Why Jesus had to die

This was an interesting explanation of Jesus atonement and death that seemed to strike a cord with me and thought I would post it here.


When Adam chose to obey Satan, he became Satan’s slave. “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants (slaves) to obey, his servants ye are?” Rom. 6:16. As a slave of Satan, Adam lost all of his legal rights, not only to his person but also to his domain. This gave Satan legal authority to rule over man and the earth. If Satan’s dominion was to be revoked, a way had to be found to redeem fallen man and recover his lost authority without violating universal principles of justice. Since Satan was now legitimate possessor of Adam and the legal ruler of the earth, God had no moral right, under His code of justice, to arbitrarily annul it.

Thus a member of Adam’s race had to be found who could qualify to enter suit in universal court and wrest Adam’s lost heritage and dominion from Satan. The government of the earth had been given to man. It was lost by man. It could only be recovered ONLY by a man. But where was the man who could do this? Since Adam was Satan’s slave, all of his progeny were likewise Satan’s slaves. A slave has no legal standing and cannot enter court or lawfully participate in litigation. Thus no son of Adam could qualify to enter the contest. A member of the human race had to be found upon whom Satan had no claim, one who could qualify to bring suit to cancel Satan’s legal jurisdiction over mankind and the earth.

The Problem Solved: The Incarnation

God found a way. “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4). Since Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit He was NOT the fallen son of Adam. Therefore Satan had no claim upon Him. But because He was “made of a woman” He was an authentic human being and could therefore qualify as a bona fide member of the human race to enter the legal fight to reclaim Adam’s lost estate.

Daniel and the Seventy Weeks

There is a wonderfully written and detailed article that describes the 70 weeks prophecy and I agree with it.

http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/eschatology/daniel.htm

 
In summation, the seventy sevens unfold as follows

                 587 B.C. ("Issuing the Word to restore & rebuild Jerusalem")
                 -49 years ("seven sevens")
                 538 B.C. ("an anointed one, a prince"; Cyrus)

                (gap of unspecified duration)

                 440 B.C. ("street and moat return in time of distress")
                -434 years ("sixty-two sevens")
                 6 B.C. (birth of "Messiah," Jesus Christ)

                (gap of unspecified duration)


Events specified ("after the sixty-two sevens"):

        1) Crucifixion of Messiah

        2) Destruction of Jerusalem "until the end"

                 ?? A.D. ("covenant prevailing" with Israel)
                +3½ years ("the half of the seven")
                 ?? A.D. ("abomination of desolation")
                +3½ years
                 ?? A.D. ("the end"; return of Christ; judgment upon
                         "the coming prince")

Really good explanation of 2520

Ezekiel 2520 yrs.

The Prophet Ezekiel was to act out prophecy with strange per­for­mances, one of which was to lie on his side for a total of 430 days.  Each day on his side would rep­re­sent 1 year of  judg­ment on Israel.
Ezekiel 4:4 Also lie on your left side, and lay the iniq­uity of the house of Israel on it; accord­ing to the num­ber of days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniq­uity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniq­uity, accord­ing to the num­ber of the days, three hun­dred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniq­uity of the house of Israel.  6 And when you have ful­filled them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniq­uity of the house of Judah forty days; a day for a year; a day for a year, I have set for you.
So we see he is told about 390 and 40 years of judg­ment for a total of 430 years.  Each day was expressly to rep­re­sent a year of judg­ment against the nation.  Now we know they did 70 years in Baby­lon­ian Cap­tiv­ity, as part of the pun­ish­ment for not let­ting the land rest.  That leaves 360 years (430 minus 70 time served) unac­counted for.
The 360 years do not seem to fit any period of Israel’s his­tory.  It has been sug­gested by some that there might be a clue in Leviti­cus 26, where God indi­cates that: …if ye will not yet for all this hear­ken unto me, then I will pun­ish you seven times more for your sins. — Leviti­cus 26:18.  So if we take 7 times  the 360 years we end up with (7x360) = 2520 years.
These  “prob­lem” 360 years by seven yields 2520 years, is “approx­i­mately” the dura­tion of time from the exile of Judah to the final re-establishment of Israel in her own land,  some two and half cen­turies later.
Sir Robert Ander­son, in his clas­sic work The Com­ing Prince, noted that the Bible uses 360-day years in both Gen­e­sis and Rev­e­la­tion. We call that a prophetic year.
In attempt­ing to rec­on­cile the 2520 of 360-day years to our Roman cal­en­dar, one is faced with the dis­crep­an­cies between the side­real year and the solar year.  In 1572, it was rec­og­nized that errors had accu­mu­lated to 11 days too many, and adjust­ments were required.
In the Gre­go­rian Reform, Sep­tem­ber 4th was declared Sep­tem­ber 14th, and the for­mula for leap years was changed to exclude cen­turies unless divis­i­ble by four (and mil­len­nia by 400).
So 2520 years of 360-days each con­tain 907,200 days, which are equal 2483 years, 9 months and 21 days on our to cur­rent solar calendar.

2520 years  x 360 days in a year = 907,2000 days.

Another prob­lem occurs when we exam­ine more closely the “Baby­lon­ian Cap­tiv­ity.”  There are two dif­fer­ent inva­sions that are candidates:
1) “Servitude of the Nation,” in 606 BC.
2) “Desolations of Jerusalem.” in 587 BC
Each of these was proph­e­sied to be sev­enty years in dura­tion and most peo­ple think they refer to the same time.   There were actu­ally three sieges of Neb­uchad­nez­zar upon Jerusalem.
Servi­tude of the Nation in 606 BC.
The first siege began the “Servi­tude of the Nation” and was proph­e­sied to last 70 years.
The first siege of Neb­uchad­nez­zar, in 606 B.C., began the “Servi­tude of the Nation,” which lasted until the sum­mer of 537 B.C.  The inva­sion of 606 B.C. left Jerusalem intact with a vas­sal king installed..
If we count from the Fall of the Nation  end­ing  70 years later a total  907,200 days we arrive at May 14^th 1948.   On May 14, 1948, the nation Israel was reestab­lished on the world scene. But it did not include all of Jerusalem.
Des­o­la­tions of Jerusalem in 587 BC. The third siege of Neb­uchad­nez­zar, in 587 B.C., began the “Des­o­la­tions of Jerusalem,” which lasted until 518 B.C. If August 16, 518 B.C. was the com­ple­tion of the walls of Jerusalem.  The vas­sal king that Neb­uchad­nez­zar left later rebelled; a sec­ond siege resulted in his uncle, Zedekiah, being appointed to the throne. The prophets Jere­miah and Ezekiel both went on to warn that if they per­sisted in rebelling against Neb­uchad­nez­zar the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. Zedekiah ulti­mately yielded to the false prophets and rebelled.
A third siege resulted in the destruc­tion and des­o­la­tion of the city of Jerusalem in 587 BC.
The “Des­o­la­tions of Jerusalem” also lasted 70 years, until Nehemiah ulti­mately suc­ceeded in get­ting the author­ity to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This, too, was pre­cisely 70 years.
The third siege of Neb­uchad­nez­zar, in 587 B.C., began the “Des­o­la­tions of Jerusalem,” which lasted until 518 B.C.  If August 16, 518 B.C. was the com­ple­tion of the walls of Jerusalem, then 907,200 years later puts us at June 7^th 1967.
On June 7, 1967, as a result of the Six Day War,  the Bib­li­cal city of Old Jerusalem was restored to the nation.
It should be borne in mind that the “start­ing” dates are not known pre­cisely to the day.  Behold, he that keeps Israel shall nei­ther slum­ber nor sleep. — Psalm 121:4