War in Heaven. The Book of Revelation.

 Continued from previous post:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman…and she was with child…Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems…And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.  And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.  Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.  And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon.  The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.  And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.”  Rev. 12:1-10

Here we see the birth of Jesus: the birth of Christianity.  Satan tried, and failed, to kill Jesus through king Herod when Jesus was born (see Matt. 2:13-20).  Prior to Jesus’ death, Satan was the ruler of this world within limits set by God (see Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7; Matt. 4:8, 9), but Jesus’ sacrificial death redeemed the world from Satan’s control and Jesus became the absolute ruler of this world (see Rev. 5:9-13; Rev. 12:5).  Satan did not want to give up control so a war broke out and he and his angels were thrown out of heaven by force. 

Satan is no longer allowed to come before God in heaven and accuse us of anything.  We now belong to Jesus and he represents us before God as our redeemer, our savior, and substitutes his perfection for our faults.

 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.  But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.  And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.  But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.  So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.  

Satan is furious about losing to Jesus and decides to go after those who follow Jesus.  The true followers of Jesus were forced to flee, many hiding in the mountains and forests where they were able to avoid the flood of people searching for them (see Appendix 2).  Those who remained in the populated areas were less able to avoid persecution.  The persecution lasted …a time and times and half a time…, which is the 1260 days, mentioned in verse 6.  It is calculated this way: a time is one year, times is two years, and half a time is six months, giving a total of 1260 days (360 + 720 + 180 = 1260).  This time period is also mention in Daniel 7

 …out of this kingdom (Rome) ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.  He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One…and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.  Dan. 7:24, 25

Jesus' Baptism and Death in Prophecy. The Book of Daniel.

 

Continued from previous post:

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 Jews.  The Messiah was here on earth in person, ready and willing to make a permanent covenant with the Jews if only they would accept him. 

But in 30 CE, in the middle of the last seven years, the Jewish 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.

  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 had set up a substitutional system that would restore our relationship with him and transfer the punishment (eternal consequences) we should 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 Jewish 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 anymore.  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.

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. 

Artaxerxes' decree to rebuild Jerusalem was from 457 to 408 BCE. That is 7 weeks in prophecy which translates to 49 years.

Jerusalem rebuilt until Jesus baptized: 408 BCE to 27 CE. 62 weeks = 434 years, 

Jesus baptized until Stephen stoned: 27CE to 34 CE.  One week = 7 years 

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

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. 

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.