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Studies in Daniel and Revelation

Published January 28, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Daniel, Dreams, End Times, Eschatology, Prophecy

Daniel, Part Two

Daniel chapter 2 is, perhaps, in terms of Bible prophecy, the “crown jewel” because it contains the most complete and simple picture of God’s plan for the nations of the world in the whole Bible.

1. Preliminary Observations

My first observation about chapter 2 concerns the first three verses and is not readily apparent in our English translations. The first three verses of the chapter are written in Hebrew, but the language switches to Aramaic in verse 4, then switches back to Hebrew with chapter 8. As to why the change in language, we may only speculate. The Aramaic chapters, 2:4 to the close of chapter 7, deal with things of major concern to Nebuchadnezzar’s empire, while the Hebrew chapters, 8-12, the future destiny of the Jews is given the emphasis.

My second observation is about Nebuchadnezzar. At this time in his life, he was in his prime. He had ascended to the throne as a young man, and his power had been accumulating at an astonishing rate. Nebuchadnezzar was young and intelligent and thanks to an unusual and imaginative “urban expansion” program in his cities, he had won the favor and the enthusiastic support of religious leaders and the masses.

But Nebuchadnezzar was much more than his accomplishments would suggest. At this moment in his career, the king of Babylon showed his true greatness by doing something never done before. Instead of continuing to expand his boarders, Nebuchadnezzar stopped all his military campaigns to consider the meaning of his life and the why he was having so much success. He was considering his destiny and the future of the empire he had built.

My final observation is that even though this heathen king was in no way a believer in Yahweh, he was God’s chosen instrument to discipline His people, and so God made Nebuchadnezzar the repository of the history of the Gentiles and of God’s entire plan, yet God did it in such a way as to make Daniel, not Nebuchadnezzar, the whom the Lord acknowledged and who enjoyed His divine favor.

2. Nebchadnezzar’s strange offer

In ancient times it was not unusual or uncommon for kings to attach great importance to dreams. In fact, ancient man in general was fascinated by the mysterious meanings of their dreams. Common man had to figure out what they meant on his own, but kings and wealthy men had magicians and diviners who claimed they could interpret dreams. These were actually professional offices in the courts of pagan nations, and Nebuchadnezzar had many such men at his disposal who could offer some “pre-Freudian” dream analysis.

Naturally, Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men could not interpret his dream, nor could they recount his dream to him. We cannot be sure if he forgot the dream or if he was testing his wise men, although my feeling is that he genuinely forgot it, but the fact remains that because he could not find the answers he was seeking, the king fell into utter despair.

The first part of chapter 2 is amazingly similar to the story of Joseph. In both stories, the king’s dream is interpreted by a king’s prisoner, but in Joseph’s case, the king remembered the dream. The dream of the Pharaoh concerned the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine in Egypt, whereas Nebuchadnezzar’s dream concerned the nations of this world and the Kingdom of God. But in each case, the dreams involved the salvation of God’s people from extinction.

Initially, the king did not invite Daniel or his friends to interpret his dream; it was only after he issued a decree that all the wise men in the land were to be killed that the situation came to Daniel’s attention, who by his training was now part of the “wise men” class. The wise men claimed that only “the gods” could tell Nebuchadnezzar what he wanted to hear. Daniel volunteered to interpret the dream to the king but first went into prayer to the great Source of all wisdom. God answered the prayers of Daniel and his three friends and revealed His secret to them Three things happened to these Hebrews that night:

They sought the Lord in prayer, but not before Daniel in faith claimed that he already had the answer or that the answer would be forthcoming.
God responded to their earnest prayers and answered them by revealing all in a vision.
They responded to God’s response in worship. This should always be the the result of God’s ministry to the hearts of His people. In our modern church, we talk a lot about worship and we claim that everything we do is worship to God. But here we see that prayer is not worship and God’s ministry to us is not worship. Prayer is asking of God, and ministry is when God gives something to us. Worship comes after we have asked, and after God has given and our hearts are overflowing with praise and adoration.

With seemingly unlimited confidence in his God, Daniel went to Arioch and promised that he could deliver what the king needed.

3. Observations about the dream, 2:31-35

“You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.”

In looking at this dream, I make the following general observations. First, the Gentile nations from Babylon onward are seen by God as a whole unit, that is, they form one statue, they are not seen as individual nations. All the successive Gentile nations form but one “person” before God.

Second, four imperial powers were to succeed each other, but Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold, received his authority immediately from God Himself. All the other nations that followed Babylon were allowed to do so by God’s sovereignty. The fact that Nebuchadnezzar is seen as the head of gold, the fact that he was given his authority on earth by God Himself is highly symbolic, for in the Babylonian king we see God replacing His authority on earth. Babylon was the authority on earth established by God.

My third observation is related to the phrase “The God of Heaven,” in verse 37. God is not seen as the God of Earth, but of Heaven. In Israel God was the God of the Earth because He dwelt among His people, and He will again be the God of the Earth at the restitution of all things.

That phrase, “the God of Heaven,” is used in only three books of the Old Testament and one in the New Testament: Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Revelation. Each of the OT references refer to the exact same period of history when God had scattered His people among the nations. God had forsaken His throne in Jerusalem, the Shekinah glory had gone, never to return again.

But for now, during the time of the Gentiles, God acts sovereignly as the God of Heaven, setting up man in His place on the Earth:

The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. (verses 37b-38)

Finally, an observation about man’s dominion of the earth. The Gentiles, embodied in Nebuchadnezzar, have been given dominion over the earth, similar to the dominion Adam had. It is, however more limited, since man is not given dominion over the sea.

4. Daniel’s interpretation, verses 39-45

“After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.

“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.”

The very first thing I notice in Daniel’s interpretation is this exchange:

The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?” Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” (verses 26-28)

This speaks volumes about Daniel’s character; he is giving his God the credit.

The second thing I notice is that while God gave this awesome and far reaching dream to Nebuchadnezzar, He promptly made the king forget it; in fact, God drove the king to the very end of his resources because, after all, had Nebuchadnezzar been able to recall the dream, he would never have realized God’s role in it. This is always the way God deals with human beings. We have to be brought to the very end of our resources; we are made to realized our awful sinfulness before God saves us.

Ironside remarks that each one of us meets Jesus at the place He was crucified: Golgotha, the place of the skull. We all find salvation at the place of death.

As soon as Daniel related the dream to the king, the king realized it was indeed the dream he had forgotten.

Daniel then proceeded with the interpretation, which is covered in verses 39-45. The image of the statue represents the whole period of the Times of the Gentiles from Daniel’s time to our future. To Nebuchadnezzar this interpretation must have been somewhat startling as he learned he was merely the first in a long succession of empires that would rise and fall. The end goal of each Gentile empire was dissolution or destruction under the dominance of the Kingdom of God, which itself can never be dissolved, destroyed or dominated.

In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. (verse 44)

There are a total of 5 kingdoms in Nebuchadnezzar’s statue and there is some difference of opinion on the identity of some of them. The traditional conservative, evangelical view is as follows:

The first empire, verse 38, is stated in the text as being the Babylonian empire;
The fifth, verse 44, is just as clear; it is the kingdom of God;
The second, verse 39a is almost probably the Medo-Persian empire;
The third, verse 39b is likely Greece under Alexander the Great;
The fourth, verse 40, is generally regarded to be Rome.

5. Ten toes, verses 40-43

Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

Verse 43 has been interpreted as either the weakness of mixed marriages or the rapid decline of society in the collapse of the fourth kingdom (Roy Swim and Birk). It should also be noted that the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s vision of chapter 7 are parallel, so that the interpretation of this dream must be determined by the content of that vision.

Up to the toes is past history. The fourth empire will be another version of the old Roman Empire, which is in abeyance at the present time. The ten toes of the feet of the statue represent ten kings who will rule at the same time, but who will form a confederacy that will occupy roughly the same territory as the old Roman empire.

Though some commentators see this part of the interpretation in history, a ten-nation confederacy such as Daniel saw has never existed before, especially in view of Daniel’s vision in chapter 7 concerning the ten horns.

The fate of this final Gentile empire is striking:

In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. (verses 44-45)

The “rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands” is, of course, Jesus Christ (Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 8:14; 28:16; Zechariah 3:9). Some scholars see this fulfilled when Jesus came the first time, however, the phrase “In the time of those kings” points to a future fulfillment; in the time of ten-kingdom confederacy. This rock, Daniel said, will fall from heaven, this cannot refer to the baby Jesus being born, but to the glorious Second Coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

God has been calling out from these nations a people for Himself–the Church–in advance of the coming of the Rock since the beginning of the “lasts days,” when Jesus returned to be with the Father. The wrath of God during the Tribulation will be nothing compared to the awful events that will befall those who reject Christ when He literally and physically returns. No believer will be present on the earth when this event occurs because Jesus, on the Cross, suffered all the wrath of God in our stead.

Studies in Daniel and Revelation

Published January 21, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Daniel, Dreams, End Times, Interpreation of dreams, Nebuchadnezzar, Prophecy

Daniel, Part One

The book of prophecy and history that the prophet Daniel wrote, that bears his name, has been called one of the most thrilling books in the entire Bible. Despite the fact that we know more about the man Daniel than any of the other prophets, his book has become a lightening rod for debate between conservative and liberal scholars. The prophecies of Daniel that have been fulfilled in history were fulfilled so accurately that liberal scholars, in their blatant attempt to strip the Bible of the miraculous, conclude that the book called “Daniel” is, in fact, a hoax; that somebody concocted an elaborate fiction masquerading as supernatural prophecy. It is not my intention to give more than a passing mention of this; I have studied all the arguments for and against the authenticity of Daniel and I accept the findings of conservative scholars that Daniel, the man and the prophet, was a real man, that he was not a hoaxster, and that his book is not a forgery or a work of fiction. On the point of the liberal abuse foisted upon Daniel, I agree with Pusey:

The rest which has been said is mostly mere insolent assumptions against Scripture, grounded in unbelief.

Incidentally, no less an expert than our Lord, Jesus Christ, believed what Daniel wrote to be true and trustworthy (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14). So, who is fool enough to question the intelligence of our Lord? Only a liberal would have the arrogance to do such a thing.

1. Daniel, the man and his place in history

Understanding who Daniel was can help us understand the things he saw and wrote. Three key words characterize this man: purpose, prayer, and prophecy (McGee).

1. Daniel was a man of purpose, 1:8; 6:10. Despite being in the minority, Daniel maintained his integrity. Not once, even when faced with death, did this man forsake his faith or his God.

2. Daniel was a man of prayer, 2:17-23; 6:10; 9:3-19. Prayer was a big part of Daniel’s life. Even though prayer got him tossed in the lion’s den, Daniel never stopped.

3. Daniel was a man of prophecy. The entire book of Daniel is one long prophecy, some fulfilled, some not.

Daniel, both the man and the book, are also fulfillments of an earlier prophecy. In Isaiah 39:1-8, we read a prophecy given some 100 years before it came to pass in Daniel 1:

“Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” (verses 5-7)

At the time that prophecy was given, it seemed highly unlikely. But because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people, it came to pass. God’s instrument of judgment was the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel 1:1 sets the historical context.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

This king of Judah, Jehoiakim, succeeded his brother Jehoahaz to the throne. Both of these men were the wicked and vile sons of Josiah, a very godly king who was responsible for bringing a religious revival to the nation as recorded in 2 Kings 23:31-37. The year was 606 BC, and Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem. Although not destroyed at this time, he did carry of its treasures and thousands of its citizens. Included in the first group of exiles was Daniel and his three friends.

When Jehoiakim died, his son Jehoiachin took the throne. He fought against Nebuchadnezzar and lost. The Babylonian king, once again, stormed into Jerusalem in 598 BC and took another group of captives back to Babylon with him, including the king and his family. The prophet Ezekiel was among the captives according to 2 Kings 24:6-16.

Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, assumed the throne and, like his nephew, made war against Nebuchadnezzar. This third time was enough for the Babylonian king, who marched into Jerusalem and leveled the temple and burned much of the city. Zedekiah’s sons were slain and the kings eyes gouged out. The blinded king, along with the final deportation, went into captivity around 587 BC, in fulfillment of Jeremiah 25:8-13.

The rest of Daniel’s history is given in chapter one.

It should be stressed that everything that happened to the Hebrews at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar was really a judgment from God upon their stubborn and rebellious hearts. For generations before their Babylonian captivity, God warned His people to shape up and repent. They turned a deaf ear to the prophets and as a result, God chose to use a pagan king to execute His divine judgment on a backslidden people.

2. Israel and its place among the nations

The only nation ordained of God is Israel. Much of the OT is taken up with the building and the establishing of Israel as a nation, it’s rebellion against God, and it’s judgment by God because of its unfaithfulness to Him. Much Bible prophecy concerns either the judgment of Israel or its restoration. The ultimate restoration of Israel, which will occur at the Second Coming of our Lord, is future and yet to be fulfilled. The judgment of Israel at the hands of nations around it is, for the most part, a record of history, though prophetic at the time the OT was written.

Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonian nation, is spoken of like this by the Lord, who chose him to be His instrument of judgment:

I have given him Egypt as a reward for his efforts because he and his army did it for me, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Ezekiel 29:20)

Up until Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity, Israel had been the center of a system of nations, peoples, and languages that had been the result of God’s judgment at Babel. The nation of Israel was separate and distinct from all the nations around it. Deuteronomy 32:8 gives us an inclination of how special and unique Israel was among all the nations of the earth:

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

In executing God’s judgment on Israel, God’s people lost their distinctive place among the nations and the “time of the Gentiles,” the time of Gentile dominance on the earth, began with Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon.

This is not to say that God has done away with Israel as a nation, for it will be restored according to the words of many prophecies and promises that have never been revoked:

The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. (Deut. 28:13)

Though Israel has been judged severely for her apostasies, there was and is a faithful remnant that God will build upon in His restorative work. In fact, that remnant becomes the special object of the thoughts and plans of God revealed by His Spirit throughout the book of Daniel.

It is not an exaggeration to say that in a general sense, God’s plan for the world throughout all of its ages and dispensations has been with one goal in mind: the restoration of Israel, both as a nation on Earth and as a special, sanctified group of people. In fact, the whole purpose of the Tribulation period is to bring the Hebrew people to the place where they will finally and at last recognize Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as their Messiah.

3. Daniel’s reward for his faithfulness

Daniel and his three friends, taken captive in the first Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem, remained steadfastly devoted to Jehovah, yet at the same time they were given special privileges by the Babylonians and were given positions of trust and leadership in their government. Because of their faithfulness to God, they were not only blessed in the material sense, but also in the spiritual:

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. (1:17)

This is the special privilege of all believers in all dispensations, as is clear from what the Psalmist wrote:

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him. (Psalm 25:14a KJV)

The fact that so many Christians today seem to be so ignorant of “the secret of the Lord” may very well be caused their lack of respect for the Lord.

In this regard, we see in Daniel the same character we saw in Joseph, who was able to interpret the dreams of the Pharaoh to the benefit of the Hebrews. Similarly, the dreams Daniel will interpret will concern, not the dreamer, Nebuchadnezzar, but rather Daniel’s people, the Hebrews.

This is the first great lesson for us from the book of Daniel, and it has nothing to with any prophecy! Purity of heart and faithfulness to God must always precede any revelation or illumination of His Word. Putting head-knowledge ahead of heart-purity will result in a cold and shallow understanding of God and His Word. Trying to grasp the truths of Scripture without being in God’s presence will always disappoint.

This very first chapter of Daniel,then, reminds us that if we want to go on to penetrate and discern all that God has revealed to us the following chapters, we have to make sure that our hearts are right with Him.

4. The beginning of the parade of nations

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. (2:1)

And so begins the the first major division of the book of Daniel. The book naturally divided into two main sections, three if chapter one is considered a separate section on its own, for it concerns the personal history of Daniel. At any rate, the first division ends with chapter six, and the second division ends with the close of the book.

· Division One, chapters 2-6: Gentile dominance of the world. This first section concerns itself with the various Gentile nations that will dominate the world from Daniel’s day until the very end of days yet in our future. We learn that what moves these nations is not the will of God but human vanity and pride. This parade of nations is revealed to Daniel through the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar.

· Division Two, chapters 7-12: The heads of the Gentile kingdoms. This second half of the book concerns direct revelations from God to Daniel. These visions reveal the character of the rulers of the Gentiles in relation to the people of God.

The details of God’s dealings with His people at the end of the age are revealed in the final chapter. Chapter 7 gives essentially the history of the western powers, chapter 8 that of the eastern–the two horns. Chapter 9, although the emphasis is on Jerusalem and its people, concerns the western power that has invaded them. Chapters 10 to 11 focus on the east with the judgment of the nations there and the establishment of the remnant of Israel.

Next time, we will look at Nebuchadnezzar’s amazing dream and Daniel’s inspired interpretation.

Studies in Daniel and Revelatition

Published January 17, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Daniel, End Times, Eschatology, Prophecy, Revelation, Thessalonians

Intro to Bible Prophecy

Before beginning our study of the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation, we should first learn how to read and understand prophecy.

1. Why studying Bible prophecy is important

Revelation, the work the apostle John produced while in exile on the isle of Patmos, is the only book in the entire Bible with a special blessing promised to those who study it!

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)

For this reason alone it is imperative for believers to read and understand what the prophecies in Revelation are all about. But there are other good reasons for studying Bible prophecy. However, rather than list the reasons why it is important, let’s approach this from the negative side.

Many Christians bristle at the thought of studying prophecy. For a variety of reasons, prophecy is the the most neglected, most misunderstood, and most abused form of Biblical writing. Christians neglect it because:

they don’t understand it;
they are afraid of it;
they feel as though a knowledge of Bible prophecy is unnecessary.

In dealing with each of these reasons individually, we will gain an understanding of why we should, in fact, not neglect prophecy, but understand it.

It’s too hard to understand

As a Bible teacher, I hear this all the time and I could not disagree more! If a person can understand the words of history, then they can understand the words of Bible prophecy. History is simply a record of things that happened, and prophecy is simply a record of things yet to happen. The reasons people find prophecy and the prophetic books of the Bible hard to understand are many. One reason is that they find it hard to harmonize the words of prophecy with various teachings they have heard from pastors and Bible teachers. A great many Christians are able to merely parrot the things they have heard other people say about the Bible and prophecy, and about what they think it means, but they have no first hand knowledge of the Book itself. And so the words of prophecy seem foreign and mysterious to them.

Something very helpful for all serious Bible students to keep in mind is the following list of common sense “rules” for interpreting Bible prophecy, adapted from the work of Finis Jennings Dake, God’s Plan For Man, pages 773-777.

Give the same meaning to the words of prophecy that are given to words of history. In other words, forget the idea that just because a word is used in a prophecy (or in the Bible itself) it automatically has a mysterious or hidden meaning. God chose to communicate His message to man in the form of words because words are concrete things; they mean something. Take Biblical words literally, exactly as they were written, unless it is clear from the context the writer means something different.

Do not change the literal to a spiritual or a symbolic meaning. Never change God’s plain, literal meaning into something else. If John or Daniel wrote about an earthquake, for example, why change that event into something spiritual, like “the breaking up of society” as some Bible teachers have taught?

Do not look for hidden meanings or secret codes in the words of Scripture. God has revealed to man all man needs to know in a language man can understand. Be satisfied with that. We have no warrant or right to “read between the lines” or to add to Scripture in order to understand it. For example, some students of Bible prophecy desperate to find the United States of America in the Bible managed to find it, hidden in the word Jer-USA-lem. Still others have used mathematical gymnastics to discern that various political leaders, usually Russians or Democrats, are the Antichrist because the letters of their names add up to “666.” That kind of Bible interpretation is embarrassing to the Church and is just plain silly.

Do not interpret God’s own interpretation of any symbol or prophecy or change God’s meaning from that which is plainly and obviously clear. God always interprets His own symbols. Consider the following references:

Daniel 2:38-44; 7:17, 23-26; 9:20-27; 11:2-45; 12:1-13; Revelation 1:20; 12:9; 13:18; 17:8-18; etc. Understand the Scripture interprets Scripture and we must learn to “rightly divide the word of truth.”

Assign one meaning to a verse or a passage of Scripture: the plain, literal one, unless it is made clear that a double meaning should be understood. There are three “laws” that need to be understood when interpreting certain passages of Scripture and passages of prophecy:

The Law of Double Reference. This law states sometimes, in rare circumstances, two distinct persons are being addressed in a passage of Scripture. For example, note these two references: Matthew 16:23 and Ezekiel 28.
The Law of Prophetic Perspective. This law states that the prophet saw future events as “mountain tops” off in the distance; he did not see the valleys below. A good example of this law is Isaiah 9:6-7.
The Law of Dual Fulfillment. This law says that one prophecy may have more than one fulfillment, or several “partial fulfillments” in history before its ultimate fulfillment. Some examples: Isaiah 7:14 was immediately fulfilled in 8:1-4 then ultimately in Matthew 1:22-23. Also, Daniel 9:26 was partially fulfilled twice, first in 168 AD when Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, then again in 70 AD when Titus and the Romans destroyed both the temple and the city, but the ultimate fulfillment will occur during the Tribulation when the Antichrist will desecrate the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.

It’s scary

People are afraid of that which they don’t understand, this is certainly true in the case of Christians who think they know what the Bible teaches because they heard a sermon or saw a movie about the Second Coming. Often these end-time movies or sermons are not correct or they embellish the truth with man’s ideas and the result is that people have a concept of the end times that is more science fiction than Biblical fact.

God has given us an idea of what the future holds, not to scare us, but rather to comfort us and to encourage us. Recall what Paul wrote to the nervous and fearful Thessalonians:

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

I know Jesus, and that’s all I need to know!

Some Christians think they just don’t need to know about prophecy and so they feel they can just ignore it. The problem with this thinking is that it ignores that fact that Jesus, Paul, the disciples, and the men who wrote many of the epistles all had a working knowledge of the Old Testament prophets. Are we better than Jesus? Are we better than Paul? Indeed not. Don’t forget what Paul himself wrote:

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. (Ephesians 6:11)

The “full armor of God” refers to the “whole word of God.” Paul did not say “put on some armor,” he told his readers to put it all on. Why? Simply this: so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. We must have an understanding of the whole the Bible so that the devil cannot outwit us, so that we will not believe every word a false teacher may say. Paul also admonished Timothy:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

Again, the word used is “all,” not just some or “most,” but “all.” Even prophecy is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. If all Scripture is useful, then we should endeavor to know and understand it all.

Finally, how we view eschatology, the end times, determines how we live out our Christian lives today. If we believe that time is short and that Jesus could return at any moment, we would be compelled to spread the Gospel; we would sense the urgency of the hour. Knowing that the rapture could occur at any moment, we would take more care in how we live, talk and spend out idle moments.

For a good definition of “eschatology,” go to our sister website, Don’t Ask Me.

(c) 2009 WitzEnd

AN AMAZING END

Published May 6, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: End Times, New Earth, New Heavnes, New Testament, Prophecy, Revelation

A Study of Revelation 21:1-26

1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth were completely gone. There was no longer any sea.

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem. It was coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

3 I heard a loud voice from the throne. It said, “Now God makes his home with people. He will live with them. They will be his people. And God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or sadness. There will be no more crying or pain. Things are no longer the way they used to be.”

5 He who was sitting on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down. You can trust these words. They are true.”

6 He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. I am the Beginning and the End. Anyone who is thirsty may drink from the spring of the water of life. It doesn’t cost anything! 7 Anyone who overcomes will receive all this from me. I will be his God, and he will be my child.

8 “But others will have their place in the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. Those who are afraid and those who do not believe will be there. Murderers and those who pollute themselves will join them. Those who commit sexual sins and those who practice witchcraft will go there. Those who worship statues of gods and all who tell lies will be there too. It is the second death.” (NIRV)

These verses are among the most striking and stunning in all the Bible. Countless works of art and music have been inspired by them. Some of the greatest cathedral architecture has been influenced by the imagery contained in this chapter. As Alan Johnson observed, John discloses a theology in stone and gold as pure as glass and color. J.B. Moffat once wrote of the almost overpowering emotion of the moments captured in these verses:

From the smoke and pain and heat [of the preceeding chapter] it is a relief to pass into the clear, clean atmosphere of the eternal morning where the breath of heaven is sweet and the vast city of God sparkles like a diamond in the radiance of His presence.

This picture of a world yet to come will take place after the final judgment; in fact, since the opening of the seven seals back in chapter 6, the book of Revelation has been full of nothing but tribulation and turmoil, judgment and death. But now, the old world has faded away and is replaced by the new world. Cosmic time has evolved into eternity. Separation from God by time and distance has now become intimate communion with Him. Death is no more. Wicked people are no more. The New Jerusalem is a picture of absolute perfection with respect to its dimensions, adornment,and glory. The curse of sin gone. Paradise has returned to this planet. In Paradise, before the Fall, God communed with Adam, taught him, and met all his needs (Genesis 2:15-25). On the New Earth, God dwells with His people in intimate fellowship. After they sinned, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God (Gen. 3:8); At the restoration, God lives with them forever. The Garden of Eden was a place without pain, suffering, crying, death; so is the New Creation.

1. A New Heaven and a New Earth, verses 1-8

A New Heaven and a New Earth, 1-4

Old Testament allusions lurk behind many of the things John is writing. Notice the following passages from Isaiah:

Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered,nor will they come to mind. (65:17, NIV)

As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. (66:22, NIV)

God will not annihilate heaven and earth and then create them out of nothing; He will transform them in a process that is similar to how believers are being transformed even now:

[W]ho, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phil. 3:21, NIV)

Just as our Lord’s body was transformed at His resurrection, so at the coming of the Lord the bodies of His people will not be annihilated but completely changed and glorified.

The word “heaven” as it appears in verse 1, does not refer to the eternal home of God, but rather the astronomical space all around our planet. The word “new” here is not neos, which describes something “which has recently come into existence,” but kainos, which stresses “quality, something that is replacing something else that is worn out…marred through age and use.” What an apt description of our world; something worn out, something that has become useless through age.

The notion that the sea will be gone is interesting, and may seem like an odd statement, given that three-quarters of our present earth is covered in water. But to the ancients, without compass or satellites, the oceans held great fear and terror. It was a place of death, and the source of the satanic Beast. For John, the sea meant separation from his home and fellow believers in Asia Minor. In the New World, there would neither death, nor fear, nor separation of any kind. The emphasis here is likely more spiritual and moral than geographical. No trace of evil in any form will be allowed in the New World.

The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, occupies the bulk of John’s vision for the remainder of the book. Nothing sets Christianity apart from other religions more than heaven. Here, heaven is pictured as a literal city, full of life, activity, interest, and people. In Hinduism, for example, their ideal of heaven is a sea into which human life returns like a raindrop to the ocean. No, for the Christian, heaven is not merely another dimension, or a kind netherworld; it is a real place, with buildings and people.

First, the Holy City is seen “coming down out of heaven from God.” John uses this phrase three times, giving us a vivid word picture of a city floating down from above. And yet, the city never seems to come all the way down; it is always seen as “descending from heaven.” The idea is that this amazing City is really a gift from God.

Second, the City is called a “bride,” (nymphe). To the ancient people of the East, nothing was so beautiful than a young bride. Describing the intimacy of God and His people, John uses the metaphor of a wedding ceremony in which the bride is prepared and adorned for her husband. The one who has prepared and adorned the bride cannot be the bride, that is, the church itself. It is Jesus Christ who has cleansed her and presented her without stain or wrinkle or blemish to Himself (Eph. 5:26-27).

Finally, God’s dwelling among His people is a fulfillment of Leviticus 26:11-13, a promise given to the old Jerusalem,but forfeited because of their apostasy. The Holy City is not only mankind’s eternal home,but it will be the city where God will place His name forever and the city in which He will dwell, forever. However, there is a subtle but significant change in the fulfillment from the promise. In the original LXX reading the Leviticus passage, the word used for people is laos. But here in Revelation, the word is laoi, which is the plural version of laos. This eternal dwelling place, promised to Israel, would now be for all people of God, Jews and Gentiles alike.

God’s presence there would literally blot out the things of this present earth. This is another allusion to a prophecy in Isaiah,

He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. (25:8, NIV)

Like a mother who bends down and tenderly wipes away the tears from the eyes of her crying child, so the Lord stoops low to dry the tear-filled eyes of His children. This is very telling portrait of God’s love for the members of His great household. Since the Fall, how many countless tears have been shed by mankind? Kistemaker suggests there have been so many shed, little wonder this world has been called “a vale of tears!” These tears are the result of sin; things like sadness, sorrow, pain, oppression, all the things that have no place in the New World.

All Things New, 5-8

For the very first time in the book, God Himself is the speaker. God tells the readers of Revelation that He is “making all things new.” This is the glorious result of God’s plan of salvation. It is said in the present tense, that is, John’s present tense. In other words, the renewal of all things is already happening, whether we see it or not. God renews human beings through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The “Alpha and Omega” is repeated from 1:8, but this time the meaning is spelled out for the reader: “the beginning and the end.” The word “end” is telos, meaning “goal.” God is the Originator and the Goal of life. This idea was stated by Paul this way:

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! (Rom. 11:36)

God, through Christ is in control of every situation, so these words must have been of tremendous comfort to the early Church.

With verse 7, the text looks at the present reality of believers living for Him in a world of sin and oppression. While we know for sure Christ has won the battle, the war is far from over. Every believer must fight daily against temptation to sin in the many forms it takes, against the Devil and against the world.

The phrase, “I will be a God to Him and he will be son to me” is actually a quote from 2 Samuel 7:14, but here John modifies it slight to fit his purpose. God’s promise given by Nathan to King David concerning Solomon as his successor to the throne prophetically pointed toward the Son of God: “I will be his father, and he will be be my son.” Notice, though, that John replaces “father” with “God,” because in Christ, God has adopted us as his sons and daughters and made us members of His great family. Kistemaker has observed that in Revelation, John never once calls God the Father of believers; yet He is the Father of Christ.

In contrast to believers, some will not become citizens of the New World for another fate awaits them: “their part is in the lake of fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” John lists a long catalog of those who have no part in God’s kingdom:

Cowards. These are spineless, unlike the faithful who faced persecution and hardship and never forsook their faith. The coward lives life for himself; they fear danger and flee the consequences of a life dedicated to Christ.
Unbelievers. These are similar to cowards in that they have had been faithful to God and His word, but have fallen into skepticism and agnosticism.
Detestable people. The Greek ebdelygmenoi points to people who have been corrupted and polluted by the world. They willingly pursue a lifestyle that is in opposition to and against God’s Word. They worship the Beast, 17:4
Murderers. In the context of Revelation, these are the ones guilty of the death of the saints.
Immoral persons. The word is really “fornicators,” and covers a broad range of sexual sins.
Sorcerers. The Greek term is pharmakoi, and we get our word “pharmacy” from it. The word means the use of drugs to cast spells, to create an altered state of reality for the purpose of deceiving people.
Idolaters. These are people who practice witchcraft and worship created things.
Liars. All people who turn the truth into a lie God condemns with the other sinners to the lake of fire and sulfur.

By their own choice, Babylon, not the New Jerusalem is their eternal home. Salvation is not universal. The invitation, however, is. Again, the words of John 3:16 come home:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The “whoever” is limitless; it is an invitation that goes out to all people. In this world of sin, of pain, of failure, God offers people like us a chance to start over, to make life right. One decision can change everything.

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(c) 2009 WitzEnd

AN AMAZING END

A Study of Revelation 21:1-26

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