Amillennial interpretation. The interpretation of an intervening time period has
been strenuously opposed by the amillenarians who do not believe a future
7-year period will be literally period. They attempt to find the final 7 years
fulfilled in history. Generally speaking, this is accomplished by ignoring
literal fulfilment. One popular approach of the amillenarians is to consider
that the last 7 years began when the Messiah began his public ministry. The
first 3½ years of the last 7 would then
correspond to the life of Christ, and he would be cut off in the middle of the
last 7 years, not after the sixty-ninth “seven.” The covenant that is mentioned
(Dan. 9:27) is held to be the new covenant of grace brought in through the
death of Christ.
Numerous problems hinder this interpretation. In order to get in the
last 69 times 7 years, or 483 years, it is necessary to begin the 490 years
before 444 B.C., requiring an interpretation that the earlier decrees authorize
the building of the city. This does not seem to be sustained by the text. Appeal
is made to Isaiah 44:28 where Cyrus is quoted as saying of Jerusalem, “Let it
be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.” In stating the
contents of the decree of Cyrus in Ezra 1:2-4, no mention is made of the rebuilding
of the city, but only of the temple. It is clear that the city itself was left
in ruins until the time of Nehemiah in 445 B.C. When the decree was searched
out, as recorded in Ezra 6:3-5, the decree related only to the rebuilding of
the temple. For these reasons, the interpretation that the rebuilding of the
city relates to the Artaxerxes given to Nehemiah in 445 B.C. is preferable.
This also makes impossible the amillennial interpretation that the 483 years
ended with the beginning of the public ministry of Christ.
Objections to the amillennial interpretation. Numerous objections can
be raised to identifying the new covenant brought in by the death of Christ
with a seven-year covenant mentioned in Daniel. The covenant of grace as instituted
by Christ does not exist for 7 years but continues forever. It does not seem to
be the reference of Daniel 9. A further difficulty follows in that the last 7
years do not bring in any sense of culmination, as 3½ years after the death of
Christ brought no restoration to Israel and no fulfilment of the other precious
promises that are related to the Second Coming. Accordingly, the terminus of
the 483 years is better identified with the death of Christ in A. D. 33, and
the last 7 years are still future, with a time period of indeterminate length between
the end of the 483 years and the beginning of the last 7 years.
Premillennial interpretation. In this time period
two events, the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, occur at
least 33 years apart. It would be impossible to compact these two events into
the last 3½ years of the prophecy. For these and other reasons, the
premillennial interpretation is considered preferable as providing a more literal
interpretation of the prophecy.
A study of the events recorded for the last 7 years of the 490 years
also seems to relate clearly to events that are yet future. The pronoun “he” of
Daniel 9:27, if it refers to the nearest antecedent, would refer to the ruler
of verse 26 rather than to the Messiah. This is in keeping with other
prophecies that picture the last 7 years as a time of trouble leading up to the
second coming of Christ. In the premillennial interpretation during the first
half of this period, according to Daniel 9:27, a covenant with Israel will be
made and observed. This apparently will be a covenant of peace, which helps
explain Israel’s brief time of peace in Ezekiel 38. In the middle of the last 7
years, however, the covenant will be broken. This refers to a covenant made
with a political ruler, and will begin a period of Israel’s trouble. This will
be characterized by the ending of the sacrifice and offering in the temple,
further confirmed in Daniel 12:11: “From the time that the daily sacrifice is
abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be
1,290 days.” This coincides with the prophecy of Christ that the desecration of
the temple would take place at the beginning of the Great Tribulation (Matt.
24:15-22). The abomination that causes desolation is the desecration of the
temple at a future time when the statue of the ruler mentioned in Daniel 9:26
will be placed in the temple as an object of worship (2 Thess. 2:4; Rev.
13:14-15). The Great Tribulation is still future from the viewpoint of the book
of Revelation. It is impossible to identify it as something that occurred in
the immediate aftermath of the death of Christ as amillenarians contend.
The prophecies yet to be fulfilled coincide with that occurred at the
time of Antiochus, who desecrated the temple in the second century B.C. He,
likewise, stopped the sacrifice and set up a pagan idol in the temple. This was
an abomination, and explains why the future desecration of the temple is also
described as an abomination.
Further examination of the text indicates that the ruler who introduces
the final 3½ of Great Tribulation will also be judged at Christ’s second coming
(Rev. 13), which again makes it clear that the events described are future
instead of past. (John F. Walvoord, Major Bible Prophecies: 37 Crucial
Prophecies That Affect You Today [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1991], 172-74)
