Appendix: The 2300 days of Daniel

Why The Sacrifices Are Taken Away

When the seventieth week of Daniel's vision begins, the Antichrist will "confirm a covenant with many," those of Israel and those of other nations. Three and one-half years after this, the abomination of desolation will occur in the temple. Yet the second temple, completed by Herod, will have been destroyed between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. So a third temple will be built according to this covenant.

Isaiah prophesied concerning this effort:

" 'Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,'
Says the Lord.
'But on this one will I look:
On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word.
He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man;
He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog's neck;
He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine's blood;
He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol.
Just as they have chosen their own ways,
And their soul delights in their abominations,
So will I choose their delusions,
And bring their fears on them;
Because, when I called, no one answered,
When I spoke they did not hear;
But they did evil before My eyes,
And chose that in which I do not delight.' " Isaiah 66:1 - 4

The state of the nation of Israel, entering this final seven year period, is one where they have rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah. At this point, God's plan of salvation has already been put in place, effected by the first coming of Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

There no longer remains a sacrifice

The writer to the Hebrews says of those who reject Jesus yet would look to the temple sacrifices to atone for sin, "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:26 - 29).

The writer to the Hebrews taught that Jesus' death on the cross was the final sacrifice for sin, and the temple sacrifices were only shadows pointing to it. To reject Jesus leaves no other sacrifice: "there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries." Israel, upon entering this seventieth week, is in a state of ignoring the one true sacrifice for sin and is attempting to re-establish the temple sacrifices. The "expectation of judgment and fiery indignation" will be the result in three and one-half years.

Two questions

The prophet Haggai asks the priests two questions: "On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying, 'If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?' " ' Then the priests answered and said, 'No.' And Haggai said, 'If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?' So the priests answered and said, 'It shall be unclean.' Then Haggai answered and said, ' "So is this people, and so is this nation before Me," says the Lord, "and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean" ' " (Haggai 2:10 - 14).

This word of the Lord through Haggai applied to the time of the return of the seventy-year captivity, but the book shows this is a foreshadowing of the time of the end. The book is about rebuilding the temple of God. The first question shows a people are not holy just because they have descended from a holy nation: "So is this people, and so is this nation before Me." The second question shows no work is clean, or acceptable, if it is conducted by an unholy people: "and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean."

It is because of the unholiness of the nation, and the resulting unholiness of their work, where "and what they offer there is unclean," that God says through Isaiah, "He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog's neck; he who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine's blood; he who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol ..." (Isaiah 66:3).

"when I spoke they did not hear"

Paul the Apostle speaks of how "they have chosen their own ways:" "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:1 - 4).

God said through Isaiah "when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they did not hear." Paul further writes regarding this: "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our report?' So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: 'Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.' But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: 'I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.' But Isaiah is very bold and says: 'I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.' But to Israel he says: 'All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people' " (Rom. 10:16 - 21).

And so Isaiah writes, "Just as they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations, so will I choose their delusions, and bring their fears on them; because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they did not hear; but they did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight" (Isaiah 66:3b - 4).

Unrighteous deception

Paul wrote, "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:9 - 12).

Israel will make a covenant with a false messiah, the Antichrist, in attempting to pursue their own course. "Because they did not receive the love of the truth," they will be given over to deception by this false messiah.

Because of transgression

Daniel writes concerning reestablishing the temple and the sacrifices: "Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices" (Dan. 8:12). Because of the transgression of Israel, that of rejecting Jesus the Lamb of God, God gives the Antichrist power to destroy the daily sacrifices. But the sacrifices were established by God to atone for the sins and transgressions of the people. Yet at this time God is taking away the sacrifices designed to atone for transgression, because of transgression. Why is this?

Jesus taught that there is one sin for which there is no atonement. Jesus said, "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matt. 12:31-32). This was prompted by the Pharisees' claim that Jesus was casting out demons by Beelzebub (Satan), the ruler of the demons. The Holy Spirit was sent to testify of Jesus, and to say Jesus was an instrument of Satan is to speak against the witness of the Holy Spirit. To reject Jesus is to reject the witness of the Spirit. To reject Jesus is to reject the only way to God and the only hope of reconciliation with God. And thus there is no forgiveness. To "speak a word against the Son of Man" can be forgiven if one repents and turns to Jesus. But to speak against the Spirit leaves no room for repentance in rejecting Jesus.

The irony for Israel is that the daily sacrifices were a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross to atone for sin. The temple was a foreshadowing of Jesus and His church as a dwelling place of God, the true and actual temple. Prior to the return of Christ to the earth, in the immediate seven years before, the nation of Israel will be in a state of rejecting the person of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. It is this transgression, the unpardonable sin, for which God allows the Antichrist to stop the daily sacrifices and to desolate the temple. Since these point to Christ, and the people have rejected Christ, the sacrifices are an abomination to God. God is allowing the shadow to be destroyed because they rejected the reality that the shadow is pointing to.

One sacrifice for sins forever

At the end of the sixty-ninth week of Daniel's prophecy, and before the seventieth week, the Messiah is cut off and the temple is destroyed. The daily sacrifices were stopped and the temple destroyed after Jesus Christ came because the New Covenant came into effect through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The way to God now became a path through the cross of Christ, with Jesus as Lord and intermediary between God and man, rather than through the foreshadowing of the Old Covenant sacrificial system. The purpose of the seventieth week of Daniel, also called the "time of Jacob's trouble," is to "shake everything that can be shaken" (Haggai) so that Israel as a nation would turn to and accept Jesus Christ as Messiah. A part of this shaking is the ending of the daily sacrifices and the desecration and desolation of the temple, so that Israel will repent and turn to the true sacrifice and true temple that the shadows are pointing to. The "unpardonable sin" is only unpardonable if one dies in that state of rejecting Christ. In His mercy, God is giving those of Israel the chance to repent through tribulation.

God said through Isaiah regarding sacrifice without submission to Him, "He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog's neck; he who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine's blood; he who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol ..." (Isaiah 66:3). The book of Hebrews shows, "And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (Heb. 10:11 - 14).