The Scourge Of Racism
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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).
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.
As the Lord leads, I write to encourage the hearts of His faithful saints in the aftermath of my posts from July 4, 2021. In particular, I remind you that all we temporarily now, and will suffer through to the end of our mortal lives or the return of our Lord Jesus Christ is worth it since we are richly rewarded by Him eternally (Romans 8:18)! Until then, you know that it is our privilege to suffer to whatever extent we do in His likeness and cause to His glory (1 Peter 4:12-16). Trust me; I already know this is easier said than done. Yet, this is God’s will for us in spite of the falsehood in much of American Christianity that makes personal dream fulfillment, health and material prosperity its focus.
What exactly are we suffering for at the end of the day as Christians? Is it not for the sake of Christ as His followers and the Kingdom of God He represents as King and Judge?1 Yes, and He does not deceive us about the cost of following Him until He returns to bring the Kingdom of God to earth declaring plainly to all: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (an instrument of suffering and death), and follow Me,” (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23, NKJV). Moreover, He soberly urges such ones to “count the cost” which is very steep in prioritizing first love for and sacrificial service to Him in His Kingdom causes (Luke 14:25-35, NKJV).2
This is just as He also lived and served His Father during His earthly sojourn; suffering the agony and humiliation of being crucified naked on a Roman cross to bring about our salvation as foretold (Psalm 22:1-18; Isaiah 53:1-9; John 3:13-17, 19:28-30). As our example in everything, He who insists we be prepared to suffer for Him and His Kingdom causes, suffered first and far greater than any of us that follow Him ever will (Matthew 10:16-33; John 15:18-25; 1 Peter 2:18-25)!3 Thus, as those redeemed for the Kingdom we suffer for its present message in the Gospel from God calling mankind to repent of sin and believe on King Jesus for salvation (Luke 24:46-48; Acts 17:30-31)!
Too, we suffer now, as He did for the Kingdom’s transcendent eternal principles, morality and ethics well articulated in the Bible (Psalm 119:89; Luke 21:33). God has given men freewill and the right to refuse the Gospel and Kingdom. Stirred by demons and hardened in heart by sin, many who reject the Gospel and Kingdom are not simply content with rejection, but feel it necessary to persecute believers among other wicked motives to justify themselves. The uncompromising stand of the faithful our God is “the only true God,” His Gospel the only means of mankind’s salvation and His Word the sole “truth” infuriates them (Isaiah 43:10-13, 44:6-8; John 3:18-21, 17:1-3, 14-17, NKJV).
Atheists, other secular unsaved, jaded unbelieving professed Christians as weak or outright false brethren and religionists along with apostates persecute the faithful around the earth with hostile mockery, scoffing, exclusion from family and community relations as well as support, destruction of personal and church properties, incarceration, physical violence and martyrdom as foretold. As also foretold, however, God will vindicate the suffering His saints have endured and our long wait in faith since the 1st century A.D. for it beginning with the destruction of counterfeit Christianity’s mother (Revelation 17:1-19:4). This is followed by Christ’s glorious return (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)!
On that special one of a kind day, God in Christ will show the world how much He valued the faithfulness of His saints by glorifying us for all to unavoidably see. For the dead in Christ that are raised and His mortal remnant will receive from Him their immortal bodies aglow with the brilliant eternal glory of God shining from them against the backdrop of the darkened heavens as we obey His summons to join His glorious presence in the sky (Isaiah 13:9-10; Daniel 12:2-3; Zechariah 14:5b-7; Mark 13:24-27; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)! For most of the unsaved on that day, our eternal glorification will be among the last things they see alive on earth.
Gentile survivors with the protected elect Jewish remnant will see our reign with Christ over this earth and universe follow our glorification and full outpour of divine wrath (Daniel 7:13-14, 21-22, 27; Revelation 7:1-8, 20:4-6). We will reign as kings and judges as with all things pertaining to the eternal Christian life, in the image of Christ!4 This is exceedingly greater than Noah and Lot’s after wrath experiences! So then, let the faith in our God of the faithful--even every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ--take to heart all He has promised us as vindicating victory and be comforted in “the whole counsel” of His Word (Acts 20:27, NKJV).5 This is as I wrote to you in a previous word of encouragement.6 Our suffering for Christ is not in vain (James 5:7-12).
1 Read the August 1, 2021 post, Jesus Christ King And Judge!, under the category, Instruction.
2 See the two-part post beginning August, 18, 2019, Lined Up Behind Jesus, under the category, Instruction.
3 See the two-part post beginning May 17, 2020, Persecution, Hatred And Betrayal and Persecution Of American Christians Intensifying on November 29, 2020, both under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 Read the July 19, 2020 post, Ruling The Earth Under Christ, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ are the Lord’s faithful! The book and companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study are available at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
6 See the August 16, 2020 post, To The Word Of God!, under the category, Encouragement.
If ‘“the people of the prince who is to come’” (Daniel 9:26b, NKJV) are those of the first century Roman Empire identified in a previous post as history also affirms,1 then, how can this future prince or ruler to emerge from them be the “he” of Daniel 9:27a, NKJV since the Empire ceased to exist after their capital city, Rome, was overrun and conquered by barbarians in the fifth century A. D.? In chapter two of Daniel, God explains how this is possible through a dream He gave Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, and provided a much younger Daniel the interpretation (Daniel 2:19-23). In chapters of his book that follow, God also reveals details to Daniel about this coming prince.
As Daniel’s dream interpretation asserts and history attests, the Roman Empire was “divided” West and East in 292 A.D. by Caesar Diocletian (Daniel 2:31-42, NKJV). It was the western half that was brought down by barbarians in 476 A.D. while the eastern half continued and thrived; eventually morphing into the Byzantine Empire that fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in the West took it upon itself to preserve Western Civilization embedded in the heritage of the Roman Empire and played king maker among those European lands that came under its sway. The Orthodox Church of the eastern Empire did the same reaching as far north as Russia.
Thus, with the mingled “seed of men” West and East, much of the Roman Empire’s legacy of governance, knowledge and culture garnered especially from others they assimilated such as the Greeks for example, has been kept alive (Daniel 2:43, NKJV). Important among the intermingled peoples that have tangibly kept much of the heritage of the Roman Empire alive is our own United States of America. The colonial product primarily of the British Empire once itself in large part a conquest of Rome, it can be seen in our preservation and promulgation of Western Civilization, republic form of national government, its building architecture, democracy and eagle as an emblem.
Our nation’s Roman legacy is shared in common with other nations also spawned by the imperialism of the British Empire and major players of mainland Western Europe it continues ties to that Rome previously ruled or dominated. While our nation is as strong as iron on the battlefield normally, many acknowledge our political and social fragility as well as fragmentation which with all other democratic nations possessing Rome’s legacy, perfectly fits Daniel’s brittle, two feet profile of division. The brief history of democracy as even fine tuned by our nation and turbulent current events proves Daniel is correct that the strength of iron is not mixing well with weak, fragile clay.2
Ancient unified Rome’s assimilation of other kingdoms under the Caesars did not stop with adopting and/or adapting the aforementioned items of their civilizations, but also entailed the spiritual characteristics and methods that show up in their raw ambition for dominion and territorial expansion through conquest respectively. For this cause, despite what will have been a relative few centuries of democratic governments compared to human monarchies, this present world ends with “kings” and “kingdoms” again that are broken into “pieces” and consumed by God’s Kingdom from Heaven.3 His Kingdom will not be “destroyed” or “left to other people” and is “forever,” (Daniel 2:44-45, NKJV)!4
Indeed, a later vision given to Daniel and New Testament prophecy converge and complement each other as it is revealed that after the physical fall of predecessor kingdoms Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and unified Rome, a divided Rome’s two feet with their spiritual qualities and methods move forward in final form to ten toes as “ten horns” or kings that rule the world (Daniel 7:1-7, NKJV). It is very important to understand why the spiritual qualities and methods of these kingdoms do not change over time. It is because as Daniel learned in yet another vision they are from the same source: eternally living demons (Daniel 10:10-14, 20-21; Revelation 12:3, 13:1-2)!5
This latter time Roman Empire divided among ten kings exists in de facto form when the prince to come begins his rise to prominence. He does this by negotiating a seven year ‘“covenant’” with Israel that allows the Jews to conduct animal sacrifices on the grounds of their newly built third Temple in the face of an angry world (Daniel 9:27a; Revelation 11:1-2, NKJV). This starts the final seven years of God’s prophetic timeline vision! Due to the world’s violent hostility and for more ‘“prophesy’” to it, God brings out His ‘“two witnesses’” He gives ‘“power’” to protect Israel for ‘“one thousand two hundred and sixty days;’” the first half of the seven years (Revelation 11:3-6, NKJV).
1 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview.
2 America earned its leadership of the West on the battlefields of Europe in two World War victories being as strong as iron. However, the sedition of Southern States leading to the Civil War of history and on the brink of collapse now, with angrily intensifying political and social divisions in disunity shows how fragile our nation has been and is.
3 Our democracy may be the best system of government ever invented by noble men seeking to honor God by installing His great spiritual, moral and ethical teachings of the Bible in its founding documents. However, as they themselves acknowledged, the experiment would fail unless the people were biblically moral. And we see today they were right! For this reason, perhaps, the Lord did suffer the creation of our nation as a final, failed best effort of sinful men to govern themselves. What we need and only God can provide is His Kingdom of perfect righteousness! Even so, I am grateful to God and pleased to have been born a fallen sinner and citizen of America where in freedom, I heard His Gospel, repented, believed and now, live out my days in peace with Him; serving and waiting for His Kingdom to come!
4 The nearness of God’s coming Kingdom should stir every Christian man’s heart to prepare. Bench sitting in these times will not do! Get stirred up reading the series the Lord led me to write in the summer of 2017 beginning July 30th, Restoring Men In The Two Minute Drill, under the categories Bible Prophecy and The Cause that concludes September 3rd and also serves as a great supplement to this post. Too, get 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 Again, the control and manipulation of mortal men and their worldly kingdoms which belong to him is a vitally strategic part of Satan’s war against God (Luke 4:5-8).
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.
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.
Daniel holds nothing back of the truth in confessing the transgression, sin and iniquity of his people, Israel, he righteously characterized as rebellion in their departure from God’s written Word. Twice in his confession he also points up the people’s disobedience to God’s direct instruction and warnings to them through His prophets (Daniel 9:6, 10). Besides Moses and Isaiah of the greatest of these prophets (Deuteronomy 28; Isaiah 1), Jeremiah and Ezekiel Daniel’s contemporaries were used mightily of God to graphically present and cry out against their sin, call for their repentance and pronounce His judgment upon their stubborn refusal to do so (Jeremiah 2, 11:11-17; Ezekiel 8, 12).
No, the shame of Babylonian captivity Daniel also asserts twice in his confession to God did not come without prior warning over many years in His longsuffering, forbearance and readiness to mercifully forgive as Israel ‘“rebelled against Him,’” (Daniel 9:7-9, NKJV). Thus, it was that after long sounding his trumpet of warning, Daniel’s fellow prophet in exile, Ezekiel, as God’s watchman to the rebellious captives (whose ministry my own is patterned) learned Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of the Babylonians and directed by Him, announced its complete desolation (Ezekiel 33:1-9, 21-29). Praying with painful hindsight and agreement with God’s written Word, Daniel confesses to Him why.
He prays: ‘“Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law and has departed so as not to obey Your voice.’” As a foretold consequence, he acknowledges they now, had a desolate homeland, holy city, Jerusalem, and Temple as righteous judgment from God (Daniel 9:11-12, NKJV). I remind us in America again that Israel is the only chosen people and nation of God in history.4 Yet, He brought upon them His righteous judgment stemming from their departure from His Word in disobedience as well as stubborn refusal to repent. Now, if He did this to Israel, where do the many guilty in our nation get off asserting an exceptional standing that exempts us from the same (Jeremiah 25:15-29)?
This is a great falsehood in the land that is working tangible desolations commensurate with the nation’s moral ruin (Micah 3:8-12). For in the arrogance of this self-deceit, the guilty are refusing to humble themselves and repent before God Almighty while He intensifies the desolations upon our nation in our plain view through calamities such as devastating storms, out of season tornadoes, wildfires and His unrelenting Coronavirus pestilence (Isaiah 45:6-7).5 Like Israel, will you foolishly continue not to see ‘“all this disaster has come upon us’” because of transgression, sin and iniquity refusing to repent and ‘“understand’” God’s ‘“truth,’” (Deuteronomy 31:14-32:47; Daniel 9:13, NKJV)?
The foregoing is especially heartbreaking in a land filled with so many professed Christians, their churches and religious educated elites that ostensibly know God and His truth fully written, but who willfully refuse to acknowledge the obvious for all manner of motives. Is not this scenario of spiritual dullness through preoccupation with Christianity as manmade religion how it is that the biblical instruction of salvation by grace through faith alone had to be uncovered again by Martin Luther, a broken and miserable German priest searching for the living God using his Latin Vulgate and Greek Bible translations after over a millennium of corrupt Catholicism usurped and buried it?
Because God is holy, righteous and just, sin not confessed and repented of always has consequences no matter who it is that is guilty! The plain fact is Israel in sin not confessed or repented of was guilty before God. Consequently, as Daniel declares soberly to God in his prayer about Israel’s obstinacy (and ours too), ‘“Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.’”6 He adds in simple humility, ‘“we have sinned, we have done wickedly;’” including himself in again with his people despite that he was godly (Daniel 9:14-15, NKJV).7 Daniel confessed and repented even though, Israel in the disaster as many today, still refused to do so!
In spite of his people’s failure to do right, Daniel closes his prayer appealing to God in all of His ‘“righteousness’” to ‘“let Your anger and fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem…,’” (Daniel 9:16, NKJV). God’s righteousness here was to honor His Word; the prophecy He gave Jeremiah to limit Jerusalem’s desolation at the time to “seventy years,” (Jeremiah 25:1-11; NKJV). Daniel then, appeals to God to hear him and take pity on the ‘“desolate’” state of His ‘“sanctuary’” as well as the ‘“desolations’” of the people as He looks out on the situation not in accord with their ‘“righteous deeds’” since they had none, but His ‘“great mercies,’” (Daniel 9:17-18, NKJV). Finally, he exhorts God to ‘“forgive…listen and act,’” (Daniel 9:19, NKJV). Should professed Christians pray otherwise?
4 See the two-part post that begins August 2, 2020, Flavorless Salt Is Worthless, under the category, Call To Repent.
5 Read the July 5, 2020 post, Decision At The Crossroads, under the category, Call To Repent. For all including professed Christians in unbelief that want to redefine God Almighty out of existence or in one’s personally determined image of Him, He is who He is and does what He pleases as it is written (Exodus 3:13-14; Psalm 135:-6; Isaiah 40:12-26)! As a result, mortals should fear in the face of His power rather than dismiss Him through hearts proudly hardened. Or don’t you realize that He who with a word instantly stilled storms (Mark 4:35-41) is also able to permit them with other calamities as works of Satan (Job 1:6-19; Lamentations 3:37-38; Amos 3:6b) and summon them at whatever intensity He wills as He shall do in His wrath before the end of these “latter days,” (Psalm 135:7; Jeremiah 25:30-38,30:23-24, NKJV)?
6 As the harlot daughters of Catholicism in the over 500 years since Luther launched the Protestant Reformation with his biblical rediscovery of God’s salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, the guilty have shared fully in their mother’s harlotries of disobedience, feat of choking off sound doctrine and being stubbornly unwilling to repent. This is to their terminal judgment with their mother (2 Timothy 3:1-12; Revelation 16:19b, 17-19:4)!
7 While in my book,The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the Lord leads me to hold up faithfulness as the character trait Daniel exemplifies, obviously humility is also among the many character traits of Christ and the aspiring strong man of God in His image he displays. Get my book along with its 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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