should be rendered 'Holy of Holies', and refer to the cleansing of the

sanctuary spoken of in Daniel 8:14.

These six items cover the restoration that is to take place, but events

of great magnitude occur before the goal is reached -- events that revolve

around the persons and work of Christ and Antichrist:

'From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build

Jerusalem unto the Messiah (an Anointed One) the Prince shall be 7 x 7

and 62 x 7: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in

troublous times.  And after 62 x 7 shall Messiah be cut off, but not

for Himself' (Dan. 9:25,26).

Some of our readers may have noticed that we did not trouble to show

that this prophecy was accurately fulfilled.  As to this it is common

knowledge that the received date for the 20th year of Artaxerxes is 454 b.c.,

and 62 X 7 or 434 years + the 7 X 7 or 49 years after 454 b.c. brings us to

a.d. 29, the received date for the Crucifixion, but when we faced the

involved accounts of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and others, and the

evidence of the Behistun Rock that must be unravelled before 454 b.c. could

be arrived at, we felt that little good would be accomplished by the survey,

and it is contrary to our principle to accept any testimony without

Let it be quite clear, however, that we implicitly believe that Daniel

9 is correct; whatever may be proved or fail to be proved from secular

history.  It would not, for instance, shake our faith in the slightest if

some archaeological discovery called for another readjustment of dates; no

one, however learned, would be prepared to go into the witness box and

declare on oath the exact number of years after Christ this present year

called a.d. 1960 really is.  From Adam to Christ, chronology is constant in

Scripture.  Since then God has written no chronology in Scripture, and seeing

that the calendar of the period after Christ is so muddled and involved, it

is questionable whether God has not intentionally frustrated the attempts at

forecasting prophetic dates.

When we are dealing with the statements of Scripture, however, we are

on solid ground.  The Lord rode into Jerusalem, and was acclaimed by the

people as the Son of David, when it was near to Passover, and therefore in

the month Nisan (Matt. 21:1 -16), which is the same month in which the decree

was issued by Artaxerxes (Neh. 2:1).  'After' this Messiah was to be cut off.

'To be cut off' implies death by violence, e.g., 'neither shall all flesh be

cut off any more by the waters of a flood' (Gen. 9:11).  The expression is,

moreover, in constant use in the law where it is used of the cutting off of

an offender from all covenant relations, and of the consequent bearing of his

iniquity: 'That soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon

him' (Num. 15:31).

It is most blessedly true that when the Messiah was cut off it was, as

the Authorized Version renders it, 'not for Himself', but the original of

Daniel 9:26 does not justify that translation, for it says, 'and have

nothing'.  Instead of a throne, He had a cross.  Instead of many diadems, He

wore a crown of thorns.  Instead of a kingdom, He had a tomb.  Of all the

glories spoken of by the prophets, 'He had nothing'!  We are thankful for the

earlier vision of Daniel 7 which reveals that in God's own time He should be

invested with sovereignty, but that meanwhile iniquity was to rear its head

and make its final grasp at worldwide dominion before the end came.