Through the Bible | Daniel 7 - Brett Meador

when i was a youth pastor um you had to be careful because you know if you did things that were a little on the edge you could get in trouble but uh um you know like things that scare kids and stuff like that um but this particular camp i was at um the senior pastor came and spoke and and i was just there and i was i was kind of part of a thing that he wanted to do and he wanted to tell the story it was a full moon at night and we were at this this camp where there was this uh this this lake and um he wanted to tell the scary story around the campfire kind of thing and so he was out there telling the story by the lake and it was about this cowboy that was um falsely accused of you know stealing cattle and the neighbors all ganged up on them and you know until this kind of creepy story how they um you know they used they used to you know they took him and hung him in a tree but but then they found these eyeball cowballs nailed to fence posts and and all this creepy stuff um and then they threw his body into the lake the very lake they were sitting at that night and they were you know he's telling this horrible story well meanwhile i'm under the water out there in the lake with with my snorkel you know and i'm under the water and i i went to one of those you know mask stores that have the rubber creature from the last lost lagoon or whatever a rubber mask and i had some seaweed and and i was under there just kind of breathing and i could hear the story um but the but the thing is he had a system where he would throw rocks in the water and on the third rock when it splashed i was supposed to burst out um so sure enough and he said you know and they threw his body in the water of splash number one and you know and every time every night on full new nights people come out and they'd hear the water wrestling splash number two and then he kept talking and then finally splash number three well i came out of the water [Music] you know and i came walking out and the kids been pure they were like you know there's like 150 uh fourth fifth and sixth grade kids they were just gone man just gone all except for one there was this one little uh you know sixth grade dude little boy that was there and he just stood his ground man he stood there and i'm like you know coming up to him and he's like hi brett hi brett that's what he said he said like three or four times hi brett and i just went and he was pure he took off too eventually he wasn't quite sure he was pretty sure but he wasn't quite sure [Laughter] but um you know kind of freaky well that's really pretty much sums up daniel chapter 7. daniel chapter 7 has quite the the beasty you know sort of uh crazy monster looking critters that are that are mentioned and it's and as we looked at on sunday we've already seen the the the basics of this prophecy in daniel chapter two um and we have to kind of remember as we get into this sort of how that looked uh daniel chapter two let's remind you in daniel chapter two nebuchadnezzar saw you know a statue in his dream and that and that statue was the head of gold um you know the breast in arms of of silver uh the belly of of brass legs of iron feet of toes uh feet and toes were iron and clay but um but uh each one and then the rock you know that was cut without hands we looked at this in daniel chapter two the babylonian empire would be the head of gold medal persian empire the breast and the arms of silver the roman empire the legs of iron and the feet and the toes part iron part clay which is out of the old roman empire now remember we talked about a gap that you need to kind of be mindful of um the gap between the legs and the feet and it's it's sort of a variable gap that we see in bible prophecy and we're going to see it tonight again because the old what what happened after the roman empire well as it turns out the roman empire was never really conquered it just sort of faded in history and um and it's sort of been resurfacing in modern times when they signed the treaty of rome uh in the 1950s and started bringing back old europe uh the european union some of us believe that that might be part of this formation of this this uh this kingdom that's yet to come the fee the the feet and the the ten toes that popped out of the feet are ten kings and it's in the days of those ten kings daniel chapter two said of the ten toes that's when the second coming of christ is going to be the rock that was cut without hands jesus as the rock tumbled down the mountain smashed this statue of nebuchadnezzar into pieces and then of course jesus would set up his everlasting kingdom and that's really as far as daniel 2 takes it uh with nebuchadnezzar's dream on tonight's study we see this not from man's perspective that's what daniel 2 we we saw this on sunday daniel chapter 2 speaks of man's perspective but daniel chapter 7 speaks about the same prophecy from god's perspective and it's not a you know an oscar award like this guy uh the statue it's actually a beast and it's an ugly thing it's bloody and grotesque and that really is what daniel chapter 7 is really all about now some things you should know about daniel the book of daniel especially in these latter parts of the chapters are not necessarily in chronological order from this point on uh we've seen the chronology of you know the daniel when he was a young man nebuchadnezzar and then we saw bill chaser and then we saw darius and that was all chronological up till now daniel's chapter seven lies somewhere between chapter four and 5 in the chronological order you should know that and this is probably when nebuchadnezzar was still the king when daniel received this vision or dream um now um there's one more rule i'd like to kind of remind you of before we uh get into this um and that is don't forget the nature of bible prophecy versus the nature of of um theology or doctrine um there is a difference uh you know um they're they're in the same family of course because they're from the bible but i love how doctrine is never changing i hope you understand that doctrine doesn't move uh and that's something we should be aware of god as the old uh you know gospel hymn you know from the deep south god don't never change um and that's true uh i love that that's a great old uh you know bluesy uh hymn that blind willie johnson used to sing he's god god don't never change and it's true um theology doesn't change the the doctrine of god's teaching of the word that's what the word doctrine means the teachings of the bible doesn't change and by the way if it's new what it's not true and if it's true it's not new be careful about this because you know there's this temptation for pastors and people that are writing books people on blogs they like to come up with new stuff that seems like wow new and exciting and i think there's a real danger there to write things that are new uh when it comes to doctrine and teaching if it's new it's not true if it's true it's not new remember that now that that's as it relates to doctrine but when you talk about bible prophecy this is something that i believe is in fact uh uh changing in the sense that um we're starting you know the bible talks about how prophecy will be sort of revealed as time goes by um and that's kind of an important thing to remember in fact um remember what daniel chapter 12 we'll jump ahead here in this verse daniel chapter 12 verse 4 but thou o daniel shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased the book of daniel would be sealed up until the time of the end um and then daniel chapter 12 verse 9. it says and he said go thy way daniel for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end many of these prophecies we're going to see daniel give us in daniel chapter 7 through 12. daniel's going to walk away confused he's going to walk away astonished in wonderment wondering what in the world does that all mean but i love daniel he doesn't let it you know thwart his faith in god he doesn't oh i don't understand it so i'm going to walk away from the lord that's what some people do by the way have you ever seen a person who doesn't quite get or understand the bible uh or some doctrine of the bible and so it shakes them to where they just kind of walk away i can't figure it out so um i hope you don't do that because there's going to be a lot of things you won't figure out just just the trinity alone if you if you say i'm going to figure out the trinity i remember doing that when i was 18 years old i said i shall figure out the doctrine of the trinity and i got everything i could find studies books i read all the old dudes the dead guys you know i read them all uh but you know spurgeon you know uh finney tory uh you know uh g campbell morgan you know all those guys tried to find you know what they said about the trinity and you know they had a lot of nice things to say about the trinity and they pointed of the evidence of the trinity in the bible but the thing i've concluded is nobody can figure it out uh they all kind of end with saying here's the trinity we see it here in the bible we see it there in the bible but truly the the trinity is a mystery and that's what paul even sums it up great is the mystery of godliness that god that's the father manifest in the flesh that's the son glorified in the spirit that's the holy spirit uh great is the mystery of godliness and that's just beyond our ability to understand so don't let things you don't understand in the bible derail your faith um if god was a a god small enough to us for us to figure out he wouldn't be big enough to worship but we worship a god that's huge and way past our laws of time space and physics it shouldn't be a wonder that we can't figure stuff out daniel was good at this daniel knew that some of the stuff he wrote about he's like i'm not going to figure this stuff out and the lord even says seal up the words of the book till the time of the end and he said don't remember don't forget go your way daniel for your words are closed and sealed up until the time of the end now with that said if we're living in the end times which i believe we very well could be um it sure seems like every bit of evidence i can find it looks like we're living in the last days what does that mean that should mean you and i should have a greater understanding of the book of daniel than daniel did i wouldn't say that about any other book you know i think john the apostle knows more about jesus and the gospel of john than we ever will but daniel's book he didn't understand a lot of it it even says that as he closes up each chapter i just went away so astonished not knowing what i was writing about um but we get to figure out why because i think we're living in the last days let me give you one quick example of that so much of what the book of daniel uh talks about in the last days particularly here in his prophecies is about the nation israel and uh you know by the way the church is fairly absent from daniel the book of daniel the reason why is because i believe we're going to be raptured out of here and both the the first part of the old testament with the jews that's daniel writes about that and then the last part after the church is gone raptured then daniel writes about the tribulation period the antichrist uh the end that way but daniel really largely doesn't touch the church age he that's the gap that i was talking about the i'm gonna call it the gap variable we'll bring that up again that's the church age but as it turns out when you read the book of daniel let's just say you were living even as recently as 500 years ago you know what would you think about daniel's prophecy would you get it would you understand what was going on the answer is absolutely not i'll tell you why israel was not even a nation and they hadn't been for almost 1500 years if you lived during the time of martin luther what would your eschatology look like well it would look like amillennialism or preterism what's that well we've talked about that that's where basically you don't take any of the prophecies of the bible literally and the reason they did that is because there was no literal israel to fulfill those literal prophecies and that's where those those uh eschatological views came and started this started to settle into certain denominations and what have you um and it's amazing how people are still thinking that way even though israel has become a nation again it's almost like that erased people's understanding of daniel's talking about a literal israel and literal kingdoms and literal prophecies that are going to happen but a lot of the christian church today doesn't believe that because for centuries uh they thought everything must be figurative because israel doesn't even exist as a nation they ceased to exist ad70 when the roman empire crushed jerusalem and the jews scattered all over the world so there's no literal israel up until everybody should have changed their notes back to the old ones may 14th 1948 israel becomes a nation again and beats all the odds of that never happened any kingdom nation or tongue in the history of the world to be scattered for 2 000 years only to be brought back to be a nation only to be brought back to be one of the most powerful nations in the world and then all these other prophecies falling into place about that nation like like people should just read their bibles and realize okay time to stop being a figurative uh interpreter of the bible but you know you'll be very rewarded if you take a literal translation of what our interpretation i say of what the bible's teaching daniel makes no sense at all if you're taking it all figuratively but now that israel is a nation and i see all these nations coming into place and i'll show you even tonight maybe some of the things that are shaping up to really fall into daniel 7 category uh that'll be interesting so that's the one thing about bible prophecy that you should know because sometimes you're all millennial friends you know or the people that are preterists they'll say we're just following the oldest school of bible prophecy you guys believe something really relatively new you'll hear them say that um there's even false claims that the the rapture is something that was invented by darby you know back in the eighteen hundreds or seven whatever they say you know they go back to certain times but um i believe the rapture was talked about uh all the way back to when paul the apostle was on the planet paul said you'll be raptured caught up harpodzo first thessalonians chapter 4 talks about that so the rapture is something the bible's talked about from the beginning but there's people that say oh we we go with the old that's actually kind of an insult to yourself if you're saying i'm sticking to the old because the bible says prophecy will unfold as we get closer to the end and we'll start to understand it better as we get close to the end i hope you understand that that's a key thing that's why daniel 7 made zero sense to people um when it came to the roman empire and what happened after the roman empire because the jews they kind of would have thought that wow after the roman empire then the messiah is going to come and set up his kingdom they didn't get the gap part where the church would would sort of put the the jewish kingdom and nations on hold through the church age until the fullness of the gentiles then when they're raptured all the the jews will be saved after that and that's going to happen during the tribulation so um if i'm going too fast and if you're new to this stuff don't worry about it you'll catch up and get it as we go and it's kind of fun the more you study the bible the more the stuff starts to fall into place and it's kind of cool well um all that to say um daniel chapter 7 uh begins with daniel having sort of a dream let's take a look daniel chapter 7 verse 1. it says in the first year of belshazzar king of babylon daniel had a dream and visions on his head upon his bed then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters now now um it's interesting because um this is you know at the transition time um when daniel uh sees this stream it's kind of interesting because if you remember nebuchadnezzar who was just uh right before this happened in daniel chapter seven he had the the the kingdom he he was a large and in charge but he ended up you know dying and uh and then we went through that history what happened after him so somewhere uh you know suddenly daniel gets this dream and it's right at the it says here the first year of belshazzar king of babylon dream or vision which one is it um he had a dream and a vision of his head upon his bed the bible says by the way and this is something not to be weird or he be gb the bible says in the last days that um you know young men will dream dreams old men will have visions we'll start to see dreams and visions kind of in a daniel s kind of way and i worry about that because i've lived during times where the church in the kind of the hippie jesus movement where everybody was having dreams and i don't think it was the dreams i think they'd been smoking a little too much weed so it's a little hard to discern sometimes is this from god or is this just lsd a bad trip that happened i'm not kidding that actually happened but fortunately that's kind of died down but one thing you should be aware of is in the last days the dreams and visions that daniel has here are going to i think going to start to come back what do you do with the dream do you write a whole new book of the bible with it no do you come up with new theology in it no what you do with a dream or a vision is you do what daniel does oh interesting and then tuck it away that's all you do so that's interesting tuck it away and see how it unfolds if it's from god it'll unfold and the lord has prepared your heart with that dream or vision but you don't change doctrine or theology with a dream everything needs to be measured against the word of god and if your dream or your vision contradicts the word of god you can know that's not from god very very easy to discern whether a dream is from the lord or just the pizza you had the night before by the way here's a few other tests what if the the dream um puts strife and contention in your heart as it turns out the bible says that that's not from the lord at all strife and contention's not from the lord but peaceable uh easy to be enacted full of good fruit and without partiality like in today's new testament day i think the dreams and visions god's going to give us is going to bring more of a peace even than that of daniel's time that's james chapter 3 by the way you can read that chapter well daniel sees this dream during the time the year the very first year belshazzar becomes the king of babylon and then um it says he he wrote the dream and told the son of the matters so writing it down write the vision write the dream that's a biblical notion as well and it says daniel spake and said i saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea um and four great beasts came up from the sea diverse one from the other now let's define a few prophecy terms and by the way um there's a there's a thing fancy sort of term that bible scholars use and it's called expositional constancy and what that is is when you see certain things in dreams and visions or prophecy or in words that are sort of mysterious one of the things that's kind of fun is to compare it elsewhere in the bible and you start to see that there are patterns and things that mean stuff that's my way of saying it stuff that means stuff like for example the sea does anybody want to take a stab maybe you know you prophecy buffs whenever you see in bible prophecy the the sea things coming out of the sea what does the sea symbolize anybody good a lot of you guys know this the nations of the world uh that's that's exactly right now by the way um the great sea here um it means the nations of the world um by the way there's some places um where you can sort of uh understand that uh there's and by the way this is what i mean by expositional constancy um in the book of revelation in the same sort of language and the same sort of vision and verbiage and stuff john uses the same idea in revelation chapter 17 uh verse 1. it says this i'll just read it to you it says in there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials and talked with me saying come hither and i will show unto thee the judgment of the great that sits upon many waters uh-oh sits them on many waters well what waters are those well later on in chapter 17 and verse 15 it tells us what those waters are it says in revelation 17 15 and he said unto me the waters which thou saw where the horse sitteth are the peoples multitudes nations and language and the ten horns interestingly enough verse 16 thou saust on the beast there shall these shall hate the and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire bro what's that about we'll talk about that when we get the book of revelation that's quite a verse right there but it tells us that this sitting upon the many waters is actually the sea which is the nations of the world and what have you so that's just kind of something you can learn when you read about the sea and there's things in the book of revelation comes up out of the sea and you can realize that's talking about the nations of the world uh just just something you should know about when it comes to biblical interpretation and what have you uh kind of cool well so daniel says the uh there's the four great beasts um where do they come from you know it says the four winds of the great heavens strove upon the great sea uh the four winds interesting word it's a it's a word of course this part of the book of daniel is written in aramaic but the aramaic word is almost the same as the hebrew word ruach which is the wind which is the same word for the spirit even as the spirit moved upon the waters during creation uh if you recall that whole thing um but uh but as it turns out um this is talking about the the nations of the world and the holy spirit's you know uh it says that you know the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea the spirit starts to move and what happens it's the spirit that's moving that makes this this uh sort of beasty sort of deal happen which is pretty crazy well it goes on and it says uh in verse four the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings i beheld till the wings thereof were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made stand upon the feet as a man and a man's heart was given to it okay so the first beast that we have is well we we say lion with eagles wings but i need to um show you that this is sort of a simile um you know because it says here it says the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings so it wasn't a lion it was like a lion um and so that's the thing we have to realize these are all just like a leopard or like a bear like a lion wasn't actually a lion that's important to know but um you know the thing we looked at and talked briefly about on sunday was the lion has eagle's wings and um and uh that that speaks of of king nebuchadnezzar of course we know that from daniel chapter two um and as it turns out um that was one of the ancient symbols of babylon was a lion with eagle's wings that was a common symbol by the way throughout history you've seen old flags and stuff and banners that nations flew and armies flew with a lion with eagle's wings that that that's what the babylonian symbol was um and that by the way was part of their deities and their gods that they would worship uh the babylonians but that was their symbol when saddam hussein was rebuilding babylon before he got kind of hung up um sorry he had the same symbol flying over his new construction there near babylon he had the same you know lion with eagles wings sort of imagery and you can see that in those rebuilds even today you can see some of that so that's kind of interesting um so you've got the the lion that speaks of nebuchadnezzar and babylon but what's this thing where it says you know and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand up on the feet as a man and the man's heart was given to it see this is interesting because this tells us that the lion was very likely directly speaking of nebuchadnezzar himself not just babylon and we know that because what happened well if you remember the story remember when nebuchadnezzar was lifted up with pride and was walking around babylon saying isn't this the great babylon that i have built for my majesty remember that and the lord turned him into a beast and he grew like feathers on his skin and was walking around chewing cud with the cows we saw that in our previous study and this this doesn't talk about his fault downfall this actually refers to when he got his sense back remember it says that after seven years his uh his senses returned to him and he realized that there was only one true god and that's when nebuchadnezzar became a believer this is referring to that when it says he was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon the feet as a man that's nebuchadnezzar was down like a cow on all fours and now we see him coming to his senses this is when he his eyes were enlightened once again and he stands up and he was giving no longer a beast's heart but a man's heart uh was given to it at that point this verse four is talking about nebuchadnezzar the new heart that was given to nebuchadnezzar when he became a believer we're going to see nebuchadnezzar in heaven i believe that because of what what he said he declared his belief in the one and true god so that's this first empire the babylonian kingdom led by nebuchadnezzar the next one it says here in verse five and behold another beast a second like to a bear and it raised itself up on one side and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it and they said thus unto it arise devour much flesh so this next one is the bear and we know this as the medo-persian empire now a bear is a good description by the way um to the medo-persian army and and what have you it was a huge army um powerful army uh the medo-persian empire led by uh cyrus uh kind of an interesting uh thing about them by the way this is a huge army they kind of threw they were they were powerful because they just threw bodies at people like like so many soldiers it was they just they kind of tended to outnumber everybody and that's kind of how they won but according to herodotus by the way um that ancient historian uh uh sayaks aries uh was able to accomplish um a lot when and during this era of the medo-persian empire they they sort of changed the way warfare was fought and for you history buffs and and battle of uh people who like to study these things he um this guy uh syacks arrives and i'm not sure that's how you pronounce his name but um he was the first to divide the troops into regiments and and make separate units out of the spearmen the archers the horsemen um who had previously all been jumbled up indiscriminately that's actually uh exactly the words of herodotus he said that before this time in history they would just jumble everybody together as a big army and just go after people but this was the first army that actually broke into regiments spears archman horsemen uh all that and that's what history tells us so this became a very organized army and a very huge army and that's that's interesting that it's called a bear because the medo-persian army would sort of lumber throughout all those kingdoms and empires and just sort of crush and by the way it says here of this bear it says and and it raised itself up on one side and it had three ribs in the mouth of it this is new information daniel 2 didn't tell us this uh the arms of silver and the you know arms and breasts of silver nothing about three of anything but here this medo-persian empire has three ribs uh bloodied uh in his teeth uh what's that all about well um most scholars agree this is speaking of exactly what happened um the medo-persian empire crushed lydia egypt and babylon uh it was kind of the the trio of nations the lydians the egyptians and the babylonians all crushed by the medo-persian empire and that's probably these three ribs that are being referred to remember when daniel's writing daniel chapter 7 this had not yet happened so they didn't know any of this this is all prophetic to their time we get to look back through history and say wow look there were three nations crushed by the bear uh the babylonians the lydians and the egyptians as it turns out and and this this arise devour much flesh so the medes of the persian cyrus darius they took over that whole region of the world uh and darius would become the leader there in babylon so that's the bear that's being talked about then we move on verse six and after this i beheld and lo another like a leopard which had upon the back of it four wings of a foul the beast had also four heads and dominion was given to it uh okay this leopard as it turns out as the bear was sort of uh appropriate for the medo persians so is the leopard for the the greeks led by alexander the great they were a small army uh alexander conquered the known world with very very few soldiers relative to the amino persians and others um he was known to be able to move his armies if the medes and the persians were famous for getting organization in their armies the greeks were were famous for being spry and they could move their armies quickly uh and that's how alexander would just quickly move everything and he'd move quickly and and before anybody else could you know get their armies ready alexander was all already all over them um and uh and and so what are these four you know wings and these four heads of the leopard um again daniel wouldn't know because this had not yet happened in history but those of us that know the way it would shake out the leopard alexander the great and the greeks interesting thing happened um alexander you know when he was 29 he whined there are no more worlds for me to conquer 29 years old like what are you gonna do now i conquered everything um uh and he died at around 33 um uh some say 32 depends on who you talked to but the thing that was most troubling is here alexander conquered the world but didn't really say who was going to be in control after he died he didn't put his will together that's tough when you own the whole world and you don't have a will who gets it history actually tells us and and um you know there's it's debatable but but um people uh as he was dying on his deathbed they say who who gets the kingdom and the answer was this he said uh to the strong that's all he said uh that's just asking for trouble if you ask me to the strong good luck go and then he dies it's like everyone's gonna fight for it well actually to the strong some interpreted that to be okay who are the strong in uh alexander the great's kingdom well as it turned out there were four generals that were uh you know the strongest in power during the time of alexander the great cassander uh lysimicus told me and solutious these were the four generals of alexander and historically this is what happened the kingdom was divided very clearly into four uh sections cassandra got all of europe lysimicus got all of asia minor ptolemy got egypt and solutions got babylon asia and syria um and um you should note these the reason i'm going in is not just to wear you out with history but this is gonna come back into play uh later on in the book of daniel you should know these uh these generals because there's some more prophecies that are going to be even more uh distinct and even clear about these guys the tomi's and the solutions are noteworthy and they're going to go into battle with one another and israel was sort of the speed bump between those ptolemies and the solutions and then go back and forth and it's going to cause all kinds of trouble for israel and it would lead to ultimately hanukkah but i get ahead of myself i won't get into that tonight uh that's coming later uh but uh that's what happened alexander the great broke up into four kingdoms four generals that's probably what these four heads and four uh wings of the fowl are on the leopard so it's just again it's paralleling everything in daniel 2 but instead of a golden statue or whatever these are beasts that are kind of weird so you got the the first one the lion with the wings the second one the bear with the ribs and the teeth and the third one you got the leopard or leica leopard with the wings and the heads and that brings us to the final one that doesn't have a delineation god doesn't give in his word is it a lion or bear or whatever no it's just called the beast interestingly enough and this beast let's read about it it says in uh in verse seven after this i saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrible strong exceedingly and it had great iron teeth it devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it and it was diverse or different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns now so far you can kind of see easily the parallel from daniel chapter two because the the the statue had the iron legs roam east and west rome and out of that came clay and iron feet with ten toes and so we tracked that we got the uh iron fist of rome with the iron teeth uh by the way speaking of iron and what have you um rome was famous for using iron more effectively than any military up to that time in history the iron age of europe saw the expansion of several military powers from the athenian empire and the empire of alexander the great they all started using iron but none however would would reach the size or scale of the roman empire that would be huge and the roman iron age as they call it began long before rome became an international empire the romans were around long before they became the giant empire that we know them in historic historically but um it was partly thanks to the iron weapons that the roman military uh made them so effective um you know as the iron in the hands of rome's enemies that eventually led to the downfall of rome um isn't that ironic uh but um anyway i digress um but but iron was was sort of the mark of rome and that's why i always hear the iron fist of rome and iron because they used iron to crush the uh the nations and the bible uh definitely makes note of that which is kind of interesting iron teeth and it devoured and break in pieces the stamp to the residue and the feet of it but it was diverse now the ten horns we know what those ten horns are from daniel two they're ten kings the ten toes we know they're they're they're kings and because remember what it said in daniel 2 in daniel 2 so the ten toes in the days of these ten toes which are kings in the days of these ten kings that's when the messiah is going to come so that's an interesting hint that should interest you and i because um remember uh there's a gap you say bro what happened to the the um you know other empires that came and went after the roman empire you know where where are the other empires remember the stopwatch prophetically is related to the jews in israel and it was during the roman empire 80 70 when the jews ceased to exist as a nation stop watch stops prophetically that gap and we call it the variable gap because we didn't know how long that time would go before the clock would start again that's an important part uh that's how we don't know when when the lord's going to return or any of that stuff because there's this variable gap it's called the church age when jesus died on the cross jerusalem was destroyed the jews were scattered the church age began and the church scattered all over the world and the church of jesus christ has been alive and well and it's called the age of the gentiles and if you're unclear on this by the way read romans 9 10 11. it explains our role the gentiles now we've been grafted into the vine of the jews they're the root and the branch and we're grafted in the church we we're saved because of the jews jesus the jew who died on the cross for our sins and and then when the fullness of the gentiles comes in all of israel will be saved that's what the bible says so this gap is built in between if you would in daniel chapter two the gap is between the the legs of rome and the iron feet and the ten toes there's a gap in there where uh we don't have charlemagne or hitler or mussolini or any of those other kingdoms and you know hitler or whatever that came and tried to crush parts of the world like that those aren't mentioned because that was during the church age are you guys with me on that that's an important part of bible prophecy to understand that gap of the church age most of daniel doesn't even mention anything about the church there's a few little hints that we can get i might even show you one before we're done tonight but mostly it's all about the jews during the jews to the time of ad70 and then it's going to pick up again in the last days what god's plan is for israel so that variable gap is seen somewhere in the you know the iron feet and clay and then out of that comes these ten kingdoms or kings in this illustration it's the horns now you say well why horns as it turns out this is something we don't really have in our culture or most of us don't realize this but in ancient times the horn was always a symbol of authority and power that's an important thing to know in bible times they use the the horn as a symbol of power and authority um so suddenly you've got these ten horns speaking of ten powerful kingdoms or kings that are going to come up and that's so far we're tracking with daniel 2 but now in this next verse we're going to leave daniel 2 and get some some really new information it says in verse 8 i considered the horns and behold there came up among them another little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots now by the way you and i do we even know what this is for sure the answer is no why why brett you knew the babylonians means persians greeks rome why don't you know who these kingdoms are because they're not yet happening i'm just trying to make sure you understand now we're like looking from daniel's perspective this still has yet to happen in the future we don't know who these 10 kings are but here's some evidence and some of the things you should think about uh where did the toes come from anybody rome they came out of the rolled roman empire the two legs and the feet and where do these horns come from the ten horns come from this beast that is the roman empire but then what's even more interesting is who would these kings be and there's all kinds of debate by the way on who these kings might be in the future um for probably the majority i'd say of the bible prophecy folks that i uh talk with and and like to read and listen to and stuff most believe it's probably a reforming of some kind of the old europe now when we saw the treaty of rome and the nations that i remember when they became a confederation of european nations like that's it the ten toes and then there there was you know seven eight nine nations ten nations eleven nations twelve thirteen forty twenty three twenty seven uh like wait a minute uh that's not ten toes that's uh um it is interesting if you look up the european union today they have twelve stars on their flag which which is funny i remember there was a symbol they used to have of ten stars uh which that made us think that's it it's the european union and they're gonna now one thing about the european union by the way is the nations come and go you guys have seen that if you've been watching that through the the years um it could be that by the time the the end comes those other nations will bail out like the brexit sort of thing where people get out of the european union but it'll be ten powerful kings that seem to be out of the old roman empire now you say okay so those are european people kings and nations yes but here's another view that you might just be a little bit sensitive to the roman empire was huge you need to oftentimes look at a map of the the largest version of the roman empire it included you know europe but it also included uh parts of asia minor and you know jerusalem and jordan and down all the way even through egypt and the north north africa you know the roman empire was a massive area and a lot of those arab nations were conquered by rome too that's kind of interesting so this would sort of make sense and uh we'll probably get into this deeper later on in the book of daniel but could it be that there are ten kings that aren't just like europeans as we think of them but part of the old roman empire which could include um a confederation of nations including some arab nations which would be interesting um do you think arabs and europeans get along very well let me ask you this are some european nations becoming very arab i mean uh when was the last time you were in london like uh last time i was in london it's it's a different place a lot of the european nations are becoming very muslim very islamic germany has been totally changed like it's amazing to see these immigrants that have flooded from all these muslim nations that's changed the complexion of europe there's parts of england that don't look anything like british anymore and there's more of a sharia law uh kind of thing so it makes you wonder is this going to be isn't it a funny imagery mixing iron the old roman empire with clay who could that clay be where did the clay substance come from some of us believe there might be a hint about these ten kings made of iron and clay the feet and the iron clay it'll be 10 confederated kings but of not a good mixture question if you want to make something strong do you mix a little iron and clay together to make it stronger did you notice in the order of the elements gold silver brass iron the the the symbols are getting lesser in value and then you get to the iron and then you get to iron mixed with clay what can you make that mixes iron and clay the answer nothing because it doesn't mix and and i think you know not to go into this too deeply tonight but if you look what's going on in europe the mixing of the iron and clay is not happening very well it's not a great mixture right now there's a lot of unrest in europe because of maybe if this imagery is talking about this mixture of people groups part of the old roman empire that includes arabs and europeans it sort of would make sense of what we're seeing happening today but i believe nonetheless it'll be ten kings like the bible says daniel chapter two and along here there'll be these ten horns that are gonna come out of the old roman empire out of this beast that's mentioned here and then it says there will come from among them what what's the them the ten horns so there's going to come this little horn and this little horn um as it turns out it says look look it says there there come another a little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things now we start to know who this is and later on in the chapter we'll even get a clearer picture but we know this is a man that speaks great things great not meaning wonderful great meaning like uh huge things noteworthy or powerful things and he has the eyes of a man seeing things and and we believe this is none other than this coming world leader uh that's going to come during the tribulation period and he's called the man of sin it's called the son of perdition he's called the ant the antichrist he's called the uh the assyrian some people call him that and the bible calls him that once or twice um and there's these many names but he's a coming world leader that's gonna be in charge or come out of these 10 kings so you got these 10 kings roman empire kings and out of the midst of them that's where this antichrist is coming he's not coming from the united states by the way so if you those of you that just knew that ronald reagan was the antichrist uh i remember hearing people think that uh because what was his address there on whatever rodeo drive was 666 uh you know something or other they're like the ronald reagan was the antichrist and then it was bill clinton that was maybe believable but no i'm just kidding just kidding um uh they always try to make this guy the answer guys in fact we we won't know who the antichrist is because read 2nd thessalonians chapter 2 it says you and i won't know this because he won't be revealed until after the church is taken out of the way so you and i can guess all we want i think it's a foolish thing to try to guess who the antichrist is going to be and start naming people because there's been a lot of people really wrong about that one that have tried to guess who the antichrist was we shouldn't do that um what is interesting by the way and this this gets dangerously close to guessing but i do think it's worth noting you can see certain figures that have come and gone and and some that are still on the scene that could be the antichrist and you can see how the world will you know gobble up this antichrist hook line and sinker and just really follow him do you know what i mean like it's amazing to watch in this day and age how the world will accept a world leader as awesome really quickly that's going to happen the whole world is going to be duped by this coming world leader and they're going to go this is the man we've all been wanting the world the stage is set right now we've got a vacuum today all across the world for leadership and this little horn is coming out of those ten horns which is somewhere in the old roman empire um he's to come out of that and and and there's going to be and this is this is just what we guess from this prophecy there's going to be a conflict between this little horn and three of the ten horns so three of the kings of the ten are going to go to war with this little horn and the little horn's gonna rip up those three horns by the roots that means he's gonna kill them whatever nation or kings those three horns are this coming world leader antichrist is gonna rip up those three horns that's what this imagery is telling us um now we'll talk about what these eyes are and his mouth and what he's gonna be saying we're gonna be talking about that in a second later on in the chapter and we gotta hurry because it's after eight now wow um so keep all this tucked away um now now in verses 9 through 14 we're going to take a little breather from what's going on down on earth now this is something the book of revelation does like daniel he's going to we're going to zip into the the throne room of heaven and some people are confused by the language especially of the king james bible in verse 9. in verse 9 says i beheld till the thrones were cast down now now when you read that you're like okay this must be the thrones of the ten kings cast down or whatever no no newer translations actually get it better on this one when it says cast down if you look at the original language of the of the aramaic and even the the septuagint the translation of greek um the the word um there is placed what i beheld till the thrones were placed and um and then as we read on and the ancient of days did sit anybody know why that word ancient is capitalized yeah god is called the ancient of days do you understand that the idea is an idiom of the jews the ancient of days is god and the idea is that he's eternal that's what it means ancient of days is that he's an eternal being so that's the idea so we're talking about there's going to be these thrones placed and the ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow now if you guys know some of your other heavenly scene passages who might be sitting in these thrones that are replaced anybody some would say jesus also some would say the four and twenty elders remember those guys are seated on thrones as well um so this this is an indication we're seeing something that it looks familiar especially if you're familiar with revelation chapter one and ezekiel chapter one there's some similarities let's read on you'll see what i mean so the thrones were placed and the ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and hair of his head was like pure wool his throne was like the fiery flame and his his wheels as burning fire where did we see wheels around the throne of god anybody ezekiel chapter one and two right um yeah a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministered unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him and the judgment was set and the books were opened i beheld uh then because of the voice of the great words which the horns spake i beheld even till the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame as concerning the rest of the beasts they had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time uh let me read on here we'll break all this down verse 13 i saw in the night visions and behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which uh that which shall not be destroyed so we're following a little bit different remember how in daniel 2 the stone was cut without hands came and crushed the kingdoms set up in everlasting kingdom that was the daniel 2 version this version starts in heaven and in heaven sitting around the throne of god with all the attributes we've seen from revelation 1 ezekiel chapter 1 about the you know jesus the depiction of jesus with the hair white as wool um you know and and it says the throne was like a fiery flame and um even as you know the book of revelation by the way what does fire speak of when it's around the throne of god judgment judgment um and um this fire stream came through and then there were thousands and thousands ministering to him and also thousands standing around the throne i believe that could be very well us i told you we might have a reference to us in this story uh of the book of daniel but but where are we i believe we're in heaven because of the rapture of the church but heaven is going to hear what's going on down in in on earth with this beast that's going to come and do its thing and so this is where it gets kind of interesting uh and and we kind of have to take a look at maybe some scriptures from the book of revelation to sort of understand uh what what's going on here so remember we got a gap in time the church gets raptured we're up in heaven antichrist comes on the scene the little horn rips out the three other horns and sets himself up to be worshipped we know from other pastors with these this this mouth speaking great things he's going to be uh demanding worship and the mark of the beast and all that stuff in the book of revelation talking about this guy but it says here you know in heaven they'll see this is going on and that will spark when the lord will return his second coming and that's what we're seeing in verses 13 and 14. we're going to see christ return set up his kingdom an everlasting kingdom now let's let's go jot some of these scriptures down i'll read them quickly uh revelation 19. in revelation chapter 19 we have this description in verses 19 and 20. um it says in revelation 19 uh 19 it says and i saw the beasts and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army and the beast was taken with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image these both were cast alive in the lake of fire burning with brimstone um this is the second coming of christ christ is going to come on his white horse the bible says uh didn't the antichrist come on a horse it seems that he does there in revelation 6 but he's also a duplicator and an imitator remember that but he's not the real messiah but jesus is going to come in return and then it says in revelation chapter 20 this is all revelation same period revelation 20 verse 10 and it says and the devil that deceived them was casted like a fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever so this is the end of satan uh the beast uh the false prophet the the unholy trinity of the book of revelation this is all gonna happen during what daniel's talking about here in daniel 7. also if you back up to revelation 19 verse 11 this is the second coming of christ listen to this description revelation 19 11 says and i saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true and that's jesus and in righteousness he doth judge and make war his eyes were a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no man knew but he himself and he was clothed with the vesture dipped in blood and his name was called the word of god remember john 1 1 in the beginning of the word the word was with god the word was god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us this is in line with who jesus really is and verse 14 and the armies which were in heaven followed upon with him upon white horses clothed with fine linen white and clean white linen speaks of righteousness who are they that will come from heaven when jesus returns and who will be clothed with fine white living anybody want to say that us ten thousands of ten thousands of his saints those are the people we saw in daniel 7 around the throne ready to go with christ when christ returns all described for us here now in revelation i know i'm bouncing around but you should know these verses because this all fits with daniel 7 revelation 20 verse 4 and i saw thrones and they that sat upon them and judgment was given unto them and i saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of jesus and for the word of god and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received the mark his mark upon their foreheads or on their right hands they lived and reigned with christ ten thousand or apparently a thousand years um interesting that we're told exactly what's going to happen once the you know the rapture of the church happens there's a seven year period called the tribulation period the first half of that seven years is going to be bad but not going to be the worst that's going to be where the antichrist will deceive and make you know peace treaties with nations probably rip out those three nations during the first three and a half years the first three horns we talked about he's going to speak great things he's going to woo the world to himself and everybody's going to receive his mark at the middle of that time three and a half years into the tribulation he's going to set himself up to be worshipped it's called the abomination of desolation talked by daniel and also talked about jesus in matthew 24. but as it says here during that time this antichrist this world leader the little horn is going to make war against the saints who are the saints in the in the tribulation period is that us no good the saints and the tribulation are two different people in my opinion one is the jews that will be saved during the tribulation two it will be the unsaved gentiles that will accept christ during the tribulation i believe there will be a lot of those people and maybe lord willing some of your family members that knew you were one of those wacko athy creekers that believed in the rapture of the church and then suddenly you know people show up at 80 creek and i hope there's not many people here on sunday after the rapture of the church but where did all those people go oh they're the ones let's go back on youtube and oh they got canceled on youtube let's go back to their website and see what they said with all those teachings about and and maybe some of your family members will remember and they will believe in christ and they will reject the mark of the beast but as it says here in revelation 20 verse 4 they will be killed for their faith and their unwillingness to uh receive the mark of the beast by the way people have said the vaccination is the mark of the beast no it's not it's ridiculous but but the way they're trying to cram the vaccine down everybody's throats and the way they're doing this you can kind of see how they're going to make people not be able to buy or sell like you know some of us you know some of the people in our culture now are wondering well how how am i going to have a job and their answer you're not what if we starve tough bananas get the vaccine well well what if i want to fly to you know uh go to some other country you can't you can't like they're restricting you can kind of see what this sort of control but the mark of the beast will make the whole vaccine passport look like nothing uh the mark of the beast you will not be able to buy or sell anything and the goal everybody's going to have to receive the mark and if you don't they will kill you it's interesting because have you seen the hostility toward the anti-vaccination people i mean like you know there's even i've heard stories of local hospitals not all of them but some of them local hospitals where if you didn't get the vaccine they pretty much say yeah we don't have enough beds for you since you're not vaccinated um you know we're not going to give you care but what happened to what do they call it the hippocratic oath like whatever happened to that like um you know we're seeing some kind of mean brutal stuff happening with this it's only just kind of a foreshadow i think of future things but i wasn't going to talk about that and i'm running out of time so so um so back to daniel 7 we've got this uh this you know period where the rapture of the church is going to happen then you see us in heaven verses 9 through 12 and then you see the second coming of christ where he's going to set up his kingdom and have dominion now back to back to verse 15 i daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body shaken to the core is the idea there and the visions of my head troubled me and i came into one of them that stood by and asked him the truth of all this so he told me and made me know the interpretation of the things now these great beasts which are four are four kings which shall rise out of the earth but verse 18 the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever even forever and ever so that's a real high level of synopsis there's beasts kingdoms and then the saints are going to come with christ and they're going to have an everlasting kingdom the end like that that's a pretty big verses 15 through 18 is a real quick summary then verse 19 then i would know the truth of the fourth beast which was diverse from all the others exceeding dreadful whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass which devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with his feet and of the ten horns that were in his head and of the other which came up and before whom three fell even of that horn which had eyes and the mouth speak very great things whose look was more stout than his fellows i beheld and even the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them daniel is confused by this whole thing and you would have been and i would have been too especially during his time period but he's sharp enough to know man there's something about that last beast something's big there he gets it what's the deal with the this little horn and the three horns and what's what's going on there he's he's sort of asking that question and he's saying what's this this little horn that's going to speak great things and all this um and then he says verse 21 until the ancient of days came and judgment was given to the saints of the most high and the time came at the saint that the saints possessed the kingdom thus he said the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth and shall tread it down and break in pieces and the ten horns out of this kingdom are the ten kings that shall arise and another shall rise after them and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three kings so daniel's getting it these horns it's a leader the little horns another king's gonna rip the other he's getting sort of this interpretation that we just went through but what will this little horn do now this is verse 25 gives us some detail um what's he going to do it says verse 25 and he shall speak great words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand until a time end times and the dividing of time now this is familiar for you prophecy buffs three main things here that we see spoken of this antichrist character number one he's going to speak against the lord um it says here he shall speak great words against the most high the word great is in italics because it's not really in the original text it's basically his words will be against god that's that's what he's going to do by the way do you get a sense that that's not even a big deal anymore because people do that all the time comedians joke against god leaders talk about you know how goofy it is that people believe in god um people even are speaking on behalf of god um uh today when they you know who was that was the governor of new york did you guys hear that one whoo whoa nelly it's amazing to me what people think they're saying about putting words in god's mouth and stuff um but we're we're living in a strange day where speaking as the lord is popular and hip and the antichrist is going to come and just blow everybody else away with that that's how much he's going to be given to speaking out against the most high god the second thing we read here in verse 25 he's going to wear out the tribulation saints remember the jews and the gentiles that come to christ that that are going to come to christ especially in the last half of the tribulation and then thirdly seek to change the times and laws um now this is an interesting thing because um one of the great um how do i say this uh one of the great evidences of jesus making a difference did jesus turn the world upside down yes i mean there's so many ways we can number one way is the times and laws were changed like it's an amazing thing that our most of the world goes off a time system that's centered around jesus christ that's interesting um many of the laws and morals that we've had traditionally in the world come from actually a biblical sort of worldview and a biblical perspective um but one of the things this antichrist is going to do is try to change that whole thing and what's interesting to me is you know when whether you're looking at the world economic forum or bill gates or um the powers of b soros and stuff and there's all these groups and powerful people they're trying to change stuff and one of the things they're always talking about is the new normal and we're never going to return back to normal and all this stuff one of the things we've talked about in our prophecy updates is there's going to be a massive shift in the world to globalism and that's that's what the bible predicts economic religious unity around the world and it's going to be around this one world government a new world order bible talks about that it's the antichrist this world leader is going to change everything to come to a culmination of that ultimate globalism and that's what he's going to do changing times and laws as it relates to um the whole world globalism that's what this antichrist is going to do he's going to be the fulfillment i think of what a lot of people are hoping for globalism today uh antichrist is they're all looking for that right now the world is primed right now the coronavirus and the pandemic and all this stuff it's all priming for a one world system a one world government i believe it's very clear uh that they're trying to bring it all together we are the world you know kind of thing uh the antichrist is gonna be the culmination of that uh and notice here it says uh he will uh be given time to do that and how long will he have well it says here time times and the dividing of time we've gone over this before um this is none other than one is time two is times uh half is the dividing of time so three and a half years remember tribulation seven years the first three and a half years antarctica is going to deceive and bring his whole thing together the last three and a half years he's going to be seen for who he is by the jews and the new believers in christ and he's going to make war against the saints and do all these horrible things in the last three and a half years uh by the way um there's plenty of scriptures that defend that this time times and half time is three and a half years uh i went through this wasn't this a few weeks ago i went over this pretty in detail but i give you scriptures right here daniel 12 7 revelation 12 14 revelation 13 5 talks about i love the revelation 13 5 one because it says time time and half time and then it says three and a half years twelve hundred and one thousand two hundred and you know sixty days or whatever the you know it's like it gives it all in detail so we know what this is referring to from other scriptures okay um and that's important so this this first 25 is giving us new detail about who this antichrist and coming world leader will be okay well we go on in verse 26 but the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end and the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominion shall serve and obey him notice who the kingdom get is given to it's kind of an interesting thing here shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high remember how the bible talks about how you and i get to rule and reign with christ like there's part of the everlasting kingdom that's going to be set up for those that believed those that followed christ they're going to have a role as part of the kingdom being given to us to rule and reign with him but everybody's going to follow after him and all dominions will serve and obey him jesus verse 28 hitherto is the end of the matter as for me daniel my cogitations much troubled me and my countenance changed to me but i kept the matter in my heart don't you love daniel and he's like uh beasts and ribs and uh man i can go for some food right now no he didn't say that he's like man i i this is confusing and i don't know what this is really all about i know there's some kings and kingdoms and i get that the the fourth beast is more terrible than the others but what the world's going on and it just troubles him and but he just tucks it away and uh keeps the matter in his heart and i love that about daniel and he went about the king's business we learn about that in the next few uh chapters look at the end of chapter 8 verse 27 this is this will be the end of chapter 8 verse 27 and i daniel fainted and was sick certain days afterward i rose up and did the king's business and i was astonished at the vision but no one understood it so chapter 8 is going to be even worse daniel walks away from chapter seven i'll tuck it away in my heart and he walks away from chapter eight he gets like vomit sick and and he and he says man nobody understands anything about chapter eight but we're gonna we're gonna be able to understand what's going on in chapter 8 because we're closer to the end and it's going to be kind of fun so we'll see you next week in chapter 8. lord how thankful we are um for your word and and lord prophecy is so interesting because we get a sense from your word that we are living in those last days we see the stage set for a world leader and to deceive many and to speak words against you and lord your word tells us so much about these times that it's starting to come together and while the world thinks the world is falling apart in so many ways we see how everything's falling into place the way you pre-ordained the way that you have uh told us in your word so i pray that in light of that that we'd be busy about your work lord and just tuck these things away in our hearts and serve you until the day of the rapture until the day we die lord just just serve you faithfully sharing the good news of the gospel that people might be saved lord i pray your blessing upon your church and and just blessing as we study this book um lord to know that you're coming and you're going to rescue us from the the judgment that's coming on this earth lord we look forward to that day until then lord be honored be glorified in your church we pray in jesus name amen you

Channel: Athey Creek

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Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship, prophecy, antichrist, vision, dreams, rome, babylon, history, revelation

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Length: 73min 36sec (4416 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021