The Conquest of Babylon

 

God's command to Cyrus the Great:  "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd and he will perform all My desire.'  And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' and of the temple, 'your foundation will be laid.'  I have aroused him in righteousness; he will build My city, and will let My exiles go free."

The Medes and the Persians emigrated from the great plains of Russia in the 9th century BC. Shortly after 700 BC, the Persians took control of the city of Anshan.

Cyrus the Great was born about 600 BC, the son of a Persian king and a Median princess. Cyrus ascended the throne of the tiny state of Anshan in 559 BC to begin a reign that lasted 30 years.


In 540 BC, Cyrus set his sights on the conquest of Babylon. During that period, Babylonian morale was at a low ebb. King Nabonidus was more interested in the study of foreign religions and history than in government. Nabonidus took a ten year hiatus in Arabia and left his son Belshazzar at the helm. He returned in 543 BC with the hopes of winning back the favour of his subjects and the priests who preferred a monarch that restricted himself to the established religion of Babylon. Although he brought all the idols from the surrounding cities into Babylon and celebrated the New Year's feast, he was unable to win the approval of his people.


Cyrus was able to convince Gubara, a Median governor, to defect to the Persian side. (The Medes had been allies of the Babylonians since the two defeated Assyria in 612 BC.) After taking the cities of Opis and Sippar, they moved towards Babylon. The throne city was dissected by the Euphrates River and its tributary canals. The dry season coupled with an annual shortage of precipitation caused the river to reach its lowest level in years. Furthermore, this was the time of a great Babylonian festival when the entire city of Babylon was accustomed to revelling all night long.


That night, while the inebriated Babylonians celebrated, Gubara diverted the flow of the Euphrates and entered Babylon's impregnable walls through a water channel. On October 12, 539 BC, Gubara captured Babylon without a battle. On October 29, he opened the city’s gates and welcomed his benefactor, Cyrus, king of Persia. Cyrus entered Babylon peacefully and was hailed by its inhabitants as a liberator. Belshazzar was slain, Nabonidus exiled, and Gubara, a.k.a. Darius the Mede, was made king of Babylon to act as a vassal under Cyrus the Great.


In 538 BC, Cyrus released Judeans from their captivity in Babylon. His proclamation was recorded by Ezra the scribe:


“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
‘Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.'"


Babylon's seventy year mandate had expired and an assembly of 42,360 survivors of the Babylonian captivity, accompanied by their servants, arrived in Judah in April, 537 BC, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, to rebuild their temple.

The Messianic Seventy Weeks (with prologue)

For ancient civilizations, the moon was the celestial body that determined time. A year was composed of twelve lunar months. The length of a lunar month was determined by observing the phases of the moon. An old month ended and a new month began at the beginning of a new moon when a thin crescent curving towards the north appeared on the western horizon at sunset.

Modern astronomers define a lunar month as the time it takes for the moon to revolve around the earth with reference to the sun. One revolution is completed in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.7 seconds. When expressed as a decimal fraction, the length of a lunar month is 29.531 days. Consequently, the length of a lunar year is only 354.372 days.

Ancient priests determined the appropriate time for festivals not only by observing the moon but also by monitoring the crops. If the crops weren’t mature enough, the incoming year would be postponed by one month. That manoeuvre added an extra month to the outgoing year, resulting in an anomalous 13 month year. It was an arbitrary act that wasn’t performed with any regularity.

The Babylonians went a step further. Not only did they consider the moon in their determination of time but also the sun and the seasons. In the sixth century BC, they discovered a 19 year cycle in which 7 of the 19 lunar years had an extra month. In other words, a 19 year Babylonian cycle contained seven 13 month years. That cycle matched up almost perfectly with 19 solar years.

Chapter 9 of the Old Testament book of Daniel began in 538 BC.  It was the first regnal year of Gubara a.k.a. Darius the Mede who was made king of Babylon by Cyrus the Great.  During that time, Daniel was being held captive in Babylon.

Daniel observed that the seventy years of Babylon’s desolations of Jerusalem, prophesied by Jeremiah, were drawing to a close and he began to pray for the release of Judeans from their captivity in Babylon.

During Daniel’s prayer, the angel Gabriel appeared and informed him that, at the beginning of his supplications, the command was issued (by Cyrus to let the exiles go free).  Then Gabriel revealed the 70 week Messianic prophecy to Daniel:

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: the streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

And after sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

The commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem marked the beginning of the seventy weeks.  Its identification has long been the subject of debate.

Some identified the commandment with Artaxerxes’ decree, in 458 BC, that sent Ezra to Jerusalem.  While Ezra brought several hundred exiles and an offering for the temple with him from Babylon, his ministry was one of spiritual reform and not rebuilding Jerusalem.

Sir Robert Anderson identified the commandment with Artaxerxes’ letters that authorized Nehemiah to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem in 445 BC.  Up to that point in time, few people lived in Jerusalem.  Nehemiah finished the wall in 52 days and the Jews felt well protected from their enemies.  That led to one tenth of the population of Judah moving to Jerusalem.  However, Artaxerxes’ letters granted Nehemiah safe passage to Jerusalem and enough timber to rebuild the wall and to build himself a home in the Holy City.  That’s a far cry from the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.      

Still others believed that as Jeremiah’s seventy years drew to a close, the seventy weeks began.  They identified the commandment with Cyrus’ proclamation in 538 BC, a copy of which can be found in "The Conquest of Babylon."  However, Cyrus’ proclamation dealt explicitly with rebuilding the temple but only implicitly with rebuilding Jerusalem because the builders needed lodging in close proximity to the temple’s reconstruction site.

I believe the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem was God’s command to Cyrus the Great which was prophesied by Isaiah:

It is I who says of Cyrus, "He is My shepherd and he will perform all My desire."  And he declares of Jerusalem, "She will be built," and of the temple, "your foundation will be laid."  I have aroused him in righteousness; he will build My city, and will let My exiles go free.

God had an agenda regarding Jerusalem.  Cyrus was an instrument chosen to carry out His agenda.  God aroused the spirit in Cyrus, hardening his heart towards Babylon and softening it towards the Jews.  He commanded Cyrus to free the Jewish exiles and rebuild Jerusalem including the foundation of the temple.  It was imperative that Cyrus conquer Babylon in order to free the exiles.  Assuming the conquest of Babylon was part and parcel of God’s commandment to Cyrus, His command must have been given before October 12, 539 BC.  Cyrus had to recruit Gubara and plan a course of action.  The year, 540 BC, would have been a reasonable time for God’s commandment.

(This article will only be concerned with the first sixty-nine weeks.  For a description of the final week, click Jerusalem's Third Temple on the sidebar.) 

The seventy weeks do not refer to weeks of days but rather weeks of years.  The first 69 weeks were divided into two parts, 7 and 62 weeks, suggesting different interpretations of time for each part.

The first seven weeks represent weeks of years within longer cycles of time.  Daniel the prophet had become well acquainted with the Babylonian concept of time.  The moon was the celestial body that determined time for ancient civilizations; notably the Babylonians also considered the sun and the seasons in their determination of time.  Shortly after Daniel was deported to Babylon, the Babylonians discovered a 19 year cycle in which 7 of the 19 lunar years had an extra month.  In other words, there was one week of 13 month years within each 19 year Babylonian cycle.  Thus 7 weeks of 13 month years elapsed with the passing of seven 19 year Babylonian cycles or 133 years.

The 62 weeks are less abstruse.  They simply represent weeks of Babylonian years; those years being arranged in 19 year cycles with 7 years in each cycle having an extra month.  Sixty-two weeks are the equivalent of 434 years; sixty-two weeks times seven years per week (62 X 7).

Remember that a 19 year Babylonian cycle matched up almost perfectly with nineteen solar years.  Hence, the sum of the two parts is 567 solar years.  Because there was no year 0, there were 540 years between 540 BC and 1 AD and 27 years between 1 AD and 28 AD.  Therefore, five hundred and sixty-seven years after God’s commandment to Cyrus, we arrive at 28 AD, the year of Messiah the Prince.

Luke 3:1-3, 21-23

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was the tetrarch of Galilee, the word of God came to John, in the wilderness.

And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.

Now it came about when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased.”

And when He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age.

Jesus was the only begotten Son of the King of kings.  He was called Prince of Peace by Isaiah the prophet.  His baptism marked the beginning of His earthly ministry.  He was baptized in the 15^th year of Tiberius Caesar.

Tiberius’ predecessor, Augustus, died on August 19, 14 AD.  Tiberius ascended the throne shortly thereafter.  By inclusive reckoning, the period from August 19 to December 31, 14 AD was credited to him as a full year and counted as his first regnal year.  Hence, his 15^th regnal year was 28 AD, the calendar year when Jesus was baptized. 

Jesus was 31 years of age when He began His ministry of miracles.  About two years later He was crucified, “not for Himself” or for His own crimes but as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of mankind, followed by the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 AD.

Daniel determined that 28 AD was the year of Messiah the Prince.  We have established that Jesus began His ministry that same year.  Not only was Jesus in the right place at the right time, but His supernatural powers also identified Him as Messiah the Prince.  There were no other candidates.  Jesus was unequivocally and incontestably the Messiah, the Prince, the Christ.     

Can we fully appreciate the magnitude of this prophecy?  Daniel pinpointed the very year when Jesus celebrated His baptism well over five centuries before its occurrence. That was extraordinary in itself, but Daniel also foresaw the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its sanctuary which took place about 40 years after Christ was “cut off” or slain.

Unbelievers are without excuse.  The Seventy Weeks is the most remarkable prophecy in history, lending credibility to the Bible and especially the Book of Daniel as being written by the hand of God. 

Sabbatical Cycles

One of history's greatest ironies: Judaism was the pious keeper of Messianic prophecy yet blind to its fulfilment.

In Leviticus 25, we learn of a seven year cycle which has come to be known as a sabbatical cycle.  The Sons of Israel sowed and reaped in the Promised Land for six years but in the seventh year the land rested.  That seventh year was dubbed a sabbatical year.

The weeks in Daniel’s Messianic prophecy were understood by the ancient Jews to be sabbatical cycles.  Hence, the ancient Jews tried to determine the time of Messiah's arrival in terms of sabbatical cycles.

The first 69 weeks of Daniel’s Messianic prophecy were divided into two parts, 7 and 62 weeks, suggesting different interpretations of time for each part.

Notably, the Babylonians discovered a 19 year cycle which matched up almost perfectly with 19 solar years.  In that cycle, 7 of the 19 lunar years were assigned an extra month.  In other words, there was one week of 13 month years within each 19 year Babylonian cycle.  Thus 7 weeks of 13 month years elapsed with the passing of seven 19 year Babylonian cycles or 133 years.  The 62 weeks are less abstruse.  They simply represent weeks of Babylonian years.  Sixty-two weeks are the equivalent of 434 years.  That gives us a 69 week total of 567 solar years.

The late Ben Zion Wacholder was a scholar and for many years a professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  He compiled a table of sabbatical cycles based on the Julian calendar.  For example, 540/539 BC, from October 1 to September 30, was year one of a sabbatical cycle. 

Assuming the starting point of Daniel's seventy weeks was God's command to Cyrus the Great, consider the following scenario: God's commandment to Cyrus was delivered between October 1 and December 31, 540 BC.  That period occurred in the Jewish year 540/539 BC which was year one of a sabbatical cycle.  Christ was baptized 567 years later, in the spring of 28 AD.  That period occurred in the sabbatical year 27/28 AD.

According to Wacholder’s table, there were exactly 81 sabbatical cycles in the 567 years between October 1, 540 BC and September 30, 28 AD.  Therefore, the first 69 weeks of Daniel's Messianic prophecy can be interpreted in terms of sabbatical cycles.

Crying Wolf for the End Times

Many commentators, including myself, believe that the final week of Daniel's Messianic Prophecy will consist of three and a half years of prosperity followed by three and a half years of extreme suffering, called the Great Tribulation.  The Abomination of Desolation, also called the antichrist or beast, will be at the helm of those seven years.  He will control a global empire, not unlike ancient Rome, Greece, and Persia.

However, let's not raise false alarms about the End Times.  We are not at the end, or even the beginning of the end, but perhaps we are nearing the end of the beginning.  The Holy Scriptures coupled with current events bear this out.

Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus called him to be an Apostle.  He was an eyewitness to Christ’s earthly ministry which he recorded in his Gospel.  In Matthew 24, he quoted the very words of Jesus Christ who stated emphatically that wars and rumours of wars, famines, and earthquakes are not the end but merely the beginning.

Despite third party peace efforts, the wars continue between Russia and the Ukraine, Israel and Hamas.

On March 28th, Myanmar, Burma was struck by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.  To put that in perspective, the 1960 Chilean earthquake had a magnitude of 9.5, the greatest magnitude ever recorded.

Christ went on to say that there will be martyrdom, apostasy (falling away from the faith), false prophets, and an increase in lawlessness.  People's love will grow cold and the Gospel will be preached throughout the entire world, “and then the end shall come”.

And then Jesus said, "Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place...then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall."

The Apostle Paul relayed the same message.  He said that the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy (abandoning the faith) comes first "and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God".

The “holy place” mentioned by Christ and the “temple of God” mentioned by the Apostle Paul are references to Jerusalem’s Temple.  But, at the present time, there is no Temple in Jerusalem.  And of course, a Temple is crucial to the fulfillment of the aforementioned prophecies. 

Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.  It was rebuilt by Zerubbabel during the reign of the Persian emperor Darius the Great.  Zerubbabel’s Temple didn’t approached the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple.  However, it was renovated by Herod the Great with such lavish splendour that it became one of the wonders of the Roman Empire.  Herod’s Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.  There has never been a Third Temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, Temple Mount a.k.a. Mount Moriah is now the site of Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, two Muslim holy places.

Observant Jews would never share the Temple Mount with Muslims.  The building of Jerusalem’s Third Temple would require removal of the two Islamic sanctuaries followed by the cleansing of Temple Mount by qualified Levitical priests.

The construction of Jerusalem’s Third Temple will be a sign that the end is near.  The building of the Third Temple will occur prior to the final week of  Daniel’s Messianic prophecy.  Exactly when they will break ground, nobody knows.  But one thing for certain.  When Jews start construction on the Third Temple, it will be the time for Christians to stand up and take notice.  And that will be the moment to sound the alarm for the End Times.

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.  For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Will Believers Be Judged?

Will "believers" or, more precisely, "the righteous in Christ" be judged?  The answer is no; not with respect to their salvation.  And what is salvation?  Spiritual rescue from the consequences of sin; to be saved from eternal damnation.

Make no mistake about it.  We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.  God says it; I believe it; that settles it.

My statement of faith is described in the article entitled "Justification By Faith."  A short synopsis:  "Only the act of justification by faith in Christ can save a man's soul.  That is, the righteousness bestowed by God through faith in Christ by whom a sinner is freed from the penalty due for his sins."

The Apostle Paul says:

"I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

According to civil law, if a man is convicted of a crime, he is sentenced by the courts to pay a debt to society.  That could result in a prison term or even capital punishment.  In much the same way, according to God's Law, a sinner owes a debt to God because of his sins.

And again, the Apostle Paul says:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And once again:

"He has cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

And let's not forget the Apostle John:

"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Now believers will stand before the judgement seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) and some have said that their works will be judged.  However, the word "judge" can be confusing, especially to babes in Christ.  More correctly, their works will be "put to the proof."  The NAS uses the word "test," the KJ the word "try," and the Douay the word "assay" and this is by fire.  The Apostle Paul gives a vivid description in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15:

"The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.  If any man's work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."

Translations of the Old Testament Canon

"Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  Romans 10:17

The remarkable Holy Scriptures of Judaism: written by the sacred writers who were legends in their own time and for generations beyond; inspired by Almighty God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, in whose hand is our very life's breath; culminating with the unfolding of Jesus the Christ from its sacred pages by which the prophetic mystery was concealed and then revealed at the fulness of time.

The Protestant Old Testament is identical to the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It consists of the 39 protocanonical books.  The Catholic Old Testament includes seven additional books as well as additions to Esther and Daniel.  Catholics call them the deuterocanonical books or second canon.  Protestants call them the apocrypha, meaning of doubtful authenticity or authorship.  However, Protestants recognize the historical value of some of the apocryphal books because they fill the 420 year gap between the prophet Malachi and the Gospel of Matthew.

The two most noteworthy translations of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism are the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate.

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he built the city of Alexandria to showcase the superiority of the Greek culture.  The Diaspora was encouraged to settle there and Alexandria became a haven for Hellenists—Jews who adopted the Greek culture.

By the time Ptolemy II took the throne, the Jews in Alexandria spoke Greek rather than Hebrew.  Because there was a need for a Greek translation of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, Ptolemy II commissioned 70 Palestinian Jews to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the third century BC.  In recognition of their work, the translation was dubbed the Septuagint (from the Latin, septuaginta, meaning seventy).

Fast forward to the fourth century AD and the Golden Age of the Church Fathers.  A scholar named Jerome was one of the most able Fathers in the early Christian Church.  A superb translator and commentator, he was fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.  He was a contemporary of Augustine who was an extraordinary theologian, perhaps second only to the Apostle Paul.  Augustine praised Jerome’s talents by remarking, “What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal man has ever known.”

Jerome's greatest accomplishment was a Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate.  The New Testament was his revision of the Old Latin versions which were translated from the Greek.  About 390 AD, he began his work on the Old Testament.  However, he went beyond the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament and created a new Latin version translated directly from the Hebrew Scriptures.  It was completed about 405 AD.

The Douay Bible is the English translation of Jerome's Latin Vulgate.  The New Testament was published in 1582; the Old Testament was published in two volumes, the first in 1609 and the second in 1610.  It was the only official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church until well into the Twentieth century.

The King James Bible was published in 1611.  It was authorized by King James I of England.  Twenty-five gifted translators were involved in the creation of its Old Testament.  That translation was based on  the Masoretic Text, abbreviated MT.

The MT is the official Hebrew version of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It was copied, edited, and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 8^th and 11^th centuries AD.  Codex Leningrad is the oldest copy of  the MT.  It is dated to 1000 AD.

The King James Bible is probably the most widely read Bible in the English-speaking Protestant world.  For a few decades, it has been available in modern English as the New King James Bible.

"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness."  2 Timothy 3:16    

Cherry Picking God's Word

How can the pastor of a prominent Toronto church claim there is no Hell?  Did she not attend a seminary before being ordained as a minister?  Is the cross displayed on her church not a symbol of Christ's crucifixion?  For if there is neither sin nor punishment for sin, then Christ died needlessly.  While believers are freed from the penalty due for their sins through faith in Jesus Christ, unbelievers will be judged according to their deeds.  Because all men are sinners and Christ's crucifixion is the only sacrifice that atones for sinful deeds, how shall unbelievers escape if they ignore so great a salvation?

A fundamentalist believes the Bible is the word of God; a liberal believes the Bible contains the word of God, a dangerous philosophy indeed.

"For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." 

Liberals are tailoring the Bible to their own liking; cherry picking the word of God; rejecting those parts of the Bible that aren’t compatible with their lifestyle.

"Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied it's power; and avoid such men as these.  Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

We must remain "all in" with the Lord.  We can't be deceived by the devil or those who distort the Gospel.  We must fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith.

How Was The New Testament Canon Created?

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

The creation of the New Testament canon was a slow process largely completed by 175 AD.  Admission of a book to the canon was based on three criteria:  Was it written by an Apostle or a person who was a close associate of the Apostles; Did the words of the book have the power of edification when read before a congregation; Was the book in agreement with the established doctrines of faith?

"The historical verification of apostolic authorship or influence and the universal consciousness of the church, guided by the Holy Spirit, resulted in the final decision concerning what books should be considered canonical and worthy of inclusion in what we know as the New Testament."

The Epistles of the Apostle Paul were the first books collected for the canon. They were gathered together by the elders of the Ephesian church.

Paul's Epistles were followed by a collection of the Gospels sometime after 100 AD:

Matthew was a tax collector at Capernaum when Jesus called him to become a disciple and later an Apostle.  Hence, he was an eyewitness to the events described in his Gospel.

Mark was a convert of the Apostle Peter and a companion of the Apostle Paul.  His mother Mary had a house in Jerusalem that was a gathering place for Christians.  Mark finally settled in Rome where he documented the memories of the Apostle Peter.  Both Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome. 

Luke was a physician who never actually saw Jesus.  A pagan by birth, he was an early convert who became a companion and co-worker of the Apostle Paul.  He wrote his Gospel for Theophilus who was a cultured Greek.  Therefore, Luke carefully examined the evidence and assigned  precise dates to the events which occurred in his Gospel.  Luke was also the author of Acts of the Apostles.

John was at first a disciple of John the Baptist.  He was the Apostle most loved by Jesus and an eyewitness to the events described in his Gospel.  John also wrote three Epistles and then the book of Revelation while exiled on the barren Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea.  After the death of the Roman emperor Domitian, John was allowed to return to Ephesus where he died at an advanced age.

In 180 AD, the so-called Muratorian Canon contained 22 New Testament books.

About 324 AD, Eusebius the Father of Church History determined that at least 20 books were worthy of inclusion in the New Testament canon.  The books of Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Jude, and Revelation were still under consideration because of authorship uncertainty.

Finally, in 367 AD, Athanasius the bishop of Alexandria listed as canonical the same 27 New Testament books that we have today.  That same Athanasius was the champion of the orthodox view when it was challenged about 325 AD.  He believed that Christ was coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial with God the Father, a belief for which he was exiled five times when he was a young man.

While some have thought the New Testament canon was a product of the Roman Catholic church, that was not the case.  About 170 AD, the church was calling itself the "catholic" or universal church.  The term was coined by Ignatius, an early church father who was arrested because of his Christian testimony and sent to Rome where he was killed by beasts in the imperial games.

According to historians, the Old Catholic Imperial church existed between 100 and 590 AD.  As that period ended, the Old Catholic Imperial church virtually became the Roman Catholic church.                         

Inspiration Incompatible With Error

Can faith in the Holy Scriptures be restored in the third millennium since the beginning of the Christian era?  Is it possible to re-establish the belief that the 39 traditional books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament are inerrant in their original manuscripts as left by the hagiographers?

There are two schools of thought: those who believe the Bible is the word of God and those who believe the Bible contains the word of God.  The former believe that the sacred writers were inspired by Almighty God and that divine inspiration is incompatible with error.

Augustine was a Church Father who was esteemed by Catholics and Protestants alike.  If he came across an apparent discrepancy in Scripture, he didn't attribute it to the sacred writers.  Instead, he concluded that it was a copying error, a translation error, or that he himself had failed to understand the passage in question.

Augustine as quoted by Leo XIII:  "On my own part I confess to your charity that it is only to those books of Scripture which are now called canonical that I have learned to pay such honor and reverence as to believe most firmly that none of their writers has fallen into any error.  And if in these books I meet anything which seems contrary to truth, I shall not hesitate to conclude either that the text is faulty, or that the translator has not expressed the meaning of the passage, or that I myself do not understand." 

The Great Tribulation

"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation, and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation and to the end.

"For there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall.

"And the man of lawlessness will be revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

"And all who dwell on earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

"How long shall it be until the end of these wonders? It shall be for a time, times, and half a time.

"And from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that maketh desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.

"How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days!"


The seventy weeks in Daniel’s Messianic prophecy are often interpreted as seven year cycles which were fashioned by God and recorded by Moses in the Books of Exodus and Leviticus.

Chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel tells us that after sixty-nine weeks, Messiah will be slain and the people of the prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Those prophecies were fulfilled in 30 AD when Christ was crucified and in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple.

Week seventy will come during the reign of the “abomination of desolation” spoken of by Daniel the prophet and re-introduced by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew.

The “abomination that maketh desolate,” also called the antichrist or the beast, will capture the popular imagination and inspire allegiance and devotion. He will strike up a covenant with rabbinical Judaism allowing them to perform animal sacrifices and grain offerings in Jerusalem’s Third Temple. Notably, for that agreement to be realized, Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque would have to be eliminated and the Third Temple erected on Mount Moriah in their stead.

However, in the middle of the seventieth week, the beast will break the covenant and prohibit the Jews from making sacrifices and oblations to their God. It is then that he will sit in Jerusalem’s Third Temple declaring himself to be God. This will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation, a time of unprecedented suffering, the likes of which has not occurred since the beginning of time, nor ever shall.

Daniel measures the length of the Great Tribulation as “a time, times, and half a time.” That’s the equivalent of 1260 days or 42 months according to the Book of Revelation. Hence, the Great Tribulation will span the last three and a half years of Daniel’s seventieth week or “a year, two years, and half a year” in prophetic parlance.

Many believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will occur 30 days after the Great Tribulation. Forty-five days later, following the Battle of Armageddon, Christ will establish His Millennial Kingdom. (1260 + 30 = 1290; 1290 + 45 = 1335)

Will believers suffer through the holocaust known as the Great Tribulation? Many think not. The following passages are examples of scriptural evidence supporting a rapture of the saints prior to the Great Tribulation:


“Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I will also keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.”

“And there will be a time of distress such as has never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.”  (That is, the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain; Revelation 13:8.)