Q. “G.” Has the first part of the seventieth week of Dan. 9:24-2724Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25Know 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, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: 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. 27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:24‑27) had any fulfillment?
A. The seventy weeks are divided as follow. They refer to the period which was to elapse — taking the weeks as weeks of years — that is, 490 years = 7 x 70 — from the time noted in the prophecy until the full blessing of the people of Israel, at the close of their striking and eventful history, in which they have been (as in time to come they will be), the display of the Divine Government of God on earth.
From the decree to rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes, in the twentieth year of his reign, and embracing the troublous times in which the wall was re-building (7 x 7 weeks), 49 years. From the building of the wall until Messiah (7 x 62 weeks), 434 years. Total number of years accomplished, 483.
This leaves the moment of His cutting off vague — that is, it does not confine it to the moment of the conclusion of the sixty-ninth week (that is, 62 + 7) of years, but “after” it. This being so, the Lord’s ministry of about three and a half years, when He gathered a remnant of the people to Himself, ran on and was counted for those who received Him; while the nation refused Him, and thus the cutting off would have been for the former the middle of the seventieth week, leaving only half the week to come; but all is left vague, and purposely so. I believe that, for the remnant who were gathered, the first half of the seventieth week has gone by, while for the apostate Jews it has yet to come. Consequently, it has a double fulfillment. Just as John Baptist was Elijah for those who had faith for it, yet Elijah has yet to come for fact (see Matt. 17:10-1310And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? 11And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. (Matthew 17:10‑13); Matt. 4); so the first half for faith was fulfilled, while in fact it would still have to come.
All comes to this. The “cutting off” is left vague, so that it may be at the end of the half of the seventieth week, or not. But when you come to counting out of days, etc., in Scripture, only the last half of the seventieth week is ever named. The Lord’s coming for the saints may happen at any moment; and, the first half-week being thus left vague, any period necessary (longer or shorter, as the case may be) for what has to be accomplished, may take place between the rapture of the saints and the commencement of the final events of the period of tribulation, during the three and a-half years or last half-week; at its close the Lord will appear for the deliverance of His people.
The passages of Scripture where it is counted are Dan. 7:25, 12:7; Rev. 11:2,3,14;12:6;13:5,112But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. 3And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. (Revelation 11:2‑3)
14The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. (Revelation 11:14)
6And the woman 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. (Revelation 12:6)
5And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. (Revelation 13:5)
11And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (Revelation 13:11).
When Messiah was cut off at the Cross and got no kingdom, sixty-nine and a-half weeks were gone for the true saints, sixty-nine weeks only for the apostates. Then comes in the great heavenly Church parenthesis, when all time has ceased to be counted; because the Jews are set aside, and God is gathering a heavenly Church — the body of Christ — to which times and seasons do not belong. When that is accomplished He turns again to time, the earth, and the Jew. Half a week only then has to come, the last of the seventieth, for those who had received Him; a whole week for those who did not. The conclusion of it will bring in the full blessing of Israel.
Words of Truth 6:96-99.