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There are some key issues and applications from the time I spent in Daniel and other parts of Bible prophecy since January 9th this year that I did not delve into, but will briefly do so beginning with this post and all to follow through April as a wrap up.1 As the Lord leads and yet another tyrant on the world stage seeks “dominion and territorial expansion through conquest” coinciding with what I wrote during a February post,2 I write to warn him (and all that will follow his course) that earthly kings are ruled over by Almighty God and answerable to Him! This was the lesson the king of Babylon had to be repeatedly taught by Daniel and his three companions until he apparently finally learned it.
King Nebuchadnezzar made the mistake of arrogant pride many kings and evil tyrants before and after him have made to believe just because he conquered Judah, captured its citizens and took property including religious “articles” back to Babylon where he put them in “the treasure house of his god,” that somehow he had also defeated Judah’s God (Daniel 1:1-2, NKJV). But nothing could be infinitely further from the truth as God gave him a dream he had to depend on Him through His vessel Daniel to interpret because neither he nor any of his staff of Babylonian “wise men” could. The dream showed God’s Kingdom is greater than all others of men (Daniel 2:1-28, NKJV)!
“Prostate before Daniel,” king Nebuchadnezzar confessed ‘“Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings…,’” (Daniel 2:46-47, NKJV). The king was humbled again when he exalted himself with an image and decreed that all of his subjects bow to and worship it. But the refusal of Daniel’s three friends to do so and God’s deliverance of them from the consequence elicited the following response from the king: ‘“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word…,’” (Daniel 3:28, NKJV). From what happens next, clearly the king still had not learned his lesson.
Chapter four of Daniel presents king Nebuchadnezzar’s own testimony of what happened to him after God gave him a dream about his great pride and the consequence Daniel plainly interprets to him, but which he ignores (Daniel 4:1-33). After living as a mad man convinced he was a beast that ate grass like an ox for a time as foretold, the king’s sanity was restored by God and he had a new attitude (Daniel 4:34-36)! Indeed, he testified: ‘“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down,’” (Daniel 4:37, NKJV). A later king learned the hard way too (Daniel 5).3
Since all of the foregoing is common Sunday School instruction throughout Christendom, it is certain Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, who professes to be a Christian is aware of how God, the King of Heaven brings down the pride of earth’s kings as testified to by the king of Babylon over 2,500 years ago. Therefore, in accord with this biblical instruction, I urge the Russian Orthodox Church leaders Mr. Putin respects to advise him to repent, cease his war of pride and conquest against Ukraine and withdraw. Nevertheless, such men filled with the spirit of conquest will continue4 to the end when the Antichrist who makes no pretense whatsoever of reverencing God, the King Heaven, will war against Him and be soundly defeated (Daniel 8:23-25, 9:27cd; Revelation 6:1-2, 19:11-21)!
1 See the posts that begin January 9 through March 6, 2022.
2 Read the February 13, 2022 part one of the two-part post, War Of The Ages End, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
3 Why are we men so filled with pride and stubborn about it to the point it takes repeated humiliating lessons for God to finally break us? Such is the power of sin in us! Get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to learn the provisions God has made to help men overcome our stubborn pride through Christ Jesus. It is available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
4 Truly, Mr. Putin’s war of conquest and desolations upon Ukraine is a preview of things to come and sign professed Christians should take to heart and prepare! Or will you be as Israel’s religious leaders who refused to see the plain signs of Messiah displayed in Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 16:1-4)? Please also note in this preview no “rap- ture” has occurred to remove Ukrainian believers from what to them is surely great tribulation! This is because the Lord declares He comes right “after” the actual “great tribulation” to “gather together His elect,” (Daniel 11:40-45; Matthew 24:15-22, 29-31, NKJV).
I ended my last post of 2021 citing Daniel 9:26c of two prophetic Scriptures supporting the truth “things are not going to get better before the glorious Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but worse.”1 The content of Daniel 9:26c is near the end of four pure prophecy verses out of twenty-seven that make up a powerful chapter as context. The prophecies are delivered to Daniel in answer to his prayers by the angel, Gabriel, and are intended to give him the ability “to understand” further and more deeply from God about what He intended for Israel after their Babylonian captivity (vs. 20-23, NKJV). It was not an easier to read Bible, but God’s help he needed to get that understanding!
As Daniel 9:26c objectively and literally read in the immediate context of the verse asserts, destruction that brings “desolations” to cities such as did happen to Jerusalem and the second Jewish Temple at the hands of the Romans in A.D. 70 “are determined” by God “till the end of the war,” (NKJV). What war? In the larger context of the whole Bible, the war is the one ongoing in the spiritual and breaking into the physical realm; Satan and his angels warring against God after their rebellion, eviction from residence in Heaven, conquest and conscription of man and ultimate eternal sentence to Hell by His decree (Genesis 3:1-15; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).
The ongoing war of the ages as a spiritual and historical context was important for Daniel (and us) to have to understand what God is doing in the world. In Daniel’s specific case, knowing about the overarching spiritual war would help him understand more deeply the why and what for of future events impacting his people, the Jews. Indeed, as recorded earlier in chapter nine, Daniel’s heart to understand the future of his people beyond Babylon was triggered by his having read and “understood by the books” prophecy God gave Jeremiah the prophet that “He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem”--a span then, near its end (Daniel 9:1-2, NKJV).2
Clearly, Daniel read the Old Testament scrolls containing Jeremiah’s prophecy from God objectively and literally as God expects all of us to do who know and love Him unless the text itself suggests we do otherwise such as with figurative language, symbols or metaphors often used in parables.3 He understood the plain reading of the text in his Hebrew language. He did not need to consult any number of translations--none were even available until the third century B.C. well after his time--for easier reading and a better understanding.4 Daniel took God’s Word at face value as it was written in the Old Testament books that were copies of the originals!
As I discovered to my horror while researching what extant Bible translations Martin Luther may have used when he uncovered again God’s salvation by grace through faith alone plainly stated throughout the New Testament, there are today, over nine hundred (900) just English language translations of the Bible in whole or in part!5 This is a recipe for destructive confusion in great spiritual desolations as Satan has already wrought among so many in the war as ostensibly under the guise of easier reading and a better understanding, many of these translations corrupt God’s Word. A number of the translators wickedly seek not to offend people and pander after what they want, not God.6
I realize my New King James Version Bible of choice (updating the 17th century King’s English) is a translation as are all Bibles apart from the original manuscripts. I consult a few other modern translations (which is how I know what they say) and teach others--aspiring strong men and great women of God--to do the same for possible greater language clarity.7 However, over nine hundred different English translations each with their unique selling points is overkill. Besides, whether easier to read or not, it is the truth in direct assertion, transcendent eternal principles, morality and ethics along with any deeper meanings in application embodied in the Scripture that we students like Daniel are after. These come only from God in the way He in sovereignty chooses to reveal them.
It may be an angel as Daniel experienced, but most commonly as Christians it is the Holy Spirit with Christ resident inside of us that reveals the truth of God in Scripture and anything deeper related to us (John 14:15-18, 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16)! If you are not understanding what you are reading in the Bible, pray and ask God to help you since it is His will in general that you understand what is written though, some prophecies remain closed for now (Luke 24:44-45; James 1:5-8; Revelation 13:18). As the Lord leads, I will continue working through chapter nine of Daniel in each of the posts this month to the end someone else will be helped as we receive understanding of the times Daniel was told of in advance that we are now, living in and which approach their climatic end!
1 See the December 19, 2021 post, Christmas: Love, Joy And Peace, under the category, Holidays.
2 Dating from the year of Babylon’s first invasion of Judah and taking of captives (such as Daniel) in 605 B.C. to 539 B.C. the first year of the Medo-Persian conquest of Babylon as Daniel historically notes in vs. 1, would have been nearing the end of the seventy years pro- phecy.
3 Daniel’s approach to objectively reading, literally interpreting and applying Scripture is that of every godly person in the Bible to include the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:1-11)! For help, download the free one page document the Lord led me to create summarizing Seven Principles of Bible Interpretation in the Strong Man Store.
4 See the Encyclopedia Britannica article on the Septuagint--the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
5 Read the 2017 Christianity Today article, The Most Dangerous Thing Luther Did by Ben Witherington III.
6 Woe to those who seek to deconstruct the Bible to make it more amenable to people! Your actions are instigated by Satan as one of many stratagems he is using in his war with God. If he could widely corrupt the Book with God’s direct revelation, expressly stated will and mes- sage of salvation as he has done, the resulting confusion would destroy many souls as it is doing. For this reason, God holds account- able and destroys the corrupters of Scripture as it is written (2 Peter 3:14-16)! See my August 2, 2020 post, Flavorless Salt Is Worthless, under the category, Call To Repent along with part two in particular of Daughters Of This Age, posted April 25, 2021 under the category, God’s Creatures.
7 This approach is especially helpful to all of us that do not normally read, write or speak Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. Learn about aspiring strong men and great women of God in Christ’s image in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics along with companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
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