How do you respond to the teaching which says that the Messiah confirmed the covenant of Daniel 9:27?
adapted from When Will the Messiah Return?
There has been a particular interpretation of Daniel 9:25-27 circulating among many Christians, and to our deep concern, among a few Messianic people as well. This interpretation claims that it is not the antimessiah/antichrist who is to makes or confirms the “covenant with many,” but rather that it was actually Yeshua the Messiah who made or confirmed the “covenant with many.” A careful reading of the Daniel 9:25-27 prophecy can show this interpretation to be flawed, as it is not only rooted in supersessionism (replacement theology), but has been used to disregard the ongoing relevance of the Torah or Law of Moses. Let us review these verses.
To set the stage, Daniel 9:25-26 decreed
“you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined” (Daniel 9:25-26, NASU).
The occurrence of the first seven weeks, and then the sixty-two weeks, took place from: the decree issued to Nehemiah that the Temple in Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, to the point of Yeshua’s “cutting off.” This cutting off was the Messiah’s execution and death. After this, it is stated how “The people of a prince yet to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Daniel 9:26, CJSB).
It is important for readers to acknowledge how the prince who is to come in the future is not the Messiah. He is a descendant of the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 C.E., a destruction which took place subsequent to the Messiah’s being “cut off.” It is not the Messiah who makes or confirms the covenant in Daniel 9:27, but it is this other leader, for “He will make a strong covenant with leaders for one week of years” (CJSB).
The alternative view held by some today, is that the Messiah confirmed “the covenant” through His ministry on Earth. Because Yeshua’s ministry lasted roughly three-and-a-half years, it is said that the first half of the Seventieth Week of Israel has already occurred. All which apparently remains now is a three-and-a-half year Great Tribulation, where the Holy Spirit will be poured out incredibly upon Believers so they can perform miracles greater than He did.
Although no one should not deny the prophetic foretelling of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the holy ones or saints in the Last Days (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17-18), Yeshua warned very strongly that “False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect” (Mark 13:22, NRSV; cf. Matthew 24:24). Adherents of this interpretation, many of whom can be found in the Pentecostal and/or charismatic movements, can be usually led more by their emotions of wanting to see “the Spirit poured out,” rather than rationally and realistically exegeting the Scriptural text. There can be a danger in wanting to see “the Spirit poured out,” which can cause misinterpretations.
In addition to not accepting this interpretation because the “he” of Daniel 9:26-27 is going to be the prince of the people who destroyed Jerusalem (the Romans), Messianics must not accept it even more so on the basis of what Yeshua’s “cutting off” is often believed to be. As it is commonly asserted that if it is Yeshua who confirmed “the covenant,” likewise then He was the One who put “a stop to sacrifice and grain offering” (Daniel 9:27b, NASU). According to most adherents we have encountered, this means that He terminated all, or at least most, of the functions of the Torah or the Law of Moses—from the animal sacrifices to the Sabbath to the Biblical holidays to the kosher dietary laws. This, as should be obvious, is a position which should not sit too well with today’s Messianic people.
If we accept this interpretation, then who are the people who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 C.E.? Adherents of this belief run into a serious problem here. The pagan people who destroyed Jerusalem were the Romans, who had no regard for the God of Israel and who were not “Yeshua the Prince’s people.” More notably, the Messiah Himself admoshed His followers to look for the Abomination of Desolation in Matthew 24:15-21. If we follow through, are we to assume that He, Yeshua, is the One who commits it in Daniel 9:27? Surely not.
If we accept the belief that it was the Messiah who confirmed the covenant of Daniel 9:27, then the logical end is that we also dispense with the Torah, as have many proponents of this interpretation. We must likewise conclude that it is Yeshua who commits the Abomination of Desolation, and not the antimessiah.
The Messiah’s words in Matthew 5:17-19 stand very clearly against this. Yeshua said that the authority of the Torah stands until Heaven and Earth, the current Creation, pass away. Even more important, we must understand that animal sacrifices will be occurring in the Millennial Kingdom, so it is impossible that He has terminated the validity of the Torah—including these ordinances.[1] The sacrifice of Yeshua is certainly superior to the animal sacrifices of the Temple, but the Book of Acts is clear that the Apostles continued to participate in the Temple service as long as the Temple stood, and would have understood the animal sacrifices as a memorial of the Messiah’s final sacrifice. It is obvious here that it is the antimessiah/antichrist who will stop the sacrifices during the middle of the Seventieth Week, not the Messiah.
The assertion that there is a “Seventieth Week of Messiah” is misguided, and as Messianic Believers we should not accept it—unless we are prepared to become antinomians against the Torah and believe that Yeshua the Messiah commits the Abomination of Desolation.
NOTES
[1] Consult the Messianic Apologetics FAQ entry, “Sacrifices, in the Millennium.”
