We have devoted more time on Gabriel’s seventy week prophecy to Daniel than on most other passages in Daniel’s writings, and we have also examined the contemporary beliefs regarding extreme dispensationalism instead of the historical beliefs regarding Bible eschatology (end times doctrines).

With a few exceptions it appears that the more strongly a person believes in the doctrines of grace the more they reject the dispensational view. Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series of “novels,” written by LaHaye’s own acknowledgement to convince readers of his dispensational views, clearly illustrates several reasons why a people who believe in the Bible doctrines of the grace of God would reject his views. For example, LaHaye openly advocates that all who died without having “made a decision” for God in their life shall be given a “second chance” to reverse that non-decision posture at the Second Coming. Clearly from this view, LaHaye must hold that “chance” is involved in a person’s salvation, a blatant rejection of God’s sovereign grace in the eternal salvation of a chosen people.

The dispensational belief that national, twenty-first century Israel must possess all of the geography the ancient people of God received in title in the Old Testament before the Second Coming can occur imposes incredible distortions and inequities upon the present political situation in the Middle East. What impact does this view impose upon Christians living in that region who are of Arab descent—and there are a number of such people? The oft-modified interpretation by dispensationalists of this geo-political situation since the Jews gained their national status in 1947 clearly reveals the wholly unsupported and unbiblical beliefs commonly held by dispensationalists. First they made the case that the Rapture would occur within forty years after that date. When that didn’t happen, they altered their interpretation, alterations that increasingly flow in predictable and regular succession as time continues and nothing occurs that affirms their assertions.

One of the most objectionable views held by the dispensational school has to do with its rejection that Jesus is presently “…Lord of lords, and King of kings…” a point clearly made in inspired Scripture (1 Timothy 6:15).

Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords…. (1 Timothy 6:15)

While the verse indicates what God shall (in the future) show, it affirms in the clearest and simplest of terms the central truth that shall be known, that Jesus is—not shall be—“…the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords….”

The senseless injection of indefinite time delays onto Biblical passages, not just the dispensationalists’ dissection of Gabriel’s seventy week prophecy into sixty-nine weeks from the final seventieth week, reduces Biblical hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation based on the Holy Spirit’s intended meaning, not on the reader’s esoteric or imaginative and contradictory interpretation) to the authority of every reader’s fanciful and creative imagination, not at all on the integrity of the inspired text of Scripture.

Considering the widespread belief of these fanciful errors, I have devoted more time than normal to these errant ideas. God didn’t inspire and direct the construction of the Bible as a science fiction novel. He chose forty to forty-five men across fifteen hundred years to compile sixty-six books that are self-attesting of their supernatural origin. While much of the Bible is delightfully entertaining, its divine intent is to instruct and equip believers for godly living and service to their brothers and sisters, as well as to enable them to maintain a stable focus on the security they have in their victorious Savior and His finished and successful work.

A respectful and literal construct of the seventy week prophecy that we have studied demonstrates no reason—and certainly no textual or theological need—to destroy the integrity of the chronological measurement established by the seventy weeks. No unit of measurement can retain its integrity and measure anything with credibility if it is disjointed. If we are to reach any credible conclusions from this prophecy, we must keep all seventy weeks in chronological sequence, not senselessly—and without any contextual basis or necessity—inject an indefinite time lapse between Week sixty-nine and Week Seventy. All six accomplishments listed in the prophecy clearly were completed within the chronological time stipulated by the seventy weeks of years with the coming and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the importance of emphasizing this prophecy? Its chronological integrity, coupled with its six accomplishments to be fulfilled before the prophetic clock in the prophecy clicks to its conclusion, directs us to a successful Savior and His finished work. To compromise the integrity of the timeline by the injection of an indefinite time between the sixty ninth and seventieth week points to a failed Savior. This point is witnessed by many dispensationalists who claim that God was forced to inject this prophetic “parenthesis” between the sixty ninth and seventieth week because both God and Jesus failed in Jesus’ first advent; the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah. Thus He must go back to heaven in defeat and redesign His plan, hoping to get it right and to succeed the next time. An honest and objective question begs for an answer. If He failed the first time, what assurance do we have that He will not also fail the second time? Do we worship a victorious, successful Savior and a sovereign God, or do we worship a failure?

If we affirm the integrity of this prophecy, we must affirm that God in Christ conquered sin and gained redemption, completed, purchased and assured redemption for all for whom He died. He paid the price and secured the merchandise identified in the purchase contract, so that those so redeemed shall never again be placed on the auction block of sin and sold back into its slavery. We proclaim with Paul, and without apology to anyone, that our Lord Jesus Christ is now “…Lord of lords, and King of kings.” (1 Timothy 6:15) We shout from the housetops that our Lord Jesus Christ now sits enthroned on heaven’s throne, “…henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,” (Hebrews 10:13), not exactly the description of a failed and shamed warrior after His first Advent.

If we affirm the integrity of this prophecy in its literal and most reasonable and logical form, we discover the heart and soul of a message of hope and joy that we are to preach to all who have been touched by divine grace and thereby given ears capable of hearing such a message, along with hearts capable of rejoicing in it. When martyrs around the throne ask their Savior, “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10), we may affirm that a victorious Savior shall surely tell them at a later time that their wait has ended and their victory has been sealed. (Revelation 20:4) We have no reason to respond to these martyrs with shamed faces and try to credibly explain to them that their Savior failed and He intends to “Try, try again” at a later time.

If we affirm the integrity of this prophecy and the fulfillment of its six named accomplishments, we have no need to make a bloody end-time battle whose outcome is at best uncertain because of the intense bloodshed it shall create the centerpiece of our gospel message. We can make the focal point of our gospel “…Jesus Christ and him crucified….” (1 Corinthians 2:2) We can further proclaim that in the very act of crucifixion, followed by victorious resurrection, Jesus, the primary and worthy theme of our gospel message, accomplished victory in His first Advent, not failure. Given that victory, we have no contrived need for a prophetic parenthesis to cover a failed Savior and a failed first Advent. Go back to Daniel 9:24 and refresh your mind on those six accomplishments, with each point serving as a reminder that your Lord indeed accomplished this work successfully and completely during His first Advent.

1. To finish the transgression.

2. To make an end of sins.

3. To make reconciliation for iniquity.

4. To bring in everlasting righteousness.

5. To seal up the vision and prophecy.

6. To anoint the most Holy.

Transgression’s and sin’s damning effects on the family of God was brought to a defeated halt at Calvary. It is not in question. Reconciliation for iniquities covered at Calvary rules the day, and everlasting righteousness is assured for everyone for whom Jesus died. Biblical prophecy was sealed up, fulfilled to a jot and a tittle in the Lord Jesus Christ in His first Advent. And He, the most Holy One, not a vague or impersonal and hypothetical most Holy place, was indeed anointed. (Acts 4:27; notice “…hast anointed…” not “shall anoint”).

Hallelujah! What a Savior!