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God’s Times God is exact in His appointed times. In times of Moses (Ex. 12:40,41) the years of servitude ( Gn. 15:13 ) in which Israel was under Egypt’s control, were fulfilled. On that very day Israel left Egypt. In times of Daniel (Dn. 9:2 ), the 70 years of Jerusalem’s desolation spoken by the prophet Jeremiah ( Jer. 52:12-16) were fulfilled. In the year 606 BC, Babylon took Judah in captivity. Exactly 70 years later, on 536 BC, Cyrus king of Persia, ( Ezr. 1:1-5 ) gave the command for the house of God to be rebuilt and allowed Judah to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the altar. 70 Weeks When the time came for the fulfillment of the 70 years in servitude announced by Jeremiah, Daniel interceded for his people. While ending his intercession he received a commandment and vision as told in Dn. 9:24-27. This revelation of 70 weeks had its historical fulfillment with Jesus, because it announced His Ministry. Those 70 weeks (70 x 70= 490) in the year-day principle (Num. 14:34 & Ezek. 4:5-6) were 490 years. Its beginning was the decree to rebuild Jerusalem ( Ezr. 7:11-16 ). Literally, this order was issued by Artaxerxes the year 457 BC. The vision said: from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah shall be 7+62=69 weeks (483 years). Historically, this is the amazing precision of this prophecy as we see bellow: At the 483 years Jesus began His Ministry (when he was 30 years old). In the midst of the last week He was crucified ( 3 ½ years). (Dn.9:27) (Ministry began) (Crucifixion)BC 457 ( 483 years ) 3 ½ 3 ½|-----------------------------------------|--------------------------|----------------|69 weeks ( 26 AD) (30 AD)(Decree issued) ( Dn. 9: 25) (Dn.9:27) (According to our calendar, Jesus was born approximately on 4 BC) The prophecies have a fulfillment in a historical event, and a total fulfillment in the time of the end, with a primarily spiritual meaning. The spiritual realm is completely over the natural realm. Fundamentally, we are spiritual creatures in a human body that God created for His Worship and Glory. He created us according to His image and likeness; He is Spirit and we are spiritual creatures first. The rebellion called sin, changed everything; and our human nature is no longer linked with our spiritual nature as it was in the beginning. For that reason Jesus came to give back, to those who accept him, the lost spiritual nature. Keeping this in mind, let’s see what the Word teaches us: Jesus began His Ministry as He stood up in the synagogue to read Isaiah 61 (Luk. 4:16-21). He read the first 2 verses, but he omitted something from verse 2. (“The day of vengeance of our God”) Why did He do this? Because this will be fulfilled in the final phase, applying the same principle to what happened historically it would be fulfilled again completely in the final days. If we see Daniel’s prophecies we can observe the historical development of the empires. This will be repeated in the end as it occurred with the Greek, Roman, Persian and Babylonian empires, but now in what they represent spiritually. When we understand this sequence that began in the book of Daniel we enter the book of Revelation in a huge door of revelation. The trumpets, the seals, had a historical fulfillment; the seven churches existed, but in the final days they will have a spiritual fulfillment (sometimes the spiritual realm will be reflected in the physical realm, on some level, but we have to remember that the spiritual realm is first). The Bible is our own dictionary and in it we will find the keys to understand it, guided by the Holy Spirit. With all this, let’s go back to Dn. 9: 24-27. What is the fulfillment of this great prophecy? The problem that caused this prophecy to be given is written in Dn. 9:17-18. A rebellious people separated from God, and His city (type of His church) desolated. When were His People almost to the point of disappearance, some persecuted and many without any knowledge of the Word of God? When was the city (His Church) so devastated, to the point that it had nothing to do with what He desired of Her? Answer: In the Middle Ages; when the apostate church had taken control of almost everything in the known world of those days. How did this begin? The Roman Empire, the 4th beast of Dn. 7:7 and the legs of the statue in Dn. 2:33 persecuted the pure apostolic church. When Emperor Constantine united the church with the State and decreed it by the Edict of Milan in 313 DC, the spiritual power of the apostolic church began to end. Constantine built in Rome a cathedral (St. John of Letran) for the bishop of Rome, which began to gain power, until he overtook it permanently, even over the kings. Persecutions continued; not by the empire that fell soon after, but by its successors: Religious Rome. Superstitions of all types replaced the pure word of God. True Christianity shown in His Word practically disappeared. Only a few witnesses remained around the known world. Spiritually, His city Jerusalem, type of His church, was in ruins. The walls had collapsed, the doors burned down. What happened in those days, which assures us that Daniel 9 was fulfilled and this time for good? Let’s look at history: There were some children of God that raised their voices against all the darkness but were silenced by the diabolical offspring that came out of the apostate church using the name of Jesus: the Inquisition. There was one that stood out of all of them; because he publicly denounced the errors, even in front of the rulers: John Huss. He even touched the heart of the Emperor Sigismund, but the Roman church came against him with all its power, even over the Emperor. Confronted in the Council of Constanza by the dignitaries of Rome, and despite the safe conduct of the Emperor, he was condemned as a heretic and burnt alive at the stake (1415). As he was in the place were his judgment took place, he declared: “Today you burn alive this goose (Huss in Czech language) but in 100 years a swan will come that you will not be able to burn”. 100 years later an obscure Augustine monk, Martin Luther overwhelmed by guilt, after understanding that in Rom. 1:16-17 the gospel revealed righteousness: it was punitive righteousness, God’s anger caused by Man’s rebellion. He tried to placate Him with rites, penitence, and sacraments (human forms). Until one day, like Josiah who found the Book and began a glorious revival in Israel, Martin Luther found the book: a Bible in Latin, which was chained in the convent. He took it and read it with complete dedication, and it was revealed to him the true righteousness; not the punitive, but the righteousness that is by faith in Jesus, who came to find and save what had been lost (Luk.19:10). That was the beginning of a process of revelation in Martin Luther. When he was in Rome and going up the Holy stairs, ( the one that is said that Jesus went up on towards Pilates) on his knees in accordance with tradition and halfway up, he stood and left, because of the verse that he had read in the Book, that day became alive in him: “the just shall live by faith”.( Rom. 1:17). In those days it was common to sell indulgences, trafficking of money for the right to sin. Martin Luther was illuminated to write 95 Theses against so much falseness. On Oct.31, 1517, early in the morning, Frederick of Saxony had a dream: “I dreamt that God sent me a monk, that was the true son of the apostle Paul; all the saints accompanied him according to God’s orders to accredit him to me, and he did not come to fraud, but everything he did was according to God’s will. They asked me to let the monk write something on the door of the castle church of Wittenberg, and I allowed it. Quickly the monk went there and began writing so big that it could be seen from afar. The pen that he was using was so large that its end reached Rome, and there it touched the ears of a lion that was lying down (Leon X) and the Triple Crown swayed from the Pope’s head; all the cardinals and princes wanted to hold it. I dreamt that all the princes went to Rome to try and break that pen; but the more efforts they made, the firmer it was. So I asked the monk where he had gotten the pen and why it was so strong. He responded: that pen is from a goose from Bohemia, who is a 100 years old (John Huss). All of the sudden I heard a great scream: from the monk’s pen came other pens. There I woke up.” That same day, the prince’s dream was fulfilled, and he would be one of the defenders of the Reform. Martin Luther boldly nailed them on the door of the castle church of Frederick “The Wise” of Saxony (Wittenberg, Germany) at noon on October 31, 1517. Copies of those 95 Theses were miraculously reproduced in the newly created print and began to circulate around all of Europe and in a few weeks throughout the known world. The speed was so great that it seemed the very angels were taking them to men. That was the spark that started the fire, which made tremble and shake the rigid and false religious system which ruled in those days. That declaration marked the beginning of the final fulfillment of the prophecy of Dn. 9:25-27: the commandment was going forth to restore and to build Jerusalem (His city, His church), the commandment to restore His church in ruins, crushed in superstitions and human ideas. The Statement of the Reform, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH”, SOLO CHRISTOS, SOLA GRATIA, SOLA FIDE, SOLA SCRIPTURAM, RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH ALONE. That raised a church that was almost dead and marked the beginning of the 70 weeks (70 x 7 = 490) or 490 years “that are determined upon your people and upon your Holy city” (His Church) for: (Dn. 9:24) 1- To finish (shut up) [kaw-law] the transgression (rebellion) [peh’shah] 2- To make an end (consume) [tamam] of sins [chatta’ah] 3- To make reconciliation (atonement) [kapar] for iniquity (perversity, depravity) [avon] 4- To bring in righteousness (justice) [tsedeq] everlasting (for ever) [owlam] 5- To seal up [chatham] the vision [chazown] and prophecy [nabiy’] 6- To anoint [masach] the Holy [qodesh] of Holies [qodesh] (The Most Holy) That was fulfilled on October 31, 2007 October 31, 1517 + 490 years: October 31, 2007 That day marked the end to those 70 weeks prophesied by Daniel. That day God sent some of his sons to which He revealed this blessed word, representing His whole church, to declare the fulfillment of the determined time. They did it by divine mandate and in fulfillment of the first law of the kingdom of God (Gn. 1:26 & 28): Rule (have dominion) and subdue (subject) the earth, which was the first thing that God commanded Adam and Eve when He created them.
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