Re: Chance
(9 April 2023) — EAR and Daniel’s 70th
Week.
Thanks for
your comments. If you notice carefully in Dan.9:24, the
Prophecy of 70 weeks states
that the recipients or beneficiaries of Daniel’s
Prophecy would be Daniel’s
People and Jerusalem. The Messiah’s ministry was
for the whole
period of 7 years during the 70th week,
(solely for the Jews
and for Jerusalem). This special week was set aside to
fulfil Jeremiah’s
promised New Covenant for their Salvation; i.e., God would
forgive their
sins, and put the Law in their hearts, (Jeremiah 31:31-34)!
Jesus dying for
their sins to be forgiven,
accomplished the first part, and the Holy Spirit did the
second part by putting
the law in their hearts on the Day of Pentecost, when
thousands of Jews heard
the Gospel in their own language! The early New Testament
Church was totally Jewish,
see Acts 2:36–47; 4:4. God had
carefully planned it all in
advance through the fulfilment of the existing Passover and
Pentecost Feasts,
for the Jews and Jerusalem!
To put it
simply, Jeremiah promised a New Covenant for the
forgiveness of their
sins that would be fulfilled after those days (of
captivity); he stated
WHAT God was going to do, and Daniel’s Prophecy of 70 weeks
(via Gabriel) explained
WHEN, HOW and WHO was going to do it.
·Thus, Jesus
fulfilled the first
half of Jeremiah’s New Covenant prophecy via His
sacrificial death
and resurrection—for the sins of Israel—in the middle of the seven−year period. Daniel plainly says: In
the middle of the seven He will put an end to sacrifice and
offering! The
splitting of the Temple veil was further proof that a New Way
had been opened
for the Jews to gain access into the Holy of Holies through
the blood of Jesus.
Jesus said to His disciples during the last supper, when He
took that cup that it
was the New Covenant in His blood!
·During the
second half of the seven−year period Jesus
had previously directed His disciples, to preach the Gospel of
Salvation exclusively
to the ‘Lost sheep of the House of Israel’ (i.e., the Jews).
Jesus told them
to preach the Gospel first in Jerusalem!This was the aim and objective of both Jeremiah’s and
Daniel’s prophecies.
You ask… why
Stephen and not Peter?Stephen might not have thought his stoning and
martyrdom ‘just seems
rather anticlimactic’
as you suggest! It was his servant calling! Stephen fulfilled
a most important
function, and that was to preach the Gospel of Redemption to
the Sanhedrin
(The Jewish Council of religious leaders), to close off
the seven−year Covenant period for the Jews and
Jerusalem.
Stephen’s
preaching offered the Jewish leaders a
last chance to accept the Messiahship of Jesus Christ,
and believe the
Gospel message. (Read Acts 7:54–8:4) The persecution that broke
out on the very day of Stephen’s death caused the Gospel
to be preached to
the Jews living outside Jerusalem (in Judea and Samaria), and
eventually it
became available to the Gentiles of the World!That is why Stephen’s death was not anticlimactic!Stephen’s death in
AD 34 approx. is
calculated via Paul’s conversion, and years of ministry until
his own
martyrdom.
Stephen’s
death at the Sanhedrin’s hands (he being the first of many
Christian martyrs),
sealed the inevitable fate of the Sanhedrin, Herod’s Temple,
and the city of
Jerusalem during the Days of Vengeance that followed in AD 66–73, just as Jesus said it would. Josephus
records that all of Jerusalem’s
Jewish leaders were killed during the early part of this
period by the various Jewish
mobs and rebel groups who were vying for control of the city;
this happened
before the Romans gained entrance to destroy the temple and
the city.
Finally, it
was NOT Peter, because Peter had a long road ahead of him, and
his task as spiritual
leader in the new Christian age began on the Day of Pentecost,
and continued
for at least a decade in Jerusalem with the other Apostles,
until they too were
driven out into the wider world, where all but John were
killed for their faith
in Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
I hope that
has clarified some scriptures for you.