In Daniel 9:24-27, the Seventy Weeks Prophecy¹ predicted that Messiah the Prince (Christ) would be cut off (crucified) at the end of the 69th week of seven years.² Some scholars believe the 70th week followed the 69th week without interruption.³ They conclude, therefore, that after Christ was crucified in about 34 AD, the Seventy Weeks Prophecy ended with the Roman Abomination of Desolation that desecrated and destroyed Herod's temple in 70 AD.⁴ However, an end date of 70 AD cannot be reconciled with Daniel's prophetic timeline where one week equals seven years.⁵ In other words, if the last and 70th week of seven years is simply added to 34 AD without any extension or gap, then the end date of the Seventy Weeks Prophecy would be 41 AD‒not 70 AD.

Based on Daniel's description of what will occur during the last (70th) week of seven years, there must be a 2000-year gap of time (+/-) between the 69th and 70th weeks of seven years. With the clarity of historical hindsight, the existence of a gap in time between the 69th and 70th weeks of years is undeniably certain, and so too is the likely duration of about 2000 years. The Seventy Weeks Prophecy is completely silent on the duration of this necessary gap in time, but many latter days signs of the times have been fulfilled‒and are now being fulfilled‒that validate a 2000-year duration for the gap.

Symbolically speaking, significant earthly events are frequently measured from God's perspective of 1000 years, including the seven seals of 1000 years each that are explained in Doctrine and Covenants Section 77:7, and the millennial period of 1000 years when Satan is bound as described in Revelation chapter 20. One day with the Lord is as 1000 years on earth as stated in Psalms 2 and 90:4 Peter 3:8. One thousand is also a superlative number derived from the product of 10x10x10, with the number 10 representing one part of the whole of the Seventy Weeks Prophecy. A period of 2000 years as the product of 2x1000, may symbolically reflect a time of great evil and opposition against the Jews and Jerusalem where the number 2 is one short of the perfect and godly number 3. Two millennia of desolations serve as a dual witness against the unbelieving and unrepentant Jews during this time that Daniel calls a time appointed in Daniel 10:1 and Daniel 11:35. The measure of time for the 2000-year gap of Jewish oppression is not haphazard, nor is it a matter of mere coincidence.

Daniel 9:26 symbolically describes three desolating events that oppress God's covenant people and the establishment of God's kingdom in Jerusalem during the 2000-year gap.⁶ First, Daniel prophesied that after the crucifixion in 34 AD, that is after the 69th week),⁷ a "prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary."⁸ This prophecy was fulfilled when Titus, a Roman prince at the time,⁹ destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.¹⁰ This Abomination of Desolation in 70 AD¹¹ foreshadows the future Abomination of Desolation that will occur after the gap, and immediately before the Second Coming, during the 70th week of seven years.¹²

The second prophesy in Daniel 9:26, predicts the Great Apostasy during the 2000-year gap. Daniel describes the Great Apostasy as a flood,¹³ and he means a flood of spiritual darkness that covers the earth for 1290 years after the destruction of Jerusalem from 70 to 1360 AD.¹⁴ In the Book of Revelation, John used a different reckoning of time and definition for the Great Apostasy during Daniel's 2000-year gap. John defined the Great Apostasy as a lack of priesthood authority on earth, which lasted 1260 years from 570 to 1830 AD.¹⁵ For the Jews specifically, however, the 2000-year gap is a continuous period of apostasy from the crucifixion at the end of the 69th week until the Second Coming at the end of the 70th week.¹⁶ The Jews, as a people, will not be converted until Christ steps foot on the mount of Olives and the Jewish remnant then sees the wounds of crucifixion in his hands and feet.¹⁷

Daniel's third and final prophecy in Daniel 9:26 confirms that the gap will continue until the start of the 70th week of seven years when, according to NIV Daniel 9:26, "desolations have been decreed." In other words, at the time Physical Armageddon begins the desolations decreed during the 70th week will be set and decreed. John identifies the moment of this set time in Revelation 9:13 and 15, saying: "the sixth angel sounded.... And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men."¹⁸ These scriptures collectively indicate that from the end of the 69th week of 7 years‒which is when the Savior was crucified‒desolations were determined upon the Jews and Jerusalem for 2000 years until the sixth trumpet angel sounds and Armageddon begins precisely at the start of the 70th week of 7 years. These events will occur at their appointed time without fail.¹⁹

Daniel 9:26 predicts that after the Roman abomination in 70 AD,²⁰ there would be continuing desolations poured out upon the Jews²¹ because they crucified Jesus Christ.²² Jesus made the same prediction in Matthew 24:8, saying that the desolation and destruction of Herod's temple in 70 AD, was just the beginning of sorrows for the Jewish people and Jerusalem. Desolations will continue until Physical Armageddon begins,²³ and then the overspreading of abominations in Daniel 9:27 shall be determined, fixed, and carried out until the Second Coming.²⁴ In other words, during the seven-year battle of Physical Armageddon, Jerusalem shall be made desolate, even until the consummation which is the Second Coming identified in Daniel 9:27.

It is a historical fact that since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD²⁵ the Jews have been a persecuted and desolated people.²⁶ The desolations include the inquisitions against them²⁷ that continued into the early 19th century.²⁸ There have also been many state sponsored riots against Jews called pogroms,²⁹ as well as the most recent holocaust that killed at least five million Jews.³⁰ Jerusalem has also been destroyed and repeatedly trodden down³¹ by the Gentiles.³² These atrocities against the Jews have all occurred in the 2000-year gap exactly as Daniel predicted.³³

If 2000 years is the correct measure of time for the gap between the 69th and 70th weeks of the Seventy Weeks Prophecy, then the gap has almost run its course since the crucifixion of Christ in 34 AD. Less than one decade remains before Daniel's 70th week of seven years will begin³⁴ and then only another seven years remain in the 70th week until the Second Coming. This assumes, of course, that the 2000 years is the correct measure for the gap of time between the 69th and 70th week of 7 years.