Daniel 7b:

Reading #406  The persecutions

When we left Daniel last week, we had a fairly clear picture of where and when the religious anti-Christ (in place of) would arise.  To make sure that we do understand this, the Spirit of God arranged for a holy interpreter to confirm our thoughts.

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Daniel 7:

15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 16 I came near to one of them that stood by [an angel spectator, for visions can be shared like movies], and asked him the truth of all this.  So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things [from beginning to end in a nutshell]!

17 “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. 18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.”

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One of the “watchers and holy ones” who shared the vision with Daniel gave him the explanation of the figures.  There would be four earthly worldwide kingdoms before God’s people would receive their reward.

Lateral thought:

What is that reward?

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Hebrews 11:

12 Therefore sprang there even of one [Abraham], and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.  13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth .  .  .  

39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not THE promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. [We’ll all get it together after the resurrection.] 

Galatians 3:

29 And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.  

Romans 4:

13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.  

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Now we have confirmation that we have read correctly about the nations. 

But Daniel wanted to know more, so he asked:

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Daniel 7:

19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass [the Romans incorporated Greek ideas and even their language in the running of their empire]; which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped [persecuted] the residue with his feet.

20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.  

21 I beheld, and the same [little] horn made war [from its inception] with the saints [becoming more “stout” than the rest of the horns],

and prevailed against [attacked] them [God’s people];

22 UNTIL

 [1]           the Ancient of days came [and sat down],

 [2]   and judgment was given to the saints of the most High;

 [3]   and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

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Here the Spirit of God draws our attention to the fact that there would be three special periods of violence by the anti-Christs. 

Thus we see -

[1]  that the time of religious persecution by the Papal system would cease when the judgment by the Father began; 

[2]  that after that judgment is finished persecution will re-commence (with increased might) and not cease again till the time of the resurrection and the Christians begin their examination of the books with Christ; (Revelation 20:4)

[3]   and, finally, it would begin all over again at the end of time (with ALL of Satan’s forces) and only cease when the new world comes into existence.  (Revelation 20:7-9)

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Daniel 7:

23 Thus he [the angel] said, “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

24 “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:

“and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

25 “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

26 “But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it to the end. 27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.  

28 “Hitherto [up till now] is the end of the matter”.

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A great clue here is the fact that the angel told Daniel that the Papacy would be active for 1,260 years.  A “time” in the Bible is the equivalent of a literal year.  But in prophecy a “day” and a “year” mean much more.  One prophetic “day” equals one literal year, and one prophetic “year” equals 360 literal years, as per the Jewish calendar of the time.  This was well understood by Daniel, for it was written in the books of Moses, “And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know My breach of promise”.  Numbers 14:33-34.

And in another place it had been recently said, “Lie you also upon your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that you shall lie upon it you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed you each day for a year”.  Ezekiel 4:4-6.

So, “a time and times and the dividing of time” means one “time” of 360 years, two “times” equalling 720 years, and half a “time” of 180 years: a total of 1260 years.  This places the end of the POLITICAL power of the little horn, the Papacy, in 1798AD.  As the “beast” (Pagan Rome) already had the ten “horns” on its head BEFORE the “little horn” Papacy came into existence, and since three of those disappeared, it follows that the remaining SEVEN “horns” of the 6^th century cannot match the TEN “toes” of the 21^st century. (We’ll come across the powers of the ten toes in another prophecy later.) 

This little horn power was also to attempt to change the times in God’s law, the Ten Commandments – i.e. it has (rather successfully) changed the Son of God’s fourth commandment to keep the seventh day, Saturday, holy, into a church commandment to keep the first day, Sunday, as a rest day.  (Check this out)  http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/sunday_law.html

But even now there are still a sizeable number of professed Christians who honour God’s rest day.  He says:

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Exodus 20:

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shall you labour, and do all your work: 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God [not yours]: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: 11 for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

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Note that the Sabbath is NOT a “Jewish” day, but the LORD’s day! 

And this is what it means:

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Hebrews 3:

14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end; 15 while it is said, “Today if you will hear His [the Spirit’s] voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”

16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke [reject]: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 17 But with whom was He grieved forty years?  Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

18 And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His [Sabbath] rest, but to them that believed not?

19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.  

Chapter 4:

1 Let us [Christians] therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His “rest”, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For to us [in the New Testament times] was the gospel preached, as well as to them [in the Old Testament times]: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

3 For we which have believed do enter into “rest”, as He said, ‘As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My “rest”’: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For He spoke in a certain place [in the Old Testament] of the seventh day on this wise, “And God did rest the seventh day from all His works”. 5 And in this place again, “If they shall [would only] enter into My rest”.  

6 Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein [into God’s rest], and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 again, He limited a certain day, saying in David [in the psalms], “Today [is another day of opportunity]”, after so long a time [about 500 years]; as it is said, “Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts”. 8 For [but] if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.  

9 There remains therefore a “rest” to the people of God [even today]. 10 For he that is entered into His “rest”, he also has ceased from his own works [in trying to be good enough], as God did from His. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that “rest” [for it’s not easy to give up independence], lest any man [or woman of us] fall after the same example of unbelief.

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Another translation:  

Heb 3:6-19 (MSG)

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Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we're the house [of God]! ⁷ That's why the Holy Spirit says, Today, please listen; ⁸ don't turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,” that time of wilderness testing! ⁹ Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way; over and over they tried my patience. ¹⁰ And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, “They'll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road.” ¹¹ Exasperated, I vowed, “They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest.”

¹² So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. ¹³ For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes. ¹⁴ If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul. ¹⁵ These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don't turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.
 

¹⁶ For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren't they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? ¹⁷ And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn't it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And when he swore that they'd never get where they were going, wasn't he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? ¹⁹ They never got there because they never listened, never believed.

Heb 4:1-13 (MSG)

¹ For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God's goal for us, we need to be careful that we're not disqualified. ² We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith. ³ If we believe, though, we'll experience that state of resting. But not if we don't have faith. Remember that God said, \

Exasperated, I vowed, “They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest.”

God made that vow, even though he'd finished his part before the foundation of the world. ⁴ Somewhere it's written, “God rested the seventh day, having completed his work,” ⁵ but in this other text he says, “They'll never be able to sit down and rest.” ⁶ So this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Those earlier ones never did get to the place of rest because they were disobedient. ⁷ God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David's psalm, centuries later than the original invitation:

Today, please listen, don't turn a deaf ear...

⁸ And so this is still a live promise. It wasn't canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn't keep renewing the appointment for “today.” ⁹ The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God's people. ¹⁰ God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we'll surely rest with God. ¹¹ So let's keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience. ¹² God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. ¹³ Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what.

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If we want the promise, we must fulfill the conditions under which it can be received.

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Daniel 7:

As for me Daniel, my cogitations [thoughts] much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart [waiting for God to explain more].

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Daniel had been expecting the end of the world to occur quickly and in his time, but now he had been shown that it was not that simple.  This vision gave a lot more detail on the way in which this would happen, including the fact that an “anti” (in place of) Christian religious super power would exist for over a thousand years!  And it wouldn’t even arise until three other worldwide empires had been and gone.  No wonder he was upset!  He was living in Babylon at the time; he would see Medo-Persia take over in about five years; but the Greeks and the Romans lay well into the future – about 200 and 400 years respectively. 

So its no wonder his countenance changed!  He had spent his whole life under the restrictions of a secular anti-Christ (one against Christ); now he could see thousands of years of another anti-Christ (one in place of Christ) stretching out in front of God’s people.   Therefore he wept for us, for deception is much worse than straight persecution.  The Son of God also weeps for Christianity – because He couldn’t change the choices the people were going to make – or the result of them.  The prayer He prayed just before the end of Israel as His people, applies also to us today.

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Matthew 22:

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets, and stones them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not [let Me]! 

38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I say to you, You shall not see Me henceforth, till you shall say, “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the LORD”.

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Because Daniel also cared about the Christians who were to live through the horrors of the Papal times, he asked over and over again if there was anything he could do to help the Son of God help them.  (That’s a prerequisite for receiving these kinds of dreams and visions.)  Therefore he was given vision after vision which he wrote down for us and which enabled the listening ones (and us) to know their place in history, to be sure that God knew what was going on even though the world seemed mad around them, to know what Jesus was doing in heaven, and what they should do on earth.

Bye for now,

Ron

P. S. 

Normally it’s not easy for God to reach us. “God speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not.  [Therefore] in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then He opens the ears of men [if He is able to], and seals their instruction, that He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man”. Job 33:14-17. 

A vision is what He calls it when He can reach into our minds while we are awake, which is very seldom for we are normally too busy.  As mentioned, God’s communications are like watching a TV screen and therefore can be shared with others, especially angels. 

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