Biblical Evidence For

A 7-Year
Tribulation

By
B. Lawrence Jones, Pastor
Central Baptist Church
Little Rock, Arkansas

[The following message was delivered at the 34th Annual Missions
Conference at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, Lubbock, Texas on
March 14, 1995.   The theme of the Conference was "The Premillen-
nial Second Coming Of Jesus Christ."
]

   "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye
shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan
to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly
be destroyed."
  (Deut. 4:26)

   Soon the world will enter the period of time described in Daniel
as "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation."   A
time when humanity will find itself under the rule of a one world gov-
ernment with a wicked tyrant at its helm.   A tyrant who the Bible teach-
es will be controlled by the devil himself.   God's judgment will fall in
a fashion and intensity never known to man before.   These explosive
events will happen in a period commonly called the seven year
tribulation which occurs before the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on
the earth.
   Those who believe this truth are commonly called dispensational
pre-millennialists.   Pre-millennialists believe there will be a 1000 year
period before which Christ will physically return to this earth.   Pre
means before, and millennium means 1000.   Put them together and you
have "before 1000".   The term dispensational is used to denote
pre-millennialists who believe the Bible teaches there will be a seven
year tribulation period preceding the millennium.   Dispensational
pre-millennialists are also classified as futurist.   My assigned subject for
this conference is "Biblical Evidence For A 7-Year Tribulation."
   Concerning the return of Christ and the millennium there are two
other major positions: A-millennialism and Post-millennialism.
A-millennialism denies there is a millennium while post-millennialists
believe there is a period called the millennium.   Post-millennialists
simply believe Jesus returns at the end of this period instead of the
beginning.   These three positions profoundly disagree with each other
on more than just the timing of the return of Christ or the length and
existence of the millennium.
   There is an important terminology problem I must address before

proceeding.   Some use the term a-millennialist as a "catch all" word
applied to all non-premillenialist.   This is probably because it is per-
ceived to be a more incriminating term than post-millennialist.   We've
also all been told that post-millennialism died with the advent of the
Second World War, a statement I have found to be false.
   I personally have never met a true a-millennialist who also called
himself a Baptist.   The men that I know among independent Baptists
who claim to not be Pre-millennial all basically fall under some divi-
sion of Post-millennialism.   They believe in some kind of millennium
with Christ's return at the end of it.   It is arguable that a person who
denies the millennium is 1000 years in length is a post-millennialist,
but if he only denies its length and not its existence I still qualify him
as post-millennial.   My view seems to be supported by most modern
writers on this subject.   When Loraine Boettner detailed his postmill-
ennial position it was very similar to the position that usually attracts
the title a-millennialist among independent Baptists.   In this message I
will use the term Post-millennialists to describe the doctrinal position
that has a millennium of varied lengths of time, but places Jesus'
return after the millennium.
   The seven year tribulation stands at one of the most important
strategic positions in dispensational prophecy.   Strategically I place it
at the top among independent Baptists.   This is not to say that it is the
most essential truth or the greatest truth.   Decidedly there are other
truths that have a more important place in the mosaic of prophetic truth
than this one.   During peacetime the most strategic position is not
always the most vital, but during war it can become priceless.
   In the war that began the day Ben Gurion declared Israel to be a
state, a small town on a hill became one of the most strategic
positions in all of Palestine.   It is relatively unimportant in peace time,
but to Israel it meant access and, therefore, possession of Jerusalem.
Because of its location it became the most strategically coveted city
during that war.
   It has been my experience that independent Baptists don't just one
day become Post-millennialists.   They don't wake up one morning and
declare that the 1000 years of Revelation 20 is not really a 1000 year
period, and that Christ returns after it.   They have come on a protracted
journey that ends with that conclusion.   The denial of a literal thousand
year reign before which Jesus has returned is a conclusion not a
fundamental doctrine in their prophetic system.   This denial is the effect
of a process that began in another place besides Revelation 20.   The
major battles in the mind of this person were probably waged far from
Revelation 20 ... in fact far from The Revelation at all.
   By the time one declares himself to have left pre-millennialism he
has usually come through long struggles in his own soul, and sees the
issue of a literal 1000 year period as a very small affair.   He has
accepted an historicist interpretation of a multitude of scriptures that
he once believed were yet to be fulfilled.   His view of the covenants
has changed.   His view of the Church has changed, as it has now been
couched in his new covenantal understanding and a differing view of
kingdom concepts.   He has a newly modified idea of what God is doing
in this age.   His view of the interpretation of The Revelation has
changed.   Where once he accepted a chronological view of The Revela-
tion he now may see it as multifaceted cycles of time periods.   One
major cyclical division usually falls between Chapters 19 & 20 for
those who cannot tolerate the spiritualizing of chapter 19.   His
understanding of Israel's place in God's plan has completely shifted.
He may now even find himself to be anti-Semitic.   To now debate this
individual from the standpoint of the true meaning of kelios in
Revelation 20 is like taking an eye-dropper to fight a three alarm fire
... too little, too late.
   I must confess -- I have been down this tumultuous road as well.
I have struggled with each of these issues.   I have been in those casual
meetings where preachers gather apart from the eyes and ears of those
they fear would prevent them from delving into discussions of this
sort.   I have felt the frustration of not having my questions answered by
those who would wish me to remain where I was.   I have read with
intensity those books and writers who speak with disdain of
pre-millennialism.   I have heard the historical arguments declaring that
dispensationalism is nothing more than heresy spawned in the pathetic

prophesies of crazed Irvingite cultists of the early 1800s.   I have ener-
getically read of the glory church eschatology that carried missionaries
to foreign shores.   I have uneasily listened as pre-millennialism is
denigrated as defeatist, negative eschatology, and post-millennialism is
exalted as a positive, victorious reality.   I have lamented a bit when
some authors write, with the superior disdain of a lord to a pauper
peon, of those poor ignorant pre-millennialists.
   While many of my dispensational friends were arguing over pre,
mid, or post-tribulation rapture, I was struggling with whether there
was any seven year tribulation at all.   Sadly it was to these friends that
I privately posed questions they could not answer while seeking
answers for myself.   An influence that began for some the radical
descent to post-millennarian thought.
   I remember the time well when I began to wrestle with this
issue.   I was reading a treatise on Daniel by an historicist writer.
Writers, by the way, that abound in Baptist and Protestant ranks.   The
arguments he raised concerning Daniel 9 were unknown to me, and
very difficult for me to deal with.   I remember the fear that came over
me as I felt the blows of what seemed to be black belt argumentation
that left Daniel's 70th week in the cold grasp of history past.   From
there it seemed that everywhere I looked, from D. B. Ray's "Baptist
Perpetuity"
to B. H. Carrol's "Interpretation of the English Bible", I
found the historicist view propagated.   This was only the beginning.
"The Cove-nants", and "Interpretation of the Scriptures" by A. W.
Pink as well as the writings of a number of others deeply troubled me.
There are also plenty of post-millennial men sprinkled around among
independent Baptists to keep these issues alive.
   These writers set the stage for a different view of much of the
New Testament.   The idea that the age of Israel is over for good and
a new age has begun.   Here is that brand of doctrine that moves forever
the reality of Israel's future and positions the Church in her place!
Here there are many paths -- paths that others have walked: Origin,
Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and even Alexander Campbell.   Upon some
of these paths you will find men walking who slew Baptists while
justifying their horrible deeds by misguided prophetic beliefs.
   The arguments are so multifaceted and complex that you could
spend days simply defining terms for discussion.   For me, privately,
this became a battle for the survival of what I had believed to be true.
My confidence was shaken.   I pity those who do not realize where they
are heading, and the dangerous complexity they seem to simplify so
easily in their minds.   I have seen some grapple with these perplexing
questions, and then immediately change their positions as they would
a shirt only to find themselves facing a more radical departure from
truth down the line.   Just as surely as I was disturbed by these issues
there were verses that kept my soul anchored in the midst of the storm.
Verses I could not get away from -- verses that made me cautious.
   Now, you might be thinking, how can one little seven year period
be so important as to be a strategic position in such a complex war?
  It
seems that all the major issues of the war are concentrated in this one
prophetic capsule.   Here the issues of Israel's future, Biblical Interpre-
tation, the church, the chronology of Christ's return, and the interpre-
tive basis for The Revelation, the Olivet discourse, and a multitude of
other passages seem to come together in a smaller less complex setting.
   All of these issues are vital to Biblical Christianity.   The method
of Biblical interpretation, for instance, is fundamental.   The issue of
interpretation is so important that to be wrong here could land a person
in Hell.   I am not saying anyone who is not pre-millennial is going to
Hell.   I said that error on the method of Biblical Interpretation can land
someone in Hell.   To interpret, for instance, the death of Christ by the
allegorical method is to utterly deny its reality thus forfeiting its bene-
fits.
   Daniel's 70th week rests on the battleground between radically
different sides.   On one side you will find the futurists, and on the other
the historicists.   If you believe this seven year period is yet in the future
you are a futurist, and if you believe it is in the past you are an
historicist.   The view of a great body of Scripture is different between
these two groups.   If the battle is won here first the war will be over.
   Furthermore, if you believe in a future seven year tribulation you
cannot consistently be anything but a pre-millennialist.   Those who

don't believe in a future seven year period usually fall in some post or
a-millennial camp.   Unless they find a makeshift resting place in a more
or less rare position, usually only an excursion on the way to
post-millennialism, called by its proponents historic pre-millennialism.
   I can tell you by experience that most people will not see the
strategic importance of the seven year tribulation.   They will wonder
why you are making a big deal over such a small period of time.   Don't
be dismayed!   Defend this position -- defend it with knowledge and
understanding of where the real attacks will come!   There are many
arguments that are simply smoke and mirrors, and are only intended
by the opposition to confuse the issue.   Don't allow this to happen.
Keep the basic issues ever before you!
   A proper view of the seven year tribulation begins with Israel.   If
God is done with Israel then the basic issue of a seven year tribulation
is destroyed, but if God is not done with Israel as a nation then the
issue is very much alive.   I submit to you that the Bible is very clear on
this point.
   These people are the people of God -- they are called God's
chosen people!   They were specifically chosen by God to be His nation.
The Old Testament details this great relationship.   The relationship was
rocky for sure, but Israel was always called back by God!   There is a
perpetual relationship God has with Israel that no other race of people
on the earth can enjoy.   Read carefully the following declaration about
this great relationship.
   "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye
shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan
to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly
be destroyed.   And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and
ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord
shall lead you.   And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands,
wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.   But
if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him,
if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.   When thou
art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in
the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be
obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he
will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of
thy fathers which he sware unto them.
  For ask now of the days that
are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man
upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other,
whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath
been heard like it?   Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out
of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?   Or hath God
assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation,
by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty
hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to
all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?   Unto
thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God;
there is none else beside him.   Out of heaven he made thee to hear his
voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his
great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.   And
because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them,
and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;
To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou
art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is
this day.   Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that
the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there
is none else"
(Deut. 4:26-39).
   Please notice the promises of verses 30 and 31.   These are promis-
es to an Israel that is in exile!   God promises to hear and not forget His
people.   Notice He says "even in the latter days".   This promise extends
to all Israelites today.
   Some people become confused about the basis of this reconcili-
ation.   We must be clear on this issue.   The future relationship with
Israel will be based on the same truth it always has: gospel truth.   All
that stands between Israel and God today is their refusal to "be
obedient unto his voice"
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.   The
Bible is clear on this too.   One day soon Israel will turn to the God of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Messiah!   The restoration of Israel will

be a gospel restoration.
   Granted there are those Dispensational Pre-millennialists who
teach that Israelites were saved by the law.   I am not among them!
There has ever been only one way of salvation: through repentance and
faith in the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.   "Even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.   And if
by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more
grace.   But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work
is no more work"
(Rom. 11:5-6).
   Look at verse 37: "And because he loved thy fathers, therefore
he chose their seed after them."
  God's Covenant with Israel was born
out of God's love for the fathers of this nation.   They are His!   They are
His still.   This Covenant goes deeper than what took place at Mount
Sinai; it is a relationship that goes back to Abraham!   God called Abra-
ham out, not based upon Abraham's righteousness, but based upon
God's choice derived from His love and mercy.   God not only promised
His heart and fidelity to this people, but a commitment that no other
people on the earth possess as a race!   That He will hear them wherever
they are because of who they are!   They are the seed of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob!   They are the people of the Messiah!
   It is true that Israel today is an enemy to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, but so is the rest of the world.   So were you, if you are a
Christian, before God saved you!   What about their future?   How can a
nation of people so tied to tradition and set against Jesus as the
Messiah ever turn to Him?   The same way multitudes did on the day of
Pentecost; by hearing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ!   To
those post-millennialists who call pre-millennialism defeatist I ask you
what can be more glorious in victory than Jesus finally saving the
nation who has fought Him for all these years?   Look at what the Bible
says in Romans 11:28-29.   "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies
for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the
fathers' sakes.   For the gifts and calling of God are without repen-
tance."

   Even now they are "beloved for the fathers' sakes" -- now while
they are enemies of the gospel!   You might say, "Explain it!"   My reply
is, "I can't, but I believe it because the Bible says it!"   Even now while
they are steeped in their Christ rejecting ritual, they are the beloved of
the Father!   It behooves us to give respect to Israel as a nation because
the Father loves them!   Read Romans 11 and you will find that God
will never forsake His people!   We are the exception, they are the rule!
Never forget that.   Salvation is of the Lord!
   The Bible teaches that Israel has a definite future relationship with
God.   We are told in Romans 11 that this will be a definite time period
marked as clearly as was the opening of the age of the Gentiles.
   First we must establish that Paul is speaking of the Israelites as
a race not some "spiritual Israel."   Note in the first few verses of this
chapter that Paul defines the Israel he is speaking of!   He is speaking
of a people identified by the race they were born into not by their
religion or affiliation!   "I say then, Hath God cast away his people?
God forbid.   For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the
tribe of Benjamin"
(Rom. 11:1).
   Furthermore, he speaks of two separate groups: the Gentiles and
the Jews.   The Gentiles he speaks of are saved Gentiles.
   "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?   God forbid:
but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to
provoke them to jealousy.   Now if the fall of them be the riches of the
world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how
much more their fulness?   For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I
am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office"
(Rom.
11:11-13).   Paul cannot be speaking of anything other than a specific
race of people.   A race to which he belonged!
   Paul raises the same question I raised earlier: "Hath God cast
away his people?"
(Rom. 11:1), and "Have they stumbled that they
should fall?"
(Rom. 11:11).   He answers each of these with the
strongest no there is: "God forbid".
   He then declares "God is able to graft them in again" (Rom.
11:23).   Then he declares that God will graft them in again, "For I
would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye
should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened

to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25).
Note that God brings one period of time to a close and opens another.
   Paul calls the future reconciliation of Israel a mystery.   Surely it
is a great and glorious mystery.   When I face complex arguments, born
in the minds of intellectually brilliant men, against the possibility of
God doing this I can say I don't know how He will do it.   It is a
mystery, but I know He will do it because He said He would!   Always,
as I listened and read powerful arguments on this subject, these verses
haunted me.   They haunt many tonight -- many who have found
themselves out on a prophetic limb without Israel in sight!   You must
turn back and find the trunk, and when you find the trunk you'll find
the branches of Israel there, and if you look up the tree you will see
where Israel has been graft in again!
   The restoration of Israel will be established in a different time
period.   A time after this present age!   In verse 25 he marks the end of
this present age as the "fullness of the Gentiles."   Fullness means the
completion of something.   [See Gal. 4:4; Eph. 1:10; Col. 1:19; 2:9 for
other usage's of the word fullness.]   The age of the Gentiles is defined
as a period when God is still saving Gentiles, and bringing them into
His earthly government!   We are in this age now, but it is clear there
is an end to what we are now experiencing.   The end is near.   The
Scripture gives us notice.
   The Bible also tells us Jerusalem will be given back to Israel
when this present period ends.   "And they shall fall by the edge of the
sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem
shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled"
(Lk. 21:24).   The governmental seat of God's earthly kingdom
was at Jerusalem before the Church began.   Israel's government must
be nationalistic since it is based on race and geographic boundaries.
This makes Israel distinctly different from the Church as we know it
today.   I am not speaking of anything other than the governmental form
of Israel as compared to the present day Church.   Issues of ordinance
will, without question, be settled by God when He institutes the new
Israel.   Jerusalem is governmentally under the partial control of the
nation of Israel today.
   Does the Bible speak specifically of the duration of this future
time period?   Look at Daniel 9:24-27.   "Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and
to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and proph-
ecy, and to anoint the most Holy.   Know therefore and understand, that
from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build
Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and
threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall,
even in troublous times.   And after threescore and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince
that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end
thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations
are determined.   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."
  Because of time constraints I am
only able to deal with the logical order of this prophecy, and the
chronological order of the events therein described.
   Notice in verse 24 that this prophetic revelation concerns Israel
and the holy city.   We are told this period is determined by God "to
finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy."

Since Romans 11 teaches that God is not finished with Israel and Jeru-
salem, these words become very important to us.
   If God is finished with Israel then there is no question these
verses are, for us, historical in nature.   But, if God is not finished with
Israel, as the Bible teaches, then how can it be said that the fulfillment
of these verses is completely in the past.   Has God finished the
transgression of Israel?   Has God made an end of the sins of Israel?
Has God fully reconciled Israel if there are yet Israelites to be saved?
Has God brought everlasting righteousness to Jerusalem?   Has the

preparation for and fullness of the Messiah's rule over Israel come
completely about yet?   The answers to these questions must be based
upon the New Testament verses we have already touched not Old
Testament millennial and Messianic prophesies that are so easily
moved into the post-millennialist's catalog of symbolic passages.
Romans 11 does not speak of a symbolic restoration of Israel!   It is,
without question, to any Bible believer, a literal restoration, and
therefore I can firmly answer each of these questions: NO!
   This proper answer to these vital questions establishes an inter-
pretive base for the rest of this prophecy.   For us then, Daniel is giving
information about the past and future of Israel.   Let's look at that
information:
   "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the
Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street
shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times"
(Dan.
9:25).
   Verse 25 clearly declares when the Messiah was to come.   He
came right on time.   Notice this verse covers the first 69 of Daniel's 70
weeks.   It is undisputed, with the exception of liberals, that these weeks
are to be interpreted as weeks of years.   This simply means that from
the date of the going forth of the commandment to the Messiah was
483 years.   It is interesting to read the intensity with which historicists
struggle about this time period's termination point.   If the 483 years
ends at the birth of Christ and not His baptism their position against a
period of time between Daniel's 69th and 70th weeks is destroyed.
These arguments, however, are simply smoke and mirrors.   No matter
when the 483rd year came, verse 26 establishes that there is a period
of time between the 69th and 70th weeks.
   "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but
not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall
destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a
flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined"
(Dan.
9:26).
   Note the word "after".   Whatever takes place in verse 26 is after
the 69th week.   What happens after the 69th week?   The Messiah is cut
off.   This is the atoning death of Jesus Christ.   Note it is not the last
event mentioned in verse 26!   If the death of Christ was the complete
fulfillment of verse 24, as many historicists claim, then why didn't the
chapter end here.   Why is another event mentioned in this verse and the
70th week not mentioned until the next verse?
   Post-millennialists are so fond of pointing out that the event men-
tioned after the crucifixion is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
Do they place this event in the 70th week where they inevitably place
the first event of this verse?   Definitely not.   They place it in 70 A.D.
far from where they position the 70th week.   They accuse dispen-
sational pre-millennialist of an exegetical crime when we declare there
is a period of centuries between Daniel's 69th and 70th weeks, while
they declare that one part of this verse is in Daniel's 70th week and the
other part is not.   This is indeed exegetical inconsistency on their part,
especially when the 70th week has yet to be introduced.   I'll tell you
where I place both events of verse 26: after the 69th week and before
the 70th week.   This is right were these events are placed in the logical
order of the verses.
   The age of the Gentiles began when Israel crucified their
Messiah.   That's why the resurrection is not mentioned in verse 26.
The age of the Gentiles began!   Israel rejected the resurrected Messiah,
and Jerusalem and the temple (the city and the sanctuary) were
destroyed in 70 A.D. by Titus.   Israel is still in the same evil unbelief
they were then.   They are in the same rebellion that precipitated the
destruction of the city and the sanctuary!
   The gap between Daniel's 69th and 70th weeks has to extend to
at least 70 A.D. because this is the period of time between the 483rd
year of verse 25 and the last event of verse 26!   We know this period
of time is much longer than this because the temple that was destroyed
by Titus' men has yet to be rebuilt, and the 70th week requires a tem-
ple.   Furthermore, Titus did not confirm the covenant or sit in the
temple and declare himself to be God.   This event has yet to happen.
"That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit,

nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at
hand.   Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not
come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God"
(2 Thess.
2:2-4).   Josephus says Titus was running around trying to get his men
to stop destroying the temple.   He was not declaring himself to be God.
   "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"
(Dan. 9:27).   Daniel's 70th week is not
mentioned until after the events of verse 26.   These verses and events
are clearly in chronological order.   The events of verse 26 are "after"
the events of verse 25.   The events of verse 27 follow the events of
verse 26.   The time period that dispensational pre-millennialists believe
to be between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel is not only justified
by rules of Biblical interpretation, but it is required by those rules!
   The contents of verse 27 require a restoration of Israel's rela-
tionship with God which has not taken place since the events of verse
26.   Since this restoration has not yet taken place, the temple has not
been rebuilt, and the events of verse 24 are not yet completed, we
must believe that Daniel's 70th week is yet in the future.   Since this
prophecy deals specifically with Israel as a nation, and Romans 11
speaks of a future restoration of Israel we are left no choice but to
believe that the future restoration of Israel will occur in the 7 year
period of God's prophecy in Daniel verse 27.   Here is the Biblical
evidence for a future period of 7 years when God shall save Israel.
   The tribulation aspect of this seven year period is not difficult to
establish once the foundation of the future fulfillment of Daniel's 70th
week is established.   Although it is not difficult it would take more time
to establish this truth than I now have remaining.   Daniel chapter 11,
12, then the Olivet Discourse, and The Revelation all tie together with
this 70th week to give us a clear view of what will take place during
this short period of time.   These verses also establish that the literal
return of Jesus Christ to the earth is immediately after Daniel's 70th
week.
   The interpretation of the Olivet Discourse, The Revelation, and
a host of other scriptures rests upon the Biblical evidence for this seven
year time period.   It cannot be the other way around since Israel's
future is involved in all these passages.   This issue is fundamental to a
proper interpretation of prophecy.
   Now a few words of caution.   It is wise to not be so set on the
future of Israel that one must force every prophetic verse in the Bible
into the future.   There are verses that are clearly historical in their
fulfillment.   Post-millennialists writers justly discredit radical futurists
who force verses into the future against their context.   Be as dogmatic
and firm about the historic fulfillment as you are about future
fulfillment.
   It has been my experience that Mid and Post tribulational rapture
theories breed great confusion.   They do not comfortably find support
in the Biblical evidence presented tonight.   I find many of these argu-
ments fail to take into account the foundational principles of the seven
year tribulation.   Many proponents of these positions actually use argu-
ments that cut away at the very foundation upon which they claim to
stand thus opening the door for post-millennialism.
   Foundations are established to build upon.   I have presented a
Biblical foundation of dispensational pre-millennialism -- build on it.
Don't start the house until the foundation is firmly laid.

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