SRR 69 Antiochus IV and the Abomination of Desolation Part 2 (Eschatology And The Danielic Imperative Part 7)

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TPW #14 | Every Man's Battles - Sexual Immorality, Pride, Selfishness - Part 3

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I do a podcast. I'm not interested in your podcast. The anathema of God was for those who denied justification by faith alone.
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When that is at stake, we need to be on the battlefield exposing the air and combating the air.
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We are unabashedly, unashamedly Clarkian. And so the next few statements that I'm going to make,
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I'm probably going to step on all of the Vantillian toes at the same time. And this is what we do at Simple Riff around the radio, you know.
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We are polemical and polarizing Jesus style. I would first say that to characterize what we do as bashing is itself bashing.
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It's not hate. It's history. It's not bashing. It's the Bible. Jesus said, woe to you when men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way, as opposed to blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
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It is on. We're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle. And by him, the daily sacrifice was taken away.
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And the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression.
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And it cast down the truth to the ground. And it practiced and prospered.
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Daniel chapter 8 verses 9 through 12. All right, ladies and gentlemen, my name is
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Tim Shaughnessy. And this is Semper Reformanda Radio. And I'm sure that most of our regular listeners have already guessed it.
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This is going to be another episode on eschatology with Timothy Kaufman. So we are going to be looking at the book of Daniel today, as I just read.
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But before we get to that, I just want to remind everybody to check out the
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Trinity Foundation's book sale. Which is meant to commemorate the 500 -year mark of the
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Protestant Reformation. This book sale is going to continue through December 31st.
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So I definitely want to recommend our listeners take advantage of that. And with that,
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I want to introduce Timothy Kaufman. He is our resident expert in Roman Catholicism.
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He's also our expert in eschatology. If you have any questions for Tim, you can contact us at semper .reformanda
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.radio at gmail .com. And I would also recommend that you check out his blog, whitehorseblog .com.
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Most of the stuff that Tim has gone over, actually, I think probably all of the stuff that Tim has gone over, he has written to some extent on his blog.
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It deals a lot with eschatology. So I just want to say thank you to Tim for all the work that he has put into this podcast.
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He puts in hours to put these episodes together. I think they are fantastic.
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I agree with his eschatology. I've learned so much from our time together.
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So Tim, I want to give you an opportunity to just take it away. Okay, thank you,
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Tim. I appreciate that introduction. It is good to be back. We're glad to be continuing with this weekly series on eschatology.
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And this week we're going to cover Daniel chapter 8. And what I want to do first, though, is because it's been months since we started this series,
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I want to give a brief, about 5 or 10 minute summary of how we ended up talking about Daniel chapter 8, after talking about Daniel chapter 11, after talking about Daniel chapter 7.
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And in fact, after this, we're going to start talking about Daniel chapter 9. And we want to be able to explain why it is that we're jumping from place to place.
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And in fact, the reason behind the shifts from one chapter to another is because we are constantly confronted with traditional assumptions on the meaning of the text from chapter to chapter.
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And in each place, what we want to do is uncover the assumption and correct it. And that's what we've been doing since the beginning of the series.
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So let me start, if it's alright with you, Tim, I want to just go all the way back to chapter 7 to explain how we ended up here talking about Antiochus IV and his reign as a descendant of the
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Seleucid line in the four -way division of Alexander's empire. So that's what
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I'd like to do today, if that's alright with you, Tim. Yeah, let's do it. Go for it. Okay, we started in this series in episode 1 explaining that in chapter 7,
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Daniel described the Roman Empire as a beast having ten horns. And there was a little horn that removed three horns and rose up among the remaining horns.
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As we explained in that episode, in Revelation 12, 13, and 17, each beast still has ten horns.
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And in fact, when Christ is shown to return in Revelation 17, he makes war with Antichrist, plus ten horns.
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If Antichrist at the end still has ten horns in his retinue when Christ returns, then
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Daniel must have seen and been aware of 13 total horns. And as we demonstrated in our first episode, each of the beasts in Daniel 7 is described in its last configuration just prior to the rise of the next empire.
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In that case, the ten horns Daniel saw were just after the little horn had removed three and then he saw the little horn rising up among the remaining ten to rule over them as the next empire.
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A close reading of Daniel 7 shows that Daniel never actually says the little horn removed three of the ten.
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And when he describes the first horns, he never says the first horns were originally ten in number.
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This is important to us in the Danielic chronology because historically the church fathers and later eschatologists have been looking for and awaiting a ten -way division of the
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Roman Empire as a herald of the era of Antichrist, who they assume is to remove three of the ten horns.
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In fact, we should have been looking for a thirteen -way division of the empire and for someone to take three of the thirteen horns and rise up among the remaining ten to rule over them.
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That's what we should have been looking for and that's the first assumption that we wanted to counter in our exploration of Danielic eschatology.
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The fact is that Daniel knew of thirteen horns and little horn had removed three and came up among the remaining ten and what we find in that chapter is that Daniel never says the final number of horns is seven but when we get to Revelation 12, 13, and 17, we find out that the final number was ten and that means there must have been thirteen horns to begin with and what we showed in that first episode was that the
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Roman Empire had in fact been divided thirteen ways into thirteen dioceses at the end of the fourth century and that Roman Catholicism, which was based in Rome, rose to power in the three
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Roman dioceses of Italy, Egypt, and Orient or literally the East, and established its power on the basis of the three
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Petrine Seas or the three seats of Peter in Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch.
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By the end of the fourth century, these were essentially the three metropolitan cities or capital cities of those three of the thirteen dioceses of the
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Roman Empire. Even to this day, Roman Catholicism claims the authority of Peter to rule over Christ Church based on the doctrine of the three
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Petrine Seas, a doctrine that originated in the latter part of the fourth century. Roman Catholicism is that little horn of Daniel 7 and at all costs, the
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Church of Christ must remain ever vigilant to avoid the errors and influence of Roman Catholicism the very
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Antichrist of prophecy. We had much more to say on the rise of Roman Catholicism as the little horn of Daniel 7 in the earlier episodes and we have much, much more to say about Roman Catholicism in the years since its rise to world power as a successor to the
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Roman Empire and we'll cover that in this series, but it was important to lay out the historical fulfillment of a thirteen -way division of the
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Roman Empire and the Roman Church uprooting three of them in order to establish itself as a successor to the
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Roman Empire. Roman Catholicism is, in fact, the fifth empire of Daniel's visions, which is the
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Antichrist of prophecy. Now, with that said, we went from Daniel 7, which focuses largely on the division of the
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Roman Empire straight to Daniel chapter 11, which focuses largely on the division of the
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Greek Empire and we've been in this chapter 11 for several episodes. The main reason we have dwelt so long on chapter 11 is that historically and we mean for millennia, not just for years or centuries historians and eschatologists have been unable to correlate the whole chapter of Daniel 11 with historical events under the
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Greek period of Daniel's visions and by any reading of it, the chapter certainly seems to start out describing the
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Greek period and because it is so difficult to correlate the whole chapter with historical events it has largely been assumed, even since the earliest days of Christianity that at some point in the chapter,
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Daniel had stopped speaking about a Greek antagonist and shifted his focus forward to the next empire and started speaking of the little horn of Daniel 7 again.
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The latter assumption has been the foundation of a great deal of eschatological literature and we covered some of it in our episodes and this goes back to the earliest days of Christianity and it is a very problematic assumption.
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First, Daniel at no point in the narrative of Daniel 11 ever even hints that he has shifted his frame of reference to start talking about the little horn of Daniel 7 again or about a distant future antagonist outside of the
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Greek context and second, if we simply blend the attributes of the antagonist of Daniel 11 with the attributes of the little horn of Daniel chapter 7 and assume that they are both talking about Antichrist we will be on the lookout for an
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Antichrist figure who Daniel did not prophesy and in fact will never exist and therefore we will miss the identity of the real
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Antichrist of prophecy. So that is why we spent four episodes just on Daniel chapter 11 not because we expected to find
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Antichrist described for us there but precisely because we do not expect to find him there. What we've been able to show is that Daniel 11 describes events that have all occurred in history and were completely fulfilled in the century before Christ was born and all of this took place before Rome even rose up as an empire.
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As it turns out, Daniel 11 started by describing the final kings of the Medo -Persian empire then at verse 3 started describing the rise of Alexander the
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Great and the four -way division of his empire and then depicts for the most part the wars between the
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Seleucids and the Ptolemies of Egypt and how Jerusalem ended up getting caught up in the wars between them in what history has recorded for us as the
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Syrian wars. The chapter then describes the final conflict between Roman general
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Pompey and the pirates of Pamphylia which set the stage for Rome's rise to the global stage as the fourth world empire of Daniel's visions.
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So in the process of our examination of Daniel chapter 11 we have showed four critical matters in the understanding of Daniel chapter 11 several of which overturn some traditional assumptions that have been used to interpret the chapter.
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We believe that you can't really understand the chapter if you're bringing assumptions with you into the text.
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We'll just walk through four of these critical matters and what we've been able to do in our analysis of the chapter.
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First, the division between North and South in Daniel chapter 11 is not the
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Mediterranean Sea or the border between Syria and Egypt as has been traditionally assumed but rather the border between North and South is the
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Taurus Mountains that run along the southern coastline of Asia Minor or modern -day Turkey. And in fact the
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Ptolemies who are typically associated with Egypt to the south also controlled the entire southern coast of Asia Minor during the critical period when
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Alexander's empire was divided four ways. That's important to us because the boundaries between the four different kingdoms of Alexander's empire are only known to us in the fulfillment of prophecy and so we have to be able to find out how
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Alexander's empire was divided so we can truly understand this conflict between the North and the
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South. And what we found in our analysis was in fact the Taurus Mountains that run along the southern coast of Asia Minor were the boundary between North and South and the southern kingdom at the four -way division of the empire controlled the southern coast of Asia Minor.
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The second matter is that the Seleuces were in fact the eastern kingdom in the original division of the empire.
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But by the time Daniel starts to prophesy about the King of the North and the King of the South in Daniel 11 -5 he's describing the period after the
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Battle of Choropedium in 281 BC which is to say that he starts to speak of the Seleucids only after they'd conquered the northern territory.
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And therefore by the time Daniel starts talking about them they truly had become the King of the
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North. Not because Daniel had shifted his frame of reference to Jerusalem where Syria is to the north and Egypt is to the south but because Daniel's frame of reference actually remained fixed and north in Daniel's frame of reference had always referred to Asia Minor north of the
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Taurus Mountains and the territory of Thrace in Europe. So by the time
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Daniel starts talking about the Seleucids as King of the North it's because they truly had become
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King of the North occupying the northern territory. Now the third matter is that in Daniel 11 -18 is depicted for us the defeat of the
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Seleucid King Antiochus III at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC. Under the term of surrender at the
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Treaty of Apamea in 188 BC the Seleucids had to pay an annual war tribute to Rome.
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Their navy was drastically reduced, their war elephants were destroyed and the king's son Antiochus IV was sent as a hostage to Rome to ensure the peace.
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Importantly, from this point forward in the narrative the Seleucid line is never again called King of the
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North because they have in fact been kicked out of the northern kingdom. That's an important matter to be identified in the chapter and it helps us understand what
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Daniel is actually saying. And this gets to our fourth matter that we wanted to make sure that we understood in our analysis of Daniel chapter 11.
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We conclude from this that because the Seleucids are called
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King of the North while they occupy the Northern Territory and they stop being called
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King of the North after they get kicked out of the Northern Territory we conclude that the title King of the North goes with the territory and not with any particular dynasty and thus the title belongs to whomever happens to rule the
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Northern Territory. And as we showed by the time we get to Daniel 11 -40 -45 the last six verses of the chapter the
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Roman Republic is safely in control of the Northern Territory and in fact the pirates of Pamphylia are now established along the southern coast of Asia Minor.
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With that in mind we saw unfolding before us in the last six verses of Daniel 11 a description of the final battle between General Pompey representing the
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Northern Kingdom and the pirates of Pamphylia representing the Southern Kingdom and those pirates almost snuffed out the
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Roman Republic before it ever had a chance to rise to the global stage as an empire. In his conquest
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Pompey defeated not only the pirates but also defeated Mithridates to the north and Tigranus to the east and that set the stage for the
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Roman Republic to rise to power as the next empire of Daniel's visions. That completed our analysis of Daniel chapter 11 at least as we mentioned last week the book ends from the beginning which shows the
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Seleucids as Kings of the North and the end which prophesied the conflict between General Pompey and the pirates of Pamphylia in the last six verses.
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The reason we spent so much time establishing the fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel 11 through verse 18 and then
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Daniel 11 40 -45 was to show that these prophecies have already been fulfilled and are confirmed in the historical record and therefore the period between them that is from Daniel 11 19 -39 has already been fulfilled too.
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And that's a critical section of the passage because of the contents of that period between Daniel 11 19 -39.
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As we mentioned in episode 6 Daniel 11 in those verses from 19 -39 deals with the
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Seleucid kingdom after they'd been kicked out of the Northern Territory and it's mostly about Antiochus IV and because Daniel 11 29 -31 deals with Antiochus IV putting an end to Levitical sacrifices and placing the abomination of desolation in the temple we have to address the fact that Jesus refers to the abomination of desolation as a future event.
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So we are investing a lot of time showing that the abomination of desolation really did occur in the
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Greek Empire and really was placed in the temple by Antiochus IV in 167
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BC. By focusing on this it establishes the identity of the abomination of desolation which makes it possible for us to understand
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Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24 15 and Mark 13 14 in which he warned that soon after his death and resurrection the abomination foretold by Daniel would stand again on holy ground.
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We will be able to understand what Jesus is saying as long as we understand what that abomination of desolation is.
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So we've shown that Daniel 11 shows the abomination of desolation occurring under the Greek Empire. Today we're going to spend time looking at the abomination of desolation as depicted in Daniel chapter 8 because Daniel 8 also places this in the
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Greek period under the reign of Antiochus IV. And we need to exhaust all of the biblical literature on the abomination of desolation so that we can understand what
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Jesus was talking about. This is again what we call the Danielic imperative. Jesus tells us in Matthew and Mark let the reader take note or let the reader understand he's directing us to the prophecies of Daniel that were written down.
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He was not talking about what would eventually be written in the Gospels. He's talking about what he himself and everyone else had access to at that time which was the scriptures of Daniel that spoke of the abomination of desolation.
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So that's why, this is why we started by talking about Daniel chapter 7 and the little horn taking three of the 13 dioceses of the
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Roman Empire and we've ended up in Daniel chapter 11 to show that the antagonists that are depicted in Daniel chapter 11 are not to be confused with Antichrist and in fact they must be placed in their correct historical context all of which occurred before Christ was even born.
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And that's why we want to now turn to Daniel chapter 8 to see how Daniel chapter 8 depicts for us this same period and the same events all occurring under the period of Greek rule.
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So there's our introduction for this week. It's a little bit repetitive and I do understand that it is a tremendous amount of information but I don't want the listeners to lose track of why we're focusing so much on Daniel in the first place.
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So I hope that makes sense Tim and I'm ready to dive into Daniel chapter 8 with that brief introduction.
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So are we ready to go? Yeah, I think the summary is really, really helpful because it ties everything together and it reminds us of what we've gone over because this is very intense and I am really looking forward to what you're going to be talking about in Daniel chapter 8.
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Okay, well then let's jump into Daniel chapter 8. What's great about Daniel chapter 8 is that just like in Daniel chapter 7
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Daniel sees a vision and then the vision is interpreted for him whereas in Daniel chapter 11
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Daniel watches history unfold and he simply records it for us but in Daniel chapter 8
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Daniel sees the vision and the angel Gabriel explains to him what it means and we get some really good information from Daniel's observations and from Gabriel's interpretation.
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So Daniel 8 is going to be very interesting to us for at least three reasons. There's a lot of other reasons but the three main ones today is that one, it depicts the four -way division of Alexander's empire showing us definitively that Daniel was describing the
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Greek period. So here we have again a situation where Daniel is describing what is very obviously a
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Greek period in prophecy and then describes events that are contemporaneous with the abomination of desolation that we saw in Daniel chapter 11.
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And that's the second reason this is so interesting. It describes the transgression of desolation in that same time frame as we've been discussing that occurred in the same verses that we discussed last week in Daniel chapter 11 that is from Daniel 11, 29 to 31 occurring under a
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Greek period under Antiochus IV and that's the same period we're discussing here. And the third reason is that it includes a very interesting conversation between the angels who are narrating
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Daniel's visions to him. And this is very important to us because in chapter 12 there's a very similar conversation that takes place as the angels who have until this point served as Daniel's narrators ask questions back and forth and it appears that Jesus answers their questions for them from between the banks of the river and we're going to discover the significance of those conversations this week and next but we're going to focus mainly on the first two items this week and just walk through Daniel's prophecies about Antiochus IV in Daniel chapter 8.
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So for now let's walk through Daniel chapter 8 which is comparatively easy because the angel
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Gabriel explains it to us after Daniel sees the vision. So we're going to read Daniel's observation and then we're going to skip forward to where the angel interprets that part of the vision for him.
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With that in mind let's proceed with Daniel chapter 8 verses 1 -4 In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me even unto me
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Daniel after that which appeared unto me at the first and I saw in a vision and it came to pass when
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I saw that I was at Shushan in the palace which is in the province of Elam and I saw in a vision and I was by the river of Uli then
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I lifted up mine eyes and saw and behold there stood before the river a ram which had two horns and the two horns were high but one was higher than the other and the higher came up last
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I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward so that no beasts might stand before him neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand and he did according to his will and became great
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Okay, so that's the first four verses of Daniel 8 and it is simply a description of the Medo -Persian
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Empire prior to Alexander the Great and this is Gabriel's interpretation simply confirming that we're talking about the
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Medo -Persian Empire Here in Daniel 8, verse 15 it says and it came to pass when I, even I Daniel had seen the vision and sought for the meaning then behold there stood before me as the appearance of a man and I heard a man's voice between the banks of Uli which called and said
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Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision so he came near where I stood and when he came
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I was afraid and fell upon my face but he said unto me understand O son of man for at the time of the end shall be the vision now as he was speaking to me
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I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground but he touched me and set me upright and he said behold
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I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation for at the time appointed shall the end be the ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia So that's the confirmation from Gabriel explaining that Daniel has seen the period of the
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Medo -Persian dominance just before Alexander's empire came to power What I want to note here is the same thing
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I noted last week and that is that he said that he were to understand Daniel for the vision relates to the time of the end that's
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Daniel 8 .17 and then in Daniel 8 .19 he confirms that what he means is that I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation for at the time appointed the end shall be the time of the end does not refer necessarily to the end times at the very very end of time but rather simply to the end of the indignation and we're going to spend some time in a future episode in fact within the next few episodes talking about what does
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Gabriel mean when he talks about the end of the indignation for the time being we're not going to focus on the end of the indignation but rather to show that we are in fact discussing something that occurs after the
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Medo -Persian Empire and under the period of Greek rule in Daniel's visions so chronologically we're pretty much where we were in Daniel 10 through Daniel 11 verse 2 and that is during the
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Medo -Persian Empire just as Alexander the Great is about to rise and the angel Gabriel confirms this for Daniel and therefore for us the next part of Daniel's vision is about the rise of Alexander's kingdom and it's four way division after his death so let's return to Daniel 8 and pick up at verse 5 and we're reading through verse 8 and as I was considering behold and he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth and touched not the ground and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes and he came to the ram that had two horns which
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I had seen standing before the river and ran unto him in the fury of his power and I saw him come close to the ram and he was moved with Kohler against him and smote the ram and break his two horns and there was no power in the ram to stand before him but he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand therefore the he goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great horn was broken and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven that of course is the four way division of Alexander's empire and this is how
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Gabriel explains it to him in Daniel 8 verses 21 to 22 this is
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Gabriel's explanation of what Daniel has just seen and the rough goat is the king of Grecia and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king now that being broken whereas four stood up for it four kingdoms shall stand up out of that nation but not in his power so there's
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Gabriel's interpretation of the vision that Daniel has seen so here Gabriel discusses the four way division of Alexander's empire by way of reminder
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Alexander conquered the Medo -Persian empire in 334 B .C. and died in 323
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B .C. his kingdom was eventually divided four ways Lysimachus took the northern territory which is
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Asia Minor within the Taurus mountains plus the race in Europe Ptolemy took the southern territory of Egypt plus the entire southern coast of Asia Minor south of the
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Taurus mountains Seleucus took the eastern kingdom from Syria to Babylon and all the way to India and Demetrius son of Antigonus and his sons took the western kingdom in Macedonia that ended up being the four way division of the empire after the fall of Alexander none of those four kingdoms achieved the same power of Alexander even though they all tried and that is why there were all the subsequent wars between them afterward after several generations of Seleucid kings one in particular comes to power and this is where Daniel chapter 8 starts to describe our antagonist the antagonist we're discussing which is
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Antiochus IV so let's pick up with Daniel 8 verses 9 to 12 and this is where Daniel is describing for us the vision of the horn the little horn of Daniel 8 that comes up out of one of the four horns that came up after Alexander died so okay so Daniel starting in Daniel 8 and 9 and out of one of them and I'm going to say parenthetically that is out of one of the four horns came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land and it waxed great even to the host of heaven and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them yea he magnified himself even to the prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down and then host was given to him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression and it cast down the truth to the ground and it practiced and prospered so that's
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Daniel 8 verses 9 to 12 and now here is Gabriel's interpretation of those verses
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Daniel 8 23 to 25 and in the latter time of their kingdom and I'm going to say parenthetically that is of the
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Seleucid line when the transgressors are come to the full a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up and his power shall be mighty but not by his own power and he shall destroy wonderfully and shall prosper and practice and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people and through his policy he shall also cause craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnify himself in his heart and by peace shall destroy many he shall also stand up against the prince of princes but he shall be broken without hand now while we're going to talk about the meaning of that section
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I'll simply point out here though in the King James prince of princes is capitalized because the translators assume that it is referring to Jesus but we're going to talk about how that actually refers to actually the high priest and we'll get to that in just a little just a few minutes but as we already talked last week this section describes
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Antiochus IV's ambitions toward the east and toward the south we talked about how his ambition was directed toward Egypt which is the south toward Persia and the
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Arabian Gulf which is toward the east and toward the pleasant land which of course is Jerusalem we also talked last week about how
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Antiochus IV made the daily sacrifices illegal trampled the sanctuary and erected the abomination of desolation so for now we're going to focus on the personality and attributes of Antiochus IV and how he magnified himself above the prince of the host as Daniel describes him and as stood up against the prince of princes as Gabriel interprets that so let's start with Gabriel's description of a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences the description carries with it the connotation of genius grasping complex ideas and being able to grapple with difficult riddles puzzles and enigmas as is shown in 2
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Chronicles 9 .1 Psalms 49 .4 78 .2 and Proverbs 1 .6
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so the idea of dark sentences just means that this is a man with some intellectual means and we'll discover what that means as we go forward what we know of Antiochus IV is that he behaved as an erratic man of diabolical genius he took the title
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Epiphanes which means manifestation of God basically but his contemporaries called him
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Epimenes which basically is just a turn of phrase meaning the mad man this is from Polybius Histories Fragments of Book 26
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Chapter 1 Verse 1 so the point here is that yes he was a diabolical genius but he called himself
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Epiphanes Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his contemporaries made fun of him on that ground calling him
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Epimenes he would excuse himself from court and only to be found at the silversmiths and goldsmiths workshops holding forth at length and discussing technical matters with the molders and other craftsmen that's from Polybius Histories Fragments of Book 26 this is a man who for whom the management of a kingdom just was not sufficiently interested so he would go off and talk with the craftsmen of the city and actually speak with them in their terms showing that he understood what they were talking about and ask questions of them about how they did certain things how they accomplished certain technologies and that sort of thing so he would also forsake his royal attire he would put on the toga and run for public office this is from Polybius Histories Fragments of Book 26 it says upon being elected he would sit upon the ivory curial chair as the
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Roman custom is listening to the lawsuits tried there and pronouncing judgment with great pains and display of interest it also says in Diodorus Siculus Library of History Fragments of Book 29 says he did this with such close attention and zeal that all men of refinement were perplexed about him some ascribing his behavior to artless simplicity others to folly and some to madness this is from Livius History of Rome Book 41
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Chapter 20 it says roaming through every phase of life he was so far from remaining constant to any one form of it that neither he himself nor anyone else was at all clear as to his real character basically his unpredictable behavior was frequently on display for all to see and it was very difficult to understand what was going on inside his mind this is just to show the frivolity and his mad genius this is from Polybius History Fragments of Book 26 it says he also used to bathe in the public bath and when they were full of common people having jars of the most precious ointments brought in for him on one occasion when someone said to him how lucky you are you kings to use such scents and smell so sweet he answered nothing at the time but the next day when the man was having his bath he came in after him and had a huge jar of the most precious ointment called stacti poured over his head so that all the bathers jumped in and rolled themselves in it and by slipping in it created great music as did the king himself so this is just a reflection of the frivolity and madness and genius of Antiochus IV and yet despite all these ostentatious displays and we certainly have not listed all of them he was nevertheless able to reduce all of Egypt and expand the eastern provinces at the head of his army and to capture
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Jerusalem just by talking to the people of Jerusalem that's recorded for us in 1st Maccabees 1 16 -19 1st
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Maccabees 3 37 and 1st Maccabees 130 his victories in battle were celebrated by the
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Greek people from Cilicia to Babylon and that is just an expansive distance where people are rejoicing and talking about his amazing conquests and battle and yet this same man would manage a kingdom entertain people at the bath interact with the silversmiths and goldsmiths and talk with them about their craft at the end of his life he fell into a deep and fatal depression when he encountered failure against the
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Jewish Maccabees who revolted against him that's recorded for us in 1st
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Maccabees 6 verses 4 -9 as is commonly known today there is a thin line between genius and madness disproportionate exuberance manic depression excessive frivolity unpredictability bipolarity and genius are often found in the same person
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Antiochus Epiphanes IV lived his life at the boundary between sanity and madness and was able to immerse himself in technical details grapple with complexities achieve accomplishments on a grand scale and field an army unmatched by any of the other kings around him according to Diodorus Siculus library of history book 31 and this is a man for whom there was apparently no topic beyond his passing interest ruling a kingdom just seemed too boring for him and that was the one activity that failed to captivate his interest
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Labanius in his oration on the praise of Antioch leaves us with this summary of the life of Antiochus IV he was at once a man of peace and a man of war he rejoiced in peace provided that he was not provoked in war he was courageous if ever there was a need for it he did not because of the allurements of peace give ground to those who wronged him nor did he despise peace because of his victories he knew as well as any man how to take up arms at the right moment and how to lay them down again that's
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Labanius oration 11 122 so Antiochus may have been a mad man and may have even played the jester in his own court but he was no fool and if we're in search of a king of fierce countenances and understanding dark sentences we have certainly found him in Antiochus IV so that's
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Gabriel describing this king as a king of fierce countenances and understanding dark sentences let's now turn to Daniel's vision of the king waxing great even to the host of heaven and casting down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamping upon them and magnifying himself even to the prince of the host that's basically referring to Daniel 8 verses 10 to 11 and Gabriel's interpretation of that same part of the vision where he says he shall destroy the mighty and the holy people he shall stand up against the prince of princes that's
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Daniel 8 24 to 25 depending on the translation the prince of the host or prince of princes is either assumed to refer to Christ or to the high priest of Israel given the context in which it is stated especially the fact that we're talking about the
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Greek period of Daniel's visions and we're referring to the desolation of the sanctuary and the end of daily sacrifices we're inclined to see this as a description in reference to the high priest the prince of the host or the prince of princes when
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Daniel refers to him as the prince of the host remember he was describing the saints of God as the host of heaven the stars consistent with Genesis 37 9 and we also talked last week about how the high priest of Israel are referred to as the princes and the governors of the house of God as we showed last week
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Daniel 11 22 indicates something very similar when speaking of Antiochus' rise to power it says that with the arms of the flood shall they be overflown from before him and shall be broken also the prince of the covenant which we understood to be a reference to the fact that Onias the third the high priest would be a casualty of Antiochus' rise to power in any case the high priest is called the prince in several places in scripture as we showed last week
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Antiochus the fourth is depicted in this chapter reaching to the stars of heaven and trampling them down which we take to refer to the trampling of God's people and again we refer to the tribes of Jacob called stars in Genesis 37 9 in Joseph's dream sequence the prince of the host would therefore simply be a reference to the high priest and the prince of princes would be the high priest among the priests
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Antiochus the fourth stood up against the prince of princes in several ways we're going to appeal to number 7 here it describes the
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Levitical priest as princes it says they shall offer their offering each prince on his day for the dedicating of the altar that's number 7 according to Ezekiel 45 .7
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and 48 .21 the land to the east and west of the temple was to belong to the prince that is a quote from Ezekiel 45 .7
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and 48 .21 according to Josephus when Antiochus sacked Jerusalem he knocked down the walls of the city and constructed a citadel called the
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Acra and it was named that for its altitude and so for its altitude and its location it really is
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Antiochus magnifying himself against the prince of the host it says in Josephus antiquity of the
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Jews book 12 chapter 5 .4 it says when he had overthrown the city walls he built a citadel in the lower part of the city for the place was high and overlooked the temple now archaeologists are divided as to the location of the
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Acra it may be located to the east or to the west of the city and many studies have suggested multiple such locations and we won't list them all here but wherever the
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Acra was located it was built and situated for its altitude relative to the temple and importantly it was located in the part of the land that was reserved for the prince on the one side and on the other side from the west side westward and from the east side eastward that's from Ezekiel 45 .7
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so Antiochus basically had granted to himself the prerogatives of the high priest by being able to by locating his citadel either on the east side or the west side of the temple but also by making it so high that it stood above the temple where the ministrations of the covenant were executed so Antiochus also arrogantly entered the sanctuary according to 1st
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Maccabees 1 .21 which of course was the duty and privilege of the high priest among his brethren the prince of princes alone that's
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Leviticus 21 whether by his entrance into the temple or by his construction of a high citadel overlooking the temple on the land set aside for the princes of God's people
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Antiochus the fourth magnified himself even to the prince of the host and against the prince of princes the high priest so that's why we would look at this passage and we see prince of princes we wouldn't necessarily assume that we should capitalize prince of princes and have it referred to Christ we would instead look at it and understand it in the context of the
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Greek period because that is how that's how Daniel describes it for us both here and in Daniel chapter 11 and understanding that we're speaking of something that's taking place under the old covenant centuries before Christ we would not necessarily assume that Daniel has seen something here related to Christ that is the prince of princes and king of kings but rather instead the princely priest of the priests who are themselves princes in scripture and refer to this as the prince of princes would be therefore the high priest under the old covenant now
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Gabriel provides this additional description he says and through his policy he shall also cause craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnify himself in his heart well
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Antiochus IV magnified himself in his heart by self -deification as we mentioned last week in contrast with all of his predecessors whom the
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Seleucids traditionally deified posthumously Antiochus IV was the first of his line to deify himself this is a quote from Edwin Robert Bivan in his
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House of Seleucus volume 2 page 154 it says the worship of the Macedonian kings in the
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Greek cities goes back as we saw to the time of Alexander but undoubtedly
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Antiochus IV lays more stress upon his deity than former kings his surname Theos Epiphanes declares him to be an effulgence in human form of the divine a god manifest in the flesh now first the addition of Theos is put upon the money that is in the coinage of his realm and the head which appears on the new coin of the cities is crowned with rays and so this is
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Edwin Robert Bivan the preeminent historian of the Seleucid line describing how
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Antiochus IV magnified himself as the manifestation of God now according to 1st
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Maccabees 1 .30 Antiochus IV also employed craft deceit and pledges of peace to accomplish his purposes it says deceitfully he spoke peaceable words to them and they believed him but he suddenly fell upon the city and dealt a severe blow and destroyed many people of Israel so we know that he was a deceptive crafty person so finally
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Gabriel assures Daniel that this brilliant militant deceptive arrogant little horn shall be broken without hand that is the last citation we had from Gabriel above Daniel 8 .25
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in fact Antiochus IV died of grief sometime in 163BC after hearing news of the successes of the
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Maccabean revolt and the defeat of his forces in Judea that's recorded for us in 1st Maccabees 6 .9
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so this completes the story of the rise and the fall of Antiochus IV surnamed
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Epiphanes who is the persecutor of the holy people and as prophesied by Daniel and interpreted by Gabriel in Daniel chapter 8 we went through this because it's so important to our understanding of who
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Antiochus was in prophecy and what he did and what Daniel said he would do the period of Antiochus's rise and fall is depicted in Daniel's vision of chapter 8 verses 9 to 12 and Gabriel's interpretation in verses 23 to 25 is the same period covered for us in Daniel 11 verses 20 to 39 which is why we studied it last week in such detail and why we're studying this section in such detail now it shows us that the period of the trampling of the sanctuary and the abomination of desolation was in fact during the
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Greek period and therefore that the abomination of desolation was itself a Greek phenomenon occurring more than a century before Christ was born under the reign of Antiochus IV of the
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Seleucid line in Alexander's divided Greek empire as I mentioned earlier we need to be able to understand what
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Daniel was saying about the abomination of desolation so that we can understand Jesus' references to it and to do that we have to establish a
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Danielic timeline which is why we are focusing so much on Daniel's references to the abomination of desolation because Jesus focused on it as well and directed us to do the same now before we leave chapter 8 behind we're going to first stop briefly and look at a fascinating conversation that takes place between the angels in Daniel 8 verses 13 to 14 about how long the persecution will take place under Antiochus IV this is how
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Daniel records the conversation in Daniel 8 13 and 14 then I heard one saint and I'll say parenthetically a holy one or an angel here
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I heard one saint speaking and another saint said to that certain saint which spake how long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot and he said unto me unto 2 ,300 days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed
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Gabriel's last admonition to Daniel was about that very statement and he assured Daniel that it was true he said to him and the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true wherefore shut thou up the vision for it shall be for many days so there's something about this conversation that has to do specifically with the daily sacrifice the transgression of desolation and giving both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot and the answer is it's going to be 2 ,300 days there are other schools of thought that would interpret each day here to be a reference to a year and therefore they're looking for a 2 ,300 year period we're going to come back to this and talk to it in more detail but I'll simply say that the
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King James translation here that it says 2 ,300 days actually says 2 ,300 evenings and mornings now since evening and mornings evenings and mornings are the same terms that are used to describe for us the literal six day creation of the world back in Genesis 1
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I don't think there can be a stronger scriptural imperative for us interpreting these as literal days than seeing
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Gabriel explain this to Daniel in terms of evenings and mornings which are the same terms used to describe the literal 24 hour solar days of creation that took place back in Genesis so for this reason and other reasons that we're going to get to later in the series
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I do not see this 2 ,300 evenings and mornings being 2 ,300 years
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I think it is a literal 2 ,300 days or 6 years and 4 months we're going to come back to describe that exact period as it occurred under Antiochus IV and we're also going to come back to this conversation and compare it to a similar conversation that took place in Daniel chapter 12 in which two of Daniel's narrators are on opposite sides of a river and they ask a similar question to what was just described here when these two saints are speaking to each other in Daniel 8, 13, and 14 how that conversation resolves in Daniel chapter 12 and how
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Daniel asks for a clarification about it reveals to us something very important about the identity of the angels on either side of the river and which one was asking the question and we're going to pick up on that next week and after we talk about that angelic conversation that takes place not only here in Daniel 8, 13, and 14 but also in Daniel chapter 12 we're going to dive in to Daniel chapter 9 which again actually shows the abomination of desolation taking place during the period of Greek rule and as a teaser
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I'm going to throw out one more thing about Daniel chapter 9 and this should be enough for people to get interested
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I think in listening to the episodes we do on Daniel chapter 9 traditionally Daniel chapter 9 has been assumed to be a messianic prophecy because it refers to making atonement for sin the end of sin the introduction of everlasting righteousness and the coming of a
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Messiah the Prince I'm going to throw out there for now that I believe that that has been a traditional assumption that is incorrect that Daniel chapter 9 is not a messianic prophecy but a mosaic one and we will show that it was fulfilled in its entirety more than 100 years before Christ was born in other words the description in Daniel chapter 9 of the abomination of desolation being placed in the temple actually occurred under Antiochus IV in the period of Greek rule under the
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Seleucid line after the four wave division of Alexander's empire during the
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Greek period of Daniel's visions and I think that one is going to be a hard one for people to swallow but I want to show from the scriptures that Daniel actually points us to a mosaic fulfillment of that prophecy and again it places the abomination of desolation or the statue of Jupiter as we talked about last week in the period of Greek rule before the rise of the
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Roman empire and even before the battle of Pompeii between the king of the north which would be the
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Roman Republic and the king of the south which is the Pamphilian pirates so we'll come back to this we hope that's enough of a teaser to get people to come back again
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Daniel chapter 9 is a mosaic prophecy not a messianic one and as long as we keep looking for fulfillment in the messianic era we're going to miss the actual fulfillment that took place under a mosaic construct and by missing it we will fail to understand
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Jesus' warning that the abomination that Daniel foretold would return as the herald of the destruction of Judea and we can't understand
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Matthew 24 and Mark 13 completely if we don't understand the abomination of desolation and we can't understand the abomination of desolation completely if we look at Daniel 9 and assume that it is a messianic prophecy anyway we'll come back to that and I appreciate everybody listening
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I know it's a fire hose I know it's a lot of information we appreciate the questions when they come in please feel free to email more of them to us and we're going to proceed through this discussion on the
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Danielic timeline and the Danielic imperative in eschatology that is understanding the timeline that Jesus was using when he was revealing the future to us thank you so much everybody have a good week we'll see you next