1730 Great Awakening Evangelistic Movement Led to Major Prophecy Changes
PART 6
February 19, 2012
A REJECTION OF JESUS AS “HE” IN DANIEL 9:27, AND REPLACING HIM WITH THE ANTICHRIST, WAS A TERRIBLE ERROR IN PROPHECY TEACHINGS. I HOPE YOU WILL CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING BLOG.
Have We Taken the Wrong Path in Prophecy?
Have We “Bought the Farm” in Prophetic Teachings?
It is absolutely amazing how the great majority of our prophetic teaching on the antichrist, and all the events associated with his arrival and departure during the last seven years of the Age of the Gentiles, is based on Daniel 9:27, and the understanding that the three “he’s” in it refer to the antichrist. All of the prevailing positions on the rapture, so widely differing among the brethren, the pre, mid, pre-wrath, post, split, and progressive positions are all based on the three “he’s” being the antichrist.
All of our charts and diagrams are based on the antichrist being the three “he’s” in Daniel 9.27, showing two boxes, each one three and one half years in duration, which are supposed to be the final seven years of the Gentile Age.
Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
There are times a part of me wishes I had never gone back in time to see what was believed, and what was taught, about the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27. In all my years of research I have yet to find anyone teaching what is taught today prior to 1742. The first expositors of the Church Age on the Old Testament all held in their writings that the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27 were Jesus Christ. The idea that the “he’s” were the antichrist did not appear in any of their writings. Among the best known writers of the first four centuries, who believed the “he’s” were Jesus Christ were: Hippolytus, Clement of Alexander, Julius Africanus, and Eusebius.
The Catholic writers of the Dark Ages continued to state this belief in the Sargis DOAberga document and, in this period, Theodore Beza, Arnold of Villanova, and Pseudo Aquinas all continued to proclaim that the “he’s” were indeed Jesus Christ. I could find no writer among them that identified the “he’s” as referring to antichrist.
In the Protestant Reformation times both Martin Luther and Melanchthon said the “he’s” in Daniel 9:27 were the Christ, not antichrist. Melanchthon dated the 70 weeks of Daniel from the second year of the great Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus, with 69 weeks to the baptism of Christ, and placed the crucifixion of Christ in the midst of the 70th week, three years after Christ’s baptism. This is the position I hold today. I believe Christ fulfilled the covenant during his ministry in the first part of the last seven years, and we are waiting for the second half to be fulfilled following the attack of antichrist against Israel. Other Reformation writers who held the three “he’s” were Jesus Christ were Georg Nigumus, Johann Funck, Jacques Cappel, John Tillinghast, Joseph Mede, and Heinrich Bullinger. And, once again, I was unable to find a single writer during the Protestant Reformation that identified the “he’s” as the antichrist. I am not saying one did not exist, but I could not find him.
In the Post Reformation period Isaac Newton, Cocceius, Johann Petri, William Wilson, Heinrich Horch, Jahann Bengal, and the Belenburg Bible, all identified the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27 as being Jesus Christ. And, once again, I could find no writings in this period that stated the “he’s” were the antichrist.
From the Post Reformation period to 1742, I could not find a writer that identified the three “he’s” as being the antichrist. Among American expositors who identified the “he’s” as being Christ were Samuel Langdon, John Davenport, Ephraim Huit, and Samuel Osgood. Among the Old World expositors, during this period, who held the “he’s” were Christ, were Bishop William Winston, William Hales, Louis Gaussen, Archibald Mason, and Edward Bukersteth.
So, the question I have been forced to address is a very simple one. Were they all wrong up to 1742? Should we have changed the teaching that the three “he’s” refer to Christ, and made them apply to the antichrist? I have made my choice – the old fellows were right, it is Christ! This teaching lasted well into the 20th century, and is still held by a minority in this present century. I was exposed to it as a young man many years ago, and I still believe it. One of the greatest Baptists of history, B.H. Carroll, who was born in the 19th century, carried this teaching into the 20th century. It began to decline in popularity after John Darby began to popularize the Pre-Trib Rapture position in 1827, but was still the majority belief until the publication of the Sc
ofield Reference Bible in 1909, after which it became more and more of a minority belief.
There was a very popular song in my youth titled “What a Difference a Day Makes.” I assure you, that the title I ascribe to Daniel 9:27 is a most profound one – “What a Difference a HE Makes.” Which position is correct? I could care less personally, because I am prepared for either one to be correct. How is that possible? I both practice, and advocate to the church I pastor, to do the following:
Mark 13:34-37 – For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and
to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. [35] Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: [36] Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. [37] And what I say unto you I
say unto all, Watch.
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