Daniel 9:24-27 The Timeline to the End Time

The most asked question following last night’s Introduction to The Revelation concerned the timeline I mentioned from Daniel 9:24-27. The Angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel and said this:

²⁴ “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

²⁵ “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. ²⁶ After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. ²⁷ He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

The ‘sevens’ refer to periods of seven years each. So, there are seventy ‘sevens’ or 490 years. Those years point to the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection, then to the seven-year period following the Rapture. Gabriel broke the seventy sevens into two parts. The first will be seven ‘sevens,’ plus sixty-two ‘sevens,’ totaling sixty-nine sets of seven years each, or 483 years.

That timeline is set in motion when the word goes out, or the decree is given, to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. It was destroyed by the Babylonian army in 587/586 B.C. The decree referred to here is the decree of King Artaxerxes of Persia given to Ezra the Scribe around 458 B.C., as the timeline proves. Two other decrees had been given by Cyrus (around 537 B.C.) and Darius (around 518 B.C.) to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and restore worship. But the latter decree around 458 B.C. also mentioned “walls” of protection. That would have involved the rebuilding the city. At Nehemiah’s request, Artaxerxes sent him to continue the work around 449 B.C. But the decree Daniel 9:25 refers to occurred around 458 B.C.

It is possible that the seven ‘sevens’ mean it took forty-nine years (7×7) to complete the rebuilding of Jerusalem. 62 ‘sevens’ after that the ‘Anointed One” who would come (That’s Jesus, the Christ or Anointed One) would be put to death and would have nothing (or “but not for himself” or “will appear to have accomplished nothing”). But to determine the timeline, we must count 483 years after around 458 B.C., which will lead to the time of Jesus’ death on the cross. “Around” is always a way of describing exact dates in ancient history. Most say this can be in the range of 455 B.C. to 458 B.C. So, if the time of the decree was in 458 B.C., that would put the date of Jesus’ death in 26 A.D. It follows that 457 B.C. = 27 A.D., 456 B.C. = 28 A.D. and 455 B.C. = 29 A.D. (a date I like!). Either shows the accuracy of God’s Word via a prophecy delivered to the Prophet Daniel!

But, we must not forget that one ‘seven’ of the seventy remains. It points to a seven-year period at the end of time after the Rapture of the church, called the Tribulation. During those seven years, an evil ruler will arise and rule for those seven years. He will put an end to sacrifice and offering, set up an image in the temple and demand to be worshiped. This will be the third, or Tribulation temple that he will allow the Jews to rebuild after the Tribulation begins. Episode 2, Invasion of Darkness brings this to life! At the end of that seven years, Jesus will return, destroy him and his false prophet, bind Satan for 1,000 years, and reign on the earth. That is the Millennium!

I hope this helps answer your questions. Feel free to share a comment. Thanks for watching the Introduction to The Revelation on Facebook Live. I look forward to you joining me for Chapter 1 next Sunday at 8:00 p.m. on my David Bullock Facebook page! You cannot understand the rest of the Book apart from Chapter 1. See you then!