The Antichrist’s Treaty with the Leadership of Israel Begins the Seventieth Week of Daniel

The Antichrist’s treaty with the leadership of the nation of Israel will begin the seventieth week of Daniel.

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)

In the Hebrew text of Daniel 9:24, the phrase “seventy weeks” literally reads, “seventy sevens,” which refers to years and “not” days as clearly indicated through a comparison of Scripture with Scripture.

First of all, Daniel was reading Jeremiah’s prophecy regarding Israel’s Babylonian exile, which was to last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10-14).

Furthermore, 2 Chronicles 36:21 speaks of Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the Babylonian exile and it indicates quite clearly that the exile would last 70 years.

These 70 weeks in Daniel 9:24 cannot possibly be 70 weeks in the ordinary, literal sense or 490 days for the number has an obvious relation to the 70 years of Jeremiah’s prophecy in Jeremiah 25:11 and 2 Chronicles 36:21.

Finally, the context clearly indicates that Daniel is referring to years and not days since Daniel 9:2 indicates that Jeremiah’s prophecy of Israel’s Babylonian captivity would be 70 years.

The 70 years of captivity were the specific penalty for violating 70 sabbatic years, which would be 70 sevens, a total of 70 years.

Seven days are in one week and every seventh year was a Sabbath rest and seventy sevens brought them to the year of Jubilee which is noted in Leviticus 25:8-12.

The provisions for the land’s Sabbath rest are recorded in detail in Leviticus 25:2-4, 26:32-35, 43 but in those 490 years, Israel had violated exactly 70 sabbatic years so they would go into captivity for 70 years to make amends.

The 490 could not designate days (about 1 1/3 years) for that would not be enough time for the events prophesied by Daniel 9:24-27 to occur and the same is true of 490 weeks of seven days each (i.e. 3,430 days, about 9 ½ years).

Also if days were intended one would expect Daniel to have added the phrase “of days” after “70 sevens” for in Daniel 10:2-3 he wrote literally, “three sevens of days”.

Also, it is important to understand that the length of a prophetic year was “not” 365 days but rather 360 days since the solar year, which we live by, of 365.25 days was unknown to the nations in the Old Testament but the Jewish year of biblical times was lunar-solar and had only 360 days.

This is borne out in Revelation in John’s vision of the Great Tribulation period since it describes the last 3 ½ years as precisely 1260 days (Rev. 12:6) and “forty-two months” of 30 days each (13:5) and the “time, times and half a time” in Daniel 7:25 corresponds to these two passages in Revelation.

Therefore, the “seventy weeks of Daniel” refer to 490 prophetic years of 360 days.

The seventy weeks begins at a specific point in history, namely “from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” (verse 25) and at the end of the 69 weeks or 483 prophetic years the Messiah is said to appear (verse 25) and He is said to be “cut off.’

Jerusalem and the temple will once again be destroyed but this time by the people of the prince who is to come.

The seventieth week also has a fixed point since it begins with the prince who is to come forging a seven-year treaty with the nation of Israel and in the middle of this seven-year period, this prince of the people who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering in the temple.

This prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 refers to four hundred ninety prophetic years of Israel’s history and sixty-nine of these seventy weeks, four hundred eighty-three prophetic years, has been fulfilled in human history.

However, the seventieth week has not but will take place after the rapture of the church and will begin with Antichrist’s peace treaty with Israel and will last seven years and will end with the Second Advent of Christ.

Daniel 9:27 presents to the reader the next prophetic event that will take place after the three events recorded in Daniel 9:26, which will take place after the sixty-ninth week or in other words after the four hundred and eighty-third prophetic year.

In Daniel 9:26, we read that Gabriel informed Daniel that the first event which will take place after the sixty-ninth week will be the execution of the Messiah, which was fulfilled in history with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The second event is that the people of the coming leader will destroy the city of Jerusalem as well as the temple by waging war which was also fulfilled in history when the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the Herodian temple in 70 A.D.

Then Gabriel tells Daniel that there will be war up to the end of the seventieth week and that desolations have been decreed by God for Israel and its capital city which has been fulfilled in history as well.

Now, in verse 27 Gabriel says that the coming leader from the people who will destroy Jerusalem and the temple will establish a covenant or treaty with the leaders of the nation of Israel for one week, which is seven years.

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

The third person masculine singular form of the verb gā·ḇǎr has sparked controversy among interpreters of Daniel 9:27.

The nearest antecedent is the prince who will come from the people who will destroy Jerusalem and the temple by waging war and does not refer to Jesus Christ.

The rules of grammar would support the view that the nearest antecedent for the “he” in verse 27 is “the prince who is to come” in Daniel 9:26.

If one interprets the “he” in Daniel 9:27 as the Messiah, then one cannot reconcile the fact that the temple sacrifices continued until 70 A.D. over thirty years after the crucifixion of Christ and furthermore, the “he” in Daniel 9:27 breaks the covenant.

There is nothing in the New Testament which would even suggest that Christ made a covenant with the Jews and then broke it and Christ would never break a covenant He has made with Israel.

Furthermore, the Messiah is said to be executed in the first statement in verse 26 and so this coming leader comes after the execution of the Messiah.

The coming leader is also not a reference to the Roman general Titus who led the siege against Jerusalem in 70 A.D. since the emphasis in Daniel 9:26 is upon “the people.”

It is stated this way because this prophecy would link the Roman destruction with the event which took place in 70 A.D. while simultaneously setting up Antichrist to be linked to the first “he” in Daniel 9:27 and the seventieth week.

The coming leader also cannot be Antiochus Epiphanes IV since he did not destroy Jerusalem or the temple.

The phrase “the people of the coming leader” in Daniel 9:26 simply means that this coming leader will originate from the people who destroyed Jerusalem and the Herodian temple in 70 A.D.

The coming leader is the nearest antecedent to the third person masculine singular form of the verb gā·ḇǎr in Daniel 9:27 and thus, the latter is speaking of this coming leader who will come from the people who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

History tells us that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. and thus, the Antichrist will be a Roman dictator.

Daniel 9:27 says that Antichrist will pretend to be Israel’s benefactor and make a treaty with her but will turn against her in the mid-way point of Daniel’s Seventieth Week and will persecute Israel and occupy Jerusalem for three and a half years.

He will make a seven-year treaty with the leaders of Israel, which will begin the final seven prophetic years called the seventieth week and during the middle of this seventieth week after three and a half years, he will break the treaty and stop the sacrifices in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and declare himself God.

Nothing in history corresponds to the events described during this seventieth week and furthermore, the Second Advent of Christ has yet to take place.

So the Antichrist will start off as an insignificant world ruler among ten other rulers of kingdoms but will defeat three of these ten kingdoms and emerge as a world ruler.

He will seek to prevent Christ’s rule on the earth by attempting to destroy Israel but his reign will be short, only three and a half years and will be terminated with the Second Advent of Jesus Christ who at that time will establish His millennial reign on earth in fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Israel.

The prophecy in Daniel chapter seven concerning the little horn and the prophecy in Daniel 9:27 will take place in the future since no such Roman ruler has attained world-wide rulership over a one-world government, no such Roman ruler has subdued three of ten kings who were ruling at once and no such ruler has persecuted Israel for three and a half years and no such ruler has been destroyed by the return of Jesus Christ!