Final comment on Daniel 9: Nowhere in the NT is this prophecy quoted directly. This is something conspicuous by its absence, in that no one mentions it as messianic prophecy. Jesus mentions the “abomination of desolation” which is found a couple of places in Daniel, but it’s not specific enough. This tends to support my contention that the primary point of the passage in Daniel 9 is to disabuse him of the notion that Israel would ever return to her former glories.
So, we cannot call it a part of the classically recognized messianic prophecies as identified by scholars. However, on a popular level, late Second Temple rabbinical commentaries on Daniel’s prophecy seemed to agree that it indicated a Messiah coming, typically with a timing roughly when Jesus ministered. This is why Bible teachers assert that there was a very good reason so many Jews were expecting the Messiah when Jesus appeared.
However, here’s something noteworthy in thinking about Hebrew numerology — Heiser points out that in Luke 1, if you count the days from the moment Zachariah is informed he would have a son, to the time Jesus was dedicated in the Temple, that was 490 days, a literal seventy weeks. Note that it’s also the same angel Gabriel who spoke to Daniel and to Zachariah, and they were both praying. Heiser mentions other parallels.
I haven’t changed my convictions regarding Revelation or Matthew 24-25, so there’s no point in rehashing those here. My commentaries are available from the Radix Fidem library. Heiser lists the other passages that mention Jesus’ return. The main point is whether you collate and harmonize them or insist that they discuss two different events, a rapture and a return. It requires a nit-picking grammatical legalism to see two separate events, which is a standard feature of evangelical biblical exegesis in the first place.
Heiser also points out how Galatians 3 shoots a big hole in any doctrine that assumes Israel and the Church continue in parallel. That passage says outright that the New Covenant replaces the Old, that those who follow Christ are true heirs of the promises to Abraham. This is something we emphasize in our teaching. The national covenant died on the Cross.
Finally, the other major issue is whether you believe that Solomon’s domain (1 Kings 4:21-24) fulfilled the promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:6-7), since both use the exact same landmarks. While we believe it no longer matters, just for the record, Solomon got all the land Abraham was promised. There is no unfinished business on that issue. God’s promise was fulfilled.
That’s enough eschatology. Jesus is coming back and we will all be surprised by some aspect of His return.
“we will all be surprised by some aspect of His return.”
In a long-defunct forum, some knucklehead said when Jesus comes back, He’ll be gay, to stick it to the evangelicals and fundamentalists (I suppose he assumed only conservative American Christians were opposed to homosexuality). Someone much smarter than me said, why not return as an adulterer and offend just about everyone?