While no one can say with certainty what is going to
happen in the near future, the parallel to what is happening today and the
prophecy of Daniel's sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of his Seventy Weeks
of Years in chapter 9 cannot be ignored." After the sixty-two
‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off 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. 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 on a wing of the temple he will set up an
abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is
poured out on him." (Daniel 9:26-27, NIV)
The Anointed One, mashia (messiah) in Hebrew, in
verse 26 has always been considered by the Christian Church as Jesus
Christ. Jesus was cut off exactly 62 X 7= 434 years after the completion
of Jerusalem's wall. Forty-nine years of the total 490 years had already
been completed when the walls of Jerusalem were finished, so a total of 49
+ 434 years, or 483 years had transpired when the messiah was cut off.
That left 7 years to be yet completed. Verse 26 also shows how "the
people of the ruler who will come" will destroy the city and
sanctuary. That happened in AD 70 when the Roman General Titus laid siege
to the city and both the city and the Temple were destroyed. The end will
be overwhelming, but there would be continuous wars causing suffering and
destruction through the centuries until the time of the end.
The "He," the covenant and the temple
There has been much dispute over who is the "he"
in verse 27. Those who hold there will be no tribulation or that the full
70 weeks of years have been fulfilled, believe that the "he"
in verse 27 is either Jesus Christ or Titus. However, the grammatical
structure of the two verses does not support either interpretation.
Rather, the "he" of Daniel 9:27 must be the "ruler
of the people" in Daniel 9:26 who will come. The people are of
the Roman Empire and the ruler will be "he" who rules the
modern Roman Empire. Christians commonly call him the Antichrist.
In Daniel 9:27 the Antichrist will make a covenant with
Israel and others for one last week (seven years). In the exact middle of
this seven year period "he" will put an end to sacrifice and
offering, and on a wing of the temple "he" will set up an
abomination that causes desolation, until "he" is finally
destroyed. While the word "covenant" in verse 27 is the same
word as used by God when he made a covenant with Abraham, the word
covenant in the context of verse 27 is almost always used in other places
in the old Testament to describe a peace agreement. The setting up of the
abomination that causes desolation is the same as Jesus described in
Matthew 24:15, "So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the
abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet
Daniel—let the reader understand...."A new Jewish Temple?
Therefore, Daniel 9:27 prophesies that there will be a
time in which the Antichrist and the people of the renewed Roman Empire
(the international community) will establish a peace treaty with Israel to
protect her from hostile Arab enemies, and both Daniel and Jesus tell us
that there will be a Jewish temple once again on the Temple Mount.
Although it doesn't need to be completed, the temple must be rebuilt
sufficiently so as to permit the Jews to offer sacrifices and offerings
during the first three and a half years of the tribulation.
Of course the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock,
the third most holy site to Muslim, sit on the general site of the
original two temple sites. Some have suggested the Temple and the Dome of
the Rock can co-exist on the same mount. However, even though it is
generally thought that the Temple and Dome of the Rock don't occupy the
same exact area, it seems highly unlikely that the Muslims and the Jews
would ever tolerate the Temple and the mosque to coexist side by side.
At the same time Arab-American Joseph Farah, editor of
WorldNetDaily, said Friday, October 13 that there are no Muslim holy sites
in Israel. "The Koran says nothing about Jerusalem. It mentions Mecca
hundreds of times. It mentions Medina countless times. It never mentions
Jerusalem. With good reason. There is no historical evidence to suggest
Mohammed ever visited Jerusalem."
"So how did Jerusalem become the third holiest
site of Islam," asks Farah? Muslims today cite a vague passage in the
Koran, the seventeenth Sura, entitled 'The Night Journey.' It relates that
in a dream or a vision Mohammed was carried by night 'from the sacred
temple to the temple that is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed,
that we might show him our signs....'" It was not until sometime in
the seventh century that Jerusalem slipped into the myth, as Farah calls
it. "In the seventh century, some Muslims identified the two temples
mentioned in this verse as being in Mecca and Jerusalem. And that's as
close as Islam's connection with Jerusalem gets -- myth, fantasy, wishful
thinking," concludes Farah.
Could the Muslims be convinced that the Dome of the
Rock is not a holy place, as Farah claims? Unlikely, even if Farah is
correct. How then is the new Temple going to be rebuilt? No one knows.
But, it will happen because the Bible says it will happen.
Attempt at rebuilding the temple
Although there is little chance of rebuilding the
temple as long as the Dome of the Rock still is standing, that does not
prevent some from trying. WorldNetDaily (WND) announced on October 13 that
the Temple Mount Faithful Movement in Israel had the necessary government
permits to anoint a four-and-a-half ton marble cornerstone for a new
temple, which will be covered with Israeli flags and driven to the Temple
Mount on a flatbed truck on October 16. Participants were also planning to
bring "reconstructed vessels for the Third Temple, a priest in the
original garments, and Levites who will play music," recreating
historical temple activities, according to the WND article. "The
event [also had] the approval of the Israeli authorities and will be
protected by the Israel security forces."
Although the Palestinians warned of the "explosive
consequence of such an act," the Israeli government backed the
effort until the deterioration of events starting on October 12 with the
brutal murders of three Israeli reservists in the West Bank police station
of Ramallah. Because events were spiraling out of control and the fact
that the Emergency Peace Summit was being held in Egypt, the Israeli
government withdrew the permits on October 16, according to the Jerusalem
Post. "The police said they will not allow the group to move the
stone from its location at the American Consulate in east Jerusalem,"
reported the Post.
Of coincidences and an international solution
It has to be more than a coincidence that the
cornerstone for the third Jewish Temple happens to be at the American
Consulate in east Jerusalem. Why is America involved? Likewise, is it a
coincidence that President Clinton, who represents the US which is
considered by most scholars as the extension or daughter of the old Roman
Empire, and Javier Solana, who represents the EU or the old Roman Empire
itself, are both involved in these negotiations today? Most people in the
US are unaware that the president of the EU Commission, Romano Prodi, is
also from Italy, the seat of the old Roman Empire. Finally, Secretary
General Kofi Annan represents the emerging world government and was
principally responsible for getting Arafat to the recent Emergency Peace
Talks in Egypt.
Coincidence? Possibly, but doubtful. No one knows
exactly how current events will play out. We may have a better
understanding after the Arab League Summit scheduled for October 19-20. It
appears likely, however, that the peace initiative will be taken from the
United States by the international community led by the UN and the EU.
Even Stratfor Intelligence realizes that Clinton's Camp
David Peace Summit was designed to fail. But why? While Stratfor believes
it was a reckless gamble by Clinton to secure his legacy, there is a far
more sinister possibility. As reported in the August issue of Discerning
The Times (DTT) Digest, Clinton seems to have done everything in his power
to ensure failure. Although it cannot be proven, DTT is concerned that the
Mideast is being steered into such a quagmire that the only solution that
will be left is an "international" solution, where, like in
Kosovo, the international community is forced to step in and impose a
peace solution on Israel, the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab
states. As detailed in the May, 1999 issue of DTT Digest, Javier Solana,
who now represents the EU in a growing role in the Mideast peace talks,
was the primary architect of the Kosovo bombing that established the right
of the international community to intervene into the internal affairs of a
sovereign nation.
The signing of a peace covenant near?
It is becoming increasingly probable that eventually
the violence in Israel will reach such a level that the international
community will step in with a forced solution and sign a peace treaty with
Israel, the Palestinians and perhaps the Arab/Muslim nations. The Arab
nations may or may not be brought into a war with Israel before this
happens. In any event ,this peace covenant will be imposed that could
fulfill Daniel 9:27. While no one can be dogmatic about what will happen
over the next several months or years, it is difficult to see any other
outcome at this point.
While such a solution would finally give Israel peace,
it would agitate and grate on the Arab nations until the festering wound
explodes sometime in the future. Ironically, Ezekiel 38 says that when God
pulls Gog (Russia) down to invade Israel, Israel will be dwelling safely
and peacefully in the land. That has never been the case in Israel's 52
year history. With a peace agreement secured by the international
community, the old Roman Empire, Israel would have peace. The allies of
Russia in the Ezekiel battle are the very Arab/Muslim nations that have
been threatening Israel since its birth. Is the fact the Russia the other
major player in the peace negotiations just another coincidence?
We are perhaps on the brink of the fulfillment of the
most important prophecies dealing with the return of Christ since Israel
became a nation in 1948 and Israel took possession of Jerusalem in 1967
for the first time in nearly 2000 years. WorldNetDaily's editor said on
October 13 that
