Why the Promise of Daniel 9
Was Finished at the Cross

IntroductionBefore We Begin

This article gives a covenant perspective on Witnessing the End, the book by Dr. Christian Widener that he discussed on a broadcast with Pastor Vincent Xavier of New Wine Ministries.

Here is Dr. Widener's idea in a few sentences. In 1537 the Muslim ruler of Jerusalem, Sultan Suleiman, rebuilt the city walls and left stone signs saying so. Dr. Widener believes that was a second decree to rebuild Jerusalem, like the one in Daniel 9. If you count 483 years from 1537, you land on 2020. He believes that started the last seven years of Daniel's prophecy all over again, and that the pandemic, the Abraham Accords, the war in Ukraine, and the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 are all signs that we are inside that final seven now. He points to 2027 as the year things will come to a head.

Dr. Widener seems to be a good and humble brother. He gives his book away free to anyone who needs it. He does not ask for money. He admits he could be wrong. And his main message is to get your heart ready for Jesus. That message is right.

But I do not believe the Bible teaches a second seventy sevens. This article shows why, and it shows something better: what those seventy sevens already accomplished.

One small note. God's personal Name in the Hebrew Bible is written with four letters, and we say it as Yahweh. It is used here only when the Name is the point. Otherwise this article says God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

IntroductionWhat a Covenant Perspective Means

Reading prophecy from a covenant perspective changes the question we ask.

A covenant is a promise God binds Himself to keep. In the Bible, God does not just make predictions; He makes vows. He swore to Abraham that through his Seed all the nations would be blessed (Genesis 22:16-18). He spoke the Ten Words aloud at Mount Sinai as the vows of His covenant with His people (Exodus 20). And through the prophet Jeremiah He promised a New Covenant, where He would write those words on our hearts and remember our sins no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

All of those promises meet in Jesus. He is the Seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16). He is the Bridegroom, and the New Covenant sealed in His blood is a marriage covenant between Him and His people (Matthew 26:28; Revelation 19:7).

So when a covenant reader opens a prophecy, the first question is not "What in the news matches this?" The first question is "What promise is God making here, and how does He keep it?" Most popular prophecy teaching starts with the headlines and works back to the Bible. A covenant perspective starts with God's oath and works forward to Jesus. As you will see, that one change makes Daniel 9 much clearer.

Keep one question in mind throughout: what did God promise, and how did He keep it?

Lesson IWhat We Agree On

Let's start with the good, because there is a lot of it.

He does not believe in a two-thousand-year gap. Many prophecy teachers say Daniel's clock stopped after sixty-nine sevens and has been paused for two thousand years. Dr. Widener points out that the Bible never says that. He is right.

He does not believe the church disappears before trouble comes. He tells believers to be ready to hold fast, the way our brothers and sisters in Nigeria are holding fast right now. That is honest.

He believes the Holy Spirit is still moving. He expects God to do great things in the last days. So do I.

He wants us ready. He tells us to repent, to love Jesus first, and to share the gospel while we can. Amen.

So where do we disagree? On what Daniel 9 means. And since everything else in his book is built on Daniel 9, that matters a lot.

Lesson IIWhat the Seventy Sevens Were For

Turn to Daniel 9. Daniel is an old man in Babylon. He has been reading the prophet Jeremiah, and he sees that the exile was supposed to last seventy years (Daniel 9:2). So he prays for his people and for Jerusalem. God sends the angel Gabriel with an answer.

Now look at what the seventy sevens were for. Gabriel lists six things:

Ask yourself: who does those things? Only Jesus. He paid for sin on the cross. He made us right with God. He gave us a righteousness that lasts forever. And at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down like fire, God's people became His holy temple (Acts 2:3; 1st Corinthians 3:16).

Here is the key question. Did Jesus finish that work, or is it still waiting to be done? Listen to Hebrews:

Once. One offering. Forever. The work of the seventy sevens is done.

So think about what a second seventy sevens would mean. What would be left for it to do? Sin cannot be ended twice. Jesus does not need to die twice. A second count would be a clock with nothing to count toward.

Lesson IIIThe Count Ends With a Person

Now read the next verse carefully.

Seven plus sixty-two is sixty-nine sevens, which is 483 years. And where does the count end? "Unto the Messiah the Prince." The count does not end at a disaster or a treaty. It ends at a Person.

Count 483 years from the decree the Persian king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra (Ezra 7), and you arrive at the year Jesus was baptized, came out of the wilderness, and John the Baptist pointed at Him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God" (John 1:29). The Prince showed up right on time.

Then verse 26 says the Messiah would be "cut off, but not for himself." That is the cross. He died for us, not for Himself.

Now try Dr. Widener's second count. Start in 1537 and go 483 years. You land on 2020. But who is the Messiah the Prince who arrives in 2020? There isn't one. What arrived in 2020 was a virus. The second count keeps the math but leaves Jesus out of it, and Jesus is the whole point of the prophecy.

Dr. Widener also says the Bible has "double prophecies," and that is true in a sense. God does repeat patterns. But when God repeats a pattern, His Word tells us so. The Bible never mentions a second decree, never mentions a Muslim sultan, and never says the seventy sevens will start over. If we have to add all of that ourselves, it is our idea, not God's.

Lesson IVThe Plaza and the Moat

Dr. Widener's favorite piece of evidence goes like this. Daniel 9:25 says Jerusalem would be rebuilt with a "street" and a "wall." Some Bibles say "plaza and moat." Suleiman put his stone signs near a moat and a plaza. And Dr. Widener says the books of Ezra and Nehemiah never mention a plaza being rebuilt.

That would be a strong point if it were true. But let's check. The Hebrew word for "street" or "plaza" in Daniel 9:25 is rechov. Here is that very same word in Ezra and Nehemiah:

The plaza was there. In fact, it is where one of the greatest moments in the Old Testament happened. The whole nation stood in that plaza while Ezra read God's Word out loud, and the people wept when they heard it (Nehemiah 8).

And notice one more thing. Daniel says the city would be rebuilt "even in troublous times." Read Nehemiah 4. The builders worked with a tool in one hand and a sword in the other because enemies were threatening them. That was troublous times. Suleiman, on the other hand, built his walls when his empire was at the height of its power and peace.

Suleiman's stone signs are real, and his walls are still standing today. But a king's building sign is not the word from God that Daniel was talking about. Daniel's prophecy was about Daniel's people coming home from exile, and that is exactly what Ezra and Nehemiah tell us happened.

Lesson VWho Confirms the Covenant?

Here is the last verse of the prophecy:

Dr. Widener believes this was fulfilled by the Abraham Accords in 2020, the peace agreements between Israel and several Arab nations. He says those agreements confirmed a covenant "with many nations."

But look at the verse again. It does not say "many nations." It just says "many." That little word has a history. Listen to Isaiah talking about Jesus:

And now listen to Jesus at the Last Supper, holding up the cup:

Put them side by side. Daniel says "he shall confirm the covenant with many." Jesus says "my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many." Jesus was telling His disciples: this is it. This is what Daniel saw.

And what happened "in the midst of the seven"? Jesus died on the cross, and the curtain in the temple tore from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). God Himself tore it. The sacrifices were finished because the true Sacrifice had been offered.

This also answers Dr. Widener's point about the red heifer. He suggests that when the war stopped plans for a red heifer, that was the sacrifice being stopped. But Daniel's sacrifice was stopped two thousand years ago, at the cross. We do not need to look for it on the evening news.

Lesson VIOctober 7 and Daniel 11

I want to be gentle here. Real families lost real loved ones in terrible ways on October 7, 2023. Their pain should never be treated as a puzzle piece in a prophecy chart.

Dr. Widener reads Daniel 11:29-31 as a picture of October 7. He points out that the attack happened on a feast day, that it came from the south, and that American and European warships came to the area afterward. He links this to the verse about "ships of Chittim."

Here is what that passage is actually about. Daniel 11 tells the story of two kingdoms fighting each other for centuries: "the king of the north," which was Syria, and "the king of the south," which was Egypt. One of the kings of the north was a wicked man named Antiochus. Around 168 BC he marched on Egypt a second time. A Roman official arrived by ship, drew a circle in the sand around Antiochus, and told him to leave Egypt before he stepped out of that circle. Antiochus backed down in shame. On his way home, he took his anger out on Jerusalem and defiled God's temple.

That is the "ships of Chittim." That is the king turning back in grief (Daniel 11:30). It already happened, just the way Daniel said it would.

What about the "appointed time"? Dr. Widener says the Hebrew word there, mo'ed, points to a feast day. It is true that October 7 fell on a feast day, and I don't deny it. But in Daniel 11 that word is used again and again simply to mean "the time God has set." It does not mean a feast in those verses.

Jesus did tell His disciples to watch for "the abomination of desolation," and Luke tells us what He meant:

That happened in AD 70, within the lifetime of the people Jesus was talking to. The Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem, the believers remembered Jesus' warning, and they got out. It is also a picture of trouble still to come at the end. But the Bible's pattern runs from Antiochus, to the cross, to AD 70. It does not run through a war plan that terrorists named after a mosque.

Lesson VIIThe Horsemen Have Been Riding a Long Time

Dr. Widener lines up the first five seals of Revelation 6 with recent years. The pandemic is the white horse. The war in Ukraine is the red horse. Rising prices are the black horse. Extra deaths are the pale horse. Growing persecution of Christians is the fifth seal.

Those things are real, and they should grieve us. But when were the seals opened? Read Revelation 5. Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, takes the scroll and all of heaven sings that He is worthy to open it. That is Jesus after He rose and went back to heaven. The seals have been open ever since.

Jesus said the same thing. Wars, famines, diseases, and earthquakes are "the beginning of sorrows," but "the end is not yet" (Matthew 24:6-8). These things describe the whole time between His first coming and His return.

Think about church history. The Black Death killed about a third of Europe. The flu of 1918 killed tens of millions of people right after a world war. Believers in those days wondered if the end had come too. They were right to watch. But the seals were not a countdown for them, and they are not a countdown for us. They are a description of the world we live in until Jesus comes.

Lesson VIIISealed, Not Snatched

Dr. Widener believes God's people will be gathered to Jesus at the sixth seal, when the sun goes dark and the moon turns to blood (Revelation 6:12-17). He is close here, but read what happens right after the sixth seal:

God's servants are not taken away at the sixth seal. They are sealed. They are marked as His. Then the trumpets begin. And look at what the locusts of the fifth trumpet are told:

Why would the locusts need to be told not to hurt God's people if God's people were already gone? Because they are still here, and God is protecting them.

We have seen this before. When God sent the plagues on Egypt, He did not take Israel out first. Israel lived in the land of Goshen, and God kept the plagues away from them (Exodus 8:22-23). On the last night, the blood on the doorposts protected their homes. Then they walked out.

So when is the Bride gathered? Paul tells us:

The last trumpet in Revelation is the seventh trumpet, and when it sounds, heaven shouts that the kingdoms of this world now belong to our Lord and His Christ (Revelation 11:15). That is when the dead are raised and the living are changed. After that come the bowls of God's wrath, and we will not be here for those. As Paul says, "God hath not appointed us to wrath" (1st Thessalonians 5:9).

Why does this matter? Because a believer who expects to be taken at the sixth seal might panic if he is still here when the sun goes dark. A believer who knows God will seal him and keep him will stand firm.

The Rebellion Comes After the Sealing

Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica that the day of Christ will not come "except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed" (2nd Thessalonians 2:3). Many read "falling away" as believers walking away from the faith, and Dr. Widener points to the decline of churches since 2020 as its fulfillment. That is not what Paul wrote.

The Greek word is apostasia. In Paul's day it was the ordinary word for a revolt, a rebellion, a stand taken against a ruling authority. The Greek Old Testament uses it the same way in Joshua 22:22, where the tribes east of the Jordan swear they have built no altar in rebellion against Yahweh. And Paul puts the definite article in front of it. He does not say "a falling away" but "the rebellion," one particular event his readers had already been taught about (2nd Thessalonians 2:5).

The rebellion is the enemy's last rebellious stand, and it comes just after the servants of God are sealed. Paul says something is holding it back now, and it stays held back until the restraint is taken out of the way:

Once God's people are sealed and marked as His, heaven stands aside, and the man of sin is allowed to show himself for what he is and make his stand. His stand does not last. The Lord ends it with the brightness of His coming.

This is why the sealing matters so much. The rebellion is not the church losing its nerve. It is the enemy losing his restraint, and by the time he makes his stand, God's people already carry God's mark.

Lesson IXBe Careful With Dates

Daniel 12 mentions 1,290 days and 1,335 days. On the broadcast, the idea was to count those days from October 7, 2023, which lands in 2027. Dr. Widener also pointed out that Israel has been counting the days since the attack.

But Israel's count is a count of days the hostages were held and days the nation has been at war. It is the count of a hurting people. It is not Daniel's count. Daniel's count starts with the sacrifice being taken away, and we have already seen that Jesus did that at the cross.

I also want to add a word of caution. The church has been here before. In the 1840s, a Baptist farmer named William Miller counted Daniel's numbers and decided Jesus would return in 1844. Thousands of sincere Christians believed him. Some sold their farms and left their crops in the fields. When the day came and went, many of them walked away from God completely. People still call it the Great Disappointment.

Dr. Widener is honest that he is not certain. But when people hear a date, they often don't hear the "maybe." If 2027 passes, the people who get hurt most will be the ones who trusted most.

When the disciples asked Jesus about timing, here is how He answered:

Jesus took their eyes off the calendar and put them on the mission. That was His answer then, and it is His answer now.

Lesson XBuy Oil

This is where Dr. Widener and I end up in the same place, and I am glad of it.

Remember the story of the ten young women waiting for the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-13). All ten were waiting. All ten had lamps. All ten fell asleep. None of them knew when he would come. The only difference was that five had oil and five did not.

The wise ones did not have a better calendar. They had oil. And oil is not something you can borrow at the last minute. It is the life of the Holy Spirit in a person who has walked with Jesus day after ordinary day.

Jesus said it another way:

The blessed servant is not the one who guessed the hour. He is the one who was found doing his job when the master came home. That means loving Jesus first (Revelation 2:4-5). It means keeping the Ten Words, which God promised to write on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10). It means telling your friend or your neighbor about Jesus today, because today is the day you have.

And here is the good news underneath all of it. Daniel's seventy sevens are not a bomb still ticking over our heads. They are an oath God swore and then kept, right on time, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The covenant has been confirmed. Sin has been paid for. Everlasting righteousness is ours by faith. The promise was finished at the cross.

So we can watch without fear. We are waiting for the sixth seal, when God will seal His servants. We are waiting for the last trumpet, when the dead will rise and we will be changed. We are waiting for our King to come and reign. And while we wait, we are not counting days. We are keeping our lamps full.

For Further StudyWhere Good Christians Disagree

Not every Bible student will agree with everything in this article, and that is all right. Here are the main places where sincere believers land differently, and why I land where I do.

Which decree starts the count?

Some teachers start from the decree given to Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2) instead of the one given to Ezra (Ezra 7). Dr. Widener uses Ezra but counts it one year earlier than I do. I start with Ezra 7, because that decree restored the city's life and worship. If you disagree: nothing else in this article changes. A second count still has nothing left to do.

Who is the "he" in Daniel 9:27?

Many teachers say the "he" is a future antichrist who makes a treaty with Israel. I believe it is the Messiah, because He is the last person who acts in the passage, and because Jesus used Daniel's own words at the Last Supper. If you disagree: the Abraham Accords still don't fit, because the verse says "many," not "many nations."

How long was Jesus' ministry?

Most Christians have been taught that Jesus' ministry lasted several years. I believe the Bible measures it as the final seven of Daniel's prophecy counted in days: 490 days, from His first Passover in the temple to His last. That view depends on a few careful judgments, including how to read John 6:4 and how the Hebrew calendar ran in those years, and I encourage you to study them for yourself. If you disagree: the case against a second seventy sevens still stands. Jesus still finished the work.

What is the "falling away"?

Many read 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 as a great falling away of believers from the faith, and Dr. Widener sees it in the decline of churches since 2020. I read apostasia as Paul's readers would have heard it: the rebellion, the enemy's last rebellious stand, which comes just after God's people are sealed, when heaven stands aside. If you disagree: the order in Paul still holds. That day does not come until the rebellion comes and the man of sin is revealed, so no one can set a date before either has happened.

When are believers gathered?

Some say before any trouble begins. Dr. Widener says at the sixth seal. I believe God's people are sealed at the sixth seal, protected through the trumpets, and gathered at the last trumpet. If you disagree: the call is the same for all of us. Be ready. No view needs a date.

Was October 7 in Daniel 11?

Some see the details of that day in Daniel 11:29-31. I believe that passage already happened with Antiochus in 168 BC. If you disagree: even then, it does not give us a second decree or a date. It would be one more sorrow of this age, and the Bible's counsel stays the same: watch, pray, and hold fast.

For Further StudyA Note on Sources

This article responds to Witnessing the End as Dr. Christian Widener explained it in his interview with Pastor Vincent Xavier of New Wine Ministries (the Watchman Broadcast, late 2025). You can watch the full broadcast on YouTube. Dr. Widener offers his book as a free PDF at witnessingtheend.com. Read it, read this, and then read your Bible, and let Scripture be the judge.

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, with "sevens" used in Daniel 9 and "covenant" in Matthew 26:28.