Temple Mount in Jerusalem
The Bible tells us there must be a seven-year period when God again turns His attention to the Jewish people and Jerusalem. The length of this still future time comes the prophet Daniel who specified seventy weeks of years during which time the Lord will complete His redemptive purposes for choosing Israel (Daniel 9:24-27).
Why am I so confident that the last week of Daniel’s prophecy awaits a future fulfillment? It’s because the events that mark its beginning and midpoint have never happened in human history.
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. (Daniel 9:27)
This last seven-year period will begin with a “prince” (9:26) establishing a seven-year peace agreement with Israel. Perhaps the most notable aspect of Daniel’s prophecy regarding the seventieth week is the ending of temple sacrifices, which the prophet later refers to as the “abomination that makes desolate” (Daniel 12:11).
Does it make sense that there’s a long gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy? Yes, the text itself tells us that that last week would not immediately follow the cutting off of the Messiah.
Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. (Daniel 9:25-26)
Bible scholars have calculated that the sixty-ninth week ends exactly on the very day Jesus rode into Jerusalem just days before His crucifixion. This fulfilled the prophet’s words that after the next to last “week,” the Messiah would “cut off and shall have nothing.” Please note that Daniel placed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple during the interlude between the final weeks. This necessitates a gap of at least forty years before the start of the seventieth week, which we read about in Daniel 9:27.
That leads me to the next question: how do we know that the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy didn’t occur in the first century AD or anytime since then? It’s been two thousand years since the end of the sixty-ninth one, is it possible that the last week still remains unfulfilled? Yes, absolutely!
Jesus Placed Daniel’s Last Week in the Future
Four centuries after the time of Daniel, Antiochus Epiphanes came to power and subsequently desecrated the second Jewish temple by setting up idols in it and offering pigs on its altar.
Although the actions of Antiochus Epiphanes foreshadowed the words of Daniel 9:27, they didn’t fulfill the prophecy. First, Antiochus defiled the temple during the first sixty-nine weeks rather than during the last seven-year period of years in Daniel’s prophecy (9:24-27). That alone disqualifies his actions from contention.
Second, two centuries later, Jesus referred to Daniel prophecy of the temple’s desecration as a still future event:
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand). (Matthew 24:15)
As He answered His disciples’ questions pertaining to the end of the age, the Lord referred to the key event of Daniel’s seventieth week as a literal and still future event and one that would signal the nearness of His Second Coming.
Today, most Bible teachers and pastors claim that the Roman General Titus fulfilled the seventieth week of Daniel when he destroyed both Jerusalem and the temple. However, this is impossible for several reasons:
The Lord told Daniel that Titus’ siege of Zion would happen in-between the last two weeks, not during the last one.
There’s no record whatsoever of a peace agreement between the Roman general and Israel such as must happen to start the seventieth week of Daniel.
Daniel tells us that the coming “prince” would defile the temple, not destroy it.
The key detail that Paul adds to the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:15.
The Lord Himself Will Destroy the Desolator
In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul identifies the one who will desecrate the temple as the “man of lawlessness,” the one we refer to today as the “antichrist.”
“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
The apostle reveals that the coming desolator will blaspheme the Lord, sit in the “temple of God,” and “proclaim himself to be God.”
Then Paul adds one critical detail about the one who will commit Daniel’s “abomination of desolation” at the midpoint of Daniel’s seventieth week:
“And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8)
At His return to earth, Jesus Himself will destroy the “man of lawlessness” whom the apostle had just identified as the one who would desecrate of the temple and thus fulfill the words of Daniel 9:27. This also disqualifies Titus as the one who would fulfill the words of the prophet and of Jesus in Matthew 24:15 because two things must be true in order to identify Titus as the one to fulfill this prophecy.
First, Jesus would’ve returned to the earth in about AD 73-74, or three and a half years after Titus destroyed the temple. This gap for the last half of the seventieth week perfectly coincides with the time of the “great tribulation” that Jesus said would happen between it and the Second Coming (Matthew 24:15-31).
Second, the Lord Himself would’ve killed Titus at His return in AD 73-74. However, we know from history that Titus died of natural causes in AD 81.
And if the desecration of the Temple didn’t happen before or during the time of this Roman general, and it did not, then it couldn’t possibly have occurred since then because there has never been another Jewish temple.
The Apostle John Placed the Desolator’s Demise At Jesus’ Return
In Revelation 13:6, John tells us that the coming beast, whom we today identify as the antichrist, will open “its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling.” This is the guy of Daniel’s prophecy (9:27 and 11:36) as well as the one Jesus referred to Matthew 24:15. He is the “man of lawlessness” of 2 Thessalonians 2.
In Revelation 19:19-20, John provides an eyewitness of the future destruction of this future beast that will desecrate the Jewish temple:
“And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.”
Just as the Apostle Paul prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, Jesus Himself will destroy the “desolator” of Daniel 9:27 at His Second Coming. He will cast him into the lake of fire.
No one has ever fulfilled all that we know about Daniel’s “abomination of desolation” from Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8.
The Witness of Irenaeus (AD 130-202)
Irenaeus, an early church leader and prominent theologian, wrote Against Heresies in AD 180 to combat the spread of Gnosticism. It’s noteworthy that he was born in Smyrna and received his training in the faith by Polycarp, whom the Apostle John himself discipled.
In Against Heresies, book 5, chapter 30, section 4, Irenaeus wrote these words:
But when the antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple in Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous times of the kingdom.[i]
This quote reveals significant details about Irenaeus’ beliefs about the future temple:
Writing 110 years after Titus destroyed the second temple, he wrote that there would be a future temple in Jerusalem.
Irenaeus stated that the antichrist would “sit in the temple in Jerusalem” exactly as Paul said he would do in 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
He predicted that Jesus Himself would destroy the antichrist at His Second Coming, which aligns with what both Paul and John wrote about the one who would desecrate the temple.
Although Irenaeus’ words are not Scripture, it’s more than a little significant that this highly respected second century AD theologian believed there would be a third temple in Jerusalem in which a still future world leader would sit and defile before his destruction at Jesus’ return to the earth.
Why Does this matter for Us Today?
Does the fact that Daniel’s seventieth week awaits a future fulfillment matter of us today? It does because of the following reasons:
The Lord’s purposes for Israel remain incomplete
Since the seventieth week of Daniel has not yet happened, it signifies that the Lord’s purposes for Israel remain in place. His redemptive purposes for Jewish people and Jerusalem remain incomplete based on the words of Daniel 9:24.
Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
Those who say that God has rejected Israel must also fit Daniel’s seventieth week into the events of the first century, which according to the words of Jesus, Paul, and John is impossible. According to Daniel 9:24, the Lord’s redemptive purposes for both His “people” and Jerusalem remain incomplete and await a future fulfillment.
2. Modern-day Israel fulfills Bible prophecy
In order for the seventieth week of Daniel to start, Israel must exist as an established nation and because of threats to its future, be willing to agree to the future covenant of peace offered by the antichrist. The nation must also possess the city of Jerusalem and have both the means and passion to build the third temple. These things are all true.
If one were to write a script for what must happen before the last week of Daniel’s prophecy begins, one couldn’t do better than what’s now happening in the Middle East. The only thing missing is Israel’s access to build on the temple mount, which most students of Bible prophecy believe will be a part of the coming peace agreement with the “man of lawlessness.”
3. There must be seven-year Tribulation
Since Daniel’s seventieth week awaits a future fulfillment, there must be a future seven-year period of turmoil on the earth when the Lord will turn His attention to Israel and bring a remnant of His people to repentance. Jeremiah famously referred to it as the time of “Jacob's trouble” (30:7).
John placed the beast’s defilement of the temple in the midst of the judgments he wrote about in Revelation chapters 6-18 and wrote that the Lord would allow him to “exercise authority for forty-two months" (Revelation 13:5-6). This fits perfectly with the time of “great tribulation” Jesus said would happen between the desecration and His return (Matthew 24:15-31).
4. The Church doesn’t belong in the Tribulation
If the Lord’s purpose of Daniel’s seventieth week is to complete His purposes for Israel, and it is, does that mean the church age must end before its start? Yes, it does!
In other articles on my website, I have written at length citing biblical evidence supporting the pre-Tribulation Rapture. The purpose of Daniel’s seventy weeks further supports the Church’s absence during the Tribulation.
The purpose of the entire seven years along with many Bible passages such as 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10 enable us to confidently place the Rapture before entire seventieth week, which the Old Testament also identifies as the beginning of the Day of the Lord.
My book, The Triumph of the Redeemed-An eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times, is available on Amazon. In it, I lay a firm biblical foundation for our hope in Jesus’ soon appearing to take us home and explain why it must happen before the start of the seven-year Tribulation, Daniel’s seventieth week.
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[i] Irenaeus, “Against Heresies,” The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 10 vols., Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979), p. 560.