Posted by Parallel [Bibleman] on November 07, 1999 at 05:22:07 {zExURjw8QAMSSTtTA17sslyACFuF8c}:
Is there a modern-day fulfillment of Daniel's "70 weeks" prophecy?
Apparently so. Parallel prophecies are common in Scripture. Thus it is interesting that a 490-year pattern for "temple building" seems to be indicated in Scripture.
From 455BCE until the end of the 70th week, there is 490 years. The Messiah appears at the beginning of the 70th week, dies midweek and the Covenant continues until the end of the 70th week. Is this duplicated in modern times?
Well one could say so. Why?
Because if we count 490-year periods from 36CE, the 4th 490-year period ends in 1996. If that ends the modern-day 70th week, then one would expect the Messiah to appear in 1989 and set up the kingdom mid-week around Passover time of 1993.
This seems to dovetail quite perfectly when we date the fall of Jerusalem in 529BCE based upon the Jews returning in 455BCE. That is, the 70-year exile began 70 years earlier in 525BCE but this was the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar. Thus the 19th year, the year Jerusalem fell and the 2520 years was to begin, would have fallen per the Bible in 529BCE. 2520 years later gives us the year 1992-93. That is, the Passover following 1992 would have fallen in the spring of 1993.
Furthermore, the entire period of 50 periods of 49 years to reflect the Jubilee period, 2450 years, was a period of time long ago contemplated as being significant. From 455BCE that 2450 years also ends in 1996.
So you have this parallel implied between the first and Second coming:
Beginning of 70th week: 29CE, 1989 A.D.
Middle of 70th week, Last Passover: Spring 33CE, 1993AD
End of Covenant: 36 CE, 1996CE.
END OF COVENANT:
Now also note how this works out for the Modern-day Covenant Period. The modern-day covenant would be with the spiritual "temple class" which would be with Jehovah's Witnesses. The "temple will be in its right condition" after 2300 evenings and mornings, that after a period of 1150 years (2300 eves and mornings combine to make 1150 full days).
This period is contrasted to a "time, time and half time" which is 1260 years. So 1996 must also end a period of 1260 years. But since this is a significant date for ending the Covenant, that covenant must have begun 110 years earlier.
How so?
Because if you subtract 1150 years from 1260 years you get 110 years. If it took 2300 evenings and mornings (1150 years) before the "temple class" came into its right condition, then that meant the temple class would be in operation for the last 110 years of the 1260 years. 110 years earlier from 1996 is 1886 which is when the first "Studies in the Scriptures" came out, the beginning of the doctrinal teachings that would eventually set Jehovah's Witnesses apart as the "temple" organization. A new religion.
So, again, there is a confirmation that 1996 is a critical date for the end of the "70th week" in modern times. And the arrival of the Messiah just in time to have the last passover in the spring of 1993 also duplicates this pattern.
So again, note the 490-year pattern.
There are FIVE 490-year periods from 455BCE to 1996.
That's the same as 50 (jubilees) of 49 years each of 2450 years.
There is one 490-year period from 455BCE to 36CE, the first rebuilding related to the Jews and their timple and the beginning of the spiritual temple.
Then from there, there are four periods, or 40x49 from 36CE to 1996 (1960+36=1996AD). Thus during the last 490-year period the 70th week again duplicates the coming of the Messiah, and his appearance in kingdom power near mid-week.
As an interesting note. The beginning of the last 490 years was quite significant since that would have begun around 1506 A.D. And it was that year that the temple rebuilding really started to make a dramatic change. That is the year during which Martin Luther decided to become a monk and that resulted in a major change from Mary-worshipping Catholicism, the Protestant Movement.
If we read between the lines, therefore, this was a prophetic prediction that the "temple class" would further purify false paganism and come out of Protestantism 1150 years later, which it did. The Bible Students have their base in Protestant doctrine.
So while many are focussing so much on 1914 and the end of the gentile times based upon the "7 Times" prophecy, there are other Biblical patterns that also have to be fulfilled and that have miraculously all come together in marvelous harmony during this modern-day "70th week" from 1989 to 1996, with the Messiah taking up kingdom power and returning to the temple to celebrate Passover in the spring of 1993, which is when the Jews literally returned to Palestine 45 years earlier in the spring of 1948.
It's all connected.
But is anybody paying attention?
Or is chronology just something to be ignored in the scriptures?
Remember, we must all pay "more than the usual atention" and that includes EVEERYTHING we might understand in scripture, including chronology, which was given to help us identify God's schedule of events, those things that he wishes us to understand.
Cheers,
Bibleman