If the ENP is the prophesied agreement of Daniel 9:27, why do there seem to be so few who understand and support this view?

Ted's Response:

I understand your thoughts about this. Most Christians have developed their own perceptions about how the 70th Week should begin and unfold. For instance, most will talk about a "7-year peace treaty" that they feel will be known worldwide, once it happens. (I view that notion to be very naïve and simplistic. See How can the European Neighbourhood Policy be the Daniel 9:27 covenant, if the latter is a "peace treaty"?)

Also, most cannot conceive of the possibility that God would leave most of Christendom "in the dark" about the fact that the final 7 years have begun. And many of those embrace the bogus view of a so-called "Pre-tribulation Rapture"; this causes them to feel it is preposterous to entertain the idea that we have entered the 70th Week—even though a 7-year agreement, involving Israel, has happened—since a Rapture has not taken place.

I firmly am convinced that God loves to "escape" from every single box in which people, including Christians, have tried to enclose Him. This is just one of the zillions of things that I love about Him. Therefore, at my core, I do not have a problem thinking that God has informed relatively few people that we already have entered the 70th Week. I never have presumed that the primitive concepts I've had about the 70th Week, for decades, would be exactly the way that this prophesied period would actually be like.

On the other hand, most people's beliefs about the 70th Week seem to be so firmly embedded in their minds that they evidently are unable to consider any possibilities other than the ones that are entrenched in their minds. Once I saw that a 7-year agreement involving Israel—the foundational cornerstone of Daniel 9:27—had taken place, then I was willing to consider any activities in the world, at large, to be within the framework of the final 7 years, as long as global conditions continued to deteriorate, and as long as the pressure on Israel to accommodate a Palestinian state escalated. These have taken place.

In the first century, most Israelites failed to understand or acknowledge the timing of their Messiah's first coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Luke 19:41-44), which was spelled out clearly in Daniel 9:25. Similarly, I cannot help but think that many (maybe even most) believers, near the end of the age, will fail to comprehend and recognize the timing of Jesus' second coming, for whatever reasons.

If this is true, and if the ENP is the prophesied 7-year agreement, then it does not surprise me, in the least, that so much of Christendom is clueless that the ENP could be the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27. For many who have been informed of this possibility, maybe they have difficulty in accepting that we might be in the final 7 years because there are worldly possessions or people that they do not want to part with. Maybe they have family members and/or friends who, they feel, would be lost if Jesus returns soon, or maybe they dread the thought of being persecuted and suffering during the Great Tribulation period. As such, psychologically and emotionally, they might be unable to accept the premise that this time is much nearer than they want to think it is.

I also have to consider the innumerable teachers and preachers of the Bible, prophecy, and the end-times who have sold countless billions of dollars in books, videotapes, CDs, and DVDs. Personally, I consider this to be a commercial endeavor of "selling" God and His Word for profit. Would not God provide adequately for His servants, monetarily and in every other way, who present His Word to others at no charge? He certainly has done that for me, ever since I retired in 1991.

Perhaps the Lord has prevented many, who have "peddled" His Word, from perceiving that the 70th Week has begun. Or perhaps these preachers and teachers understand that there could be untold millions of people, having paid for some of the things that they erroneously have written and stated about the so-called "tribulation" and the 70th Week, who would feel that they should be refunded for their purchases. Therefore, these spiritual leaders are reluctant to acknowledge the possibility that the final 7 years already have begun.

More than two years after I began my research on the ENP, I discovered that the exact middle (April 4, 2010) of my proposed 7-year period was the Feast of Firstfruits 2010 (= Resurrection Day = Easter Sunday). At that time, I began to consider the possibility that there could be a partial, Mid-Tribulation Rapture of "firstfruit" believers, which would be the "wise virgins" of Matthew 25:2,4,10. (See Is it possible that Jesus' parable about the ten virgins could indicate that there will be a Mid-tribulation Rapture?)

Indeed, if this is the case, then God will use some criterion or criteria to decide which believers will be caught up and away at that time and who will be left behind to face the Great Tribulation period. Although I can think of several possible criteria, maybe one will involve being able to recognize the timing of Jesus' second coming, which I feel necessarily would include knowing when the 70th Week has begun, since it seems that the timing of other important events within that period (such as Passover Week 2010 and Yom Kippur 2013) is able to be calculated from that one critical bit of information.

Other criteria may be possessing a deep love for Israel, which most of today's Church does not seem to have. Most of the Church either has no clue about, or has no interest in, the Spring and Fall Hebraic feasts/festivals, or really in anything that is Hebrew or Jewish. Many believe that God has permanently abandoned Israel in favor of the Church, which of course is absurd.

The vast majority of the Church considers the first day of the week, rather than the seventh day, to be the Sabbath (which is the Fourth Commandment that never has been rescinded—Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Although I go to church on Sunday, I do acknowledge that the seventh day (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) truly is the Sabbath, and I do set it apart in my mind to do several things differently during that 24-hour period.

So, perhaps, the Lord will use criteria such as these in deciding whom to remove in a partial, "wise virgin," Mid-Tribulation, "firstfruits" Rapture, should there be one. On some level, maybe selfishly, I can only hope that this is the case, because I certainly would not qualify to be caught up and away, at that time, due to any of my "filthy rag" merits or to my wretched self-worth alone.

By the way, you might be interested in reading three references, early in 2009, in Constance Cumbey's blog, that pertain to the ENP. I will put each date, along with a link to the page it is on, below:

• January 07, 2009
  http://cumbey.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
  
  
• February 11, 2009
  http://cumbey.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
  
  
• March 19, 2009
  http://cumbey.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

In any case, if April 4, 2010, comes and goes with no sacrifice and offering taking place in Jerusalem, and no apparent emergence of a global government, then I fully expect many people who are "on board" with me now to tell me what a lunatic I am and jump right off my boat, leaving me all alone in it. And I would not blame anyone for doing that. Of course, if that happens, I will be jumping out of that boat myself, as I will have to state clearly at my website that my hypothesis was wrong.