The Messianic Temple and Daniel 9:24– Fulfilled or Future?
Daniel 9:24 said “Seventy Weeks are determined…. to anoint the Most Holy.” Scholars are somewhat divided over what the “Most Holy” is. Some say it is a referent to Jesus and his “anointing” at his baptism. This is untenable however, as we will share in the upcoming Preterist Pilgrim Weekend, July 18-20, at the Ardmore, Oklahoma Convention Center.
Daniel 9 foretold the dedication of the eternal Messianic Holy of Holies, Temple of God. Significantly, Daniel said seventy weeks were determined for that construction and dedication. While there is tremendous controversy about when to start Daniel’s countdown of the Seventy Weeks, there can be little doubt that the terminus, the end of the countdown, was to be the destruction of the city and the temple, of v. 26-27. This is the “full end” of the city, the temple and the Seventy Weeks. See my Seal Up Vision and Prophecy for an examination and refutation of the claim of some, like Kenneth Gentry, Gary DeMar, Joel McDurmon, etc., that the Seventy Weeks ended in approximately AD 35, but that the actual fate of the city did not come until AD 70. In effect, that view says that Seventy Weeks were determined to determine the fate of the city. That is clearly not what Daniel 9 says. The fate of the city and temple was determined in Daniel 9! It was not to be determined within the seventy weeks, the fate of the city was to be fulfilled. Thus, this view is untenable and easily refuted.
Our Dispensational friends tell us, however, that there is a so far 2000 year gap between the sixty ninth and the seventieth week. In fact, Thomas Ice says that if there is no 2000 year gap between the sixty ninth and seventieth week, Dispensationalism is totally falsified! I agree, and as I will share in my lesson at the upcoming PPW 2013 seminar, there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim of a 2000 year gap. See my formal debate with Thomas Ice in which I presented some of my evidence and he had no response whatsoever! He and his partner Mark Hitchcock were visibly stunned at the material!
There is, however, scriptural justification and proof of a 40 year period, divinely ordained, and an intrinsic part of Israel’s calendar! This period of time extends from the first half of the seventieth week to the last half, which terminated in the destruction of the city and the temple. This is stunningly powerful and important material that you will have to hear to believe, but the evidence is, to me at least, overwhelming. It is just fantastic!
The New Testament writers, virtually all of Israel, anticipated the imminent fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, and one of the constant themes of which they write is the Temple of God. They consistently cite the OT prophecies of the last days Temple, and they tell us they were living in the days foretold by the OT prophets. They even tell us that the corner stone of the Temple was Christ, and the foundation was the apostles (Acts 4:25f; Ephesians 2:19f). They tell us that what the OT prophets actually foretold was the spiritual temple, a spiritual priesthood, and spiritual sacrifices!
When one examines Daniel’s prophecy of the anointing of the Most Holy, in the light of the New Testament doctrine of the Temple, it is undeniably true that the writers believed that the Temple was under construction. It was a spiritual “building of God, not made with hands” and was about to be dedicated at the coming of the Lord in the Sechinah glory cloud (Matthew 24:29-31). And they invariably said that parousia, that dedication of the eternal Temple was at hand. In the destruction of the Old Temple and the Old City, Babylon, in AD 70, the New Jerusalem and the New Temple would come down from God out of heaven: “The Tabernacle of God is with man!” Daniel 9 stands fulfilled, and the Most Holy has been dedicated!