The Rapture of the Church: The Rapture in Relation to the Seventieth Week of Daniel Lesson # 12

Related to the subject of the day of the Lord is the seventieth week of Daniel.

In fact, the Scriptures teach that the day of the Lord will take place during the seventieth week of Daniel.

As we will note, some teach that the rapture will take place before the seventieth week while some assert that it will take place in the midway point of this seven year period.

Others maintain it will take place after the seventieth week.

John H. Fish III writes “Evangelicals are agreed on the fact of the rapture of the church. Christ will come again to receive us to Himself. The dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are alive will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air (John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; 1 Cor. 15:51–52). This should be the blessed hope of every believer. We will be with Christ. We will be changed to be like Him. This hope should sustain us in trials, encourage us in death, and stir us up to holy living in life. The fact of the rapture cannot be disputed by evangelicals.[1] What has been a matter of intense debate in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the time of the rapture in relation to other end time events. Premillennialists who hold to a future interpretation of Daniel’s Seventieth Week (Daniel 9:24–27) and a futuristic interpretation of the book of Revelation see the coming of Christ in power and glory preceded by a time of tribulation and judgment here on the earth. The issue is whether the church will go through any, part of, or all of this tribulation.[2] Pretribulationalists believe the rapture will occur before the tribulation so that the church will escape the entire period. Midtribulationalists see the church on earth during the first 3 1/2 years, but delivered from the last half. Posttribulationalists believe the church will go through the entire period. A fourth view is that of the partial rapturists who hold that the godly and faithful will be raptured and escape the tribulation, but carnal Christians will be left to endure the trials.”[3]

Before we note the various views of the rapture in relation to the seventieth week, we must first understand what is the seventieth week and its purpose or purposes?

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy units of seven years have been decreed for the benefit of your people as well as for the benefit of your holy city in order to put an end to the rebellion and in addition to bring sin to an end as well as to atone for iniquity likewise to bring about everlasting righteousness as well as to seal up prophetic vision and in addition to anoint the most holy place. 25 Therefore, please know, yes please carefully consider: From the issuing of the command to restore, yes to rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince, there will be seven units of seven years and sixty-two units of seven years. It will be restored, yes it will be rebuilt with a public square as well as a defensive trench even during distressful times. 26 Then, after the sixty two-units of seven years, the Messiah will be executed so that He possesses nothing. Next, the people of the coming leader will destroy the city as well as the sanctuary. Indeed its end will take place with a flood. Yes, there will be war up to the end. Desolations have been decreed. 27 Then, he will establish a firm covenant with the leaders, which will be one unit of seven years. However, he will cause the sacrificial offering to stop in the middle of this unit of seven years while between the wings which results in abominations, he will cause desecration. Indeed until a decreed complete destruction is poured out against the desecrater.” (My translation)

The seventy weeks of Daniel of four hundred ninety prophetic years are divided into three segments: (1) 7 “sevens” (49 years): The decree of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-8) to the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25). (2) 62 “sevens” (434 years): The completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem to Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and crucifixion in 33 A.D. (Dan. 9:25-26) (3) 1 “seven” (7 years): Tribulation period (Dan. 9:27).

Daniel 9:27 “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (NASB95)

“He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week” refers to the prince who comes from the people who will destroy Jerusalem and the temple “establishing a strong or firm relationship with” the nation of Israel during the seventieth week.

“With the many” is referring to the individuals in Israel who will constitute the highest authorities or in other words, the political and military leadership in the Israeli government.

“For one week” refers to seven prophetic years with a year being 360 days according to the Jewish calendar.

This treaty mentioned in Daniel 9:27 will mark the beginning of the seventieth week.

Daniel 9:27 also makes it crystal clear that the coming leader is the future persecutor of the nation of Israel during the seventieth week or seventieth unit of seven years.

Therefore, we can see that because the prophecy in Daniel 9:27 has never been fulfilled in history, it must be yet future, which makes clear that there is a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week.

This covenant between Antichrist and Israel is a peace treaty, which will guarantee Israel’s safety in the land and suggests that Israel will be in her land but will seek support that she had previously.

Therefore, it appears that she will seek a treaty with the Revived Roman Empire, the United States of Europe headed by Antichrist and she will welcome the peacemaking role of Antichrist and the Revived Roman Empire.

“But in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering” stands in direct contrast to Gabriel’s previous statement to Daniel that the coming ruler mentioned in Daniel 9:26 who will come from the people who will destroy Jerusalem and the temple in war will establish a firm seven year treaty with the leaders of Israel.

“In the middle of the week” constitutes three and a half years of 360 days according to the Jewish calendar.

In Daniel 9:27, Gabriel informs Daniel that after the coming leader mentioned in Daniel 9:26 establishes a seven year treaty with the leadership of Israel which marks the beginning of the seventieth week or seventieth unit of seven years, he will cause the sacrificial offering to stop in the middle of this seventieth week.

This means that three and a half years into this treaty, the Antichrist will cause the sacrificial offering in the temple to stop, which implies that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem and the Levitical sacrifices will be reestablished.

The coming ruler who breaks this treaty with Israel during the seventieth week could not be Antiochus Epiphanes IV since nowhere in history or the Old Testament is he said to establish a seven year treaty with Israel and then break this treaty after three and a half years.

In fact, Paul teaches in 2 Thessalonians 2 that it will be the Antichrist who does this.

The apostle John also teaches this in the book of Revelation.

Antiochus Epiphanes IV put a stop to the sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C. as predicted by Daniel chapter eight.

However, nowhere is he said to have established a seven year treaty with Israel and then break it after three and a half years.

These three and a half years correspond with the “for a time (one year), times (two years), and a half time (six months)” in Daniel 7:25 and the “one thousand two hundred and sixty days” in Revelation 12:6 and the “forty-two months” in Revelation 11:2.

“And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate” signifies that this stopping of the sacrifices by Antichrist will take place about the same time he takes his seat on the Mercy Seat between the cherubim and declares himself as God.

“One who makes desolate” refers to the desecration of the temple as the result of the Antichrist sitting between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant and declaring himself as God.

It refers to the sinful actions of the Antichrist making desolate the holy place since these actions defiled and made it ceremonially unclean.

We know that on the wing of abomination, the Antichrist will cause desolation or destruction in the middle of the seventieth week as well as indicated by the Lord Jesus’ statement in Matthew 24:15-21.

Gabriel completes his communication of the prophecy of the seventy units of seven or seventy weeks, four hundred ninety prophetic years by informing Daniel that the coming leader who we know is the Antichrist will continue to desecrate the temple until a decreed complete destruction has been poured out against him.

He will be completely destroyed by God through the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we can see that Daniel’s seventieth week is a seven-year period that takes place sometime after the rapture of the church and extends from Antichrist’s peace treaty with Israel to the Second Advent of Christ and is concerned with the nation of Israel exclusively and will be the worst period in all of Israel’s and the world’s history.

This 7-year period is divided into two three and a half year periods with the first three and a half years characterized as a cold war (Mt. 24:6) whereas the last three and a half years are characterized as a hot war (Mt. 24:21-22).

This period will end with the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, which is the visible return of Christ to planet earth with the elect angels and the Church in order to deliver Israel from her enemies and establish Jesus Christ’s millennial reign resulting in the fulfillment of the four unconditional covenants to Israel (Dan. 2:44-45; Zech. 14; Mt. 24:29-31; Rev. 1:7; 19:11-21).

Antichrist will not and can not appear until the Day of the Lord has begun (2 Thessalonians 2:2) and his manifestation is being hindered by the Restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7) and this appearance will be preceded by the rapture of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

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[1] There are some who are imprecise in their terminology and will say that they no longer believe in the rapture. What is usually meant is that they no longer believe in the pretribulational rapture. But all who believe the Bible must believe that the church will be caught up to meet Christ in the air when He comes again. This is the plain assertion of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The word rapture comes from the Latin of the word which is rendered in English caught up.

[2] The debate on this issue is essentially confined to premillennialists. Amillennialists and postmillennialists do not accept a literal seven-year period of tribulation before the second advent of Christ and therefore find this discussion irrelevant.

[3] Emmaus Journal, 1(1), 20–22 (1991)..