As a follow-up to the 1st letter on desolate:
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.
So, in the 1st letter I’ve shown why I was thinking that the sanctuary / temple site remains desolate until the end, since I thought that it became desolate when Jesus said it did, when he left it for the last time, in communication with the priesthood, before his crucifixion.
However, Daniel 9:27 says that someone is going confirm the covenant for one week, and in the middle of the week, he will cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. There is more than one explanation for this. One explanation, which I was taught, was that this is speaking about the antichrist, which requires him to make some sort of peace agreement, which allows for the rebuilding of the 3rd temple, but that halfway through, he will turn right around and nullify the covenant which he made, to go back on his word, and to stop the animal sacrifices which he had previously allowed to restart, and that he will then make the temple desolate again, which he previously made “un-desolate” 3.5 years earlier.
How would a rebuilding of a 3rd temple & a restart of animal sacrifices, make the sanctuary holy and “un-desolate”? First, it was made desolate when Jesus departed, so how could the antichrist make it “un-desolate”? How could the antichrist, together with Levitical priests who still reject Jesus, possibly “un-desolate” the sanctuary & make it holy and acceptable for the glory and presence of the LORD again? How would the LORD honor and accept that? The priesthood has changed to Jesus, after the order of Melchisedec
Hebrews 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 5:10 ¶ Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 7:11 ¶ If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
The priesthood has changed & the law has changed.
Hebrews 7:18 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
The previous commandment, regarding the Levitical priesthood and their animal sacrifices, even though Ezekiel spoke of it yet future, has here in Hebrews, been shown to be now disannulled. So how could the LORD accept that? How could he bless that and fill a sanctuary based on that, with his glory?
Hebrews 7:22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
How could the new, everlasting priesthood of Jesus, after the order of Melchisedec, stop, and the Levitical priesthood start again? Some would say that Ezekiel prophesied of that, and that even in the millennium, the Levitical priests would still do animal sacrifices, but only to “look back at the cross” like the Lord’s supper does. No, Ezekiel says those sacrifices would be for sins, not for remembrance of another sacrifice. That was originally to have been the future, but it has been changed to something better, a new & better sacrifice, a new & better covenant, and a new & better priesthood.
Jesus made a new covenant:
Hebrews 8:6 ¶ But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
The previous covenant is no longer in force, the covenant which had the Levitical priesthood making animal sacrifices. There is a new covenant now, a covenant based on a better a sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, himself, who also now is the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 9:1 ¶ Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
So, a rebuilt sanctuary would be for the old covenant, by a priesthood that is no longer in force, and that priesthood also still rejects Jesus Christ, and they are supposed to make some kind of an agreement with the antichrist, instead, and that arrangement is supposed to somehow be blessed by the LORD, to put his glory in that kind of temple, thus making it “un-desolate” again?
Hebrews 9:8 ¶ The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
So, somehow, the antichrist and a Levitical priesthood that still rejects Jesus, is going to undo the way into the holiest of all by making another tabernacle to stand on earth again?
Hebrews 10:1 ¶ For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
They have ceased to be offered. So why would it be acceptable to start them up again?
Hebrews 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
He took away the first, and established the second. So how could we expect the LORD to undo the second, by allowing them to go back a reestablish the first?
Hebrews 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
There is no more offering for sin! So, how could the antichrist get the LORD to change his mind, to undo the high priesthood of Christ, go back to the Levitical priesthood which still rejects their true Messiah, Jesus Christ, to make an agreement with the false messiah, to go back and undo the new testament covenant sacrifice of Christ, so that they could re-sacrifice animals again, instead, and yet be blessed of the LORD, to make it “un-desolate” by filling that place with his glory?
No, that kind of rebuilt sanctuary, with those animal sacrifices, would be the ultimate blasphemy & rejection of Jesus Christ. If they did that, then what they would be doing would be an abomination to the LORD, far greater than a graven image in the sanctuary would be!
Hebrews 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
That is exactly their condition if they were to rebuild the temple for animal sacrifices.
So what is the other explanation for “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”?
Is it possible, as some have recently shown here, that the “he” may refer to Jesus? Did Jesus confirm the covenant? Yes, he fulfilled everything of the first covenant, and then established the new covenant. If that was for the final week of Daniel’s 70 weeks, then it makes sense. Jesus’ ministry went for three and an half years, then he was crucified, which sacrifice of himself, which we saw above, caused the old covenant sacrifices to cease – there was no more need of them. However, they continued to reject Jesus, and continued with the old covenant sacrifices for nearly another 37 years after the crucifixion. What was that like?
“and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate”
Their continuance of rejecting him and insisting on continuing with the disannulled animal sacrifices, was their overspreading of abominations. Jesus made their sanctuary desolate, first by saying so and departing from there, and then by finally poring upon that desolate sanctuary, what he immediately afterwards prophesied on the Mount of Olives, that every stone of that sanctuary would be throne down, which he then had fulfilled, some 37 years later, by the hands of the same Romans, whom the priesthood, which had rejected Jesus, had used to crucify Jesus.
If that is so, then half of the final week of years is already past, and only half still remains, which is three and an half years. Which three and an half years will be the prophesied Great Tribulation still to come, which ends with Jesus coming back to defeat the antichrist and to deliver Israel, who will then receive him as their Messiah and King, and he will then usher in the thousand year kingdom.
Has all this been craziness, or is there even a modicum of possibility to this explanation?
Gino