It is certainly true that the coming of Daniel's 70th Week constitutes an abrupt change in God's economy away from the Gentiles and toward Israel. For this reason, some believe that the Church, must be physically removed from the earth prior to its beginning. However, it is instructive to turn the clock back to the first century for our reflection on this question.

When the Church first began in Jerusalem on Pentecost in AD 32, there were only a small number of Jews who witnessed that occasion. The vast majority were scattered among the nations and had no clue that it had occurred. Indeed, they continued to attend their local synagogues, oblivious of the fact that God had just side-tracked the old Covenant of Law, and was directing everyone into a new Covenantal relation with Him through Messiah. In fact, those first century Jews who took that step of believing that Jesus was the Messiah had a critical role to play, by instructing Jews and Gentiles alike about the new Way. This they did for more than 30 years following Pentecost, during the book of Acts.

By this reasoning, Church Age believers would have no reason to remain on earth after the beginning of the 70th Week, unless they have some critical role to play, such as instructing Israel concerning the new Kingdom Covenant, which they are to receive. If so, such instruction would follow a pattern similar to that of the first century, for Jews living after the advent of the 70th Week would otherwise have no clue about what they are to do. 

In addition, consider the possibility that the Rapture of the Body of Christ might itself be timed to occur in conjunction with Israel's redemption, so as to make it obvious to all Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. This possibility, coupled with some supporting historic evidence, can be see in the "70th Week" section of The Prophets Speak. ("Begin your complete End Time study" to access this material.)

The first part of this question is quite true, but the circumstances involving the Church and Israel at the end of the first 69 Weeks of Daniel and the beginning of the 70th Week are not equivalent. Certainly the Church couldn't exist during the first 69 Weeks, for the essential requirement for its creation, Jesus Christ's sacrifice, had not yet occurred. In contrast, both the Church and Israel do now exist concurrently, and are to arrive at the advent of Daniel's 70th Week together. Consequently, the situations at these two times are quite different.

Alternatively, it is suggested that the Church's relation to the 70th Week is really not the critical link, to determine when the Body of Christ might be removed from the earth. Biblical history makes it clear that the creation of the Church was directly linked to Jesus Christ's sacrifice, followed by His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Since its beginning was not triggered by the end of the first 69 Weeks of Daniel, it follows that its removal from earth should likewise not be triggered by the occurrence of the 70th Week.

The Church's creation was not timed on the basis of the end of the first 69 Weeks, which did not fall on an important Levitical Set Season date, but rather on the occurrence of the significant Levitical dates of "First Fruits" during Passover Week, and Pentecost, fifty days later. Jesus Christ was resurrected on First Fruits, and the Holy Spirit came fifty days later on Pentecost, to begin the Church Age. Likewise, the timing for the Rapture should not be expected to occur with the arrival of the 70th Week, but more appropriately, with the arrival of a Sunday following a Passover, preceding a Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would again come to redeem Israel. 

An elaboration of this view can be see in the "70th Week" section of The Prophets Speak. ("Begin your complete End Time study" to access this material.)

The prophet Daniel was given the 70 Week prophecy by the angel Gabriel, and recorded it in (Daniel 9.24-27). Sir Robert Anderson, in his book titled "The Coming Prince", determined that "70 Weeks", actually "70 Sevens" of years, should be calculated on the basis of a prophetic 360 day year. Daniel's prophecy indicates that the first "69 Sevens" = 483 (360-day years), will conclude with the coming of Messiah.

(Daniel 9.25) of that prophecy indicates that "from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there shall be sixty-nine weeks". Anderson studied possible starting times in the Old Testament, and found that this command could be referenced to Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem in 445 BC, to do just that. Using that starting date, he computed AD 32 to be the year of Messiah's crucifixion. As a further refinement, he then assumed that the starting date within 445 BC was Nisan 1, based on Hebrew convention that the first day of the month was normally assumed, when not expressly recorded as in the case of (Nehemiah 2.1). That refinement produced an end date of April 6, AD 32, which also happened to fall on the Sunday just prior to Passover in that year. Of course, the Bible indicates that the Sunday before Passover, AD 32, was the occasion of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, when He presented Himself as King, so the Daniel prophecy thereby identifies both the year and date in that year, when Jesus Christ announced that He was King Messiah.

Bible critics have attempted to discount the authenticity of this prophecy by speculating that it was written after-the-fact, only using Daniel's name. However, another aspect of the calculation serves to disprove such speculation, for an April 6, Sunday date will be produced only if it is counted on the basis of a "sidereal" year, i.e. a year measured on the basis of astronomical time. Since the length of a sidereal year was unknown for centuries after the Bible was written, this prophecy could not have come from man, but only from God who created and knew the precise length of an astronomical year. 

Many Christian and Rabbi scholars in the past have believed that Daniel's "70 Weeks" and the ancient Jubilee Calendar were somehow connected. More specifically, it has been proposed that Daniel's "70th Week" should end in a Jubilee year. This probable association has spawned a great deal of effort to reconstruct the Biblical Jubilee Calendar, for such a construct could allow the identification of the Jubilee year following Israel's 1948 return to the Land.

This subject is treated in detail in the Coming Glory portion of Olive Tree Studies at , and the resulting ancient Jubilee Calendar has then been projected into the 20th century to show that 1945 and 1995 were Jubilee years.

This result has then been applied in the "70th Week" section of The Prophets Speak, to show that these results are quite credible when compared with recent historic events. ("Begin your complete End Time study" to access this material.)

Admittedly, if we had been living back in the first century on Palm Sunday, AD 32, at the completion of the first 69 Weeks of this prophecy, it would have been logical to expect its conclusion just seven years later. In that case, we might have expected that something would occur to "bring an end to sacrifice and offering" 3½ years later in AD 35/36. However, long before that time, Messiah had been sacrificed on the cross and returned to Heaven, Pentecost had occurred, the Church Age was well underway, and the book of Acts records that Israel was still steadfastly refusing to accept Jesus as Messiah. Thus, recorded history requires that we must reread the wording of the prophecy for another possible meaning.

It is clear from a reading of this prophecy that "70 Weeks" must complete all of the blessings that God plans for Daniel's people, i.e. the Jews. However, it is also abundantly clear from recorded history that those universal provisions never accrued to first century Israel. To be sure, a few Jews did receive Jesus as their promised Messiah, thereby obtaining individual forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, but corporate Israel overwhelmingly rejected Him. Consequently, curses not blessings, actually befell that nation just 38 years later in AD 70, when the entire nation was destroyed by the Roman army, and the Jews were scattered among the Gentile nations until after World War II. In fact, Messiah forecast such a tragic conclusion on the final day of the first 69 Weeks, when He wept about its imminent demise (Luke 19.41-44).

Therefore, people deal with the 70th Week of this prophecy in one of three ways:

1. Some hold that this prophecy is incorrect, either in its original text or as the result of subsequent textual corruption. 

2. Alternatively, others take the view that the promises never did refer to national Israel, but instead were to be spiritually fulfilled through the Church. This would be a version of "Replacement Theology".

3. Finally, there are those who believe and read the Bible literally that "Daniel's people" refer to national Israel, thereby requiring a time gap between the 69th and final 70th Week. 

The Prophets Speak accepts the third view, and provides a detailed discussion within the section dealing with Daniel's 70th Week. ("Begin your complete End Time study" to access this material.)

There are probably three chief reasons why the 1990s stimulated so much interest with respect to the End Times. (1) It was a decade of momentous world events, with the fall of Communism, the Middle East war with Iraq, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. (2) It began a time of real soul-searching by Israelis, prompted by the genesis of Palestinian intafada in 1988, contesting Israel's fundamental right of existence in the Land. (3) It ended a period of two millennia since the birth of Jesus, causing many to wonder if the new millennium would bring some great upheaval in the affairs of mankind.

Although these three realities were legitimate premonitions of the End Times, the world did not detect some of the most significant aspects of these phenomena.

1. Those world events not only created major impacts on the world scene, but more importantly, they were all timed on the basis of a 360-day prophetic calendar, a Biblical time metric unique for the End Times.

2. The Palestinian Intafada spawned the Oslo Peace Accord, an attempt to bring about an end to conflict in the Land. However, it was not realized that the Peace Accord itself was also conducted on the basis of a 360-day calendar, prophetic of the End Times.

3. The world looked at the year 2000 as the epoch for the new millennium, but failed to realize that the Biblical year for the advent of a new millennium was actually 1995, not discerning the major import of that year from a Biblical perspective.

   1. 1995 was actually a Jubilee year, based on a projection of the Biblical Jubilee calendar, and it marked 2000 years from the birth of Jesus, which also occurred in a Jubilee year.

   2. That particular Jubilee year was also highly significant for the End Times from a Biblical perspective, because it completed 60 Jubilees (3000 years) from the start of David's Old Testament kingdom, and 40 Jubilees (2000 years) from Jesus' birth. "60" would be the appropriate time period for the kingdoms of men prior to a change in God's economy, and "40" an appropriate time span for the Jews to remain in a "wilderness" of unbelief toward their Messiah, during the Times of the Gentiles.