Recently a friend told me a story about an ancient Egyptian whose life closely paralleled that of Christ. There is a book out on the subject called “The Pagan Christ”. I don’t take much stock in this theory, but it does raise a valid question. How do we know for sure the world’s Messiah was Jesus? What if Jesus was the counterfeit? Well, when the truth is on your side, you don’t have to be afraid of hard questions. One of the best proofs that no other so-called savior could pull off was to fulfill the over 300 prophecies given in the Old Testament. Some of these were given 2000 years before Jesus came onto the scene in world history. They cover a wide range of events from Christ’s birth, His public ministry and even the manner in which He would die. They not only mention things He did, but also things that happened around Him, things other people did that would have been beyond the control of any one man. One of the most notable prophecies covers the timing of the events of Jesus’ time preaching, teaching and healing. It’s found in Daniel 9:24-27 (we’ll go through it step by step and make comments).

“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.” The point of Jesus work was to complete the plan of salvation as this verse shows.

“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. A day equals a year in prophecy. This is firmly proved here because this prophecy began in 457 BC with the great declaration by the Persian Emperor Artaxeres I that the Jews could return to their own land. We already had a total time period of 70 weeks or 490 years. Now we have 69 of those weeks or 483 years until Jesus begins His work. If you do the math on a calculator (negative 457 plus 483 =) you will get a date of 26 AD for the time of Jesus ministry. However when the calendar was changed there was no year zero instituted. The calendar went form 1BC to 1AD. Therefore the year 27 AD is the actual year this prophecy is speaking of. Look up Luke 3:1 and notice how it speaks of “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar”. What year was that? It was indeed 27 AD! Jesus is the one and only true Messiah no matter how close any other counterfeit messiah’s may have come.

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.” After the 62 weeks is at the end of the 483 years, or 31 AD, the year Jesus died on the cross. This is shown by the next verse as well. “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. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

The rest of these texts refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD. It’s interesting to note how desolations are determined from that point on. When you really think about it in the light of all that the New Testament says about spiritual Israel (the Christian Church) replacing political Israel, that land isn’t holy anymore and in fact God’s curse is upon it. That’s why there’s been so much conflict over there for so long. So many people today who are sincere Bible believing Christians have bought into a system of interpretation premised on the theory that modern Israel has some sort of significance in prophecy. When the Jews rejected their Messiah, they ceased to be God’s special people anymore. That ‘specialness’ is available to anyone who accepts Jesus as his or her Saviour. That’s what Romans chapters 9 through 11 are all about. Romans 2:28, 29 put it this way: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”

This understanding then helps greatly in explaining the ‘times of refreshing’ that we discussed in the last chapter. Daniel 8:14 spoke of the Sanctuary being cleansed after 2300 days. This is a prophecy again so 2300 years is what it’s actually talking about. The 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 here started out by saying “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city”. The original word translated ‘determined’ here meant ‘cut off’. This 490 year time period was cut off from the larger 2300 year time period as that’s the last prophecy discussed before this one. Daniel was given a vision in chapter 8 that he didn’t understand. The chapter ends in fact with a reference to the fact that he couldn’t handle it. Chapter 9’s explanation comes as an answer to his prayer and the angel Gabriel starts off by explaining the first part of the 2300 year prophecy.