Another Sabbath Year?

Q

Thank you for letting your light shine. I believe your ministry is a beacon of light for believers to see so they can stay the course!

As we can all see, the course is coming to a very sudden end. My question is about sabbatical cycles. I recently heard that Daniels 70th week has to start at the beginning of a sabbatical week. This year was the beginning of a sabbatical cycle so if it didn’t start this year, the soonest it could start would be in another 7 years. At the rate that prophecy is being fulfilled on a daily basis, I can’t see this dragging out another 7 years? Any opinion?

A

Some say that 07-08 was a Sabbath year, based on the assumption that the Temple was destroyed in 68AD, and the following year was a Sabbath year. I don’t know how that ties to Daniel’s 70th Week because I’m not aware of any Biblical requirement that the 70th week has to commence on a Sabbath year.

In fact, there are two good arguments against the view presented to you. The first is that there is no specified time between the end of the 69th week of years and the beginning of the 70th. And even if there was, the 69th week ended with the Lord’s crucifixion, not with the Temple’s destruction. (Daniel 9:26)

Second, there is disagreement as to whether the Temple was destroyed in 67AD or 68AD, which could mean that the last Sabbath year was in 06-07, and not 07-08. And it turns out that in Biblical times the Sabbath year might have begun in the Spring not the Fall. So even if Daniel’s 70th week could be tied to a Sabbath year, we still wouldn’t know when to start counting.

And of course, the beginning of Daniel’s 70 Week is only a matter of passing interest to us because we’ll be raptured before then.