So this is the Daniel/Revelation class
for Beginners, that's the subtitle, for beginners, lesson number two. And as I
said last week, we're studying the book of Daniel as a way of understanding
the background information and the imagery and the symbolism that is
contained in the book of Revelation. I told you last week, a lot of times people
go to the book of Revelation, they don't even bother studying Daniel. They pull
out images and language and symbols, and they attach to them all
kinds of meanings according to modern, the modern political situation, thinking
that these refer to modern times, without ever having looked at the book of Daniel.
The book of Daniel is almost like the foundational book to understand
correctly the symbols in the book of Revelation. So we talked about that
last week, just in case this is your first time in this particular class. As
I said, much of the language and the apocalyptic style of writing found in
Daniel is also found in the book of Revelation. And if we understand the
meaning of the symbols: when, how, and why, this type of language, this type,
let's call it a literary style. When this literary style is used in scripture
it'll go a long way to help us understand the meaning and the lessons
contained in the book of Revelation. Also, a lot of the prophecy in the book of
Daniel is fulfilled in the book of Revelation as well. So it's very
hard to study the fulfillment of the prophecy, but ignore the
original prophecy that was made. So that's why, again, I'm making the argument
for studying these two books at the same time. Also, unlike some other type of
studies that we've had, the book of John for example, the Gospel of John, in
that particular class we're studying line by line, every single line we read it.
We take it apart. Daniel/Revelation, if we were to do that, we could never finish it in the short
time that we have. So it's a bit of an overview of one book and an
overview of the other to grasp the main ideas, the main thrust of each book,
especially understanding the symbolism. So let's talk about Daniel. Let's talk
about Babylon. Daniel, let's talk about him first. Daniel was a young man from a
well-to-do family in Jerusalem who was carried off into captivity by the
newest world power emerging at that time, Babylon, and it's greatest King, King
Nebuchadnezzar. Let's talk about Babylon, the city and the empire.
Very interesting, fascinating study. Babylon was the greatest city and empire
in the pre-christian era. Now, Assyria ruled before Babylon and it ruled
longer, but it was never as great or as beautiful as Babylon. Babylon had
architectural wonders. The Assyrians were fierce warriors.
They would kill you, took your money, and killed all your people.
The Babylonians had a much higher culture than the Assyrians. It was ruled
for most of its domination, it's world domination, by Nebuchadnezzar, 45 years in
all that he ruled. And he never tired of beautifying and improving this great
city. Ancient historians say that its walls around the city were 60 miles long, 15
miles on each side. The walls were 300 feet high, 30 stories. Think
about that, 300 feet high, 80 feet thick, 35 feet into the ground, so
enemies could not tunnel underneath. Everything was made from brick. There was a
quarter-mile of cleared space around the wall where a moat was built, 250
towers, 100 gates of brass, sentries posted everywhere. It was
a fortress, it was a fortress. Nobody could get in, powerful fortress. Now the
city itself was divided by the euphrates river that flowed through it and there
were draw bridges to get across. There were 53 temples in the city,
180 altars to the goddess Ishtar. The goddess Ishtar was the goddess
of war and love. So it was a kind of a male-dominated society. Their goddess was a
female, but she was the goddess of war and the goddess of love. Nebuchadnezzar's
palace was huge. The walls 50 feet thick. This is a remnant. This is not -
this is actually a picture, a remnant. There are still remnants of it left.
Nebuchadnezzar also built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and
that was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Some scholars, some archaeologists say no,
these were actually built in Nineveh. There's a little debate
going on about that, but anyways, I don’t want to go into that minutia. Most
individuals, most historians, believe that the Hanging Gardens were in Babylon. He
built it for his queen. The gardens were platforms 400 square feet and they were
held up by arches that cascaded down one from another. They were filled with
flowers and trees and shrubs and you see a bit of the - in the
rendition here. And all of it was watered from a reservoir at the very
top that was filled, was fed, rather, by hydraulic pumps from the Euphrates River
from below. We sometimes think these ancient cultures, they had no
engineering, but they had amazing engineering. Many years ago when I
went to Jerusalem, I, they still had, the guide brought us to the aqueducts that the
Romans had built. They're still there to bring water all the way
to the desert. Aqueducts built 2,000 years ago still standing, still
functional. They could still function if they needed that.
Obviously, they have modern ways of transporting water now, but if they had
to, it they could still, they can still work. That's amazing when you look at some
of our bridges and things that were built 50, 60 years ago that are crumbling
and falling apart. So it was amazing, amazing engineering for the
time. Underneath the arches were luxury apartments, the pleasure grounds of the
palace. And these were built while Daniel was the chief governor of the wise men in
Babylon. Isaiah chapter 13, verse 17 and Jeremiah, in chapter 51, both of these
prophets prophesied that this great city would not only be destroyed but it would
remain uninhabited forever. Well in 539 BC Cyrus, who had taken over Medes and
Persia and Elam, those nations, he led his army into Babylon and he captured this
seemingly indestructible city and nation without a single - well they wouldn't have
a shot, but without a single blow. And the way that he did it is, they
secretly diverted the flow of the river and marched the army on the empty
riverbed underneath the wall at night and captured the city by
surprise without losing a single, a single soldier. Now, the city of Babylon
remained an important city throughout the reign of the medo-persian kings and
even to the reign of Alexander the Great. But after his death the shift of power
went to Rome and the city declined and by the time of Christ it was mostly in
ruins, and except for archaeological expeditions, it was, it remained abandoned
even to this day. Again, this is not a, this is not a
painting, this is an actual photograph of the ruins of Babylon that tourists and
pilgrims can visit to this day. Anyways, it was this city. I want you
to imagine this great city projecting all this tremendous power,
military power of a world dominating nation, it was in this city and this
empire that Daniel and several of his friends were brought for retraining and
re-education by Nebuchadnezzar. And so the book of Daniel represents Daniel in
Chapter 7, chapter 7 verse 1 and 28 as its author. So Daniel, we know that
Daniel writes about this place and we know he's the author because he names
himself. So we have some internal evidence about that. It was confirmed as
Daniel’s work by Jesus Himself in Matthew 24 verse 15. So not only does Daniel
named himself, Jesus name's Daniel as the author of Daniel. We don't have a lot of
arguments there. It was also accepted by the Jews and early Christians. In
other words, this book was considered authentic by
the Jews and by early Christians, and this view was unanimously held
until the rise of what we call modern criticism, that contended that it was
actually written in the second century before Christ by some unknown author. A
lot of modern criticism does that, say, well, we don't know who wrote it. It's not
Daniel. And they begin with the idea that miracles can't happen, so then they
go from there with that. But this theory has been
rejected by most scholars. Both Jewish and Christian scholars still believe and
contend that the book of Daniel was written by Daniel, at that particular
time. It was written in two languages: Caldi or Aramaic, which was the
diplomatic language of that era, just like at one time the diplomatic language
in the world was French. If you were a diplomat, you spoke French. Today
the diplomatic language is English. But at that time Caldi and
Aramaic was the diplomatic language. So chapter 2 all the way to chapter 7 is in
that language, and also in Hebrew. The rest of the book is written in Hebrew. Of
course, this is what might be expected from a book written for Jews living
in Babylon containing information describing their actual experience in
Babylon and references to their own Jewish past and future. So part of it is
Aramaic, because it talks about the present culture, what's going on
with Daniel as he lives in this city and then especially the parts that deal with
prophecy that would have a lot more to do with Jews
that part is written in Hebrew. There are many ways to outline the book, if you wish, but
it pretty much breaks itself down. Part one is the court of
Nebuchadnezzar, so Daniel describes his surroundings and what is happening to
him when he's brought into the court of Nebuchadnezzar. Part two
Nebuchadnezzar's dream, chapter two, verse one, all the way to 49, where Daniel
describes what took place with the King's dream and what happened.
Then chapter three to chapter six we have four episodes in Daniel's life,
four things that happened to him that he describes, and then part four, four
visions of Daniels prophecy, chapter seven, verses one to 28. Alright, let's
talk about Daniel the person, shall we. Daniel, we believe, was of a noble family,
probably royal blood. Josephus, who was a Jewish historian at the time of Christ,
who wrote about Jewish history, he says that Daniel was probably related to King
Zedekiah of Judah, who was the king at the time of the Babylonian - when
the Babylonians took over, which is why Daniel and his friends had access to the
Babylonian court. Otherwise they would have been placed with the common people. So
they took the best workers and tradesmen and
they took the cream of the crop of the young men who
were educated and who were part of the royal court. And the fact
that Daniel ended up in the Babylonian court to be trained in the
king's court suggests that he was also part of the royal court. When they were in
Israel. He rose to a position of great power because of his ability to
interpret dreams, his visions and his great piety and faith in the Lord. He was a
young man when he went into captivity and he died an old man still in Babylon
72 years later. He lasted through the reign of five kings, beginning with
Nebuchadnezzar and lasting to the king, or to the reign of Darius the Persian and
all the way to Cyrus the Mede in 534 BC. And even though the Jews
returned from captivity after seventy years, Daniel stayed in Babylon until his
death. We know that he was God's witness in the palace that ruled the world
during his lifetime. Alright, let's talk about - that's just a little
bit about Daniel, a little background about him. And I think we're pretty
familiar with that. Let's talk about the court of Nebuchadnezzar. And I'll ask you to
open your Bibles to Daniel chapter one. “In the third year of the reign of
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and
besieged it. The Lord gave Joachim, king of Judah, into his hands along with some of
the vessels of the house of God and he brought them to the land of Shinar to
the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his God then
the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the
sons of Israel including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in
whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of
wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability
for serving in the king's court, and he ordered him to teach them the literature
and language of the Chaldeans. The King appointed for them a daily ration from the
King's choice food and from the wine which he drank and appointed that they
should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the
King's personal service. Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new
names to them and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hannah
Shadrach, and to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abednego. But Daniel
made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s
choice food, with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the
commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted
Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander, the officials
and the commander of the official said to Daniel, ‘I am afraid of my
lord, the king, who has appointed your food and your drink, for why should he see
your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you
would make me forfeit my head to the king. But Daniel said to the overseer
whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah, please test your servants for ten days and let us be given some
vegetables to eat and water to drink then let us, or, let our appearance be
observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating
the king’s choice food and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he
listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At the end of
ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths
who had been eating the King's choice food. So the overseer continued to
withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink and kept giving them
vegetables. As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in
every branch of literature and wisdom, Daniel even understood all kinds of
visions and dreams. Then at the end of the days which the King had specified for
presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before
Nebuchadnezzar. The King talked with them, and out of them all not one was found
like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the King's personal
service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the King
consulted them he found them ten times better than all the magicians and
conjurors who were in all his realm. And Daniel continued until the first year of
Cyrus the king.” Now I want you to notice that in a compact first chapter, Daniel
summarizes the reason why he and the three others are in the palace of the
king. Part of the training was to immerse them into Babylonian culture and
this included eating their food, unlike the Assyrians. Like I said, the Assyrians,
they just went in, they killed you, they just killed
you. And they robbed you and they took what they wanted. Anybody they left,
anybody left they just took them and they just threw them in different
nations to water down their bloodline. That's how they worked.
Babylonians had a different foreign policy, if you wish. They would bring the
cream of the crop, bring them into the service of the Babylonian court,
retrain them, immerse them in Babylonian culture and literature, arts,
magic for several years. And then among the best they would
select them to go back to their own countries to rule in their stead. That way
they were trying to infiltrate their culture into
other people’s. That was their way of dominating other nations. So as I say, part
of the training was to immerse them into the culture, especially the food. So
the young Jews accepted and excelled at the academic training, but they refused
to eat the food. Of course, a lot of reasons for that. Probably that it was
food sacrificed to idols, food not prepared in the proper way, what
we call kosher today. Probably some of the food may have been
considered unclean for a Jew. Of course, this test of faith results in
the Lord blessing them, so that they maintained their right to eat without
violating their conscience, and they succeeded in impressing the King and
securing a very high position in the palace. And usually I like to give the
lessons at the end, what have we learned? But I mean, this little episode
here just begs to bring out a couple of obvious lessons. For example, we
need to decide in advance how we will react to temptation. We need to decide in
advance if something's going to happen if we're tempted in a certain way, if
somehow a situation arises that will tempt us to compromise what we
believe what is right, we need to decide in advance what we're going to do.
It says that Daniel - they had decided in advance if we
go somewhere else, we're not going to violate our conscience by eating food
that is unclean. So when the moment came they weren't flustered, they knew exactly
how they were going to respond. I tell the story about my daughter Julia, our
eldest daughter and when she was in the Marine Corps and she was a nice
blond-haired, blue-eyed Marine and there were a lot of young Marine men who
wanted to date her. She was a single girl, good Christian girl. And she once told me -
well, I said, how do you deal with that, Julia? And she said well I give him the
pep talk. I said, the pep talk, what's the pep talk? She said, well, if
somebody asked me out for a date I said, well, I'll go out with you
to the movies or dinner or whatever, but there are a couple of rules. And the
guys would say, okay, what are the rules? She’d say, well, first of all, under no
conditions are we going to have sex. There's nothing you can say, nothing you
can do, nothing you could buy me that will lead me to have sex with you. So
that's off the table. Don't even think about that. That’s
never going to happen unless we're married. Number two, we're not going
to take drugs. Not even for fun. Not even just once. It's never going to happen. And
number three, you won't get violent with me because I have a big brother and he's
in the Marines too. And so I asked her, well Julia, did you get a lot of dates? And she said no. But the ones that I got, however, they were good dates. And
that's the way she found the right guy who said to her, no problem. That's great,
let's go. And he's her husband now and they've produced two beautiful children
and one more on the way. Anyways, a good story. She was telling this
young man, here are my standards before we even leave the house to go to the
movies. Here are the standards are. She had decided in advance
exactly how she would conduct herself under various circumstances.
Another lesson here, I'm looking at Bob there and he's just dying to say
something, but he's holding himself in and that's a good exercise for
you Bobby. God tests us, not only with trials but also with opportunities. We
always think, we're having a lot of trouble: my sore back, this
happens, I lose my job, whatever. Well, this is a trial and you know God is
testing me. And yeah sure, that's where our faith is, in the
crucible of suffering our faith is strengthened, but sometimes he tests us
with opportunities, because sometimes opportunities to get ahead in my job, in my career, also will mean that I will take a step back in my faith and in my service to
God. I tell people, you know what, we're always praying for God to open the door
of opportunity, but you know what, Satan can also open the door of opportunity
for you. We have to be careful when we are looking at an opportunity to make
sure that that opportunity will not be some short-term gain but will
result in long-term loss, if we have to compromise our values.
Maybe if I cheat in just this little thing, boy I'll be able to get way
ahead. You're never really way ahead. And so they had
an opportunity here, hey, we're young guys and we're in a
foreign country and we're actually slaves. We have a shot at living in the
court and serving the King. I'm sure God won't mind if we eat the food, if we eat the unclean food. Surely God -
well, haven't we suffered enough? And yet, they had decided in advance that
they weren't going to compromise. And so what looks like an opportunity was
really a snare, and by holding fast to what they knew was right,
God blessed them anyways, despite the obstacle in
front of them. Another lesson: God always rewards
obedience, sooner or later God rewards obedience. With Daniel He did
it sooner, with Job He did it later. But sooner or later God will reward us
for our obedience. And maybe one other thing here before we get too bogged down,
you never know why God has put you where you are. You never
know why the test is what it is. Daniel's impact lasted centuries, but he
didn't know it then. So you never know if the doing of right in your humdrum
routine might have tremendous impact later on, or the reverse, avoiding to
confess Christ or avoiding to do the right thing might eliminate you from
contributing mightily to the kingdom. You never know. In any case, we see
that Daniel’s position is secured with God and with the king by the way that he
conducts himself in the early stages of his captivity. And so we move on,
chapter two, to Nebuchadnezzar's dream. This chapter describes the beginning of
Daniel’s ministry of prophecy in the king's court. And what takes place is the
following: the king has an unusual dream that makes him anxious since he doesn't
understand what the dream is. Now the Babylonians were adept in the black arts,
the occult, and magic. They would try to foretell the future by reading the stars
or they would cut open an animal and take out its vital organs and they would
try to read the future by reading the organs of the dead animal. They
also put a lot of importance in dreams and what the dreams
meant. And so the king calls his wise men, a collection of
sorcerers, astrologers, counselors, ministers, to give him the interpretation
of the dream. Now there was a catch however, and the catch was he doesn't
tell them what the dream is. He tells them they have to tell him what the
dream is and then interpret it. Well, obviously, that's pretty tough. He also
tells them that if no one can do this they're all going to be executed and
their homes will be destroyed and that included Daniel and his three friends who
were part of this group of advisers. So I'm kind of summarizing the story,
because we're not going to read the entire chapter here. So the wise man
confessed that they can't do what the king wants them to do and so the king
decrees that all the wise men in the land are to be executed. And so when
Daniel hears this he and the three other Jewish youth go to God in prayer and God
reveals the dream and its interpretation and then Daniel goes to the king with his
revelation and saves himself and the others. Now, the reason he could go into
the king was he was considered one of the wise men, along with the others. So I
just want to read one portion of chapter two, beginning in verse 31, Daniel says, “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 it's appearance was awesome.” So Daniel is telling the King what he
dreamt. “The head of that statue has made a fine gold, its breast and its arms of
silver, and 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 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
covered the whole earth. This was the dream. Now we will tell its
interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the
God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory, and
wherever the sons of men dwell or the beasts of the field or the birds of the
sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You
are the head of gold, after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you,
then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth, then
there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; in as much 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 potters clay and
partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will
have in it the toughness of iron in as much 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. In as much as you saw that a stone was cut out
of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay,
the silver, and the gold. The great God has made known to the king what will take
place in the future; so the dream is true and it's
interpretation is trustworthy." So in the interpretation of this dream,
Daniel not only describes the king’s mind, but he also prophesizes concerning world
events into the next six hundred and fifty years. The dream, right, a great
statue shining. The head of gold, the breasts of silver, as well as the
arms, the belly and the hips made of brass, the legs of iron, the feet a
mixture of iron and clay. A stone, he says, appears out of nowhere, cut without
hands and it strikes the feet of the statue and the statue crumbles to dust and
is blown away. The stone grows into a mountain, which then fills the earth. And
so, what is the interpretation, Daniel says. Well, the head is gold and is the
embodiment of the kingdom of Babylon, the first great and magnificent world
kingdom. As I said, the Assyrians also ruled before them but not with the
splendor and wealth and total control that the Babylonians had. The breasts and
the arms of silver represent very well the dual nature of the Medo-Persian
empire that conquered and replaced the Babylonians. Another interesting thing, as
well, is that silver coinage and this people's wealth in silver fits well the
imagery of the dream because the Medo-Persian empire was rich in
silver. Also the idea of the two arms, two different nations ruling simultaneously.
Then he talks about the belly and the hips of brass, refer to Alexander the
Great and his armies, which will be the next world power after the Medo-Persian
empire. Now, Alexander is interesting to note, innovated warfare by introducing
brass armor in combat. Then, of course, the Roman empire is described as legs of
iron with feet of mixed clay and iron and it the next great
empire that defeated the Greeks and took over as a world power.
Now the Romans introduced iron weapons into warfare. At the beginning they were
tough, they were unbreakable like iron is unbreakable, but as the
Empire grew however, it began making alliances with other nations
rather than conquering and ruling them by force. So their modus operandi at the
beginning is they come in and they, like the Assyrians, they kill you
and they take over or they subdue you, enslave you. You pay taxes and
if you step out of line we go in and we wipe you out. They were
ruthless and powerful. They were truly a world empire, but as the empire grew and
grew and grew and grew, it was so big and it began to be so bulky to be
managed. Instead of fighting wars way at the other end of the empire, what they
would do is they would make treaties with nations on the edge of the empire. They
wouldn't conquer them, it would just be a threat. We know all about threats, right?
Countries making threats. And so, it would be a threat. If you pay so much taxes, we'll leave you alone, but if you don't pay so
much taxes, we're going to go in and we’re going to wipe you out. So they
began making these alliances and that's what the imagery is here. If the
legs are steel but you get down to the feet and the toes, those, he says, were a
mixture of iron and clay and in as much as iron and clay don't mix, well, the same
thing happened to the Roman Empire. The nations that were on the periphery eventually
came in and ransacked Rome and of course this is represented by the feet mixed
with iron and clay. And then the stone cut without hands, of course, a stone that
just appears, the idea, the imagery refers to something supernatural, something that
is not of this world. The small stone totally destroys the statue, and notice
where it hits. It doesn't hit in the head or in the chest, it hits at the feet right? It
hits at the feet. So the small stone totally destroys the statue, conquers the
essence and the substance of the statue. All the power to control,
all the dominance, all the glory, completely shattered. And so in the
dream and in the interpretation Daniel says the stone is a kingdom established by
God, never to be destroyed and always alive and growing. And eventually, he says,
will dominate everything and everyone and last forever. Kind of sounds like the
church, doesn't it? Kind of sounds like the church. So once
Nebuchadnezzar hears this, if we continue reading, we find out he falls on
his face to honor Daniel as a true prophet, and worships the God of Daniel. He
also makes Daniel the head of all of his wise men and counselors in the
palace, and his three friends the administrators of the province of
Babylon. This is a tremendous prophecy, because of its clarity and its
exactness. I mean, he said that this dream was about the future rulers of the world.
I mean, he called it. Also, he gives the exact number that there will be and the
order and enough information from the dream to identify who will they be. I
mean, we can't even predict who the next president is going to be in three years
from now. And here Daniel is telling him which nations are going to rule in the
next six hundred and fifty years. That's a tremendous prophecy. He prophesizes
correctly about the coming of the church and what exact period of time that it
would appear and destroy the opposition. He even correctly interprets the idea
that some of these kingdoms would never revise, they were
all blown into dust. None of these kingdoms, there's
no Babylon anymore. There's no Medo-Persia any more. Rome, yeah,
there's Italy in Rome, but would anybody think that Italy is a world
power today? I don't think so. So this section is important, not only to prove the
inspiration of the Bible but also to set the scene for what will take
place in the book of Revelation. That's why I read - we're not going to
read every line of every book here, but it was important to look at this because
this is the basis upon which many of the symbols and prophecies in the book of
Revelation are taken. It's not just an instant bit and a destruction.
What he talks about is, it is a struggle for several centuries that will
finally end in a victory for the church. Tremendous prophecy. The thing that
really strikes me is he talks about the coming of the church and he places
it in exactly the right historical context, during the Roman
empire. And the fact that it will destroy the empire, Christianity overtook
the empire of Rome. Alright, I think the first bell went, so we're going to stop
there. Next week we're going to talk about what Nebuchadnezzar does with this
interpretation and we're going to begin looking at Daniel’s vision. So
that's it for this week. Thank you very much for your attention.
