 The prophet Daniel wrote, "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." (Dan. 9:27 NKJV) The Left Behind novels teach that this will be fulfilled when a character like Nicolae Carpathia makes a treaty with Israel for a 'week of years' (7 years) and then breaks the treaty in the middle of the week, causing sacrifice and offering at the rebuilt Jewish temple on Temple Mount to cease. However, before the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible and the more recent Left Behind fiction popularized this interpretation, Christians everywhere understood Daniel's prophecy quite differently. |
| For centuries Bible readers understood that it was Christ who 'confirmed the covenant' with the Jews for seven years by preaching exclusively to Jewish people and then sending his disciples to do the same for a while before they began to convert Gentiles. In the middle of the week, after his three-and-a-half year earthly ministry, Christ caused sacrifice and offering to cease (in the sense of ceasing to have any value in God's eyes) by offering himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God. |
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Note, for example, how Martin Luther and John Calvin explained Daniel 9:27 in their sermons: "Hence he [the prophet Daniel] also says, Christ shall take a half a week, in which the daily offerings shall cease; that is, the priesthood and reign of the Jews shall have an end; which all took place in the three and a half years in which Christ preached, and was almost completed in four years after Christ..." —Martin Luther, "Sermon for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity; Matthew 24:15-28" from his Church Postil, first published in 1525 available online at http://www.orlutheran.com/mlsemt2415.html "The Prophet now subjoins, He will make to cease the sacrifice and offering for half a week. We ought to refer this to the time of the resurrection. For while Christ passed through the period of his life on earth, he did not put an end to the sacrifices; but after he had offered himself up as a victim, then all the rites of the law came to a close. ...This is the Prophet's intention when he says, Christ should cause the sacrifices to cease for half a week. ...Christ really and effectually put an end to the sacrifices of the Law..." (Lecture Fifty-Second) —John Calvin, Commentary on Daniel - Volume 2 Available on the web at http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/comment3/comm_vol25/htm/iv.xx.htm on the "Christian Classics Ethereal Library" provided by Calvin College of Grand Rapids, Michigan The Left Behind novels teach that Antichrist fulfills these prophecies, instead of Jesus Christ himself, as Bible readers have long understood. | |
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Daniel's 70th week came right after the 69 weeks, not 2000 years later as an end-times tribulation as Left Behind teaches. "Christ confirmed the covenant with many during the last week..." - John Calvin MORE |
The Tribulation Jesus spoke of was a tribulation on "this people," the Jews, beginning when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem — not a 7-year period in the end times as Left Behind teaches. "'for then shall be great tribulation, such as had not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be.' All this pertains still to the Jewish nation." - Martin Luther MORE |
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The Antichrist is not a future leader like Left Behind's Nicolae Carpathia, but came to power when the Roman Empire, which was restraining it, got out of the way. The papacy and Islam are "the two horns of Antichrist." - John Calvin MORE |
The Temple in Jerusalem does not need to be rebuilt, with its priesthood and sacrifices, to fulfill prophecy. "He will make to cease the sacrifice and offering ... Christ ... offered himself up as a victim, then all the rites of the law came to a close." - John Calvin MORE |
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The Abomination of Desolation was fulfilled by the Romans at the desolation of Jerusalem. "But the abomination of which Daniel writes is that the Emperor Cajus, as history tells, had put his image in the temple at Jerusalem as an idol, for the people to worship, after everything there had been destroyed." - Martin Luther MORE |
No 7-year "second chance" for unbelievers after the Rapture. Christ is coming once, not twice as Left Behind claims. 'the Lord himself shall descend from heaven ... Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up ... to meet the Lord in the air ... then sudden destruction cometh upon them ... and they shall not escape.' - Paul MORE |
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