Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Today, more about Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks. What can be learned about the coming Tribulation period from this prophecy? Stay tuned for a great discussion just ahead on Grace in Focus. This is the ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website, FaithAlone.org. We’d love you to go there to find out about our magazine. It’s a free subscription. It’s published six times per year. It’s also called Grace in Focus. It’s beautiful. We’d love you to have it. It is free all except if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, you do have to pay the postage. Get signed up today for the magazine Grace in Focus at FaithAlone.org. 

And now with today’s discussion, here again are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling. 

BOB: All right, I’m back with Philippe. And by the way, I looked up your name. And I’m ashamed to say that I should have known better. It’s actually from Greek and it’s from Philippos. And Philippos is from phileo or the noun philos, meaning love or lover. And hippos, which we get the word hippo from, a hippopotamus is a river horse. Because potamus is river in Greek and hippo is horse. So Philippos is a lover of horses. 

PHILIPPE: So it’s just a compound word, a compound name. Yeah. Lover of horses. 

BOB: So basically, you’re some type of wrangler. 

PHILIPPE: Cowboy. 

BOB: Cowboy. So you’re in the perfect city to be in Dallas. The things you learn on Grace in Focus. Well, last time we looked at Daniel 9:24-27, but we really didn’t get into 27 other than reading it. And we led up to it to say, these seventy sevens match beautifully from 444 BC to 33 AD for the first sixty-nine sevens, the 483 weeks. But the final seven weeks, there’s a gap, as there often is in prophecy, they’re called prophetic gaps. For example, you’ll remember, Philippe, Zechariah 9:9 talks about the triumphal entry. 

PHILIPPE: Yes. And a great gap, thousands of years. 

BOB: Between that and Zechariah 9:10 is the Millennial reign. So, so far, we’re just short of 2000 years between the triumphal entry, which was in 33 AD and 2033, we’re not that far off. In fact, if the Rapture occurs in 2026, then the Second Coming would be in 2033, 2000 years after the triumphal entry. In any regard, let’s look at the verse. 

PHILIPPE: Now you’re not being a prophet, you’re just making an observation. 

BOB: No. And if it occurs a thousand years from 2026, it’ll be 3000 years. I remember Craig Glickman saying in class, I had him at Dallas seminary, and he’s a Jewish believer. And Craig said, you know, there’s all this enthusiasm about Israel being in the land. And he said, how this is a fulfillment of prophecy. And there’s so much excitement that Jesus is coming back any day now. And he said, of course, He’s coming back any day now. That’s the doctrine of imminence, but He’s been coming back any day now for 2000 years. And he said, if Israel gets kicked out of the Promised Land tomorrow, it won’t hinder my faith one bit. 

PHILIPPE: It does not invalidate, you know, the prophetic framework that we have. 

BOB: Exactly. In fact, he went on to say, we don’t know that this is the final ingathering. They could be kicked out of the Promised Land and go back multiple times between now and the final ingathering. Now, I do think, and Craig did too, that this is the final ingathering. I don’t expect Israel to be kicked out of the Promised Land again. But his point is well taken. We don’t have prophecy about that. All we know is there’s a final ingathering. Hopefully this is it. And yes, we expect that He will return in our lifetime. But so did Zane Hodges, and he was disappointed, I’m sure, at the moment he died that he didn’t make it to the Rapture. And I don’t think we can say with certainty. It could easily be hundreds or even thousands of years from now. But on the other hand, it could easily be today. 

PHILIPPE: And we do see a pattern that’s there that makes it possible that it could be. But again, a pause just as here are the 69 weeks, for the seventieth week, there’s a pause. And we know how long that would be. 

BOB: Yeah. Okay, let’s read verse 27 again. 

PHILIPPE: “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 pulled out on the desolate.” 

BOB: Okay, so “he shall make a covenant with many for one week.” Now, there is a question on whether we should translate that “he” or “they.” Zane Hodges thinks that should be “they shall make a covenant with many for one week.” 

PHILIPPE: I think Zane says that that’s only a group of national leaders initially that make the covenant. And then the man of sin emerges later and could be an Assyrian as he develops in his book on. 

BOB: Right. But whether it’s “he shall confirm a covenant” or “they shall confirm a covenant” for one week, the point is the Tribulation begins with the signing of the covenant, right? 

PHILIPPE: Yes, it’s the seventh year. So sometime after the Rapture, they’re not simultaneous. 

BOB: Oh, let’s talk about it. All right, now, now you’re messing. You know, when I graduated from Dallas Seminary, I believed these were simultaneous, that at the time of the signing of the covenant, that’s when the Rapture occurred. 

ANNOUNCER: We will rejoin in just a moment. But years ago, Zane Hodges wrote the Gospel Under Siege. Sadly, this is still true. And GES president Bob Wilkin has recently written its sequel. Bob’s new book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, is a book about theological clarity on the Biblical teaching about eternal salvation. It is available now. Secure yours today at the Grace Evangelical Society’s bookstore. Find it at faithalone.org/store. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s content.

BOB: When I graduated from Dallas Seminary, I believed that at the time of the signing of the covenant, that’s when the Rapture occurred. We’re going up, the signing is taking place. And I believed that until maybe 2000, so long after, 18 years after I graduated from Dallas Seminary. And I remember hearing some talk at the Pre-Trib Study Group. And one of the talks said that there would be a gap probably between 30 and 45 days between the Rapture and the signing of the covenant. And they said, we know at the end of the Tribulation, the Millennium doesn’t begin the exact moment that this Tribulation ends instead. 

PHILIPPE: Daniel talks about 45 days and does—

BOB: In Daniel chapter 12, right? So we know there’s a gap there and they said, if there’s symmetry, there’s going to be a similar gap at the beginning. And they said, it’s extremely unlikely that the signing of the covenant would take place at the moment of the Rapture because certain things have to happen for a covenant to be signed. And it’s unlikely that this would all be done in secret. So if there’s a gap there, there’s time for that to develop and for the news to come out that, hey, there’s news that this peace treaty may be signed and yada yada. And at that point, I came to believe that that was correct, that there is a gap. So I would agree that when he says about the signing of the covenant between Israel and the Gentile nations, that this signing of the covenant will probably be somewhere between a month, month and a half, two months, we don’t know, some undetermined gap in there. And that means, for example, fully that we don’t need to see the temple rebuilt before the Tribulation starts, right? It could be built in those 45 days. Or in fact, it could be built in the beginning of the Tribulation. 

PHILIPPE: That could be part of the peace treaty itself to allow the Jews to rebuild the temple without another Islamic nation invading, trying to prohibit that. 

BOB: So you’ve got the signing of this covenant, this agreement between them, this covenant which is going to be broken, right? 

PHILIPPE: Two and a half years, that’s part of it. 

BOB: Okay, so the Tribulation is the seventieth seven, it’s seven weeks long. But this seven weeks, we know from the book of Revelation, it’s going to be broken into two halves. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, time, times and half a time. 

BOB: That’s in what verse, I can’t remember, it escapes me right this moment. But the time times and half a time refers to that. Now in Daniel, we also have the number of days laid out. And those days work out to 360 days times three and a half years. And that’s what, 1260, yeah. And so, you know, even Daniel lays out the two halves. And the first half is called the Tribulation. The second half is called the Great Tribulation. All seven is the seventieth seven. But the second half is worse than the first half. 

PHILIPPE: Yes. And Jesus talks about that in the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24. He talks about the beginning of sorrows, which is the first three and a half years. Yes. And then the Great Tribulation. 

BOB: And He also alludes to the abomination of desolation in the parable of the ten virgins when He talks about this midnight cry. And at the midnight cry, half of those five of them have sufficient oil to see them through the second half of the Tribulation. The others don’t. In other words, five of them have developed enough spiritual strength in the first half of the seven years to see them through persevering the second half; the other five don’t. All ten represent believers. But the midnight cry in Matthew 25:1-12 is referring to the abomination. 

Okay. So he goes on and he says, there’s going to be this abomination. And we already talked about that. That’s when they set up this image.

PHILIPPE: Image of the beast in the temple. 

BOB: And it says he’s bringing an end to sacrifice and offering. So no more will the Jewish people be allowed to go in and offer animal sacrifice? 

PHILIPPE: Well, a vast persecution is going to take place. And the book of Revelation gives us more detail in Revelation chapter 12. 

BOB: And also in the Olivet Discourse they’re to flee. 

PHILIPPE: Right. If you’re on the house top, don’t even go down to get your coat or anything, just—

BOB: And what is this “consummation, which is determined?” Is that the end of the age? PHILIPPE: I think probably refers to the Second Coming and the destruction of armies of the nations that will take place at Armageddon. 

BOB: Yeah, Armageddon is really this mountain of Megiddo. And there’s a valley in front of it. But the seventieth seven is also called the time of Jacob’s trouble in the Old Testament, right? This would be a very difficult time for Israel. So we’ve already talked about the Rapture and we won’t be there when this seven year, Daniel’s seventieth seven occurs, we’ll be with the Lord. 

PHILIPPE: And we may have a view of it with the Lord. If we’re in the sky, 

BOB: In the sky, then we’ll be watching the events unfold. And for us, it’s going to seem like minutes because we’ll be on divine time where a thousand years is as a day. Seven years is going to seem like about seven minutes. It’s going to be very quick and then we’re going to be coming with the Lord to the Mount of Olives. 

All right, well, very good. And thank you all and remember, let’s keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Would you be interested in some free ebooks on topics you hear on this program? Well, if you are, you need to come visit us at faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. We would love to hear from you. Maybe you’ve got a question, comment, or some feedback. If you do, please don’t hesitate to send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio at faithalone.org. That’s radio at faithalone.org. And when you do very important, please let us know your radio station call letters and the city of your location.

On our next episode: an introduction to the Tribulation period. We’d love you to join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.