what will occur” (vs 24b). Now God sets that purpose in a time setting – but as He does, a great spiritual objective deepens. Thus – within the compassionate restoration theme, God is warning His people that His mercy has a timing limit. Understand and perceive: What is predicted in verse 24 will be completed in verses 25 to 27, in that framework of time! It becomes a prophecy leading to the final phase of redemption.
 
Since the 70 weeks of years is for “your people” and “your holy city,” a fascinating characterization of spiritual deliverance is portrayed.

Graph 3


The word “Jerusalem” in prophecy often represents God’s people. It can be when they are in apostasy (Isaiah 1:21, Matthew 23:27) or fully restored as Christ’s bride (Revelation 19:7, 9; 21:9-10).
 
There are other illustrations of a “holy people.” John was told that the “bride” reached such a point in her spiritual experience that it “was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints” (Revelation 19:8; cf. Isaiah 61:10). That is exactly what Gabriel is telling God’s people through Daniel. In fact, the Hebrew word for “restore” (shub) is used mainly to “turn from evil and turn towards good” (Joshua 24:23; Jeremiah 4:4, 14; Hosea 10:12). It is associated with man’s willful decision to “turn back” and re-establish the divine and human relationship! That is exactly what we see in Daniel’s prayer. He acknowledged that God is always ready to keep covenant promises (9:4), to permit man the opportunity, once again, to turn back and be restored.
 
“Let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.... O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies” (Daniel 9:16, 18).
 
The theme is the redemption of a personified Jerusalem! Focusing on the physical city detracts completely from the prophecy and renders its beautiful climactic purpose void.
 
Everlasting righteousness will be granted, will come in. There will be saints who have that clean, white linen of holiness. This actually becomes the true fulfillment of Daniel 8:14.

Jerusalem, the holy city, will be restored within a specific boundary of time!

Graph 4


The concept of a physical Jerusalem must be replaced with the elevated theme of spiritual restoration, deliverance, and holiness of God’s people. Gabriel is moving into the prophetic precincts of what it will be like when all conflict will end. “Move away from the earthly to the heavenly – that is God’s object for His people.”
 
That “building” project – the spiritual restoration of God’s people – will occur in two phases:

  1. Beginning in 458/457 B.C., 7 weeks, 62 weeks and ½ a week, or 486½ years, leads to Messiah the Prince’s (Christ’s) death.
  2. From Messiah the Prince’s death to the end of the God-labeled “abomination of desolation” period (3½ years) (the end of the 490 years) – to Christ’s coming is implied.

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off … And 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 9:26a, 27).

  • In the middle of the last week of 7 years, Christ dies.
  • The sacrifice and oblation cease in the sanctuary. The curtain in the temple is torn in two.

What about the last half of verse 27? Without going into details here, scholar Stephen Miller[9] correctly notes:
 
“In reality the end of this final seven is one of the most significant events in history, the second coming of Christ.”
 

Graph 5


A Significant Dead Sea Scroll – 11QMelchizedek!
 
In that document, an eschatological king Melchizedek, the Messiah, is anticipated. That expectation converges with Daniel 9:24-27 at a final Jubilee!

  • There, Melchizedek is also seen as a High Priest who makes atonement for the “sons of light” (saints). They will be released from all their sins at a final atonement and Jubilee.
  • Land ownership will be restored.
  • All debts will be wiped away – no earthly obligations will remain!

Intriguingly, that is to occur after nine Jubilees, at a tenth, following a Day of Atonement (11Q1311, 7-8)!

  • Did their understanding envision a gap in the Danelic prophecy?
  • It does strongly suggest an eschatological fulfillment since there was no historical link to that final Jubilee or even a final Sabbatical year.

They saw the end of the 490 years as the end of earth’s history. Once again, the Daniel 9 prophecy must host a timing gap.
 
The Jesuits and a Gap in the 70 Weeks
 
For hundreds of years Europe was ruled by the iron hand of the papacy. This was especially true from 756 to 1870 when the Roman church governed the Papal States, a gift of Pepin the Short and codified by King Charlemagne, both of France. During that time, Europe saw the Inquisitions with the death of tens of thousands of apostolic Christians.

  • Since few Bibles existed, religious thinking had been infiltrated with superstition and gross misunderstanding of truth – until:
  • Martin Luther (1483–1546) arose and began to preach a clear rendition of God’s saving grace. At the risk of his life, he publicly identified the antichrist as the Roman Catholic Church.[10]

This began the great Protestant Reformation. Though Luther (who had been a Catholic priest) was excommunicated, the reform movement continued with power and speed. The Catholic Church reacted:

  • In 1545 it convened the Council of Trent, finishing its work in 1563 after three sessions.
  • One of its main objectives: To counteract the Protestant Reformation. Historically, it was called the “Counter-Reformation.”

Ignatius Loyola had previously (1534) founded a secret Catholic order called the “Society of Jesus.” Its members were called Jesuits. The counsel turned to the Jesuits to develop plans to neutralize the Protestant movement and bring people back to the “mother church.”

  • One Jesuit, Francisco Ribera, wrote a commentary on Revelation.
  • He applied the antichrist prophecies to the end of time to remove the spotlight that was on the Catholic Church. He claimed that the antichrist would be received by the Jews and would rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. He viewed the antichrist as someone from outside the Christian Church.

Protestants called Ribera’s interpretation “futurism,” since he also claimed a “gap” in prophetic time that would resume at the end. This posed no threat to Protestantism for over 300 years as his understanding remained silent. Then in the early 1800’s his views were adopted by European Protestant leaders and eventually came to America.
 
The “gap” was understood as the last seven years of Daniel 9. Protestants and Catholics became united in this concept.[11] The Biblical context does suggest a gap – but only of 3½ years. Other issues in Ribera’s interpretation remain open for discussion.
 
Summation
 
The Sabbatical and Jubilee cycles are enmeshed within the 490-year probation period. The Sabbatical year unfolded a spiritual restoration and was to be a sacredly guarded time. The Jubilee was the most sacred year, encompassing a total spiritual and physical restoration.

  • The Daniel 9 periods emphasized both the Sabbatical and Jubilee periods.
  • Within its messages is a Messianic hope. The First Advent was to occur in the middle of its final week (9:27a).
  • The establishment of everlasting righteousness, the end of Satan’s activities and the cleansing of all records of the saints’ sins would make its debut after that probation period at the tenth Jubilee.

The weight of evidence suggests that the latter would occur at the Second Advent – after what Paul called a tarrying time (Hebrews 10:36-37).

  • The elevated contextual purpose of this probation period is to have a people ready for that final Jubilee.
  • Its context moves forward a spiritual restoration theme with clear evidence of demonic activity attempting to thwart God’s plans – but failing.

By divine declaration, those efforts will end in desolation, the ultimate end of God’s wrath. We are in a tarrying time, a waiting time, for that final 3½ years of that seventieth week to be completed. Christ, in a solemn oath to God, declared that time would no longer be delayed (Revelation 10:6). Then 3½ years followed (Revelation 11:2-3). The last 3½ years of the 490-year prophecy is pending.
 
A “gap” within this seventy-weeks-of-years prophecy? The Bible actually prefers the concept of a “tarrying time.” Then comes the 3½ years, the “appointed time,” followed by the tenth Jubilee. “Then commences the Jubilee, when the land should rest,” notes expositor White, referring to when Christ returns once again.[12]
  

Franklin S. Fowler, Jr., M.D.
Prophecy Research Initiative – non-profit 501(c)3 © 2021
EndTime Issues…, Number 251, August 5, 2021
 Click here to go to PRI’s website: endtimeissues.com

 
 References:
 

[1] Harris, R. Laird, et al. in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. II, p. 694.

[2] Keil, C. F. and F. Delitzsch; Commentary on the Old Testament (Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts 01961-3473; 2006 – 2nd printing), vol. 1, pp. 624-625.

[3] Harris, op. cit., p. 626.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_captivity

[5] Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 559-560. 

[6] Miller, Stephen R.; The New American Commentary, Daniel, vol. 18 (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), pp. 258-259.

[7] The Great Controversy, p. 640.

[8] Goldingay, John E.; Daniel – Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 30 (Word Books, Publisher – Dallas, TX), p. 260.

[9] Miller, op. cit.

[10] https://en.wikipedia. Org/wiki/Martin_Luther

[11] Wohlberg, Steve; The Left Behind Deception, Chapter 3, “Futurism: Jesuit Deception of the Church.’

[12] Early Writings, p. 35.

 

 

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