Parenthesis (Two Comings of Yeshua)

Bible students who believe in one of the various forms of preterism (the teaching that events like Daniel's 70 weeks, Matthew 24, and most of the book of Revelation have already been fulfilled) generally poke fun at those who, like myself, believe in a parenthesis of time between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel 9. I've got one book here in my office that calls such a teaching "silly putty exegesis." However, what most of these people do not realize (or either do not consider) is that if they believe in the first coming and the second coming of the Messiah then they already believe in the parenthesis or gap, they just may not have realized it yet.

The student of Scripture knows that Yeshua came the first time and after his death and resurrection lived on the earth for a short period of time. He then, according to Acts 1:9-11 was taken up into heaven, a cloud receiving Him, in the presence of His disciples. As the disciples watched this two men in white clothing stood by and said to them this, "This Yeshua, who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven." This proves that Yeshua will come back physically and visibly to this earth, i.e. in the same way that they saw him leave into heaven. This has not taken place; it most assuredly did not take place in 70 A.D. when many preterists believe Yeshua "came" in judgment upon the nation of Israel. Regardless of how much they attempt to "stretch" Scripture to teach such doctrine there is no way to read Acts 1:9-11 and say that Yeshua came in 70 A.D.in the same way that He left in Acts 1:9-11. The fact is this, there has been a gap of time, a parenthesis, between His first coming to this earth and His second coming to this earth.

More than one text could be looked at here but I would like to point out the parallel in Luke 4:14-21 and Isaiah 61:1-2. In Luke 4 Yeshua enters a synagogue on the Sabbath day and has the opportunity to read from the scroll of Isaiah. The place He read from was what we now call Isaiah 61, even though Yeshua would have never called it Isaiah 61 - there were no chapter and verse subdivisions in the scroll Yeshua held in his hands. He read this Scripture:

The Spirit of the Lord (Yahweh) is on me,
because He (Yahweh) has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's (Yahweh's) favor. [Luke 4:18-19 HCSB]

Here Yeshua directly quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 and then gives the scroll back to the attendant in the synagogue. He proclaims to those watching Him that today this Scripture has been fulfilled. It must have been an amazing moment.

What is also amazing is that when we consult the text in Isaiah we see that Yeshua stopped right in the middle of what the prophet Isaiah said. The prophet Isaiah adds this after the last sentence Yeshua read:

...and the day of our Elohim's vengeance... [Isaiah 61:2 HCSB]

I would ask you to open your Bible and look at Luke 4:18-19 and compare it with Isaiah 61:1-2. It will be clear that although Isaiah continued on to speak about the day of Yahweh's vengeance, Yeshua did not read that part of the scroll in the synagogue that day. Why? The only reason that we can arrive at is this: the portion Yeshua read was being fulfilled at His first coming, but the day of Yahweh's vengeance would be fulfilled at His - yet future - second coming. This shows that the prophecy of Isaiah, though appearing on the surface to be speaking of one singular coming, is actually talking about two separate comings. Yet right in the middle of two sentences we have a gap of time; the same gap I discussed briefly in dealing with Acts 1:9-11.

So much more can be said about this, but for now let me just add that this is exactly what is happening in Daniel 9:25-27. We read of two occurrences after the first 69 weeks, one of which involves the first coming of the Messiah. There must however be a gap of time between the 69th and 70th week because that is the only way you can have the two occurrences in Daniel 9:26 happening after 62 (or 69) weeks but before the 70th week of Daniel 9:27. The gap is none other than the time span that exists in the minds of all those who believe in the physical first coming of Messiah as well as in the physical second coming of Messiah.

Matthew Janzen