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 |  Subject: Daniel’s Seal Broken─The Beasts Arise  Sun Jul 28, 2013 5:12 pm | |
| Daniel’s Seal Broken─The Beasts Arise
A Breakthrough In EschatologySample from: Chapter 7.The Beasts Arise First of all we have to understand that God who created all things, gives this vision. Time is one of the dimensions of this universe that God created. He is not subject to it. He exists outside of time. He can see the end from the beginning. From his position above world history, he can look down upon, or even enter into any moment in that history.Because of this unique perspective, God does not have to describe the events of world history in linear order for them to be an accurate account. With God there is no past, present or future. There is only now.Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, those things that have not yet happened. Declaring, ‘My word shall be done, and I will do all that I wish’ [Isaiah 46:10]Beloved, don’t forget this one thing. That with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [2 Peter 3:8]When considering this vision, imagine you have a bird’s eye view. Look down on the events described as if you were looking at a map laid flat on the floor. This map of world history, past, present and future, begins with Daniel captive in Babylon and ends with Jesus Christ the Messiah taking over rule of the world.Consider it possible for the vision to start at any point in time on that map of history. It may describe the past, present, or future in any order, or simultaneously.1 During the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions in his mind, while he lay on his bed. So he wrote down the dream, summing up the main points.Note that this was the first year of the last king of Babylon. Belshazzar was ruling in the absence of his father: Nabonidus, who was elsewhere on business. Babylon was not arising, neither was Nabonidus or his son. Both they, and the kingdom were already established. Babylon had reached its zenith many years ago under Nebuchadnezzar.2 Daniel said, I saw in my vision by night, and beheld the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea.3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, different from each other. 4 The first was like a lion that had eagle’s wings. I watched until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on it’s feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.Wrongly connecting this vision with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter two, most commentators say this beast depicts Babylon.Q. Why?A. Because Babylon is the first of the four kingdoms in chapter two.Q. But why must it be the first in this vision?A. Because its the first beast to rise.And round in circles this mistaken thinking continues until we take time to look more carefully at what Daniel was told in verse seventeen.5 And look! Another beast, a second, like a bear. It raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between the teeth. And they said this to it: ‘Arise and devour much flesh’.Now that the first mistake has been made the commentators ignore the beasts by which God depicts Medo-Persia and Greece in chapter eight, to force-fit the interpretation of chapter two’s great image onto this one. They tell us the bear depicts the Medo-Persian Empire.Q. Why?A. Because that was the second empire after Babylon.But in chapter eight God gives Daniel a vision of a ram to depict that empire.6 After this I looked, and saw another, like a leopard, that had on its back four wings of a fowl. This beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.The commentators tell us this is Greece. The kingdom of Alexander the Great.Q. Why?A. Because it’s the third empire.But in chapter eight God depicts that kingdom by a goat.In chapter 8:26 the angel Gabriel links this vision with that of the ram and goat when he says: “And the vision of the evening and morning that was told is true.” This being the evening vision, and chapter eight, the morning vision. Why would God use two completely different beasts to depict the same empire, in visions that are linked together in the same book?Those who hold the view that the lion with eagle’s wings represents Babylon, can’t point to any historical or archaeological proof, other than lion images were used for decoration in Babylon. But that was, and still is true of many cities. I have heard a number of commentators say that the lions depicted on the wall of Babylon’s processional street have wings. If the image below is not clear enough, you can view it at this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate. What you will see is the artists rendering of the lion’s mane that these people are wrongly calling a wing. Lion mural on the wall of Babylon’s processional street. Morehttp://danielsealbroken.wordpress.com/a-breakthrough-in-eschatology/
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