Daniel 11 (con't)

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Well, good morning. Can I, uh, Bert, will you open us up with a word of prayer?
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Our Father, we do thank you for the day. We thank you for another Lord's Day. We ask you now as we study your word, bring it to us.
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Amen. All right, let's go to Daniel Chapter 11. I do want to ask,
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I got, uh, a couple of questions right after class and just want to answer this very quickly.
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It was on the accuracy of dates and how do they determine those. In history there's things called anchor dates.
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Anchor dates are based on definitive dates that we have, and then once they have those dates, historians move back and forth, depending on the calendars of the civilizations that we have.
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So the myth within the liberal scholars that say we really don't know exactly when things took place, they're full of garbage.
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Because we do. We can be within a year or so before the time of Christ, we can be within a year or two, because we know what took place.
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But then as you get further in history, you get to after the time of the martyrs, because that was usually a time that they used to mark out times, the time of the martyrs before 2nd, 3rd century.
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And then you had a scholar that came along around the 5th, 6th century, and then he set the
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BC -AD dates. Just to let you know, that's how the BC -AD dates came around, was by another scholar,
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Desodorius, I think was his name, around 525, and then it was established in 750, that that would be the standard practice of Anno Domini and before Christ.
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So if you want any other questions about that, I'd be more than glad to answer all that after Clavin's. Can't get into all that right now, if you wanna know.
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But no debate whether the accuracy of the dates are, it could be within a year or so.
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We're gonna read Daniel chapter 11, verses 36 through the end of the chapter.
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Actually, I'm gonna read it into verse three, I think of Daniel 12. It said, then a king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods and he will prosper until the indignation is finished.
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For that which has been decreed will be done. He will show no regard for the god of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god, for he will magnify himself above them all.
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But instead, he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know. He will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones, treasures.
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He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god. He will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will cause them to rule over many and parcel out land for a price.
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At the end of time, the king of the south, then will collide with him, and the king of the north will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen, with many ships, and he will enter countries he will overflow and pass through.
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He will also enter the beautiful land and many countries will fall. But these will be rescued from his hand, the
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Edom, Moab, and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. They will stretch out his hand, then he will stretch out his hand against the countries and the land of Egypt will not be an escape for them, but he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over the precious things of Egypt and Libyan and Ethiopians will follow at his heels.
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But rumors from the east and from the north will disturb him and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many.
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He will pitch his tents in the royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful mountain, the holy mountain, yet it will come to his end and no one will be there to help him.
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And now at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of his people, he will arise and there will be a time of great distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.
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And at that time, your people, everyone who is written in the book will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
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Okay. What has been the motif scheme,
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I'm gonna say we've done this enough, so we should know. Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and then most important of all, kingdom of Messiah.
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Daniel has worked through this kingdom, correct? Daniel is now prophesying within this kingdom.
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He's prophesied already the fall of Persia, correct? Correct. He has also prophesied that there was going to be a great ruler of Greece that was gonna come up.
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He was quickly going to die. Who would we say that was? Or who did we, history says who it is. Alexander the
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Great. And then what happens when he died? It was splintered into four corners of the globe is how they would say it.
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So he has already prophesied the rise of the empire of Greece, how it would splinter, and there was gonna be one man that would rise up.
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He would be the little horn of Romans, of Daniel VIII that would rise up and persecute people of God.
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Who was that guy? Antiochus. Antiochus. Same thing. Who? There's like five of them.
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Epiphanes. The fourth. Epiphanes, yes, that was his nickname. What did they call him?
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What did the people call him? He called himself Epiphanes Theop, but what did the people call him? Crazy man. Great madman.
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Madman. Epiphanes, play on words. So we saw at the end of 35, we saw the
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Antiochus's reign of terror over the people of God. So we have now come to a shift in Daniel, okay?
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If we're going to follow the historical pattern that Daniel gave us, he never deviated from this pattern.
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I've said this, I can tell you how many times in the book, because what I'm fixing to give you historically makes context with the book important.
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It makes, I'm gonna show you what took place in history. If you disagree with me and you wanna argue with me after about it,
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I'm fine with that. If you're gonna throw anything at me as I go through this, do it after I turn the live stream off so nobody don't see me getting hit in the head with a book.
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All right? We're leaving the Grecian Empire. Although it has not yet come, this is a prophecy concerning a person within the
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Roman Empire, okay? This, remember, last week we talked about maybe who this person is.
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He is a self -willed king. He's gonna raise himself up to claim to be
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God. He is going to speak monstrous things against the people of God. He is going to speak and persecute the people of God or cause havoc in the beautiful land.
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Now, some people think this is a continuation of Antiochus. I said last week, it's hard to do that.
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Here's the reason. I think I said too quickly last week. Who's the king of the north?
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What empire? It was the Seleucids. This would have been
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Syria. Who was the king of the south or kingdom of the south?
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Ptolemy. Which would have been Egypt. Correct. Here, we can do this real quick. This would be the
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Seleucid. And this would have been
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Egypt. Look at this.
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Okay? Now, remember, when we get down to, I think it's verse 40, you're gonna see at that time at the end, the appointed end,
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I think, is gonna be the end of a certain destruction. At the end time, the king of the south is gonna come against this person along with the king of the north.
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So, we know that this is not Ptolemy fighting the Seleucids anymore.
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We know it's got to be, if the king of the north is coming this way and the king of the south are coming this way, where do we say this is gonna take place at?
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Who said that? Jerusalem. Correct. Remember, I went through some linguistic details about this man who's
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God, who did not do like the gods of his fathers. And actually, I told you it should be actually more accurate.
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I think King James, new King James, actually said the God of his father. And I didn't even know,
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I don't look at the footnotes on my Bible till Dan Kaysen came up here. He came up here and he said, hey, mine says gods, yours says gods, yours,
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I think, says God. God. And I looked at it and I was like, well, it says here. And I looked at the footnote and it actually says literally translated would be the
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God of his fathers, meaning that phrase is only used 60 times in the
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Old Testament, 60. Every time it's used, it's speaking of a person who's connected to the
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God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So what did I say the person in view would be last week at the end?
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Remember? This willful king has to be a Jewish person.
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Some people believe that this person is the Antichrist. People believe it's
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Herod. I'm gonna rule this out completely because the
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Antichrist has been mentioned anywhere in the book of Daniel. Has it? No. No.
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Matter of fact, that's a New Testament idea. Now, Antichrist is only used like three times in all in the
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Bible. So we know that this is not what he's talking about. Now, could he be prophesying something about the
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Herods? It's possible. I mean, they became an appointed king by Rome, okay, around 36, 37
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B .C. It could be, but the problem is
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Herod's not actually, he only made a siege of Jerusalem one time, and that was to subdue them when he was given.
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So Herod really doesn't fit that model because he's actually, he's a Semitic person, but he's not a
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Jew. And he does not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So who
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I'm going to say this person is here is a little -known figure in history,
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John Giskella. You know anything about Josephus' writings?
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This man is very important in the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem.
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And as I walk through this, we're going to, I will bring to light exactly what took place concerning this man.
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And what I'm fixing to tell you is consistent with Daniel 9, 24 through 27,
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Matthew, my interpretation of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, which would be all of the discourse concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.
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So if there is any inconsistency, this is where they would be, and the best way to lose an argument is to be inconsistent.
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And I'm consistently interpreting this in light of what we already know about Daniel 9, 24 through 27, which was concerning what?
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You remember the last thing we talked about, Daniel 9, 24 through 27, Daniel 77, what did it concern?
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The end of Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem. And how it was not only going to be just the destruction of Jerusalem, it was going to be an utter destruction, never to be rebuilt.
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Remember, when the Babylonians came in, they came in, do you need to, you want his name spelled for you?
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No. Okay. When the Babylonians came in, they destroyed it, burned it, knocked it down, but it was rebuilt.
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Daniel was told in 9, 24 through 27, it ain't gonna be rebuilt again. It was gonna be an utter destruction.
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Okay, so let's walk through the text, and if you disagree with me, that's fine, we can talk about it. And just gonna let you know, this is the minority report.
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I am in the minority, so if you have a study Bible, don't be surprised if what
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I'm saying is not gonna be there. Okay, I understand that. But this is based on history, based on the context of the book of Daniel, and actually what took place in the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem.
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He said, and at that time, the king will do as he pleases. He will exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods, and he will prosper until the
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Indian nation is finished. What we do know about, look, this is leading us into the Roman Empire.
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This man was in the Roman Empire. He was not a Roman, though. He was fighting against the
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Romans. So to keep that model going, that what takes place in this five kingdom scheme, we are now entering into the
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Roman Empire. This king, this self -willed person, rises himself up and magnifies himself to be god.
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What we know about John Giskella is he comes into Jerusalem in 67
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AD. He goes into the temple. He kills the high priest in 67
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AD, raises himself up, claims himself to be god as being sovereign monarch, and then begins to rule a civil war within Jerusalem for another three, three and a half years.
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Okay, this person setting himself up to be god in Jerusalem, okay? Now, how did he get to that point to set himself up to go in, kill the high priest?
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There was a three -way civil war that was going on in Jerusalem against the Romans. It began in 66.
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It started in Upper Galilee. This is the Jewish wars that took place. They were trying to throw the boot of Rome off, and they made their continual fighting all the way down through Yotapeta, through Yotapeta is a city where Josephus was caught, through Yotapeta.
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Then you get to the city of Giskella where John was at. Titus sieged that city.
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John was there. He said, I'll turn myself in if you just give me the
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Sabbath is what he told Titus, okay? Titus said, okay. Believe it or not, Titus and Vespasian, although ruthless, taking care, they were very sympathetic to the
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Jewish idea, okay? Gotta remember that the Romans, when they gave the
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Jews a religious exemption, they gave them, they were very benevolent, and they let them kind of rule themselves as long as they paid their taxes, okay?
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So when Titus comes in over to take the city of Giskella, he told
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Titus, John did, hey, it's on the Sabbath. I'll turn myself in tomorrow. Can you just let me have the
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Sabbath? And Titus, being benevolent and understanding of that situation, said, sure, no problem.
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Well, John, his knight, runs, gets out, makes his way to Jerusalem.
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He comes to Jerusalem and tells the people in Jerusalem, check it out, we have hammered the
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Romans in Giskella. If you let me in, you let us in, we'll overthrow
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Rome. So what they did is they embraced him as he came in, only for John to do what?
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To turn on them, embracing him as a liberator, and then to turn on them and begin to kill their own people.
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So what happened in 66 to 70 is you had a three -way civil war between the zealots.
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You had Simon, Eleazar, and John Giskella all fighting on the temple complex, and they absolutely butchered their own people.
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Don't take my word for it. Go read Josephus War's books four, five, and six.
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Stay off YouTube and TikTok and you can read it in a week. So.
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You said that's four, five, and six? Jewish wars. Yeah, four, five, and six.
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Now, it says that he will show no regard for the God of his fathers, which we spoke about that last week, and it has a kind of ambiguous odd statement where it says here, or for the desire of women.
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Now, that seems a little odd, doesn't it? Like, man, that's weird. Well, what we do know about John Giskella as he made his way into fighting the
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Romans to liberate, quote, the Jewish people, as he made his way across the
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Galilee, Judea, Indumia, and all that fighting, what he did do is he left the women and children behind.
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Like I said, don't take my word for it. Read Josephus. This is an eyewitness of these accounts. He left the women and children behind.
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What were you not to do? Leave the women and children behind. You're to protect the women and children, and he did not do that.
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Not only did he not protect the women and children, but he also let the Jewish insurgents inside Jerusalem on the 35 -acre temple complex, which was made up of porticos, buildings.
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You gotta remember, that was a fortified 35 acres. He allowed those men and himself to engage themselves in open, blatant homosexuality.
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Seems a little odd, doesn't it? Here it is, this holy city, supposed to be a holy place.
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Open, blatant homosexuality. In book four, I think it's, well,
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I know it's book four. I think it's in paragraphs five and six. It talks about him letting his men adorn themselves with oil, putting on makeup, adorning themselves in women clothing, and allowing them to practice open, blatant homosexuality on the temple mount, on the temple complex, and to rape the women.
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The others let them rape the women inside Jerusalem. That is this self -willed, self -exalting man.
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It says here that then he would, nor would he show any regard for any other god.
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Well, of course he won't show any regard for any other god, because what has he just claimed himself to be? God, that's right.
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He's claimed himself to be God. For he will magnify himself, and it qualifies a statement, for he will magnify himself above all.
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Says in verse 38, but instead, he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know.
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Okay, that's kind of ambiguous as well. What does it say? Well, when John comes in, he comes in and he takes the temple and makes a fortress out of it.
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They barricade themselves in and make it a place where they can't come in.
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Now, once again, the Romans were very benevolent knowing that the temple mount and the temple complex was a
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Jewish holy place, and that if they were to come on it, it would desecrate and cause more chaos.
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They were aware of that. That's why they put Fortress Antonia at the corner, so that they could watch over Jewish feasts, because they were always worried about a revolt, because revolts with the
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Jewish people against the Romans was a common thing. And if you remember when, why did
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Pilate, or how, I should say, how did Pilate end up in the time when
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Jesus was betrayed and turned over to his death, what was Pilate doing in Jerusalem?
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He was there to keep peace so there wouldn't be a riot, and where was the abyss set up in the Fortress Antonia? Okay, that's where he was at.
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They could overlook and see everything. If you've ever been there, if it's still there, you can overlook the temple mount from there and see everything that goes on.
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You good? You good? Okay, so they barricade themselves in there, hold themselves up, and they begin to fight.
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Titus had made, multiple times made an offer to John through the liaison of Josephus, I will let you continue temple sacrifice if you will turn yourself in, and we will not kill you.
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Stop the bloodshed. And John Giskella just gave him the middle finger.
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That's what he did. He said, we will fight. I'm God, this is my place, we will fight.
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Eleazar, the other insurgent, turns his tail, runs away.
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We never hear anything else about Eleazar. He just runs off into the sunset. But Simon says, okay, it looks like we should probably join forces.
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This is bad. We should probably join forces. So Simon and John quit fighting with one another and joined forces to fight against the
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Romans, but in the same way of doing it, any of the Jews within the city that did not join them, they butchered them.
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They butchered them. Josephus says that the blood that ran through the city and came down the steps from the temple was like a red river, the amount of bloodshed.
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The bodies that were laid in the city were everywhere. You had the siege from Rome, from people starving, and at the same time they were starving,
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John and his men sacked the temple wine, the temple oil, and the grain.
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So they took that for themself, and then what does that do to everybody else in the city?
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They starved them out. That's right, they starved them out. It says here that he then, this is in verse 38, that he will honor him with gold, costly stones, silver, and treasures.
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He will take action against the strongest fortress with the help of a foreign god. I understand this costly stones and treasures he takes upon himself, he takes the money from the temple, and he offers that as payment to the insurgents that come along and help him, okay?
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But it says here that he does it with a foreign god. I understand that based on what we know from Revelation, what takes place when the seven seals are opened, is that foreign god,
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I do believe, is a demonic force that takes place, okay? I believe that what takes place is
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God turns them over to a debased mind. It talks about them being turned over to violence, to bloodshed, and that god of, the foreign god,
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I believe, is demonic forces. You say, well, okay, I disagree with that. Okay, well, then maybe it could just be the fact that he's going to worship this fortress that he's made up for himself, okay?
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He will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will cause them to rule over many and will partial out land for a price.
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It is at when John gets Simon to join forces with him, he tells
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Simon's friend, like I said, when you go to Josephus and read this, this is in book five, he tells
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Simon, hey, if you're guys and we'll join forces together, when we overthrow them, we'll give them this land.
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Now, to me, if Rome had never been overthrown at this point, what good is land or money gonna do you when you're dead?
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I mean, it's obviously death's imminent. But because of their desire to overthrow
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Rome, I think, and the demonic forces that had taken over those men to do the things that were doing to their own people,
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I believe that they were blinded and they began to fight. Now, here is where it's going to get a little tricky.
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It says, and at the end time, and that end time, I believe, is talking about final destruction.
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Remember, you had, this fighting has been going on within Jerusalem for some three, three and a half years, close to three years.
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The time of the end, I think, is final destruction of Jerusalem, okay? It says, now, the king of the south will collide with him.
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Well, the king of the south is going to collide with John Giskella and his people in Jerusalem.
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This is going to be where parallelism comes in play. If it's the king of the south, then that means who was the king of the south at the time of the
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Romans? Remember, they set governors and rulers. Not everywhere in the
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Book of Daniel, every time you hear the word king, it means an actual king. It could mean ruler, it could mean kingdom, and if you go back and you read, sometimes that's how it's taken.
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Nero had placed, in the king of the south, Tiberius Julius Alexander as ruler of Egypt.
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What's interesting about this guy, he was a Jew in history, okay?
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This is historical fact, just add it, okay? But no, that is the highest ranking
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Jewish man ever in the Roman army.
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He didn't care about his people. He didn't care, he came into a wealthy family, and his dad was a politician, and he then became to, he was obviously, he was a
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Roman citizen, and then he became ruler of Egypt, meaning now he is the king of the south.
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Here's what happens. When the insurgents broke out, and they finally decided they were going to crush the
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Jewish insurgents, Vespasian is sending
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Tiberius from the south to go fight the Jews. So here it is, remember, now the king of the south is now going to come against him.
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Who's the him? Who's the him? John Giskella. The king of the south,
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Tiberius Julius Alexander is going to fight against John Giskella, and the insurgents, we'll just say
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Jerusalem. And the king of the north will storm against him with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships, and will enter an overflow and pass through.
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Now, you have a parallel here as well. The king of the north would have been
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Vespasian. I'm just gonna put it here because something's gonna take place and tie these tapes over.
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He was ruler over the north, put in place by Nero. So now you have the king of the north parallel to the
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Seleucid Empire. In the Roman Empire, it would have been Vespasian. He was the general at the time.
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He was not yet emperor. Nero was still alive, okay, at this point. Everybody follow me?
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Do I need to clarify anything before I confuse anyone else? Okay, and you're gonna have now the king of the south.
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So they're going to sandwich John coming from the north and the south.
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Nero is not yet dead. I want you to understand that. Nero has put these in place. What was
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Nero doing back in this time? Persecuting Christians. In Rome.
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Yeah, do you know why? This is, we'll get into this more when we get into the Book of Revelation. Do you know why they were persecuting
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Christians in Rome? Was it because they were Christians? Was it because they were worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then ultimately the fulfillment of Jesus Christ?
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No, because he set Rome on fire so he could build him a new palace and you know who he said did it? Christians.
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Remember, Nero's persecution against the Christians was very local.
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It was localized to Rome. So he's playing his fiddle, doing whatever he's doing and being a rock star in Rome so that they can go squash the insurgents, okay?
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He'd wanted Jerusalem smashed. Let's get it handled and be done with it.
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It says here that he will send chariots, horsemen. They will enter many, overflow and pass through.
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It said he will also enter the beautiful land. Remember, Vespasian, he started in Galilee and he just worked his way down.
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I mean, he just smashed it. I mean, you can go to look. There was a battle on the Sea of Galilee where some 5 ,000
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Jews died. They had, it was actually a maritime battle. You can think that's in Josephus book four and it says as the
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Jews got on their boats to meet them in the middle of the Sea of Galilee to fight as they were overthrown out of their boats from a tempest, as they would try to make way to the boats for the
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Romans to save them. As they got to the boat thinking the Romans were gonna pull them in there, they would either whack off their hands and arms or they couldn't swim and drown or they'd cut their heads off and throw them back in the water.
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And they said the blood shed in the Sea of Galilee on that battle alone. Remember, the
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Sea of Galilee is up and as it ran down through the Jordan River, the rivers turned pink, reddish from the amount of blood that took place during that battle.
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It said, you read all this in the Jewish Wars. It said here that they would go in, they would make it to the beautiful land and many will fall and that is the case.
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They smashed everyone in their path. Hey, what was Rome good about? Squashing down insurgents.
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Look, when you had someone like Rome, you had peace because those that raised up forces to fight, they would crush them.
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Think about in the time of the Iron Curtain. Did you see any insurgents break out in the
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Iron Curtain? I don't know if y 'all remember, some of you kids, probably not, when before the fall of the Soviet, you didn't have fights over there.
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But as soon as the Iron Curtain fell, you had civil wars everywhere.
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All those little Eastern Bloc countries begin to fight whenever they want, and it's everywhere because dictators that use military force would crush anybody in their path.
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Anybody. What's that? Peace by the sword. Well, how did Rome keep their peace? Same way, yeah, same way.
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Okay, you wanna rise up? Okay, well, then we just won't leave anything left and then we'll call it peace. And that's what
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Rome did. It said, and we go to the beautiful land, and this is a peculiar statement.
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And here it says, but these will be rescued out of his hand, Edom, Moab, the foremost, the sons of Ammon.
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Hey, was Edom, Moab, and Ammon, were they friends to Israel?
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No, no, they weren't. But Vespasian spared them.
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They were Semitic people, but Vespasian spared them. And what we do know, once again, from Josephus' writings, is
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Edom, Moab, and Ammon actually provided cavalry and military might to fight against the
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Jewish revolt by Malchus, the king of the Nebitans.
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That was on the other side, that was the land. And he provided for them cavalry and anything that they needed, infantry to fight.
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So why wouldn't Vespasian not smash them? He has provided for them, basically, mercenary fighting.
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And said, it will be stretched out of his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not be an escape.
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It's pretty cool how we come to this statement. And then last week, when we were reading in Isaiah, chapter 30, and I think today we read
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Isaiah chapter 31, it talks about the Jewish people trying to find refuge in the
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Egyptians. Well, here it says, Egypt will not be a help to them. Some of your texts may say, may not be a place of escape, is that what it says?
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Okay, that's actually a better translation. Won't be a place of escape, because that's actually the terminology that's used.
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It won't be a place of escape. The Jews always sought to go to Egypt when persecution or invasion came, and that was always odd to the prophets.
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Why would you go back to the place of bondage? If you remember the book of Jeremiah, when
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Jeremiah had already seen the destruction of Jerusalem, had already taken place, you remember some of those men kidnapped him and took him to Egypt, that's what he did.
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And when he got to Egypt, God said, you tell those men that just brought you here, if you think coming to here, you're gonna escape my judgment,
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I'm gonna send the sword here, I'm gonna send the pestilence here, they're gonna rape your wives, they're gonna rape your kids, and they're gonna kill your sons.
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And that might have been. So did they kidnap him so that to protect them, in a sense?
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Maybe, I think they probably, and Bert may have a different understanding because he's been teaching the
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Bible a long time too, I personally think they kind of used, because he was always protected by Nebuchadnezzar, okay?
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He was like a rabbit's foot, yeah. Hey, we got him with us, we'll keep him with us, they won't do anything to us because we got him.
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Remember, Nebuchadnezzar offered money and a place, safe passage, wherever Jeremiah wanted to go, because Jeremiah was preaching, put your neck under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar and everything will be good for you.
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And nobody listened. So they said, hey, if we take him with us, we'll be safe.
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Well, God said, eh, I told you to stay back there, you stay back there and do what
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I tell you to do, and everything will go well. But because you did not listen, you've gone to Egypt, I'm gonna rape your,
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I mean, just the whole thing, you can rape me. It's terrible, that's exactly what happens. And I do believe it's probably that proclamation from Jeremiah that probably got him stoned to death.
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History says he was stoned to death in Egypt. That's probably, hey, here, we brought you over here for safety and we've used you for our protection and now you're preaching the same thing you preached for 41 years in Jerusalem and now you're doing it here.
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But they always saw, the prophets saw that as an odd place. But what happened is because Tiberius Julius Alexander was the ruler of the south of the
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Egyptian area, what did he do? He cut it off. They could not, if they wanted to escape, they could not go.
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Hey, it's funny too, if you watch TV now, where, when you see all this stuff that's going on in Palestine, you remember where everybody from Gaza, which is
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Israel, you know where we're trying to leave to go to? Egypt, Egypt, Egypt.
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It's just, when you see that, you know, you look at biblical history, you're like, man, that's odd. Once again, they're still trying to just always seem the easiest place to funnel to.
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It says, but he will gain treasures gold, silver over the precious things of Egypt.
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That's speaking of Vespasian's campaign. Libyans and Ethiopians will flow at his heels. Now, verse 44, it says, 11.
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But rumors from the east and from the north will disturb him, and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many.
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So here's, we're talking about the king of the north right now, okay?
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That's what they're talking about. The king of the north gets disturbing news from the east and from the north that will disturb him.
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At this time, Vespasian has made his way to Alexandria. Okay, where was
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Alexandria? Egypt, and the reason why he had to make his way to Alexandria is he had to secure the wheat and the grain silos there because there was a war going on in Rome as well.
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While he was in Alexandria, Nero had already died.
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He killed himself. There was a civil war going on in Rome at this time, and we don't have time to get into that.
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The civil war going on in Rome, Nero killed himself, civil wars broke out in Rome. There was no food in Rome because of the civil wars that broke out there.
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He secures the food, the grain and stuff in Alexandria. It is at that point that Vespasian is declared emperor over the
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Roman Empire in Alexandria, okay? Now he's going to, it says here that he will go forth and destroy with great wrath and destroy and annihilate many.
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The disturbing news that I believe he has heard is the absolute carnage that's going on within Jerusalem.
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He sent Vespasian, sent his son Titus back when they were looking to see how they were going to siege the city this last time.
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Because when the city was at siege, Nero killed himself. The siege had to back off because Rome was more important to take care of than Jerusalem.
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If the capital falls of your empire, what happens to your empire? It falls, so they back off of that siege to get things taken care of.
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Well, then now Vespasian is going to send Titus back as he's riding on his horse around the city walls to see what to do.
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He saw the utter carnage that the people had done to their own people and he held his hands up in the air and said, please
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God, whoever he was talking to, I don't think he was thinking to Yahweh, okay? Or to the
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God of Jesus Christ, okay? He was holding his hands up in the air and said, oh
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God, please don't hold me accountable for this. He saw what had taken place, but look over the wall.
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They're going to build siege ramps. So he sends it in and it says here that in verse 45, he will pitch between the seas and the beautiful holy mountain, yet he will come to his end and no one will be there to help him.
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What we do know, even from Tacitus' writings and Josephus is that they set up encampments on Mount Scopus and on the
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Mount of Olives towards the beautiful land. And what does it say here? They pitched their tents in the royal pavilion between the seas, meaning the
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Mediterranean and the city.
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And they also pitched tents between the other sea, which would be to the north, which had been the Sea of Galilee.
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It says, and to the beautiful, and he will come to his end and no one will be there to help him.
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It is at this point that John Giskell's reign of terror has come to an end. They come in, they're going to,
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Tacitus has given instructions to whatever the cost, take care of whatever's in there.
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I want the city subdued. They, Tacitus comes in.
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They had already breached the walls. They had already gotten to the temple mount, the temple complex, and just by unpopularity, the temple, believe it or not, was already set on fire and it wasn't by the
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Romans. The insurgents had already set the temple on fire from the inside.
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And another Roman soldier, seeing the same thing, against the orders of Titus, torched it again.
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Then as that began to flame, it's history tells us and tradition tells us that when those soldiers saw that the mortar that held the stones together had gold in it, it began to melt and run down the grates as refined, they said, you know what?
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Let's begin to knock these down and get the gold. And what you do know in history is the amount of gold that flooded the market in the time that the temple fell, inflation in the
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Roman Empire in that region, in that time. It was at that time that when the stone started coming down as a fulfillment of what
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Jesus said, not one stone would be left upon another, they, Titus said, you know what?
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Level it to the ground and leave that one Western wall intact so that if one day we want to fortify it again, at least there is basically a cornerstone to do so.
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And that is what took place. That is how I understand the prophecy of Daniel chapter 11 and its end.
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That is consistent with, like I said, what I said about Daniels 24 -27, the utter destruction of Jerusalem for the rejection of their
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Messiah. It is the same thing in Matthew 24, which would be the same thing.
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You rejected your Messiah, that one stone would be left on another. Hey, and if you read Luke 21, as he is crying,
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Jesus is weeping over the city, and he goes, these are going to be days of vengeance. Vengeance.
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And you remember when Jesus was carrying his cross, leaving the women, and we got to go, and the women begin to cry, and he said, what did, you remember the kind of, it almost seems incompassionate, but it's not, because Jesus Christ was not incompassionate, but the women were crying as he was leaving the city.
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And he said, don't cry for me. Cry for those who will be nursing babies and are pregnant in those days, because it's going to be days of vengeance.
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So I guess next week I'll take questions because we don't have time. We've got to get in there so Keith can preach to us.
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John, you want to close us? Father, thank you again for this opportunity we have to open your
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Word and just have it revealed to us, Lord. We thank you for that. We thank you for this brother and this careful study and careful handling of the
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Word. Lord, just be with us as we go to the main service today,
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Lord, just be with Keith as he opens the book of 2
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Corinthians. Lord, we ask all of this through your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. I plan in two weeks to start revelation, two weeks.