February 8, 2008

• Biblical
  Eschatology Revisted

  A New Look at Daniel 2

  I have been contemplating for months how to really move forward on revealing
  some information that I’ve come up with during a time of deep research into
  Biblical prophecy early last year. I have not been satisfied with most of the
  interpretations that are out there from one end of the spectrum to the other
  simply because there seems (to me) that there were just too many loose ends for
  me to feel comfortable with things as they have been explained on a number of
  fronts at least in the more historical sense of studying biblical eschatology.
  Often it would seem that there’s a good idea someone has come up with and then
  somehow, the same person goes off into left field and things stop making sense.

  I think there is a reason for this in that the times were not ready to be
  understood and perhaps they aren’t now but in the interest of informing folks
  of what I’ve found, it would be a good way perhaps of doing one more “check
  out” of the data because even as it is, there is so much to tell now that it
  looks like it might be a blog series if it goes all the way to the end of that
  study. Saying that, while I’m certainly not saying that everything that I’m
  going to say is correct, I will say that it is making more sense now.

  Lest someone think that I’m going to tell you some really weird stuff, actually
  the whole matter seems more reasonable than it ever has. In fact, for those who
  have some understanding of eschatology, there should be a great deal of it that
  will be familiar yet its almost as if one is looking at what we’ve all known
  before but in a different light. For those who have slightly different
  interpretations, I’ve even found ways that the Lord has made it so that even
  some of these things are true but not exclusively so.  It is too early to
  explain that thoroughly so that will have to await a better time. So that we
  get there sooner, I should begin right away.

  Let’s start with Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Daniel 2…

  I start here because it was where I started. I had learned that Islamic
  eschatology actually believes that the stone that was cut without hands is the
  arrival of their religion and they believe that they are the final answer from
  Allah to become a worldwide kingdom for him. Biblically speaking, that is
  simply wishful thinking since the whole matter is taken out of context and
  something really important was overlooked. As I looked closer I wondered if I
  hadn’t stumbled on the Rosetta Stone of biblical prophecy. Here’s the passage
  where Daniel interprets the king’s dream…

  You, O king, were looking and behold, there was
  a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary
  splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The
  head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver,
  its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron
  and partly of clay. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without
  hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.
  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all
  at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and
  the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found But the stone that
  struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

  This was the dream; now we will tell its
  interpretation before the king.

  You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the
  kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men
  dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them
  into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of
  gold.

  After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, …then another third
  kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.

  Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes
  and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and
  break all these in pieces.

  In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron,
  it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron,
  inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. As the toes of the feet
  were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be
  strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with
  common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they
  will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

  In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will
  never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it
  will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure
  forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without
  hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the
  gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the
  future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy. Daniel 2: 31-45  NASB

  Through the working of God in Daniel to reveal this prophecy, we find one of
  the most remarkable outlines of world history anywhere. Starting with
  Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, we have
  a road map all the way to when the Lord Himself establishes His kingdom that
  shall never end and will put away all these other kingdoms.

  Historically, it was Babylon, the
  head, that was the first kingdom… then Medo-Persia, the breast and arms of
  silver… then Greece,
  the belly and thighs of bronze… then Rome,
  the legs of iron… then here’s where something interesting happens. Almost
  everyone that I’ve read in the past associates the feet with the legs but that
  is not a strict necessity.

  The feet are distinctly different as they are not pure iron. They are a mixture
  of iron and clay. Also, it is the stone that is made without hands that strikes
  the feet, not the legs. Maybe that’s being picky but it is certainly within
  reasonable limits to consider this.

  If we consider that the “feet” are the “last Gentile world kingdom”, then we
  should pay much more attention to what its characteristics are. Based on the
  description of the legs (iron), here’s what we find out about the feet:

  1.    Iron destroys things so it would stand to reason that the
  feet will have elements that will cause destruction.
        Yet the feet are also
  clay/pottery and much weaker and brittle. So portions of this kingdom will be
  as strong
        and destructive as Rome
  (iron) was but other parts of it will be very weak and easily broken.
  2.   When iron is mixed with clay as in a furnace, the iron
  become brittle and loses some of its strength.
  3.   We find that the people of this kingdom will combine with
  one another in the seed of men but will not adhere
        to one another even as iron
  does not combine with pottery. This means that this kingdom’s people will be
        scattered all over the world amongst the peoples of the world yet they will not
  become a part of those nations
        but they will remain to themselves and their own
  “kingdom”.
  4.   It is this last Gentile kingdom that will be destroyed by
  the “stone made without hands” who is none other
        than Jesus Christ Himself
  since it is clearly shown elsewhere that He will reign in such a kingdom.

  Now when we understand from elsewhere in prophecy that He will set up His
  kingdom that will never be destroyed in Jerusalem,
  we have to realize that there is Gentile occupation still there. When we start
  down the trail of historical facts we find that the feet of the statue is none
  other than the Islamic empire that has been around since the 7th century AD.
  Indeed, each one of the Gentile empires have had control of Jerusalem
  and Palestine during their reign.
  Where will Christ return to set up His kingdom? Jerusalem..
  Who will he find there… the final Gentile world empire… that which is based on
  Islam. Take a long look at the history of Islam and you will find the first
  three characteristics fit well enough with it.

  For those who have an extensive recall of biblical eschatology can easily begin
  to make connections between other scripture that will affirm this is what we
  are seeing here. However, there is neither time nor room for exploring all that
  in this post and hopefully we’ll be able to explore it in more detail later.
  Perhaps I can post some charts that have the historical information that
  follows this timeline that we see here in Daniel.

  So, folks, we are living in the end times. Not surprised? Certainly not.
  However, many have misunderstood this passage and have been looking for a
  revived Roman empire. There doesn’t appear to be one.
  The one that followed the Roman Empire, first expressed
  as the western portion in Rome and
  then through Constantinople, the eastern portion, was
  succeeded by that founded by Mohammed. There is more to be said about this
  later.

  The only real surprise for some folks is that we now have a different Gentile
  empire than we’ve been told, one that has to be intensely opposed to the Jewish
  nation and Christians alike. Revelation 12 makes a strong reference to this and
  if we care to see it, we would see that it would happen sometime after Christ's
  ascension. Thus, we have it all in Islam. In effect, it is the fifth and final
  Gentile kingdom.

  This brings us some sobering concerns for the days ahead since all those who go
  through the final days of “a time of tribulation like no other” will be forced
  to take the mark of the Beast which is “the number of his name” or die. It is
  interesting to note that there is a numeric system in Arabic (the language of
  the Koran) that assigns numbers to words or names. It is the Abjad
  system.  For instance, the word “Allah” alone has the numerical value of
  66. There is also a similar system in Hebrew called “Gematria” as well as
  others like the Greek language (isopsephy). The point I’m trying to make here
  is that the main language of this final Gentile empire would “ascribe numbers
  for names”. Fascinating, isn’t it? It is not yet clear here where 666 comes
  from in Revelation 13 but “the number of his name” makes a positive association
  in the quest of firmly determining these things as facts.

  There is more... and as usual, I don't like a lot of speculation. When I find something like this... we truly have some interesting data points in acquiring an understanding of what the Lord was telling us in these passages.  Mr.Vee

  • 1:36 am
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