Page 49 - Watchman- What of the Night

Appendix B: DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK

One of the favorite methods of the rapturists is to erect an arbitrary premise from

their own notions, and to reason to their own conclusions therefrom.
They contend that when the seventieth week of Daniel‘s prophecy begins, and the
Beast makes a covenant with Israel, and there is a temporary restoration of Jewish

ceremonial worship, the church MUST BE GONE. We would point out, first of all,
that the chronological location of the seventieth week of Daniel is a highly debatable
question. Variant views of the matter have been advanced by scholars of equal piety
and erudition.
This writer holds with the futurist school, that the remaining week is yet future, that

the ―Prince that shall come‖ is Antichrist, that the week will be inaugurated by some
kind of a covenant that ―he shall confirm with many‖, and that the covenant will
probably be broken or abrogated in the midst of the week, or at the three and one half

year period.
That ―the many‖ are the Jewish people, is assumed by all dispensationalists, but not
specifically declared in the text. There is, however, clear indication that Jewish temple
worship will be restored, because it is said: ―He shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease‖. It must be begun before it can be caused to cease. (Dan. 9:27).

We repeat, that we incline to the general correctness of the above views, but feel
that the whole passage is obscure enough to forbid dogmatism. The rapturists
dogmatize, in characteristic fashion, on all these points, and make it appear that there

is no other view that is tenable or possible. The reticence of true and careful
scholarship is not prominent in the attitudes and deliverances of these brethren! They
go on and declare categorically that when the Jewish worship is restored, the church
must have been removed.
This is a baseless assumption that has nothing more than the exigency of their own

theory to commend it.
If it is contended that the Lord will not witness to the world simultaneously through
two instruments─the ceremonial worship of Israel and the spiritual priesthood of the

Church, the reasoning is sound. But can it be logically reasoned that the ceremonial
worship of an impenitent Jewry, yet in rejection of Messiah-Christ, the Lamb of God,
would be a God-ordained or a God-recognized witness in the earth? Jewish worship
can be perpetuated after God‘s Son has died and risen again, or restored before His
return, but in neither case is it accepted or recognized of God, and so far from being

the divine witness in the earth, is an abomination unto Him.
On the eve of His death, Messiah said: ―Behold your house is left unto you

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