Content by reggiekelly

Discerning the Beginning of Daniel’s Seventieth Seven

Without doubt, what seemed so hopelessly remote and improbable only two years ago appears to be moving at an unprecedented pace towards the deceptive Mideast peace that sets the stage for the final sequence of events leading to the Lord’s return. Just what form this will take or how long it will be in its development remains to be seen, but prophecy clearly shows that a disarming illusion of peace is the necessary prelude to the shock that must come to Israel and the world.

The danger that besets these exciting developments is the tendency to make premature announcements that discredit prophecy just when its greatest potential for witness and warning is nearing the appointed time when it will be time to say with assurance and authority, “this is that!” (Acts 2:16). Even now, well meaning prophecy watchers are making premature declarations that the final seven has already started.

Others are more cautious to say only that the conditions necessary for the peace that begins the final seven are falling fast into place. Although a necessary first step, the enforcement of a multi-national peace arrangement is not by itself sufficient to signal the start of the last seven, UNLESS this is accompanied by certain equally foretold conditions and signal events. This is what we want to look at in what follows, as it will be a safeguard against the false alarms and premature announcements that are sure to fill the air.

It might be time well repaid for serious students of the scripture to become at least somewhat familiar and respectful of the kind of difficulties and perplexities that have baffled Daniel scholars of all schools (Prov 18:13<; 2Tim 2:15). It is well to remember that according to Daniel’s prophecy, certain outstanding details will not be unsealed till the end is very near (Dan 12:4, 9). Yet, the scripture is equally clear that these things will be revealed well enough before the end to ‘prepare a people to prepare a people’ (Dan 11:33; 12:3, 10).

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Jewish Wrestlings with the Tragedy of Exile

https://www.jewishhistory.org/a-mystical-view-of-exile/  (from jewishhistory.org)

Notice these extracts from the above article:

“What sin of the Jewish people was so great that it required such a long, bloody and painful exile – with seemingly no end? The Jews may have sinned, but if we compare the Jews’ behavior to many other nations and religious groups in history, it is difficult to place them at the bottom of the ladder. We are not found to be that wanting morally or spiritually. The punishment seems disproportionate to the sin.”

“What purpose does this exile accomplish?”

“The exile was transformed from being viewed as a punishment for the sins of the Jewish people into a vehicle for redemption”

In this last sentence and what follows, we see the problem of the exile being collapsed into one aspect of a common Jewish answer to the so called, “problem of evil”:

“only through darkness could light shine.”

This softens the blow of the traditional view of exile as punishment for sin. It doesn’t deny sin, but it makes sin, and evil in general, to be the means by which the nobility of innate human goodness can be applied towards some eschatological ’re-assembling’ of the good, ultimately purged and freed of the power of evil through good deeds.

How much more optimistic of a properly “educated” and incentivized human nature could there be than this?!

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The Approaching Time of Jacob’s Trouble

(Written in February 2008)

It is generally well known that earliest Jewish and Christian eschatology (study of the future) shared in common the view that God’s final defeat of the demonic powers of this age would come only after a brief period of unequaled great tribulation. In Judaism this period is typically called ‘the birth pangs of Messiah’. The tribulation was expected to end with the apocalyptic ‘day of the Lord’, which would realize the end of exile with the deliverance of besieged Israel, and the enthronement of Messiah. The Christian gospel is understood as ‘the revelation of the mystery’ contained in the prophetic writings that Messiah would come twice (Ro 16:25-26; 1Pet 1:10-12), a first time to suffer making atonement, and a second to restore all things (Acts 3:18-21). The redemption would be accomplished in two stages rather than one as in Judaism. In both views, the final redemption comes at a time of unparalleled distress and desolation called ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’. The common view was that the events that distinguish and define Jacob’s trouble would culminate in the final deliverance of Israel at the climactic ‘day of the Lord’.

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The Olivet Key to Daniel’s Prophecy of the End

It should be well known from the prophetic portions of both testaments, that the age concludes over an international crisis concerning the Land, and Jerusalem in particular. Shepherds and leaders, and witnesses in general are going to need an answer for why this should be so.

As never before, the whole flow of history is moving exactly in the direction that the plain person’s plain reading of prophecy would have led them to expect. God Himself has made the issue of Israel and the so-called, “Jewish question” a watershed of international division.

Just imagine trying to explain the irrevocable election of Israel, based on grace alone, to a generation that is being fast pre-conditioned, almost overnight, to despise the very suggestion of such an unthinkable notion. Talk about a calculated offense!

So yes, how we see the times we’re in does indeed come down to a question of one’s hermeneutics, but also to a question of the heart.

The pragmatic pastor will want to ask, how is this relevant to the gospel? If a pure gospel is well established in the heart, isn’t that enough? Shouldn’t such details of prophetic speculation be left to the mystery that God intended, nice to know but not critical, since the sheep will surely make it through, come what may?

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Snow on Mt Hermon photo by Benny Rotlevy

The Everlasting Covenant in John 6

John 6:36-37

“But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

John 6:39-40

“And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose none, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:44-45

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”

John 6:64-65

“But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”

In all of the above texts, the necessity of faith is understood, but the existence of saving faith is credited to the Father’s prior initiative to give only some to the Son. The text would have us to observe that this is a limited number, since none to whom it is given fail to come, but none can come unless enabled by the drawing power of Father.

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Jerusalem photo by Josh Appel

Pinpointing the Day of the Lord

This paper was referred to on the 3rd Session of The March of the Prophets Convocation.

Luke 21:34-35

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Matthew 24:38-39

For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And KNEW NOT until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

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Jerusalem (photo by Dariusz Kanclerz)

Peace and Safety

What do we do with the fact that Daniel 11 seems to clearly predict a lot of conflict and even war sparked by the AC. And yet we know it is a time of false peace and prosperity. It seems much conflict is going on, so seems a bit out of sync with other passages.

Very good question. Here’s my ‘over answer’. ?

I think a few observations of context will help to reconcile the apparent inconsistency. The simplest answer would be that while Israel is at peace with her neighbors during the first half of the week, they are not all at peace with one another. 

That seems to be exactly the case if we understand that the Antichrist makes three consecutive southward advances “AFTER the league / alliance made with him” (Dan 11:23). This would be during the first 3 1/2 years of false peace that many scriptures show to be an ill-fated presumption on Israel’s part that is doomed to give way to disaster (compare Isa 28:2-18; Dan 8:25; 11:23-24; Eze 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26; 1Thes 5:3). 

If taken as future (as I know you agree that many of the details of Dan 11:21-35 were not fulfilled in the past but demand a future fulfillment), then it follows that the AC’s war against the king of the south comes some short while “after” Israel has entered into a “league” with the AC (Dan 11:23).

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How Do You Justify the Gap Between the 69th and 70th Week?

Where in Scripture is it revealed that we should expect an indefinite time gap between weeks 69 and 70?
This cannot be obtained from a straightforward reading of the text.

The gap is what can be called a necessary inference. As with many great truths of scripture, it is not based on one single, obvious text but the cumulative evidence of many verses, scattered here and there, forming a mystery that must be searched out.

What is clear and, as you say, “straightforward”, is that scripture puts the last half of Daniel’s 70th week as arriving at “the consummation / the end”. This end of the age, reaching to the end of the final tribulation, the destruction of the “beast” (Dan 7:11) / “little horn” (Dan 7:8: 8:9) / “vile person” (Dan 11:21) / “wilful king” (Dan 11:36), the deliverance of Daniel’s people, and the resurrection of the righteous dead (Dan 12:1-2) is the same “end” so prominently in view throughout the book of Daniel. There is great, I would say decisive evidence that the final 3 ½ years of this age is the last half of Daniel’s 70th week.

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Torah Scroll photo by Tanner Mardis

When Does Hosea’s “Two Days” Start?

Why are we certain that the beginning of Hosea’s two days does not begin with the time that the nation was torn by the Romans (mangled and carried off-5:14 and “torn”-6:1)?

The case is absolutely decisive. You’ll see. In all other interpretations that I’ve seen, the two days is a nebulous metaphor that has little to do with signifying time of any meaningful duration, usually suggested as a metaphor for the brevity of the exile.

So why not start the two days of divine desertion with the destruction of 70? As Travis said, “why not 132 A.D.? It’s just as reasonable. After 70, the Jews recovered, repopulated, and rebounded with yet another, swiftly crushed rebellion against Rome. Then began the age-long exile of “many generations” (compare Isa 61:4 with Eze 38:8).

No, in order to mean anything concrete or significantly limited and definite, the terminus-a-quo must go back to Israel’s fall at the stumbling stone, the national rejection and crucifixion ending the 69th week. That is when He departs to the Father’s right hand, waiting till …

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