In my previous two blog posts I set forth five reasons that the tribulation spans the entire New Testament Church age. In this post I cover the next three reasons.
6. The use of “tribulation” elsewhere (especially in Mt. 24; Mk. 13) supports it spanning the entire church age. Since we dealt with this thoroughly in the previous reason yesterday, we need not say more here.
7. As we have already explained, the use of language that speaks of three and a half years (in all its forms), makes us lean in the direction that what is being symbolized by it is a time of suffering and persecution for the people of God, a time that is not intended as a literal three and a half year period of time.
8. The astute reader will insert somewhere in this discussion, “Ok, if most of the tribulational numerical language speaks of three and a half years, how do we come up with the idea of seven years for the full tribulational time? The answer to that comes from Daniel 9:24-27. We want briefly to look at this passage since it not only provides the foundation for the idea of a seven year tribulation that consists of 2 three and a half year periods, but a proper understanding of it also supports the assertion that the tribulation is to be taken figuratively to refer to the entire span of the church age.[1] In Daniel 9:24-27, as part of the angel Gabriel’s answer to the question of Daniel regarding Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years of captivity for Judah (and so when will the people of God be restored? See Dan. 9:2), we read the following:
Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 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.”
Though there are many interpretations of this passage that seek to calculate the number of years and a specific timing of what Gabriel communicates (suggesting a more literal understanding), I believe the best way to understand this passage is figuratively. After all, it is found in the second half of Daniel and in the midst of apocalyptic literature that is steeped in symbolism. Since Daniel has asked about the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy (see Jeremiah 25:12) of a seventy year captivity and judgment for sin and when would Judah be restored, Gabriel offers an answer that builds off of that seventy years and also communicates something that goes well beyond merely a return to their land, but also is meant to show God’s larger purposes: “to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Dan. 9:24).
In other words, in this answer that includes the “seventy weeks,” each week envisioned as seven years (so 490 years), is meant somehow to focus upon Jesus Christ and the ultimate salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, and transformation he brings—which accomplishes what Israel never could on their own. The seventy weeks are divided up as follows: seven weeks until the decree to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem (v. 25), which deals with Daniel’s original question; sixty-two weeks that span that rebuilt city and temple—leading to a time that the city and temple are destroyed again (vv. 25-26); and then finally one week during which time an anointed one (Christ) will make a strong covenant with many, i.e. the Church, which is divided into two segments (v. 27). It is the dividing of this last week (that is seven years) into two segments that forms the foundation for seeing the tribulation as envisioning a seven year period, made up of 2 three and a half year time spans.
It appears as a strong possibility that the reason “70 weeks” (or 490 years) was chosen as the whole period is that 490 years=10 jubilee periods. In Leviticus 25:8-55 we learn that Israel at the end of every sabbath of years (7x7 years or 49 years) was to recognize a year of jubiliee in which all debts were cancelled and slaves freed. What the angel Gabriel appears to be communicating to Daniel is that not only will God restore Judah to their land after seventy years of captivity, but he will someday bring about through a special anointed one (the Christ) the ultimate and eternal jubilee—the ultimate freedom, cancellation of debts, restortion, and transformation.
I take all this to mean that the years are not to be calculated in a manner in which we are asking exactly when does this set of years start and when exactly does it end? Rather, we are to look at the overall picture focusing upon the idea of the ultimate jubilee in Christ.
If this is a correct assessment, then the New Testament Church is currently in the last week of the seventy weeks—and so exists in this long tribulation period. Most likely from this text, the intent is that the first three and a half years lasted until the destruction of Jerusalem and the second three and a half years lasts for the remainder of the church age. Not only has Christ brought freedom and the cancellation of our debts, but someday all of this will be fully consummated in the new heaven and new earth, in our eternal reward (our eternal jubilee)!
In our next post I will cover the remaining three reasons.
[1] For the following summary discussion of Daniel 9:24-27 I am dependent upon Meredith Kline, “The Covenant Of The Seventieth Week,” in The Law And The Prophets: OT Studies In Honor of Oswald T. Allis, ed. John H. Skilton (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian And Reformed, 1974), 452-469, and also Sam Storms, Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative(Christian Focus, Ross-Shire, Scotland, 2013), ch. 3.
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