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It's going to come about but it doesn't give you any details.
Of how that takes place.
So when we get to chapter seven of daniel he gets a parallel of the world kingdoms but now he's going to get them in beast form and uh...
We'll just.
We'll just read chapter seven verse one. Now in the first year of belshazzar the king of babylon daniel saw a dream of visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. Remember who belshazzar was. He was the handwriting on the wall guy that soiled his tunic.
Uh... He saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. And he wrote the dream down and relayed the following summary of it. Daniel said i was looking at my dream. I had four winds of heaven and they stirred across the great sea.
Where even in revelation what did the sea represent. Chaos out of control no order unpredictable. So these winds are coming across this great sea. And daniel and what's going to arise. He said. Four great beasts are coming up out of the sea different from one another.
The first was like a lion and had wings like an eagle and i kept looking until its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground made to stand on two feet like a man. And a human mind also was given to it.
But behold another beast a second one resembling a bear and it was raised up on one side and he had three ribs in his.
Mouth.
Or in his teeth and this said go arise devour much meat. And after this i kept looking and behold another one like a leopard and it had four wings on its back and that beast had four heads and dominion was given to it.
And as i was looking in a night vision behold a fourth beast dreadful terrifying extremely strong large iron.
Teeth.
And it devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder of its feet with the remainder with its feet and it was different from all the other beasts that were before it. It had ten horns. While i was contemplating the horns behold another horn a little one came up among them and three of the first horns were pulled out by its root.
And behold this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and mouth with utter boastful things. Then you have the ancient of days part. Okay but let's get down to verse eleven. Verse eleven says. And then i kept looking and the sound of the boastful words which the little horn or the horn was speaking.
And i kept looking until the beast was slain its body was destroyed it was given to the burning fire. And as for the rest of the beast their dominion was taken away but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed time.
He is saying basically the same thing. Babylon what would babylon been here.
And this and this go to the beast. Lion. What was the next one. Bear.
What was the next one. He had. Wings. What did wings represent. Fast quick they could move.
Very quickly.
The bear jacked up on one side. Remember the medial persian. The persians would be more powerful.
And then what did the leper have.
It had wings.
But it also had four heads.
Anybody remember why it had four heads. What happens to the greeks after alexander the greek died. We'll see that here in just a second. We'll see that here in chapter eight.
Because that's where the little.
Another little horn comes up so the four heads represent anybody. Remember the four generals. Lysimachus, Cassander Ptolemy and Seleucid. So what came out of the Seleucid empire. Antiochus Epiphanes.
He will be the little horn.
In Daniel 8.
So then.
Rome.
The only thing I know how to do is just.
Hybrid.
With crazy teeth.
Remember this is like the guy from.
007.
Got a bit of bars.
And stuff. It's that guy.
So.
These are the world kingdoms parallel gold being pure silver bronze iron and clay. Why was iron and clay so significant. Because do you ever try to take iron and clay and put them together. Even if you put them in a kiln they won't bind.
So what happens. It's a.
Ruthless.
Powerful.
Empire.
But it's fragile.
It will break apart very quickly because they don't bind together so there was constantly conflict between I don't have to get into all of it right now but there was conflict between basically the Hasmonean dynasty and the Roman empire.
They tried to rule together but they never could mesh together because one was a Judaism and the other was paganism.
Now if you were to continue I'm not going to read it all but if you want to go home and read it you can read through it. And he tells you what these kingdoms are in chapter 7. That's the great thing about Daniel.
We don't have to guess. He says this is that this is that. Now flip over to chapter 8 of Daniel.
And.
Here's.
What he says in verse 1. Three years later in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king had a vision.
Appeared to me.
In the year of Belshazzar the king a vision appeared to me meaning Daniel Daniel subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously and I looked in the vision and while I was looking I was by the citadel of Susa which is in the province of Elam and I looked in the vision and I myself was beside you lie the canal and as I lifted up my eyes and looked behold a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal and the two horns were long but one was longer than the other and the one that was longer was coming up last and I saw the ram budding westward northward southward and no other beast could stand before him nor was there anyone to rescue him from the power but he did as he pleased and he magnified himself.
But while I was observing behold a male goat come from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came up to the ram and had two horns came up to the ram which had two horns which I had seen standing in front of the canal and he rushed at him and his mighty wrath I saw him he come up beside the ram and he was enraged and he struck the ram and he shattered the two horns and the ram had no strength to withstand him so he was hurled him to the ground trampled on him and there was none to rescue the ram from his power.
Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly but as soon as he was mighty the large horn was broken and in its place came up four conspicuous horns that pointed toward the four winds of heaven.
Pretty obvious he sees this vision again of two other beasts. The two other beasts would be the ram would be the Persian empire. Two horns. Okay. And what happens. This air propelled goat flying across the earth runs into the Persian empire.
That would have been because it tells us who this is. It's the Greeks empire. What do they do. They conquer the Persian empire. Okay. They conquer the Persian empire.
That's why it crushes both.
Horns. Medial Persian. Then you have the Greeks come on. This shaggy goat had one like a unicorn sticking out of his head and it says as soon as that horn that shaggy goat magnified himself. What did it say.
Happened. It broke apart and four other ones came up. What happened here now. You got four generals now. But one of those out of that four magnified itself.
Now.
We keep reading in chapter 8 verse 9. And out of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great towards the south and towards the east and towards the beautiful land toward that beautiful land.
And this and this prophecy would have been obviously Israel and it grew up to the host of the heaven and caused some of the host of the stars to fall to the earth. You remember just a few weeks ago I says this was a quote that was a quotation and allusion back to Daniel chapter 8 about throwing the stars to the earth.
This is it. He trampled them down and it magnified itself and made himself equal with the commander of the host. The commander of the host is representative of of the commander of the host of heaven. And it removed the regular sacrifice from him and the place of his sanctuary and it was thrown down on account of the transgression.
The host will be given over to the horn and along with the regular sacrifice and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper. Then I heard the holy one speaking and another holy one said in particular one who was speaking how long will this vision be about the regular sacrifice to apply with the transgressions cause horror so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled down.
He's just saying hey how long is this going to take place. He's talking about how long is this little horn going to wreak havoc. And he said it will happen. He said to me for 2300 evenings and mornings until the holy place will be properly restored.
Interestingly enough I went through all of the details of this in the Daniel study 2300 evening and morning sacrifices. It's not 2300.
Days.
It's 2300 sacrifices one in the morning if you split that in half ok and you make that 1300 right.
Then.
You get to 1150 or whatever it is and you bust that into.
Years.
It's three and a half years. So how long did Antiochus Epiphanes wreak havoc. He wreaked havoc for three and a half. Yeah three and a half years is how long Antiochus Epiphanes wreaked havoc on the people of God in the intertestamental time.
So the.
Little horn what does the little horn we were in chapter.
Seven just a minute ago. What did he.
Do what did the little horn do.
He raises himself up he speaks arrogant words against who God and his people.
Persecution. Same thing here.
Ok what does.
The Greek do.
Remember this is reversed in order but that's how it came in the book. What did the little horn do through the Greek. What did he do. Persecute God's people. Matter of fact. Antiochus Epiphanes tried to.
You had two choices.
Under Antiochus Epiphanes.
You either quit being Jewish quit being circumcised quit eating kosher or.
Die now.
Interestingly enough when I teach Esther we'll talk about this guy a little bit more but Haman was a little.
Worse.
Than these guys Haman didn't even give the Jews a chance to not be Jewish anymore. What did Haman want to do. You may remember the story of Esther. He said it doesn't matter.
On the whatever.
10th day month of Adol or whatever it was he said we're going to have a purge the land of Jewish people he said you go out and you kill them all and when you kill them you can take all their property.
Nobody gets saved. So he is worse than the little horn. The little horn had an opportunity to make people apostatize. Hey what does. Technically. What did.
Every world.
Power that persecutes Christianity. What do they want you to do. They want you to turn. They don't want to kill you. Look when Islam goes into these they go through their crusading and they come to the land.
You know what they try to do. Get you to say the shahada and be converted to Islam. Their plan is not to kill you. Their plan is to make you compromise. What's the devil's goal. He wants you to compromise.
He doesn't want you to be faithful. He wants you to compromise. And that's how it is all through scripture. What did Nebuchadnezzar want the three little Jewish boys and Daniel to do. He wanted them to bow down.
He wanted them to compromise. And just a little runner. You know what Esther did. She compromised. She was not as pure as the wind driven snow.
Okay.
And we'll get into all that. But she was not she was a compromiser along with Mordecai. Now God worked through that.
Because God's.
Plans will not be thwarted. But don't think that they were. They were wonderful oaks of the faith they were not.
This sets a trajectory.
Towards.
Speaking pompous words against God persecuting the people of God making them compromise.
You get to the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Let's turn over there. And I normally don't do a bunch of flipping but this is what we got to do. I'm not a flipper normally remember what the two does.
Anybody remember what the two letters to the Thessalonians were concerning. The great day of the Lord they had been.
Told that hey.
It's over. This is the eternal state. The Lord's already come. The great day of the Lord is here and it's over. And he says hey I'm telling you don't think that this has already happened. Remember what he said in 1 Thessalonians don't think that the great day of the Lord has happened because the dead in Christ will rise first.
Remember that great passage. Ok great. But then when we get to here they're going wait a minute. They're saying that this has really already happened. And he's reassuring them again in the second letter to the Thessalonians that it hasn't happened.
And he says I'm going to tell you.
Why it hasn't happened. And he says.
Here's why it hasn't happened. Listen to what he says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. He says. Now we request you brethren with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him.
What is that? That is.
The parousia the appearing of God and us being changed in a twinkling of an eye. And the dead in Christ shall rise. That's what he's saying. He says. Look. This is concerning this that you not be shaken quickly from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or message or a letter as if from us.
He's saying. Look. We didn't send anything to you in the effect that the day of the Lord has come. He says. Let no one deceive you in any way for it will not come. And here's what he says. Until this happens you will have the great apostasy.
Apostasy will come first. The man of lawlessness is revealed which is the son of destruction who here it is opposes and exalts himself above every so called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God.
And do you not. Here's the part that tickles me every time I read it. Do you not remember that while I was with you I was telling you these things.
Okay that's great.
Paul.
They know what you told them but we don't. He says hey I've already told you these things he says. And you know what restrains him so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken away. And then the lawless one will be revealed from the Lord and he will slay him with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming.
So this man of lawlessness will be like these guys. He will come. He will persecute the people of God he will raise himself up to be God. And in this passage here depending on how you understand temple of God I'm going to tell you how I understand temple of God here.
It's temple of God is not the structure in Jerusalem. I believe the temple of God based on all the writings of Paul that when he uses temple of God in these terminologies he's talking about the church.
Remember what he says in 2nd Thessalonians. I mean 1st Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians. What do you say? Y 'all are the temple of God. And I believe that's what he's saying here that this person will raise himself up to be worshiped as God putting himself in the place of God in the people of God in the temple of God.
That means this has not happened. What did Paul already say. Hey don't be disturbed. It's already happened because it hasn't happened because the great falling away has to happen first. And this man of lawlessness will be revealed.
And I just want to let you know.
That the great apostasy.
Is connected to this man. What did the little horn get them to do. Apostatize from the faith by persecution. What's this cat going to do? He's not going to do the same thing now. The preterist position would say that this man of lawlessness was Nero.
Okay if you're going to say that this was.
Fulfilled.
In it's fulfillment before 70 AD they say that that man of lawlessness would have been Nero.
What did Nero do?
He persecuted the Christians but it was localized to Rome and it was either go back to Judaism or we're going to be burned at the stake and all the other horrible things that he did and the whole book of Hebrews was written for that.
Purpose.
It was written right at the time the persecution of Nero had happened. He was telling them hey man don't go back to Judaism.
I mean I've read.
Through Hebrews. Don't go back to the old sacrifices. Why? Because if you go back to the old sacrifice there nothing remains for you but the fiery indignation of a god that will consume his adversary.
Don't go back to Judaism hold fast to the faith and continue to proceed forward. It may cost you your life he already said in the book of Hebrews. Then he said hey some of them have already been taken away and some of your property has already been taken but you guys have held confident.
You guys have held to the faith and continue to do so. So I don't believe that man of lawlessness was Nero.
And I'm going to tell you why I don't believe it was Nero. It's because something happens. It says that that man of lawlessness will be destroyed by when? The appearing of Christ the word of his mouth.
Okay. Well that didn't happen. Nero killed himself. This will be a supernatural thing that will happen when the man of lawlessness is destroyed and it will be that the parousia that's the word for the appearing of Christ.
So I believe.
This is the same.
Man of lawlessness is the antichrist. At the end of the age at the end of the age.
Capital A.
Hey anti.
Does not always mean face to face and opposite it can mean in place of anti is the actual word okay and it means in place of well the man of lawlessness.
Puts him in. We just read it.
What does he put himself in the place of God. So what does he do.
He takes the place of God.
I think I said this when we did our little reformation celebration. Question and answer. There is no doubt that the reformers hated the Pope. Okay. No doubt they hated. They called him the antichrist.
Matter of fact they hated him so much the reformers in 1646 in the Westminster confession of faith the Presbyterian document chapter 25. I think it's verse chapter 25 section 6 it calls the Pope the antichrist.
And don't think that. The Baptists didn't think the same thing. Because when you go to their confession of faith the London Baptist confession of faith 1689 they said in chapter 26 section 4 same thing the Pope is the antichrist.
And why did they think that.
Because what did the Pope.
Do he set himself in the temple of God the people of God claiming to be God now. I don't believe that. I don't believe. It's the Pope. I think the Pope is an antichrist. You know the difference between an and the one is a indefinite article and one is a definite article.
An antichrist is everything that puts itself in the place of God over the course of time. And how do we know that. Because antichrist is defined defined to us by the Apostle John who says. In chapter 2 of 1st John he says little children I'm telling you that antichrist is already.
Here but.
The antichrist is coming so that means there's a distinction isn't there. Many antichrist are already into the world. Let's think we could just name a few. How many antichrist that we know of in our generation or through history have been in the world.
Think about it who.
Name some.
Every.
Cult leader. Every cult leader I mean David Koresh. Anybody remember David Koresh. That joker started off as being this guy who was supposed to be very well versed in but if you saw the progression of him his doctrine then he says I am the Messiah.
Okay. David Koresh. Jim Jones the Kool-Aid drinkers. Okay who else. Let's think of world leaders.
Hitler.
Hitler who else. Mussolini yeah who else.
North Korea.
North Korea little fat guy looks like Teletubby.
Doesn't he look like little Teletubby.
You know.
Look at that guy who's scared of that guy.
Anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah and him and G .G .Ping you all know that China. You have to have a picture of the North Korean dictator and G .G .Ping picture in your house of him because he is the emperor and he is head of the state.
And what is head of the state. The head of the state is a beast.
Antichrist is connected at the end of the age the Antichrist.
He will be not only.
He'll try to lead.
The.
Religious system not try to.
He will but he will do it through the government.
Structure of the beast. Remember all the beast. Every one of those were world powers. The end of the age. There will be one government structure that will.
Claim.
Itself to be the savior of the world. Hey I don't talk about politics and all that much but there is no way that if anybody watched any of the news that guy did you all hear what he said.
That is.
He says there is nothing that the government can't fix for you. The government is here for you to do your good. I'm just telling you that's. And then you got that little smile that is you look at that.
That's.
The prototype. Every one of those world systems says hey don't trust in Christ trust in the system because the system is looking out for you and what happens is that those that don't follow the system what happens.
They.
Either die or they are persecuted. You can't buy or sell and we'll get into all.
That and.
Oh man I need an hour. They can't buy or sell because they don't worship the beast. There is in history there was a thing called a libelist. Anybody ever heard of that. There was a document in 249 when the empire the roman empire says.
You must now remember it was not made law that everybody had to bow down to the emperor and offer oblation until 249 AD through Decius or Decius. However you want to he actually made it law. If you did not you would be put to death.
That's when you saw a huge persecution of Christians.
Huge.
Well he also gave a certificate called a libelist which meant once you did that you had this certificate saying you gave your oblation to the god emperor whoever and you could now buy and sell within the roman empire.
So we can even see in seed form even in the roman empire at that time 249 AD. What will actually transpire at the end of the age. Okay if you don't you don't jump behind the beast and you don't follow the antichrist the one that's in the place of god you're not going to be able to buy or sell and we'll talk about the mark of the beast and all that.
But this sets the.
Picture of how in the old testament you take every one of those two and then you get to the man.
Of lawlessness take those characteristics.
Persecute.
Then they come in place of god wanting to be god.
This person then uses the governmental structure to make people bow down and worship him. And as we walk through chapter 13 you're going to go. Yeah that's pretty obvious. You got something to say. You got 25 seconds.
I was just thinking about the end of chapter 13 last week and acrobaticalism seems very tied in with the mark of the beast as opposed to not letting anyone be able to buy or sell.
Actually ecumenicalism is the beast. Look you only have two ways. You got the way of the lamb and the way of the beast. You don't have any other options. That's the book of revelation. You're going to two places.
You're going to follow the lamb or you're going to follow the beast. That's why chapter 13 sets up very clear the mark of the beast. We already saw the sealing of the 144 ,000 and all of god's people over the church age.
So that when we get to chapter 14 you know what chapter 14 says. Here's the followers of the lamb. And here's the followers of the beast. And how do you know that. Because the ones that are following the lamb have a mark.
The ones that are following the beast have a mark. What are those marks. It's a distinguishing mark that you know. Not not Yahweh written on your forehead. But it's a distinguishing mark that you can go.
That person follows the beast. That person follows the lamb. They will know you by your fruit. Hey you'll pray for us and we can go. You'll pray. Yeah.
Heavenly father lord we are indeed thankful for this time of study lord thankful for the desire that you give us to learn more about you lord we just ask that you will continue to make us more like you and lord as we come into the next part of our worship service.
Lord we pray that everything we do the songs that we sing every aspect of our worship will be glorifying to you and to you alone. We thank you for your son Jesus and the work that was accomplished on the cross in place of our sin that we ask these things in his name amen.