Daniel’s 70th Week: One of the Keys to Unlocking the End-Times

Mandatory Study

If you really want to understand the end-times, a study of Daniel's 70th week – a prophecy-packed, 7-year timetable – is mandatory. Once this 70th week makes sense to you, you will be able to clearly see how, when, and where specific events fit in with regard to the end of this age, the return of Christ, and the rapture of the Church.

About 2,600 years ago, the prophet Daniel wrote about 70 weeks, a 490-year time period: Seventy weeks are determined for your people … (Daniel 9:24). This time frame began in 445 B.C., but in A.D. 30, after 69 weeks (483 years), Jesus Christ was cut off (v. 26) Рcrucified, buried, raised from the dead, and ascended to Heaven.

Since that time, Christ has been building His church. However, in A.D. 70, 40 years into the Church Age, the Romans conquered the Jewish people, who were then scattered throughout the world. But beginning in the 1880s, the Jewish people have been miraculously regathering back to their land; this being the sign that the final and climactic 70th week will soon begin.

Beginning of the End-Times

The event which will take place at the start of this 70th week is the signing of a peace treaty by the Jewish people, and the Antichrist (whether known or unknown to us at that time) will be a key player in making this deal. It's debatable whether we will even know when this signing actually takes place, but it is at this point that God's end-time prophetic work will be in full swing for the Jewish people, the Church, and the world.

The birth pains – wars, earthquakes, famines and plagues – will grow in intensity. People, desperate for a strong leader, will desire peace. Nations will forge new alliances. The Jewish people will sacrifice at their temple in Jerusalem. Unbelievers will be increasingly sinful. Jews and Christians will be hated. And the Antichrist will grow in power.

Next, the Antichrist will be revealed to the world, an Earth-changing event which will occur at the midpoint of the 70th week. Unbelievers will love this devilish man, worshiping him as if he were God. But Christians and discerning Jews will know he's really the Beast – the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist.

Persecution will then break out against the Jewish people and Christians, but there will be peace for unbelievers. Those who love the Antichrist will gladly take his mark and worship his image. They will be content in their normal life – they will be eating and drinking, buying and selling, but they will be oblivious to the fact that God's wrath will soon to be poured out upon them.

The Rapture

What about the rapture of the Church? Two passages – 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 and Matthew Chapter 24 – make it clear that Christ's coming will follow the Antichrist's ascension to power. Because the Antichrist will be revealed at the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week, we know that the Rapture will come after the midpoint, but at a specific time completely unknown to us, for we don't know the day or the hour. Then, sometime during the second half of the 70th week, Christ will return to rapture the Church, redeem us from our physical bodies, and rescue us from His coming wrath.

The great Day of the Lord – which is the pouring out of God's wrath – will occur following the Rapture, during the last part of Daniel's 70th week. At the end of this week, at exactly the 7-year mark, a remnant of Jewish people will be saved, at which time The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever! (Revelation 11:15).

Let me sum it up this way: Christ was cut off at the end of 69 weeks to be our Savior, but will be crowned at the end of the 70th week to be our King.

The Key to Understanding

To make sense of end-times prophecy, you need to understand Daniel's 70th week. You must look at it as a divine time frame for it will help you see when key events will occur.

My desire for you is to be able to read prophecy passages (Matthew 24, Luke 21, 1 Thessalonians 4-5, 2 Thessalonians 1-2, the Book of Revelation, and more), and then using Daniel's 70th week, be able to figure out where everything fits.

If you will be alive during Daniel's 70th week, you will see many prophesied events taking place, but you won't be surprised – you will know that God is carrying out His plans – and by God's grace, you will endure, looking forward to seeing Christ coming in the clouds to take you home to Heaven.

Steven J. Hogan has been a pastor-teacher for more than 25 years, and at Hope Bible Church of Tampa since 2003.