THREE VIEWS OF DANIEL 9

Introduction

The book of Daniel is one of the great books of the Bible and also one of the most debated books in the Bible. It contains details of the ministry of Daniel and some of the most perplexing and fulfilled prophecies. Christians often think that prophecy is not very difficult and a straight forward propositional prediction and fulfillment, but it is more complex than that. The interpretation of the apocalyptic genre is one of the main reasons for its difficulty. Today one of these perplexing passages from Daniel will be examined. Three approaches to the interpretation to Daniel 9:24-27 will be discussed along with positive and negative arguments for each.

Three Views

The first approach that will be examined comes from a dispensational view which is often called futurism in which they believe Daniel 9:24-27 is a prophecy of the Messiah and they see a gap between Daniels 69th and 70th week. Ice says that sense the first sixty nine weeks are fulfilled literally in history it follows that the final seven years follow in the same way; any attempt to find a literal fulfillment of the final seven years requires a gap of time between the sixty ninth and seventh weeks. The importance of this stance is that they hold that some of the prophecy has been fulfilled as clearly seen in history and some events are still to come. Futurism holds that the tribulation prophecies loom in the future of humanity

The next approach is often called preterism. Preterism accepts Daniel 9:24-27 as prophecy of the Messiah but does not see a gap between Daniel’s 69th and 70th week. The word preterist comes from a Latin word which means gone by or past. This is exactly the approach that they take when interpreting this passage. The preterist h...

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...atism.”

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