Recently, I listened to a sermon by Dr. Al Mohler Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, that he preached several years ago at The Shepherd’s Conference sponsored by Grace Community Church in California.
In that sermon, he said: “Misidentifying the Messiah is not just a massive theological mistake. It would be blasphemy. It would be slander against God to misidentify the Messiah or to attribute messianic identity clearly to one who is not the Messiah.”
Dr. Mohler is absolutely correct. It would be blasphemy. However, his seminary and Bible-believing churches all over the world are doing just that with their interpretation of Daniel 9:27a, which says “he shall confirm the covenant with many.” They misidentify the “he” in that verse as the Antichrist.
By teaching that verse is predicting that the Antichrist will make a covenant with end-time Israel, as traditional exegesis of Daniel developed in 19th-century England has been asserting incorrectly for more than a century, blasphemy against Jesus and slander against God is being committed.
In my book Daniel Unsealed, an exposition of the chrono-specific prophecies in the Book of Daniel, including Daniel 9:24-27 (the prophecy of the “seventy weeks”), I show from Scripture that verse 27a is talking about the New Covenant prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and confirmed by Jesus with His blood in the year 30 CE, not about the Antichrist and end-time Israel.
I know with certainty that the Congregation you lead would never intentionally blaspheme our Lord or slander God. As a brother in Christ, however, I am compelled to point out that you have been inadvertently doing just that by teaching an eschatology based on an outdated exegesis of Daniel, chapter 9, that has, for far too long, been taught in error.
Check it out for yourself. You can download a free copy of Daniel Unsealed in PDF format from our bookstore.