After the Lions's Den - Daniel 9:24-27

OK. All right, feel free to make sure you get a handout here. And one of the reasons why it's important is there's a fair amount on this. We're taking a one-week detour into the book of Daniel, chapter 9, verses 24 through 27. And it's an important detour.

Real interestingly, In the book of Daniel, the Lord did not lay out everything that was to take place in the future, but made a general outline for the world from the time of Daniel, roughly in the 6th century BC. From the time of Daniel, on into the end of the present heaven and earth. So here's this guy Daniel that's been given a glimpse of the future for the rest of time. And it even says that Daniel himself was just kind of overwhelmed and marveled at what was being revealed to him. And so we'll want to take a look at that. I'm sure we'll get that slide up there so you can track to us. Here are the verses, Daniel 9, 24-27. Why don't you read it out loud for us. This is a slide that's not on your handout.

But, 70 weeks have been decreed for your people in your holy city. to finish the transgression, to make an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know discern from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince. It will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress." Now, as you read through that, do you understand it all? It's like, wow! What was that? Right? It is full and a lot of the terms and statements are like, boy, just that one phrase I'm going to have to study for a while. Okay? What I'm going to attempt to do here is, I'll tell you frankly, it's impossible.

But what I want to do is to convey clearly what this is in one session. And so to try to do that, to attempt to do that, we're going to step our way through it. I've included a graphic that I think will help us kind of get the picture. And so hold this in hand. Keep an eye on the slide. I'm glad you got three eyes. And then, anyway, we'll get through it. Oh boy, then we have verses 26 and 27. Are you ready for this?

Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. By the way, who's the Messiah? Jesus. Jesus. Okay, so that much is clear, right? Okay. Cut off and have nothing, and the people of the Prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. By the way, where's the sanctuary? for the Jews. The temple, right? The physical temple in Jerusalem.

Okay, so that one is clear. In its end will come a flood, even to the end there will be war, desolations, and determinants. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, and in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, like in the temple, right? And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even unto a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out for the one who makes desolate."

Okay. Again, probably like, well I understand a few of those words, right? And the rest of it, wee! Okay? So anyway, make sure you get a handout. You folks got one here? Alright, you're covered. Good. You'll need it to track with me. Here's the big picture. If you look at this graphic, Let's kind of step our way through it and then we'll go through it in more detail. The first thing you see, an arrow comes into this loop.

Israel in captivity. What's that mean? Israel in captivity. Yeah, taken to Babylon. They're all gathered up, taken to Babylon. And in truth, there are still Jews left in that area from that Babylonian captivity. I went to school with some of them at San Jose State Engineering School because they came to San Jose State to go to engineering school and afterwards they're going back to Babylon. Yes? This is referring to Judah and not northern Israel, right? because of Jerusalem, is that the case? Okay, the captivity of the Jews, which was in the end Judah, included all the tribes. And here's why.

Because from the earliest times of the Northern Kingdom, initially these ten tribes all went to the Northern Kingdom, right? But what happened is at various times, and the Bible records this, At various times, groups of Jews would move down into the Southern Kingdom to get away from the false religion that was there, the idolatry that was there, to get away from some of the harassment from the Assyrians. They would go into the Southern Kingdom.

So there was both a kind of a wish for freedom, both militarily and politically, as well as spiritually, it was a driving of Jews from these northern tribes into Judah. So while we use the name Judah for that southern kingdom, the reality is, and this is why the Jews have that name, the reality is that the Jews, that's where we get the name from Judah, consisted of all the tribes. members from all the tribes, and not just of the tribe of Judah. Initially, there was Judah and Benjamin, the two southern tribes. Benjamin was faithful to Judah, which was the tribe that God had designated to be the tribe of leadership. That's where David came from. That's where Jesus came from.

But actually, that southern kingdom, by the time they were hauled off to Babylon, included representatives from all the tribes. Because even those of the northern kingdom, the majority of the tribes, were driven south in waves. And so that's why the Old Testament records several of those waves of them being driven south into the southern kingdom. Am I clear? Okay, all right. Okay. Look, it's okay. I just don't want to be confusing anybody. All right.

Then you notice the commandment to rebuild, okay? The Jews, after the Babylonians were pushed out by the Persians, were told, okay, you guys go back and rebuild now, okay? From the timing of that commandment to rebuild, is, and we have it here in brackets, 49 years, 7 weeks, and we'll explain how weeks are years. 62 weeks, 434 years, that comes to the time, it says Messiah will be cut off. Okay, who is Messiah? Jesus.

Okay, and what does cut off mean? To cut his hair? To trim his garments? Separating. Okay, separating. Left with no descendants. But when you say cut off, died, then what you see there is a time gap in there. What's the time gap? We're living in it. We're living in it. This is the church.

A time period that's been inserted there and then finally you'll have that final week, seven years. What's that seven year period? What's another name for it? the tribulation period. One of the reasons why we cover this here is because as we go through the book of Revelation you're going to see reference to this time period and John is going to be so clear about it as we go through it that he's going to spell it out in the number of days and even years, and it gets spelled out in here in terms of weeks of years. So there's going to be multiple references to it. Redundancy, in order to be clear. Now, this idea of weeks of years is something that is long-standing among the Jews.

Remember when we went through the book of Genesis, which we just finished weeks ago, Jacob worked how long? He didn't know it, but how long did he work for Leah? Seven years. And how long did he work for Rachel? Seven more years, right? And so that seven year period of time is a week of years.

The same term that's used here in Daniel, that same term is the term that is used for this week of years, or seven years, that Jacob worked for Leah and Rachel. So this is a long-standing pattern of thinking and terminology among the Jews. Laban asked Jacob to work another seven years for Rachel. This is in Genesis 29, 27, 28. And even these verses, the seven years, are called Shabuwa.

Can you say that? Shabuwa. Shabuwa. Right? It's not difficult. See, now you know Hebrew. Okay? All right. So Shabuwa, that's the term that was used for the seven-year period of time. The week of years, that's the same term used here in Daniel. Okay? That's it. And so since you're all experts in Hebrew, no problem. Right? Okay. Now, in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, we have the references there in your handout.

They all speak of the laws of the Jews in which they were to work the land six years and rest in the seventh. And so at that seven year period of time was what? A week of years. Shabuwa. Seven year period of time. Josephus in the first century saw Daniel writing of weeks of years. As a matter of fact, there's a book, I think we may even have reference to it in here. I'm not sure.

It's called the Messiah Text by Raphael Patai. And he's writing just about Jews. This is not about Christians at all. He says that the tribulation period will be a time of seven years of great trouble upon the earth. I mean, that's the way they see it. So this is not, you know, Christians or, you know, just us folks at Holly Hills kind of inventing something. This is something that was assumed many, many years ago and is still understood that way by Orthodox Jews. Why? They look at the words that are there. They see this pattern in Genesis and Exodus and the other books. They see it in Daniel. About two and a half years ago, I sat down with a local Orthodox rabbi and talked to him about this. And he says, oh yeah, that's one of our holy books. This is Daniel. He didn't want to talk about the details, though. I think that you pointed too much to the Messiah. He didn't want to get into that. OK.

Question. Notice in this diagram on the top, here's this great time gap. We're living in it. So a good question is, does the Bible have other examples of time gaps like that between one fulfillment and another? show up immediately and obviously in the text. And here are some examples.

Genesis 49, 10. Christ, the Lion of Judah, in his first coming is foretold in which he is descended from the Lion of Judah. And then his second coming is foretold in which he comes to reign on the earth. How long ago did Christ come in his first coming? Almost 2,000 years ago, right? Now, in His second coming, has that happened yet? No. There is a time gap in there that's not apparent from the text. He's going to come in His first coming, and that's already happened. His second coming is yet to take place. There's a time gap of at least 2,000 years right there. That's one example.

Isaiah 61.1 And this was one that Christ read when He was in the synagogue in Nazareth, Isaiah 61.1.

He read from Isaiah 61.1 saying, basically declaring, I'm the one that this is talking about.

He stopped in the middle of verse 2. Why would He do that? It's because the next time that that describes is yet to appear. That's His second coming. A time gap, again, just like we read about in Genesis 49-10, a time gap between His first coming and His second coming. And Christ Himself even acknowledged it because He stopped right in the middle of the verse. It's coming right out of the mouth of Christ Himself.

Ezekiel 26 is a chapter that talks about the city of Tyre and gives prophecies. As you read through it, it's all things that are future, going to happen. As we look back on it, because those prophecies have all taken place, it took place in peace. Ultimately, Alexander the Great was the one who made a land bridge out to what was the island out in the Mediterranean there.

So those are examples. We could give others, but those are three examples of prophecies where there's the prophecy given that's already taken place and then a time gap of years and then the rest of it's fulfilled. Now, let's take a look at the next slide over. Catch up with this here. 70 weeks have been decreed for your people. Okay, here we go. For your people in your holy city. This is 7 plus 62 plus 1. A nice simple map there. Don't need a slide rule, engineer skills or anything of the sort. Simple math. The decree is for Daniel's people, the Jews, remember because it's your people, Daniel's Jew, right? So your people, the Jews in Daniel's holy city, Jerusalem.

While allowing for the time gap that includes the church, these verses do not mention the church. Isn't it interesting? It allows for the time gap, but it doesn't specifically mention the church in the verses. What is included in the 70 weeks is described immediately afterwards, verses 24 and 25. Okay, how are we doing so far? Are you tracking with me? Pretty much. Alright, let's take a look at page two there.

Because this, as we read through this, I'm sure a lot of you are going, wow, whoa, what's that? This explains what those terms mean. To finish the transgression, to end the time of rebellion of the Jews with the coming of the Messiah. That's the transgression, the rebellion of the Jews, the rejection. of the ones that the Lord sent. Remember when Christ came, what did he tell them? He says, I sent you the prophets. And what did they do with the prophets? Yeah, I sent you somebody to try to get you guys the message and you just didn't get it. And instead you stoned them.

Like Isaiah. We studied also Isaiah. How did Isaiah's life end? Hezekiah's son Manasseh had him hunted down. Isaiah hid in a hollow tree trunk. They sawed the trunk in half with Isaiah in it. That's how they treat the prophets. You send somebody to give you the message and you don't get it. Instead, you get rid of the guy who's sent to give the message. So this is the transgression, the constant rejection of the Jews by the Jews of those who are sent to give them the message.

To make an end of sin, the sin problem of Israel will come to an end with the coming of the Messiah. And it is not THE sin, it's no definite article, it's just sin overall. This big sin problem, the Messiah will come and deal with that. Did that happen? Yeah, that's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. And what did Christ say when he was done on the cross? He's finished. Well, that seems to make sense. Make an end of sin. He did it. It's finished. Okay? To make atonement for iniquity. Isn't that exactly what he did? Remember when we studied through Isaiah 53? What did he do? He made atonement for iniquity.

He took our sins and Israel's sins upon himself. To bring in everlasting righteousness, literally the righteousness of the ages. That's what that says. To be brought in by the Messiah's kingdom, the millennial reign of Christ on the earth. To seal up vision and prophecy. No more need for vision and prophecy once the Messiah comes to reign. Notice what we have here is how much of the Bible have we got? What's that? Okay, but right now? How much of the Bible have we got? We've got the whole thing. Right? We're studying Revelation. That's the last book. When that was done, that was it. We got the whole Bible. So no more of it is being written. No more of it is being revealed. We've got the whole thing.

And when Christ comes, and is right there, as Scripture has been foretelling for centuries and centuries and centuries, there won't be a need to come up with the new New Testament or anything like that. Or the Book of Mormon or anything else. There won't be any need for that. Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, all the rest of them. None of that. There won't be a need for it. There'll be no golden plates in the Hill of Kimora. And then finally, what's the last one?

To anoint the Most Holy Place. Setting apart the Millennial Temple. Ezekiel 45. The chapters right in that section of Ezekiel describe the Millennial Temple. It even goes on to describe in that chapter what area geographically will be included in what will then be Israel. And it is astounding. But anoint the most holy place, it means here's the millennial temple, there will be the millennial sacrifices. Now I have a question for you. Why would there be millennial sacrifices in the temple in the future? Didn't Christ Died on the cross and it's finished? So why sacrifices? What's the problem? Do you see a problem with that? What's going on with that?

Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? Okay, yeah. That's I think a good insight to it. Really what it's looking at is memorial. This morning we're going to have the Lord's table. And what are we doing? It's memorial, right? When the Jews were told, you take the Passover, they did it as a memorial. Memorial of what? In remembrance of the Lord's deliverance that day, when the Lord brought them out from Egypt.

At the Last Supper, the Lord made a handoff. He said, we'll get together and have this Passover. But then, since the church was about to be begun, what did he do? He initiated the Lord's Table. And just like the Jews were told to do the Passover, the Christians were told, do this in remembrance of me.

And what will happen to the Millennial Temples? It won't be done because there's a need to cover the sins. It will be done as a memorial. Yes? Will that be for deliverance from the tribulation in that period? Because now the remembrance is to the Passover and leaving Egypt. So at that time there will be the deliverance from the tribulation, right? Well, actually there certainly will be a deliverance right at the end of the tribulation.

And it will be Jesus Christ himself and him alone. He will come in and the Jews living then will recognize Jesus Christ, my Messiah, was the one who saved us. They'll see that. But this Millennial Temple will have all the Old Testament sacrifices pointing to Christ on the cross. Pointing to Christ on the cross, right? They will look at the sacrifice and the sacrifice will be a memorial sacrifice. That will happen when we have new bodies. We will, in the church. Jesus said, do this when? Until I come. And remember to me, until I come. Or until He comes.

Right? And we will have the Lord's table with Him. We will have that. So very interesting. What we're going to do here this morning isn't just sort of a little ritual we do because we kind of like to do it. This is something that the Lord, you know, right there at the Last Supper, right there in kind of the southern quarters of Jerusalem, He instituted that for the church. And we will continue to do that until He comes But then we will continue to do that more. Yes?

Celebration of the Lord's table is more than remembrance, it's also worship at a time. It is remembrance, it's worship. It is also, remember, until He comes, it is anticipation of His coming. Even when we walk through heaven's gates and have new bodies and we see the Lord face to face. there will still be a remembrance.

What is Christ called to the very last chapters of Revelation? He is called the Lamb. Even, as we mentioned a couple weeks back, the Little Lamb. The Little Lamb. And also there's the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, right? So we have that looking forward to that as well. But that's in glorified bodies. That's right. He's talking about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Alright, now, so those phrases there in Daniel 9.24 may have been cryptic. Hopefully these illuminate that. Let's take a look.

There's a commandment to rebuild at 9.25. So you are to know and discern from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild, that can only mean one thing. This was when reversing the Babylonians, you know, You guys get out of there, get out of Israel, and we're going to tear the whole place down. And now the Persians go back and they say, now you guys need to rebuild the walls, rebuild the temple, and you guys need to continue what you had before, even with written orders and financial contributions to help. Wow, what a reversal.

Now, is this the same guy that Ruth was married to? No, Ruth, you're talking about Ruth the Moabitess, that's centuries earlier. You're talking about, maybe you're thinking of Esther? Maybe. Is that what you're contemplating? That's not exactly the same fellow, but Esther also dealt with the Persians. There is a comparison there. It says there in Nehemiah 2, 1 through 8, King Artaxerxes, who is not quite the same as this fellow in Esther, issues a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. That took place about 445 to 444 BC, in that time window.

And this decree fulfills Daniel 9.25 and starts the clock and the time frame for the nation of Israel. And by the way, that was about a century approximately after Daniel died. So this is, Daniel wrote about something that would, this decree that he was told about wouldn't happen until the next century, roughly a century later. Every other part of the prophecy in Daniel 9, 24, 27 is timed off of this one decree.

That starts the clock. Here's Daniel, he's getting this prophecy about a century later, the decree that he wrote about, because he was wondering, what does this mean? The decree is issued to rebuild that he didn't even know about. He was already gone from the earth. That decree is issued and that starts the clock. The clock is now ticking on everything that's written in this prophecy. So here's the decree about a century after Daniel is gone.

And then it says, Jerusalem rebuilt, the last half of Daniel 9.25. Until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. It will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. The 7 and 62, that is 69 weeks of years from the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, that's Nehemiah 2, 1 through 8, to the time of the Messiah, Christ.

The rebuilding would include street supporting commerce. That's the plaza. You say plaza and moat. What on earth is that? That's what it is. It's street supporting commerce and defensive structures including the wall. Now, it says, the translations there often will say moat. That's where you've got to look at the diagram.

What they would do in those days, this was done with the walls of Jerusalem and every other city where they had any sense at all. If you had defensive wall, you didn't want the enemy to come and just dig a hole under your wall and have the wall collapse, right? So if you were smart, any sense at all, what you would do is dig down until you hit rock and then they're not going to dig down underneath your wall and undermine it, right? So what they would do is they would dig this deep trench and then build the wall up from there. That's what they mean by moat, okay? So plaza is a place like a stone paved street to do commerce, and then moat is this trench. That's what you see in the diagram there off to the right. Right here, okay?

And they would dig down in there, found the stone wall right on the bedrock, and build up from there. The whole entire wall around Jerusalem is founded on bedrock. And for any city where they had any sense at all, that's what they would do. They would dig down to bedrock so that the wall could not be undermined. Not only that, if you could dig under the wall, you didn't have to undermine the wall, you had a tunnel to get soldiers in, right? But if you put the wall on bedrock, no tunnel, okay? So that's what they did. They would dig down for the entire wall, all the way down to bedrock, and then begin laying stones, okay? So these Israel's enemies brought times of distress. The book of Nehemiah makes reference to that.

Okay, let's look at page three. Then it says the Messiah will be cut off. When you look at the timing of this, this comes to the time of Christ's death. Okay, from the issuing of the decree, to this time will be the time the Messiah is cut off, it points to Christ's death. And I think that's why the rabbi, when I met with him a little over two years ago, didn't want to talk about this. It looks an awful lot, when you start adding the numbers up, and it's not complicated math, when you start adding the numbers up, it looks an awful lot like this is talking about Jesus dying on the cross. Okay? It's frighteningly too much. OK, so that's why the rabbi says, I don't want to talk about that. Nice guy, by the way, but just didn't want to talk about. OK. The Hebrew word for cut off is the one used for execution.

I give you several different references. Question? I had heard that there's a book out called by Anderson or something like that. Yes. That talks about the date actually comes to fruition when Christ rides through Jerusalem and is rejected by his people. Is that true? Yeah, Anderson made those calculations.

That was roughly a century ago, as a matter of fact, a little over a century ago. He was a really sharp guy and I think, you know, kind of put his pencil to paper. Looking at it, I think it's a little tough to make that application, and the reason is just what I put here.

The word is used for execution. And so it's, you know, rejection by itself is not quite strong enough. I got repeated references here from 1 Samuel on and to Jeremiah. The word is used for execution. What happened to Christ when He was on the cross? It was executed. That's exactly what Pilate had in mind. Right? Exactly what the Jews had in mind. They executed him. He was cut off.

Cut off not in a figurative sense, but very literally. By the way, Anderson did do some really good work there. I just would say it's specifically in reference to Sir Robert Anderson, I think. British scholar and good guy, but I would differ from him in that respect. Have nothing means that he was rejected of men, and that's where it certainly does fit, and he does not receive the kingdom at that time.

So the Roman oppression of the Jewish rebellion culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, as foretold by Daniel 9.26 and by Christ in Matthew 24.15, is the next thing you see right after that Messiah is cut off.

Daniel 9.26b, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood. Even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined. The people of the prince who is to come, that's the Romans in 70 AD, the prince who is to come there is the Antichrist. He will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem, city and sanctuary in 70 AD, and Luke 43 and 44 records that. Its end will come in a flood. Attacking armies were known as a flood. That's Daniel chapter 11 and Isaiah 8. That figure of speech of an attacking army being a flood is shown in both those places.

To the end, that is the time when Jerusalem is overcome, there will be a war that took place in 66 to 70 AD with Rome. What happened is the Jews had had various kinds of rebellions. As a matter of fact, there were even rebellions in Galilee before Christ was born and during his childhood. They were rebellions against the Romans in Galilee. Those rebellions cropped up and boiled up at various times. In 66 AD, however, it reached a peak.

And actually, initially, the Jews slaughtered the Romans. Why? The Romans were not there in full force. They just had an occupying force. And the Jews overwhelmed the Romans' occupying force. It took the Romans some time to gather together the twelve legions that they came back with. Twelve legions of Roman soldiers came. Some of them as far as Britain. They come from Britain. And so here's these Roman soldiers. They're coming, they're coming, they're coming.

And finally they overwhelm the Jews in the end and absolutely destroy the city of Jerusalem and the temple. The rubble from the Roman destruction is still visible in kind of an archaeological park, even including large stones from the temple that Jesus walked through. It even includes the signs that warn Gentiles, don't go past this point on penalty of death. That was found in the rubble. Desolations are determined.

God has set it in place. See, God is not just giving his best guess about what's happening. God knows what's going on. That's one thing. You know, it's easy for us to get real cranked up about everything from elections to, you know, what's happening with tax law and everything else. The Lord is not ignorant of these things. Is he going to be surprised? Does the Lord slap his forehead and go, oh heavens, what am I going to do? No. He does not. He knows these things are going to take place and he's spelled them out right here.

Now we have the church dispensation. Here's the time gap. The time gap between the 69th and the 70th week of years we spoke of before, as it is shown in the graphic. And by the way, that time gap, the Orthodox Jews look at it too. They just don't call it the church dispensation. The church is not explicitly mentioned since this prophecy is about Israel, Jerusalem, and Israel's Messiah. Paul the Apostle tells us that the church, the body of Christ, is a mystery, which is a truth not previously revealed, but now revealed. Ephesians chapter 3 and on into 532 spells that out. Okay, let's turn to page 4 here. What you have here on the slide in the upper part there is a timeline.

Each year of the week of years is therefore 360 days long. That's the length of a Jewish year. And what you see there is because of the different passages, it's broken up in a half a week, a half of a week of years. That's also called three and a half years at some places as we'll come across them. It's also called 42 months and 1260 days. So is there any question about the length of time? Not so much. It's basically the length of time of the first half and the second half of the Tribulation is given in four different ways so that there's no mistake. And days and months and years and weeks. It's given in four different ways, so there's no mistake.

Now, here's Daniel 9.27a, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for a week. Antichrist will pull off this amazing seven-year covenant, seemingly resolving the horrific Middle Eastern conflict. A horrific Middle Eastern conflict. Who can resolve this problem? Oh, Antichrist will.

The Jews have a name for him. His name is Armalus, according to the Jews. The Jewish name for the Antichrist is Armalus. The Orthodox Jews, that's their name for him. Armalus. A-R-M-I-L-U-S. Armalus. The Jews have, out of their traditions, concocted names. It's like synagogue is not in the Old Testament, but that's a name that was developed out of tradition. So that's a name that they've come up by tradition, not by the scripture itself. Now here's an interesting thing. You might wonder about this, okay, establishing a treaty, then breaking a treaty partway through. We have, it's cropping up in our own day, some interesting patterns.

Muhammad, who died in 632 AD, before he died, had a conflict with the leaders of the city of Mecca. So he made a 10-year treaty with the leaders because, frankly, he didn't have enough power to take them on. Before the 10-year treaty was over, my recollection was about three years, but before the treaty was over, he did have enough power, military power, and he broke the treaty in the middle of the time period.

Now, one other thing, as we'll see in the Book of Revelation, how is execution carried out during the Book of Revelation during the tribulation period? Beheading. How do the Islamic people carry out capital punishment? Beheading. Very interesting connections as we see Islam taking greater power and likely in the next generation taking the majority in Europe. So the connections are very interesting in terms of the traditions, long-standing traditions, and the patterns you see described. I want to be careful about locking that in as a this is why, but it's interesting. The connections seem to be lining up.

So then Daniel 9.27 says, in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering.

They break the treaty, right? And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate. 2 Thessalonians 2, the reference there also spells that out. This is the Antichrist who breaks the treaty with Israel, the many. Christ says in Matthew 24-15 that the abomination of desolation will be set up in the Holy of Holies. There will be a reconstruction of the temple. And by the way, there is a group in Israel who is determined to do that.

Let me see if I can find it. Oh my. My slide somehow just croaked, so I can't find it. Maybe it will show up magically. Okay. At any rate, there is a group called the Temple Mount Faithful. And the Temple Mount Faithful is a group that has set up to have the temple rebuilt. They have attempted several times to bring in the foundation stone for the temple. They already have all the priests and temple articles ready. Bob and Margaret Echol have seen them. in the Jerusalem Museum where they have the articles there. They're just waiting. They're waiting for this temple to be rebuilt and to put the priesthood in place.

Yes? So then, according to this, back to the sacrifice and grain offering again. Here it has grain offering as well as sacrifice. So since the Jews don't believe in Christ, I assume that when they start this millennial kingdom, they go back to their old ways. Yes, that's exactly it. And they go back to the law and the ceremonial law. Put it all back in place. All of that. Yep, all back in place.

This would be the third temple. You're exactly right. And so then the Antichrist would, obviously that would really upset him most likely. And so that could be a motivation for him. Well, what will happen is that he comes in, he looks like the Savior, he says, hey, let's make some little deal here.

Right now, what's standing in the way of just rebuilding a temple? Right there on the Temple Mount? You got this mosque, the Dome of the Rock? that it's called. Yeah, I've met some guys personally who've been in there and taken pictures. And they showed me pictures of a square depression in the rock that fits the dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant.

You know? So, real interesting. And again, some of this stuff, you've got to look at it and say, what's fact? And what do I know? And what's speculation? I think it's important to keep those separate. But it's looking real interesting. To come in and actually have that... Doing okay here? The slides just empty out? Okay, the last ones of them just... Okay. Nonetheless, there are some interesting things coming into focus right about now.

And it looks like the Antichrist will then, right in the middle of this tribulation period, halfway through, will end the treaty after having seemingly resolved this conflict, and then will find himself opposed to the Jews. He will have a by then a global network of control. And then at the end, Christ returns to reign. Even until complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

Christ is revealed in both the Old Testament, an example would be Psalm 2, and the New Testament, Revelation 19, who put down the rebellious forces of Antichrist in the same way that he created the world, by the word of his mouth. The book of Zechariah chapters 12 through 14 describe portions of this event. What happens in Acts chapter 1?

The disciples are there on the Mount of Olives, right? And when Christ ascends, what do the angelic beings tell the disciples is going to happen? How is he going to return? What do they say next? What's that? Pardon? Return to clouds is correct, but what else? In the same way in which you just saw him ascend. He's going to come back.

So that's why you start reading in Zechariah 12-14. Those chapters describe it. It says that the Messiah, by the way it says the Messiah, who is God, comes back and his feet will touch on the Mount of Olives, it says in that passage. Just exactly what Acts chapter 1 says. His feet will touch on the Mount of Olives and he will speak and the enemies of Israel will be destroyed by the word of his mouth. That's exactly what we're going to see spelled out in Revelation 19.

These passages are all in sync, okay? These are all in sync. Yes. Can you see, not only touch it, but it splits it, right? Yes. And that's the passage where it talks about splitting it. And by the way, Nancy and I knew a geologist that checked into that and the fault, the earthquake fault is already there ready to move. And that's supposed to be an escape route, supposedly, right? There are some geographical changes that take place, even impacting flow of water that take place at that time. Okay, then what you see here is the last bullet, last page, last slide.

We who believe and were raptured with Him, taken up to be with Him, will also reign with Him here on earth, Revelation 5.10. but not as earthly beings in our new bodies.

We'll be there. We're going to see this. But we won't have bodies where we're saying, oh, I hope I don't get hurt. I'm afraid of heights. I'm not sure what it's going to be like to come back in the clouds, right? We will see this, but it won't be with these bodies. It won't be with these bodies.

We'll see this. We'll be there. We'll be with the Lord. We'll be with Him. And we'll be part of the army returning with him, but we won't have to lift a finger. The Lord Himself will deal with everything that needs to be dealt with by the word of His mouth.

Okay, we have screamed through four verses. Questions, comments, exasperations. It's been really fast. My slides have somehow done something strange, but I'm sorry about that. Hopefully you've got most of it on here on the sheet. Everybody baffled? Thoroughly? Overwhelmed? Yes, Tristan. You're baffled. Cool. Alright, Tristan's baffled. Anybody else baffled?

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, as we look at what you've revealed, we take comfort in your sovereignty. As we look at the world around us, there are always uncertainties. It will be that way until you come again. And Lord, we just trust and rest in you. We thank you for what you have revealed. We don't know everything, but we know enough. And we know that you are certain, you are in control, and even that you have determined some of these things. They will most certainly happen. It is not your best guess. And so we take comfort in that. And we take comfort in who you are and who you've made us to be in you. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.