Daniel

Daniel is a major prophetic book, written in the 500s BC (before Christ) giving an account of Jews living in Babylonian captivity. It reads together with the New Testament book of Revelation written about 600 years later around 100 AD (after Christ). Daniel makes many symbolic references to future events, to the coming Messiah and longer into the future. Much of this book is relevant to historical events within our own lifetime today. Let's have a look and see how:

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The Messiah will come, die in 32 AD and will do these things...

" Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickness, to bring everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy."

"....from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One the ruler comes, there will be seven 'sevens' and sixty-two 'sevens'......After six-two 'sevens' , the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people ofthe ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: war will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

Daniel 9:24-26 (Click for Jewish Bible version)

Daniel lists what will be done in this time period: to end sin, to atone for sin, to provide everlasting righteousness and to anoint/identify the Most Holy. Are these not all things that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament? Daniel also tells us that an Anointed One will come, will be cut off and have nothing and the the city (Jerusalem) and the sancutary (Temple) will be destroyed. Jesus Christ came and then died on the cross in front of witnesses in Jerusalem. Forty years later in 70 AD, the city and the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Is this just coincidence?

The time scales mentioned in these verses can be mathematically calculated to the exact year that Jesus Christ was crucified - 32 AD - or as the passage says, 'the Anointed One will be cut off and have nothing'. Please see this website for a detailed interpretation of these passages. Remember that these words were written 2500 years ago, before Jesus Christ even lived. We have manuscript evidence that these exact passages existed before Jesus; from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (Septuagint) dating from the 300s BC. Are these historic events all just coincidence?

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An abomination to God will be set up

"....he (satan) will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the Temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him". 

Daniel 9:27 (Click for Jewish Bible version)

Detailed study of this verse is available here. Below is a picture (click for source) of Jerusalem today with the Temple mount. Notice the outline of the demolished Jewish Temple with the Dome of the Rock set inside a wing of the Temple. The Dome of the Rock is a Muslim shrine to commenmorate the ascention of Muhammad into heaven. It was built in around 688 AD, during the Islamic crusades when the Muslims captured the Holy Land. Since the Temple's destruction in 70 AD and then the construction of the Dome in 688 AD, the ancient Jewish sacrifices cannot be carried out. Why not? 

The Dome of the Rock sits in a wing of the ruined Temple and prevents the Jews from rebuilding their ancient Temple. Even though Israel have re-established control of their land of Israel (in 1948) and Jerusalem city (1967); diplomacy and the need to maintain peace means that this Dome must sit on the Jew's sacred Temple site. In essence, the Temple site is left desolate (physcially and spiritually) because of the disagreements over the site between Muslims and Jews. The Dome alone prevents the Temple's reconstruction and the re-establishment of Jewish sacrifices to God. Note also that Daniel 9:27 states that this will be 'until the end'. So will the Jewish Temple ever be rebuilt? The Dome is prominent in the skyline of Jerusalem and is a very visible reminder to Jews that the Temple, so central to their faith, is still missing. Are all of these things just more coincidences?

Further clarification that the Dome of the Rock is the 'abomination' spoken of in Daniel can be obtained mathematically from:

" From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days".

Daniel 12:11 (Click for Jewish Bible version)

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Read more: http://whyjesuschrist.webs.com/daniel.htm