Gaps and Monkeyshine Exegesis
by Jamey Bennett
Part 1 - Not A Snowball's Chance This Will Ever Happen!
Part 2 - Soon, Near, & Hey, I'm Here
Part 3 - The Great Tribulation of the 1st Century
Unless you've mastered calculus or another advanced mathematical discipline, you have probably left one of those Star Trek prophecy conferences scratching your head about the meaning of the 70 weeks of Daniel. Daniel 9:24-27 contains a prophecy that is fairly easy to understand if you don't let gap theories and other monkeyshine exegesis throw you off. Daniel prophesies that various things are going to happen in a particular time-frame. He says that there are seventy-weeks, and these, from the context, seem to clearly be symbolic weeks of years. In other words, one week equals seven, not days, but years. So, 70 weeks of years is the same as 490 years until the complete fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. What happens is that dispensationalists insert a gap of an undetermined amount of time, unforeseen by the prophet, into a prophecy that already has the specific time frame of 490 years. Most dispensationalists are still sitting around waiting for God's "prophetic clock" to start ticking again at the rapture and finish up the last leg of the 490 years. All are agreed that Daniel’s prophecy has in mind various things associated with the life and ministry of Christ, and therefore the 70 weeks got really interesting in the first century. Dispensationalists believe that the 490 year clock stopped ticking around the death of Christ. So, we’ve now had a gap of about 2,000 years since it quit ticking. But why would there be a gap of thousands of years in a 490-year time frame, making the gap (over) four times longer than the prophesied time itself?
The 70 weeks hold a significant place in dispensational eschatology. According to Pastor Bobby in the novel, it "forms the basis for all prophecy about the coming of Christ and the coming tribulation period" (241). He goes on to say, "If we can understand what Daniel is telling us here, we can pretty well put the whole puzzle of Biblical prophecy together" (241).
While Duncan is to be commended for rejecting certain arbitrary calculations of other dispensationalists,27 his perspective does not deviate enough from the jazzercise approach to qualify as a job well done. Loraine Boettner rightly states, "Nowhere in Scripture is a specified number of time-units, making up a described period of time, set forth as meaning anything but continuous and consecutive time."28
"Traditionally," says Keith Mathison, "the church has interpreted this passage in Daniel as a prophecy of the first advent of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies."29 So what are these 70 weeks? Mathison tells us, "The seventy sevens of verse 24 are 490 years. These seventy sevens are divided into three periods of time: seven weeks (49 years), sixty-two weeks (434 years), and one week (7 years)."30 That is as hard as the math should get; dispensationalists tend to turtle-shell a soft taco when there is no need.
Mathison summarizes the six things that were accomplished during the 490 years, which "were all fulfilled in the first century":31
I. Finish the transgression. Israel's sinful rebellion against God climaxed with her rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah (Matt. 21:33-45; Acts 7:51-52).
II. Make an end of sin (seal up sins). Israel's sins were reserved for punishment until the generation that rejected the Messiah (Matt. 23:29-36).
III. Make atonement for iniquity. This was fulfilled in Christ's atoning death (Heb. 2:17; 9:12-14, 26; 1 John 4:10).
IV. Bring in everlasting righteousness. This has been accomplished through the redemptive work of Jesus (Rom. 3:21-22).
V. Seal up vision and prophesy. The eyes and ears of the Jews were "sealed from understanding the prophecies of God (cf. Isa. 6:9-10; 29:10-11; Matt. 13:11-16; John 12:37-41).
VI. Anoint the most holy. This was fulfilled by Christ (a name which literally means "the Anointed One") in several ways (cf. Luke 4:18-19; Heb. 1:9; 9:22-28).
The rest of the prophecy was also clearly fulfilled in the first century. "At an (unspecified) point following the cutting off of the Messiah, the city and sanctuary are destroyed."32 The prophecy never states that this would occur in the 70th week, but it does seem clear that the "destruction of Jerusalem (vv. 26-27) in AD 70 was a consequence of the rejection and crucifixion of Christ." The last week of the prophecy was when Christ focused His ministry upon the Jews (3 1/2 years), was crucified (putting an end to sacrifices), and died. It was also when "the ministry of His apostles was focused almost exclusively on the Jews (Acts 1:8; 2:14; Rom. 1:16; 2:10)."
As we've already seen, the Bible often uses time frame references to indicate when something is to take place. There is no need for some magical Cracker Jack box decoder ring to monkeyshine our way out of time-frame references; it is all there, and clearly so. The time frame was given to Daniel in order that he could "know and discern" the amount of time involved. Therefore, when the Bible says 490 years has been the decreed time frame, we should believe it (as Daniel certainly did). Adding gaps is a sloppy approach to the Scriptures that stretches one's credulity. "Let's call this what it is: nonsense."33
Notes
27. Duncan. Appendix 2, 19-20. Specifically, he rejects "numerical gymnastics" of Robert Anderson, who Duncan claims lit the torch of the dispensational standard. Nevertheless, Duncan's scenario isn't much better: it still inserts a pesky gap!
28. Qtd. in Newcombe, 224
29. Mathison, Keith, Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1999), 220. I would encourage anyone interested in reading more to consider Mathison's full discussion on pages 219-222. Another insightful treatment is in DeMar's Last Days Madness, pages 323-335. Both authors advocate the traditional understanding of the seventy weeks, in line with the church fathers onward.
30. Mathison, 220
31. Mathison, 221
32. All material in the remainder of this paragraph is from Mathison, pp. 221-222
33. DeMar, End Times Fiction, 49 Posted by Jamey W. Bennett - 9/1/2007 | Print this post
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