Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000078S
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00:00 - Today we're gonna dig into one
00:02 of the most misread, misapplied portions of the Bible. 00:05 One that's creating a lot of confusion 00:07 in the world of Western Christianity right now, 00:10 especially as our world keeps getting a little weirder. 00:13 [upbeat music] 00:26 [upbeat music continues] 00:35 A lot of people in the ancient Middle East 00:36 felt the sting of the Neo-Babylonian armies 00:39 but nobody felt it quite as keenly as the tribe of Judah. 00:45 They'd been warned by godly prophets 00:47 that the Babylonians were coming, 00:49 but they had foolishly chosen to believe 00:51 that because they were the covenant people of God 00:54 and they had the temple right there in their midst 00:56 that nothing could possibly go wrong. 00:59 After all, wasn't this God's sacred city? 01:02 How in the world could anybody think 01:04 that God would allow a group of profane gentiles 01:07 to conquer something as important, 01:09 something as utterly pivotal, 01:11 as the very center of His religious system? 01:15 The conquest of Jerusalem would signal 01:18 that maybe the Babylonian gods were more powerful 01:22 than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 01:25 So they refused to believe it. 01:28 There was just one voice in the city 01:30 that continued to sound the alarm 01:32 and that was the prophetic nuisance Jeremiah, 01:35 who was the only person who still said 01:38 the Babylonians were going to prevail. 01:41 Every other religious authority, 01:43 every other so-called prophet, 01:45 was pointing to the magnificent structure 01:47 on the Temple Mount 01:49 as proof positive that nothing bad could possibly happen. 01:54 "Do not trust in these lying words, 01:56 Jeremiah warned them, 01:57 "Saying, 'The temple of the Lord, 01:59 the temple of the Lord, 02:00 the temple of the Lord are these.'" 02:02 The religious authorities of that day 02:04 were treating the temple 02:05 as some kind of good luck charm or talisman, 02:08 figuring they could hide behind it during an emergency. 02:12 But of course, up to that point, 02:14 they had utterly refused 02:15 to abide by the terms of the covenant, 02:18 and now their desire to duck behind the temple was pointless 02:21 because the presence of God, 02:23 the one who told them 02:25 to build that temple in the first place, 02:27 well, He was no longer in their midst 02:30 and the stunning structure built by Solomon 02:32 was now just another building. 02:34 It was pointless. 02:36 The way the Bible phrases it, 02:38 God's patience with His wayward people 02:40 had completely worn out, 02:42 and according to 2 Kings 24, 02:44 "He finally cast them out from His presence." 02:48 We find a record of what happened 02:50 when the Babylonians pulled into town 02:52 in the book of 2 Kings. 02:54 This was not their first visit 02:56 because they had been there before to take people captive. 02:59 But now they really meant business 03:01 because even though the Jewish king Zedekiah 03:04 had pledged allegiance to Babylon, 03:06 promising to be a faithful servant to them, 03:09 he was clearly lying. 03:11 He'd been busy trying to cobble together an allegiance 03:13 with the Egyptians, 03:14 hoping that by working together, 03:17 they could finally rid themselves 03:19 of their Babylonian overlords. 03:22 So in 588 BC, the Babylonians pulled up 03:25 outside the walls of Jerusalem 03:27 and began to lay siege. 03:29 By 587, they had successfully taken the city, 03:33 and they were not about to leave any possibility 03:35 for further rebellion. 03:37 The city walls were completely destroyed 03:39 and they burned the temple to the ground. 03:41 Zedekiah, of course, fled to the countryside 03:44 but the Babylonians caught up with him 03:46 and dealt him a humiliating blow. 03:49 His sons were slaughtered right in front of him 03:51 and then he was blinded so that his boys' death 03:54 was the very last thing he would ever see. 03:57 He was chained up like a common slave 04:00 and deported to Babylon. 04:02 On the landscape of everything that happens in the Bible, 04:05 the conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple 04:08 serve as a major, major focal point. 04:11 This is one of the big keys 04:13 that helps you understand the rest of the Bible. 04:16 The vast majority of what you read in the Old Testament 04:19 covers a period of time from the creation of the world 04:23 down to the Babylonian exile. 04:25 There are portions 04:26 that refer to what happened after the exile 04:29 like Ezra and Nehemiah, 04:30 which are books that describe the restoration of Jerusalem, 04:34 and we have a few other portions 04:36 that take place after Nebuchadnezzar, 04:39 but the bulk of this narrative takes us down 04:42 to the destruction of Solomon's temple 04:44 where the dreams and aspirations of God's people 04:47 are suddenly shattered. 04:50 Of course, the tribe of Judah was not the only victim 04:53 of Babylonian brutality. 04:55 All of their neighbors had also felt the wrath 04:58 of Nebuchadnezzar's armies. 05:00 But for the Israelites, it was particularly humiliating. 05:03 Their ancient father Abraham was a Chaldean 05:07 who migrated to the promised land from the city of Ur. 05:11 Abraham was promised 05:12 that the entire region now known as the Holy Land 05:14 would belong to his descendants, 05:16 who would be as numberless as the grains of sand on a beach. 05:20 Abraham's children were considered to be the bride of God, 05:24 as the prophet Ezekiel explained 05:26 after the Babylonian conquest. 05:29 "When I passed by you again and looked upon you," 05:32 God tells His people through the prophet, 05:34 "Indeed, your time was the time of love. 05:37 So I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. 05:41 Yes, I swore an oath to you 05:42 and entered into a covenant with you 05:44 and you became mine," says the Lord God. 05:48 The relationship between God and Israel 05:50 was a love story quite literally born in heaven, 05:53 but the bride, who originally hailed from Chaldea, 05:57 proved to be unfaithful, 05:59 so now she was being returned in shame to her family. 06:04 The march back to Babylon was a national disgrace, 06:07 a very public announcement 06:08 that the nation of Israel was guilty of spiritual adultery 06:12 and she was being sent back home. 06:16 And tragically, it was not the only time 06:18 the temple was left desolate. 06:20 Roughly half a millennium later, 06:22 another warning was sounded in the city of Jerusalem, 06:25 this time by Jesus. 06:27 One day, as He contemplated 06:29 what had become of the faith of Abraham, 06:31 He publicly mourned the fate of the temple 06:34 and made a rather dire prediction found in Matthew 23, 06:38 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 06:41 the one who kills the prophets 06:42 and stones those who are sent to her. 06:44 How often I wanted to gather your children together 06:47 as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, 06:50 but you were not willing. 06:51 See, your house is left to you desolate." 06:55 Of course, this really bothered the disciples 06:58 because it was a clear illusion 07:00 to the Babylonian destruction of the temple, 07:02 when the sins of God's people had become so egregious 07:06 that the rituals at the temple became meaningless. 07:09 The religion was just a matter of going through the motions. 07:13 But now groups like the Pharisees were working overtime 07:16 to make sure nobody even got close 07:18 to sinning like the ancestors did. 07:21 Jesus, however, was underwhelmed by the Pharisees efforts 07:25 and openly condemned the way they conducted themselves. 07:28 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," He said, 07:32 "For you are like whitewashed tombs 07:34 which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, 07:37 but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 07:41 Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, 07:45 but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." 07:50 It was all very concerning to the disciples, 07:52 who ironically began to make the same plea 07:55 as the false prophets of Jeremiah's day. 07:57 They appealed to the temple. 08:00 Here's what it says in Matthew 24 08:01 right after Jesus predicted 08:03 that the temple would be left desolate. 08:06 "Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple 08:08 and His disciples came up 08:10 to show Him the buildings of the temple. 08:12 And Jesus said to them, 'Do you not see all these things? 08:15 Assuredly, I say to you, 08:16 not one stone shall be left here upon another, 08:19 that shall not be thrown down.'" 08:22 Of course, in hindsight, 08:23 we all know that Jesus was completely right. 08:26 A few years later in AD 70, 08:28 in the midst of a rebellion 08:29 that the Romans wanted to squash, 08:32 one soldier pushed a lit torch inside the temple 08:35 and it lit the entire place on fire. 08:38 The temple burned to the ground 08:39 along with the zealots who were hiding inside, 08:42 and when the flames finally died down, 08:44 the Romans disassembled what was left block by block, 08:48 essentially creating the Temple Mount 08:50 that you can still see to this day, 08:52 which is nothing but a single wall 08:54 where people come to pray. 08:56 What's amazing about this national tragedy 08:59 is the way that it was entirely predictable, 09:02 and not just because Jesus announced it 09:04 just a few years before it happened. 09:06 The fate of the temple had actually been predicted 09:09 during the Babylonian captivity 09:11 hundreds of years in the past. 09:13 I'll be right back after this. 09:15 [air whooshes] 09:19 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 09:21 Sometimes we don't have all the answers. 09:25 But that's where the Bible comes in. 09:27 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 09:30 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 09:32 we've created the Discover Bible Guides 09:34 to be your guide to the Bible. 09:36 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 09:38 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 09:41 and they're absolutely free. 09:43 So jump online now or give us a call 09:45 and start your journey of discovery. 09:49 - The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is still one 09:50 of the world's most contentious spots. 09:53 Today it's controlled by Muslims 09:55 and it features the Dome of the Rock, 09:57 a magnificent shrine that marks the place where they believe 10:00 is the spot where Muhammad began 10:02 his miraculous night journey, 10:04 which he said was a visit to heaven. 10:07 Now, today there's a segment of Western Christianity 10:09 that believes that in order for Christ to return, 10:12 the Jews must reclaim the Temple Mount 10:15 and build a third temple, 10:16 which of course poses a bit of a problem 10:19 because in order to do that, 10:20 you'd have to compromise one of the holiest sites in Islam. 10:24 The potential for an international incident 10:26 is absolutely massive. 10:28 All it would take to spark a major conflict 10:31 is for one well-meaning zealot 10:33 to do something, well, radical. 10:37 Right now, as it stands, 10:38 non-Muslims are not even allowed to pray 10:40 on the Temple Mount, 10:42 which is admittedly a hard thing to enforce. 10:45 But the regulation is there. 10:46 The Muslims are determined that this spot belongs to them. 10:51 Now, just before the break, 10:52 I said that the destruction of the second temple 10:54 was actually predicted during the Babylonian captivity, 10:57 and right now I'm gonna demonstrate that. 10:59 So you might wanna grab a copy of the Bible 11:01 and follow along 11:02 because we're going to look at a passage 11:04 from the Old Testament 11:06 that, in recent times, has been taken out of its context 11:10 to make it say things it was never intended to say. 11:14 I'm talking about Daniel 9, 11:17 which a lot of modern Western Christians assume 11:20 is talking about a last day scenario 11:23 in which the antichrist starts to make trouble 11:25 for the entire planet. 11:28 But that's a relatively modern understanding 11:30 that would come as a surprise 11:31 to roughly 1,800 years worth of Christians 11:35 who didn't read it that way. 11:37 Let me show you what I mean. 11:39 At the beginning of Daniel 9, 11:41 we find the prophet asking God 11:42 to help him understand the fate of God's people 11:45 who were living in Babylon. 11:48 Jeremiah had predicted 11:49 that the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years, 11:53 and that time was drawing to a close, 11:55 and that would mean that Daniel himself is now an old man 11:59 because he was among the people captured 12:01 when the temple was sacked. 12:03 So here's what it says 12:04 beginning right at the top of Daniel 9. 12:07 "In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahaseurus, 12:12 of the lineage of the Medes, 12:13 who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, 12:16 in the first year of his reign, 12:17 I Daniel understood by the books 12:20 the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord 12:23 through Jeremiah the prophet, 12:25 that He would accomplish 70 years 12:27 in the desolations of Jerusalem." 12:30 Now, you see that word desolations? 12:33 A lot of modern books about prophecy like to suggest 12:35 that the, quote, "abomination of desolation" 12:39 represents the work of some kind of latter-day dictator 12:42 who openly opposes the Christian faith. 12:45 And that understanding is partly understandable 12:48 because the Bible kind of uses it in that sense 12:52 when it uses the destruction of the temple 12:54 as an illustration 12:56 for what the church would go through in the future. 13:00 But in its primary sense, 13:02 the abomination of desolation 13:03 is talking about the wickedness of human kings. 13:06 At the very end of 2 Chronicles, 13:08 it lists a number of very wicked people 13:10 who committed what the Bible calls abominations 13:14 and it says that led directly 13:16 to the Babylonians sacking the temple 13:18 and leaving it desolate. 13:20 In other words, it's not the sins of an outsider 13:22 that this term is addressing. 13:24 It's the sins of God's own people, 13:26 which becomes obvious when you read the lament of Jesus 13:29 over the city of Jerusalem. 13:31 He's broken-hearted because His people 13:34 had once again strayed from the purpose of the faith. 13:37 And so now He tells them 13:38 that, once again, their house was going to be left desolate. 13:43 Then looking ahead to the dark moment 13:44 when the Romans would begin their military crackdown, 13:47 Jesus says this, "Therefore, when you see 13:50 the abomination of desolation 13:52 spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, 13:56 whoever reads, let him understand, 13:59 'then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains.'" 14:03 Read it really carefully 14:04 and you'll see Jesus is tying 14:06 the future destruction of the temple 14:07 to the prophecies of Daniel, 14:09 which takes us again back to Daniel 9. 14:13 There's a brief prophetic passage at the end of this chapter 14:16 that some people call the 70-week prophecy. 14:20 And that's what I wanna look at right now 14:22 because, well, it doesn't say 14:24 what a lot of people think it says. 14:27 These are the words of the angel Gabriel, 14:30 who's trying to help Daniel understand God's future plans 14:33 for the nation of Israel. 14:34 And it says this, "70 weeks are determined for your people 14:38 and for your holy city 14:40 to finish the transgression, 14:42 to make an end of sins, 14:43 to make reconciliation for iniquity, 14:45 to bring in everlasting righteousness, 14:48 to seal up vision and prophecy, 14:50 and to anoint the most holy." 14:53 Now, there's a lot in that passage we need to unpack. 14:55 So let's just start with the number 70, 14:58 which is the number of years Jeremiah predicted 15:00 for the Babylonian captivity. 15:03 It represented 490 years of disobedience, 15:07 and in 2 Chronicles 36:21, 15:10 we discover that in particular the nation had refused 15:13 to keep the seventh day Sabbath, 15:15 which of course represents 1/7th of the time 15:19 they were in rebellion. 15:20 Here's what it says, 15:22 "And those who escaped from the sword 15:24 he carried away to Babylon, 15:26 where they became servants to him and his sons 15:28 until the rule of the kingdom of Persia 15:31 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah 15:34 until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. 15:37 As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, 15:40 to fulfill 70 years." 15:43 So the land was quiet 15:45 to make up for every single Sabbath that was missed. 15:48 So what we have is 70 years of captivity 15:51 that represent 490 years of apostasy. 15:55 Now, as the nation is getting ready 15:56 to go back to the promised land, 15:58 God tells Daniel they're gonna get another group of 70, 16:02 70 weeks to be exact. 16:04 And of course, 70 weeks is actually 490 days. 16:09 And that's really, really important. 16:13 Christians have long understood that these 490 days 16:16 represent 490 years 16:19 because it's so obvious that this is a parallel time span 16:23 with the 70 years of captivity 16:25 that represent 490 years of rebellion. 16:28 It's using days to represent years, 16:30 which, if you look through the Old Testament, 16:33 is a very common prophetic motif. 16:36 So what exactly does it mean? 16:38 The people of God had been violating the covenant 16:40 for 490 years 16:42 and now they were gonna get another 490 years 16:46 that served as a probationary period. 16:48 This was a special time set aside 16:50 for Daniel's people, it says, 16:52 and Daniel's city. 16:54 Daniel's people, of course, were the Jews 16:57 and Daniel's city was Jerusalem. 17:00 So this is really pretty easy to decipher. 17:02 The prophecy continues now in Daniel 9:25 17:06 and it starts to get a little technical, 17:08 but stick with me for a few minutes 17:09 because this really will be worth it. 17:12 It says, "Know therefore and understand 17:15 that from the going forth of the command 17:17 to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince," 17:20 and, of course, that would be Jesus, 17:23 "There shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks. 17:26 The street shall be built again, 17:27 and the wall, even in troublesome times." 17:30 Now, this is why this passage captures the attention 17:33 of so many Christians, 17:35 because it makes specific reference 17:37 to the appearance of Messiah 17:39 and it says that He would appear seven weeks plus 62 weeks 17:43 after the command to rebuild Jerusalem. 17:47 And this is where the passage really defies 17:49 a lot of skeptics 17:50 because it works out to be precisely right. 17:53 Even though a number of Persian royals 17:55 indicated their support for the return of God's people, 17:58 it was in 537 BC 18:00 that we get this specific command from Artaxerxes 18:04 that not only commands the work to done, 18:07 but it actually provided resources 18:09 from the Persian royal treasury. 18:11 You can find the wording of that command in Ezra 7 18:14 and it provides one of the most important anchor points 18:17 in the history of the Bible. 18:19 And I'll be right back after this to show you how. 18:23 [air whooshes] 18:26 - [Announcer] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 18:27 we're committed to creating top quality programming 18:30 for the whole family. 18:31 Like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain." 18:35 "Discovery Mountain" is a Bible-based program 18:37 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 18:39 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 18:42 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 18:45 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 18:48 and fresh content every week, 18:50 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 18:53 [bright music] 18:56 - Some people wonder why the prophecy of Daniel 9:25 19:01 gets broken up into two parts, 19:02 as in seven weeks plus 62 weeks, 19:06 instead of just saying 69 weeks. 19:09 Well, it's really pretty simple. 19:11 At the seven-week mark, which would be 49 years, 19:14 the construction project was done 19:16 and it's one more way of letting us know 19:17 that we're on the right track. 19:19 The entire prophecy, the 69 weeks, 19:22 totals 483 prophetic days or literal years, 19:26 which takes us to the year AD 27. 19:29 Now, if you're doing the math at home, 19:30 you might find that a little confusing 19:32 because 483 added to 457 should take you 19:36 to 26 AD instead of 27. 19:39 But of course, there's no such thing as a year zero. 19:43 1 BC was immediately followed by 1 AD, 19:45 so you've got to account for that when you do the math. 19:48 That way, 483 takes you to the year 27 AD, 19:52 which is the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, 19:55 which is exactly the year that Jesus was baptized 19:59 and began His public ministry. 20:01 In other words, Messiah showed up exactly on time. 20:05 I mean, haven't you always wondered 20:07 why Jesus just stayed in the background until later in life? 20:11 Why not start His public ministry earlier? 20:14 Well, at the age of 30, He would've had a lot more clout, 20:17 but there's another reason, it just wasn't time yet. 20:20 In AD 27, the prophecy of Daniel 9 was coming to pass 20:24 and it was time for God to announce His son to the public, 20:27 which is exactly what He did at Christ's baptism. 20:31 The Bible tells us 20:32 that the Holy Spirit descended on Christ that day 20:34 and a voice from heaven said, 20:36 "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." 20:41 It happened right on time, right according to schedule. 20:45 This is why so many people find this so compelling 20:48 and why skeptics tend to skip past Daniel 9 20:51 because it's really hard to explain this away. 20:54 And if this was the only thing that prophecy got right, 20:57 that'd be worth paying attention to, 20:58 but it's really just getting warmed up. 21:00 Here we go onto verse 26, 21:03 where it says, "And after the 62 weeks, 21:06 Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself." 21:10 Now, remember, back in the previous verse, 21:13 it was seven plus 62 weeks, 21:15 and what it's telling us 21:16 is that after that whole period of time is finished, 21:18 sometime after 27 AD, 21:21 Messiah was going to be cut off for other people, 21:25 which is obviously what happened 21:27 after three and a half years of public ministry. 21:29 Jesus was crucified. 21:31 Then it continues, "And the people 21:34 of the prince who is to come 21:35 shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. 21:38 The end of it shall be with a flood 21:40 until the end of the war desolations are determined." 21:44 Now, for some strange reason, 21:47 modern Christians tend to take this verse 21:49 and stick it way off in the future, 21:51 in what they assume will be the last few years 21:54 of this earth's history. 21:56 But when you see what Jesus said 21:58 about the abomination of desolation in the Book of Daniel, 22:01 it becomes really, really obvious 22:03 that this is referring to the sack 22:05 of the city and the temple by the Romans, 22:08 when "not one stone shall be left here upon another." 22:12 This really has nothing to do with final events, 22:15 except maybe in the way that it foreshadows them. 22:18 What it's telling us is that after Jesus was crucified, 22:22 somebody was going to come and destroy 22:24 the city and the temple 22:25 the same way the Babylonians did. 22:28 And of course, that was clearly the Romans, 22:30 who did that in AD 70. 22:33 And if that's not incredible enough, 22:35 let's keep pushing on to verse 27. 22:38 Now, I know this is a lot of nitpicky detail, 22:40 but this is important 22:41 because, again, today this is easily 22:44 one of the most misused, misread passages 22:47 in all of scripture. 22:49 People have been ripping this out of its immediate context 22:52 and transporting it 2,000 years into the future 22:55 and making it about antichrist. 22:58 But read it very carefully 23:00 because the language and the context speaks for itself. 23:03 This is clearly about Messiah the prince, 23:05 who would be Jesus. 23:06 And what it tells us is when we should expect 23:09 to see His appearance 23:10 and that He would be cut off for other people 23:12 sometime after that. 23:14 But then it continues 23:16 with what might just be the most breathtaking part 23:18 of this whole thing, verse 27. 23:21 "Then He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, 23:24 but in the middle of the week, 23:26 He shall bring an end to the sacrifice and offering." 23:29 Now, this is the part that gets a lot of people confused 23:31 because what we've done, especially in recent years, 23:34 is make this about some last day antichrist. 23:36 And people say he's going to appear in Jerusalem 23:39 and make a covenant with the Jews 23:40 and then break it after three and a half years. 23:44 But here's what you need to know. 23:45 That is not how Christians 23:46 have historically understood this. 23:48 Remember, the subject is the second 490 years of probation 23:51 for Daniel's people 23:53 and the subject is the appearance of Messiah. 23:56 Jesus' ministry lasted three and a half years, 23:58 which is half of seven. 24:00 It's half of a prophetic week. 24:02 And what He did with that time 24:03 was confirm the covenant with God's chosen people. 24:06 In fact, He ratified the new covenant at the cross 24:10 where He certainly brought an end to sacrifice and offering. 24:13 I mean, the veil in the temple was ripped in two 24:15 at that very moment. 24:16 Why? 24:18 Because the death of Christ suddenly makes 24:19 all the animal sacrifices completely unnecessary. 24:25 Then his disciples continued to work in Jerusalem 24:27 until Stephen the deacon was suddenly martyred in AD 34, 24:30 three and a half years after the death of Christ. 24:33 And at that point, the famous martyr makes one last plea 24:37 to the religious leadership, 24:38 after which they put him to death. 24:40 And who was sitting there? 24:42 Saul, who later became Paul the missionary to the Gentiles. 24:47 The 490 years was over now, right on time, 24:50 and that's why the prophecy ends the way it does. 24:52 It says, "And on the wing of abomination 24:55 shall be one who makes desolate, 24:57 even until the consummation, which is determined, 25:00 is poured out on the desolate." 25:03 So what's that a reference to? 25:05 The abomination of desolation, 25:07 the sack of the temple by the Romans. 25:10 What we have in Daniel 9 is a literary device 25:12 known as a parallelism. 25:14 Verse 26 mentions the work of Messiah 25:17 and then says the Romans will come 25:19 and destroy the sanctuary. 25:20 Then verse 27 repeats that pattern, 25:22 talking again about the sacrifice of Messiah, 25:25 after which the Romans would come 25:27 and leave the temple desolate. 25:30 This passage has nothing to do 25:31 with the final seven-year tribulation, 25:34 even though I suspect there are people right now 25:36 who are furiously flipping through their Bibles 25:38 because, well, that's what they've always heard. 25:40 And if it's there, by all means, have at it, 25:43 continue to believe it. 25:44 But as a good preacher friend of mine once said, 25:47 "If the plain sense makes good sense, 25:50 seek no other sense, or you'll get nonsense." 25:53 I'll be right back after this. 25:56 [air whooshes] 25:59 - [Announcer] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 26:03 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 26:08 If you've ever read "Daniel & Revelation" 26:10 and come away scratching your head, 26:12 you're not alone. 26:13 Our free Focus on Prophecy guides are designed 26:16 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 26:18 and deepen your understanding 26:20 of God's plan for you and our world. 26:22 Study online or request them by mail 26:25 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 26:29 - Well, all I've really managed to do 26:30 is just crack the seal on Daniel 9, 26:32 and I'm gonna leave it to you to dig a little deeper. 26:35 But I guess my big point is this. 26:37 We often overcomplicate the Bible 26:39 by trying to make it fit what the current culture says. 26:42 And as a result, we've kind of lost track 26:44 of one of the most elegant, 26:46 one of the most convincing passages of the Bible 26:48 when it comes to demonstrating 26:50 that Jesus really was the long-awaited Messiah. 26:54 We've tragically sliced up 26:55 a perfectly coherent section of the Bible 26:57 and inserted a gap of 2,000 years which doesn't make sense, 27:02 not when there's nothing in the text 27:04 to suggest that you should do that. 27:06 And there's a really big lesson in here for us. 27:09 The book of Hebrews tells us 27:10 that we still have a high priest, and that's Christ. 27:13 He serves in a heavenly sanctuary. 27:15 So there's still an application for us. 27:18 And it turns out it's not the buildings 27:20 that God was most interested in. 27:22 It was the hearts. 27:23 It's not the forms and rituals that save you, 27:26 and just going through the motions doesn't help. 27:29 The God of the Bible is radically different 27:31 from the gods of other religions 27:32 in that He's not looking for ritual; 27:35 He's looking for you, and that's it. 27:38 Maybe you've left that part of your life desolate. 27:41 Your heart is in tatters because of the past 27:43 and there's a void where maybe there used to be something. 27:47 Maybe there's a reason 27:49 you can't seem to scratch that spiritual itch 27:50 with mere rituals. 27:52 So maybe it's time to have another look 27:54 at this old, old book, 27:56 which goes to great lengths 27:57 to tell you you have another chance with God. 28:01 I'm Shawn Boonstra. 28:02 This has been "Authentic." 28:05 [upbeat music] 28:17 [upbeat music continues] |
Revised 2023-08-30