The actual text of Daniel mentions seventy sevens. What these sevens are is not explained. King
James translators guessed that since a week has seven days the sevens must mean weeks. But
since seventy weeks is too short a time for what is predicted, people guessed that, using a day
stands for a year scale, the seventy weeks must mean 490 years. There was confusion over when
the 490 years began and ended. On top of that confusion came a theory that only the first 69 weeks
have been fulfilled and that at some future time the 70th week would be fulfilled. By this theory we
are living near the end of a long gap between the 69th and 70th weeks that has lasted for nearly
2 000 years.
If all these guesses were not enough confusion, some of the events predicted are given opposite
meanings by interpreters. Some think it predicted Jesus Christ, some the antichrist, some both.
Some think it was fulfilled at the death and resurrection of Jesus, some think forty years later during
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and "gappers" are still waiting for the 70th week to
begin. No interpretation I have read is free from lots of guesswork.
I don't know who else has thought about this, but I have wondered if the seventy sevens meant
seventy seven-fold sins against God, which may tie in with the statement of Jesus about forgiving
not just seven times but seventy times seven times, which of course is equal to 490. The advantage
of this way of reading Daniel's prophecy is that it focuses attention on the spiritual relationship
between God and His people, not on chronological theories that are always inadequate or even
ridiculous.
Since the Atonement of Christ is the only basis for salvation, it deserves more attention than
chronological theories. Are there limits to the Atonement? After all, it was completed at one time
in history, and therefore had to cover all humans, past, present, and future. If there were, and
therefore are, limits to the Atonement, anything exceeding cannot be covered, because there can
be no time-travel back to enlarge the scope of what has already been completed. So maybe
Christ atoned for seventy seven-fold sins, but no more.
This may explain why God allows the destruction of wicked nations. If they were allowed to sin past
the limits of the Atonement, they might become ineligible for any degree of salvation. I believe that
the forces of evil in America are so corrupting and so past correcting that severe judgments on
America are imminent, especially since America has important responsibilities to fulfill in these
last days before the return of Christ to reign on Earth for a thousand years.
After much study I believe that Micah 5:10-15 will be fulfilled soon. It is a poetic passage not easy
to understand, but I believe it applies to spiritual conditions in America. Unless God intervenes to
"execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen" America could drift past the limits of
Atonement and lose its purpose in the divine scheme of things. See nosp08.
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