—Class on Daniel 9, Verses 20-27!ET# 515/85DO 2188

DANIEL 9, THE CAPTIVITY!

1. WHAT BOOK ARE WE ON? (FAM: DANIEL!) WHAT CHAPTER? (FAM: 9.) What verse? (Fam: One!) Actually, no! We don't have time to go into all of Daniel's long lament over the sins of the Jewish people. … [A]lmost since God created them, He's been lamenting! … He as good as told Moses that. (Exo.32:9-10) And sometimes I wonder, too. As the poet said,

"'Tis odd that God should choose the Jew,

But God chose which shows God knew His Jew!"

Anyhow, "all things work together for good to them that love the Lord." (Rom.8:28) …

2. WELL, I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE TIME TO GO INTO THE HISTORY OF ALL THIS, what year of the king it was & blah blah blah. That's not what we're interested in, it's all water under the bridge, past history. It's enough to know that Daniel got another revelation after this big long prayer of his, praying for his unrepentant Jewish people. At least he was repentant & greatly beloved, as it says several times, & the Lord had mercy on him. And he's praying, he wants to know what's going to happen to the Jews. I don't blame him for praying for them, & I don't blame him for wondering what in the Hell's going to happen, considering all that happened already. What had happened? Let's get the historical setting that far anyhow.

3. WHERE IS DANIEL? (FAM: BABYLON.) WHY? (FAM: BECAUSE THE JEWS WERE TAKEN CAPTIVE.) Why? (Fam: Because they refused to pay tribute?) Because of their many many hundreds‚ thousands of years of sins! God finally got fed up & what happened?—Another date that I required you to remember. (Fam: 586 B.C.)—Was what? (Fam: The fall of Jerusalem.) Jerusalem had fallen & risen again a few times before to this conqueror or that, Northern Israel had been conquered‚ but this was really the final mess‚ at least for awhile, when in 586, Nebuchadnezzar decided that was enough of those damn stubborn rebellious Jews! So he just came down & had his army tear down the walls, wreck the city & destroy the Temple completely, & he figured they'd never have the nerve to build it again. Well, if it hadn't been for the Lord‚ they probably wouldn't have.

4. BUT GOD HAD PREDICTED THEIR CAPTIVITY & RETURN THROUGH THE MOUTH OF JEREMIAH THE PROPHET. (Jer.25:11; 29:10) When their destruction & the destruction of Jerusalem & their going away as prisoners was predicted, how long did He tell Jeremiah it would last? (Fam: 70 years.) I know that the children at least already read this Chapter & dear David was teaching them this Chapter yesterday. I told you he already knew enough about this to teach other people. These kids know more about the Bible than nearly all the church Christians. He could be a Bible College professor & teach those guys something, he knows so much more about it than they do! Well, he is! We have a little Bible college going on right here & he has several students here that he teaches. So PTL! Amen? (Fam: Amen!)

5. SO JEREMIAH‚ BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, PREDICTED THEY WOULD BE IN CAPTIVITY HOW LONG? (Fam: 70 years.) How long is that from 586? To what year? It's 70 years!—Ha! That's like the joke about how far can a dog run into the woods. Do you know how far a dog can run into the woods? (Fam: Halfway!)—Halfway! Because the rest of the time he's running out of the woods! I asked you a simple question. You already told me they were going to be in captivity 70 years. So I asked how long that was from 586‚ & everybody looked blank. Does it matter when it started if it's still going to be 70 years long? It's going to be 70 years! But it so happened that it began in 586 when the city was destroyed & thousands of them were carried away captives into Babylon.—Not captives in the sense that we often think of in chains & put in prison cells & that sort of thing‚ but it was more of what in modern history they call ... what do they call it? It was especially true during some of the dictatorships of Europe when they moved large populations. (Peter: Relocation.)

6. THEY'RE STILL DOING IT! ETHIOPIA'S DOING IT RIGHT NOW! They relocate populations that they consider troublesome & dangerous & who they want to get in some other area where they won't cause so much trouble. … So if they finally just couldn't completely suppress them & keep them under subjugation or subjection, they would just move the whole population. Russia's done it! They've moved large numbers of people from Central Russia clear out to Siberia & other places just because they wanted to populate those places. So they took people that they normally had trouble with anyhow & figured Siberia was already bad enough, they couldn't hurt it any, so they just moved them out there!

7. THIS HAS BEEN A POLICY OF KINGS & NATIONS & EMPIRES FOR CENTURIES, SO THERE'S NOTHING NEW ABOUT IT. This was a relocation of the population of Israel. They were not actually prisoners when they got there, they were not put in jails, they were not in chains, in fact, they were not even slaves. They were allowed to have their own cities, even their own local governments‚ they just weren't allowed to leave, that's all!

8. THIS CONDITION EXISTS RIGHT NOW IN RUSSIA—YOU CAN'T LEAVE ANY CITY WITHOUT A SPECIAL TRAVELLING PERMIT. And you're not allowed to relocate yourself or get another job without governmental permission. And lots of people are just moved, to say the least, involuntarily, you might as well say forcibly!—They're told to move somewhere & go there & settle down & develop Siberia or develop the Far East or something, just to sort of help the country develop some area it wants to develop & populate as well as get rid of the population that they don't want so close to home!

9. ALSO, FREQUENTLY THEY DO IT TO PUT A LARGE POPULATION LIKE THAT AS A BUFFER BETWEEN THEM & THEIR ENEMIES, so that if the enemies attack they're going to get them first, these people or troublemakers they don't like anyhow.

10. THIS WAS CALLED THE CAPTIVITY, & IT WAS CAPTIVITY BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T GO HOME, THEY WEREN'T ALLOWED TO LEAVE. They were captives in that sense of the word. They were moved & they had to stay there, they couldn't leave the cities, they couldn't leave Babylon, the country, & later Medo-Persia, until finally Cyrus came along, the man that God had predicted years before, even his name, that he would let them go back home. (Isa.44:28; 45:4,13)

11. AS LONG AS THEY COULDN'T GO HOME THEY CONSIDERED THEMSELVES CAPTIVES‚ even though they were actually allowed to live freely in their own cities and ply their own trades & business & farming & all the rest. They were even given land & cities & all that. God was still merciful & good to them. But of course it was a great sadness & sorrow to them & they sang songs of weeping under the willow trees along the banks of the river & they hung their harps on the boughs of the trees‚ they didn't even want to play their guitars any more or anything because they were so sad‚ because they were a thousand miles from home. And that was a long ways in those days when you usually had to walk it or ride a camel. (Psa.137)

JEWS RELEASED UNDER CYRUS!

12. THE BABYLONIANS WERE VERY HOSPITABLE & ENTERTAINED THESE … JEWS FOR 70 YEARS IN THEIR COUNTRY! They let'm carry on their business & go about their lives, but they had to stay there. They wanted to keep'm right there under their nose where they could keep a watchful eye on'm & they wouldn't cause'm any more trouble!

13. SO THAT'S THE SCENE WHEN DANIEL WAS THERE‚ also the same under the Medo-Persians who took over from the Babylonians & inherited the Jews, along with Babylon. I guess finally Cyrus decided to let'm go, by the Will of God, & no doubt God put the idea in his head because it was a fulfilment of prophecy exactly to the very year!

14. AND NOW THE QUESTION IS, WHAT YEAR DID CYRUS DECIDE TO LET THEM GO HOME? (FAM: 516.) Very good, somebody can figure. You have your calculator there‚ ha! You go backwards, don't you, in B.C.! In B.C., years before Christ, you're figuring down the years until the coming of Christ. You figure they went into captivity in 586, & if you want to add 70 years to that‚ you actually take away 70 years to find out what year it was when they were returned. So that was what? (Fam: 516 B.C.)—Exactly‚ according to actual history, they were released in 516 B.C. by Cyrus, exactly 70 years just like the Lord had told the Prophets.

15. AND DANIEL SAYS HERE HE UNDERSTOOD THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAH. He understood from what Jeremiah said that it meant 70 years. He was interpreting prophecy here & predicting when they were going to be released, because he was understanding the number of the years & days, etc., so that he could encourage & assure the Jews that they were going to be released soon. (Dan.9:2)

DANIEL 9:20!

16. SO IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN! IT HAPPENED TO DANIEL & IT'S HAPPENING TO US, & it's wonderful how He told Daniel He was going to give him these marvellous things. I'm not going to take time to read this big long prayer, you read it. It was all dear Daniel confessing sins for other people. Daniel was doing it sincerely, although I've been in some prayer meetings where some church members got up & prayed & confessed the sins of other people instead of their own! "Dear Lord, please forgive dear Brother So-&-So for so-&-so! Please help Sister So–&-So to so-&-so!"—Praying for other people, & in the course of this prayer they made it a good sermon, a good preachment, they preached a good prayer against Sister So-&-so or Brother So-&-so! Well, here Daniel's doing somewhat the same thing, he's confessing the sins of Israel, but I'll tell you, he needed to and he did it sincerely. So finally, what happens? God sends him an answer. 20th Verse!

17. "AND WHILES I WAS SPEAKING & PRAYING & CONFESSING MY SIN & THE SIN OF MY PEOPLE ISRAEL, & presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God..." He probably still thought that meant Jerusalem, he probably did mean Jerusalem, because the Scripture often speaks of the holy mountain. You just look at one of our Posters & you'll find out what the Holy Mountain is! Jerusalem might have been a type or a symbol on Mount Moriah with the Temple there, a poor illustration, such as the Temple & all of its artifacts were a kind of a poor illustration of spiritual truths. But what poor illustrations really.

DANIEL 9:21-23—GABRIEL COMES TO DANIEL!

18. SO, WHILE DANIEL WAS CONFESSING ISRAEL'S SINS, THE LORD LOVED HIM SO MUCH THAT HE SENT HIM GABRIEL. Who's Gabriel? (Fam: An Archangel.) Do you know of any other Archangels?—Michael! I think those are the only two Archangels named in the Bible‚ aren't they? The Archangel Gabriel, here he is clear back in Daniel's day, & he showed up later with Mary. He was the Annunciation Angel, who announced to Mary that she was going to have the Messiah. He showed up later with whom?—Us! Gabriel's been around‚ Michael's been around. Haven't you read some of those old Letters?

19. GABRIEL CAME WHILE HE WAS STILL SPEAKING IN PRAYER. Daniel calls him a man, well, he looked like a man to him, but he knew he was supernatural, spiritual. "Whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning." Wasn't Gabriel there on some of these other revelations to explain them to him? "Being caused to fly swiftly." There you are again‚ Angels fly, & you're going to fly some day! Amen? "Touched me about the time of the evening oblation," the evening offering. What do you mean? Daniel was a long way from Jerusalem. The Temple's destroyed, altar gone, sacrificial offerings no more. Well‚ it was still about the time they used to offer them, & now he's praying. There were no more animal sacrifices, but he's praying.

20. "AND HE INFORMED ME & TALKED WITH ME, & SAID‚ O DANIEL‚ I AM NOW COME FORTH TO GIVE THEE SKILL & UNDERSTANDING." (Verse 22) You say, "Well‚ I've read this, Dad, & I still don't understand it. So how could He be giving him skill & understanding?" Well, we hope that you do understand, & if you don't yet, you will.

21. "AT THE BEGINNING OF THY SUPPLICATION THE COMMANDMENT CAME FORTH, & I AM COME TO SHOW THEE; FOR THOU ART GREATLY BELOVED." (Verse 23) Why did God do it? Why did He try to help him understand, even though he finally didn't understand sometimes? It wasn't God's fault, He tried to help him. But a lot of this, the Lord told him, wasn't for him to understand, because it wasn't for him. God was predicting it literally hundreds, even thousands of years in advance before it ever happened‚ & he didn't have to understand. But he had to put it on the record so that we would understand when the time came.

22. "THEREFORE UNDERSTAND THE MATTER & CONSIDER THE VISION." Now here it comes. The class must be almost over, we finally got down to the text after explaining everything else!—Ha!

DAN.9:24,25—THE SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL!

23. "SEVENTY WEEKS ARE DETERMINED UPON THY PEOPLE." First of all we've got to know what the meaning of this word "weeks" is, & it would have been far better if the original King James translators had translated it into "seventy sevens." But the Hebrew word, I think it's "shabua" or something like that, literally means "seven." But because there are seven days of the week, it was also the common name for the week. The word was used interchangeably either for the figure 7 or for the weeks of the month. And it's rather sad here, in some ways, that the King James translators didn't catch on that He wasn't talking about weeks of the month, but He was talking about sevens, not only sevens, but sevens of years, which makes a big difference! If you try to say these are weeks it's a ridiculous prophecy. It would come out a few weeks later & a little over a year & none of this happened in a little over a year, so you can't possibly interpret it that way.

24. BUT THE LORD LET IT BE TRANSLATED THIS WAY, maybe because He knew that a lot of people didn't need to know, & maybe a lot of Jews didn't need to know, & it really kept it sort of a mystery. Otherwise maybe some people would have known exactly when the Messiah was going to come who shouldn't have known. It was good security that it was interpreted this way, that it sounded like weeks instead of years.

25. SO, SEVENTY SEVENS OF YEARS, ACTUALLY, "ARE DETERMINED UPON THY PEOPLE & UPON THY HOLY CITY." How long is that, 70 sevens? Come on, out with it! Goodness gracious! Even if you never heard it explained before you should be able to figure it! 7 times 7 is 49, 7 times nothin' is nothin', & you put'm together & it's 490!—490 years, because these sevens are years, sevens of years. And 70 times 7 years is 490 years. That much is determined upon thy people. In other words, that is going to be the history of thy people. But you say‚ "Dad, Jewish history didn't end 490 years later, only Jesus ended 490 years later. So how can that be?" Well‚ we're going to show you. I hope we're going to show you.

26. "SEVENTY WEEKS ARE DETERMINED UPON THY PEOPLE & UPON THY HOLY CITY, to finish the transgression & to make an end of sins, & to make reconciliation for iniquity & to bring in everlasting righteousness, & to seal up the vision & prophecy & to anoint the most holy." Now we have found out by actual history & as we figure out these times, etc., that the Lord Himself, Jesus, exactly 483 years after this prophecy began to be fulfilled‚ was crucified & died for the sins of others, as we're going to read as we go along. But I'm giving you a little preview, a little flash forward like the movies do to kind of cue you in to what we're talking about. Then what is he talking about here, 483 years & seven years more?

27. "TO BRING AN END OF SINS." I've heard preachers & Bible teachers explain that this was all fulfilled at the death of Jesus. Was it really? Did that bring an end of sin? If so, what's this Hell all over the World I read about in the paper every day?

28. "TO MAKE RECONCILIATION FOR INIQUITY." Well, within that period‚ yes, Jesus made reconciliation, but not everybody's reconciled yet. "To bring in everlasting righteousness."—Well, yes‚ for some. Jesus at His death brought everlasting righteousness to some, but there sure is an awful lot of Hell going on that is not righteous & it seems to me a lot of even the righteousness of the church hasn't been very everlasting! So if He's talking about ever since Jesus, it doesn't look to me like the picture was very well fulfilled. Now get this!

29. "TO SEAL UP THE VISION!"—WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? You ought to be able to figure that out? (Fam: To fulfil it.)—Right, fulfil it, completely finish it‚ the whole total 490 years, the complete end. "And the prophecy, & to anoint the most Holy." Who's the most Holy? It's talking about Jesus, of course.—In fact, Yeshua ha Messiah, or the word "Christ" in Greek, literally means "the anointed one" or "the Messiah." He was anointed in a sense spiritually to be King of kings, Lord of lords, King of the Jews, by God the Father before the World began!

30. BUT WHEN'S IT GOING TO HAPPEN? Did it happen at His crucifixion? Did He become King of kings then? Well‚ He became King of kings before the Creation, but that is in the spirit & the mind of God & the future is already settled, already here. But it isn't going to actually be fulfilled & come to pass, all that's predicted there about the 490 years is not going to happen until when? It's not going to be totally fulfilled until when?—Partially fulfilled, yes, spiritually fulfilled‚ yes, in the spiritual Kingdom of God in us on Earth now. Jesus was right when He was saying, "The Kingdom of God is within you." (Luk.17:21) It certainly wasn't outside in the Roman Empire!

31. SO WHEN IS THIS GOING TO BE FULFILLED? (Fam: At the Second Coming?)—Second Coming? When He takes over the World as its King, King of kings, to be anointed the Most Holy & bring in everlasting righteousness & all the rest? Honey, I'm sorry, but it isn't completely fulfilled at the Second Coming. He only rescues some of the people at the Second Coming, & He doesn't take over the World, it's still in a Hell of a mess! In fact, it's Hell on Earth after that! It reaps the very judgements of God & the Wrath of God after that. That's not very holy! Well, it might be holy but it's pretty much of a mess!

32. ALL OF THIS IS NOT REALLY COMPLETELY FULFILLED BOTH SPIRITUALLY & LITERALLY UNTIL THE MILLENNIUM! At the end of what? (Fam: The Battle of Armageddon.)—Right, when we come down & take over & the Kingdom is delivered, oddly enough, it says into our hands, unto us. What happens at the Battle of Armageddon? The King of kings takes over His Kingdom & gives it to you! Isn't that marvellous! He gives you the Kingdom! Isn't that wonderful? We're always talking about God's Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God on Earth & Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the King of kings, etc.‚ but it's not only His Kingdom. Yes, it's His Kingdom, but He gives it to you! (Dan.7:22,27)

33. "FEAR NOT, LITTLE FLOCK, FOR IT IS YOUR FATHER'S GOOD PLEASURE TO GIVE YOU THE KINGDOM!" (Luk.12:32) Hallelujah! (Tongues) "Listen to the Words of thy Father & heed thee unto the counsel of David!" TYJ! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen! It's good to have a little confirmation from the Lord, although we don't even need it. Well, maybe some people need it. It does me good anyhow. I enjoy it! It edifies my spirit when you speak in tongues, especially when you get an interpretation, amen? I don't know why the Lord's always saying that, you guys must need it, I guess. You need to really listen! Maybe it isn't you, maybe it's the guys that are going to read this! Maybe they need to believe it & heed it, to listen. Amen? A lot of people didn't‚ & they've gone back & they're in a Hell of a mess now! A lot of people couldn't believe it or they wouldn't believe it. They just didn't believe God would do such things, say such things, have us do such things.

34. NOW THEY'RE GOING TO CRITICISE OUR POSTERS, WHAT DO YOU BET? Oh, we are going to hear from these Posters, let me tell you! If we've ever done anything the church hated, they will never hate anything we've ever done as much as they're going to hate these Posters! "Licentious‚ evil, sexy, dirty‚ filthy pornography! Obscenity! Lies! Heresy! Deceit!"—Because it confounds everything they've ever taught & what they didn't teach & what they didn't know. And after all, if they didn't know it, it didn't happen to them, then it must not be true! They're all a bunch of Flatlanders! The third dimension couldn't possibly exist because they've never seen it, never been there‚ don't know anything about it, so it didn't happen. Isn't that pitiful, people with such narrow minds? "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up! Don't tell me the truth, I like what I'm believin' already!"—Including a lot of lies they're believing already.

35. THEY TALK ABOUT OUR LIES, GOOD NIGHT! THE SYSTEM IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST BUNCH OF LIES in all of its theories & doctrines & so–called science & all the rest‚ all lies, so much lies! It's the false kingdom of the Devil, he's the father of lies! (Jn.8:44)

DAN.9:25

36. (DANIEL 9:25:) "KNOW THEREFORE & UNDERSTAND THAT FROM THE GOING FORTH OF THE COMMANDMENT TO RESTORE & TO BUILD JERUSALEM UNTO THE MESSIAH, THE PRINCE"—who's that? (Fam: Jesus.)—Jesus! "Shall be seven weeks, & threescore & two weeks: the street shall be built again, & the wall, even in troublous times." The seven weeks was the 49 years it took them to rebuild the city & the wall. And from then on it was three score & two weeks, that's 62 seven's from then until the coming of the Messiah. A total of 69 weeks or 483 years, which is exactly what it was from the edict of Ahasuerus, which permitted them to rebuild the city, to the crucifixion of Jesus.

37. NOW CYRUS HAD TOLD THEM THEY COULD GO AHEAD & REBUILD THE TEMPLE, butAhasuerus told them they could rebuild the city including the wall (Ezra7:11–23), which the other dictators had refused because they were afraid they might rebel again. But as long as the walls were down flat they knew they couldn't defend themselves & they couldn't be troublemakers any more. The Jews' Temple had been left flattened till this point because they figured it must be their religion that makes them cause so much trouble!

38. ISN'T IT PITIFUL THAT THE WORLD BLAMES THE TROUBLES OF THE WORLD ON THE CHURCH?—Because it is so involved in those troubles & does cause so much trouble. They figure, "Well, it must be their God that causes all the trouble, it must be their religion that's responsible for all this trouble these Christians make, warring more wars than any other religion. It must be their religion that's responsible for it." So they figured it must be the Jewish religion that was responsible for making them so mean & so stubborn & so rebellious.

39. WELL, THEY FINALLY LET'M REBUILD THE TEMPLE BUT THEY LEFT THE CITY FLAT & THE WALLS FLAT, & they figured, "We're doing you a favour even to let you go home." They weren't allowed to rebuild the city or the wall, etc., until later.—Until who finally issued the commandment? (Fam: King Artaxerxes.)—Or also called Ahasuerus. And he was the husband of whom? (Fam: Esther.) So apparently Esther had a pretty good effect on him! She must have persuaded him to finally let the people go home & rebuild their city & wall.

40. THE ONLY REASON THEY EMPHASISED THE SEVEN WEEKS OR THE 49 YEARS WAS BECAUSE IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT TO THEM, this rebuilding of the city itself & the wall for their self-defence. So the Lord is merely foretelling the future & predicting that it is going to take them 49 years to rebuild the city & the wall. And then after that it will be another 62 times seven, or a total of 69 seven's, which is 483 years until the crucifixion of Christ.

41. AND WHEN DID HE ISSUE THAT DECREE, IN EXACTLY WHAT YEAR? (Fam: 453 B.C.?) Jesus was 33 years old when He died, & He was born in 4 B.C.—So He died in 30 A.D.

42. YOU SAY, "WELL, WOULDN'T THAT MAKE HIM 34?"—NO! If He was born in December of 4 B.C. & He died in April, about the time of the Passover of 30 A.D., that's even less than 33 years, isn't it? Come on now, wake up! December, the very end of 4 B.C. was virtually the beginning of 3 B.C., & you've got 33 years till Jesus' death in 30 A.D., a little less than 33 years there to April. Anyhow, roughly 33 years. He was in His 33rd year when He was crucified.

43. YOU SAY, "WELL‚ IF YOU START ON SUCH-&-SUCH A YEAR‚ IT COMES OUT WRONG, IT DOESN'T COME OUT 30 A.D." Well‚ let's try it. Let's take 30 years, although it wasn't at the end of 30 A.D., it was within 30 A.D., about in April‚ probably, according to the moon & the Sabbath & all that. So actually from zero to somewhere in the year 30 A.D. was even a little less than 30 years. OK, we go from 453 to zero & then we go from zero to 30‚ right? Remember‚ we're not dealing with just full years‚ but these things happened sometime during the year, & Christ was crucified somewhere during His 34th year. So you take 453 years & add 30 & you get 483 years, & that's 69 sevens of years. 483 is the number we need to get because 7 years was left over. We're not talking about the last 7 years yet, because He just gives 69 weeks, 69 sevens here first—483 years.

44. IF THE EDICT WAS MADE IN 454 B.C.‚ WHICH MEANS 483 YEARS PLUS A LITTLE MAYBE, & THEN 30 PLUS A FEW MONTHS MAYBE, YOU'VE STILL GOT APPROXIMATELY THE SAME AMOUNT OF YEARS TOTAL, 483. Exactly 483 years would have to be from the beginning of 453 B.C., January 1st, although their years were different & their first month of the year was different. We can really get confused if we get too technical. But then Jesus would have to die at the end of 30 A.D. if they're going to get technical & try to split hairs over the months & everything else.

45. BUT ACTUALLY HE DIED WITHIN 30 A.D., & ACCORDING TO MOST OF THE BIBLE SCHOLARS & SCHOLARS OF HISTORY, THEY ACTUALLY SET THE DATE FOR THE PROCLAMATION OR EDICT WITHIN THE YEAR, so that you come out about the same. Are you getting what I'm driving at? If He died in April of 30 A.D., that's 30 years & four months. So if the proclamation was made within 453—let's say it was made in April 453—then you're within the year. Then you add the 30 years & four months & you've got it exact, right within the year.

46. NOW, SOME SCHOLARS HAVE SAID 454 BECAUSE THEY WERE BEING VERY SIMPLISTIC, & I THINK WE EVEN USED TO SAY THAT & HAD TO CHANGE IT, because we were taking exactly so much & adding so much, but it doesn't come out right. Actually the edict was made sometime within the year, & Jesus died sometime within 30 A.D. Get it?

47. SO YOU CAN'T GO BY EXACT, CERTAIN DAYS OF THE YEAR IN THIS CASE OR EVEN MONTHS, I think it suffices to say that it was close enough that it was exactly 483 years later, or within the 483rd year. I think that's pretty good prophecy anyhow, that it was that close, no matter how you figure it!

48. EVEN IF IT WAS WITHIN 454 YOU'VE GOT ACTUALLY 483 YEARS FROM THE END OF 454. Don't try to be too technical. I mean‚ let's figure pretty much in round numbers, that the edict was made somewhere around 453 or 4‚ whichever way you want to figure your final date, it was close enough. Maybe the Lord didn't make it so exact & so specific to the very day so they wouldn't even know, it was good security.—And so the people who didn't have the faith to take it as it says wouldn't believe it. They don't deserve to believe it. If you can't trust God's Word, you don't deserve to know it anyhow.

49. "YOU MEAN, DAD‚ THESE THINGS ARE NOT AS EXACT AS YOU TOLD US?" I say I'm 66‚ but I'm not 66, what am I actually? I'm going on 67, I'm quite a few months more than 66, right?—3 months more than 66. So don't try to get so technical & split hairs! My Lord‚ that's where the church went wrong, when it got more interested in splitting hairs over theological doctrines & building church buildings instead of evangelising the World! So don't try to pin things down to try to be so exact about some things except where the Bible gives you the exact amount of actual days. You can't make a mistake about that. But when it just gives you a general figure of years, a lot depends on what time in the year it happened‚ what time in the year it was fulfilled & how long the months, etc.

50. ISN'T IT ENOUGH FOR YOU THAT IT WAS APPROXIMATELY THAT LONG?—483 years‚ isn't that close enough? For God's sake, that's close enough for me!—That this prediction was that accurate, that whenever the edict was made, it was about 483 years later when Jesus was crucified, because that's what happened, that's what it says! Do you want to take time to at least read the rest of it? Because you already know it.

DANIEL 9:26, 27

51. (VERSE 26:) "AND AFTER THE THREESCORE & TWO WEEKS"—AFTER THE THREESCORE & TWO SEVENS OF YEARS, THAT IS, MEANING THAT LAST PERIOD OF YEARS‚ 434—"SHALL MESSIAH BE CUT OFF." In other words, at the end of how many years altogether? "But not for Himself." Who was He cut off for? (Fam: Us!)

52. "AND THE PEOPLE OF THE PRINCE THAT SHALL COME"—now it doesn't say the prince that shall come, but what does it say? "The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city & the sanctuary; & the end thereof shall be with a flood, & unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he..." You get the connection? First He talks about the prince that shall come. "And the people"—the Romans!—What a prophecy!

53. I'VE HEARD THIS EXPLAINED EVERY KIND OF WAY YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE! We do know what people actually came later even after the Temple was rebuilt & the city & the wall rebuilt & all that, who later completely destroyed & flattened the city & the temple & the works. Who was that? (Fam: The Romans.) The people, the armies of Emperor Vespasian, under General Titus, came & destroyed the city.

54. "AND THE END THEREOF." EVER SINCE THEN IT HAS SUFFERED NOTHING BUT FLOODS OF TROUBLE, WARS & DESOLATIONS. In fact, they have never rebuilt the Temple since the Romans destroyed it, & much of the city is still ruins outside the present old city, outside even where it used to be, just ruins, continuous desolations, continuous war after war after war which Jerusalem has been through, just floods of trouble ever since then.—Until something. You're going to catch on the point, I hope.

55. IT SAYS "THE PEOPLE OF THE PRINCE THAT SHALL COME...AND HE SHALL CONFIRM THE COVENANT WITH MANY FOR ONE SEVEN OF YEARS." So this "prince that shall come" back here is not actually talking about one of the Caesars, not about Vespasian, not about any of those that succeeded him then or for almost another two thousand years. But who is this prince that shall come? (Fam: The Antichrist!) It's the very prince we have been studying about, talking about & studying the fulfilled prophecies about!

56. "AND HE SHALL CONFIRM." THIS IS A RELATIVE PRONOUN REFERRING TO SOME FORMER SUBJECT! Who is the former subject? The only one it could possibly be is the prince that shall come. "He shall confirm." So therefore that prince that shall come is referring to the Antichrist, because we know that he's the one that shall confirm the Covenant with many for seven years. He makes the Covenant for seven years. He promises seven years & they'll have religious freedom, rebuild their Temple & all this sort of thing.

57. EVER SINCE THE PEOPLE THAT DESTROYED THE CITY, THERE HAS BEEN EXACTLY WHAT HE PREDICTED HERE, FLOODS OF TROUBLE, DESOLATION & WAR! Jerusalem has known very little peace, it's just been trouble‚ trouble, trouble! In fact‚ at that time the Romans drove most of the Jews completely out of Israel!—Slaughtered millions of them & drove out the rest & they got scattered all over the World, called the great Diaspora, or the Dispersion‚ the Jews call it. We call it Dispersion, they call it the Diaspora‚ which is a Greek word for the same thing. And you'll find it even in the newspapers nowadays‚ that's their official word for the scattering of the Jews throughout all the World.

58. THEY HAVE BEEN SCATTERED EVER SINCE THEN & JERUSALEM HAS HAD NOTHING BUT TROUBLE EVER SINCE THEN‚ & even since they have been collected back in Israel again, Jerusalem is still in trouble, still at war, still in desolation & still without a Messiah ever since then, exactly as He said! (Pounds Bible!) No wonder my Bible's falling apart‚ I keep pounding on it too much! Well, it's better than pounding on you, isn't it? I'm trying to drive it into your heads! Get the point? And then the rest is easy sleddin' downhill & we'll be done in a minute.

59. (VERSE 27:) "AND HE SHALL CONFIRM THE COVENANT."—The Holy Covenant, have we heard about this before? Do we hear about it again? Time & again, over & over again‚ it couldn't be clearer! "And in the midst of the seven years he shall cause the sacrifice & the oblation to cease." At first he encourages it to restart, even lets them rebuild their Temple. They've got to have the Temple, they've got to have the altar to have the sacrifices. And they've got all the materials stored over there, that's common knowledge.

60. IT'S BEEN IN THE NEWS FOR YEARS THAT THEY'VE GOT ALL THE MATERIALS READY—cut, shaped, pre-fabbed and ready to put the Temple together at a moment's notice—in warehouses stored right there in Israel. This has been in the news lots of times, they even still talk about it in the newspaper. They're ready to rebuild the Temple. They've got the materials ready, bought and paid for! They've had these materials since I was a young man! I remember hearing some preacher say he'd actually been to the warehouse and the Jews showed him where they had the blocks of stone and the timbers and everything all ready!

61. BUT THEY'RE WAITING FOR WHOM? EVEN SULTAN SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT, OMAR THE GREAT, OFFERED TO REBUILD THEIR TEMPLE, after the Muslims took over the whole area & took over Jerusalem. He was very kind, he offered to rebuild the Temple for the Jews, clear back in the late 600s as I recall, in the 7th century, & they refused.—Why? (Fam: They're waiting for their Messiah.) They said, "Only our Messiah can rebuild the Temple!" Now where they got that idea, I don't know, but apparently it was some twisting & wresting the interpretation of the Scripture! But that's their interpretation & that's their prediction, that only their Messiah can rebuild the Temple. So who is going to be their Messiah?—The Antichrist!

62. HEY! HERE'S SOMETHING THAT WE MISSED: "THE PEOPLE OF THE PRINCE THAT SHALL COME." Who were the people of the prince that shall come? (Fam: The Romans.) So once again in the mind of God & in the Scripture the Antichrist is the Emperor of what Empire? (Fam: Rome!)—The final emperor of the Roman Empire! So as far as God's concerned, the Roman Empire extends all the way from old Rome to the present & right clear up to the Antichrist, & he is just the final revival of the old Roman Empire & its final emperor! It couldn't be any more exact, could it? "The people"—the Romans—"of the prince that shall come"—the Antichrist. So he is the final Emperor of Rome!

63. DOESN'T HIS HORN SPROUT OUT OF THE HEAD OF THE ROMAN BEAST? So isn't he a king of Rome?—Along with ten other kings, three of whom he overthrows. The old Roman Empire covered mostly what part of the World today? (Fam: Europe.)—Mostly Europe & some of the Mideast, but mostly it was Europe. And so where are there kings or kingdoms today which are literally trying to get together & be a revival of what old Empire? (Fam: Rome.)—The nations of the European Economic Community or Europe!

64. AND THEN HE IS GOING TO ARISE AMONGST THEM OUT OF THE EXTENSION OF THE OLD ROMAN EMPIRE. The Romans also ruled at that time, of course, part of the Mideast, including Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt, etc. So it could be anywhere in the Roman Empire, except we know from that other prophecy we studied it's most likely Egypt.—Out of the old Roman Empire! The old Roman Empire still exists today in Europe, & it had ten kings today just like God promised, & one king is yet to come, "the prince that shall come." And when he comes he's going to do what? (Fam: "Confirm the Covenant with many for one week.")

THE 70TH WEEK!

65. NOW HERE IS SOMETHING THAT YOU'VE REALLY GOT TO GET! We have dealt with all the other weeks‚ haven't we? "What ever happened to that 70th week‚ Dad? You've got all this business about 483 years‚ 69 weeks‚ right from the issuing of the edict up to the death of Jesus, what in the World happened to the 70th week? You forgot all about it, didn't you?" Did we?

66. HOW COME GOD LEFT THAT HANGING & DANGLING UNTIL THE VERY END, THE VERY LAST SEVEN YEARS OF WORLD HISTORY? Somebody want to tell me? Why did He divide the 70th week from the 69? Why has there been nearly 2000 years since the 69th week to the 70th week? Why? Why did He leave that hanging? Why did He put off the 70th seven years to the very end? (Fam: That's how long the Antichrist reign is.)—Yes, but why this big gap?

67. WELL, LET ME GIVE YOU A HINT! This big gap is between the time they killed their King & therefore God was through with them as a nation, until the time they are restored as a nation & guaranteed peace & are building the Temple, & Israel really becomes the Empire of Israel again under their Emperor, the one whom they consider their own messiah. Israel really comes into full strength in history as a strong nation with its own Emperor, literally the Emperor of Rome‚ showing where Israel's at.

68. BUT WHEN THEY KILLED JESUS THEY CUT OFF THEIR OWN HEAD & THEIR OWN HISTORY, & ISRAEL, IN THE SIGHT OF GOD, CEASED TO BE ISRAEL. It ceased to be His people, it ceased to be His country, it ceased to be a nation in the eyes of God! But the false messiah comes along & literally recreates Israel into a World power with security, guarantees, Covenant, promises, restoration of the Temple & resumption of sacrifices. Israel has never been fully restored. Even though they declared their independence in '48, they will not consider themselves fully restored until they have the Temple & sacrificial services are resumed. Then once again you have Israel's history continued, Israel again in full bloom‚ Israel restored by the Antichrist, the last week‚ the last seven years.

69. IT IS AS THOUGH GOD SUSPENDED ISRAEL'S HISTORY WHEN THEY KILLED HIS SON, & He's not going to allow it to be restored until the very end of the World, Man's World, & then restored by the Devil himself, by the king that they worship & the king that they wanted. Their real King was crucified at the end of God's history for Israel as far as He's concerned, but He allows them to restore themselves to full power under the false messiah‚ the false king, the Antichrist, in the last 7 years! Do you get it?

70. ISRAEL WILL NOT BE FULLY RESTORED AS A NATION TO FULL POWER & RELIGION & THE WORKS, INCLUDING THE TEMPLE & THE SACRIFICES, UNTIL THE ANTICHRIST COMES INTO POWER. God left a gap of nearly 2000 years of World History in which Israel was obliterated as far as God was concerned. God only allows them to be restored at the very end!

71. WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE HE ALLOWS THEM TO KILL HIS SON, THEIR REAL KING, & THEN RE-ESTABLISH THEMSELVES UNDER A FALSE KING, a false messiah, for a total of seven years at the very end? Why did they reject Jesus? Why did they kill Jesus? Why did they accept the Antichrist & follow & worship him instead 2000 years later? (Fam: Because the Antichrist will actually set up the kingdom like they're expecting it, whereas Jesus didn't.) Yes. … Why did God let it happen? (Fam: To fill up their iniquity.)—Absolutely!

72. IF ANYTHING IS GOING TO PROVE [WHO] ARE NOT THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD NOR THE SAVED NOR THE CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM, IT'S GOING TO BE THE FACT THAT THEY CHOOSE THE ANTICHRIST as their king & their emperor & they set up a reign of terror under him that will persecute & slaughter Christians!—A reign of the Devil!—A reign of Satan himself! If anything is ever going to prove [who] are anti-Christ, are fiendish devils & not the people of God, not the Kingdom of God & Israel is not the nation of God, it is going to be when they accept the Antichrist, the Devil himself as their messiah, as their king, as their emperor & worship him—Israel restored, ha ha, in power & glory, running the World again under their messiah, their emperor, their king, their "Supreme Lord" as they say!

73. THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL WAS CUT OFF WHEN THEY CUT OFF THEIR MESSIAH! But God allows their utter iniquity, their iniquitous natures to be totally revealed, totally exposed‚ totally identified, as, after having killed the true Messiah & ending their history as far as God was concerned, they rebuild a false nation & a false emperor & a false kingdom & a false king & a false messiah as the very last final crowning crime of their horrible criminal career!

74. HE ALLOWS THE[M] TO REALLY EXPOSE THEMSELVES WHEN THEY CHOOSE THE ANTICHRIST, THE VERY DEVIL IN PERSON, AS THEIR MESSIAH, & to restore their history & their power under the Antichrist, under the false messiah, under Satan himself as their god! You get it? Yes, that's the 70th week‚ that's the last seven years of Israel's history‚ & it is going to be the last seven years, & in a sense it is a false seven, a false nation‚ a false empire with a false emperor, a false king, a false messiah! The whole thing is phoney & Satanic, diabolical, devilish, fiendish…!

75. THE LAST WEEK OF THEIR HISTORY IS GOING TO BE THEIR FINEST HOUR, their finest, most glorious seven years when their emperor runs the World!—That is, until right in the middle! He's still running the World, but then he starts trying to run the Jews. Up to that point they'd been running him! They got the Covenant, they got the agreement, they got permission to rebuild the Temple, restore their religion, they got possession of Israel, they got possession of Jerusalem. In a sense‚ with their "Supreme Lord," their chosen messiah, their chosen dictator, their chosen king, they have literally become the power that rules the World! Right? Isn't that what they're working for right now?

76. THEY HAVE RESTORED THEMSELVES!—Not "God did it for us," but "We did it ourselves with our own arms!" That's what they said after this last war. When some Jewish public figure was thanking God for saving Israel in their wars with the Arabs, another public figure got up & announced publicly, "God didn't save us‚ we saved ourselves!" And that's exactly what they're going to say at the end there when their false king is chosen & exalted & worshipped & put up as their emperor, & not only king of Israel but king of the World! Israel's history at last restored! Israel at last restored! Israel at last a World power! Israel at last king of the World, running the rest of the World!

77. THAT'LL SHOW THEIR TRUE COLOURS, IF NOTHING ELSE EVER SHOWED THE CHURCH & THE CHRISTIANS—who now back Israel to the hilt & no doubt very soon will be backing the Antichrist to the hilt without even knowing it! In fact‚ they're doing it right now! In backing Israel, they're backing the Antichrist government! In backing the Antichrist government of the [Israelis], the church & Christians, even born-again saved Christians, are backing the Antichrist himself!—Not us, thank God! Hallelujah!

78. … We tell the World the Truth & they hate it because they don't want the World to know that! They're keeping it a secret until they finally take over! Talk about secret societies, Masons & all the rest, all kinds of cabals & secret societies & everything, they're secretly working undercover & even have all the church & the Christians fooled‚ getting them to cooperate with them, getting them to back the U.S. in backing Israel, so … that Israel's supreme power & "Supreme Lord" can be restored & they can run the World the way they've always wanted to run it! That's where we are!

THE DESOLATE!

79. (VERSE 27:) "AND IN THE MIDST OF THE SEVEN YEARS HE SHALL CAUSE THE SACRIFICE & THE OBLATION TO CEASE." Isn't that what the Lord's been telling us all the time? "And for the overspreading of abominations"—here's the abomination of desolation—"he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation"—what's that? That's a big word for what? (Kids: End!)—Very good! "And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate" it says. I've had preachers try to tell me that means the desolator, because they didn't want to think that the Jews were going to suffer. They said, "Well, you could really translate that desolator as the Antichrist, not the Jews." But it says, "The desolate."

80. AS FAR AS GOD'S CONCERNED, THEY ARE GOING TO BE DESOLATE AT THE END OF THE ANTICHRIST REIGN, in fact, through the last half of it! Because He has deserted them, left them desolate, & is going to desecrate their Temple, desolate their worship & their faith & their power & leave them desolate unto the end!—"And that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate" Jews! Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen! Do you get the point?

DANGEROUS DOCTRINES, NAZI HUNTERS!

…

82. … They were asking for amnesty for Barbie, the Nazi. Did you know there are now several million Dollars in rewards now being offered for Mengele's hide? They're trying to raise the ante so Paraguay will finally dump him. They're pretty sure he's in Paraguay but Paraguay won't admit it. (He was dead!)

83. THESE NAZI HUNTERS WILL NEVER REST! THEY'LL NEVER BE SATISFIED! They're offering millions of Dollars! The official government of Israel is now offering one million of the Dollars the U.S. taxpayers are giving them to catch this Nazi! Think of it! I mean they're almost unbelievable, their persistence. … [I]t's going to take the Tribulation, the Atomic War, the Wrath of God & the Battle of Armageddon to finally get'm to say "Uncle"! It's only after that that the Lord says that they finally acknowledge that He's their Messiah & weep as for an only Son & confess that they crucified the wrong one! (Zech.12:10)

84. MY GOD, WHAT A PEOPLE! They're supposed to be a blessing to the Earth. … Only when they get saved, then they're a blessing! PTL! Hallelujah! TYL!

CLOSING WORDS!

85. WELL, THAT WAS A TOUGH LESSON. I'M SORRY I WAS SO SLOW, I HAVE TO STOP & TELL YOU EVERYTHING ELSE! Now do you understand why the last week of Israel's history was suspended until maybe next year? (Fam: Yes.) What did you think about it before? Hadn't I ever told you that before? Didn't I ever explain that before? Even most of the Bible Professors teach that.—Not the way I taught it though, ha, ha! They teach that it's Israel's hour of glory when finally she's really restored & the Temple is rebuilt & sacrificial offerings are recommenced, that that's Israel's great hour of glory!—Under the Antichrist, can you imagine that? The Christians, the Fundamentalists, Scofield & the Evangelicals teach, "At last Israel will be restored. Well, even if it is under the Antichrist, it's Israel!" That's how absolutely contradictory they can be, how inconsistent they can be & ridiculous! It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad!

86. NOW WE CAN GO ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTER, & THAT IS A HEAVY ONE! Well‚ actually we're going to skip the 10th Chapter, that's just a lot of prayer again, Daniel's praying again, & since he prays hard the Lord gives him another answer! You can thank God for the prayers because you get the prophecies as a result! TYL! Amen? So let's pray for the Kingdom, shall we? (Prays the Lord's Prayer) Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! (Kisses the children: ) Grandpa was really sockin' it to'm today!—Really on fire! TYJ! PTL! Amen?

87. DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING TODAY? Did I put across the point? That will be the ultimate expose' of the false Israelites, the false people‚ the usurpers, the pretenders to the throne, before the real people take over! Get it? I hope I made the point! GBY all! ILY!

IT'S LATER THAN YOU THINK!

Copyright © 1998 by The Family