Page 284 - Daniel

passage for anyone who accepts it as prophetic Scripture. Christ does not
satisfy the description of verse 27 because there is no seven-year period
related to Christ that provides fulfillment for the entire passage. On the
other hand, the normal antecedent of “he” is “the prince who is to
come.” This person is not the Roman general Titus whose forces

destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but rather a future enemy of the people
of Israel who will bring them into the great tribulation. This tribulation
was anticipated as still future in the book of Revelation, which was
written at least sixty years after the death of Christ and twenty years
after the destruction of Jerusalem.

The precise prophecy of verse 27 indicates that the personage in view
enters into a covenant relationship “with many,” literally, “with the
many” (cf. “with the many,” Dan. 11:39; 12:2). This seems to be a
reference to unbelieving Jews who will enter into an alliance with the

coming prince. That they are Jews is indicated by “your people” (v. 24).
If the preceding chronology is understood to involve literal years, this
should also be a seven-year period. In a word, the prophecy is that there
will be a future compact or covenant between a political ruler and the
representatives of the Jewish people. This alliance will ultimately be to
the detriment of the people of Israel, however promising it may seem to

be at its inception.
The prophecy says that in the middle of the seven-year period the one
who confirms the covenant “shall put an end to sacrifice and offering,”

that is, all the bloody and non-bloody sacrifices. This could not refer to
Christ at His death because, as a matter of fact, the sacrifices did not
cease until A.D. 70, some forty years later. The sacrifices were not
stopped by Christ, but by the Roman soldiers who destroyed the temple.
This prophecy contemplates a yet future event similar in nature to the
desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 165 B.C. But the

desecration here in Daniel will be the beginning of the great tribulation
of which Christ spoke in Matthew 24:15–26, obviously future from
Christ’s point of view, and, therefore, not the desecration by Antiochus.

According to Christ, there will be a clear-cut event referred to as the
abomination of desolation, similar to the language of 9:27, which will
occur in the period just preceding His second advent. Christ said, “So
when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet