Larkin's Gap
Concerning the Gap between Daniel's 69th and 70th week, this is one of the original hypotheses presented by the Dispensationalists. They base the 7 year tribulation, the pre-trib rapture, the revived Roman Empire, the rebuilt temple and return to animal sacrifices on this. It also provides their basis for turning Jesus into Antichrist in Daniel 9:27, and ignoring Christ's fulfilling the prophecy in the first century.
“While there was no break between the “Seven Weeks” and the “Threescore and Two Weeks,” there is a break between the “Sixty ninth” and “Seventieth Week,” in which several things were to happen.
First we read that “Messiah Was to Be Cut Off, But Not for Himself.” This refers to Christ’s rejection and crucifixion. He died for others. Then we read that the people of the “Prince That Shall Come” shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary. Note that it does not say that the “Prince” will destroy the City and Sanctuary, but the People of the Prince. The people who destroyed the City of Jerusalem and the Temple in A. D. 70 were the Romans, therefore the “Prince (Antichrist) must be a Roman Citizen.
This does not mean that he cannot be a Syrian Jew, for Syria will then be a part of the revived Roman Empire, and Saul of Tarsus was a Roman citizen as well as a Jew. We are then told that the desolation of the land of Palestine shall continue until the “End of the War” (probably Armageddon). As this “desolation” still continues we see that the “GAP” between the “Sixty ninth” and “Seventieth Week” takes in the whole of this PRESENT DISPENSATION.” Dispensational Truth, p. 71 Clarence Larkin.
Comments
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@Dave_L said:
Concerning the Gap between Daniel's 69th and 70th week, this is one of the original hypotheses presented by the Dispensationalists. They base the 7 year tribulation, the pre-trib rapture, the revived Roman Empire, the rebuilt temple and return to animal sacrifices on this. It also provides their basis for turning Jesus into Antichrist in Daniel 9:27, and ignoring Christ's fulfilling the prophecy in the first century... This does not mean that he cannot be a Syrian Jew, for Syria will then be a part of the revived Roman Empire, and Saul of Tarsus was a Roman citizen as well as a Jew. We are then told that the desolation of the land of Palestine shall continue until the “End of the War” (probably Armageddon). As this “desolation” still continues we see that the “GAP” between the “Sixty ninth” and “Seventieth Week” takes in the whole of this PRESENT DISPENSATION.” Dispensational Truth, p. 71 Clarence Larkin.Dave,
Be aware of sources consulted, seeking understanding on this topic. You don't want to draw from "broken cisterns" or contaminated streams.
The Dispensationalist is interested in charting the future. A well-known example is Clarence Larkin as cited. His eschatology is cognitive. He is a Christian looking at an Israel-centered future based on OT prophecies.
It's worth noting, Classical premillennialism has seen the books of Daniel and Revelation as predictions of the same periods of history, the only difference being that Revelation began with the time of Christ while Daniel began with sixth-century-B.C. Babylon.
Dispensationalism, on the other hand, denies the connection between the two books. The Dispensationalist, as John N. Darby, believes that Dan 2 and 7 predicted the existence of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, followed by judgment and the setting up of God's kingdom, but that the greater part of Revelation will occur after the rapture.
The early church tended to hold a premillennial outlook, anxiously expecting Jesus’ imminent return before a literal thousand-year reign. However, after Augustine, much of the course of Western Christianity was redirected towards an amillennial orientation, interpreting the millennium of Revelation 20 in figurative terms.
Larkin is interested in events which will occur after he is removed from the earth. Eschatology ("last things" or "end events") should appeal to man's moral nature. It is not only about ‘when’, but also about ‘who’.
Even John Nelson Darby's division of the "world into Israel, church, and Gentile sections", with its consequent splitting of the second coming into a secret rapture and a public parousia are not be accepted. Keep studying. CM
SOURCES:
-- Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth; God's Plan and Purpose in the Ages (Glenside, PA: Rev. Clarence Larkin, 1918).-- Pelikan, Jaroslav, ed. Twentieth Century Theology in the Making. 3 vols. New York: Harper and Row, 1969 (Translated by R. A. Wilson from De Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd ed., Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1927-1932). The section on eschatology is in Vol. 1, pp. 215-93.
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Dave,
Are you aware that Clarence Larkin has admitted that the material he got for his prophetic charts came from Francisco Ribera? Thousands of sincere ministers have used these charts -- not knowing the purpose they were intended. Clarence Larkin, a mechanical engineer, and an architect by profession supported the work of Scofield and Dispensationalism increased in momentum with the publication of his chart-laden "Dispensational Truth" published in 1918.Although not the recipient of any formal theological training, Larkin was ordained into the ministry at the age of thirty-four after a career in business. At the time of his ordination, Larkin was not a Premillennialist but subsequently adopted the Futurist view (See source below). Larkin revealed that the material used for his charts in his Futurist ‘Dispensationalism’, “in its present form...originated at the end of the sixteenth century with the Jesuit Ribera” (See source).
Some teachers put the fulfillment at the end of this age and then they go to Thessalonians and find the Antichrist and bring him back to Daniel 9. How can one break the 70th week off and put it at the end of this age when God fulfilled it then? This idea was first suggested by Francisco Ribera, a Jesuit priest of Salamanca, who about A.D. 1585 published a commentary on Babylon and the antichrist that taught that Daniel's 70th week was in the future. Ribera blocked off the 70th week and extended it to the end of this age.
The 70th week has to follow the 69th -- three and one-half years until he was cut off, then the rest of the week he ministered through his servants from heaven. Judgment waited as God gave Israel time to repent. They had until A.D. 70 before God totally destroyed -- completely wiped out the people -- and made the country an uninhabited desolation for fifty years.
Francisco Ribera purpose was to counter the Protestant Reformation and to set aside the Protestant teaching of the time that the papacy was the antichrist.
- He put the first chapters of the Revelation in the first century.
- The rest he put in a three and one half year period at the end of time.
A Jewish temple would be rebuilt by an antichrist who would deny Christ, pretend to be God and conquer the world. The damage Ribera did to the Christian church with this concocted teaching is most destructive to the biblical truth! CM
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PS. What is the starting time (year) of the 70 weeks? Could it be verified by the Bible and/or history? In addition to this, we must make clear in another thread, possibly, the connection between the books of Daniel (OT) and Revelation (NT). I don't want it to be a truism that Premillennial Dispensationalists level the charge that their critics have “always found it easier to identify the simplistic approaches of Scofield, to criticize the excesses of Lewis Sperry Chafer, and poke fun at the charts of Clarence Larkin than to understand ... they [the critics] have failed to understand Dispensationalism, and its proponents have been and continue to be in process” (See source). Keep studying. CM
SOURCES:
-- Varner, Kelley. Whose Right it is. Shippensburg: Destiny Image. 1999. pg 150
-- Larkin, Clarence. Dispensationalism. Glenside, PA: Rev. Clarence Larkin Est. 1920. pg 5
-- Blaising, Craig A. Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church – The Search for Definition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1992. pg 12 -
@C_M_ said:
Dave,
Are you aware that Clarence Larkin has admitted that the material he got for his prophetic charts came from Francisco Ribera? Thousands of sincere ministers have used these charts -- not knowing the purpose they were intended. Clarence Larkin, a mechanical engineer, and an architect by profession supported the work of Scofield and Dispensationalism increased in momentum with the publication of his chart-laden "Dispensational Truth" published in 1918.Although not the recipient of any formal theological training, Larkin was ordained into the ministry at the age of thirty-four after a career in business. At the time of his ordination, Larkin was not a Premillennialist but subsequently adopted the Futurist view (See source below). Larkin revealed that the material used for his charts in his Futurist ‘Dispensationalism’, “in its present form...originated at the end of the sixteenth century with the Jesuit Ribera” (See source).
Some teachers put the fulfillment at the end of this age and then they go to Thessalonians and find the Antichrist and bring him back to Daniel 9. How can one break the 70th week off and put it at the end of this age when God fulfilled it then? This idea was first suggested by Francisco Ribera, a Jesuit priest of Salamanca, who about A.D. 1585 published a commentary on Babylon and the antichrist that taught that Daniel's 70th week was in the future. Ribera blocked off the 70th week and extended it to the end of this age.
The 70th week has to follow the 69th -- three and one-half years until he was cut off, then the rest of the week he ministered through his servants from heaven. Judgment waited as God gave Israel time to repent. They had until A.D. 70 before God totally destroyed -- completely wiped out the people -- and made the country an uninhabited desolation for fifty years.
Francisco Ribera purpose was to counter the Protestant Reformation and to set aside the Protestant teaching of the time that the papacy was the antichrist.
- He put the first chapters of the Revelation in the first century.
- The rest he put in a three and one half year period at the end of time.
A Jewish temple would be rebuilt by an antichrist who would deny Christ, pretend to be God and conquer the world. The damage Ribera did to the Christian church with this concocted teaching is most destructive to the biblical truth! CM
---------------------------------------
PS. What is the starting time (year) of the 70 weeks? Could it be verified by the Bible and/or history? In addition to this, we must make clear in another thread, possibly, the connection between the books of Daniel (OT) and Revelation (NT). I don't want it to be a truism that Premillennial Dispensationalists level the charge that their critics have “always found it easier to identify the simplistic approaches of Scofield, to criticize the excesses of Lewis Sperry Chafer, and poke fun at the charts of Clarence Larkin than to understand ... they [the critics] have failed to understand Dispensationalism, and its proponents have been and continue to be in process” (See source). Keep studying. CMSOURCES:
-- Varner, Kelley. Whose Right it is. Shippensburg: Destiny Image. 1999. pg 150
-- Larkin, Clarence. Dispensationalism. Glenside, PA: Rev. Clarence Larkin Est. 1920. pg 5
-- Blaising, Craig A. Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church – The Search for Definition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1992. pg 12Thanks! Great info!!
