The Scourge Of Racism
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‘“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city…’” (Revelation 14:8, NKJV). The apostle John wrote what he saw looking into the future as He had been commanded by the risen, glorified Christ concerning what to him and the saints of his day was the mystery of “Babylon the great,” (Revelation 1:17-19, 16:17-19, 17:1-18:24). Alive now, in days nearly 2,000 years removed from those of which John wrote, I declare by the Holy Spirit, my own eyes and statistics Babylon the great is falling just as the apostle saw in advance!1 There is only one city that at once has ruled in history over kings, been the seat of Christianity the religion of men on earth and calls itself the “eternal city:” Rome, Italy.
God has made Jerusalem His chosen, eternal city; “the city of the great King,” (Psalm 48; Isaiah 65:17-19; Jeremiah 3:17; Zechariah 1:12-17, 2:1-5, 8:1-8, 14:1-4, 8-11, 16-21; Revelation 3:12, 21:1-2, 9-27, NKJV)! There is no place for a rival. Therefore, the city 1st century Christians code named, “Babylon” is coming down to the ground with those of every nation save Israel in the Day God pours out the fullness of His wrath upon the earth (Isaiah 13:9-13, 24:19-20, 40:4-5; Revelation 16:19)! As the Lord Almighty gloriously displayed His superior power over the gods of Egypt, Pharaoh and his armies, so, He will destroy all vestiges of the evil legacy of Rome, its Empire and Caesars (Exodus 15:1-12; Ezekiel 38:16-39:8; Revelation 6:12-17, 15:1-4, 19:11-21).
Before that Day, however, God will bring about the destruction of the part of Rome that is fully the focus of what John saw prophetically, even that sovereign city-state, Vatican City, where for seventeen centuries with few interruptions, the dominant, corrupt form of Christianity as a manmade invention has wielded power over men’s souls, kings and nations; a wealthy, arrogant queen who has defied all prophecies of her downfall. Nevertheless, she has only been preserved by God for this coming moment of fatal judgment like her ancient namesake and by the consummate representative of her cherished adulterous connection to Rome (Isaiah 47; Revelation 17:15-18:8).
As the Lord has led, I have sprinkled much about great Babylon throughout my blogs in writing about the historical origins and activities of Christianity the religion of men and certain events. Read for example, The Falling Away, February 2, 2014 under Bible Prophecy, Re-defining Sin, November 9, 2014 under Call To Repent and Worshipping God Without God, Pt. 3, the January 18, 2015 repost, under the same category. The fall of great Babylon is among the shining triumphs of the Antichrist. For God, however, it is the grand finale of the foretold judgment on His house which will have included every outward form and structure of Christianity on earth--as was the case with Israel’s Temple and for similar reasons--that is already underway (Matthew 23:37-24:2; 1 Peter 4:17-18).
Though His judgment has been painful to watch and experience all around me, I rejoice with the Lord, Heaven and all the saints to see in view the final end of great Babylon that persecuted the faithful to the death and destroyed so many souls through her many spiritual harlotries (Revelation 18:20-19:4). By the time her day comes, her many Protestant and other harlot daughters will have also drank deeply from the cup of God’s displeasure for the evil of their ways and refusal like ancient Israel to repent (Jeremiah 2-3:10)! Indeed, while I believe myself very blessed to have been alive to see the height of God’s use of faithful Christians in the Kingdom cause of the Gospel, I have also seen and endured much evil from among those professing to be Protestant Christians.
If there was a century left for scholars to debate the highest height of Christianity on earth from the 1st century coming of our Lord Jesus and His apostles that took the Gospel to the nations at His command until His glorious Second Coming, most would agree the global preaching and evangelistic crusades of Billy Graham in the 20th century was it! In the power of Christ, Dr. Graham also managed the miraculous feat of uniting cooperating churches to support, serve in and receive the millions of souls brought to the Lord in those evangelistic crusades. Though there are yet some faithful evangelists and churches laboring in the Lord, none will in the end reach the height of the Graham era. I thank God not only to have seen, but also to have once participated in that pinnacle work.
Awakened by the smell of frying bacon and what I knew were the accompanying pancakes for the weekly Sunday breakfast cooked by my late grandfather, Richard Campbell, my siblings and I would later go off to Sunday School and church with our also now, departed grandmother, Eunice. Though this memory is sweet, attached to it is the reality that even in progressive California, the Protestant church we attended in the mid-sixties had only black members due to the evils of racism. I also remember being terrified by a deacon there who put the fear of him in us if we put anything down on the communion table as my introduction to manmade Christianity the religion, its rules, traditions and hypocrisies conducted by men out of their sinful flesh.
To this day both issues I have just raised still exist in Protestant churches along with all manner of carnality of the flesh to include divisions with political intrigue, factions and rivalries, greed and covetousness in idolatry (1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5), biblical compromises such as joining the confused rebellion against the divine order (Romans 1:18-2:11) and corrupt falsehoods made to pander after the world in order to fill seats and bank accounts in all apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 12-22). For nearly forty years I have been told that this is the way it is because the people will not mature spiritually. Never mind the men telling me this have been as carnal and spiritually immature as those they lead!
Unrepentant professing Protestant Christians and their churches in sin may be the way it is, but that does not mean the longsuffering God is pleased. Therefore, as the example and warning of Israel’s dealings with the immutable God plainly shows us in Scripture (1 Corinthians 10:1-11), so, judgment not rapture is the present and immediate future for unrepentant sinning professing Protestant and other Christians in their churches. And no one should foolishly ask, “What did we do,” (Jeremiah 5:20-31, 8:4-7; Luke 14:25-35)? Time is up; the end of God’s long forbearance has come (Ezekiel 7; Amos 8:1-3). Great Babylon is falling never to rise again as the Lord clearly warned in advance nearly 2,000 years ago.
1 Read the 2015 blog reposts for August 30th and September 6th respectively to learn more about my experience with and statistics on falling Babylon the great.
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.
The Lord led me to specifically mention the prophet Ezekiel as a contemporary of and fellow captive with Daniel in Babylon during the seven weeks I spent working through Daniel chapter nine beginning January 9th this year.1 Ezekiel was taken to Babylon in 597 B.C. eight years after Daniel during the second of three waves in which the Babylonians came and took Jews along with their king, Jehoiachin, from the kingdom of Judah captive (2 Kings 24:8-16; 2 Chronicles 36:9-10). Ezekiel was a priest preparing to serve when his life plans were dramatically altered by the captivity. He, like Daniel, became a slave of God for His cause and glory as has been my own experience.
By Ezekiel’s own dating statements in the text, in 593 B.C. during the fifth year after the king’s captivity and most likely his thirtieth year of life, while “among the captives by the River Chebar” the spiritual realm was suddenly opened up to him and he saw “visions of God,” (Ezekiel 1:1-3, NKJV).2 Until that moment, Ezekiel had his non-distinct place among all the other captives of Babylon that were living at the pleasure of its king. As I wrote in last week’s post examining Daniel and his three friends with a cushier existence in the “big house” of the king, Ezekiel too, with all others not so well off would have experienced the trauma and demoralization of their plight (Psalm 137).3
Evidently, gathering near waterways was a permitted and popular thing to do since both Ezekiel in the opening of his book and Daniel in his are among those that gather at them. Both men also have awesome encounters with God and angels as visions in their river settings (Ezekiel 1:4-28; Daniel 10:4-12). Whatever despair Ezekiel had from being a captive in Babylon was quickly eclipsed by the sudden and overpowering opening up of the unseen spiritual realm to him. It presented an abundance of unfamiliar sights and sounds, creatures as well as images of Heaven and God so vivid, he describes them in detail as best as any mortal human language can convey.
This all happened to a man awestruck beyond words who had previously only hoped to be a priest of the Lord at His Temple! However, he did not need to speak because the “One” who had given Ezekiel this great vision garnering his rapt attention now, spoke to him of His calling to serve Him as His slave in Babylon. Ezekiel would be the Lord’s prophet to his fellow captives He describes as ‘“a rebellious house’” to speak His words to them which they would not give heed (Ezekiel 2-3:15, NKJV). Moreover, the Lord returned seven days later and added ‘“watchman’” to Ezekiel’s calling in which he was to hear ‘“a word from’” God’s ‘“mouth’” and warn the people (Ezekiel 3:16-21, NKJV).
After this, the Lord sent his watchman/prophet ‘“into the plain’” to speak with him further about his ministry that would prove to be as challenging for him in the physical as processing everything he had seen in the spiritual realm. For God through the Spirit in him would command Ezekiel to do many strange and dramatic things as well as make him ‘“mute’” at times. This was all to cause his fellow captives to question his conduct and when God directed him, give them His answers (Ezekiel 3:22-27, NKJV). Much of the content of his dramatic portrayals, prophesying and warnings consisted of God’s reasons for the captivity as judgment and calls to repentance (Ezekiel 4-24, 33-34:10).
Interspersed with reasons for His judgment and calls to repentance, God also foretells His plans to restore Israel in the future (Ezekiel 11:14-25, 20:33-44, 34:11-31, 36-48). As well, He announced judgment on the surrounding Gentile nations who gloated over them and the evil spiritual mastermind behind those nations that was once His chief cherub, but fell (Ezekiel 25-32, 35). This was the incredible prophetic ministry of Ezekiel he records in his book after any hope of serving at the Temple in Jerusalem was fully dashed when it with the city was destroyed by his captors as later confirmed by a surviving escapee and foretold by God (Ezekiel 7:20-27, 21:1-7, 24:1-2, 15-27, 33:21-29).
Exemplary of Ezekiel as a slave of God was his obedience; only once objecting to a command from God on how to cook his food in the first of his dramatic portrayals. He objected honoring God’s already written Word he had obeyed from his youth (Ezekiel 4:9-17). He also remained obedient in the most difficult of human experiences, the death of a spouse which God told him of in advance; commanding that he not grieve for her and incorporate this into yet another dramatic portrayal to his fellow captives (Ezekiel 24:15-18). His obedience was like unto Christ as God’s slave (Philippians 2:5-8)!4 Like Him and Daniel too, Ezekiel was humble and content in his own service; showing no sign of jealousy when God exalted Daniel with other righteous men (Ezekiel 14:12-20).5
God repeated His calling of Ezekiel to be His watchman/prophet in Ezekiel 33:1-9. This passage has also served as the scriptural basis for my similar ministry from Him among rebellious professed Christians and their churches beginning formally in the spring of 1986.6 While the Lord has not had me act out any messages, through Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. He has used me to write, creatively produce and declare those He has given using many media tools such as printed materials, publications, radio, television, billboards, a play and the internet to blow His trumpet of warning. With His leadership, grace and strength I have endured in His causes to this hour seeking His glory; defining success by the example of Ezekiel’s faithful obedience as a slave of God!
1 See the two-part post that starts January16, 2022, Arriving At These Times, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent.
2 The expression, “the heavens were opened” with a key emphasis on “opened,” powerfully communicates the ability of mortal men granted by God to see into and experience things in the otherwise cloaked, closed like a curtain or door unseen spiritual realm that surrounds and fully suffuses our physical universe. So, throughout the Bible mortal men are made to “see” as did for examples, the servant of Elisha after he prayed for the Lord to “open his eyes,” John the Baptist who “saw the Spirit descending from hea- ven” upon the Lord Jesus and the apostle John who was summoned up through “a door standing open in heaven,” (2 Kings 6:15-17; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34; Revela- tion 4:1, NKJV). As with Ezekiel, their experiences were all amazingly real though, of the invisible spiritual realm!
3 Read the February 27, 2022 post, Daniel: Slave Of God, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History Month.
4 The obedience of Ezekiel (how fitting his name means “God strengthens”) perfectly seen in Jesus Christ is also to characterize the aspiring strong man of God in His image 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.
5 Unlike the biblically forbidden divisions, envy, petty jealousies and competition among many Christian leaders today (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3-4, 12-13), Ezekiel surely es- teemed Daniel who had already become well known throughout Babylon for his righteousness and wisdom God had given to him before his arrival. These two godly men in the same circumstances of captivity were used similarly and mightily in the prophetic ministry by God, but among different audiences (Galatians 2:1-10). Though Ezekiel cried out and saw judgment from God upon his people, he still cared for them (Ezekiel 9:3-8). And though Daniel served kings, he did not forget where he had come from; the stock and people from which he had been cut and identified with until the end (Daniel 9:16-19). As with Daniel’s book, Ezekiel’s will also remain relevant through the re- turn of Christ to the very end of His millennium reign and this present age (Ezekiel 38; Revelation 20:7-10)!
6 Read the October 2, 2016, Gifted With A Prophet’s Heart, under the category, Call To Repent. Also, beginning November 13, 2016, the three-part post, Without Honor In The Churches, under the category, Glory To God! Finally, under the same category, read the April 30, 2017 post, God, His Prophets And Word.
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.
“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath,” so, laments Jeremiah the prophet in the aftermath of God’s judgment on Judah which he witnessed after years of warning the people it was coming unless they repented (Lamentations 3:1, NKJV). Nearly twenty-six hundred years later, I have experienced the prophet’s travail of soul in the midst of the painful fall of great Babylon in progress; the judgment of God within the churches as a prelude to pouring out His full wrath upon the whole world. In the face of falling great Babylon under His judgment, God calls to the faithful: ‘“Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues,’” (Revelation 18:4, NKJV).
The warning of divine judgment and appeal to come up out of great Babylon is exactly what I have been urging spiritually speaking (the day of the urgent physical call out draws near) in all of my service to the Lord and the churches for over the past thirty years as a watchman/prophet (Ezekiel 33:1-9) and two stints as a pastor. It is my most recently completed service as a pastor that I write about in the following 2011 blog repost and the two that follow. To seem to fail at anything hurts, but even more hurtful is to see God’s judgment fall because people refused to give heed to His Word. That was the experience of Jeremiah that became mine and will be every godly leader’s own until the end of God’s judgment in His house comes at the completed destruction of great Babylon.
Originally Posted July 10, 2011
One of the most profound images of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament is His weeping over the city of Jerusalem because of the dark days of judgment that were coming in light of the people’s rejection of Him as their Messiah (Luke 19:41-44). Surely this was the humanly unfathomable heart break of God voiced many times through the prophets of the Old Testament but now seen in the tears that ran down the cheeks of the Son of Man. While we can never know His pain in absolute terms, God has seen to it that we who serve humanity in and outside of the churches can feel it in some small measure (2 Corinthians 2:1-4). Even so, it is still no lightweight experience.
As of July 1st I became the retired pastor of the St. Mark Baptist Church. I was brought to this circumstance because our church disbanded this past June 30th. As the church’s last pastor I take full responsibility for our dissolution due officially to a lack of numerical growth and inability to meet our financial obligations. I take responsibility for several reasons. First, for fourteen and one half years I have preached the Gospel and the whole counsel of God uncompromised. Many do not want to hear about sin and holy living anymore but only what God will do to meet their felt needs.
Second, I was unwilling to adopt constant entertainment, worldly tricks and gimmicks as methodology for getting people into our church. We did do many creative outreach events including block parties, Vacation Bible School and evangelistic concerts featuring Christian artists. We also went door to door in our neighborhood several times and taught our people friendship evangelism. We did community ministry involving mentoring, sports and prison evangelism, direct mail etc. Thousands were reached, some visited but not enough stayed to take root. Third, in fear and honor of the Lord I ran an orderly and tight ship of integrity--too tight for many religion minded persons.
Last, of course, my stand on God’s fixed order for the family in the home and His church thoroughly explained in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics served as a bone of contention in and outside of our congregation. My stand invited slanderous verbal persecution against me, much of it from professed Christians. In all these things I have wept before the Lord and been comforted by Him as He made me understand His own pain from sinful humanity including that which I too had brought Him. True to His ways, the Lord was not letting the man commissioned by Him to write urging other men to become strong in Him escape the painful process.
In the same way I am not a perfect man, in no way do I wish to convey I was a perfect pastor who was a victim of all the things I have written. I made some people skill and judgment mistakes along the way. Reflecting back, in spite of the difficulties I had much joy seeing the few “get it.” I also closed the eyes of a number of saints I look forward to seeing again in glory--praise the Lord!
In the end, our remaining members acted with nobility in being willing to dissolve the church rather than fire their pastor because they found no fault with my essential doctrines, lifestyle or leadership. I am honored and blessed that they should think so highly of me. With the tears of God’s heart break in my heart, I have given myself over fully to the work of restoring men, their families and communities as my future that perhaps there will be many as a result that escape the world’s turn to experience His foretold dark days of judgment drawing ever closer.
As noted by not a few conservative Christian commentators, one of the buzz phrases of the secular culture today is “the right side of history.” When secularists or even professed Christians say this in tragic support of pressing their social agendas that transgress God’s Word in the Bible, they are most certainly failing to grasp the stark testimony of history. For the physical ruins of every ancient kingdom and empire of men are with us to this very hour as a reminder mortals cannot finally prevail in having their way against the living God!1 Consequently, those who oppose God are on the wrong side of history as His fulfilled prophetic Word to date through Daniel among others certifies.
Having reached the end of his prayer of confession, repentance and intercession seeking God’s mercy for Israel through forgiveness and restoration, Daniel receives a prophetic reply from God by way of an angel that is staggeringly far beyond the immediate historical situation. Praying as he was near the end of Israel’s seventy years of dispersion from the land and captivity to Babylon, God gives Daniel a prophetic timeline with key events in it that not only affect his people, but originating from them, the whole world and reaching into eternity! Daniel was instructed by God’s messenger, Gabriel, to ‘“consider the matter, and understand the vision,’” (Daniel 9:23, NKJV).
First, God set ‘“seventy weeks’” as the time length for all of His purposes and the events of His prophetic timeline to be fulfilled (Daniel 9:24-27, NKJV). While Israel was in the midst of finishing seventy literal years of captivity, the seventy weeks are not intended to be understood as literal seven day weeks which would yield four hundred and ninety days. No, here is where the author of the study notes in my New King James Bible and other reputable contemporary translations agree that “weeks” in the Hebrew should literally be understood “sevens” as in seven year spans. Consequently, it is seventy sevens or seven year spans totaling four hundred and ninety years. There is a plan and end!
Second, Daniel was told this period of time was ‘“determined’” by God ‘“for your people and for your holy city’” that had so concerned him in his prayer ‘“to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy,’” (Daniel 9:24, NKJV). God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer for Israel is in complete concert with His purposes of salvation for them and us Gentiles! During the time allotted, Israel is to finish their specific transgression against God bound up in their unique historical covenant relationship with Him as descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:15, 19:1-6).2
Too, in God’s prophetic timeline an end of sins that hopelessly separated all men from and reconciliation back to Him would occur. Truly, God is telling Daniel of things only He could accomplish! How, is powerfully signaled by the specific mention of Israel’s long before Daniel foretold ‘“Messiah the Prince’” and His intercessory agency (Genesis 22:15-18, 49:10; Isaiah 49:5-6, 61:1-3) in Daniel 9:25-26, NKJV. Messiah would also cause eternally enduring righteousness to come to redeemed mankind and under His up close royal administration, end the prophetic ministry as well as gloriously restore the Temple of God in Jerusalem (Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:1-10, 60:13; Jeremiah 23:5-8).3
Last, God’s vision to Daniel is very specific about the events and their timing in His timeline which history recorded in and out of the Bible proves to be perfectly accurate. Indeed, they follow in order after the official end of the Babylonian captivity with the decree of Persian King Cyrus who was himself divinely foretold (2 Chronicles 36:15-23; Isaiah 44:24-45:5). Interestingly, while it is not stated in Daniel 9:25, as Ezra and the post-exilic prophets Haggai and Zechariah record, building the second Jewish Temple is a priority of God when the people returned from captivity. Almost one hundred years pass before ‘“the command to restore and build Jerusalem’” in 445 B.C. and the attending troubles Nehemiah writes about launch God’s seventy sevens timeline (Daniel 9:25, NKJV).
Clearly, God’s timeline vision uniquely given to Daniel foretells when Israel could expect to see their Messiah since after the command concerning Jerusalem, seven sevens (49 years) and then sixty-two sevens (434 years) for a total of sixty-nine sevens (483 years) are set for as it turns out, His first coming.4 Nothing could or did stop His coming as Jesus of Nazareth who was conceived (Matthew 1:18-25), born where (Matthew 2:1-12), lived and ‘“cutoff, but not for Himself (declaring at His death, ‘“It is finished!’”)’” as foretold (Isaiah 53; Daniel 9:26a; John 19:14-42, NKJV). While not included in this vision to Daniel is the triumphant resurrection of Messiah after three days He foretold (Luke 18:31-34) or His ascension (Acts 1:9-11), in one earlier he saw His coronation (Daniel 7:13-14)!
Meanwhile, as the Lord Jesus Christ also foretold in complete agreement with the vision given to Daniel and history, nearly forty years later the Roman Empire--‘“the people of the prince who is to come’”--destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple yet again leaving them desolate in 70 A.D. (Daniel 9:26b; Matthew 23:37-24:2; Luke 19:41-44, 21:20-24, NKJV). An attempt by the Jews still living in the land to retake it and Jerusalem in 135 A.D. was also crushed by the Romans. From that point on as warned and foretold, they were scattered to the nations (Leviticus 26:27-35; Deuteronomy 28:64-66; Matthew 21:33-46). In under four hundred years after this, the Roman Empire joined its named predecessor Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Greek Empires among the ruins of history or did it?
1 This is the reason I hardly blink when critics among professed Christians insinuate this Ministry’s faithful instruction on the strong man and great woman of God is not in step with current popular Christian themes. God’s Word will never fail to stand right and true whatever the times or popular acceptance of people. If you want a life changing, enduring biblical word from the Lord on what you are supposed to be about as a Christian man or woman, get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics along with its companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study available at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
2 Read the two-part post that begins January 16, 2022, Arriving At These Times, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent.
3 Daniel 9:24 is another place in Scripture that asserts God’s intent to end the prophetic ministry during the Kingdom reign of Christ on earth at His return and not before as the erroneous, contrary presupposition held by many especially conservative religious educated elites maintains. See the two-part post that begins August 2, 2020, Flavor- less Salt Is Worthless, under the category, Call To Repent taking special note of the fourth footnote in part one.
4 See the August 22, 2021 post, The King Of Israel, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
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