Who am I? Who is God?

Thursday 16 February 2017

Part 12: The Seventy Weeks Prophecy.

Continued from previous post...

Once God removed his protection from the Jews, they were in big trouble. In 70 CE the Roman general Titus and his army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Jesus had told his disciples that the temple would be destroyed to such an extant that “…not one stone here would be left upon another…” (Matt. 24:2) and that is exactly what happened. When Titus’ army set fire to the city, the gold in the temple melted along the walls and the soldiers tore the building apart stone by stone in order to scrape up the gold. Thus Titus “destroy(ed) the city and the sanctuary.”

We have just looked at an extremely important timeline, and we have proven that our interpretation of timelines is accurate from the start, to the end, and all points in between.

The 70 Weeks Prophecy

Artaxerxes'		Jerusalem		Jesus	Jesus		Stephan
Decree		Rebuilt		Baptized	Crucified		Stoned

457	BCE 408			CE 27	30	34

	7 wks		62 wks		1	wk
	49 yrs		434 yrs		7	yrs

Now we are going to look at the longest timeline in Bible prophecy; the timeline that all other timelines fall into. Do you remember the ram and the goat, Medo-Persia and Greece, from Daniel Chapter 8?

The goat’s horn was broken and was followed by four other horns, representing Alexander’s death and the division of his kingdom among his generals. In the strife and confusion after Alexander’s death, the generals split the kingdom “…toward the four winds of heaven.” (Daniel 8: 8) North, East, South and West. Daniel 8: 9-12 and 23-25 says that out of one of them, in the latter period of their rule, came a small horn that became mighty and powerful, destroying holy people, opposing God, and calling himself equal to God.

After our study in the last chapter we know without a doubt that the Roman Empire followed the Greek Empire, both in prophecy and in fact, and we know that a horn stands for a person. So what are these verses in Daniel Chapter 8 talking about?

Rome came from the West and first conquered Macedonia, the Western portion of Alexander’s divided empire in the mid second century BCE. But Daniel 8: 23 says the horn would arise “In the latter period of their rule…” so when did the fourth and final division of the Greek Empire fall to Rome? In 30 BCE when Cleopatra, Pharaoh of Egypt and descendant of the Greek general Ptolemy, killed herself and Octavian (later the Roman Emperor Augustus) claimed Egypt as a province of Rome.

Wednesday 15 February 2017

Part 11: Prophecy of Jesus' Crucifixion.

Continued from previous post:

Tiberius became co-emperor of Rome with Augustus in 13 CE, so his 15^th year would bring us to 27 CE.

The angel Gabriel said that the Messiah would make a “covenant with the many for one week” (7 years). If Jesus began his ministry in 27 CE, then the covenant week ends in 34 CE. What is this covenant week? This is the last 7 years of the 70-week or 490-year, probationary period for the Hebrews. The Messiah was here on earth in person, ready and willing to make a permanent covenant with the Hebrews if they would accept him.

But in 30 CE, in the middle of the last seven years, the Jewish (Hebrew) religious and political leaders successfully schemed to have Jesus killed. Jesus was “cut off and had nothing”, separated and rejected by the chosen people, the people blessed with God’s personal attention for centuries.

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What does it mean that Jesus’ death “put an end to the sacrifice and grain offering?” Why did Jesus have to die? All of our decisions and actions have consequences and when we sin it separates us from God - erecting a wall in our relationship with him. God set up a substitutional system that would restore our relationship with him and transfer the punishment (eternal consequences) we would otherwise receive for our bad choices onto something else. Those people living before Jesus was on earth would go to the temple, symbolically transfer their sin onto an innocent animal (usually a lamb) and kill it as a sacrificial substitute. God would accept the substitute, they would be absolved, and their relationship with him would be restored.

Jesus came to this world to be the ultimate sacrifice. He was offering himself as our permanent substitute; taking our punishment, absolving us of sin, and becoming a permanent bridge connecting heaven and earth – God and man. Once he did that, the sacrificial system was “put to an end” because the ultimate sacrificial substitute had died for us (Heb. 10: 11, 12). When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he appropriately declared, “…Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1: 29)

In 34 CE, the time of God’s favoritism towards the Hebrew nation ended because they stubbornly rejected Jesus and his sacrifice for them. God had to start all over from scratch because, although he had a few followers, he “had nothing” in the form of a nation of followers any more. In that same year the Jews killed a Christian named Stephen and began persecuting all the Christians in the area, so many of them scattered and began preaching wherever they found refuge. God was building a new “nation” of followers, gathering anyone who wanted to belong to him.

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Part 10: A Prophecy of Jesus.

We now have the starting point for our 490-year timeline.

The seven weeks, or 49 years (7 x 7 = 49), of the 70-week prophecy refers to the time it took to finish rebuilding Jerusalem, complete with “plaza and moat”. This takes us to the year 408 BCE.

The 62 weeks, or 434 years (7 x 62 = 434), of the 70-week prophecy follow the seven weeks so it obviously begins in 407 BCE and goes through to 27 CE. Did anything special happen in the year 27 CE? Yes. Luke Chapter 3 and Verse 1 says that it was the 15^th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and “Messiah the Prince”, Jesus, began his ministry here on earth.

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Tiberius became co-emperor of Rome with Augustus in 13 CE, so his 15^th year would bring us to 27 CE.

Monday 13 February 2017

Part 9: Timelines of Prophecy.

Continued from previous post:

Many of you reading may be wondering when we are going to be getting into the book of Revelation. That is where all the prophecy about the end of time is located, right? Well, no. In the first chapter we looked at prophecies from the books of Matthew and 1 Peter, for instance, to prove we are indeed in the end times. In the second chapter we looked in the book of Daniel to prove that Bible prophecy is true and reliable. Now, in the third chapter, we are going to look in Daniel further but for different reasons. Before we can get into the specifics of Revelation we must start with the bigger picture because we not only want to understand what everything in Revelation means, we want to know why each thing means what it does and how it fits in with the others. So one more chapter in Daniel and we will move on to Revelation.

The book of Daniel gives us very useful timelines that we can follow like maps, where we can mark on them different events prophesied in the Bible. These timelines are described as days, weeks, and months, but a day in prophetic language is actually a year. (see Appendix 2).

If one day equals one year (Ez. 4: 4-6 and Num. 14: 34), then…

One Week	7 Days	7 Years

One Month	30 Days	30 Years

One Year	360 Days	360 Years (see Appx. 2)

We are going to start with a timeline that gives us a clue as to when the starting point for some major timelines lie and to prove that our understanding of timelines is correct.

‘Seventy weeks have been declared for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering….” Daniel 9: 24-27

This passage was spoken by the angel Gabriel to Daniel so it comes straight from heaven.

Gabriel was saying that the Hebrews and the city of Jerusalem had 70 weeks, or 490 years (7 days per week multiplied by 70 weeks equals 490 years), of probation left to straighten out and start keeping their side of the bargain they had made with God way back when God brought them out of Egypt. The start of the probation period would begin when a decree was issued allowing the Hebrews to “restore and rebuild” the city of Jerusalem.

It was not long after the Medo-Persians conquered the Babylonians that many of the Hebrews were allowed to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.

Jerusalem with orders that, in part, called for Ezra to organize the city so it could rule itself independently while still being part of the Persian Empire. Ezra was to appoint magistrates and judges and was to ensure the carrying out of the king’s laws. (Ezra 7: 25, 26) Although the decree from Artaxerxes did not specifically say that the city of Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, Ezra and the rest of the Hebrews knew the orders they held implied the rebuilding. How else was a city to function without buildings for the government, the courts, etc? So Artaxerxes’ decree “restored” Jerusalem to the Hebrews and they began to “rebuild” the city in 457 BCE.

Part 8: Daniel's Dream.

Part 8: Daniel's Dream.

Continued from previous post:

This timeline of world history was so important that God repeated it three times and in each of them God added a little more detail. In Daniel Chapter 7, while Daniel was still living under the Babylonian Empire, God gave him a dream.

“…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. 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; 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; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’…and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it…and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; 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, and it had ten horns…behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, 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.” Daniel 7:2-8

Daniel saw the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea (for an explanation of prophetic symbols see Appendix 2). Out of this great sea there came four beasts corresponding to the four metals making up the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream.

ANIMAL	KINGDOM	ATTRIBUTES
Lion	Babylon	Wings of Eagle = speed
		Wings Plucked = decadent and complacent
Bear	Persia	Raised on one side = Persia stronger than Media
		Three Ribs = three areas of conquest:



Leopard	Greece	Four Wings = extreme speed
		Four Heads = empire divided among the generals
Beast	Rome	Iron Teeth = consumes nations
		Extremely Strong = crushes all opposition
Horns	Mixed Nations	Arising from Rome

The first was a lion that had wings like an eagle (signifying the speed with which the beast could move). It had its wings plucked and it was given a human mind. Babylon stopped conquering other nations and felt secure in its power, becoming decadent and complacent, losing the attributes of a preying lion and instead became the prey.

The lion was replaced by a lop-sided bear (signifying that one side was stronger than the other) with three ribs in its mouth (signifying the three geographical areas it ‘devoured’; its own lands of Media and Persia, lands the Babylonian Empire once ruled, and new lands such as Anatolia).

The bear was replaced by a leopard with four wings (signifying even greater speed of movement) and four heads (Alexander’s empire divided among his generals).

And finally a fourth beast, Rome, which was terrifying and extremely strong, ; it had iron teeth and crushed the other beasts.

There are ten horns on the last beast, signifying many smaller kingdoms arising from the beast. In prophecy, a horn stands for a person, so the ten horns would represent ten kings. If it is a literal number, did ten kings and kingdoms arise after the Roman Empire fell? Yes. Rome had become too large for one central government to rule effectively so it was split into two halves by the emperor Diocletian in the third century CE. The Eastern half of the Roman Empire eventually became what we know as Byzantium with its capitol at Constantinople. The Western half of the divided Roman Empire kept Rome as its capitol and this is the part that fell and was eventually divided into ten parts. Differences exist regarding which nations comprised these ten parts; it seems to depend on the date chosen as the fall of the Roman Empire. One commonly accepted date chosen as the beginning of the fall of Rome falls in the middle of the fourth century CE. If that is our start time, then the group of nations that divided up the Roman Empire consists of the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks, the Suevi, the Visigoths, the Burgunians, the Alamanni (later replaced by the Huns), the Lombards, the Ostrogoths, the Heruli and the Vandals. And here we see the beginning of individual European nations such as France, Germany, Spain, etc.

Following all these beasts and horns Daniel saw Jesus returning to the earth and setting up his kingdom.

“I kept looking in the night visions,

And behold, with the clouds of heaven

One like the Son of Man was coming…

His dominion is an everlasting dominion

Which will not pass away…” Daniel 7: 13, 14

Saturday 11 February 2017

Part 7: The End of World Empires.

Continued from previous post:

Now we move on to the legs of iron portion of the prophecy: Rome. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the fourth kingdom would be as strong as iron and would crush and shatter all that came before it. This is a good description of the Roman Empire.

There are debates as to the exact beginning of the Roman Empire. This is due to the fact that the rise of Rome seems to be almost accidental. Rome did not start out with a conscience plan to conquer other nations and begin its own empire; it actually started to expand through reactionary events. When it perceived a threat of any kind by an outside force, Rome would rally the troops and march into battle. In the middle of the second century BCE Rome squashed a threat from Macedonia and it became the first of the Greek provinces divided after Alexander’s death to come under the rule of the Roman Empire.

No two scholars can agree on what exactly caused the end of the Roman Empire, and that is probably because no one thing is to blame. Some of the theories given for its fall: an undisciplined army, civil wars, barbarian invasions, over extension, political infighting, laziness, etc. What matters to us is the fact that the Roman Empire had collapsed by the end of the fifth century CE and is no more.

This leads us to the feet part of the statue where iron is mixed with clay, or where nations are no longer ruled by one World Empire but are a mixture of strong and weak nations. Never again would a human world empire exist. That does not mean people have stopped trying. Napoleon tried to create a French Empire but failed, and Hitler tried to create a Third Reich that would last a thousand years, but he too failed.

People have even tried to unite countries through marriage. A royal from a one country would marry a another royal from another country in an attempt to unify, but it always failed. As late as World War I we saw the failure of these intermarriage attempts in that the Russian, German and British monarchies were all related but were at war anyway. God told Daniel there would not be a human world empire after Rome and no matter how hard people have tried, this prophecy has held true.

The rock that pulverized the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream smashes first into the feet of the statue, signifying the establishment of Jesus’ kingdom will occur sometime after world empires have ceased to exist and the world is divided into different nations. It is fitting that God used a rock to signify his kingdom as the Bible has often referred to God as a Rock of Salvation (Deut. 32:15), an everlasting Rock (Is. 26:4), a Rock, a fortress and a deliverer (Ps. 18:2), a Rock and a Redeemer (Ps. 19:14), etc.

“’...Is there any God besides Me?

Or is there any other Rock?

I know of none’ “ Is. 44: 8

Friday 10 February 2017

Part 6: Daniel Explains the King's Dream.

Now we must ask ourselves how history has played out and if Daniel’s interpretation of the dream was correct. He told king Nebuchadnezzar that he was the head of gold, but Daniel did not name the other kingdoms by name. Looking back we know what the kingdoms were.

PART	METAL	KINGDOM
Head	Gold	Babylon
Breast and Arms	Silver	Persia
Belly and Thighs	Bronze	Greece
Legs	Iron	Rome
Feet	Iron and Clay	Weak and Strong Nations

And the stone that pulverized the statue represents Jesus setting up his kingdom and ruling for eternity.

The Babylonian Empire was the largest reigning force in the world at the time Nebuchadnezzar had his dream. It was well represented by gold, as it was a rich and lush empire. In fact, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

But in the year 539 BCE, 66 years after Daniel had been taken captive from his homeland of Judah, the Medo-Persian army conquered Babylon and the Persian Empire entered the world stage. Eventually the Medes would fade and the Persians would strengthen, causing the Medo-Persian Empire to become simply the Persian Empire.

The Greeks were a pain in the neck for the Persians. First, the Greek cities of Ionia rebelled against Persia but they were defeated. Then, as retribution for the rebellion, Xerxes decides to overtake Greece itself.

You have probably seen movies or heard about the 300 Spartans and other Greek warriors fighting against the Persian king Xerxes at the pass of Thermopolae. This battle took place in 480 BCE while the Persian Empire was extremely strong. The Greeks lost the battle at Thermopolae but they eventually stopped the Persians at the navel battle of Salamis and forced Xerxes to withdraw from Greece. This was not the end of the Greek/Persian story as Greece was to be the ruin of the Persian Empire.

Phillip of Macedonia would be the first to unite the City States of Greece under one ruler. After he Philip died, his son Alexander would solidify the allegiances of the lesser kings in Greece and in 334 BCE he took his armies into Asia Minor to fight against Darius and his Persian Empire. In just three years Alexander the Great had defeated the Persians and Greece was now the world’s largest empire. In 323 BCE at the age of 33, Alexander died and his empire was divided among his Generals.

Now we move on to the legs of iron portion of the prophecy: Rome. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the fourth kingdom would be as strong as iron and would crush and shatter all that came before it. This is a good description of the Roman Empire.