The covenant of Daniel 9:27 is usually discussed in terms of what it gives Israel. A rebuilt Temple. Restored sacrifices. Security. For a nation that has long desired the restoration of Temple worship and sacrifices since their cessation in A.D. 70, the agreement appears to accomplish what generations could only dream about.

Three and a half years later, the man who confirmed the covenant stops the sacrifices, desecrates the Temple, and establishes himself as the object of worship. Most discussions of Daniel 9:27 focus on what Israel receives through the covenant. The more I study the passage, the more convinced I become that the greater question is what the Antichrist gains through it.

I have become convinced that the covenant is far more than a peace agreement. It may be Satan’s master deception, using the restoration of Temple worship to gain trusted access to Jerusalem, establish the conditions for the Abomination of Desolation, and ultimately redirect worship to the Beast.

The Temple Destroyed, The Temple Restored

Then, after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are decreed” (Daniel 9:26).

Before Daniel introduces the covenant of verse 27, he introduces the coming prince in verse 26 and identifies him through the people from whom he arises: the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple in A.D. 70. Then, in the very next verse, the focus shifts back to that coming prince as he confirms a covenant that allows Temple worship to function once again.

“And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will make sacrifice and grain offering cease; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate” (Daniel 9:27).

The Temple destroyed in Daniel 9:26 becomes the Temple restored in Daniel 9:27.

The connection is important.

That restoration may be one of the covenant’s central attractions. A rebuilt Temple does not exist in a vacuum. Neither does a restored sacrificial system. Any agreement permitting sacrifices would require administration, security, enforcement, and a process for resolving disputes. The arrangement would need to be protected.

What the Covenant May Actually Look Like

Daniel does not give us the text of the covenant, but he does give us enough information to consider what the agreement may need to accomplish. By the midpoint of Daniel’s seventieth week, sacrifices are operating in Jerusalem. The Antichrist then possesses enough authority to cause those sacrifices to cease. That means the covenant likely does more than promise general peace. It establishes the conditions under which Temple sacrifices can be restored, protected, administered, and enforced.

A realistic form of such an agreement may be a seven-year comprehensive framework governing Temple construction, religious access, and regional security. It could be presented as a seven-year pilot arrangement, long enough to resume worship, stabilize the security environment, and evaluate whether the agreement should later be renewed or modified.

From Israel’s perspective, such a covenant would be difficult to refuse. Beyond the practical benefits, it would accomplish something generations have long desired. The Temple is rebuilt. Sacrifices resume. For many, developments like these would naturally raise expectations concerning the coming Messianic Kingdom. The ruler who made them possible would not simply be viewed as a skilled diplomat. His role in restoring Jewish worship could be interpreted as evidence that history was moving in the right direction and that God was blessing the covenant. The ruler who made such developments possible could easily be viewed as a friend of Israel rather than a future enemy.

A restored Temple on the Temple Mount would immediately become the most sensitive religious site in the world. Its operation would require far more than political fanfare. It would require gates, guards, checkpoints, access rules, crowd control, intelligence sharing, emergency response plans, and a way to resolve disputes when tensions rise. This could include cooperation between Israeli authorities and international peacekeeping forces. It could also include agreed rules for protecting the Temple precinct and mechanisms for monitoring compliance with the covenant throughout the seven-year period.

On paper, all of this would sound responsible. No government would rebuild a Temple in Jerusalem and resume sacrifices without a serious security plan. No global leader would guarantee such an arrangement without enforcement mechanisms in place.

And that is precisely what makes the covenant dangerous.

Every provision that makes Temple worship possible also creates a point of access. If the Antichrist guarantees security, he gains a reason to be involved in security. If security personnel answerable to him work alongside Israeli authorities, they gain trust, proximity, and operational knowledge. After years of cooperation, his involvement becomes accepted, expected, and perhaps even welcomed.

Israel signs a seven-year framework.

The Antichrist signs a three-and-a-half-year plan.

Israel sees restoration, security, and the return of Temple worship. The Antichrist sees access, leverage, and time.

The betrayal at the midpoint is not the failure of his plan.

It is the unveiling of it.

Why Does Jesus Urge Immediate Flight?

“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15-16).

Jesus does not tell those in Judea to defend the Temple or organize resistance.

He tells them to flee.

Why?

Because the battle is already lost. The protector has become the threat.

The urgency is obvious. There is no time to organize resistance. No time to gather possessions. No time for a prolonged response. There may be only a narrow window of escape.

If the covenant has spent three and a half years establishing the Antichrist’s influence within the structures responsible for protecting Temple worship, those same structures could be used to restrict movement, secure access points, and rapidly lock down the area once the Abomination of Desolation occurs.

That possibility may help explain the urgency of Christ’s command. The opportunity to flee may disappear quickly.

What About Luke 21?

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand” (Luke 21:20).

Some readers may object that Jesus speaks of Jerusalem being surrounded by armies in Luke 21:20. If the city is under siege from external forces, then the danger appears to come from outside Jerusalem rather than from within.

That objection deserves consideration.

Luke describes Jerusalem surrounded by armies, a scene contextually associated with the Roman siege under Titus in A.D. 70 and the destruction described in Daniel 9:26. Matthew’s warning is different. In Matthew, Jesus points to the future Abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place. Luke describes the historical siege of Jerusalem that culminated in the destruction of the city and Temple in A.D. 70. Matthew points to a future desecration inside a restored Temple. One passage emphasizes armies outside Jerusalem. The other emphasizes the Abomination of Desolation standing within the holy place.

From Temple Worship to Beast Worship

By this point, another question emerges: Why does the Antichrist need access to Jerusalem and the restored Jewish Temple? The answer lies in what he intends to do with that access.

Because stopping sacrifices is not enough.

The sacrifices are stopped because they stand in the way of something else.

The Antichrist does not simply oppose Christ. He seeks to take the place that belongs to Christ.

Jerusalem occupies a unique place in God’s prophetic program. It is the city He chose for His dwelling place, the city associated with David’s throne, and the city from which Christ will ultimately rule the nations (Psalm 2:6; Psalm 132:13-14; Jeremiah 3:17; Luke 1:32-33).

That reality may help explain why Jerusalem becomes the focal point of Satan’s final deception. The issue is not merely political control of a city. The issue is worship. Satan seeks to place his counterfeit king in the very city from which God’s King will one day reign.

After the Abomination of Desolation, the False Prophet emerges as the chief religious voice of the Beast’s kingdom. He performs signs in the sight of men, even calling fire down from heaven. These miracles are used to convince the world that the Beast is worthy of worship. An image of the Beast is erected and supernaturally given the ability to speak. Humanity is commanded to worship it. The image itself causes those who refuse worship to be killed (Revelation 13:11-15).

The city that should welcome the Messiah becomes the center of a worship system devoted to the Beast. The Temple that should direct men toward God becomes the setting for Satan’s greatest deception.

What About Daniel 11?

Some readers may object that Daniel 11:40-45 appears to describe the Antichrist entering the Holy Land for the first time through military action. If so, does that undermine the idea that he first gains access and influence through the covenant before turning to military conquest? I do not believe it does.

Daniel 11:40-45 describes the military career of the willful king introduced earlier in the chapter. The kings of the North and South come against him, yet he overwhelms them and advances through many countries. He enters the Beautiful Land (Israel), conquers North Africa, and later responds to troubling reports from the east and north. In response, he moves out with great fury and establishes his military headquarters between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain (Jerusalem).

This is a very different picture from the early years of Daniel’s seventieth week.

Daniel 11 does not describe a ruler facilitating Temple worship or confirming a covenant. It describes a ruler already engaged in large-scale military campaigns across multiple regions.

For that reason, I understand Daniel 11:40-45 as describing the Antichrist’s later military career as the Tribulation moves toward Armageddon rather than the means by which he initially gains access to Jerusalem.

Conclusion

If this understanding is correct, the covenant’s greatest significance may not be what it gives Israel, but what the Antichrist gains through it.

The covenant appears to restore worship. The Antichrist uses it to gain access.

Three and a half years later, the deception is exposed.

But the story does not end with a counterfeit king in Jerusalem.

It ends with the return of the true King from Heaven.

At the end of the Tribulation, Israel will recognize Jesus as her Messiah. The counterfeit kingdom will be brought to an end by the return of Christ, the Beast and False Prophet will be cast into the Lake of Fire, and Jesus Christ will reign from Jerusalem, the city that has always belonged to Him, inaugurating His thousand-year kingdom.

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About the Author

Alexander Major holds a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry from Southern California Seminary, a dispensational institution located on the campus of Shadow Mountain Community Church, pastored by Dr. David Jeremiah. His interests include biblical prophecy, dispensational theology, and the study of Israel’s role in God’s prophetic program. He can be reached at atmajor@gmail.com.

 

 

I love studying the Reformation at this season of the year. I am invigorated by listening to lectures about it on sunny, summer walks, thinking about the coming fall, which points toward another Reformation Day.

Recently, my mind was drawn back to the Wartburg Castle, and I thought of Luther spending nearly a year in hiding there from May of 1521 to March of 1522, following his victorious stand at the Diet of Worms. I wonder if, while he was enduring such a trial, he ever considered his stay to be a waste of precious time.

We know that Luther experienced health struggles during that year, and that he was frustrated enough by his circumstances to make an incognito trip to Wittenberg in December of 1521. Indeed, how incredibly discouraged he must have been on occasion! Here he was in the prime of life, at the pinnacle of his ministry, spending months hidden away in obscurity in that castle. The Reformation was less than four years in the making, and Luther had come off a banner year in 1520, which saw the publication of three of his most influential books: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and The Freedom of a Christian Man.

That year had ended with Luther burning the papal bull, which levied 41 charges against him. He performed his act of defiance amidst a raucous celebration of students at Wittenberg’s Elster Gate on Dec. 10, 1520. This led to a second papal bull of excommunication and Luther’s courageous stand at Worms in April of 152l.

But then, for most of a year, there were no cheering crowds urging him on, no students to teach, no congregants to counsel, no lectures to present, no sermons to preach. Disguised as Junker Jörg, or Knight George, the bearded, long-haired Luther betrayed no connection to the movement he had launched, which was in the process of shaking the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire to their cores.

How thankful we should all be that Luther did not pass his days at the castle in idle discomfort or by succumbing to crippling depression. Instead, it would be an understatement to say that he kept himself occupied during his stay—or even that he used his time productively. It would be more accurate to state that his stay in the castle would forever affect the course of the Western world.

Following the trip to Wittenberg in December, Luther completed his translation of the New Testament into German in just 11 weeks. By this magnificent feat, he initiated the modern era of Bible translation.

Of course, Luther wrote numerous additional books during his days in hiding. But it was his translation of the German New Testament that would have the greatest influence, to be certain.

In fact, far beyond anything that Luther could plan, his work would serve as a model for a future disciple of his. This man would seek to do for the English-speaking world what Luther had done for Germany—namely, simplify the nation’s language on a popular level and translate the New Testament into that dialect in such a way that even a plowboy could understand it.

That student, of course, was none other than one of the paramount spiritual heroes of the Western world, William Tyndale.

While this particular installment in this series does nothing to chronologically advance the narrative of all that happened 500 years ago, it does set the stage for what is to come. In future columns, I look forward to sharing more about Tyndale and the events that led up to the first publication of his New Testament in English, 500 years ago, in 1526.

In spite of all appearances during that year of waiting in the shadows, God was not finished with Luther, and Luther was not finished with the Reformation. To quote a popular line, things were not falling apart—they were merely falling into place.

If you enjoy holding a Bible that you can read, in your language, in your hands, then you must confess that Luther’s year in that mighty fortress was not wasted. Its impact could never have been comprehended at the time, and it accomplished results that will only be realized in eternity.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

Dear friend, do you find yourself disheartened by your circumstances? Does it feel like life is slipping away? May the Lord help us to make the most of our—otherwise—wasted time.

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Paul J. Scharf (M.A., M.Div., Faith Baptist Theological Seminary) is a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, based in Wisconsin, and serving in the Midwest. For more information on his ministry, visit sermonaudio.com/pscharf or foi.org/scharf, or email pscharf@foi.org.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version.