Clarifying Details of Daniel’s Vision

Transcript

GR1909
2/8/2015
Clarifying Details of Daniel’s Vision
Daniel 7:8-28; Revelation 12-13, 17
Gil Rugh

These are awesome days as we watch what is taking place in the world and from one perspective it seems like things unravel and the confusion grows and yet for those of us who believe the truths of the Scripture and know something of what God has unfolded regarding His future works in the world it is amazing to look and see His hand directing in everything.

Some in our family were talking this week. It’s amazing the God who rules over all, Who’s controlling the heads of government, the activity of nations and that God has every detail of my life in His hand under His control. What an awesome God we serve.

These are great times to be looking into the book of Daniel and that’s where we are going to be this evening, in Daniel chapter 7. Certain portions of the Scripture have a special significance and Daniel chapter 7 along with chapter 2 and chapter 9 are three of the key prophetic portions as far as unfolding God’s plan and an overview of what will take place with the nations of the world in preparation for the coming of Christ to establish His kingdom. That is the ultimate goal toward which we are moving and Israel is at the center of what is going on in the world and you just can’t get away from Israel. And what is Israel compared to some of the greater nations, like the United States, like Russia, like China? Israel is everything because it is the apple or the pupil of God’s eye, it’s Jerusalem, the center of the world and God’s moving things towards His climax.

Why don’t you put up that resurrection chart if you would? I have to keep reminding you that in understanding Old Testament prophecy you must realize this section here from the cross to the first stage of what we call the rapture is not in view in Old Testament prophecy so that is not there in God’s revealed plan. It is obviously there in the plan of God but it has not been made known so when we are studying Old Testament prophecy we have events surrounding the first coming of Christ with His suffering and death and resurrection. We have events here regarding this seven year period, two 3 ½ year periods, His second coming to earth, His kingdom but we have nothing regarding what is called the Church Age here. Now understanding that break when you read prophecy you see things put together but in the plan of God, they are separated like two comings of Christ. You would not sort that out in the Old Testament. We can go back and read it and say oh that pertains to the first coming, that pertains to the second coming but we have noted that Peter, under the inspiration of the Spirit said the Old Testament prophets couldn’t sort it out, the suffering and death of the Messiah, the ruling and reigning in glory. We look and say oh it’s not too hard to understand. He came and suffered and died. He will come again at a later time. Well, because we know the gap and they didn’t.

Leave something in Daniel and come over to Ephesians, just as a reminder. We are told in the New Testament that this material from the cross to the rapture is not included in Old Testament prophecy. It was new revelation given to the New Testament apostles and prophets; so chapter 3 of Ephesians which we have looked at on other occasions. “For this reason, I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles. If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.” Remember Paul was particularly the apostle to the Gentiles as Peter was to the Jews. His ministry encompassed Jews but its focus was to Gentiles. He says, verse 3: “That by revelation there was made known to me the mystery.” And that key word, ‘mystery’ is something that had not been revealed before, something that could not be known apart from revelation. So God made known to him what he had not revealed before. And so by referring to this when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. It’s not that particularly He would suffer and die. Isaiah wrote about that in Isaiah 53 but the significance of that and the unfolding of that and how that would provide salvation for the Gentiles. So the mystery of Christ and the mystery is explained in the first part of verse 5: “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men.”

So we sometimes on this chart would have a parenthesis here and some who do not hold to a literal interpretation of prophecy make fun of that and say, “Oh, they believe that God had a parenthesis.” Well He did. Not in His plan, it was not something that He did not know or plan for but He had not, according to verse 5, made it known in prior generations to men. That is what we call progressive revelation. Over time God revealed more and more of His plan so that with the coming of the New Testament and the revelation we have there we have a clearer picture. Verse 5: “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” What is that revelation? “That the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.” The Old Testament talked about Gentiles salvation but from the Jewish perspective it was just that some Gentiles would respond to the Jewish message. In the Old Testament some Gentiles converted to Judaism if you will. But we have a whole new dimension given now that doesn’t conflict with the Old Testament but it brings a clarity and a fullness that was not known before. And now we live in a time, this period of time which is the fullness of the Gentiles as Paul calls it in Romans chapter 11. God’s work of salvation in the world does not focus in the Jews, it focuses in the Gentiles. Some Jews are saved from primarily the church comprised of Gentiles. It is a time when the Jews are under the judgment of God.

So that difference is of great significance and I mention that in connection with Daniel because where we are going, if you don’t understand this period of time, does not include an Old Testament prophecy we get to Daniel’s prophecies and we think they just continue right on into here and then there is confusion and so I will read you an example. They will think we are in the kingdom here but it can’t be a literal physical earthly kingdom so it must be a spiritual kingdom and all kinds of confusion come from not understanding and it’s explained to us in passages like Ephesians 3. This wasn’t made known before so it’s not part of Old Testament prophecy.

Okay, back to Daniel chapter 7. I will only tell you that a 100 or so more times so keep it in mind. Daniel 7 is repeating much of the revelation given in Daniel chapter 2 so we are not going to redo that; four major empires beginning with Babylon. It was explained in chapter 2. The symbol of animals representing each empire but that doesn’t make it difficult because the explanation of what those different animals or different metals, animals in chapter 7, the man with the metals in chapter 2 are explained. They represent empires and there is almost universal agreement on the four empires, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. The clarity on those is pretty well agreed on.

Why don’t you put that list of those four nations if you will? Here the empires seen by Daniel and you have Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. And from what we have in chapter 2 the head of the image of the man with the metal coming down to the iron and the toes and I could have put on here the climactic kingdom is the kingdom of Christ. The stone cut without hands here in the days of the toes that crush the image. In chapter 7 the same information under a different picture, different representations. The lion representing Babylon which was the head of gold in chapter 2; Medo-Persia the bear; Greece the leopard and Rome just a dreadful beast of awesome power which would fit with the metal of iron, stronger and more devastating and more powerful than the other metals. We had the toes in chapter 2. We have 10 horns in chapter 7 and then we will have a little horn so there is additional information given in chapter 7. It doesn’t change anything it just adds to it. In addition to the ten toes, the ten horns, there is a little horn and then we have the kingdom established. So you see we are filling in information but we are not changing anything.

Now let me read you an example of a person who does not believe in the literal interpretation of prophecy, at least future prophecy because you can’t argue all the prophecies that have been fulfilled have been fulfilled literally. So this man argues strongly that the four empires have to be these four empires and there are some who have tried to make those four empires something different and he argues clearly that it can’t be. This man is what we would call an amillennialist, he does not believe in a literal, physical earthly kingdom. If you are interested, it is Edward J. Young. He is not a, I don’t want to use the word goofy interpreter. He does a decent job but he just can’t bring himself to accept that future prophecy is literal; for example, regarding the ten toes in chapter 2. He has a problem with that. The image in Daniel he says “dispensationalists, those who take a literal interpretation of prophecy say there were ten toes. This view must be rejected as being exegetically untenable.” This is a strong statement. It is exegetically untenable. I mean it doesn’t come from a careful, unfolding of what the Scripture says. “It makes too much of the symbolism. We are not expressly told that there are ten toes. The ten kings can be derived only from the ten horns of Daniel chapter 7.” Well, what’s wrong with that? I mean he strenuously argues that the four empires are the same in chapter 2 and chapter 7 and the ten horns in Daniel chapter 7 represent ten kings or kingdoms but he says you should not take that to mean there are ten toes in Daniel chapter 2. “That there are ten toes is merely inferred from the fact that the statue of a man is in a human form.” And heaven forbid that we assume that there are ten toes but then if you have any doubt and “toes” is plural we know there are two or more. Then ten horns in chapter 10. So you just come up with that kind of thinking. The phrase “In the days of these” cannot refer to the ten toes for the toes are nowhere identified as kings except in chapter 7.

So I have to tell you I did spend quite a bit of time trying to read through this because when I read through this I have a hard time understanding it and that always frustrates me. I think, “Well I should be able to understand this, but did he say that? Let me go over here and see what he says.” So when he comes over to talk about chapter 7 he remarks that “those who take a literal interpretation of prophecy, the ten horns correspond to the ten toes of the image in chapter 2; however, we must again remark that nowhere in Scripture is the image said to have ten toes.” Then after explaining what a literal interpretation is he says, “The reputation of this ingenuous theory must be reserved until later.” So that is our view, we have an ingenuous theory.

So what is the kingdom? What he is concerned about is that you are going to end up saying, “Well, there are ten horns which are ten kingdoms which is where he comes to but he is afraid back here that when the kingdom of Christ crushes the image on the toes that you would have a literal kingdom, physical kingdom on earth so he is going to make this all rather symbolic except the little horn he will make actual. Getting confused? Good. I like people to be confused with me. He is talking about the kingdom that is established here in chapter 2 the stone cut without hands, in chapter 7 the Son of man comes and receives a kingdom. It is simply stated in chapter 7 here, verse 27 if you want to come down: “Then the sovereignty, the dominion, the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people and the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.” On that verse he says, “It is simply stated that the kingdom which is given them is eternal and all the dominions will serve and obey them. Calvin rightly remarks, hence we are deservedly called kings because Christ reigns. What is meant is the empire of the church.”

And now you see where we are. This is the kingdom. So somewhere in here he goes from arguing for literal four empires, a literal maybe, he says, ten horns but he doesn’t want to admit. He knows that consistency would mean ten is ten. So he says, “It seems there are ten and they are not successive. They are all at one time because they are on the head of the beast, simultaneous and the little horn comes out of them” but then he goes on say, “but ten may be just representative and even though it seems that they are all reigning together maybe it just means that down through history there have been ten different empires following one another,” because he is adamantly opposed that there could be a physical kingdom on the earth.

So the kingdom we are talking about and he takes it from Calvin which is common, reformed theology, the empire is the church. This is amillennialism. It is Roman Catholicism. I mention that because what is the background? Martin Luther. What is the background of John Calvin? These are men who were Roman Catholic priests who came to see the light of the Gospel but they never changed their eschatology and we can understand that. They are battling for their lives and for the truth of the Gospel so they just continued to proclaim. The problem is some people think that they can’t change anything from what the reformers knew. Appreciate what the reformers did but they weren’t right in everything. The church is not the empire. Christ is not ruling so you end up with a general kingdom that is spiritual in the hearts of God’s people but it interests me when it comes to the little horn you know what he says? That’s what the New Testament talks about as the anti-Christ and before Christ comes back and we go into eternity there will be a particular man who will cause a lot of trouble for the church. So you see you just go back and forth. Why is the little horn a literal king at a point in time but somewhere in here we have just gone soft on ten being ten and horns being a simultaneous king and a literal kingdom so this is where much of the church is. They believe not in a literal, physical earthly kingdom.

General Lutheran theology, the reading Leupolds commentary on Daniel he is a Lutheran writer. Other amillennialists, reformed people, that’s where they are. So they wonder well why is there a difference? Well if you are not going to take the Scripture literally you are going to end up where? In confusion. Why would all prophecy regarding the first coming of Christ be fulfilled literally? But now somehow we’ve got some kind of mixture. They don’t give you a lot of information. He spends more time quoting what the literal interpretation says and saying that can’t be true than he does explaining his own position. You end up with some kind of thing; the church is the empire Calvin said so. Now let’s move on. No, let’s not move on. Let’s say we appreciate that Calvin did say some good things and he was in a world of confusion on some other things and we don’t go to Calvin. We go to Scripture.

So here we are. Let’s get to Scripture, alright, Daniel the order. It is the same as chapter 2 and chapter 7 we’ve been down through. Now we come to verse 8: “I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts.”

He’s a man of great intellect, great charisma and he is a spell-binding speaker. And some of the things when we studied 2 Corinthians Paul wasn’t but this man is and the world is captivated by him. You ever notice and you look and you say, “Why are people so ready to believe a lie just because he tells it well?” But that is fallen man and this man will be the best there has ever been. Do not underestimate the power of the devil and this will be the man most fully and completely empowered and enabled by the devil that the world has ever seen. That’s why he is called “the anti-Christ.” He will be the ultimate of satanic counterfeit. And it’s only the true children of God that will not be deceived. So keeps looking and this brings us to the kingdom in verses 13 and 14. “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” Now some like the amillennialist they just say we are in the kingdom now but the eternal phase was Christ will come and all things will end and we will be in eternity. That’s the eternal kingdom. Doesn’t have a literal kingdom as we might think but it will be if you make it. What makes a kingdom? A king and subjects. So through eternity in heaven God will be God and we will be His subjects. No specific, physical earthly kingdom.

Daniel asks the interpretation and we’ve done this but we are going to review it. I want to put some stuff up in a moment; then the fourth kingdom he wanted an explanation on. He understood things basically because he had interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2. Now he sees additional information that just raises more questions. So verse 23: “The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise.” I don’t know why it’s hard to see that in chapter 2 when the iron continues down into the feet and the toes; the iron representing Rome.

So you have ten horns that come out of the Roman Empire, ten kings. “After them another will arise. He will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.” This is the explanation of verse 8. “While I was contemplating the horns (the beast had ten horns) another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots.” We just read that. This is the angelic explanation. “He will speak out against the Most High, and wear down the saints of the Highest One.” Remember he had the eyes like the eyes of a man, a mouth uttering great boasts in chapter 8. That means “he will speak out against the Most High, wear down the saints of the Highest Ones, will intend to make alterations in times and in law.” We just get a preview of some of the changes today affecting us right here in Nebraska. What’s going on affects our nation and is going on in the world, what? We change what marriage means. We change what God says by nature He has built into us. It’s just a little preview. And don’t get confused. I’m not saying anyone doing this is the anti-Christ. I can make my own trouble. Don’t make any trouble for me. I didn’t say that. I’m saying we get a preview of what it will be like. He will alter things, he will change things. He will change worship. We are going to get more clarity on this. We will look in a moment. “And they will be given into his hand for a time, times and half a time.” I don’t read you what Edward J. Young says but he says people that try to say this is 3 ½ years and connected to the 42 months and the 1,260 days of revelation that just is not good exegesis. Why not? Why not go to the New Testament prophetic book for further revelation and insight? He doesn’t really know what the time, times and half a time is. All he is is sure that it couldn’t be 3 ½ years because that would mean those taking a literal interpretation would have grounds.

“But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.”

We talk about it, “Oh, prophecy is difficult and there is a lot of symbolism.” It is all explained right here, right? What was left unexplained from Daniel 2 and Daniel 7? Well, what are these animals? They are, well, he just explained it. They are kingdoms and the fourth kingdom is an indescribable beast, why? Because it is more powerful and more devastating than the previous kingdoms and then out of the head of this fourth kingdom come ten kings and they are successive. They follow out of the fourth empire. That’s why I say it is important to see the gap. Otherwise people are looking for these ten kings or kingdoms somewhere after the cross and then you have to find the little horn and then what? Well then we must be in the kingdom. No, the kingdom will follow.

So the order, we have Rome. Then we are going to have ten kings or ten kingdoms. A king and a kingdom were interchangeable and even this man admits that. The horns and it represents a king and a kingdom. That’s true in the Old Testament and then we have the kingdom.

Let’s go over to the New Testament into Revelation again. I realize that I am repeating. I don’t want you to get concerned about me. I know I am repeating. There will come a time when I don’t know I am repeating but right now I know. Come to Revelation chapter 12, chapter 13. The book of Revelation is a challenging book but it’s not that difficult. We have looked at the passages that say “there is blessing for those who read it and understand it and thus live in light of it.” It wasn’t written to conceal. It was written to reveal. So we come to chapter 12 for example. We looked at this. “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothes with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” We go back to the book of Genesis to chapter 38 and the dreams of Joseph and you see we are talking about Israel, Genesis 37, not 38. That is what he saw and they recognized he was talking about their family, the Jews, Israel and the woman Israel gave birth to a child and then “another sign appeared in heaven, a great red dragon.” I wonder what the great red dragon means. It is pretty hard to know unless you read verse 9. “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.” Well then I know what the dragon symbolized. This is not just some mythological creature that well, I wonder what it pictures. Well, whatever the dragon is, it represents Satan, right, called the Devil, the serpent of old; the one who deceived in the garden; the same one who deceives the whole world. It’s the one who deceived Eve.

Okay. “And behold, the red dragon had seven heads and ten horns,” hmm; getting somewhat familiar. “And on his heads were seven diadems.” And you are familiar in Greek there are two kinds of crowns, diadems and stephanos. The diadem is basically the crown of a ruler and the stephanos, that’s not air tight, but is usually used of a victor’s crown like if you were successful in the Olympics, the Greek Olympics you would have gotten a stephanos not a diadem. So these are rulers and you have seven heads and ten horns and the seven heads have crowns so you know they are kings or kingdoms and then the dragon attempts to destroy the child born of the woman, Christ born of Israel and Christ attempted to destroy. So the child in verse 5 “was caught up to heaven.” We read about the ascension in Acts chapter 1. “Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” So you see here now picking up Old Testament prophecy, unfolding the events and you say well wait, there’s a lot that happened here from the resurrection, ascension of Christ. Now we are into the tribulation because he is unfolding and explaining some of the details of Old Testament prophecy. We already know the church wasn’t included there and Paul said that was the mystery associated with him. Now we are back. We are in…. can you go back to the resurrection chart? We are in the seven year tribulation. We are in this period. So you see he is just picking up Old Testament prophecy and what was revealed there so you deal with this, the death and resurrection and Christ being caught up to heaven. Now what about Israel during this time? You say what about this time? Well, that’s not part of the Old Testament prophecy that he is developing because remember Revelation from chapter 6 to chapter 19 is dealing with this period of time in here. Now we have picked up in chapter 12 which has brought us to the middle point here. So we are talking about what is going on here in the last 3 ½ years so it’s not so confusing. What gets confusing is if you try to put this back in here someplace or you don’t take it literally, time, times and a half time. Well, 3 ½ years we’ll see that later in Daniel makes clear it’s years but here 1,260 days, a prophetic year rounded off it’s 360 days, 1,260 is 3 ½ years. It’s 42 months as we have noticed another occasion in chapter 13, verse 5 so time, times and a half times, 1,260 days, 42 months, half of the 70th week of Daniel which is a seven year period when we get to chapter 9. It’s not so difficult.

People come to Revelation and say I couldn’t make anything out of it because they haven’t spent any time studying the Old Testament which is being unfolded here; “So the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God” for this 3 ½ year period because this is where the tribulation against Israel breaks out in full force. Remember Matthew 24? Jesus told the Jews “When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place.” And don’t even go down to pack a suitcase, to get a coat. You better head for the mountains because persecution is going to break out so quickly and so severely. If you don’t get to the mountains and a place of refuge you will have no hope of survival. He is talking about Israel. So then, there is war in heaven, the devil loses his access to heaven and there is celebration in heaven in verse 10 when Satan is cast out here in the middle of this seven year period because the angels and the host of heaven realize we are at the last phase of God’s program, climaxing with the return of Christ. So they say, “Now salvation, power, the kingdom of our God, the authority of His Christ have come. The accuser of our brethren has been cast down.” And then the devil is cast down. He has at the end of verse 12 “Great wrath knowing that he has only a short time.”

So the devil knows prophecy. His demons are here watching our study tonight. They didn’t have to come here to learn it. He knows Scripture. You say well why doesn’t he surrender? Why don’t people you share the Gospel with surrender to Christ and place their faith in Him? It’s totally irrational that they don’t but they don’t and Satan is consumed by his sin until the very end. He is determined he can win even though he’s read the last chapter, he loses. Sin is irrational. We shouldn’t be amazed to see irrational things going on in the world. Sin is irrational. Why do people self-destruct? Why would you destroy yourself but they do. Why would you try to fight against the living God who has said He will cast you into an eternal hell if you don’t bow before Him? And if you do bow before Me and receive the gift of life I have provided at no cost to you, you can have joy for all eternity. People reject it. It just makes no sense. That is why you can’t reason people in to salvation because it is a supernatural battle.

We are here for just one section but we are taking it all in. Come to chapter 13. “The dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten diadems. On his heads were blasphemous names.” Now we’ve got to pick up here. We saw these seven heads back in chapter 12, verse 3: “A great red dragon having seven heads, ten horns.” Well Daniel didn’t see seven. He saw less.

Would you put up that chart starting with Egypt? Here are the kingdoms as John sees them in the book of Revelation. Daniel started with Babylon. This period of time, that starts the times of the Gentiles characterized according to what Christ said in Luke 21:24, Jerusalem is trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. That begins with Babylon so Daniel picks up where he is but there were two empires before that, Assyria which carried the Northern Kingdom into captivity and Egypt and we are well familiar with Egypt. It was in Egypt that the nation Israel developed into a nation from a family of 70 into a nation perhaps of a couple million when we come to the exodus. So he picks up and here now we have come to Rome, we have six altogether. But he sees the seven heads and ten horns. Seven heads, ten horns, we have an extra kingdom here. The ten nations have inserted them here. This is the seven because these can all be said Rome because remember the iron continues here and in chapter 7 of Daniel the little horn comes out from the ten. We will get to that in more detail in chapter 17 of Revelation in a moment.

So these all could be called Rome. The iron pervades this. So here is where we are. He is talking about seven and he’s explaining the ten horns a little more. So it has seven heads. In chapter 12, verse 3 the heads have diadems. They were kings or kingdoms. When you come to chapter 13, verse 1 you have ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten diadems so the horns are also kings or kingdoms. They have the crown of a ruler. The heads are marked by blasphemy and all of these nations in contrast to Israel have been nations opposed to God. Israel was unfaithful but these are nations that served other gods and so on.

So we go on here and here you have verse 3, “One of his heads as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed” and here in chapter 13 you begin to break things out even more clearly because here you not only have the head being this ten nation confederacy but it transitions into the anti-Christ, that little horn that came out. So “one of his heads as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed.” “They worshiped the dragon. He gave his authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying who is like the beast? Who is able to wage war with him? There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies.” You see, the same thing is said about that little horn in Daniel chapter 7; the mouth speaking blasphemies.

So this seventh kingdom here which is a development out of Rome and connected to Rome and it becomes identified with what will be called the eighth but he comes out of the seventh. So you want to follow what’s going on here. He transitions the emphasis to the person who becomes the focal point and here he’s talked about the way that little horn was talked about and he has authority to act for 42 months, the time, times and a half time that the angel explained to Daniel. Why do we want to complicate things and say, “Well no, you can’t connect these things?” How are you going to understand if you reject God’s unfolding progressive revelation? This doesn’t change anything. It just is further clarifying it. Verse 6: “He opened his mouth in blasphemies against God to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”

Keep your finger there. Come back to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. It is amazing how specific God is and He says in verse 3 of 2 Thessalonians 2, He is talking about the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is an expression referring to that seven year period that will climax with the return of Christ, again drawn from the Old Testament. “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is reveled, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship.” It sounds like what was being described in Revelation 13 doesn’t it? It sounds like the description of the little horn in Daniel chapter 7. It is. It’s the same person. One of the names of the anti-Christ is verse 3, “the man of lawlessness.” And it is so serious at the end of verse 4: “He takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” And after the restrainer the Holy Spirit who came on the Day of Pentecost to establish the church is removed then in verse 8, the lawless one can be revealed and his end will come with the return of Christ as Revelation 19 makes clear.

And this man’s coming, verse 9 will be “in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. God will send a deluding influence” and they will be even more receptive to the lie that the anti-Christ tells but then the ray of hope, Paul says, “I will always give thanks for you because you have believed the truth. You have been rescued from judgment that is to come.”

Come back to Revelation chapter 13. After I retire I will be doing Bible studies through the week that last three hours so be careful about coming to my retirement Bible studies. Chapter 13 tells you something about the worship of the anti-Christ. Come down to verse 11 of Revelation 13: “And I saw another best coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon” because all these are empowered and enabled by Satan himself and he exercises all the authority of the first beast. “He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast. He performs great signs. He even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.” The proof is going to be overwhelming to an unbelieving world. He deceives those who dwell on the earth, because of the signs which it was given him to perform.

Verse 15: “To him was given to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast might even speak” and anyone who won’t worship the beast and his image will be destroyed. Remember Jesus, “When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.” What does this tie it to? They would create an image of the anti-Christ, declare that he is deity and cause that image set up in the temple to come to life. How are you going to deny that he’s not God? We’d say well, it doesn’t matter if he does cause an image to come to life. You don’t worship anybody but the living God but the unbeliever, the world will go after him and small, great, rich, poor will receive his mark. Yes, we are followers, we are worshippers.

Come over to Revelation 17. We have to get here. We are seeing the same thing. You know repetition. God knows we need to be told it again and then told it again. Look at verse 3: “Carry me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.” By now we ought to know what the seven heads are; the ten horns and on it goes. We don’t have time for the details.

We will come down to verse 9. “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings.” The seven heads are seven mountains are seven kings. A head, a mountain and a king all refer to the same thing, a king or a kingdom. These are not the Seven Hills of Rome. Just read the grammar. It identifies them. The seven heads are seven mountains are seven kings.

That said, put up that last chart, the seven major empires if you would. So you see how he breaks it down. “Five have fallen” as John writes one, two, three, four, five have fallen. “One is.” What empire was ruling when John writes this? Rome. “The other has not yet come and when he comes, he must remain a little while.” That’s the ten nations that will be dominant during the first 3 ½ years of that seven year period we saw on the chart.

“The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven.” So that’s what we saw in Daniel chapter 7, the little horn came out from the ten. We saw in chapter 13. Here we see in chapter 17. So we end up with eight because the ten ruled but this is different enough because this was a ten nation, ten kingdom federation but now you have world ruler. The ten give their support to him. He’s the eighth, verse 12: “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour,” that short time. They together are ruling. He came up from among them remember and displaced three and they are taken in and they are ready to throw all their power and support to him to have him rule. That’s Satan’s plan.

They have one purpose, verse 13: “They give their power and authority to the beast.” So you have now what Satan has desired for the millenniums of time going back to remember, the Tower of Babel. What did they do? We will build a tower whose top will reach the heaven. That didn’t mean they thought they could reach, build a tower all the way up to heaven through the skies. It meant a tower with the top of it as the worship center and that will keep us united. That is always Satan’s goal. He wants to create the kingdom. That’s why he hates the Jews. If he could annihilate the Jews God couldn’t fulfill His promise of a kingdom to Israel. So now he has his anti-Christ and we just get a taste of it like World War II. Hitler, Germany is being destroyed and he calls his leaders together to say what? We must accelerate the extermination of the Jews. Do you not know Germany is destroyed? But he is consumed. Why? He is motivated by the devil. Here’s the man whose power makes Hitler look like a minor player. “They will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings.”

Verse 16: “The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot,” that’s the apostate religious system because the only religion allowed in the world now is the worship of the anti-Christ and “God has put it their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled.”

You understand who is ultimately in charge. Not the devil. He is empowering these people but it is God who put it in their hearts to carry out His plan. When you look and turn on the news and you read the newspaper don’t pull your hair out saying “What’s our president thinking? What are these people doing?” They are doing the will of God in their rebellion against Him because He has put it in their hearts to do their foolishness. Things aren’t out of control. God is directing. “He has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose.” He’s not responsible for their sin but man’s sin cannot frustrate the plan of God. God’s plan includes their sin and even in their rebellion just as we saw in the crucifixion of Christ. Did that frustrate God’s plan? Man in his rebellion against God and hatred of the Son of God simply carried out the plan of God. So here God is fully in control.

So this is where we are going, the empires. It doesn’t change what Daniel saw here in Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome but he clarifies and we see where it’s all going. So Daniel chapter 7 is key and when we add chapter 9 to that with the 70 weeks and the clarification there and then we get to the book of Revelation that puts it together and we see the time following because chapter 17 and 18 record the destruction of this false system, religiously and commercially. Chapter 19 is about the return of Christ and when you get to chapter 19 if you just turn over there you have the destruction in verse 20 at the coming of Christ. “The beast was seized, and with him the false prophet,” the two that we saw in Revelation chapter 13, the first beast out of the sea and the second beast out of the earth who perform signs in the presence of men and he deceives those who received the mark of the beast, these too were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. They are cast into hell even before the devil is. He will not be cast into hell for another 1,000 years where we get in Revelation chapter 20. That is the culmination. That is exactly what Daniel said. They meet their end at the return of Christ.

You know we rest secure. It’s a denial of the truth of God that we should be expressing frustration and anger with our leaders. Remember Paul kept his focus. He stands before rulers. He doesn’t try to tell them how they should govern. It’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is they hear the Gospel. Should we be frustrated? Look at the news and read it and say, “God, You are an awesome God. All this confusion is under Your direction. It is an orderly plan moving toward Your appointed end and I belong to You and You have the details of my life for this day in Your plan. I’m not too small and too insignificant. You say you care about me. You say that I am welcome to come to You with the desires of my heart and You are the God who rules the world.” That is the God that we serve. That is the God that we want to tell people about and His salvation and His salvation that can spare them from wrath to come.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. Lord we are in awe how You have unfolded such a detail and how it all comes about. Lord we are reminded that we could be moving very, very close to that time when the final phase of Your plan in that last seven year period will begin on this earth. We look forward to the coming of our Lord and Savior to gather us into Your presence so that You can unfold the completion of Your plan for Your people, Israel in preparation for the establishing of the kingdom which will have no end. We pray that the week before us will be a week where we are faithful in our service to You whatever we are doing, wherever we are. May we not forget first and foremost that we are servants of the living God. We are here carrying out a ministry on your behalf and we represent You wherever we are, whatever we do. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.