The 4th Beast Explained and an Overview of the 10 Nation Prophecy (Daniel 7:19-28)

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Welcome to Kootenai Community Church at Belt Sunday School. We will, unless the

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Lord comes back in the next few minutes, finish Daniel chapter seven today. At least that's my plan.

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You know, and I'd like to read the whole chapter before we pray. Daniel chapter seven.

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Again, page 1151. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed.

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Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts were coming up from the sea different from one another.

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The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man.

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A human mind also was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one resembling a bear, and it was raised up on one side and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth.

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And thus they said to it, arise, devour much meat. After this, I kept looking and behold, another one like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird.

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The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it. After this, I kept looking in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong.

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And it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet and it was different from all the beasts that were before it.

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And it had 10 horns. While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them.

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And three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.

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I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His vesture was like white snow and the hair of his head like pure wool.

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His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire, a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him.

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Thousands upon thousands were attending him and myriads upon myriads were standing before him. The court sat and the books were opened.

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Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.

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As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time.

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I kept looking in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming and he came up to the

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Ancient of Days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.

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I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things.

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These great beasts which are four in number are four kings who will arise from the earth but the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all ages to come.

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Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze and which devoured, crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet.

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And the meaning of the 10 horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up and before which three of them fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates.

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I kept looking at that horn and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the

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Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one. And the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

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Thus he said, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth which will be different from all the other kingdoms and it will devour the whole earth and shred it down and crush it.

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As for the 10 horns out of this kingdom, 10 kings will arise and another will arise after them and he will be different from the previous ones and he will subdue three kings and he will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one.

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And he will intend to make alterations in times and in law and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

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But the court will sit for judgment annihilated and destroyed forever.

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Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.

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His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him. At this point, the revelation ended.

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As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself.

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Let's pray. Father, there's much in your word that is easily understood and some that is not, but all of it is there for our comfort and for our blessing and that we might lift you up and honor you as the king of kings and the

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Lord of lords, one who has set his word above his name. And so this morning we seek not to go past or before, but to understand what you have and that it might be something that will drive us both to love and honor you and to serve you with every breath of our lives.

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We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. So over the millennia, when we look at prophecy, unfortunately, some prophecies and they look for ways to make the other prophet word out of it.

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I don't know, I have a dictation program and sometimes when I'm dictating, the word prophet comes out the other one and it's kind of ironic, you know, that people would make a prophet on the prophecies of God.

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And sometimes they try to make them far more elaborate than they were or less convicting than they are.

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The point we want to see this morning, the point I would like us to see this morning is that the

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Lord Jesus Christ will end this thing and it will be for his glory and it will be a consummation of things and that the saints, the

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Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints will reign with him, but under him, that he will be above all and will be most to be served.

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And I believe that is part of what Daniel is trying to get across in this difficult iteration that he had, that the ancient of days and the son of man are the ones to be looked to and revered and honored and glorified and loved.

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And I think the early church had this, right? 2 ,000 years, it's become something that has had so much written about it that it has become in some ways very confusing.

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And if I thought for one minute that I could unconfuse it this morning, I would be irrigating to myself an ability that I know

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I don't have, but I'm gonna do my best. Walk through these last few verses of Daniel chapter seven and see that the

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Lord Jesus Christ is the one to be revered. So we finished up last week with verse 18 and we looked at the saints, the definitions of the saints, and we'll see some more of that.

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And we looked at the beasts again, which command and are center stage in this chapter, in Daniel chapter seven, and how the kingdoms gave way into one another until finally when the fifth kingdom comes, when the kingdom of the

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Lord Jesus Christ comes, it won't, nothing of the old kingdoms will remain, nothing of their bad influence, nothing of their evil, they will all be completely swept away and the kingdom of the

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Lord Jesus Christ will be an everlasting dominion and a perfect kingdom. It will be the restoration of what earth was intended to be when he created it.

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It will finally come, it will finally be fulfilled that the earth will be subdued and all will give glory to God. So verse 19 says, then

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I desired, Daniel wants to know, just like we do, the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet.

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So here we receive some more information about the fourth beast. We now discover that it has claws of bronze.

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This is another indication of the extreme strength and power it had. The idea behind the word for different here is to be altered, changed, even damaged.

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We know it means something different than just the standard word for different. After all, a leopard is different from a bear, which is different from a lion.

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Though this was a different kind of difference, if you will. These animals, the first three, conquered and subdued their respective kingdoms.

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This beast devours, tramples, destroys in a manner never seen before.

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A dreadful, ominous difference that results in much destruction. We will see some of the differences in the coming verses, but note that it used its power to devour, to crush, and to trample.

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These are multiple methods of destroying something which seems to be what this fourth beast was all about.

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It was an engine of destruction. And indeed, Rome was a destructive power which laid waste to much of the ancient world.

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It appears also that when Rome is revived, more destruction will follow. This is elaborated later on in Daniel as well as in the book of Revelation.

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And we will touch on some of those this morning. So Daniel desired to know the exact meaning.

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And what I'm going to, what we're going to see here is, he was given more general information. And we'll do the best we can to stick to that general information.

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Verse 20, and the meaning of the 10 horns, Daniel says, that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth, uttering great boasts, and which was larger in appearance than its associates.

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So Daniel asked to understand the meaning of the horns as well. Here we discover that the Antichrist, the big horn, well, it was bigger than others.

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That's what we discover. The size different bespeaks greater power and strength. Earlier, we understood that it was boastful and wicked.

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This idea is expanded here. The final horn continues to utter great boasts in Daniel's vision. Now understand that there have been many

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Antichrists throughout history. And one of the defining characteristics of an Antichrist is that it sets itself up in some way, shape, or form to be worshiped, to supplant

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God, to supplant the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether it's an idol, or a king, or a church, or anything, there are

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Antichrists that have come and gone throughout history that have attempted to overthrow the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And it's never happened. It's never happened because they can't. But they will keep trying.

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You know, it's, what is the definition of insanity? Isn't it doing the same thing over and over, hoping that something new will occur, that some different out will come?

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Satan is insane. He just is, in some respects, in this narrow human definition.

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Because he's never going to be able to overcome Christ. But he will keep trying. Verse 21.

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Were there any questions about the other two verses? I'm sorry, I get carried away. Verse 21.

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I kept looking, Daniel says, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them.

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That's another thing about Antichrist. The Lord allows his people to be overcome often, to be overpowered by those in power on this planet for his purposes.

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For at least a short time, the Antichrist is allowed to make war against and overcome the saints.

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This is the third new piece of information we discover about the other horn, Antichrist. So could you go to,

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I believe it's slide 113, or not.

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We're going to look at some information in the book of Revelation. The parallel to this is most certainly

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Revelation 13, five through seven. There was given to him, it says in Revelation, a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him.

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And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

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It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.

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This is going to be a strong, a strong type of power that will come, yes, for a short time.

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These are individuals, they are people who are going to be overcome. When I say overcome, it can very well just mean that they're martyred, that they're martyred for Christ, that they stand firm for him, but that they don't survive this life.

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They end up in the life to come. Right, I see the point you're making is that the church won't be destroyed, but individuals within the church will be killed.

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Yeah, well, let's face it, though, whenever someone's killed, it's always an individual. So that's just, we end up making comments about institutions and powers.

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We talk about the government and we're upset about the government. Well, you do realize that there are little itty bitty pieces of that government that are called people, folks, and they're the ones that take your property rights and et cetera, et cetera.

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I'm not gonna get off into politics, even though it's the 3rd of July. But nevertheless, yes, the church will never ever, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, but Satan makes war against the saints and temporarily overcomes them, individuals.

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So here we discover that in Revelation, the time mentioned here in Revelation 13 parallels the timeframe given in Daniel 7 .25.

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And we'll get to that here in a moment. He will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one.

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And he will intend to make alterations in times and law, and they will be given unto his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

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For a time, times, and half a time, not forever. One of the things that prophecy does is to comfort us.

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The time is coming. You know, you've all heard the cliche, it's Friday, but Sunday's coming. Well, just remember that, that the

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Lord will make things right when you're going through your time of difficulty. Verse 22, until, until the ancient of days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

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Often when we read in different parts of scripture in prophecy, certain sections of the end times will be compressed here and expanded over here.

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And over here, they'll be expanded in the Old Testament, and they'll be compressed in the New Testament.

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And that's why it's important and incumbent upon us to compare scripture with scripture.

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So, this statement that Daniel makes here, that judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

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That covers a lot of territory. So it covers, in those, I didn't count the words, but in those short few words, it covers an incredible amount of time, or territory, and happenings.

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As time comes to close, to a close, and the final judgments are made, the ancient of days,

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God the Father, opens the books and begins passing judgment. At this time, the saints, and this being the second coming, so it includes all saints involved, take possession of the kingdom of the

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Messiah. They do not assume a position of authority over Messiah, of course, but they take their place in the kingdom as assigned by Messiah Jesus, who is

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Lord of lords and kingdom of kings. We need to keep, I know that's obvious to us, here at Kootenai Community, but we need to keep this in mind.

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Jesus is the sovereign, not the church, not the Old Testament saints. Jesus is the sovereign, and he will assign people places.

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He told the apostles they would reign and judge. They didn't assume that place by themselves.

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The saints are vindicated, and the judgment that they cried out for is assigned.

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Revelation 20, verse four says, "'Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.

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And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony.'" Those who were overcome for a time.

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"'Of Jesus, and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand, and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

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Justice will be done, and it will be complete and perfect. Scripture says so. Therefore, thus saith the

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Lord, as the scripture says.'" Verse 23, "'Thus he said, "'The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and tread it down, and crush it.'"

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This is a vision that contemplates worldwide destruction, not local destruction.

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This is also spoken of in Revelation and elsewhere in the scriptures. Next slide, please.

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Matthew 24, 21, "'For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.'"

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And we are there. It has not occurred since the beginning of the world. We are not in the great tribulation.

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Matthew 24, 22, "'Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have survived, would have been saved.

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But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.'" For the sake of the elect, the church, but the individuals of the church.

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Second Timothy 3, 1, "'But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.'"

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Paul was a master of understatement. Matthew 24, 6, "'You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars.

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See that you are not frightened.'" Did you get that? Is that possibly the most important five, one, two, three, four, five, six words of that entire verse?

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"'See that you are not frightened. Discomforted, thoughtful, careful, but don't be frightened.

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For those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.'" It's gonna get worse.

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Matthew 24, 7, "'For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And in various places, there will be famines and earthquakes.'"

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Revelation 20, verse one, "'Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

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And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.'"

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How many years? Oh, a thousand years. "'And threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed.

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After those things, he must be released for a short time.'" Worldwide destruction, worldwide control.

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And then as the Lord comes in and begins to open the books of judgment, new things happened.

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Satan is bound. The saints are vindicated. Verse 37 of Matthew 24, "'For the coming of the

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Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.'" And then 2 Peter 3, 8, "'But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the

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Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count..."

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You're not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. "'But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up.'"

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And then in Luke 21, 11, "'And there will be great earthquakes and in various places, plagues and famines, and there will be terrors and great..."

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The point I'm trying to make here is just that this is gonna be a worldwide thing and that hasn't happened yet, but it will.

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Scripture promises it. "'This fourth kingdom devours and crushes the earth and therefore does not correspond to the

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Catholic Church. And further, the fifth kingdom, by the terminology used in verses 23 through 27 in Daniel, must be as Walvoord terms it, a sovereign and political kingdom characteristics.

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It cannot be merely a spiritual kingdom that gradually gains ascendancy.

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It will also be fulfilled in the future for we see nothing in history that answers to this.'"

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History hasn't, this history hasn't happened yet and it's going to. And when it does, it will be the tie -up, the ending of all things.

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And there's no way, I mean, if we were to do a study on all of that, that would be a gigantic study in its own right.

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And maybe someday we will, although the Seventh -day Adventists have already done it for you, so you just got to attend one of their prophecy seminars and you'll be fixed.

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Not, verse 24. "'As for the 10 horns, out of this kingdom 10 kings will arise and another will arise after them.

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And he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. These 10 kings are simultaneous and note that one arises after the 10 subdues three.

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This comports with the 10 kings of Revelation 13 .1 and 17 .12 which

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I will read those. And the dragon, 13 .1, stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea having 10 horns and seven heads and on his horns were 10 diadems and on his heads were blasphemous names.'

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And then Revelation 17 .12. "'The 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.'"

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So in John's time, they had not yet received a kingdom. And these also are yet future and relate to the

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Roman Empire possibly in its final stage since the Greek Empire fell long ago, long ago, 300 years

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BC or so. Verse 25, the Antichrist again. This is what

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Antichrists do. This is their superpower. "'He will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one, individual saints, and he will intend to make alterations in times and law and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.'"

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Did you ever want to experience what Job did? Well, here it is. "'The saints of this time will be given into the hand of the

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Antichrist for time, times, and half a time.'" Which is three and a half years.

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And we'll look at that. "'To wear down the saints of the highest one is the same as overpowering them as seen in verse 21.

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It's hard to know what the alterations in time and law are, but likely this will be a changing of religious observances and traditions that those who love the

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Lord Jesus Christ will observe.'" It's my view, and this is not in scripture, okay? So it's my view that whoever is in power, whatever the

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Antichrist does, he will be able to make it look like he has altered time, altered the things of time.

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He cannot. That is under the providence of the sovereign God of the universe only. But he will change observances, change laws, change traditions, trying to point everything to himself, to bring everybody into worship of him, and that is what he will do.

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Now, I don't know how all of this, that's about as far as I've been able to get. It says he's going to try to make alterations in time and in law.

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He's going to try that. And people will be fooled. I used to think,

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I mean, when I would read some of this and I didn't have it well studied out, still don't, but I'm learning. Nah, you can't fool people that way.

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I got a $50 Cadillac for sale after church. I actually bought a grandfather clock once.

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It's still out there. I paid the shipping on it. That's all you had to pay. Somebody got that puppy, and it's keeping good time,

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I hope. Yeah, yeah, people can be overfooled, or can be overpowered and fooled. So likely this will be a changing of religious observances and traditions, and the changes in the law will be such that those who adhere to biblical truth will be violating the law.

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Will be violating the law by abstaining from scriptural prohibitions that have now been made mandatory.

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That's what I think is going to be happening. The laws that will be changed, and I see that on the close horizon, that it's going to be illegal not to celebrate some of these lifestyles that are a perversion in need of salvation.

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Homosexuality and other things. We don't hate that sin any more than we hate any other sin.

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We hate all the sins that we struggle with. But that one, that seems to be one of the ones that's going to be a lynching, a chisel, if you will, to get into, and divide, and cause, wreak havoc in the church, the church, where people will have to make a decision.

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At the beginning, it was just a poorly chosen lifestyle, a sin, that was in a closet.

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Now you're going to be made to celebrate it. Those days are coming. Changes in laws and observances.

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That's what some of this is talking about. Now I'm not smart enough to know what all of it is. There's more coming. But this is one of the things that I see on the horizon.

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It will also be advocate that others abstain from certain things and repent. When we ask for them to abstain from it and repent, it's no different from asking a thief to abstain from stealing and repenting.

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It's no different from asking a liar to abstain from lying and begin telling the truth.

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It's no different from asking that thief to begin working with his hands, as Paul said, and learn to give to others.

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The focus is repentance. This will become illegal. It will become illegal.

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It will be a change in law. There may even be changes that will require, as I said earlier, for people to celebrate such lifestyles.

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But certainly that could never happen. The alteration of time and law, remember, is the province of the sovereign

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God of the universe. And so it seems that the Antichrist will attempt to assume these prerogatives of deity, however he may do it.

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And the church, the elect, those who trust the Lord, who have repented and trusted

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Christ and studied the scriptures, beware. That day may be soon. It may not be soon, but it may be soon.

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Those who love God, Daniel says, will be given into his hand for three and a half years. The duration of the power of this wicked one is also noted in Daniel chapter 12, verse seven.

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Despite numerous attempts to change this amount of time, the common understanding of such a statement like this is a year, another year, and half a year.

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That was the common understanding of it in the Old Testament times and in the New Testament times. That's what it meant, three and a half years.

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Remember that in Daniel 4 .25, Daniel refers to seven periods of time, which are obviously seven years.

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We see this construction again in Revelation 11, two and three, and in 13, five.

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Revelation 11, two, leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations, and they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months.

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11, three, and I will grant authority to my witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1 ,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.

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And Revelation 13, five, there was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for the sake of the people.

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And the mouth of the Lord for 42 months was given him. These are time periods. Now, a little more specific in Revelation, a little more specific.

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Later, Daniel refers to 1 ,290 days in 12 .11, and 1 ,335 days in 12 .12.

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All of this shows that these events are yet future, and they provide comfort as prophecy does, and that those who persevere to the end will see the fifth kingdom established gloriously, and they will see the destruction of the

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Antichrist and the false prophet. The final three and a half years corresponds to the great tribulation

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Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24 .1, up there at the top. Those are the final three and a half years in this time period, in this glorious, if you will, time period.

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Now, those who have to live through it at the time are not going to think it's so glorious, but the culmination will be glorious.

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And here's the beginning of the culmination. And again, when you read in prophecy, some things are compressed, some things are expanded, and so you search other scriptures to get comment.

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Verse 26, but the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.

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That's pretty straightforward. He's gonna be judged, the books are gonna open, he's gonna be judged, the court's gonna judge, and his dominion, everything about his power, all of it, will be taken away, and he will be annihilated and destroyed forever.

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One of the cries of the saints from under the altar in Revelation 6 .10 indicates that the desire for justice, that all, it indicates a desire to have.

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It says in Revelation 6 .10, and they cried out with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on earth, on the earth?

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It is at this point that the court sits in judgment, the dominion of the Antichrist and all who wage war against God is taken away and destroyed.

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This is the final judgment, and it occurs in an instant. And then it says in verse 27, then the sovereignty, the dominion, the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.

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His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey him.

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And I'm not adding to scripture, but I would add in my own words here, and love obeying him and delight in what he has done and say that everything he did was just and righteous.

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And right now, those of us who struggle with knowing that some of our beloved may be ended up, may end up in the lake of fire.

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I don't want that to happen, but there will come a time, and I can say this with the authority of scripture itself, we will all look at the feet of the

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Savior and say everything you did was righteous. So we need to be busy.

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We need to be busy so that we do everything we can that those who we love will not end up there.

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And that is one of the driving engines of scripture in the life of a Christian. Get the word out.

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I still, I'm not good at evangelism. I'm just not good at it, but I'm gonna keep at it.

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I'm gonna keep stepping on my own feet and stuffing my foot in my mouth, but I'm gonna keep at it. I've learned to like the taste of boot leather.

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And dislike it at the same time. Okay, all the glory that still exists in the earthly kingdoms will be given to the rule of the saints under Christ.

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This verse does not imply that the saints will rule alone, because the final phrase notes that it is his kingdom, and that all dominions will serve and obey him.

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The sin that Adam introduced will be gone, and all will love, serve, and obey the highest one with delight and submission.

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And then verse 28 says it is at this point, the revelation ended. And I can just picture

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Daniel going, and just, if he was sitting down, sitting harder. If he was standing up, sitting down.

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And as for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming. Alarming me, and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself.

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Remember, this was earlier on. This is not when he was an older man. So the vision for Daniel ends here, and it ends with him being just as alarmed as he was at the beginning, as recorded in verse 15.

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The color drained from his face, and he essentially closes up and keeps the matter to himself. Likely, he was concerned about the effect this revelation would have at the time that he got it, on the king and on the

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Jews who were in captivity at the time. He saw great tribulation coming for his people, and it deeply concerned him.

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So whenever a prophet was given a view of what was coming, and that view included devastating tribulation on his people, that would have been terrifying to share.

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And often throughout history, God has given those kinds of revelations to his prophets.

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And to us, we're not prophets, but we have the scripture. We know what's coming. Kieran, he's going to be a uniter in the earthly sense.

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He's going to be charismatic, the Antichrist. He's going to be smart. He's going to be winsome.

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He's going to be believable. He's going to be believable. Do you hear me?

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He's gonna be believable. There's a lot of falsehood out there that's very believable, and the church has gulped it up over the millennia.

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He's going to be elevated. He's going to be, I think he's going to actually be even at the beginning, this is my view now, somewhat humble, somewhat elevatable.

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Nobody really likes to elevate people who brag about themselves all the time. But if someone else can say something nice about him, it's easier to lift someone up.

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He's going to be all the things that a world ruler, that the world thinks a world ruler should be, because they're not smart enough to realize that there's only one person who could actually rule the world, and that's the

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Lord Jesus Christ. There is no form of government, even our form of government, which is the best we've ever had, it's still flawed, because it's run by men, it was written by men, and it's applied by men.

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Only Jesus Christ, and by the way, we don't have to help him get there. Let's just keep about our business, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, exegeting the word of God, learning what we can to share with others, training our children, being the best kind of citizens, the best kind of people that God would want us to be, but busily preaching the word, and God will bring about what he's going to bring about.

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He will build his church, but he also will build the end. Yes, Jim. Nothing like him has come on the scene yet.

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He won't say things like, you will not have property and you will be happy. Schwab, yeah.

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Yeah, no thanks, Charles, or whatever his first name is. Okay, we're not supposed to be having fun.

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This is serious stuff. Okay, so the vision ends for Daniel. He saw great tribulation coming for his people, and he just, the color drains from his face, he kind of closets himself in his home, if you can picture that.

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A fearless man, but recognizing that if he shares this with his people at that time, he doesn't know what will happen.

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The king may just say, okay, I'm done with giving you fun things, you're dead.

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Daniel, you're dead to me. I don't know, Daniel wouldn't have done it because of that, because he was not afraid of man, he served

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God, but it says that he just kept to himself, he kept it to himself. So, we're almost done, and I don't know if I'm gonna get through all of this, with this chapter.

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Now, interestingly enough, as I have studied Daniel, I've read any number of commentators who only comment on chapter two, chapter seven, chapter nine, and maybe chapter 12.

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They leave the rest of the book out. I'm trying to remember if it was

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Paul who said, some scripture is inspired by God. Most of it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and instruction, and you should pick and choose, and it'll get you there when you need to.

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It was something like that. All scripture. And so, we're gonna tear into Daniel eight, just like we tear into Daniel seven.

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But meanwhile, I would like to just kind of review things. Regarding the premillennial direction, I believe, of this incredible prophecy,

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Culver sums it up this way, he says, Messiah's kingdom follows Antichrist's appearance, here described in personal rather than institutional terms, and destruction.

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The person has not yet appeared. This appears to make post and amillennial schemes identifying the church with the kingdom unfeasible.

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The kingdom of Messiah here follows the Gentile kingdoms. It is at no time contemporary with them.

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It must therefore be still future. The kingdom of Christ succeeds a final form of Gentile dominion, which has not yet appeared.

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The Messianic kingdom is external in aspect here, not a kingdom in men's hearts, as church kingdom theology requires.

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The kingdom is in some sense Israelitish, with the saints or holy people referred to here

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There are Israel and no other. The church is not a Jewish kingdom. These are Israelites that Daniel is referring to now.

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Later prophecy may add in the saints for certain things, but in 583 BC, or whenever this was written, in the 500s,

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Daniel was referring to Israelites. Prophecy of the 10 nation confederacy.

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When Nebuchadnezzar had his dream in chapter two, little did he know that it would be fleshed out later by the young man he had captured as God revealed to him.

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Daniel, the incredible events, God revealed to Daniel the incredible events in the end times.

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The Nebuchadnezzar image that we see in chapter two corresponds to the beast in chapter seven.

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The head of gold, Babylonian empire. The breast and arms of silver, Medo -Persian empire. The abdomen and thighs of brass,

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Greece. And finally the legs which eventually split into two arms of the same kingdom is Rome. Nebuchadnezzar's vision has the stone destroying the image and growing until it fills the whole earth.

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This is the culmination of history. Refusing to adhere to the Augustinian method of interpreting most scripture in literal form, but prophecy in variant forms of alliteration and subjective allegory, the seventh chapter of Daniel becomes, when observed using literal principles, a revelation of the end of time.

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Chapter seven again represents the four kingdoms the same, Babylon, Medo -Persia, Greece, and Rome. At this point chapters two and seven agree.

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I didn't mean to say that like it sounds like at some point they don't agree, but they agree here. Then the little horn in Daniel seven uproots three of the 10 horns introducing the

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Antichrist. The fourth beast, Rome revived, is utterly destroyed by the son of man.

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Much detail is added in Daniel seven that was not present in Daniel two. The four beasts are four kingdoms and we are at Daniel's direction focused on the fourth beast and the little horn of verse 24.

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The 10 horns most closely seem to correspond to the 10 toes of the image in Daniel two. They are pictured as reigning simultaneously when seven of them are subdued by the little horn in verse eight.

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These kingdoms are yet future and did not occur in the Seleucid Empire. The fourth kingdom escalates to a world empire according to verse 23.

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All of these prophets, all of these prophetic revelations are yet future as continuing literal understanding of this section of scripture demonstrates.

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The progressive nature of revelation continues in Revelation chapter 13 where John sees a beast rise up out of the sea with seven heads and 10 horns and 10 crowns upon the horns.

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It is inescapable that this refers to the same beast as in Daniel chapter seven. Although the understanding of the seven heads is not clear, it likely refers to the relationship of the original 10 having been reduced to seven by the destruction of the

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Antichrist of three. This is also future. This coming ruler who dominates the religious and political scene, political first, continues 42 months which corresponds with the great tribulation period of three and a half years in Daniel chapter 12 and also relates to the last three and a half years of Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks in chapter nine.

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These three and a half years is most significant in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when the beast is captured and cast alive into the lake of fire.

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Revelation 19, 20, and the beast was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

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These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. This immediately precedes the second coming of Christ and is therefore not a part of Roman history.

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We then turn to Revelation 17 and see the beast corresponding exactly to Daniel's revelation 550 years before Christ.

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The woman astride the beast is the apostate church which I believe we are rapidly approaching. The horns and crowns represent the power of political government.

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This government eventually destroys the woman, Revelation 17, 16, and all of the wicked apostate religious power is transferred to the antichrist.

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This corresponds to the abomination of desolation which occurs when the antichrist takes upon himself the role of God and requires him lest they be killed,

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Revelation 13, 8, and 13, 15. This all precedes, and if you could the last,

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I think it's the last one, yeah. This all precedes the second coming of Christ. Thus the normal interpretation of all these prophecies leads to the conclusion that there is yet a future confederacy in a revived

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Roman empire so note that there were far more than 10 nations in the ancient

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Roman empire. I tried counting them and I looked at several different maps and the interesting thing about history of ancient, ancient civilizations is that sometimes the information is not there to draw strict constructive definitions of things but there's enough information there to know that there were 40 or 50 nations in the ancient

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Roman empire, not 10. 40 or 50 confederacies. Something on the order of 40 or 50 depending on how historians allocate borders.

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It is likely that the 10 nation confederacy is only the beginning of a power that the antichrist will amass to himself.

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The premillennial view seems to be the most logical and scriptural view and with present trends we are most certainly on the brink of some major contribution to this prophetic timeline.

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And I want you to, and I know you know this but the rapture of the church could occur at any time. There's nothing going to stop our savior from righting all the wrongs that have happened to the people of his church.

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There's nothing going to stop our savior from finally conquering everything.

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We want it to be on our timeline is the problem. Have you ever had anything occur on your timeline other than by accident?

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Get used to it. His timeline is perfect. We really need to get that through my thick skull.

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I'll use my skull. His timeline is perfect. Jim has said this before.

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Everything is falling apart perfectly on schedule. May the

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Lord Jesus Christ be glorified. We will start Daniel chapter eight probably next week since that seems to be how time works here.

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Any questions or comments? I know that was a lot and I'd be glad to share this culmination with you if you want.

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I saw a hand. Yes, you know, that has been something.

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He's asked how I understand the 10 nations, whether or not they're in Europe. Probably, but my

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God is a God of surprises. And so I'm not going to limit him.

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I do know that it's most likely, I do know, I believe it's most likely in Europe. I believe that's where it will start.

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But it talks about the world and Europe isn't the world. So there are clearly other things afoot that I haven't seen a lot of writing on.

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And I'm not smart enough to instigate that writing. But I'm of the opinion that the 10 nations will be the start.

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They will be the start. But that all of the dominions of the world, whatever that means in scripture, and I believe that means the dominions in South America, the dominions in Africa, the dominions in Australia, all will serve and obey the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So there you have it. I'd love to give you a straight answer, but I've been a politician for too long.

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I believe it's Europe. That's my belief. That's where it's going to start. Any other questions? Nathanael.

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My favorite verse, verse 14. You know what I did, never noticed it before, but it's actually set out on page 1152.

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And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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Anybody else get choked up when you read scripture? Let's pray. Father, we look forward to your dominion, the dominion of your

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Son, your Holy Spirit. When the triune God will be celebrating and honored and given glory as he you deserve, we want to be part of that.

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We are part of that. Let us be about our business here today, doing the things we can to make the saints more able to serve you, but also remembering that at the final trumpet, you will make all things right, and that is a comfort to us, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name.