Page 281 - Daniel

9:27 “And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week,
and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate,
until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

The divergence of interpretation between the non-Christological and
Christological views of Daniel 9:24–27, and between the amillennial and

premillennial views of the Christological interpretation, comes to a head
in verse 27. Here the choice is clearly between literal fulfillment, which
requires a futuristic interpretation with a gap between the sixty-ninth
and seventieth weeks, or several other options that admittedly do not
provide any clear fulfillment of verse 27.

At least four other views have been advanced in opposition to the
futuristic interpretation: (1) the liberal view that the seventieth seven is
fulfilled in events following the Maccabean persecution just as the
preceding sixty-nine sevens were; (2) the view of Jewish scholars that
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the seventieth week is fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.
70; (3) the view that the seventieth week of Daniel is an indefinite
period beginning with Christ but extending to the end, often held by
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amillenarians; and (4) the view that the seventieth seven is seven
literal years beginning with the public ministry of Christ and ending
about three and a half years after His death. 66

The views that claim fulfillment largely in the past have their
supporting arguments. But they have one common failure in that none
provides literal fulfillment of the prophecy. The first view, the

Maccabean fulfillment, is built on the premise that Daniel is a forgery
and prophecy is impossible. The second and third views explain away
problems by spiritualization and have no specific chronology. The
numerical system of the seventy sevens becomes merely symbolic. The
fourth view finds literal fulfillment of the first sixty-nine and one-half
sevens, but no fulfillment of the climax.

Even Leupold, an amillenarian who considers the seventy sevens as
extending to the second coming of Christ (third view), objects to the
historic fulfillment of the seventy sevens: “All they have left for the last
week and the consummation of the seventy year-weeks is an

unimportant date seven years after Christ’s death, when something so