Another Dream from God. Books of Daniel and Revelation.

 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. 

 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 becoming 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 four generals).

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

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 

Daniel’s dream reinforces what we have already studied: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, mixture of nations, and finally God’s kingdom.

But there is something new in this vision.  As we have seen, the fourth beast, Rome, had ten horns on its head.  As Daniel was looking at the horns a little horn popped up, pushing three of the original horns out by the roots.  This new horn had eyes and a mouth and was yapping and boasting about itself.  As Daniel was seeing this, someone standing next to him said that the horn was also speaking out against God and persecuting the saints (Dan. 7:25).  

We know that Rome destroyed Jerusalem and persecuted Christians, even throwing them into the arena to be torn apart by wild beasts.  But what is this horn, which three horns did it rip out by the roots, and why are its persecutions and boasts so huge that it is worth mentioning in prophecy?  We will uncover this mystery in later chapters, so for now just keep this mouthy, blasphemous horn in the back of your mind.

 

Empires of the World. The books of Daniel and Revelation.

 

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.

Map by Anton Gutsunaev

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 decided 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 Phillip 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 (see Appendix 1). 

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 conscious 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 one country would marry a 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 (see Appendix 1).  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

 

A King's Dream. Books of Daniel and Revelation.

 Continued from previous post:

In Daniel Chapter 2 we are told of an important event that will show how accurate Bible prophecy is.  One night king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that really upset him but he could not remember it.  He called all his wise men and asked them to tell him the dream and what it meant, but they could not.  Word got around the palace that the king was furious and had decreed that all the wise men should be killed.  When Daniel heard this he went to the king and asked for time to learn what the dream was and what it meant.  The king granted his request and Daniel got with his friends for an urgent prayer meeting.

 That night God revealed to Daniel what the dream was and the next day he was taken to the king and told him everything.

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.  Daniel 2:31-35

The king had dreamed of a statue made of different kinds of materials.  The head was gold, the breast and arms were silver, the belly and thighs were bronze, the legs were iron, and the feet were a mixture of iron and clay.  But in the dream a stone came flying at the statue’s feet and pulverized the entire statue.  Then the stone itself grew to be a huge mountain, so big that it filled the entire earth. 

 Daniel explained that each of the parts of the statue represented different kingdoms that would rule the world. 

 "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…"  Daniel 2:38-45 

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.

The Image:

Head - made of Gold - represents Babylon

Breast & Arms - made of Silver - represents Persia

Belly & Thighs - made of Bronze - represents Greece

Legs - made of Iron - represents Rome

Feet - made of Iron and Clay - represents weak and strong nations

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

 

God's Contract with the Children of Israel.

 

“The past causes the present, and so the future.  Any time we try to know why something happened…we have to look for factors that took shape earlier.” (17)

  We start this story way back in the 13^th Century BCE when God brought the Hebrews (see Appendix 1) out of slavery in Egypt and gave them their own land.

 

God offered them a deal; God would take care of the Hebrews if they would serve him.  The Hebrews agreed, they entered the Promised Land, and all went well for a while. 

But as time passed, the Hebrews split into two different kingdoms and both began to ignore their side of the bargain they had made with God.  God used prophets to beg the people to return to him but that did not work.  So then God sent warnings, saying if they did not keep their side of the deal, he would be forced to withdraw his protection and, in effect, punish them. 

Sometimes a good king would come to power that would listen and lead the people back to worshipping God, but that did not happen often and, when it did happen, it did not last long.  The Northern half of the split Hebrew kingdom, called Israel, was the worst and evil king after evil king ignored God’s pleadings and warnings.  God finally withdrew his protection and, in the year 722 BCE, the Assyrian army invaded, killing and taking prisoners, virtually wiping out the entire Northern kingdom.

But the Southern kingdom had not yet reached the end of its probation, if you will.  For the most part the people remained rebellious, but God continued to plead with them and warn them until finally, more than a century after the Northern kingdom fell, he had to give up on the Southern kingdom.  By this time the Assyrian kingdom was no longer the big dog in the area…Babylon had become the world’s dominant empire and was swallowing up country after country. 

In Judah, the Southern kingdom, an evil king named Jehoiakim rose to the throne in the capitol city of Jerusalem.  Little did he know what was going to happen during his short reign…God was fed up with Judah and had withdrawn his protection.  During the third year of Jehoiakim’s turn as king, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched his army into Judah and conquered the entire country.

Good people often get caught up in bad things, and not all of Judah had abandoned the worship of God.  A young man named Daniel, and several of his friends, were faithful servants of God but when Judah fell to Nebuchadnezzar, they were caught up in the fray and taken as prisoners to the capitol city of Babylon.  Here Daniel found favor with those in power and was assigned to work in the palace. 

 

Knowledge Increased. The Books of Daniel and Revelation.

 

(Liz wrote her book in 2007, so the statistics will be different now.)

But Jesus said that famine, earthquakes and the escalation of war was not yet the end, it was only the beginning of the birth pangs.  Birth pangs?  What does a woman in labor have to do with anything?

Labor can be long and painful.  Ask any mother and she will tell you that the beginning of labor pains is only the start of the birthing process.  Jesus used this familiar analogy to make the point that famines, earthquakes, and the escalation of war in the end time were only the first signs; this is the start of the painful end to the world.

We have looked at only one quote from the Bible describing what will happen as the world begins to enter the closing chapters of its long saga.  Here is another. 

 

… until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.  Daniel 12: 4

 When you think of someone going ‘back and forth’, you imagine someone going to one place, then to another, then back to the first place, then back to the other.  Or perhaps you think of two people having a conversation about something where one person speaks, then the other, then the first speaks again, and then the other. 

But why is this ‘back and forth’ significant to the end of time?  People have always traveled and communicated so what is different at the end of time compared to the rest of history?  Speed!  We do not have to walk or ride a horse to get from here to there; we can now drive or fly and get to our destination quickly.  And we are not limited to writing a letter or traveling long distances to speak face to face; we can use the telephone or email and communicate instantly.

 The last part of the verse we are looking at talks about knowledge increasing.  The fact is that the past century has seen more advances in science and technology than all the advances made in the previous two thousand years.  Robert Brown, a dean at the University of North Carolina, once said: “It's estimated that medical knowledge, for example, doubles every seven years, and scientific knowledge doubles every twenty years. The total written knowledge in the world is said to have doubled between 1450 and 1750, and then to have doubled again between 1750 and 1900. Between 1900 and 1950, human knowledge doubled once more, and then again from 1950 to 1975. Now, it is believed to double every 900 days. By the year 2020, global knowledge is predicted to double every 72 days!” (7)

 

Continued from previous post.

In the past, wars were not global events involving millions of people.  Both World War I and World War II are so named because much of the world was involved.  That had never happened before in history, and yet it happened twice in less than 30 years.  In World War II alone, about 93 million soldiers were fighting on both sides and about 22 million of them were killed.  But amazingly, over 30 million civilians died during that war! (1)  Some estimates put the total death count from World War II at over 60 million! 

And wars have continued around the globe.  In 1993, the Associated Press reported that another 23 million plus people have died in various wars since 1945. (2)

In part of that verse we looked at in Matthew 24, Jesus also said there would be famines and earthquakes.  There have always been famines and earthquakes so that is not such a big prophetic remark, is it?  Well, we have seen that the world has become involved in bigger and bloodier wars lately, so have there been more and worse famines and earthquakes as well?

In 1996 it was reported that 800 million people go hungry every day, and that “Some 40,000 hunger-related deaths occur every day…” (3)  Did you know that 2000 years ago, when Jesus was walking the Earth, there were only about 300 million people alive on the whole planet? (4)  This means that even if every person on the planet in Jesus’ time were hungry, it still would not come close to the problem we have today.

Okay, famines are worse nowadays.  What about earthquakes?  Between the years 1000 and 1800 there were only 21 major earthquakes. Eight hundred years and only 21 major earthquakes does not seem so bad.  But between 1800 and 1900 there were 18…almost as many earthquakes but in only one-eighth the time span.  Between 1900 and 1950 the number grew to 33.  Thirty-three major earthquakes in only 50 years?  Ouch!  And then there were 93 major earthquakes between the years 1950 and 1991. (5)  Wow!  More and more major earthquakes are occurring all the time. 

But what about right now?  What has happened in the past 15 years or so?  Well, according to the United States Geological Survey, the world has seen 15 monster earthquakes measuring over 8.0 on the Richter scale (see Appendix 1) between 1991 and 2006!  In that same time period there have been 240 earthquakes measuring between 7.0 and 7.9 on the Richter scale. (6)

 I would say that Jesus is 3 for 3 on his prophecy about wars, famines and earthquakes.

The Books of Daniel and Revelation.

 

I'm having trouble downloading the pictures in my sister's book. I'll be working on that.

A few years ago, I saw a bumper sticker that made me laugh out loud, and every time I think about it I laugh again.  It says, “Where am I going, and why am I in this hand basket?”  This pretty much sums up the state of this world today; it seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. 

But is this true?  Well, for millions of us alive today, especially those of us living in industrialized nations, our standard of living and our quality of life are better than at any time in history.  

Medicine has made advances at an exponential rate over the past century, finding cures for much of what used to contribute to shorter life spans.

We can communicate with each other instantly by telephone or email, and visually through satellite feeds or from our homes via the Internet.

And we can get from place to place faster than ever.

So why do many of us often feel as though the world is doomed?  Could it be because it IS doomed and we know it?  Or are we simply running around like Chicken Little, screaming that the sky is falling?

The Bible has a lot to say about the end time of this world, so perhaps we should find out if we are living in the end time or if we are just worrying for no reason.

You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.  But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.  Matt. 24:6-8

 Most Bible scholars agree that what Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 24 applies both to what happened on a small scale -- the fall of the city of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE (see Appendix 1) - and what will happen on a large scale to the world at the end time.  So let’s look at how this applies to our world today.

There have always been wars, so what is so special about stating the obvious?  Well, yes, there have always been wars, but not on the scale we have seen in the past century.