Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday Jun 12, 2015
2PE 1:20-21, But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
In March 14, 445 B.C, a prophecy was given by God that in 173,880 days from the day it was given that TLJC would present Himself to Israel as their Messiah on the exact day predicted.
Nebuchadnezzar, who was the King of Babylon, at the time the prophecy was given had conquered Jerusalem in 606 B.C. and he returned home with a group of Jewish royal captives, including a young man named Daniel.
Daniel distinguished himself by his outstanding character, his wisdom and the tremendous prophetic gifts which God had bestowed upon him due to his faithfulness.
Daniel was elevated from the position of a captive slave to ultimately becoming the First Minister of this great Babylonian Empire which at the time ruled the world.
While Daniel was taken to Babylon with the other captives, his contemporary, the prophet Jeremiah, continued to prophecy to the remainder of the Jewish people living under the Babylonian army which was occupying Jerusalem.
In 538 B.C. Daniel was reading this prediction and knew that the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity would end within two years in 536 B.C. (It lasted from 606 B.C. to 536 B.C.).
Counting backward 606 - 536 = 70 years.
In 538 B.C., Daniel knew that the captivity was going to end in two years, 536 B.C.
We are going lower in years because we are getting closer to our Lord's birth which is followed by the initials A.D.
It is commonly thought that B.C. stands for “before Christ” and A.D. stands for “after death.” - This is only half correct.
How could the year 1 B.C. have been “before Christ” and A.D. meant “after death”?
B.C. does stand for “before Christ.” A.D. actually stands for what the Latin phrase says is anno domini, which means “in the year of our Lord.”
While he was interceding on behalf of his people and Jerusalem, God answered him by sending His angel Gabriel to give him "skill and insight" about the future course of history.
God always gives His people who have PVTD a warning of things to come.
This vision of the seventy weeks of years foretold to the precise day when Israel would reject and "cut off" their Messiah and then the prophecy looks forward to His Second Coming to set up His everlasting kingdom.
Our first equation is that the word translated "weeks" is the Hebrew word "shabua", which literally means "seven" so that it literally says there will be seven."
It becomes evident that these seventy sevens are seventy sevens of years, with each "week" representing a period of seven years, for a total of 490 years.
Each week represents a seven year period and therefore if you have seven week it represents 7 x 7 = 49 years - you got that?
Our next equation 62 weeks of years with each week representing a seven year means that 62 x 7 = 434 years. - You got that?
Combined together we have 69 weeks of years or 483 biblical years and was totally fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ to the exact day - 483 biblical years (each year is based upon 360 days.
The Jewish year in biblical times was called lunar and had only 360 days. The solar year, which we live by is 365.25 days was unknown to the nations in the Old Testament.
The lunar calendar is calculated based on the rotation of the moon around the earth, whereas the solar calendar is based on the rotation of the earth around the sun and this is the calendar we live by today with 365 days to make one rotation around the sun.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica and Smith's Bible Dictionary on Chronology, Abraham continued to use a year of 360 days in his original Chaldean homeland.
Please notice when the flood started, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month.
GEN 7:11, the flood began in what we call according to our calendar, the month of February on the 17th day.
In GEN 8:4, the flood ended and the ark rested on the 17th day of the seventh month which would be according our calendar, July 17.
We have five months exactly from the 17th of Feb. to the 17th of July and therefore 5 months x 30 equals 150 days....right?
30 x 5 = 150
150 days equals 5 - 30 day months!
"All nations, before the just length of the solar year was known, reckoned months by the course of the moon, and years by the return of winter and summer, spring and autumn; and in making calendars for their festivals, they reckoned thirty days to a lunar month, and twelve lunar months to a year."
To back this up as the calendar that the Bible uses, REV 11:3 says that three and a half years is twelve hundred and sixty days."
3.5 years equals 42 months, time 30 days a month = 1,260 days!
REV 12:6 - refers to the three and a half years of the Tribulation period as being one thousand two hundred and sixty days."
If we are to understand the precise times involved in the fulfillment of prophecy, we still need to use the same biblical lunar- year of 360 days which the prophets themselves used.
This means that if Daniel made an appointment to meet someone in one year, he would arrive in 360 days, not 365 days.
We need to find out when the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was!
This decree was issued by the Persian King Artaxerxes Longimanus "in the first day of the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year" of his reign according to NEH 2:1-8.
In verse 1, The 1st of Nisan in King Artaxerxes' twentieth year was computed by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, United Kingdom, as March 14, 445 BC.
From the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem [began on March 14, 445 B.C.
DAN 9:25 "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree which was March 14, 445 B.C. to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
Next we have the phrase back in DAN 9:25 until Messiah the Prince [comes] {there will be} seven weeks [or seven sevens which means 7 X 7 = 49 years]
Each day in the prophecy equals a year so seven weeks = 7 x 7 = 49 years
We have the phrase and sixty‑two weeks [62 X 7 = 434 years], which total 69 weeks of years [69 X 7 = 483 Biblical years = 483 years of the calendar of 30 days per month which 360 days = 173,880 days.
483 biblical years x 360 days = 173,880 days.
DAN 9:25 "So you are to know and discern {that} from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince {there will be} seven weeks [49 years] and sixty‑two weeks [434 years, totaling 483 years or 173,880 days];
From the time of the decree to rebuild the city Jerusalem until the Messiah comes to Jerusalem will be 69 weeks or (483 years), or 173,880 days.
483 years from this prophecy and exactly 173,880 days later on the tenth day of Nisan, which would be our April 6, A.D. 32 on Palm
Sunday in fulfillment of this prophecy, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and presented Himself as "the Messiah.
This took place exactly 69 weeks or (483 years), or 173,880 days from the time of the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
The time of your visitation was given in the prophecy found in Daniel, and they did not know it because they did not listen to the prophets, Daniel and Jeremiah.
Our Lord emphasized the fact that this day, the tenth day of Nisan, April 6, A.D. 32, was an incredibly important day for Israel.
This is was what verse 44 calls the "time of your visitation.
It was their decision day, in which they had to decide whether or not to accept Jesus as their prophesied Messiah-King.
The reaction of the Nation as a whole and the religious and political leaders did not know their time of visitation and therefore rejected their Messiah.
Five days later this rejection concluded in the crucifixion of Jesus and their promised kingdom has now been postponed for almost two thousand years.
DAN 9:26 "Then after the sixty‑two weeks [483 years] the Messiah will be cut off [Hebrew word karath = killed or destroyed]
This prophecy was fulfilled to the exact day.
From March 14, 445 B.C. (the date of the command to rebuild Jerusalem) to March 14, A.D. 32 is 476 years of 365 days each which comes to 173,740 days.
Before Christ, to any date in A.D. Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord, one year must always be omitted.
The time lapse between 1 B.C. and A.D. 1 is only one year.
From March 14, 445 B.C. (the date of the command to rebuild Jerusalem) to March 14, A.D. 32 is 476 years of 365 days each 173,740 days.
You need to add the 24 days from March 14, A.D. 32 until April 6, A.D. 32 (Palm Sunday - the "cutting off" of Messiah)-twenty-four days.
Then you also have to add the 116 leap days which occurred during that period (calculated by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, United Kingdom) = 116 days.
You add together (173,740 + 24 + 116 = 173,880, the exact duration of Daniel's 69 "weeks" of years = 173,880 days.
When we consider the incredible accuracy of Daniel's prophecy, how could we possibly doubt that the remaining "week" of seven years, the seventieth "week" of years, will be fulfilled just as precisely?
One of the strongest evidences of the divine inspiration of Scripture is the phenomenon of fulfilled prophecy.
©® 1996-2009 Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries. All rights reserved. | site map