Cut Off, But Not For Himself

2006-02-21

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” (Daniel 9:26)

This verse is where all critics of the Bible and of the Faith must be silent. The context of this verse is the prophecy of the Lord through Gabriel to Daniel. Daniel had been praying and confessing his sin and the sins of Israel because the seventy years of captivity, predicted by Jeremiah, were coming to an end (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 2 Chronicles 36:21). While he was praying, Gabriel came to tell Daniel that seventy ‘weeks’ (seven-year periods) were determined for Israel. This would begin with the Jewish people returning to rebuild Jerusalem and live there for seven plus sixty-two of these seven-year periods (Daniel 9:25). After that, the Messiah (meaning ‘anointed’) would be ‘cut off,’ or suffer the death penalty. Calculating the time from when the Jews returned to their land and the decree was given to rebuild the wall by Nehemiah to the time Messiah would be executed would bring us to somewhere around A.D. 33, as many suggest. This was when Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world.

After Jesus was crucified, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, just as Daniel 9:26 states. This happened in A.D. 70. Israel was not a nation-state again until A.D. 1948. This period of time are the desolations Gabriel spoke of; these times will continue until the Antichrist makes a seven-year peace treaty with Israel, breaks it half way through, and then demands that he should be worshipped in the Jewish Temple.

Scoffers have always looked at many of Daniel’s prophecies and say they were written in retrospect. But it is impossible to say that in this case. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint manuscripts of Daniel predate Christ’s coming by 200 years (though they were written much earlier). The evidence demands a verdict: Jesus Christ is who He says He is: the Son of God. Now who do you say He is?

In these days there are those who insist that all world religions are just as valid as the Faith. Show me: in what other religious writings are there prophecies like this? There are no such prophecies in the religions of fear to which people subscribe. Jesus died for our sins (Daniel 9:25) and rose again from the dead as the anointed Son-of-God-in-power, and if we believe in Him, never again shall we have fear but the hope of eternal life now and in the future forevermore.

Jesus was prophesied about in the Bible centuries in advance, and this verse is just one example among many. This is foolproof, though there are many who desire to denounce the Lord. But when we are honest with ourselves, everything points to Jesus as being the Son of God, the one and only Savior of the world.

Jesus came to earth, died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and rose from the dead, so that all of our sins, from our infancy throughout our whole lives, will be forgiven. God gave us His word: that if we place our trust in Him, we will have eternal life. Now what will we do about it? The evidence demands a verdict from all people, including you.