Strong Man Of God Blog

          After seven weeks in the profound book of Bible prophecy named after its penman and main personality, Daniel, you would think his dream interpretations, dreams, visions and prophecies came to him in the isolated seclusion of a desert or mountain retreat.¹  But as foretold (Micah 4:9-10), Daniel was a captive and slave taken over 1,500 miles away to Babylon with others of his people from the 605 B.C. Jewish kingdom of Judah in the first of three waves and accord with the judgment of God (2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Jeremiah 25:1-11; Daniel 1:1-2)!  As this was of God, Daniel is also ultimately His slave which is instruction and application for black Americans this Black History Month.

          From the outset, Daniel was busy with the king of Babylon’s priorities as he was selected with others of the best and brightest “young men” among fellow slaves from Judah to serve in his “palace” after teaching them “the language and literature of the Chaldeans” in “three years of training.”  During this time by royal decree, they were to eat the “daily provision of the king’s delicacies” and drink “of the wine which he drank,” (Daniel 1:3-5, NKJV).  The Jewish names of these representative young men were also replaced with those of Babylonian origin given to them by “the chief of the eunuchs,” (Daniel 1:6-7, NKJV).  Assignment to him may mean the young men were made eunuchs too.²

          It was not just doctrinal instruction from the Lord through His Word during the seven year period beginning in 1986 I waited on Him in prayer and intense Bible study for a biblical worldview of the black American experience that caused me to throw off the yoke of and renounce victimization as a descendant of West African slaves and minority still experiencing systemic racism.³  It was also encountering godly men like Daniel and his companions in the Bible who were forcibly taken from their native land to be slaves in Babylon.  For this is just as it also happened to my forefathers forcibly taken from their native land and brought over 4,000 miles in ships to be slaves in America.

          Like Daniel and his companions, too, my slave forefathers were required to learn the language and culture of their captors as well as receive new names and be happy about it.  All of these painful circumstances were as initially traumatizing and demoralizing for them as they no doubt were for Daniel, his companions and all of the Jews in Babylon (Psalm 137).  However, in spite of their captive circumstances, Daniel and his three companions were not crushed as victims, but thrived!  How is this possible?  Isn’t it because they came to Babylon in a devoted relationship with and as slaves of God; accepting that their captivity was of His permissive, foretold will (Daniel 1:8-21, 9:10-14)?⁴

          This is not to say Daniel and his three companions escaped trouble from the raw power of their oppressors.  Even so, God delivered them as they looked to Him in faith!  The four of them would have been killed with all of Babylon’s wise men if God had not provided Daniel with the content of the king’s dream and its interpretation for which he praised Him and advanced them (Daniel 2).  After this, Daniel’s three companions incurred the king’s “fury” because they refused out of faithfulness to God to worship his image.  He threw them into a furnace that was heated “seven times” hotter than normal.  But God delivered them!  He was praised and they “promoted” by the king (Daniel 3, NKJV).

          Early in the new royal administration of the Medo-Persian Empire, men no doubt filled with envy, jealousy and racism plotted against Daniel because the king who had already given him a high position in his government, considered elevating Daniel to the highest place under him.  Their evil scheme was predicated on snaring Daniel in his well known faithfulness to the God of Heaven so he might be killed by being dropped into a den of hungry lions.  But God delivered Daniel and He was praised by the king!  Daniel prospered until his death (Daniel 6).  This pattern of trouble, unfair and even harsh treatment attends to the Jewish experience in Babylon and Persia.  However, men like Daniel and his three companions trusted in and remained faithful to God and He delivered them.⁵

          There is one major difference in the captivity of Daniel, his companions and other faithful Jews and that of those brought from West Africa to be slaves in America: the majority of my forefathers did not come having a prior relationship with the living God.  Presented the Gospel even from nefarious motives and Christianity the religion of men though, many over time came to faith in Jesus Christ.⁶  What trials they endured being treated with contempt as naked chattel or barely above animals by many of the guilty whites that owned them.  They were denied the sanctity of marriage and intact families; violated by rape and castration in too many cases; beaten and murdered with impunity.  Yet, like Daniel and his three companions the faithful cried out to and trusted in God for deliverance.

          Over four hundred years of black American history is filled with innumerable personal and corporate testimonies of deliverances from God.  Those like Daniel and his companions who understood themselves to be His slaves bore with their mortal bondage waiting in hope for freedom which did come!  Others refused to compromise their God granted human dignity and persevered through Jim Crow segregation never believing they were less than anyone else.  Still others faced just as real furnaces of affliction and lion’s dens making a stand for biblical righteousness opposing the evils of racial bigotry.  Many God delivered while some He chose to bring home to glory and rest from their labors.  All of His faithful have given and give this nation’s rulers their opportunity to praise God!⁷

1 See the posts that begin January 9 through February 20, 2022.

2 As students of the Bible note, neither Daniel nor his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah are said to have wives or children anywhere in Daniel’s book.  While this or
   the  fact  they  are  under  the specific authority of the king’s head eunuch are not conclusive proof the young men were made eunuchs, it is truly odd no mention of wives or
   children is made given the importance of family and lineage to the Jews throughout most of the Bible.

3 Read  the  two-part  post  beginning  June  2, 2019, Message From A Redeemed Black Man, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History.  O that all the guilty
   would  repent  from  seeing  our  experience  through  the confused prism of victimization!  At https://fromslaverytovictory.org walk through the presentation, Does God Care
   About African Americans?

4 The  result of Daniel’s humble acceptance of God’s will for his life as a slave in Babylon is His loving favor so bestowed on him, that his book remains prophetically relevant
   over 2,500 years later and will be to the very end and Christ’s return!  

5 These  men  were exemplary of the aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in
   the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.

6 Tragically,  a  great  number  of  blacks  going  forward  also adopted Christianity as their own religion after the manner of those who had enslaved them.  God has not been
   pleased  with  this  among  our  people or any others.  He leads me to cry out with His displeasure against the corruptions and compromises of the biblical faith in manmade
   Christianity  the  religion  among  all professed Christians in a  four-part  post that  begins February 26, 2017, God Of Restoration And Judgment, under the categories Bible
   Prophecy,  Biblical  Worldview,  Black  History  and  The Cause.  More recently, also read the two-part post starting February 21, 2021, Willful Ignorance Destroys, under the
   category, Black History.

7 Truly,  it  is  only  the  black  American victors of faith and faithfulness that are being honored to the glory of God in this post as I do them in our national Radio Special, From
   Slavery  To Victory: One Man’s Journey and which I still want to more fully do in a film.  The Radio Special sits waiting  to  be  heard  as  a  Webcast  on  The  From  Slavery 
   To  Victory  Education Project Web Site (https://fromslaverytovictory.org) needing  only  the  funds  to  obtain  renewed  music  clearances.  You  can  make a designated gift
   for  this  cause  on the Web Site or even anonymously through the PayPal Giving Fund.  If you have the human and financial resources to help realize the film vision, please
   reach out to me.  

          Near the end of the one thousand two hundred and sixty days of prophesy by His two witnesses, God allows His holy angels led by Michael to attack and wage war against Satan and his angels in Heaven.  They prevail and force Satan and his hosts down to the earth in ‘“great wrath’” whereupon he begins persecuting Jews then, Christians (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 12:7-17, NKJV).  The devil also causes the prince to come to change his mind about the covenant with Israel and his standing in the world.  He ends the covenant with Israel at its midpoint and kills God’s two witnesses which is impossible unless he had attained the status of immortality (Daniel 9:27b; Revelation 11:7)!⁶

          Apparently, after suffering a mortal wound and dying, the prince immediately learns his eternal end.  However, God permits the prince to be resurrected immortal from Hades which He has not done with any others to that hour except Christ (Acts 2:22-31; Revelation 13:3a).  The prince’s impossible victory over God’s two witnesses emboldens him to rise up among and against the ten kings.  He eliminates three of them to become their and the whole world’s ruler.  He goes hard with Satan in the war against God through blasphemous words and evil deeds to include persecuting His saints to the death and receiving worship with Satan (Daniel 7:8, 15-25, 11:36-39; Revelation 13:3b-10).

          “Another beast” resurrected with God’s consent will help in the worship of the prince when he forces the world to even worship his “image” or “be killed;” take “his mark,” “name or number” to “buy or sell,” (Revelation 13:11-18, NKJV).  With his “kingdom” incentivized alliance of kings that all mutually hate her and God’s permission in judgment, the prince will destroy manmade Christianity “the great harlot,” (Revelation 17-18:8, NKJV).  In similitude to a predecessor Hellenistic Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, in 167 B.C. as foretold, the prince will also desecrate the Temple by presenting himself there to be worshipped “as God,” (Daniel 8, 9:27c, 11:29-35; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, NKJV).

          He will thereafter, set about to destroy everything on earth honoring the true God; the peoples and structures of all religions competing for his worship as he engages in wars of annihilation and desolations during the entire last half of God’s seven years (Daniel 11:40-45).  According to the prophet Jeremiah and instruction of Messiah Jesus, the last half of God’s seven years is ‘“the time of Jacob’s trouble’” and ‘“great tribulation’” for the whole world through which God will protect His elect remnant for salvation at the end; His martyred saints comforted in Heaven while they await their glorious resurrection (Jeremiah 30:4-9; Matthew 24:15-28; Revelation 6:9-11, 7, 14:6-13, NKJV)!⁷ 

          With great signs of divine power on display, Messiah Jesus will descend from Heaven to gather His elect to Him (Daniel 12:2-3; Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11).⁸  Then, in “wrath” and “righteousness He judges and makes war” defeating His enemies beginning with the desolating prince of God’s prophetic timeline vision and consummates the war of the ages (Daniel 7:9-12, 9:27d; Revelation 6:12-17, 16:12-21, 19:11-20:3, 7-10, NKJV)!  As promised, His saints that faithfully persevered waiting for Him through suffering will see his vengeance on their persecutors and receive the Kingdom of God as their eternal heritage (Daniel 7:26-28; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12).

          At that time, the way forward to fulfilling all of God’s remaining purposes presented to Daniel by the angel, Gabriel, in Daniel 9:24 will be understood by the elect mortal Jewish remnant.  Receiving Messiah as foretold in all repentance, they will be finished with willful transgression against God and reconcile to Him as they understand the sacrifice Messiah made for their sins and those of the whole world (Zechariah 12:10-13:1).  Messiah also brings in eternal righteousness since not during His earthly reign or ever after will sin thrive before Him (Jeremiah 23:5-6; Malachi 3:1-5, 4:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 20:11-21:8).  Visions like Daniel’s and prophecies will be no more (Zechariah 13:2-6; 1 Corinthians 13:8-12); the Lord will consecrate His House on earth (Ezekiel 43)!

          After seeing the coming resurrections of the just and unjust in the final vision of his book, Daniel is instructed to ‘“shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end,’” Daniel 12:4, NKJV).  If you have understood anything in our working together through Daniel 9, then, you understand we are nearing God’s appointed end since only He has opened His Word to us--glory be to Him!  We also do well to accept the truth that persecution is the lot of devoted Jews and faithful Christians the world over up through the great tribulation as God tests, purifies, perfects and prepares us for the Second Coming of Messiah Jesus (Daniel 12:5-10).⁹  In that day near, you will be able to count the days until the time frame set for His appearing and Kingdom (Daniel 12:11-13)!

6 Read the August 7, 2016 post, Wicked Immortals And Their Bodies, under the categories Bible Prophecy and God’s Creatures.

7 See the February 23, 2014 post, Man Of Sin, under the category, Bible Prophecy for additional insights.

8 Daniel is told of both resurrections without the separation of the thousand year reign of Christ and the saints between the two as the New Testament teaches (John 5:24-30;
   1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Revelation 20:4-6).

9 Testing  to  disclose  what  is  in the heart is the answer to why God permits the evils of the great tribulation to come upon all (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Revelation 3:10-11).  He
   works  the  evils  to  the  good  ends of His faithful (Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 1:3-9).  Purchase the timely six message series the Lord led me to proclaim, The Hour Of Testing,
   available in the Strong Man Store to learn more about God’s biblically taught purposes behind testing His people.  Listen to the series sample.