I have preached on the seventy weeks of Daniel’s prophecy many times, and we have published the message in the Contender as well, but I am trusting the Lord to help me deal with the subject again in the light of present day world conditions. I take no delight in being an alarmist, but I believe this energy situation, which has now reached a world wide scope, will be just as instrumental in fulfilling prophecy as the taxing was in the days of Caesar Augustus. You all know the story, how this Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, in about the 12th year of his reign, suddenly got the idea to levy an extra tax on the whole world, and how that caused Joseph and Mary to be in Bethlehem, waiting to pay their taxes, when Jesus was born. God did not have to say, “Now, Augustus, there is a certain portion of my word that must be fulfilled, so you do thus and so.” No! That is not the way God fulfills His word. When time comes for a certain prophecy to be fulfilled, God just withdraws His restraining hand and allows greedy politicians and ruthless radicals to bring about circumstances that move right into the stream of fulfilling prophecy. Caesar Augustus was a pagan; he knew nothing about the program of God. But he did know quite a bit about politics, and he was just carrying out a plan to build an beautify Rome until eventually all roads would lead to Rome. They set up one of the fastest letter carrying and messenger systems that it was possible to have in that day. It was important to those Emperors to know what was going on in the far flung regions of their vast domain, in order to be able to deal with any revolt that might spring up in the outlying territories. Therefore they had garrisoned, messenger relay stations along all their great caravan routes, where troops were stationed to keep the world news moving toward Rome. Professional runners carried news. Some rode horses, but many of them ran on foot, and everything was designed for one great purpose, to build Rome into one of the most unique systems of human government that had ever been. Old Augustus was probably running a little low in his treasury, so he hit upon the idea to add another tax to the already overtaxed population, right down to the lowest little peasant. That caused Joseph to take his espoused wife and go to Bethlehem, for no other reason but to pay his taxes. Little did he know that this was fulfilling prophecy that had been spoken centuries before, that Jesus should be born in Bethlehem. I am sure that taxation worked a great hardship on every little Jew, but it was all in the great plan of God. Scripture had to be fulfilled regardless of the hardship it brought upon the people. It is the same way in our day; who is to say just what God may allow in order to get the stage set for Ezekiel 38 and 39 to be fulfilled? Two thousand years ago God’s finger was pointing to ONE man, and ONE woman. They needed to be in a certain place, at a certain time, and the way God allowed it to work out affected the lives of hundreds of other Jews, for they all had to suffer the necessary hardships of going to pay their taxes in the place of their birth, or the city of their lineage. God knows exactly how to put it in the hearts of political minded men to fulfill His word, and the people of God have to suffer the hardships brought on by their decisions just like everyone else, and many people ask, Why? but let us not question God like this; rather, let us be glad and thankful that our heavenly Father has seen fit to tell us ahead of time what to expect. Furthermore let us be thankful for the assurance we have that God will provide for His own children, even if it requires supernatural intervention as in the days when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. God’s word must be fulfilled, but He will not fail to provide for His true children.

OUR PLANS CAN CHANGE

Now think about this, Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem for no other reason but to pay their taxes, and then they were going to return to Nazareth so Joseph could get back to work, but the birth of that little baby changed all of their plans, and He has continued to change the plans of mortal men ever since. It is ironic that the very land which we know as the land of the Bible should be the very land that would produce the source of energy that the whole world depends upon, and that it would be there for hundreds of years before men would ever discover that they needed such a thing. In less than one hundred years, men have built themselves into an age of mechanization so that all phases of everyday life depend upon oil, and most of the oil comes from the Middle East. Then to carry the thought on through: those oil producing areas of the Middle East are anti Israel, and we are living in the days when God is regathering and restoring those Israelites, and allowing them to regain the land that was first given to Abraham. Where does that put any nation that would be friendly toward Israel? You know as well as I do, that self survival is causing every nation, one by one, to turn their back on Israel, the very nation that gave birth to the Savior of the world. Satan hates Israel, (the woman of Revelation 12:1, 5, 6, 14, 17) and he will use any means, in his attempts to kill every Jew upon the face of the earth. That is why we are hearing reports from Iran, Afghanistan, and all those places in our world news broadcasts every day. Just like I said already, all of this is serving a purpose of God just as much as Augustus imposing an extra taxation upon the world two thousand years ago. When Nehemiah was carrying wine to King Artaxerxes, the Persian King, all that area which we hear spoken of as Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan was part of the great Persian empire. These areas were still known as Persia even after the first advent of Christ on up until about the 8th century A.D. Nehemiah was in the capital city called Shushan, in the king’s palace. Another name for it was Susa. Brothers and Sisters: This is just a little background to get us into our thought. We are going to be studying from chapters 7, 8 and 9 of the book of Daniel primarily, but that will require many other scriptures to be used. There are some things that we want to link together in this message, and for the benefit of some who do not have history books available we are going to print certain portions, word for word, right from Jewish history. This should help to clear up the picture for those who are interested enough to bear with us. We have chosen four verses from the 9th chapter of Daniel to build the message around, but there are many things to be dealt with as we go along.

One thing we definitely want to establish is where the Antichrist, the man of sin, will come from. Theologians down through the centuries have had various ideas about it, and they all have their certain reason for believing what they do, but Saints! God’s word does not give us a half a dozen choices. Let us understand from the scriptures that he will definitely have to be connected with Rome. When we get to the 9th chapter, that will be made very clear. Remember, God’s word does not speak contradictory things; everything has to fit together regardless of all our former opinions. It is only because men have tried to interpret the scriptures apart from the leadership of the Holy Ghost, that we have so many different viewpoints floating around, and hundreds of different religious denominations arguing and fussing about things they know nothing about. May God help us to say some things that will remove all doubts and confusion. First we will just take a little time to acquaint you with the various identities of this beast man, the Antichrist that is to come, and call your attention to certain other men through the ages that have actually typed the one who is yet to come.

ONE MAN WITH MANY IDENTITIES

In the 7th chapter of Daniel we read where he had visions in which he saw four great beasts come up from the sea, each of the four different from the others. But it was the 4th beast which really caught Daniel’s attention; and caused him to inquire about the meaning of the visions. The 4th beast was dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth, and it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. This beast had ten horns, and while Daniel watched it, he saw another little horn come up from among the ten, before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. This horn had eyes like a man, and a mouth speaking great things. The angel told Daniel that the four beasts were four kings (or kingdoms) which would arise out of the earth. We all know what those four kingdoms were, Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, and Rome. But notice, the ten horns and the little horn belonged to the 4th kingdom, and that is the one Daniel watched until the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit. As the angel answered Daniel’s questions: Daniel wanted to know about the horns on this 4th beast which we know is Rome, and about that little horn that spoke such great things, and that made war with the saints and overcame them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgement was given to the saints. Verse 24, “The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. (25) And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hands until a time (ONE YEAR) and times (TWO YEARS) and the dividing of time, (HALF A YEAR).” There you have 3½ years of prophetic time, 1,260 days. The ten horns, or ten kingdoms are the ten major nations of Europe, and the little horn that raised up was the power of the papacy. We will say more about all of this later in the message, but right now we are just looking at the various identities of this man of sin that is yet to be revealed. Here we have seen him as a horn, (A HORN SPEAKS OF POWER.) He shall truly have power throughout his allotted time of 1,260 years, but then his power shall be destroyed by the coming of Jesus Christ with His saints.

ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES TYPES THE ANTICHRIST

To clear up some known confusion: let us look at another horn mentioned in chapter 8. It will help you to read the whole chapter, but we are not going to now. We will start in verse 9, and read a few verses to get this horn. Daniel saw a goat which had a great horn between his eyes, and this he goat (Greece) was very great, but there came a time when his great horn was broken, and for it four notable ones came up, and out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceedingly great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land (ISRAEL). This little horn magnified himself, and by him the daily sacrifice of the Jews was taken away, and the truth was cast down to the ground, and the horn practiced and prospered. Go to verse 13, “Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?” Now I know that sounds just like what we know about the Antichrist, what he will do in that seventieth week of Daniel, over in the great tribulation, but remember, the Antichrist only has 1,200 days allotted to him to do this, and then notice the answer given here in verse 14, “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; (2,300) then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” That is, without any doubt whatsoever, speaking of Antiochus Epiphanes, that horn of Syria which came out of the break up of the Grecian empire. But as you read on throughout this chapter, verses 24 & 25, which actually are speaking of the Antichrist, have caused some scholars to believe it is still referring to the horn of verse 9. That simply is a reference to show that this same spirit of Satan rested on those forerunning types of the wicked one who is yet to come. You will notice in verse 25, that this one stands up against the Prince of princes, which could be none other than Jesus Christ himself, and we know that Antiochus has never, and will never stand up against Jesus Christ in mortal flesh. It is only that the same spirit of destruction and desolation that was in Antiochus will also be in the Antichrist, the son of perdition. Some have looked at these verses and said, the Antichrist will come out of Syria. Others try to put these scriptures together, and they come up with the idea that he will be an apostle Jew. No! He will be a Roman. We will show you, in chapter 9, that the Antichrist must be a prince of the Romans.

A ROMAN PRINCE

When we go to chapter 9, we do not find this Antichrist person being referred to as a horn any longer. He is now called a prince. You must read these verses carefully though, for many people read verses 25, 26, & 27, and get the princes mixed up. First notice that the Prince in verse 25, is the Messiah, (Jesus Christ) and then notice that the prince in verse 26, is not capitalized. This is another prince, and he is the one who will confirm the covenant with many for ONE WEEK (7 years) and in the midst of the week, actually the middle of the week, he will cause the Jewish sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This is what marks the beginning of the great tribulation period which will last for the space of 3½ years. This is the prince that shall come, (come into power) and he gains this opportunity as a peacemaker. This gives him world recognition and places him in a position where he can exalt himself, and actually set himself up as God. This will fulfill II Thessalonians 2:3 & 4, where Paul said, (speaking of our gathering together unto Jesus Christ in the rapture) “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (the day of our gathering together unto Him) shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (the Antichrist) Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; (NOTICE NOW) so that he (the Antichrist) as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” Brothers and sisters: This is all to take place in that 70th week of Daniel, which is just ahead of us. There is an Ezekiel 38 & 39, war to be fought first, but I am very insistent on the fact that this energy crisis is being maneuvered by the hand of God to create a world wide condition that will cause man to usher in the 70th week of Daniel. I believe it will be the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 & 39, that will so shake world leaders, that they will be ready to accept the Roman Catholic pope as the man to oversee and arrange a peace covenant that will fulfill Daniel 9:27. Let us go back to Daniel 9:26, now, and read it very carefully, and in so doing you will see that this false prince must be connected to Rome. “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; (That was when He was crucified and spilled His blood to pay our sin debt, not His own. He had no sin.) and THE PEOPLE OF THE PRINCE THAT SHALL COME SHALL DESTROY THE CITY AND THE SANCTUARY; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” Now let me ask you this, Who destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary in 70 A.D., a few years after Jesus, the Messiah was cut off? We all know the answer to that. History tells us plainly that it was Roman soldiers led by Titus, and we know from this verse, 26 that the prince which is to come, this false prince, the son of perdition, is to be a prince of the people that destroyed the city and the sanctuary, (Romans.) Then verse 27, tells us that this Roman prince is the very one that will confirm the covenant with many for one week, and Daniel 8:25, allows us to see that it is by peace, that he shall destroy many. Saints, it all adds up; it is just a matter of getting it added up right. Everything is moving right on schedule. There is no possible way that you could bring Christ back, six months before He is destined to come. You could fast and pray for a solid year, (if such a thing were possible) and you would not change the plan of God by even one minute. He controls the earth; He controls the heavens, and He controls the destiny of every mortal creature. He will put in the hearts of mortal men, at exactly the right time, to do whatever must be done to make His word come to pass. Over six hundred years before Titus, with his Roman army, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Daniel recorded it, and at the same time, he tied it to something that would take place at the end of the Laodicean age by another man who would be led and motivated by the same spirit that caused Titus and his army to do what they did, and that caused Antiochus to do what he did. Titus was not the prince of Daniel 9:26, but psychologically, and politically, he typed that one who was to come. Titus did not go there to destroy the city and the sanctuary; he only went (as ordered) to put down a Jewish revolt. He thought this could be done very simply, and easy. Little did he know that almost 40 years prior to that, Jesus had uttered some prophecy concerning Jerusalem, which must be fulfilled. Therefore, instead of simply putting down the revolt as he came to do, those Jews came out and fought so furiously against his army, that it antagonized him and all his men to the point where they could stop with nothing less than total destruction. Look at the type. He came with a political motive. He did not come to tear down the city, nor to butcher Jews, but the Jews infuriated him to the point where he fulfilled the words of Jesus concerning the destruction of the city and the temple. Likewise the Antichrist will not engineer that great peace covenant with the thought in the back of his mind that he is going to kill two prophets of God that will set his course of slaughtering Jews in motion. But just as it was in 70 A.D., what those Jews in Israel say and do, will so infuriate him against them that he will begin to slaughter them. Pure hatred for the Jews will drive him to fulfilling the word of God. The term, prince, is applied to an ambassador of peace. That is why Daniel 9:26 refers to him as a prince instead of a horn which speaks of power. He is a counterfeit, a false peacemaker, forerunning the true Prince of peace (JESUS CHRIST) who will rule and reign in the Millennium.

THAT WICKED ONE IS A FALSE PROPHET

We are looking at the various terms that are applied to the Antichrist, as well as establishing where he will come from, and what spirit will motivate him, so let us go back to the 2nd chapter of II Thessalonians. After calling him the son of perdition in verse 3, and showing what that Satanic spirit will lead him to do, in verse 4, Paul goes on in verse 7, to say, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.” That reveals his cloak. When you begin to see him as an instrument of perdition, a tool in the hands of Satan, to lead the world to destruction, then you will realize that he is hiding behind a cloak of deception. That spirit of deception was already at work in the first age while Paul and John were still alive, for they both warned the saints against it. In verse 8, Paul refers to the Antichrist as “THAT WICKED ONE,” and goes on to say that his coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. Satan will enter that old peacemaker just like he did Judas Iscariot. (See Luke 22:3) When Satan entered Judas he immediately went about to betray Jesus, and lead the murderous Scribes and Pharisees to where He was. When Satan enters the old Antichrist, in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week, he will immediately begin to kill Jews, the two witnesses of Revelation 11:3, being the first ones. Now the word Antichrist means, anti word. There have been many minor Antichrists down through the ages, (men who perverted the word of God) but there is yet one to come that will be THE ANTICHRIST, the certain man of sin that so many scriptures speak of. He is also called the FALSE PROPHET, over in the book of revelation. A prophet is one to whom the word of the Lord comes, and in his appointed hour the world will look upon this man as one who is anointed and inspired of God. But in reality he will be a false prophet, because the word that has come to him will not have come from God. Instead of having the word of life, he will have the word of death. All who are deceived by him will be rejected of God and damned.

FOURTH BEAST OF DANIEL’S VISION

Now that you are aware of the many identities of the man who is soon to become a great world hero, let us go to the 13th chapter of Revelation where we will see a profile of this world beast system that comes up, a system of which this Antichrist will be the head. The apostle John is writing what he saw when he was projected into future time in a vision. Revelation 13:1, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having SEVEN HEADS and TEN HORNS, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” Remember, head is symbolic of government, and John says in verse 3, “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Let us go right over to chapter 17, and see what the angel told John about these 7 heads. In verse 3, John says, “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having SEVEN HEADS and TEN HORNS.” We are not reading the whole chapter now. We just want to deal with the 7 heads of this 4th beast which Daniel wrote about, in chapter 7. The angel says to John in verse 8, of Revelation 17, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not: and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that WAS and IS NOT, and YET IS. (NOTICE NOW) (9) And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The SEVEN HEADS are SEVEN MOUNTAINS, on which the woman sitteth. (SEVEN MOUNTAINS) (10) And there are SEVEN KINGS: five are fallen, ONE IS, and the other is not yet come; and when he commeth, he must continue a short space. (11) And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the EIGHTH, and is OF THE SEVEN, and goeth into perdition.” Where will that EIGHTH HEAD come from? The BOTTOMLESS PIT. Where will he go? Into PERDITION. What is the bottomless pit? That is HELL. What does the PERDITION pertain to? That is a word that means DESTRUCTION. This proves that hell is not eternal, for we see a spirit of Satan coming out of hell and going to destruction. (We have a complete article which deals with that.) That is the spirit of the 8th form of government which has its seat in Rome. It has to be Rome, not Syria nor anywhere else. Only Rome sits on 7 hills, or mountains, and has an office with authority that spans the globe. Now that 8th form of government is church government taking over the 7th, or last form of Roman imperial government, blending the two together. That is why it says the 8th is of the 7th. That puts church over state, rather than state over church. When it became church over state, that initiated the form of government that ruled over Europe through the Dark Ages, the bloody rule of the Roman Catholic Church. Now what was in that head of church government? A spirit of Satan. Where will he go? He will go straight to destruction. Not only will he be destroyed, but every last human soul that has ever been deceived by all that these things add up to, will be destroyed also. That is Satan’s objective, lead them to destruction. We will go into more details on these 7 heads and 10 horns on that 4th beast later in the message. Right now we are just endeavoring to get these various things up front in your mind so you can follow the various things that link together in a message such as this. If we did not have the book of Revelation it would be very hard for us to put the various aspects of Daniel’s vision together. Revelation gives us the clues we need to link them all together. It gives us the Twentieth Century picture in more detail. Remember, the angel told Daniel, Go thy way; for these words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. But, saints! We are living in the time of the end and these things must come together. Do not treat them as though they are unimportant, for true saints of God will need this light to walk in as spiritual darkness closes in around them.

THE HE GOAT & THE RAM

Let us go back to the 8th chapter of Daniel now, for we have a he goat and a ram that we want to look at for a few minutes. In one of his visions Daniel saw a he goat and a ram, and they strove, one against the other. We will begin reading in verse 5. The ram is symbolic of the Persian empire, and the he goat is symbolic of the Grecian empire. (5) “And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. (6) And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. (7) And I saw him come close unto the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. (8) Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.” This he goat that came bouncing from the west was fulfilled by Alexander the great. When he had conquered Egypt and all the area of Palestine, and all the areas of Lebanon and Babylon, he also invaded the areas which were ancient Persia. He defeated the Persian kings, and then lived in the king’s palace for the winter. He and his vast army remained in Persia for about 4 months through the rest of the winter. When he and his generals determined to leave the royal palace of the Persians: they fell upon the idea of burning it to the ground. Upon leaving, that is exactly what they did, saying, This shall be for a memorial, that a Grecian has sat on the great throne of the Persians. The Persian empire began to crumble, for there was none to deliver the Persians from the hands of their conquerors. Therefore the he goat waxed very great. That is Alexander the great, and the Grecian empire. But that great horn was broken, (Alexander the great, died) and the empire was taken over by four of his generals which divided the great domain that he had conquered into 4 geographical territories. One of these territories was established in Syria. This is where we pick up verse 9, “And out of one of them (one of these four territories) came forth a little horn, which waxed exceedingly great, toward the South, (meaning Egypt) and toward the east, (further into Persia) and toward the PLEASANT LAND, (Israel) (10) And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.” You would have to know how this particular king really began to project himself to understand that. Therefore let us consider him for the next little while. That king was none other than Antiochus Epiphanes. You who have Scofield Bibles may read about him in the footnotes at the bottom of the page, but we are going to read from Jewish history itself, just to allow you to see how vicious and cruel, and how full of hatred for the Jews this man was. Right from this Jewish history you can see how this man fulfilled the scriptures we are reading, from this 8th chapter of Daniel. I am not ignorant of the fact that many people do not care anything about history, therefore I will try not to read enough to make it a boresome chore for you to study the message, but please be aware of the fact that many of the saints who are interested in making a complete study of these scriptures, do not have history books available to them. This is to help them, and I pray that everyone else will be patient with us. I will say this also: If there ever was a time in history when saints of God needed to get interested in these things, it is now. That week of Daniel is just ahead of us, and it does not matter whether it is still 5 years off or not: I do not know, but I do know that whatever time is left between now and then, you will need it, to allow God that much time to deal with your life, to get your mind in the proper channel of thinking for the end. The days of just participating in a church program and riding along on John 3:16, are over with. The old world is going to get a shaking that will really determine who is of God, and who is not, and your little church programs will not be enough to hold you, in that day. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and only that which cannot be shaken will remain. Saints! I want to remain throughout the shaking! Don’t you? It is time to look beyond our neighbors and friends, and consider these things from the standpoint of eternal life. If you are among those who have been so nonchalant about certain things in the scriptures, things like whether there is still 3½ or 7 years yet to be fulfilled of Daniel’s 70 weeks, and whether the thunder of Revelation 10:3, are important to the living element of the bride of Christ, you had better shake yourself. These things were not written in the Bible just to take up so much space. If you treat these things like that, you may as well treat water baptism, sanctification, predestination, and other major doctrines of the Bible the same way. God did not save us, to be ignorant of truth and Bible facts all of our lives; He saves us because He loved us, but we are to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of His whole plan and program for our age. To grow in the knowledge of Christ, is to grow in the understanding of all that God is doing. It is for your benefit, so let us get this horn straightened out in our minds.

ANTIOCHUS RECOGNIZES HIS POWER

When Antiochus came out of Syria, little by little he recognized or realized just how much power he really did have and he began to exalt himself. There came a time when he actually thought himself to be God. Verse 11, “Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.” That means, it was closed up; no priests could minister, and I am going to read to you just exactly what the Jews said he did. If you want to know what the attitude of the Antichrist will be toward the Jews, just watch that same spirit in Antiochus. He was the beginning of that image psychologically and politically, but not religiously. The beauty of the Old Testament in all these different identities is how it brings out his psychological attitude toward the Jews, and his political motive to subdue and rule them, by the terms horn and prince. Then when you go to the New Testament you pick up the spiritual identity of such a man. He is not a Buddhist, neither is he a Hindu, nor a Moslem; he is an apostate Christian. God knew that He was going to give this glorious gospel of eternal life to the Gentiles for a period of time, and He knew what each Gentile nation would do with it after they had it for so long a time, therefore He showed those old prophets all these things that would transpire through time, and they recorded those visions without ever understanding very much about them, but we are the people who have been predestined to understand all that the prophets recorded.

CHRISTIANITY OUT – ISLAMISM IN

Speaking of the gospel, Did you know that right in the very area where 50 Americans are being held hostage, Paul preached the gospel for 3 years? When he preached there at Ephesus, which is on the western shores of Turkey, the Bible says that all Asia heard the gospel. Up until the 6th and 7th centuries the gospel grew and flourished in those areas. But by then, the Christian gospel began to be so ritualized and apostate, God allowed an anti Judaistic philosophy to raise up, down in Saudi Arabia. A man by the name of Muhammad, who denounced paganism, and became known as a prophet of God’s wrath, and a preacher of righteousness came on the scene. He believed that God is one, just like the Jews, but he believed, or claimed that he, himself was the last prophet. He pulled the sword, gained a bunch of converts, and rode all over the Middle East desecrating churches and slaughtering Christians in every area where those early disciples had preached Jesus Christ. He compelled the citizens to accept what the Western world calls Muhammadanism. Christianity died out in what is now called, the Moslem world. Then in the 8th century, there came a man called Muhammad Ali, who rode into Egypt, determined to destroy every Christian, and every Christian church house that he could find. He is the one who stripped the beautiful Cheops pyramid. He took its beautiful alabaster stone about 10 miles away, across the Nile River, where it is found in 4 domes of one of the largest Moslem mosques there is. He desecrated many Christian church buildings in Alexandria, Egypt, and also in Cairo, and turned them into Moslem prayer places, and Christianity has never flourished in Egypt since then. The whole Middle East is predominately Moslem, and what we are seeing in our day is the final outcome of what all this has built up to. It is an explosive situation and the only way we can know how it is all going to turn out, is by the Bible itself.

Let us get back to Antiochus, now, and try to finish reading this scripture, and the history. We will pick up in verse 12, “And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of the transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? (That is the area of the temple) (14) And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; (2300 DAYS) then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” From there the angel goes back to explain the vision to Daniel, but we will not read all the verses at this time. I want to take this time to show you how that horn of Syria which came out of the breakup of the Grecian Empire, fulfilled these very scriptures. I will not be dogmatic about dates, for Scofield says this took place between 175 to 170 B.C., and the little Jewish history places it between 170 and 162 B.C. Therefore, realizing that there can be discrepancies in history dates, especially when you start comparing Jewish history with Gentile history, we will avoid using specific dates. However when we do study the seventy weeks of Daniel, I am going to stick strictly to the Jewish history side of that, for it is by their means of reckoning time, that these 70 weeks are to be fulfilled, not by some Julian calendar.

ANTIOCHUS IN HISTORY

I believe we are ready to read this history concerning Antiochus Epiphanes, now. Remember, he has just been in Egypt, and he has received word that the Jews at Jerusalem are about to stage a revolt, because they are under the impression that he is dead, but they soon found out that he was not dead. Therefore what you are going to read is taken word for word from Jewish history. We will start with the beginning of the paragraph and it will lead right into what we are dealing with.

EXCERPTS FROM JEWISH HISTORY

ANTIOCHUS THE LITTLE HORN OF DANIEL CHAPTER 28

AND THE 2300 DAYS

Soon after this event Antiochus went to Tyre, and thither proceeded three deputies from the Sanhedrin to justify the death of Lysimachus and to impeach Menelaus. Menelaus, with his accustomed means – bribery – purchased the friendship of Ptolemy Macron, a favorite of Antiochus, and this worthy procured a judgment acquitting Menelaus and condemning his three accusers to death. Menelaus now returned to Jerusalem, being protected from the effects of well-deserved hatred by the proximity of Antiochus’s army. Next year, however, the king, pursuing his campaign against Egypt, laid siege to Alexandria, and a report reached Jerusalem that he had fallen before that city. Jason lost no time in entering Jerusalem, and, finding friends within the holy city, soon deposed Menelaus, whom he confined in the citadel. But his power was short-lived. Antiochus was not dead; and as soon as he heard of the revolt in Jerusalem, he set out with a sufficient force to punish the defection of the people. Jason fled from the city and took refuge in Sparta, where he ended his life in misery. Antiochus advanced against Jerusalem; stormed it, slew 40,000 of its inhabitants, and sold as many into slavery. Menelaus led him into the temple, which he stripped of its treasures, including 1,800 talents of gold and silver, for which he found use in his expensive siege of Alexandria, then still in progress. From this enterprise, however, he was now compelled to retire by the imperious command of Rome; and he turned his attention towards his disaffected subjects, the people of Judea, now driven to despair by the tyranny of Andronicus and Phillip, whom he had appointed governors. Antiochus sent 22,000 men under Apollonius, with orders to plunder the cities of Judea, to slay the men, and reserve for sale the women and children. Jerusalem was attacked on the Sabbath day – when the Jews would not offer resistance – and its inhabitants were all massacred. The city was set on fire, its walls were demolished; and with its ruins a fortress was built to overawe the inhabitants. The daily sacrifices of the Temple ceased, and surviving priests were dispersed. Upon the altar swine’s flesh was burnt and oblations were offered to Jupiter Olympus, whose statue was set up in the Holy place. Decrees were issued prohibiting circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath, and the reading of the Law, under pain of death. In all the cities of Judea, altars were erected to the gods of the Grecian mythology, and their worship enforced. Many Jews conformed to the king’s decrees, but the mass remained faithful to their religion, and found means to evade these cruel restrictions. Thus, instead of reading the law, a portion from the Prophets was selected, either referring to, or resembling, the weekly lesson, originating the Haftarah of our present ritual. The rite of circumcision was practiced in spite of the king’s decree. Two women were crucified for performing it upon their infants, and the babes were hanged at their necks. The most fearful tortures were employed to compel the faithful Jews to worship the king’s idol. A widow and her seven sons are described as suffering death by being thrown into a boiling cauldron. Heroically steadfast, they submitted to their fate – the mother surviving them only to exult in the sacrifice of her sons to the service of her God, and then to die as they had died. Of course such unexampled cruelty and tyranny could not fail to rouse a spirit of resistance; and that resistance was led and organized by the glorious family of the Maccabees. In Modin, a small and obscure village near Joppa, dwelt an aged man of priestly lineage, named Mattathias. Hitler came Apelles, an officer of the king, charged to enforce the new religion, and to secure the adhesion of Mattathias. In vain were bribes and threats by turns employed; the old man indignantly rejected all overtures and refused to join in the hated idol-worship. An apostate approached to perform the idolatrous sacrifice, when the old man leaped forward and killed him with his own hand. The assembled populace rushed on the commissioner and his train, whom they slaughtered. Mattathias, accompanied by his five sons Jochanan, Simon, Judah, Eleazer, and Jonathan, and by a small party of sympathizers, took refuge in the mountains, where the number of his partisans daily increased, until they were able to make frequent and unexpected attacks upon the neighboring towns. They were assiduously hunted down by their foes; were attacked on the Sabbath day, and their numbers so reduced by the onslaughts, that they abandoned their old objection against fighting upon that day, and recognized it as their duty to defend their lives when attacked. For a year they continued this guerrilla warfare to which their small numbers restricted them, suffering privations and hardships without complaint, until their old leader died, charging them with his last breath to give their lives for their religion. In 3602 (166 B.C.) Juda, his third and most valiant son, succeeded him, and with his small army, now amounting to 6,000 men, commended t perform bolder operations, and rapidly gained possession of several towns. On his banner were inscribed the inspiring words: “Who is like thee among the mighty, O Eternal,” and with this, their war-cry, prodigies were performed, because it proclaimed on the battlefield the name of the God for whom they fought. Apollonius, the king’s governor, raised a large army, and advanced to crush the revolt, but was defeated and slain, and his force put to the rout; leaving behind rich plunder, that fell into the hands of Judah. Seron, the provincial Governor of Coele-Syria, next advanced against the patriots with an immense force. As he approached through the Pass of Bethoron, Judah attacked him, “leaping upon him suddenly,” and drove him back with a loss of 800 men. Antiochus, irritated by these defeats, resolved to crush the rebels at one blow, and, with this view, an army of 40,000 men and 7,000 cavalry was led against them by Nicanor and Gorgias. So confident were they of success that Nicanor summoned some thousand slave-dealers to follow in the train of the army, engaging to sell them his captives at ninety Jews for a talent, about 2 a head. Judas heard of the approach of this vast army while at Mizpah; and, having assembled his men, he found that the bulk of his force did not exceed 6,000. Conformably to law, he made the usual proclamation, dismissing those who had married within the year, built a house or planted a vineyard. This reduced his band one-half, so that 3,000 men were arranged against fifteen times their number. Gorgias made a detour, intending to surround Judas; but he, by a series of masterly maneuvers, eluded him, and falling unexpectedly on Nicanor’s camp at Emmaus, routed that army, and fired the tents. Gorgias, led by the conflagration, arrived in time to witness the utter rout, and decided on retreat; but, ere that could be accomplished, the Macabee’s army was upon him, and his soldiers fled precipitately. Nine thousand men fell. Gorgias fled to Jerusalem, and Nicanor, who had proposed to sell Jews as slaves, escaped in the disguise of a slave. Timotheus and Bacchides, two of Antiochus’s generals in Further Syria, next took the field against the Jews, only to be again defeated in the Ammonite territory with severe loss. These successive disasters, determined Lysias, the Syrian regent, to superintend the operations in person. Avoiding the defiles that had proved fatal to former generals, he advanced with 60,000 infantry and 5,000 calvary to meet Judas, who had an army of 10,000 to oppose him. They met at Bethzur, south of Jerusalem, and fought all day, and when night closed in, Lysias had lost 5,000 men, but, perceiving that the Jews fought like men resolved to conquer or die, he decided upon retreat, and returned to Antioch. A cessation of hostilities now ensued, during which Judas marched to Jerusalem, and on the same month and day as that of the first pollution (25th Kisley,) he again set up God’s altar, restored the Temple services, and kept the Feast of Dedication. He next surrounded the Temple with walls and lofty towers, to afford protection against the Syrian fortress, which still existed on the neighboring Mount Acra.

BLOSS’S ANCIENT HISTORY

Antioch IV., Epiphanes, “Illustrious,” ascended the throne left vacant by his brother, B.C. 176. He engaged in a war with his nephew, Ptolemy, and conquered all Egypt except Alexandria. He took the young king prisoner, affected to act as his guardian, and to treat him with the greatest attention. The Egyptians, however, applied to the Romans, who, as arbiters, compelled Epiphanes to set the young king at liberty, and restore the cities he had taken from him. The Jews having revolted, the Syrian monarch marched into Judea. He besieged Jerusalem, and took it by storm. During the three days that the city was abandoned to the fury of the soldiers, 80,000 Jews were put to death, and 40,000 taken prisoners. To his other crimes he added sacrilege. He forced his way into the temple, and ventured to enter the Holy of Holies. He carried away the altar of perfumes, the table for shew-bread, the seven-branched golden candlestick, and other precious things of the sanctuary.

Some time after, Antioch published a decree, requiring all the nations of his dominions to lay aside their ancient forms and ceremonies, and worship the gods he worshiped, after the same form and manner e had adopted. The Jews refused to comply with this command, and such a horrid persecution arose as no pen can portray. At this time happened the martyrdom of Eleazar, and the seven Maccabean brethren. “Tidings out of the east and out of the north” now troubled Antiochus. He divided his forces into two bodies; committed one part to the command of Lysias, with orders to exterminate the Jews, while he led the other detachment against the Armenians. The army of Lysias met the other band of Jews, commanded by Judas Macabeus, upon the plains of Mizpah. The Syrians were defeated, with dreadful slaughter. Two more battles gave the Jews such decided superiority that they marched to Jerusalem, recovered the sanctuary, re-dedicated it to the service of the true God, and devoted the week to thanksgiving and praise.

Antiochus, hearing of the defeat of Lysias, set out himself for Judea. On his way, fresh expresses met him, saying that the Jews had thrown down his idols, overturned his altars, and re-established their ancient worship. At this intelligence he ordered his coachman to drive with the utmost speed, that he might satiate his vengeance by making Jerusalem the burying-place of the whole Jewish nation. Scarcely had he uttered the impious words, when he was seized with the most excruciating pain; and as the horses were running at their greatest speed, he fell from the chariot. The agony of his bruises, added to the torment of his disease, drove him frantic. He imagined that specters hovered round, reproaching him with his crimes. Recognizing the hand of Divine justice in the anguish he suffered, he exclaimed, “It is meet to be subject unto God, and man who is mortal should not think of himself as if he were a god.” He promised if his life were spared to do magnificent things for Jerusalem; but his sands were run. “He died a miserable death, in a strange country, in the mountains.” (B.C. 176-164)

END OF EXCERPTS

KING OF FIERCE COUNTENANCE

Brothers and sisters: I hope this history has helped you to better understand the abomination of desolation that was to last for 2300 days. I am sure you can easily see that this scripture here, has no connection at all to the Antichrist who will appear in the last half of the 70th week of Daniel, except to set a type. You saw also, how that period ended when Judas with his army marched into Jerusalem, set up God’s altar, and restored the temple services, and kept the Feast of Dedication. If anyone wanted to take the time to figure it out hey would find that this portion of history concerning Antiochus covered a period of time that corresponds with the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14. This man literally hated all Jews when he was doing what he did; that is obvious. But do you know why? That spirit of Satan got hold of him. He had no intention of doing what he did, in the beginning, but God’s word had to be fulfilled, and it fell upon Antiochus to be the man who would characterize the Antichrist, exemplifying that spirit of hatred for the Jews that he will display for a period of 1260 days, which is the last half of the 70th week of Daniel. He is the little horn of Daniel 7:8, that the little horn of chapter 8, verse 9, set the type for. I want you to see that these two references pertain to two different men, with many centuries of time in between them. As you read on through chapter 8, where the angel is explaining Daniel’s visions to him, you come to verses 23, 24, and 25, which definitely do pertain to the Antichrist which is yet to come. Antiochus did not in any way fulfill these verses, except to exemplify the same spirit of the devil that motivated him. Unless you read them carefully though, you can think they are referring to the same human instrument as the verses in the first part of the chapter. Let us rad them. (23) “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, A KING OF FIERCE COUNTENANCE, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. (The Antichrist) (24) and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: (it will be by the power of Satan) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. (25) And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; (Jesus Christ) but he shall be broken without hand.” He will be broken by the sword that proceeds out of the mouth of Jesus Christ when He comes back to earth with His saints after the great tribulation has run its course. He will stand up against the Prince of princes, but he will be broken, and Revelation 19:20, tells us that he will be cast alive into the lake of fire. That is the end of this false prophet that will exalt himself and show himself as God for his allotted time. He will be a man from our very generation, but he will be led and motivated by that same spirit that was in Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian. Do not look for the devil to resurrect some ancient character to fulfill these Antichrist scriptures, like a lot of Pentecostal modernists are teaching it. That is perversion of the interpretation of the Bible. God aused all these scriptures to be written to portray the evil spirit that moves man to do what these various characters do. In the mind of God, Judas was the son of perdition all along, but he was not the Antichrist. He was the son of perdition in type. In Antiochus we saw the psychological and political type of the Antichrist, but it took Judas to portray the religious type.

SON OF PERDITION – LOST

In the 17th chapter of John we find Jesus praying for all those that have been given to Him by the Father and He says, (verse 12) “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” Jesus prayed this prayer before Judas actually betrayed Him, but He knew that Judas would do what he did. By connecting the types as He did: God let us know that the Antichrist would not be a communist, neither an atheist, nor an evolutionist; he will be a religious man. Judas was a religious Jew that believed in God, and up to a certain point he went along with Jesus in whatever He did, until something happened to pervert his thinking. It was only after his thinking became perverted that Satan was able to inspire him to plot against Jesus. Before that, he went right out with the rest of the disciples of Jesus, casting out demons and healing sick folks along the way. Where did that spirit of Satan get on him, you may ask? He was actually anointed by Satan while he was sitting with Jesus and the rest of the disciples, eating the Passover supper. To show that religious spirit, or the identity with that religious spirit, he went right straight to the high priest, and sold his Lord and master for 30 pieces of silver. Then, later, when he realized what he had done, in betraying his Lord, he tried to repent, but the same spirit that led him to betray Jesus, also led him to hang himself. All that, just serves to show us that he became an instrument that Satan had taken over. That is exactly what many poor souls will witness in the last half of that week of Daniel. They will find themselves at the mercy of a man who has been taken over by Satan. It will not be Antiochus, resurrected from the dead, nor will it be Judas; it will be a man of our day, a religious man that has been taken over by the devil. People are very foolish, to believe that God will allow Satan to incarnate someone that will be resurrected from the dead, to fulfill all these scriptures concerning the Antichrist, the man of sin. Antiochus did not have to be resurrected in 69 & 70 A.D. to fulfill Daniel 9:26 and Matthew 24:15, concerning the abomination that maketh desolate. No! A Roman general by the name of Titus, fulfilled those scriptures. He was the 2nd instrument that God ordained to characterize this man of sin who is yet to come, this man who will be ruled by a spirit right out of hell. We will say more about Titus later in the message, and at that time we will read some actual history, right from the little Jewish history book I have here. It will allow you to see how this Jew hating spirit of Satan that was on Antiochus Epiphanes more than 100 years before, came right over and got on Titus, and caused him to be the instrument that would fulfill Daniel 9:26, which would further exemplify the most wicked one of them all, who is yet to come. That same spirit has been on many men through the centuries. It was on Pharaoh in Egypt when he fought against God’s chosen people. It has been on Syrian kings, on Roman kings, and on Hitler in Europe, and it will soon be seen on the man who is to climax the history of all Jew haters down through the centuries. When his allotted time is fulfilled the Lord Jesus will come back and set up His Millennial kingdom, and there will never be another Jew hater turned loose on earth to slaughter God’s chosen race of people. Brothers and sisters: that is the time we are looking forward to; and it will be wonderful. Will you agree? James referred to this present life as a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away, and we all realize, that is true. But let me ask you this, Have you ever tried to visualize just what it will be like, when we are all robed in immortality, living and reigning with Christ, and knowing that there is no more death present? Brother, that is something to shout about. Hallelujah! Praise God! In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump we will be change.

EXPLORING DANIEL’S 70 WEEKS

Brothers and Sisters: At this point in the message, I feel like we should really begin to explore the 70 weeks of Daniel. I realize we can never get all of this into one issue on the Contender, but it is an important subject for the true church of the living God; therefore we will take as many issues as we need to in order to deal with the subject thoroughly. If the message is worth printing, it is worth taking enough time to make it clear to those who read it. Too many people who are supposed to be filled with the Holy Ghost are just following flesh, without a revelation of the word of God that is before us. Brothers and Sisters: It ought not be like that. It is too late in the hour for bride people to be following some man’s teaching just because they like the man. God will not accept that. Preachers all over this world have just taken the verbal statements that Bro. William Branham made while preaching on the 7 seals, and they (WITHOUT REVELATION THEMSELVES) are teaching people that there are only 3½ years left of God’s dealing with the Jewish nation. Don’t you think I know Bro. William Branham said that? I sat within 20 feet of him when he was making those statements, and I said within my heart at that time, Why did he say that? It had only been about 2 years since he taught on the 70 weeks of Daniel, where he explained how Israel still has one full week of time left to them, and dramatized it by using a chart. I remember how, at that time he would stop and ask the people, Are you getting it? Do you understand? Yet these preachers who try to hold to every word that he uttered as THUS SAITH THE LORD, will say, Bro. Jackson, people have just misunderstood Bro. William Branham. No they haven’t. That is just their excuse for not humbling themselves and admitting that God allowed those statements to be made like that to try them, as believers. When a man has already been anointed to prove something by the Bible, why would any Holy Ghost believers allow themselves to grab hold of contrary statements in other messages that the man preached? Let me remind you once again saints, when something is presented to you in two different ways, so that one says one thing, and the other says something different, even a small child that has just barely started to school knows that 3½ is not the same as 7, so what must you do? Get on your knees and ask God to show you from His written word which one lines up, to present a true revelation. That is not going against the prophet, when you do that, you are doing exactly what he told you to do, “Get back to the word.” How many times have you heard him say that? If you really do want to do what the prophet said to do, then get back to the Bible and let the Holy Ghost give you a revelation, something that you can hold on to when the storms of life are raging. I never will forget how this subject of the 70 weeks of Daniel first became of interest to me. About a year and a half before Bro. William Branham ever preached anything on this subject, we were rabbit hunting one day, and he brought the subject up, about prophecy. While we were talking, he said, Bro. Jackson: You know there is only 3½ years left, of the 70 weeks of Daniel. At that time, I have never made a study on it, and we were just new in this message, so it really did not interest me very much, then. I just accepted it like that at the time, but later on I began to get interested in this subject, and after a period of months, I felt urged to investigate it. I went to the 9th chapter of Daniel, and began to study. With the Bible and some history books that I had, I began to calculate time, and ask God to help me understand what I was reading. After some time I became convinced that mathematically you could not get more than 69 weeks of fulfilled time for the Jews as you calculate expired time right down to the crucifixion of Christ. Therefore I concluded that there should be one more full week left for the Jews. But I thought, Bro. William Branham said there is only 3½ years left, and he is a prophet, so, who am I? I decided just to leave it alone, but it was only a short time until he preached that message, taking 2 particular Sundays to deal with it, and that is when he laid it right along with the Bible and showed that the Jews still have one full week of time left, (7 YEARS.) I said, Praise God! Now I know this is the truth; there is 7 full years left for the Jews. But then, when he preached on the 7 seals he reverted right back to 3½ years in various statements concerning that time. Now, wherever you go, you hear, But the prophet said 3½ years. Truly, the prophet did say that, but, my brother, my sister, lt me tell you something, God allowed that, to test you. Will you take something just because he said it, or will you go to the Bible to substantiate it? I have said over and over again. I do not baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ just because Bro. William Branham said to do it that way: I do it because the Bible says to. However it was through his ministry and teaching that the infallibility of the word of God in Acts 2:38, was impressed upon me, and I give honor where honor is due. I honor Bro. William Branham for turning my attention back to the word of God, and away from manmade traditions. I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because the Bible says to do that, and by revelation we know that JESUS is the redemption name of God, and is to be used instead of the titles in Matthew 28:19. When you know what God has said about things you do not need to constantly say, “Bro. Branham said this, or that, or something else;” If God’s word says it, we can say, “The Bible says,” and that is our authority. That is why we want to find out what the Bible says about various issues that are before us.

GABRIEL COMES TO DANIEL

Let us go to the 9th chapter of Daniel and read our text scriptures now. Remember Daniel was a Jew in Babylonian exile. He never did return back to the land of Israel, when the first exiles were allowed to go back. Let us begin reading with verse 20, so we will have the full picture, “And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; (22) Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. (That is when they would put incense upon the altar, and the smoke would go up, signifying the prayers of the people ascending up to the presence of God at the closing of the day.) (23) And he informed me, and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, (meaning, the commandment to the angel, to come to Daniel and give him understanding of certain things) and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. (24) Seventy weeks are determined upon they people (JEWS) and upon the holy city, (JERUSALEM) to finish the transgression.” The word TRANSGRESSION, pertains to their going against divine authority, and it pertains to the overall national transgression of the people of Israel. You would have to go back into Deuteronomy and the prophets to catch the full significance of what the word transgression pertains to, here. In Deuteronomy, while they were still out there in the wilderness journey, God had spoken to them something like this, it shall come to pass, that when you come into the land that I shall give you, if you turn your back to me and no longer keep my commandments, and the statutes that are set before thee, I will take great pleasure in cursing you, and I will drive you out of the land, and scatter you to the nations. Is that not what He did? That was God’s way of chastening them for their disobedience in the land that He had given them. In this land, God had definitely determined to bless them if they would obey Him, and they would be a light to the Gentile people. But, you all know the story. They had not been in the land very long until they fell right into apostasy and began to transgress, transgress, transgress and in spite of the fact that God sent prophets to warn them, they continued to get worse, worse, worse, until finally God turned His back upon them and drove them out of the land. They had been in Babylonian exile, and their 70 years which Jeremiah wrote about, 29:10, were almost completed, so Daniel is seeking God in prayer and fasting, when the angel Gabriel, comes to him. Jeremiah had wrote, For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years are accomplished at Babylonian I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place, and Daniel had been reading Jeremiah’s prophecy and knew that those 70 years were almost completed. He sets his face toward God and begins to confess the sins of his people, and then asks God to let His anger be turned away from Jerusalem, the holy mountain, saying, that Jerusalem and God’s people have become reproach to all that were around them. Then Gabriel comes to Daniel to give him understanding and begins to say, “Seventy weeks (not years) are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, (This has a two fold application. Not only does it apply to the sins of the individual people, it also has a universal application, for when these 70 weeks of years are finally completed, Jesus will have the devil in chains, and we will be in the Millennium with Him.) And to make reconciliation for iniquity, (To reconcile Israel back to Himself, back to the land, back to the city, and to restore to them, everything that He had taken from them, is definitely in the plan of God. It was God that had taken it from them, so it will have to be God that restores it to them) and to bring in everlasting righteousness, (the Millennium) and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” When that last week of those 70 weeks is finally fulfilled it will have accomplished all that is written here. Israel will have been fully chastened for her transgression, and will have been restored, everlasting righteousness will have been ushered in, and sin will be out of the picture, and all of the visions and prophecy will have been fulfilled. Jesus (the King) will be sitting in the temple of Jerusalem, and for 1000 years all the world will go to Jerusalem once each year to worship the Lord of hosts. This will be a compulsory thing according to Zechariah 14:16-17, which says, “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King. The Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up from year to year to worship the King. The Lord of hosts, and to keep the feat of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.” It goes on to say that the Lord will smite them with the plague who fail to keep the feast of tabernacles.

WEEKS EXPLAINED

Now we come to the question some people are prone to ask, How do we determine that this 70 weeks of verse 24, is weeks of 7 years each? Because of the Greeks and Romans we have grown accustomed to thinking of a week as a week of 7 days, each day having a name, but when you go back into the Bible, Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Judges, and so forth, all through there before the Babylonian exile, to the Jews the word week only meant 7. It could be 7 days, 7 weeks, or anything like that. They marked off their calendar by the new moon which would be full on the 15th of each month. They had 12 lunar months of 30 days each. When the new moon appeared that started their month, and they recorded events in this manner; Upon the 1st day of the month such and such, upon the 2nd day of the month, the 20th day of the month, and so on. But when they came back, out of Babylonian exile, they too, began to accept certain things of the Greeks, Persians, and Romans, and break their periods of time according to their methods, but that has no affect whatsoever on prophetic time that God caused to be recorded in the scriptures. When you go to Genesis 29:18, 20, 27, 28, 30, you will understand that, to them, 7 years was 1 week. Likewise, when you read the rest of this 9th chapter of Daniel, you have no trouble recognizing that the 70 weeks of verse 24, have to be weeks of years instead of weeks of days. There are 70 periods of 7, determined, to accomplish all that is written here, but I do not ask you to accept this just because I am saying it to you. It is the responsibility of every true child of God to dig in the scriptures until they get a revelation of what is said to them. What do you find in Matthew 24:15, where Jesus Himself is giving the signs that people are to watch for? Notice this now. “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (WHOSO READETH, LET HIM UNDERSTAND.)” He did not say, Whoever hears something that is preached, let them understand; He said, Whosoever readeth, let him understand. Prophecy and history go together. History of what has happened already, enables us to put two and two together, concerning prophecy yet to be fulfilled. Therefore I beg you, study your Bibles, study your history books, and allow God to reveal to you just where we are, in time, and what is ahead. It is important that we understand. World conditions are leading us right into prophecy fulfillment, and we need not be caught unaware of what is happening. When I said, The oil crisis is just as important for our hour of time as the decree of Augustus was to the hour of time two thousand years ago, I trust that you will understand what I meant. It is shaping the world for the fulfillment of that last week of Daniel. It will take certain world conditions to usher in that peace agreement which will mark the beginning of that week. In other words, we are dealing with God’s yardstick of time, that is important that we understand. Therefore by the grace of God, we intend to pull many scriptures into this message, to give every sincere child of God an opportunity to study and understand just what significance this yardstick has, to believers in this hour. This 70 week prophecy is the only thing in the Bible that God gave man to measure time by. If the Jews had studied it properly, they would have been able to predict (I believe it is safe to say) within a decade of the time when their Messiah would be on the scene. It is sad to say, (sad because of what they did through ignorance) but they missed it completely. Their failure to recognize their Messiah, eventually gave the gospel to us Gentiles, and for that we give thanks to God, but do not ever forget, this Bible we hold so dear is a Jewish book; we only have it borrowed. Let me say also, you do not have to be a doctor of divinity to understand it; all you need is the Holy Ghost teacher, inside, He will reveal it to you. The church world is full of theologians and Bible scholars of every kind, and every one of them seem to feel that it takes that sort of education to understand the scriptures. Many of them have written their versions of prophetic scriptures yet to be fulfilled, but God is bypassing all of that, and revealing Himself and His prophetic word to those whom He has called, regardless of their educational background. As we have said already, The book of Revelation is a letter of prophecy, written mostly about Jewish people and their land, but given to the Gentile church to guide them in this hour of time in which we are living. If we will allow the Holy Ghost to lead us in studying the book of Revelation, it will let us take Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Isaiah, and all the others, and put the final touches on prophecy that was given for this hour. We have the prophecy of Daniel because Daniel was concerned about the fate of his people, and he talked to God about it. Who were the people? Jews. Where is the holy city? Jerusalem. What is the subject that is being dealt with? God’s chastening upon the Jewish nation because of their transgression against divine authority.

SEVENTY WEEKS – 490 YEARS

We have established what is to be accomplished during those 70 prophetic weeks of years, and why it was ordained to be so. Now we want to deal with the time itself. I will not use a chart just now, for I want to keep my remarks so they will be understood by those who hear the tapes later on, some of which would never have access to the charts. We want to look at the 3 divisions of this 70 week period of time which actually adds up to a total of 490 years. First we see a 49 year division, then a 434 year division which gives us a total of 483 years. Then we have 1 week left which is actually divided into two equal halves, but they are not separated. They run consecutively, but there will be a drastic change in world order in the middle of that last week. Let us go to verse 25, of the 9th chapter of Daniel, and begin to examine these three divisions of this 490 year yardstick. When we read this verse, please be aware that the commandment mentioned here is not the same commandment that was mentioned in verse 24. One is a commandment to speak to Daniel, and the other concerns a commandment to restore, and to build something. Verse 25, “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah (the anointed one) the Prince (GET THIS MESSIAH, THE PRINCE IN YOUR MIND AS THE PRIMARY OBJECT, SO YOU WILL BE ABLE TO KEEP THE PRINCES SEPARATED LATER) shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” This Prince is the Prince of princes that Daniel 8:25, refers to. You will remember how that little horn came forth and exalted himself, and caused desolations for a period of 2300 days. We read that in the early verses of the 8th chapter and explained how that was fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria. Then we read verse 24 & 25 of that same chapter and saw how a king of fierce countenance, and understand dark sentences, shall destroy many, and how he would stand up against the PRINCE of princes, and would be broken without hand. We talked about how that will be the Antichrist who will stand up against Jesus Christ at the end of this age, and even though it sounds like the same little horn of verse 9, it is actually referring to two different human beings who are led and motivated by the Jew hating spirit of Satan. That is why I said, When we get this whole prophetic thing put together; we either have to say the Antichrist will come out of Syria or Rome, one or the other. Antiochus who came out of Syria is dead; therefore verses 24 & 25 have to be dealing with something altogether different than the flesh of the man; it has to go to the spirit of Satan who made the man do what he did. I realize some will say, That does not run in harmony with the prophecy, but let me remind you that Ezekiel did the very same thing when he was prophesying to the king of ancient Tyre, then suddenly changed his scope, saying, “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God.” We all know the king of Tyre had not been in Eden, and had every precious stone for his covering, yet Ezekiel was instructed to take up a lamentation upon the king, so what is the answer? The answer is very simple; it was directed to the spirit that caused the man to exalt himself and think like that. These are the things you must keep in mind in order to keep these prophecies running consistent. If you will remember this, you will have no problem at all when we get to Revelation 17, and begin to see how the 8th head is of the 7th, and must come out of the bottomless pit, which is hell, and go into perdition. That is where you will see that this is a spirit of Satan in a form of governmental disguise, and how he uses earthen vessels to accomplish his purpose. If you can see the pattern over here in Daniel and Ezekiel, you will wind up over in Revelation right on target.

CYRUS – A SERVANT OF GOD

Now as we come back to chapter 9, verse 25, we should understand first of all, that this 490 year measurement of time is to start when a certain commandment comes forth. It does not apply to Jewish people while they are still in exile. It only becomes effective once some of them are back in their home land and certain things are set in motion that prove beyond a shadow of doubt, that this is the beginning place for that prophecy. Also, we have to keep our commands in their proper place. This commandment we are dealing with is a commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, the city, not the altar of worship, nor the temple. As you have opportunity, it would be to your benefit to read Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah, for we do not have the time to read all of this now. The first 5 or 6 chapters of Ezra give you the chronology of what transpires when Cyrus took over the world government, and you will see how the writing of Isaiah, was fulfilled, concerning the anointed one who would perform all of the Lord’s pleasure, (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1) and also Jeremiah 29:10 which we have read already. Cyrus made a proclamation stating that he had been commissioned by the Lord God of heaven to build Him an house of Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Then he commissioned the Jews to go up to Jerusalem and build house (meaning temple). But he said nothing about building back the city itself, just the house. More than 42 thousand souls went up to perform the task, and the first thing they did was clear off, and set up the altar where they immediately began to offer sacrifice to the Lord. But when they started to build the temple a bunch of Arabs rose up and sent a letter back demanding that the work be stopped. Their letter had its affect and the work was stopped for a period of time. But when Darius became king of Persia, letters were sent to him concerning the decree of Cyrus, and upon examination Darius found it to be even as the Jews had stated, and in the 2nd year of his reign he gave orders to allow the work to resume, and 4 years later the work was finished. This brings us to about 515 B.C., but the commandment concerning the 70 weeks of Daniel did not start with the building of the temple; it is confined strictly to the building of the city, to get it ready for the first advent, of the coming of their Messiah. We also find in Ezra, that a certain group of Jews, under the leadership of Ezra, returned to Jerusalem to restore religious order and worship unto their God. Still the city was not built. The commandment concerning the 70 weeks is yet for the time when the city would be built. Why put all this other in the message, some may say? It is for brothers and sisters in other lands who do not have history books and encyclopedias as handy to them as we do here in America. Every time I go into some foreign country, I receive ever so many requests for such books. Naturally we cannot supply these things to all who request them, so I have purposes to insert as much historical data into this article as I feel it will take to make the various points clear to those who have nothing else to check them by.

DANIEL’S PROPHECY GOES INTO EFFECT

Let us read Daniel 9:25, again, then I am going to take you to Nehemiah, where we ill see the staring point for this 490 year period of God’s dealing with the Jews. “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, (49 years) and threescore and two weeks: (434 YEARS) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” The reference to the street is symbolic of the cleaning up of the city proper. Just building up the walls would not be enough to cause new immigrants to come back and take an interest in dwelling there. It was not in the mind of God, just to have some walls built without having some people dwelling inside those walls. You can build walls ever so huge and beautiful, but if there are no people living within those walls: you do not have a city; you just have some walls. The walls were built for the protection of those who lived within those walls. God wanted the city built up, cleaned up, beautified and made ready for the coming of the Messiah, so it is the commandment to do this, that actually puts the 70 weeks prophecy into effect, and we pick that up in the book of Nehemiah. As I said already, Nehemiah served these Persian kings in the ancient territory called Shushan, in the very country which today is called Iran. That is where Nehemiah and many other Jews were living, when this decree to rebuild Jerusalem was made. I must read this, in order to get the setting, so let us go to the very first verse in the book of Nehemiah. The year is 446 B.C., and the month of Chisleu, which compares to the month of December according to our calendar. “The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, (2) That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.” These were men who had already been living in Judaea, as a result of other migratory journeys. Thousands of them went back as a result of the Cyrus decree which went forth somewhere around 536 B.C., and then some more went with Ezra, and we find that some of them have come from Judaea back to Persia, and Nehemiah is inquiry about the welfare of the people, and the condition of Jerusalem, and here is what he heard, (3) “And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. (4) And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.” In other words, what these men told Nehemiah, was that Jerusalem was still nothing more than just a great big pile of rubble; and no one wants to live there, because there are no walls to protect them. Hearing this, about the beloved religious city, the capital of the Jewish nation, so touched Nehemiah’s heart, that he sat down and wept and mourned. The he began to fast and pray to God about the situation, and here is how he prayed. Verse (5), “I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments: (6) Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.” He goes on confessing the sins of himself and his people, and making requests of God concerning the matter, and when we come to chapter 2, we find that many weeks have passed since he first began to seek the face of God, for now it is the month of Nisan, (corresponding to the last of March and the first part of April) in the year 445 B.C. (1) “And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.” This story that he had heard concerning the affliction of his people, and the condition of the city, had taken such a toll on him that he could no longer conceal his feelings. (2) “Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance said, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, (3) And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: Why should not my countenance be said, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? (4) Then the king said unto me, For what does thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. (5) And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, and thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it, (JERUSALEM.) (6) And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? And when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.” Nehemiah gave the king an approximate length of time that he figured it would take to accomplish the task, and promised to return to the Persian domain when the job was completed. (7) “Moreover I said unto the king, It if please the king, let letters be given to me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; (8) And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, the he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.” This was the only decree that pertained to the building of the city itself, and it was given in the month Nisan, in the year 445 B.C.; therefore we must conclude that the 70 weeks of Daniel’s prophecy had its beginning point right there. We will not take the time to read them, but you who are interested in this subject should go ahead and read the rest of Nehemiah, and chapters 8 & 9, of Ezra. As you read on through Nehemiah you will find that Ezra and Nehemiah worked together in building the city and setting everything in order. Upon receiving the decree from King Artaxerxes, king of Persia, along with all the necessary letters to those who must help him, Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem to view the ruins, and solicit help from the rulers and elders of the people. In chapter 2, he even tells about how he went up at night to view the city, without telling any of the rulers of the city what he had come to do, and how that things were in such a bad shape in one place, that the little beast he was riding, (probably a little donkey) could not even pass. Then after his inspection tour, he tells what his mission is, and how God has given him favor with the king of Persia who has made every necessary provision for him. When the men of the city heard these things they were stirred in their hearts to arise and begin the work. Their enemies immediately went to work trying to discourage them by laughing and making fun of them, but Nehemiah let them know that they were doing a good work, and that the God of heaven would prosper them, and that no Arab had any portion, nor right to take part in what was being done. Brothers and Sisters: There comes a time when we know assuredly that we are doing the work of God, and have no need for any kind of political maneuverings from the Methodists, the Baptists, nor the charismatics. As the true church of the living God begins to see a clear vision of what real unity is; I want you to know, there is not one thing under the sun that the charismatics can contribute to your fellowship. They have no part in it. Those Arabs did not know how to put those stones together, and neither do the denominational churches know how to put the word of God together. If they did, they would not be where they are. It just goes to show that any time a true child of God tries to do something worthwhile, there are always a bunch of trouble making skeptics around trying to hinder.

RECONSTRUCTION – REVIVAL APOSTASY

As you read on through Nehemiah, you will see how part of the men worked while others stood guard, and it even says that they worked with one hand, and kept the other on their sword. They were defending their cause. You will also see that a scroll was found, and Ezra the priest read to the people from morning until midday out of it, and a great revival swept through their ranks. They learned how their forefathers had sinned against God, and how God had allowed them to be carried away captive. They also learned that they were forbidden to inter-marry with the heathen round about them, and those who had done so, put away their strange wives. God said, these heathen would lead His people astray, and that is exactly why Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” Only God knows just how many Christian men and women are actually living in torment because of such marriages. Some of those marriages took place before either of them became a Christian; but there are others who have walked right into this unequally yoked situation with their eyes wide open, saying, I believe I can win him, or her to the Lord. It happens like that every now and then, but too many times, it turns out the other way. Nevertheless, those Jews put away their strange wives in obedience to the law of Moses, and they had a great revival, as the people repented. They began to keep certain feasts as set forth in the law, and so forth, but as that 49 year period of Daniel’s 70 weeks came closer to the end, and Ezra and Nehemiah passed off the scene, things began to fall apart spiritually. It was almost like politics in American; priests began to assassinate other priests for political reasons, and a condition of decay and apostasy took hold of the people. You ask, Why? It was because the land was under Gentile lordship, and they could not govern the land according to the word of God. Jesus explained that in the book of Luke. He said, Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, (Luke 21:24.) The times of the Gentiles lasted from the time King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army raised that Babylonian flag over the city of Jerusalem, almost 600 years B.C., until June 1967, when Israel regained control of it in the 6 day war. I read, in those Jewish history books, just how corrupt, and pathetic that priesthood became in those days. They each wanted to be high priest, just like politicians of our day want to be president. In South America, many times, you have heard how certain men had other men assassinated in order to gain political control. These priests were playing politics with their office in the closing years of that 49 year period of time. Be sure you understand that this 49 years covers the first division of Daniel’s 70 weeks. This is the first 7 weeks, of those mentioned in Daniel 9:25, and as that period closes out it brings us to around 397 B.C., where we pick up Malachi the prophet. In other words, he came on the scene in 397, and began rebuking the children of Israel for offering polluted bread upon the altar of God, and for offering blind, lame and sick animals to God, contrary to what He required. He rebuked the priests for their inconsistency in the way they served in their particular office. God was speaking to Israel through the prophet Malachi, giving her a last opportunity to repent, warning her of her contemptible ways, and at the same time, telling her of the messenger that He would send to prepare the way before Him, and also of the coming of Elijah, but that 49 year period closed out with Israel in a pitiful state, spiritually. They had their revival and then returned back to that same old spirit they had before, and the 7 week period closed with them in that shape.

THE 62 WEEK PERIOD & 1 WEEK

Let us go back to Daniel 9:25 now, and pick up the next period of time that the 70 weeks are divided into. “From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, (from Nehemiah’s decree down to Malachi) and THREE SCORE and TWO WEEKS: (62) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” The fact that the wall is mentioned like that just lets us know that the city would not be in its completed form until the completed wall fully surrounded it. In other words, the time given here runs from the giving forth of the decree right down to the time Jesus Christ the Messiah was crucified, (cut off) and God is very specific about this prophetic time table. When God says that certain things will be accomplished during a period of time which adds up to 69 weeks, He certainly means just that. You cannot stretch it far enough to get 69½ weeks out of it, no matter what someone may have said. You can confirm that by going over to Revelation 11:3, when God says, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand days, clothed in sackcloth.” Saints! Believe me! Those two witnesses will not prophesy one week longer, nor one week less; they will prophesy exactly 1,260 days, just like the Bible says. Then when they are killed at the end of those days, that starts another 1,260 days, just like the Bible says. Then when they are killed at the end of those days, that starts another 1,260 day period of time, the time allotted to the Antichrist who has had them killed, and when you add 1,260 days to another 1,260 days, you have exactly 7 full prophetic years. Therefore when you read verse 26, of Daniel 9, be sure you understand that at the end of this seven week period of time, and this sixty two week period of time, (the two added together) Jesus Christ was cut off. That is an ending point, so let us read verse 26, now. “And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.” That 62 week period of time ran from the time of Malachi’s prophecy, right down to the day Christ was crucified, and covered a period of 434 years. That is 62, multiplied by 7, and you add that to the 49 years which you had already, from the 7 weeks prior to it. Each week consists of 7 years, therefore we have 7×7 equals 49 years, then 62×7 equals 434 years, you come up with a total of 483 years that expired between the two points. This leaves 7 full years (1 week) yet to be fulfilled when God starts dealing with that Jewish nation again. The seventy week clock stopped at the end of the 69th week when Christ was crucified, and it will start again when those two witnesses arrive on the scene and start prophesying to their Jewish brethren. We know the Antichrist will not like what those two prophets are saying to those Jews who are there in the land, but he will allow it to continue for 1,260 days. Then, at the end of those days the Antichrist will have them killed, and that is woe No.1, of the three woes that are to come upon the inhabitors of the earth. This sets the great tribulation in motion, and Revelation 13:5, becomes effective, “And there was given unto him (the Antichrist) a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” That 42 months covers the same span of time as Daniel 12:7, where a question was answered concerning the length of time that this time of trouble would continue. Notice, “And I heard the man clothes in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, (1 year) times, (2 years more) and a half; (½ year) and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” Now, go to Daniel 7:25, where we will see a little different expression of this save 3½ year period of time. This is where the angel was explaining the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision to him. This verse is tied to the little horn (the Antichrist). “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until (HOW LONG?) A time and times and the diving of time.” That was just another way of saying 3½ years, or one thousand two hundred and threescore days, as we see it again in Revelation 12:6, “And the woman (SPIRITUALLY AWAKENED ISRAEL) fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” Those Jews are hiding from the wrath of the old Antichrist during the whole 3½ years of great tribulation while this man of sin, the son of perdition is reigning.

AFTER THE SEVENTIETH WEEK

Let us look at another specific time element that Jesus established in Matthew 24:29. This follows right behind the 42 month period of time that we have just been dealing with. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” Now when He said, Immediately after the tribulation of those days; He did not mean 6 months later; He meant immediately, right then. That is what marks the end of that week of Daniel. This is what marks the end of the reign of the Antichrist. Notice that next verse, what follows that great power shaking event. Verse 30, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Saints! Pay attention to what I am going to say! This scripture WAS NOT fulfilled in 1963, when the cloud of angels appeared to Bro. William Branham. Those who believe it was, are still looking for the rapture, and the resurrection, and they believe the tribulation is till ahead of us. Would you please tell me how they hope to make that line up with the scriptures? If this scripture (Matthew 24:29-30) was fulfilled in 1963; then let us face facts; the rapture, the resurrection, and the great tribulation is already in the past, Jesus is in the Millennium with His saints, and we missed it all. Is that what you want to believe? I just talk like this to get your attention; every revelated person knows better than to believe those preachers who preach that. It does not take much revelation to see where a thing like that would put you. But these characters have the nerve to stand up and say, That Jackson does not preach what the prophet said. Yes I do! The only difference is, I preach it from the Bible, and they just quote, quote, quote, use the quotes out of context, and add their own private interpretation as to what the quotes mean. That is why so many of them are in false doctrine, and have their minds so clogged up, they could not even receive a true revelation if it was slapping them in the face. Brothers and Sisters: Please do not think that I am boasting; if it was not for the grace of God: there is no telling what I might be preaching today, for I sat right among them, and heard the same verbal words from Bro. William Branham, that they did. I will say this, though, I have never found any reason to take what he said and twist it around trying to make it say something else. Let us get back to Daniel 9:25 & 26, and talk about the 62 week period of time, that is mentioned there. We are looking at a 434 year period of time that picks up with the prophecy of Malachi. We take the 397 B.C. date as the starting point for those years, but remember, that is according to regular calculation which has 365¼ days in a solar year, but when you break that down into the Hebrew prophetic year which has only 360 days in it: that takes you back to where you have 400 years of prophetic time before the birth of Christ. Somewhere down through those years the city of Jerusalem was finally, completely built, but it was done in troublous times. That is no mystery though, for that same little Jewish history book that I read to you from, earlier, tells how Jerusalem was constantly overrun by invading armies on their great lustful campaigns to Egypt or Syria. Many times those armies would meet somewhere in, or around the land of Israel, to fight their terrible wars, and that would leave the land scarred, and marred with the dead bodies. Those were troublous times for sure. The story I read to you, about the man, Antiochus, the king of Syria, took place somewhere around between 175 & 162 B.C. Historical records vary somewhat on these dates, but we just put it in the message for the beauty of how it substantiates Daniel’s prophecy, concerning troublous times. Here was this Maccabee son, Judah, with only 3000 men facing odds to about 15 times his number, just like Gideon with his 300 men, but God was with them. They drove out the Syrians, cleanse and Sanctified the temple, and ended that 2300 day period of desolation.

WHAT OTHERS BELIEVE

Let me read a little portion from this book I am holding, to let you see what the Advent people teach, concerning this 2300 days in chapter 8, and the 490 years we are looking at over in Daniel 9. They put the two periods together, and say that the two prophetic measurements started in the year 457 B.C. They take the decree which allowed Ezra to go to Jerusalem with a commission to restore civil and religious law, in connection with the temple that had been built, and use that as a starting point. That puts them 12 years ahead of the Nehemiah decree which most all historians agree on as the beginning point of Daniel’s 70 weeks. Furthermore they say that the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14, is actually 2300 years. But may I say this, They have to make it read, years, because they are using the 490 years in the 9th chapter as the code to apply this back here in the 8th chapter. The truth is, The angel in chapter 8, had not yet given a code. He just said this little horn, (coming out of the breakup of the Grecian empire) would do this terrible thing, and that the duration of it would be 2300 days. This is why I read from the actual history, that this Judah Maccabee, conquered the Syrian army, gained control of Jerusalem, tore down those Greeks idols, cleansed and dedicated the temple, and restored true worship, ending that period of desolation, in which swine’s flesh had been offered on the altar of God. When you check it through history; you find that this condition existed during a period of time that lasted from 6 to 7 years, and that lines up with the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14. Therefore let me say once again, the 2300 days of chapter 8, have nothing at all to do with the 490 years (70 WEEKS) of chapter 9. Now, these advent people start their time calculation with the year 457 B.C., and carry it straight through into the grace age, right to the year 1844. They say that the cleansing of the sanctuary was something that took place in heaven, and its earthly effect was their great revelation of Sabbath keeping, and so forth, claiming that this is the proper way for Christians to worship. They also begin the 490 years of chapter 9, at the very same place (457 B.C.) And run it down to 408, and without even mentioning anything that might have happened then, they go right into the next 434 years. They have Christ being baptized and starting His ministry in 27 A.D., and His crucifixion in A.D. 31, and they say, He fulfilled the first half of the 70th week of Daniel when He was cut off, and that the last half of it was fulfilled when Stephen was stoned to death, in A.D. 34. Brothers and Sisters: I just want you to see how far people can get, off of the true meaning of the scriptures. They do not even mention any decree given to Nehemiah, yet they make mention of him in connection with the decree that was given to Ezra, the decree that allowed him to go to Jerusalem for the purpose of restoring order.

CALCULATING TIME

Now I want to explain something, and I hope you will follow closely and get the picture. We want to fix the cut off point in this 490 year prophecy that went into effect in the year 445 B.C. We must all see the same thing eventually, if we be the bride of Jesus Christ. He will not rapture a bride that has a dozen different versions of something that only has one version to it. I am using Jewish history because this prophecy is regulated by God’s dealing with the Jewish people, not Gentiles. Therefore let us settle our minds on the fact that somewhere before this whole 62 week period fo time would come to a close, the Messiah would be born, and right here is where the great mixup in dates really causes trouble. Prophetically, we must fix the time of Malachi’s prophecy at around 400 B.C., for we have B.C. and A.D. time to deal with. All of us know that B.C. indicates time before the advent of Christ, and A.D. pertains to time, after the advent of Christ. Right? Therefore B.C. time stops where A.D. time begins, or vice versa, and the birth of Christ was the marker. Now the historians, the scholars who deal with such things, have tried to update the calendar so many times that they are all fouled up, and hardly any of them can agree as to when Jesus was born. They start with where we are presently and figure backward, and they come out with ever so many different years that Jesus was born in, some as far back as 7 B.C., others 4 B.C., 3 B.C. and 1 B.C. But I want you to consider this, Jesus was born in the fall of the year. He had to be, in order to be 33½ years old in the month of Nisan which compares to part of March and part of April on our calendar. Are you following me? We all know he was crucified in the month Nisan, and that figures out to have been about April 6th to 8th, give or take a day. Alright now, His ministry lasted for about 3½ years. Is that not right? Now take that 3½ years back from the time He was crucified, and you will wind up in the fall of the year. He was baptized by John to begin His ministry, and the Bible says He was about 30 years old at that time. When you subtract 30 years from that time you will not be in the month of December. Neither will you be in March, nor April; you will be in the fall of the year. Right? That is why I say Jesus was born somewhere between the year 1 and 0 B.C. Think for just a moment now. If the year 1 B.C., started January 1, you would not stop the year the moment Jesus was born. If (for example) Jesus was born in the month of October, in the year 1 B.C., that year would still have to finish out, all the way through December 31, before you could start this year, 1 A.D. Are you still with me? Therefore in the year 1 A.D., in the month of October, He would have been 1 year old. You just have to remember that historical records are kept by a 365¼ days to the year calendar, and prophecy is given according to a 360 days to the year calendar. This 490 years (70 weeks of years) that we are dealing with, is 490 prophetic years, consisting of 360 days each, not 365¼ like you have on your solar calendar. Most historians will agree, that in ancient times, even the Egyptians, for a period, used a 360 day calendar. Many of the nations did. But they knew that the sun and the moon was out of balance, therefore, every so often, in the various nations that used this means, to calculate a year, 360 days, they would insert another month, this would occur every so often, this is absolutely the type of calendar that God gave the Israelites coming out of that Egyptian bondage, and the calendar that he gave them, started in the spring of the year. You read this in Exodus, and the first month of that year was called Abib. But after they went into Babylonian captivity, then they dropped that word Abib, and it took on the title, Nisan. Now right over here, is where they pick it up, while in Babylonian captivity. Nisan occurs in the spring of the year, and is related with the last part of March, and through the first part of April; that is when their month begins. That is when their religious calendar starts. Because it always dates back to the time when God brought the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. Now, with this type of calendar, with this type of calculation, prophetic years, keep in mind. 360 days to the prophetic year, we will balance as we go along, but I want you to keep in mind, you’re dealing in the prophetic year, term, 360 days to that particular year. Therefore it lets me know, this is 490 prophetic years, not 490 solar years. Now how many in here know what solar years mean? It means 365¼ days for the earth to make its total traverse around the sun. This should tell a lot of people something. As I said before, evidently it happened in the flood, that the earth was pushed out of relationship to the sun, just far enough that it increased the rotation around the sun, this lengthened the whole journey, and this also brought the earth closer to the moon, which shortened the circumference of the moon’s rotation around the earth, while the two are together, going around the sun, and this shortened the lunar month, from actually 30 full days, to actually about 29½. Now, the Jewish calendar begins each month with a new moon. In actuality, if the universe today was in perfect balance, here is what you would have. In every year you would have 12 new moons. What is it, the pagans, even the ancient Indians kept records by? The moon. That is why you have always heard the old saying, many moons ago. It came from the Indians. Because there was in the knowledge of man, to keep time by the moon. He watched it rise from a new one, he watched it grow, and everything like that. Even the Orients today hold the lunar year, which means their whole year is measured by the rise of the new moon, and so forth, and that is exactly the calendar that God gave to Israel, in its prophetic relationship. Now, if everything was in perfect balance, the earth was with the sun, exactly the way it should be, and the moon the earth, we would have 12 lunar months, full 30 days each, and this would absolutely take out all confusion of time, and it would put 360 days each, and this would absolutely take out all confusion of time, and it would put 360 days, it would take that for the earth to go around the sun. And you know and I know, when you go to school, they will ask you, How many degrees are there in a circle? 360. I believe that God is the perfect mathematician. Don’t you? He has to be. He set the stars, now you could take all the other planetary bodies in space, they work perfect. Scientists can calculate exactly where Jupiter will be 100 years from now, because they know its route, its speed through space, and everything, and therefore, where it will be 100 years from now. Now that is the point we’re looking at. You must understand that the calendar we will be exploring here, is the prophetic calendar, but in doing so, it is necessary to use dates that are recorded in history by the Julian calendar. The important thing for you to understand from this message is not the dates that various things occurred, but rather, you should understand from what we show you, that from the going forth of the Nehemiah decree to restore and to build Jerusalem, right down to the time Jesus Christ the Messiah, was crucified, was exactly 483 prophetic years, which is exactly 69 weeks of the 70 weeks of time that we are dealing with. If you can just understand that there is yet one full week of prophetic time (7 years) left to the Jews, you will not be misled by these preachers who run around all over the world saying, that Jesus was cut off in the middle of the seventieth week. It was not Jesus cut off in the middle of that week, that we see there in Daniel 9:27; it will be the Jewish sacrifice and evening oblation that will be cut off by the Antichrist in the middle of that week which is yet ahead of where we are, that will fulfill Daniel 9:27. They do not even have such a thing now, but when that week truly does start, they will set up their altar and begin offering sacrifice to god, even while they are building the temple, just like they did when they were rebuilding the temple the first time. You read in Ezra 3:6, “From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not even yet laid.” That is exactly what they will do when they gain control of the temple grounds somewhere just out in front of where we are in time. Remember, God is the one who is watching over the time, and He is not checking out calendar to keep up with it either; He is going by His calendar that has never changed. Praise His name!