WBC-15-The "One Week"
The "One Week"
CONCLUSION "THE ONE WEEK – THE FULLNESS OF TIME
We have seen that 69 of the 70 prophetic weeks were completed at the baptism of our Lord and His manifestation to Israel through the testimony of John the Baptist. This leaves but "one week" (Daniel 9:27) of the prophetic period. That week is, in the prophecy, set apart from the other 69, and we may clearly see the reason for this in the fact that in that "week" occurred the most stupendous events of all time and of all creation. For that is the period wherein God was manifested in the flesh, ministering to His sinful creatures, wherein He made atonement for the sins of His people, and wherein the Holy Spirit came down from heaven and the Kingdom of heaven was opened to all believers.
We do not discuss in these pages the view, held and taught by some, that the 70th week of the prophecy of Daniel 9 is disconnected from the other 69, and is yet in the future, and that Daniel 9:27 has to do, not with Christ, but with Antichrist; for we have discussed that view quite fully in the book already mentioned, THE SEVENTY WEEKS AND THE GREAT TRIBULATION. It will suffice for the purposes of this book to point out that the expression "seventy weeks," as a measure of time, can only mean continuous, or consecutive, weeks. Moreover, if the measure be broken off at the end of the 69th week, the great events with which the prophecy is concerned "the "cutting off" of the Messiah (thus finishing the transgression, making an end of sin, making reconciliation for iniquity, etc.) "would be left outside the seventy weeks altogether. It is enough, therefore, for our present purposes, to say that the view referred to seems to us to be quite destitute of support in the Scriptures, and contrary to the terms of the prophecy itself It should, however, be pointed out that the words "for one week " in Daniel 9:27 A. V. do not give the sense of the original, there being no "for" in the text, nor anything to imply it. The sense of the passage, as given in the Septuagint version, which our Lord quoted in Matthew 24:15, is that the "one week" (the last of the 70, of which 69 had been previously accounted for) would witness the confirming of the new covenant with many (see Matthew 26:28, noting the words "covenant" and "many "), whereby the sacrifices and oblation of the old covenant were caused to cease (see Hebrews 10:9), and the things predicted in verse 24 were fulfilled.
It was "in the midst of the week," as stated in Daniel 9:27, that Christ was crucified; for His ministry lasted between three and four years, as appears by the Gospel of John, and as agreed by chronologers generally. The last verse is certainly appropriate, indeed is necessary, to complete the prophecy concerning Christ, whereas, to assign that verse to Antichrist is to intrude into the prophecy an element utterly foreign to it, and which destroys its unity. It also destroys the effect of the marvelous fulfillment, through the Cross and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, of this wonderful prophecy.
"THE TIME"Fulfilled
We believe the first proclamation of Christ, recorded most fully in Mark 1:14-15, had reference to this wonderful "time," the 70th week of the prophecy. Indeed, we do not see how there can be any reasonable question about it; for it was just at the beginning of that 70th week that He "came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel." The 70th week had now come, for the 69th had brought us only "unto the Messiah." That week is the only "time" whose measure had been given in the unfulfilled prophetic Scriptures. It was the Time of all times, the time of Immanuel, wherein the incarnate Son of God came to preach, to heal, to bless, to die for the sins of His creatures, to rise again, and to enter upon His high-priestly ministry in heaven, the time wherein the Holy Spirit came down to abide with men, and the Kingdom of heaven began with the preaching of the gospel of God.
We have seen that the birth of Christ was in the year An. Hom. 4041, or B. C. 5. Hence the Lord’s 30th year, corresponding to the 15th of Tiberius Caesar, would be A. D. 26, and His death, resurrection and ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit would be A. D. 30. Christ prayed on the cross for His murderers, " Father forgive them," and the answer is seen in the fact that God withheld the judgment "the destruction of Jerusalem, foretold by Daniel and by the Lord (Mart. 24; Lu. 21) "for just forty years, "for Jerusalem was destroyed by the armies of Titus, "the people of the prince that shall come," in A. D. 70 "during which period the gospel of God’s grace was diligently preached "to the Jew first," and tens of thousands were saved.
Thus the history of the children of Israel began and ended with a probationary period of 40 years. The first period of 40 years’ probation began with the sacrifice of the paschal lamb in Egypt; the second began with the anti-type, the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the true Paschal Lamb. At the close of the first of those periods God brought the people of Israel unto the land which He had promised to their fathers. At the close of the second He drove them out of that land, and scattered them among all the nations of the world. In conclusion we would again direct attention to the remarkable fact, which to the author is the outstanding Wonder of Bible Chronology, that there is one, and only one, continuous line of dated events in the Bible; that it extends from the creation of Adam to the resurrection of Christ; and that, as we follow that line through successive Books and successive eras, it brings us into contact with all the leading personages, the leading events, and the leading doctrines of Holy Scripture. Clearly then, the Chronology of the Bible must be reckoned among its greatest wonders.