During the first 1800 years of church history there was no scholar that believed Daniel's 70-week vision was not completely fulfilled with the war of 70 A.D. But something drastically changed in the 20th century when false teaching was embraced as "new" truth regarding end-time matters. The first two blogs of this series I briefly referenced the origin of the "new" truth.
The foundation for the modern viewpoint on eschatology is based on one idea - the 70th week of Daniel's vision has not been fulfilled as yet. If this foundation is proven false, everything they have built on this false foundation crumbles to the ground. While Daniel's 70-week vision prophesies several events that found fulfillment over several centuries, the 70th week was completely fulfilled by the war of 70 A.D. We will look into what historians wrote about this event.
Who is Daniel the Prophet? Daniel was born into a Judean family of nobility during the reign of King Josiah in 542 B.C. When he was a youth the pagan King Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and took many captives to his kingdom in Babylon 526 B.C.
Why did God allow Jerusalem to be invaded by a pagan king? The religious leaders of Israel had led the people to disobey God's law of the Sabbath Rest. This first invasion was a warning to them to repent and surrender their allegiance only to Him and His perfect law - do not follow the persuasion of corrupt leaders. God is patient and enduring with sinful men, but sends his prophets to warn of His judgment if they don't return their allegiance to Him.
God sent Jeremiah with a very clear warning...Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not harm you...yet you have not listened to Me, says the Lord, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt...therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard My words...behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against it inhabitants and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations...Jer. 25:6-9.
Note how God calls the pagan King Nebuchadnezzar "My servant" whom He will use to punish His disobedient kids. When God's kids revert to paganism and immorality, they get the rulers they deserve, nonetheless, God still provides - through judgment and punishment - a way back to Him because His love for mankind is so profound, finite human beings cannot understand it.
Because Israel didn't listen to the warning of Jeremiah, by 509 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar returned to Israel to finish the job he started when he took Daniel captive. This time he destroyed the revered temple of Solomon. Thousands were taken captive and forcefully removed to Babylon. By this time Daniel had served in the kings' palace many years and had learned the language of the Chaldeans.
He had been made a eunuch, as were all male slaves in the king's palace.
During his years in the court of several successive pagan kings, Daniel would have the opportunity to demonstrate the power of his God to them. One night King Nebuchadnezzar experienced a disturbing dream that left him distressed, but could not remember its content, yet his magicians and sorcerers were unable to reveal his dream. Just as the king was about to kill them, it was revealed to him that his Hebrew captive Daniel could interpret dreams.
Daniel made it clear that he cannot interpret dreams, but the God he serves is able to reveal both the dream and its content...Dan. 2:19. When the dream and its interpretation were revealed to the king, he rejoiced and elevated Daniel to chief of all wise men. God always has a plan for His true-hearts even in the midst of judgment and punishment of a nation.
In the beginning of Israel's captivity in Babylon, Jeremiah wrote an urgent letter to the elders, the priests, and the prophets...Jer. 29:1-32. Since Daniel was so young when he was taken captive, and immediately became a servant in the kings' court, he was not made privy to this letter until he was old. But obviously it was God's appointed time. What was in the letter?
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed...for they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord...for thus says the Lord: after seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place...Jer. 29:8-10.
Why was it urgent that Jeremiah's letter reach the captives in Babylon? Stay tuned...
God's sheep question the doctrines of men...sheeple follow without question~~~
If historians prove that the 70th week of Daniel's vision has already been fulfilled, the modern viewpoint on eschatology crumbles like a house of cards. Last blog we began to reveal the historical documentation that proves the origin of this viewpoint. If we don't read history we could easily be mislead by every wind of doctrine.
When we were last together we found out that a Spanish priest named Francisco de Ribera in the 1500's had fabricated a commentary regarding the end times, intended to disprove Martin Luther's proclamation that the leader of the Holy Roman Empire was the 7th head of the beast in Revelation, and the "man of sin" described by the Apostle Paul...II Thes. 2:3.
Francisco emphasized that the "man of sin" wouldn't appear until the end of the world, when Jesus Christ returns. He believed he had written a convincing story that would definitely convince the populous that Martin Luther lied about the Empire, hoping he could woo back the millions that had formed Protestant churches by now. Did the public ever read his end-time commentary?
Francisco de Ribera died in 1591, one year after his commentary was completed. His commentary did not dissuade the massive Protestant revolt as intended, but rather was inadvertently inserted in a Vulgate Bible, lost to the archives of time in the Church of England.
In 1826 a librarian of the Church of England, found and published Francisco's fabricated end-times commentary written in 1590. It is from this publication that John Darby formulated his unscriptural modern-viewpoint regarding end time events.
Voila - the modern end-time doctrine was born! The fraudster, Cyrus Scofield, knew a good thing when he read it, so conferred with two controversial scholars in London, who financially helped him publish his reference Bible, at the prestigious Oxford University Press in London in 1909. Because the 'church at large' was corrupt and in decline, his false commentary became wildly popular almost instantly - selling millions of copies in the 20th century. Prideful men love to be the first to proclaim the latest and greatest - even if they ignore the facts produced by credible historians.
Soon the false end-time doctrine published in the Scofield Reference Bible was adopted into the curriculum of every seminary and Bible school across America. Have you found a denomination today that doesn't teach that most of Daniel has not been fulfilled? With the exception of a few verses regarding the Ancient of Days, most of Daniel has been fulfilled, proven by credible historians - including all 70 weeks of his vision.
Scripture does warn us through the Apostle Peter when he says...our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, written to you...as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of Scriptures...II Peter 3:15-16.
The Rockefeller Foundation invested millions of dollars into a progressive church in New York in 1920, where modern intellectual viewpoints could be embraced - no more talk about sin, Hell, or that bloody cross, while questioning the deity of Christ. Social justice would become the focus of the modern church - lobbying governments for grants to help the poor, while winking at immorality, and erase church traditions - little by little. Mr. Scofield found this fertile soil in which to plant his false end-time doctrine.
A contemporary of Cyrus Scofield at first glance embraced this modern viewpoint on eschatology. In 1903 Philip Mauro, an international patent attorney, accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior at the age of 45. He became an avid researcher of the Bible and church history, and read modern books on the subject of the end times, including the Scofield Reference Bible, eventually writing several books of his own.
After decades of research, historians had proven to Mr. Mauro that the 70th week of Daniel had been fulfilled, so he publicly renounced Scofield's end-time theology as false. But Scofield's doctrine had become so entrenched in the churches by the late l930's, that Mr. Mauro found himself in the middle of a battle with those whom he had once experienced close fellowship - enduring personal insults and public attacks from Mr. Scofield's supporters. Due to his patience and integrity, this humble man never retaliated. Those who want truth, will find it and embrace it, without attacking others.
Who was Daniel the Prophet? Stay tuned...
God's sheep question the doctrines of men...sheeple follow without question~~~
As we embark on this new series to research Daniel's 70-Week Vision, we will find that historians have a lot to say on the subject - much of it you have never heard. Why haven't you heard? You haven't heard because the historical documentation doesn't fit into the modern viewpoint on eschatology. If historians prove that the 70th week of Daniel's vision has already been fulfilled, the modern viewpoint crumbles like a house of cards.
What is the origin of the the modern viewpoint on end-time matters? About a hundred years ago the American church began a rapid and radical transformation of their understanding of Revelation, Daniel's 70-week vision, and the Olivet Discourse regarding end-time events. This transformation from the historical viewpoint that was embraced by the church for centuries, to the modern viewpoint, pretty much discarded sound doctrine. How did this happen?
Cyrus Scofield published a reference Bible in 1909 with extensive commentary that carefully outlined a new and innovative viewpoint of end-time events, literally invalidating the historical viewpoint embraced by Christians for centuries. He sold millions of copies, still popular today. Who is Cyrus Scofield?
Cyrus Scofield was a lawyer of Jewish descent, who claimed to be a Christian, but certainly lacked the fruits of a follower of Christ. After he was appointed U.S. District Attorney of the state of Kansas, he later had to resign under a cloud of scandal. - suspected of taking bribes. After his resignation he was later jailed on forgery charges. In the late 1800's, on the pretense of investment, he took $1,300 (a million in today's dollars) from his wife's mother - her life savings - and never returned it.
In 1883 his first wife divorced him for abandoning her and their two children, whom he refused to financially support - admitting he drank too much alcohol. During the divorce process, he was ordained as a Congregational minister - later becoming a Southern Presbyterian. He bestowed upon himself the title C.I. Scofield, D.D., although no record has ever been found to prove he had attained this degree.
How did Cyrus Scofield obtain information he inserted into his Bible as a new end-time doctrine? Most of his research was from the writings of an itinerant preacher from Great Britain, John Darby, who founded "The Brethren" denomination. Mr. Darby was also a lawyer, who visited the United States several times sharing his modern viewpoint on eschatology. After reading Mr. Darby's writings, Mr. Scofield was convinced that the 70th week of Daniel had not been fulfilled - even though historians had proven otherwise.
From whom did John Darby glean his new end-time doctrine? After millions of people bolted from the Holy Roman Empire, because of the new revelations of truth presented to them by Martin Luther, the Empire had to offer a counter doctrine. Luther had proven the Empire was the 7th head of the beast in Revelation - man of sin. What did the Empire do?
A Spanish priest named Francisco de Ribera, a member of the Society of Jesus, decided he would write a scholarly commentary of the book of Revelation that could definitely cast doubt on Luther's proclamation. In his commentary, a fabrication of his imagination, he said that at the end of time a political antichrist - man of sin - will arise when the "church" falls away. This antichrist figure will pretend to be God, appearing prior to a seven-year tribulation, where he will persecute the saints and abolish the Christian religion. He will rebuild the temple at Jerusalem for the third time, after making a covenant with the Jews for three and a half years.
This priest made sure he emphasized that all these things will take place far into the future - at the end of the world - then Jesus will return. Francisco believed that his grandiose end-time fabrication would definitely convince the populous that Martin Luther lied when he called their religious leader of the 1500's - the man of sin described by the Apostle Paul...II Thes. 2:3.
Did the public ever read Francisco's fictional end-time commentary? Stay tuned...
God's sheep question the doctrines of men...sheeple follow without question~~~
