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 Presentation # 10 - Through the Ages II Sunday, May 16, 2010
Title: Through the Ages II
Topic: Daniel 8 -2300 days (continues)
I. Last night we began a study from Daniel 8 and 9:
a. 2300 day prophecy Daniel 9:25
b. So I must ask you again: Do you have confidence in how your case will be decided in that final investigation in heaven?
c. When Daniel received this prophecy, his people, the Jews, were exiles, captives in Babylon.
d. Jerusalem lay in ruins.
II. The Angel
a. The angel told Daniel this time prophecy would begin when the final, imperial decree was officially given, allowing the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem.
b. We learned that this prophecy points to the beginning of the investigative judgment.
c. We learned that it is an example of the principle of enlargement in Bible prophecy – a picture with more detail added with each vision in Daniel 7, 8, 9
III. Jesus is the center of the prophecy:
a. We learned that the center of the prophecy is Jesus.
b. We learned that the earthly sanctuary typified both Jesus sacrifice on the cross and His intercession for us in the judgment
c. We have a precise date for the decree of Daniel 9:25
d. Artaxerxes, King of Persia, made that decree in the fall of 457 BC.
e. The seven weeks, or 490 years, remember a day for a year we learned last night, began in 457 BC, starting time
f. The 2300 days or years also began in 457 BC.
IV. If we follow this time line:
a. We find that Daniel foretells with remarkable precision the dates of the baptism and death of Jesus.
b. It also foretells the time when the gospel would be rejected by the Jewish nation and proclaimed to the Gentile world.
c. Notice what the prophecy says: sixty-two weeks plus seven weeks from the decree to restore Jerusalem until the coming of the Messiah
d. That’s a total of 69 prophetic weeks, or 483 literal years.
V. 457 BC revisited:
a. So let’s go back to our starting point, 457 BC. and add those years.
b. Add 483 years to 457 BC. Remember in BC we’re counting backwards. It takes us to 26 AD.
c. But remember there was no zero year record time from 1 BC to 1 AD. So we must add a year, coming up with AD 27.
d. What happened in AD 27? That’s exactly when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was baptized, anointed, and began His public ministry.
e. He was baptized in the fall of AD 27, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius.
This remarkable prophecy gives special meaning to what Jesus often proclaimed in his preaching, “The time is fulfilled.” VI. 69-week prophecy:
a. Given approximately 500 years before the birth of Christ, pinpointed the exact date of Christ’s baptism and ministry.
b. Now, the ministry of Christ lasted three-and-a-half years.
c. This too was predicted by Daniel:
“And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off . . . Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.” (Daniel 9:26, 27). d. The Bible predicted that in the midst of this last week—the seventieth week allotted to the Jewish nation—sacrifices would stop, come to an end.
e. Remember the 69th week ended in AD 27. One last prophetic week remained.
f. In other words, seven years remained.
Note “in the middle of the week” there would be an end to sacrifice. What’s the middle of the prophetic week? Three-and-a-half years. Add three-and-a-half years to 27 AD. That brings us to AD 31. I. Jesus crucified:
a. During the feast of Passover, in the spring of AD 31, Jesus was crucified.
b. Hebrews 8:7-13; Hebrews 9 (read) - The Jewish sacrificial system no longer had any meaning.
c. Christ, our Passover Lamb, had been sacrificed.
d. What about the end of the week?
II. First Christian martyr:
a. Three-and-a-half more years, after AD 31? What happened in AD 34?
b. That’s when the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was stoned to death by the Jews.
c. Jewish leaders were sealing their rejection of the gospel. The gospel then went to the Gentiles.
d. That’s how the 70 weeks, or 490 years allowed to the nation of Israel were concluded.
e. In His ministry Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple, spoken of in Daniel 7, and it came in that generation
Summary:
The exact time of Christ’s baptism, the exact time of Christ’s crucifixion, the exact time the gospel went to the Gentiles.
The seventy weeks cut out of the 2300 day prophecy are clearly accounted for. Account for 70 weeks, or 490 years from the starting point, 457 BC, you still have 1810 years left. Add 1810 years to AD 34—where we left off. We come to 1844. III. What did the Bible predict would happen then, at the end of the 2300 year prophecy?
a. The sanctuary would be cleansed; the judgment hour would begin in the heavenly sanctuary.
b. That’s the message Daniel reveals. It is a solemn truth to consider.
c. We are living in the judgment hour. God’s final investigation began in 1844.
d. God considers His judgment so important that He pictures an angel flying in the midst of heaven announcing with a loud voice:
“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come” (Revelation 14:7). e. Rev. 14:8 and 9 - begin - Saturday night
we should expect a movement that proclaims these messages at that time Someday when this awesome task is completed, Christ will descend to earth to claim his own. We are indeed living in the judgment hour, heading toward the end of history.
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