Revelation: Part 38

When anyone anywhere responds to this knowledge by having a desire to know this God, God will move heaven and earth to get the message to them.

Let’s go to Daniel 8. The first part gives a bunch of symbols. Talks about a bear and a ram with two horns and a male goat. All right, those are your symbols.

The bear, who was that? Medea-Persia. The ram in this chapter is Greece. And the — I should say the male goat.

Let’s go over and see how Daniel interprets this prophecy for us. It begins in verse 20. The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of media and Persia. And in his first explanation of this prophecy, he said that one horn came up first, but the last one became the dominant one.

Okay, when media-Persia conquered Babylon, who was in charge? The media. Medians. But later, the Persians became the strongest and took over the whole thing.

So when it says one horn, one horn was the strongest when they conquered, but the latter one rose later and became dominant, which is exactly what happened. All right, now, in verse 20 he says, the ram which you saw with two horns represents the kings of media and Persia. 21, the shaggy goat represents who? The kingdom of Greece.

And the large horn that is between his eyes, the first king, who? Alexander the great. And the broken horn and the four horns that rose in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power. I just saw this on the history channel.

Another rendition of the history of Alexander the great. Most of them are inaccurate. This one had some touches of accuracy. But when Alexander died, of course, everyone was hovering around him.

They could see he was very ill. He had been wounded by an arrow. You know, this man fought at the front of his soldiers. For all of their battles, he was only wounded once and that’s when an arrow pierced his armor and severely wounded him.

And he never really got over that wound. When he got back to Persia, he got very sick. And so all of the people gathered around because, you know, they wanted to see who was going to follow him. And so they were all gathered around, and they ask him when they knew that he was very near death.

They said to whom do you will your kingdom? And he said one word in Greek, iscuron, which means to the strong, and he died. That was his final word. Usually, a king would will it to a son, and he had a son.

But he didn’t. He gathered up his last breath to say iscuron, to the strong. And the strong took it. His four field marshals, lysimachus, cassander, seleucus, and ptolemy took it and divided it up among them.

And his great kingdom became under the leadership of four generals. We would call them field marshals because they were a little more than a general. So they set up his empire under four different powers. Two of these powers became very, very important in history from that time until the time of Jesus.

And that was ptolemy who took over Egypt and a great deal of the southern part of the Middle East. And seleucus who took over Syria and a great deal of the Middle East and what is now Turkey and the environments around that area, Iraq, etc. And seleucus and ptolemy’s descendants kept fighting each other and guess who was right in the middle? Israel.

Like always, Israel is right in the middle. Now, when did he get this prophecy? Let’s see. Chapter 8 it says verse 1, in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king of a -the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one who appeared to me previously.

Now he dates it very carefully. This was in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. And it was about two years before the events of chapter 5 took place. Now chapter 5 is the famous chapter on mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.

Weighed, weighed, found wanting, divided. And that happened in the fifth year from the reign of Belshazzar. So he got this prophecy just before the fall of Babylon to media-Persia. But look what he predicted.

No one can compare Bible prophecy with anything else on earth. No one. And, you know, in seminary, we used to have a saying it seemed like all the time there were critics attacking Daniel. We used to call it Daniel in the critic’s den.

But any honest evaluation of the historicity of Daniel and the evidence for it, would show that what he said he did, he did at the time he said he did it. But the thing that critics can answer is that what they allege is that it was written some 200, 300 years after Daniel lived, in order to explain this remarkable prophecy about Alexander the great. Even if it did, the events of Daniel 9, which happened in the lifetime of Jesus, are so exact and precise, they can’t explain it away. But he did it when he said he did.

Now, here’s what’s important. He shows that 200 years before Alexander the great was born, he predicted he would conquer the world. I was looking at some of the exploits -Alexander the great is one of my favorite historical figures to study. And I was looking at some of his exploits.

You know, there’s a prophecy in the Bible that is pronouncing judgment on the city of ancient Tyre. Ezekiel 28 talks about it. And it predicts in one of these prophecies that even though Tyre would become a great maritime power, that God would bring such judgment on it for its debauchery, that even the ruins of the city would be picked up and thrown into the sea. That was about, let’s see, 250 years before Alexander invaded Tyre.

He invaded Tyre and no one was, you know, Babylon besieged Tyre for 13 years and was never able to breach it because they had an island that was about, it was about a kilometer, just under a kilometer, off the coast. And they just moved everything over to the island when they were besieged. And they had two walls around it. And they had this set up where no one would break into it.

Alexander was so furious when they couldn’t breach this thing. He said, okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to build two causeways out to that island. And it took them a year to do it.

His soldiers grumbled a little bit. They took all the ruins, they destroyed the city that was on the shore. They literally scooped up every stone and threw it into the sea to build the causeway. Fulfilled the prophecy to the letter.

And when they finally got to the wall, they built a siege machine the like of which no one had ever seen before. They brought it up there, and they were able to breach the first wall and to put a scaffolding over that. And Alexander was the first to lead them over the wall. He was some kind of warrior.

And they conquered Tyre. And when they went to Jerusalem, they were going to besiege it, but the high priest of Israel, who was one of the returning refugees from Babylon, came out under a truce to meet Alexander and he had a scroll of the book of Daniel. And he read and interpreted the 8th chapter to Alexander. Alexander fell on his face.

He was so stunned by the fact that the Hebrew God had predicted his rise to power that he turned from there and went back and faced Darius and beat him. And he never bothered Jerusalem. History is amazing, isn’t it? All right, now, in Daniel 8:22 again.

And the broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation. Although not with his power. And then we have a big, and this happens in prophecy a lot, a big historical parenthesis. We know it’s a historical parenthesis because it leaps to events that are in the end time.

The time just before the Messiah comes to set up God’s kingdom. And that’s this time. So he says and in the latter period of their rule, now this is talking about all of the Gentile kingdoms. In the latter period of their rule, when the transgressors have run their course, a king will arise insolent and skilled in intrigue.

And his power will be mighty, but not by his own power. And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will. He will destroy mighty men and the holy people. And through his shrewdness, I think the best translation here is cunning.

Through his cunning, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence. Man, that sounds like the media today, doesn’t it?

And he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease. Now, you know, here’s where I have to say the old King James version really got it right. I’m thankful I don’t have to depend on any english text, because I know both Hebrew and I know Greek. I don’t know chaldean.

I wish I did. But do you know the word here that’s translated while they’re at ease, you ever heard the Hebrew word shalom?

What does it mean? Peace. Well, this, the word that is used here has the “b,” the “b” in front of it, which means by means of. B’shalvah, which means by means of peace.

And that’s the way it should be translated. And the King James does translate that way. Now, here’s the way it should read. He will magnify himself.

In verse 25 now, he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many by means of peace. People in Israel and, indeed, in many parts of the world, here in the United States, too. Are so anxious for peace that they’ll do just about anything to get it. And, you know, peace, if you look at the history of the world, peace was never a gift.

Peace in a nation only comes because some brave people got the determination and courage to fight for it. And I get so tired of these yellow-livered, academy award-would-be analyzers of history and what’s best and all of that. Now I’m not saying that war is something that anyone should enter lightly. But I am saying that when you have an enemy that has clearly defined that he is going to destroy you, and he has declared war against you, you can’t cut and run and withdraw back to your own chore and think you’re gonna have peace.

Can you?

The Bible certainly says you can’t. But what this, what this Antichrist is going to use is people’s desire for peace to destroy them. Because he will get them into allegiances. He’ll get them to make compromises that will lead them to their own destruction.

In the first part on this chapter that I wrote in “there’s a new world coming,” I talk about, you know, this man in history who said our country is under siege. We’re under attack both inside and out. We have rioting in the streets, rioting in our schools. No one is keeping order and peace.

And he said we need to establish order or our country will fall apart. Words to that effect. You know who said that? Adolf hitler, 1932.

This is why I believe that the Bible indicates that just before the beginning of that seven-year period that we call the Tribulation that the world is going to go into great chaos and fear. And there will be the strong man who will stand up in Europe. And as he’s described, he gives the appearance of great strength, the good kind. Great strength of being fervor, passionate about the future of mankind.

Passionate about human ability to solve its problems. A passionate humanist who believes that man can conquer and set forth a world that will be a paradise. And he will stand up and end this chaos and there will be people who will flock to him. Because he’ll appear to be the most wonderful man that’s ever been born.

And that’s the kind of man that these prophecies are describing in those times. It says that by means of peace, he will destroy many. He will even oppose the prince of princes. Now this gives us the time that this prophecy is about, doesn’t it?

Who’s the prince of princes? Jesus. He is going to personally oppose Jesus Christ and you can read about that in chapter 19 of the book of Revelation. When Jesus appears to come back, he’s gonna turn all of the war machines on him to try to keep him from coming back.

Now that’s when you’re really stupid, isn’t it?

All right, now look at Daniel 11. Daniel 11 is quite an amazing chapter. It is — it was written chapter 11 verse 1. And in the first year of Darius the mede, okay, what does that tell us?

It’s right after the Medes and the Persians conquered Babylon. In the first year of the reign of Darius the mede. Now this gives us a lot of history past. And it gives some remarkable things and it touches on the career of the Roman Empire and things like that.

And it continues to do this until verse 35. Look at verse 35. Now I hope this is not boring to you. Is it?

You know, I really, I really think you got to have a scriptural background to understand all of this, okay? And I hope I’m not being too dry here. All right, now verse 35. And some of those who have insight will fall in order to refine, purge and make them pure, until the time of the end.

Because it is still to come at the appointed time. All right, now here’s this long line of history, the first 34 verses. And it sums up the treatment of past history there. When he wrote it, it was still future.

But most of this has been fulfilled up -well, all of it was fulfilled up to verse 35. And in verse 35 it says, but at the time of the end, there are certain things that are appointed. And then there is another one of those big giant historical parenthesis. And it leaps from the time back there to the end time.

Now, look at verse 36. Then, in other words, after this leap of time, then the king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every God, and speak monstrous things against the God of gods. And he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.

It’s interesting some of the translations in the other passages here. Put it this way. Then the king shall do according to his own will, he shall exalt and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods. That is the true God.

And shall prosper until the wrath has been accomplished, for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women. This is the New King James version I’m reading from. Nor regard any God, for he shall exalt himself above them all.

But in their place, he shall honor a God of fortresses. All right, now what is this telling us? You know, I’ve often thought how is the Antichrist going to establish a one-world religion? As we’ll see in chapter 17 and 18, he does.

How in the world is he going to get muslims and buddhists and, you know, all of the episcopalians and presbyterians.

What I’m trying to say is all of those who are in Church, but really didn’t believe. Whatever denomination it is because it doesn’t matter what denomination you are. It’s whether you personally believe that Jesus Christ died in your place, and you’ve received the gift of pardon as a gift and asked him to come into your life and take it over. Now there are a lot of people in Church that haven’t had that personal commitment and experience.

Well, that will be part of all this. But the point is I’ve often wondered how -you know, look at the muslims with their traditions and everything. Man, they don’t want to compromise anything. Confucianism and, you know, what’s that religion of Mary glover patterson eddy?

Christian science. All these people got these religious history and traditions and things like that. How is he gonna get everybody to do this? Well, he is going to come in and it says he’s not going to regard any gods.

Not the God of gods, the true God, nor any God, false gods. But instead it says he is going to honor a God of fortresses.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary. And he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives. Thank you so much for standing with me as a watchman on the wall. I pray daily that he will reward your faithfulness and protect and prosper you in these difficult times.

Thank you again for being a vital part of my team.