The Narrow Path Ministries

I listened to Steve Gregg's teaching on Daniel 9's 70 weeks prophecy a few months ago and he compared the 70 weeks having a gap in it to telling someone he lived 5 miles away but not revealing that there is a 25 mile gap between the 4th and 5th mile. I may have go the numbers on that wrong but that was the gist of it.

I started actually thinking about that and that is not at all a good comparison. The verse says that 70 weeks are determined upon Israel. Those are 70 weeks in which God will deal specifically with the nation of Israel. He did not say 70 consecutive weeks. He only said 70 weeks (or 490 years).

Why do they have to be consecutive?

This is an example. (it's gonna be a stupid one but it will get my point across )
I promise that I will walk 10 miles wearing a red shirt. However I end up walking 50 miles. At mile nine I take my red shirt off and put on my blue shirt, but then at mile 49 I put the red shirt back on and run the final mile. Have I not kept my promise? I think I have!
This promise the Lord made that he would deal with Israel for 490 years and that 483 years have passed while 7 yet remain still makes perfect sense to me.

However it seems to me for his (and most of your) theory of this to be correct, Titus would have had to invade Israel three years after the crucifixion of Christ. However it was closer to 40 years, so for the Preterist theory to work, there has to be a gap. So you all better start supporting a gap (even if you have the wrong length of that gap )!!!

AARONDISNEY wrote:I listened to Steve Gregg's teaching on Daniel 9's 70 weeks prophecy a few months ago and he compared the 70 weeks having a gap in it to telling someone he lived 5 miles away but not revealing that there is a 25 mile gap between the 4th and 5th mile. I may have go the numbers on that wrong but that was the gist of it.

I started actually thinking about that and that is not at all a good comparison. The verse says that 70 weeks are determined upon Israel. Those are 70 weeks in which God will deal specifically with the nation of Israel. He did not say 70 consecutive weeks. He only said 70 weeks (or 490 years).

Why do they have to be consecutive?

The interesting thing about this approach is that folks that say that the weeks in Daniel don't have to be consecutive take the approch that the days in Genesis have to be. LOL Consistancy in interpretation takes a lower priority when faced with consistancy with our fallible worldviews.
D.

djeaton wrote:

AARONDISNEY wrote:I listened to Steve Gregg's teaching on Daniel 9's 70 weeks prophecy a few months ago and he compared the 70 weeks having a gap in it to telling someone he lived 5 miles away but not revealing that there is a 25 mile gap between the 4th and 5th mile. I may have go the numbers on that wrong but that was the gist of it.

I started actually thinking about that and that is not at all a good comparison. The verse says that 70 weeks are determined upon Israel. Those are 70 weeks in which God will deal specifically with the nation of Israel. He did not say 70 consecutive weeks. He only said 70 weeks (or 490 years).

Why do they have to be consecutive?

The interesting thing about this approach is that folks that say that the weeks in Daniel don't have to be consecutive take the approch that the days in Genesis have to be. LOL Consistancy in interpretation takes a lower priority when faced with consistancy with our fallible worldviews.
D.

Okay, so what happened 3 years after the crucifixion?? 70 ad?? No, it wasn't that, so what did happen? Nothing!!
Preterism is not very consistent in it's denial of the gap of Daniel 9. If it is consistent - then please explain the 40 years between the resurrection of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem. I'm sure glad I went with the dispies on this one !!!

AARONDISNEY wrote:

djeaton wrote:

AARONDISNEY wrote: Okay, so what happened 3 years after the crucifixion?? 70 ad?? No, it wasn't that, so what did happen? Nothing!!
Preterism is not very consistent in it's denial of the gap of Daniel 9. If it is consistent - then please explain the 40 years between the resurrection of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem. I'm sure glad I went with the dispies on this one !!!

My point was not to defend preterism. My point was to point out inconsistant interpretation. If you hold that "week" doesn't have to be literal and "weeks" don't have to be consecutive...even when numbered, do you allow for the same interpretation with "days" in Genesis 1?
D.

Sorry,
I didn't understand you correctly I guess, D. I do hold that the days in Genesis were literal days. They are explained as the sun came up and went down and that was one day. Also vegetation was created and then the sunlight (to make for photosynthesis) the next day. If it were not short amounts of time then the vegetation likely would have died.
That they are consecutive is seen in that He formulated our weeks after his creation week. After 6 consecutive work days there was a sabbath, rest day.
However I don't believe that Daniel's prophecy needs to be consecutive for the reasons I"ve given above. This preterism stuff just doesn't answer all the problems that it contains. Dispensational truth and logic makes much more sense to me.
I just see inconsistency in the preterist claim that there is no gap and yet there has to be a gap (of considerably less time) for their theory to work.

Okay, so what happened 3 years after the crucifixion?? 70 ad?? No, it wasn't that, so what did happen? Nothing!!
Preterism is not very consistent in it's denial of the gap of Daniel 9. If it is consistent - then please explain the 40 years between the resurrection of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem. I'm sure glad I went with the dispies on this one !!!


I think the final 3 1/2 years are from the crucifixion to either Stephen's stoning or Paul seeing Christ on the road.
I think Preterism and Dispensationalism are mirror images and both extreme positions. The Historical view leaves open a myriad of possibilities including a pre 70AD dating of Rev and an endtime culmination without stretching for a 7 years tribulation which is almost a physical impossibility considering the nature of the plagues.

Aaron,

I answered this question on another thread, long ago. You can find it at:

http://www.wvss.com/forumc/viewtopic.php?t=47

There is also discussion on this topic at another thread (where I did not contribute):

http://www.wvss.com/forumc/viewtopic.php?t=274

AARONDISNEY wrote:I do hold that the days in Genesis were literal days. They are explained as the sun came up and went down and that was one day. Also vegetation was created and then the sunlight (to make for photosynthesis) the next day. If it were not short amounts of time then the vegetation likely would have died. That they are consecutive is seen in that He formulated our weeks after his creation week. After 6 consecutive work days there was a sabbath, rest day.

This has all been discussed on the Preterism and Creation thread. There are OEC "answers" for all the YEC arguments. Won't rehash it here. I'm not saying that there are not valid reasons for a particular interpretation. My point is that interpretation should be consistant. We all have reasons to back up our interpretations. But the truth deserves logical honesty.
D.

I guess my only point for this thread is that to say it is an absurd thing to have a gap is not the case. I think my analogy made the point pretty well. When I first heard Steve's analogy of the 20 some odd miles between miles 4 and 5 it made sense but now thinking it through it really doesn't. It is just as logical to have a gap as it is illogical. In other words it could as easily be a 2000 year gap as a continuous 490.

AaronDisney wrote:Why do they have to be consecutive?

Maybe the question should be :
Why wouldn't they be consecutive?

Let me revisit your analogy about walking 10 miles in a red shirt.
It seems to me that if you told me that you were going to walk 10 miles in a red shirt (I'm unsure what the shirt adds to your analogy), I wouldn't immediately wonder if there would be a "gap" of 90 miles inserted within the 10 miles to which you were referring.
I would take the plain meaning of your statement to mean that you would walk 10 consecutive miles.
Now if you had specified that there would be 90 miles added in another statment, then I would have reason to look for this "gap".

All this to ask this question:
Where in Scripture is a gap postulated between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel 9?

Also...

AaronDisney wrote:However it seems to me for his (and most of your) theory of this to be correct, Titus would have had to invade Israel three years after the crucifixion of Christ. However it was closer to 40 years, so for the Preterist theory to work, there has to be a gap.

Daniel 9:27
25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”


It seems that the start of the 70 weeks is stated as the command to rebuild Jerusalem and the end is the coming of the Messiah. I'm unclear why you think that the destruction of Jerusalem was prophesied to be the conclusion of the seventh week. The destruction of Jerusalem is prophesied in verse 26, but not as a conclusion to the seventieth week.