The Bible tells us there will be a third Jewish Temple and that Israel will build it prior to the midpoint of the Tribulation, for it’s at that time the antichrist will defile it.
This prophecy originates with the prophet Daniel, who wrote about the “seventy weeks,” or literally in the Hebrew “seventy sevens,” that God had decreed for the people of Israel.
What does Daniel’s prophecy have to do with the Jesus’ imminent appearing? If the last period of Daniel’s “seventy weeks” is now nearing its start, this verifies that we live in the last days of human history. The scoffers of our day, however, tell us that Daniel’s words are no longer relevant for today and that Israel’s rebirth as a nation was just a fluke of history.
Does this prophecy remain unfulfilled? Yes! Absolutely! As we follow it through Scripture, we not only gain greater clarity regarding it, but also understand why the “seventieth seven” must refer to a still future time.
We find this amazing prophecy concerning Israel and the Messiah in Daniel 9:24-27.
Verses 25-26 provide the starting and endpoint events for the first sixty-nine grouping of seven years, which ended with the cutting off of “an anointed one,” the Messiah. Daniel tells us what will happen after the sixty-nine periods of seven years:
“And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.”
The Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the second temple in AD 70 fulfilled the words of this verse concerning Jerusalem and the second temple exactly as Daniel predicted.
Verse 27 reveals what will mark the start the start of this last period of seven years, a covenant with the antichrist, and what will happen at its midpoint, the desecration of the Jewish temple:
“And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
As we turn to the New Testament, we see more references to this “desolator” that Daniel said would someday defile the Temple.
In Matthew 24:15, Jesus referred to desecration of the temple, the event Daniel said would happen at the midpoint of the prophet’s seventieth seven, which we refer to today as the future seven-year Tribulation:
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand).
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