Only God can know and control the future

Summary

Daniel 9 presents a prophecy in which clear reference is made to the Messiah. Careful examination of the verses and review of historical records show an amazing result. The prophecy pin points with mathematical precision when the Messiah would be violently killed and would put end to sacrifices.

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Jesus spoke to the people who knew the most the Scriptures those days saying:

Luke 12:56 (HCSB) 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why don't you know how to interpret this time?

Why did Jesus say this? A reference for Muslim readers:

“Verily, Allah, with Him (Alone) is the knowledge of the Hour, He sends down the rain, and knows that which is in the wombs. No person knows what he will earn tomorrow, and no person knows in what land he will die. Verily, Allaah is All‑Knower, All‑Aware (of things)” [Luqmaan 31:34].

I’ve heard many comments like “Christianity is a false and man-made religion of conjecture”, or “Jesus never claimed to be God, it all was an invention from the romans after the fourth century”. How can you answer these questions? I tell you the truth, there are explanations to all these questions and there is sufficient truth to strip the falsehood behind those statements. I don’t plan to answer in specific the comments above, but I want to show you that God has had a supernatural plan, and His word reflects it.

I’d like to give you a quick and simple summary on an example Bible passage which demonstrates this. Daniel 9 is a prophecy given approximately 600 years, during the Jewish exile in Babylon. Using prophetical language, God revealed details of when The Messiah would come, what he would do and when he would die:

·        When would the Messiah come? Within 490 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.

·     What would the Messiah do? The Messiah would put an end to sin, atone (pay) for wickedness and bring everlasting righteousness.

·        When would the Messiah be put to violent death? 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.

This was fulfilled in the life of Yeshua Ben Yoseph, known in Christianity as Jesus The Christ and in Islam as Isa Al-Masih. You don’t believe me? Let me explain:

The intention of this message is to refer to a prophecy revealed to The Prophet Daniel, during the exile in Babylon. When I first heard an interpretation of this chapter I was amazed to see in what level of details God pre-described His coming to earth and His plan for Salvation. Among the many doctrinal differences between Christianity and other religions, the biggest disagreements come down about How God offers salvation to men. Most religions declare that salvation comes from a balance of good versus bad deeds. On the other hand, Christianity says that God righteousness requires payment for the transgressions and no sin will go away without payment, however God Himself took the payment for the sins of men on Himself. It’s a different conception theologically speaking, in one the entrance to Heaven is all based on merits and on the second Heaven is supplied for the Love of God for those who truly love and abide on Him. This topic has a lot of ramifications and details for discussion, but I want to keep the focus on the Salvation Plan God prepared for us.

Daniel was well known for the favors he received from God. He was also known for his piety and continuous dedication to the Lord in prayer and fasting. During one of his prayers, while He was mourning and interceding to The Lord for the sins of Israel, The Archangel Gabriel came to Daniel to help him understand the vision of the Seventy sevens or the Seventy weeks (Daniel 9:20-23). The vision is presented in the following verses:

Daniel 9:24-27: 24“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.  25“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

Without knowledge and understanding of the language and style commonly used in the Bible it’s difficult to understand much of what is said here. From the passage it is clearly deducible that on the revelation to Daniel, God was presenting his salvation plan, not for the first time, but with further details. Here God tells us that after certain time from the time Daniel lived, an event would happen that would put end to sins, would pay for them and would still bring everlasting righteousness (verse 24) and in that process The Most Holy would be anointed, clearly indicating that The Most Holy would be involved.

The next verses are more difficult to understand, and I believe this is the reason why Gabriel highlights it when he told Daniel “Know and understand this”. This part of the revelation can be easily misinterpreted or just go over it without considering it, if a proper study is not performed. Verse 25 mentions two important things:

1.      There will be a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians; and

2.      That from the time it was decreed to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to “the time of The Anointed one”, who was mentioned in verse 23, it would take seven “sevens” and sixty two “sevens”.

We know that the first part of the prophecy in this verse actually occurred, we know that Jerusalem and The Temple was rebuilt after Artaxerxes allowed so, as presented in Nehemiah 2:1-3. In specific, Nehemiah Chapter 2 verse 1 gives us a very approximate date for when Artaxerxes presented the decree for the reconstruction of Jerusalem, on the Month of Nisan during the twentieth year of Artaxerxes reign. Historians extrapolate this date approximately at March or April 445 or 444 BC. (1)

Now the difficult point comes to understand what do the 7 sevens plus 62 sevens  mean. What does “seven” mean in this passage? Most scholars agree “sevens” refers to Hebrew years in which the seven year would be sabbatical year (Leviticus 25). Even Orthodox Jewish understanding is this (2). It is necessary to highlight that the Ancient Israelites followed a lunar calendar, which is 360 days per year unlike the solar calendar which uses 365.25 days per year.  Based on this, Daniel 9 can be now interpreted as follows:

-        Verse 24:  490 lunar years are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression.

-    Verse 25: There will be a separation of 483 lunar years between the time of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the time of the Anointed.

As previously mentioned, Artaxerxes authorized the reconstruction of Jerusalem in 445 or 444 BC. Based on that and the 483 lunar years mentioned in the prophecy, the time of the anointed would have come around year 33 AD. You may be already marveled with how close this point to the historical references about Jesus.

A)     Confirm a covenant with many. Jesus confirmed the covenant promised to Jeremiah

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” Jeremiah 31:31-34

During the celebration of the Passover meal with his disciples

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins – Matthew 26:18

B)     He will put end to transgression and sacrifice. After His sacrifice, when he declared “It is finished” there is no need for further sacrifice in the temple. A rabbinical Judaism text, the Talmud in the tractate Yoma (3) documents that for approximately forty years prior the destruction of the temple, the sacrifices in Yom Kippur were not accepted by God. One of the indications that the sacrifices were accepted for forgiveness of Sins was looking at the light of the golden lamp stand, it should become white if the sacrifice was accepted. 

So Daniel 9 verse 26 and 27 tell us the Messiah would be cut off (killed violently) around year 33 AD. This is based on the 7 sevens plus 62 sevens. This calculation is on alignment with the traditional accounts which estimate the crucifixion occurred on year 33 of the current era.

It is simply amazing.

Atheists and apologists of other religions challenge the validity and trustworthiness of the Bible, or at least of today’s Bible. For years these apologists pointed at the fact that the earliest available versions of the Old Testament in Hebrew were too far away in time from the original versions. This argument discouraged me several times. I learned about the Dead Sea scrolls not so long ago, a group of ancient manuscripts. Among these scrolls, early copies of the Old Testament books are found. The fragments of the Book Of Daniel found in the Qumran caves are estimated to be at least from 165 BCE, though the book of Daniel was written around 500 years BCE. I’m sure there will be always arguments t deny what God has made clear for us, and at least in this case we have a book which predicted almost 200 years (technically 538 years) before the most amazing gift Our Lord has given us: His wonderful plan for Salvation.

Footnotes:

(1)    Artaxerxes was the fifth King of Kings of Persia from 465 BC to 424 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artaxerxes_I_of_Persia).  His twentieth year would have been therefore between 445 and 444 BC.

(2)    http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16492#showrashi=true Rashi’s commentary to Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks [of years] have been decreed: on Jerusalem from the day of the first destruction in the days of Zedekiah until it will be [destroyed] the second time. to terminate the transgression and to end sin: so that Israel should receive their complete retribution in the exile of Titus and his subjugation, in order that their transgressions should terminate, their sins should end, and their iniquities should be expiated, in order to bring upon them eternal righteousness and to anoint upon them (sic) the Holy of Holies: the Ark, the altars, and the holy vessels, which they will bring to them through the king Messiah. The number of seven weeks is four hundred and ninety years. The Babylonian exile was seventy [years] and the Second Temple stood four hundred and twenty [years]”. Rashi’s interpretation of when this prophecy was fulfilled differs from mine, however he agrees with the concept of 490 years.

(3) Talmud, tractate Yoma 39: "The Rabbis taught, 'Forty years before the destruction of the temple… the tongue of gold did not become white" during Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.