Lesson 10 Daniel 7, part 3

[0:00] for them, although I'm recording it, so those of you that are leaving early, you're probably going to want to grab the audio and check that out. So let's open with a word of prayer.

[0:12] Father, you are good, you are kind, and you are powerful, and you are sovereign, and we trust you. And I pray, as the Father prayed about his Son to Jesus, help our unbelief.

[0:29] Help us to believe more deeply, help our faith to grow, help us to know you, to understand how you think, what you expect of us, how we should live.

[0:41] And Lord, I pray that we would be pleasing to you in all that we do, in Christ's name, amen. Amen. So we've been in Daniel chapter 7 for, this makes three weeks, and this will be it.

[0:55] I'm going to be done with Daniel 7 today. Not because we've exhausted it, but because it's just time to move on. Alright? So let's just review, just for a second, kind of what we've talked about.

[1:09] We've talked about the four beasts, and the four beasts, we were told, represents four kingdoms. We've also looked how those four kingdoms of the four beasts are parallel to Daniel chapter 2, and the statue of gold, silver, bronze, and iron.

[1:29] And so we had Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. And that's sort of what we said the first time that we met as we looked at that. We looked at the parallels, and we said that's what that was.

[1:42] The second thing we talked about was what I call the fifth kingdom, which in Daniel chapter 2 was a stone that becomes a mountain, right? And it was also in Daniel chapter 7, the Son of Man, who then shares that kingdom with all the saints of God.

[2:01] It's a kingdom, and one of the things we talked about is that the kingdom starts small and it grows, right? It's a present reality with us, and it's the kingdom that will ultimately be victorious as it puts to end all the other kingdoms.

[2:20] We also talked about the Ancient of Days, and how this is a picture of God, God, and who He is, and how He is our comfort, because He is a sovereign God, ruler over all things.

[2:34] Okay? So, that leaves us basically with one little detail to try to jump into, and that's to try to understand the little horn. What is the little horn?

[2:45] Who is the little horn? That kind of a thing. And so, I want to divide this up with four questions today. And the first question we're going to look at is, what is this little horn?

[2:56] And I want to do this, and I think on your sheet, the way I have it is kind of the initial, the second, the third, and the fourth, because there's four places that the horn is talked about in Daniel chapter 7.

[3:09] Okay? So, the first initial vision is in verse 8, where Daniel says, while I was contemplating the horns, that's the ten horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it, and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts.

[3:36] Now, remember, this is apocalyptic language. This is apocalyptic vision. He sees something, and you don't just start saying, this is what everything is.

[3:51] You've got to get the vision right. You've got to look for clues that he tells you what this is before you start saying what it is. Right? So, we're just going to kind of look at what it says about the horn.

[4:01] Right? It's another horn, and it's a little one. It came up among the ten horns, but three horns are pulled out by the roots.

[4:12] It has eyes like a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts. Now, that's just what it is. Why does it have eyes?

[4:23] Why does it have a mouth? These are questions that we're not ready to answer, because this is just the vision of it. This is just what it looks like. And so, if you can imagine the head of a beast with ten horns, and three of them being pulled out by the roots, and another one coming up in its place, but with eyes and a mouth.

[4:42] I mean, that's just so bizarre to even think about. And there's a reason that it's bizarre. Right? There's a reason that we're not told what kind of beast the fourth beast is, because it's a monstrosity.

[4:55] Right? So, there's the initial vision. Then we get a second part of the vision in verse 11. Verse 11 says, Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking.

[5:11] I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. Now, here in this second part of the vision, Daniel is drawn to the boastful words of the horn.

[5:27] Like, he doesn't talk about the eyes. He doesn't talk about the other three horns that were pulled out. He's looking at the boastful words of the horn. That's what draws his attention. And we've got to keep that in mind, because that's going to be a key thing throughout all of this, is these boastful words of the horn.

[5:44] Right now, we're not told what those boastful words are. We just know that it's got an arrogance to it, and so that mouth is speaking. But it's interesting, because this also gives us a bit of judgment.

[5:57] It says that the fourth beast is slain. And I find that fascinating, that it's the beast that's slain, but it doesn't say the horn is slain.

[6:08] We might draw the conclusion that the beast is slain, therefore the horn is slain, but I don't know that we can draw that conclusion. Right? I mean, we might think to ourselves that that would be a fair conclusion, and maybe down the line, that would be something that we can see.

[6:23] But for now, we're just going to say that the beast was destroyed, and given to burning fire. Now, I mean, obviously, you could begin to let your mind run, and you could begin to think, you know, the book of Revelation, and you could start thinking about fire and judgment and stuff, but don't do that just yet, okay?

[6:39] Not just yet. All right. So that's the second part of the vision. Now let's get to the third part of the vision, verse 20 and 21, and here's what the text says, and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts, and which was larger in appearance than its associates.

[7:08] I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them. Okay. So this is Daniel talking, right? So he's gotten this vision. He walks up to somebody and says, what does this mean?

[7:22] The angel tells him, okay, this means this, and tells him in verse like 17 and 18, this is four kingdoms, it's going to be four kingdoms, and then God's going to come and destroy everything.

[7:33] And that's all he says. It's just very small interpretation. So Daniel, though, is still fascinated by the beast, and so he's still talking, and he's writing out and telling us, but I'm interested in the fourth beast, I'm interested in the little horn, and he tells us more of what he has seen.

[7:52] In other words, what I'm saying to you is this. This third part, verse 20 and 21, is not yet interpretation. It is further vision.

[8:03] Okay. It's further vision. So let's see what kind of things that he has to say here. The horn comes up because three of the previous horns fall.

[8:22] Now, instead of being said that they're ripped out by the roots, they just fall. Okay. So I'm not sure of the difference there, but there you go. It still has eyes. It still has a mouth uttering great boast.

[8:34] But the new part of this is that the horn was now larger in appearance than the others. And that's interesting since it's been called a little horn. It's been, here's this little horn, here's this little horn, but it's larger in appearance now.

[8:48] And I think it's because maybe it grows or something like that. But then verse 22, okay, I have not put 22 up here. Somebody read verse 22 for me. Chapter 7, verse 22.

[8:59] And the ancient of days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High. And the time came when they possessed the kingdom.

[9:11] Okay. If you trace that out, kind of what's being said in verse 22, as the ancient of days brings judgment, the saints receive a kingdom and the fourth beast is slain.

[9:23] Okay. So even though it doesn't say in verse 22, the beast is slain, that's the point. Okay. Because judgment comes. And here's what's interesting. Is that this is the second time judgment is talked about.

[9:36] If you go back up to verse 9, 10, 11, and 12, you'll see judgment is there as well. And we're going to come back to that. But my point is this. This vision, Daniel is telling us about this vision.

[9:48] We get the judgment. And then Daniel tells us again about this vision. And we get the judgment. It's what's called recapitulation. Recapitulation.

[9:59] He is retelling the same story again and again. He sees the vision. He tells us about it. He sees the vision. He tells us about it. I'm saying that because that's the way apocalyptic literature works.

[10:15] When you read the book of Revelation, it's the same story told seven times. The book of Revelation is not chronological from chapter 1 to chapter 21.

[10:28] It's the same period of time told from different angles with different images seven different times. It's recapitulation.

[10:39] That's the idea. And we see this right here in Daniel chapter 7. So he's waging war against the saints until this judgment comes and the saints are given a kingdom.

[10:52] That's what verse 20, 21, 22 tells us. So now we're to the fourth part of this. And now we get more interpretation. We get a little interpretation here in verse 23 through 25.

[11:05] This is what the angel or whoever is talking to Daniel says. The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.

[11:22] As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise. Another will arise after them and he will be different from the previous ones and subdue three kings.

[11:40] He will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law and they, that's the saints, will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

[12:04] All right. So there's a lot to cover in that. Just walking through those verses, here's what we're seeing. We're seeing the fourth beast is a kingdom and we know that already.

[12:18] We've kind of seen he said that in the first interpretation, 17 and 18. But this king or this kingdom, remember the word king and the word kingdom can be used interchangeably through here, right?

[12:31] You can't have a kingdom without a king and you can't have a king without a kingdom. And then you can even notice places in other parts of Daniel where he's comparing those two. For example, in Daniel chapter 2, he talks about that this is four kingdoms and the head of gold is a kingdom.

[12:46] But then he says to Nebuchadnezzar, you're the head of gold. Okay. Secondly, this kingdom was different from the others. I think that's an important thing. It's not like the others.

[12:57] It's different. And it's different in the fact that it devours the whole earth. Right? It devours the whole earth. It crushes it. That's the same sort of image we get from those iron and clay legs and feet that it's just a crushing, stomping kind of thing.

[13:16] And if that's the Roman Empire, that totally makes sense as we look at how vast it became in its time period. We see in verse 24 that these ten kings arise out of the fourth beast.

[13:29] In other words, the beast exists first, then the ten kings come up, or kingdoms, then the one horn. There seems to be this language here in the interpretation to make us think that there's an order of events that's happening here.

[13:48] First the beast, then the horns, then the little horn. The little horn will be different from the other ten horns. Right? And this is repeated throughout the chapter that the beast is different, but the horn is different.

[14:01] So if the beast is different from the other beast, this horn is different from the other horns, there's something about it that is significant. It's different. Something is not like all these others.

[14:13] Right? So it's like looking at your highlights magazine and going like, which one of these is not like the others? Verse 24, he will also subdue three kings or kingdoms.

[14:24] Our kingdoms. And notice here, the horn is said that he. Instead of the horn will do this or a king will do this, it just uses a personal pronoun.

[14:35] He will do this. I think that's kind of fascinating. Verse 25, he will speak out against the Most High. Okay, now here's the boastful words. This is the mouth of the boastful words.

[14:45] It is a speaking against God. It's a railing against God. It's a boastful against God. God, whatever these words are, this horn is blaspheming God.

[15:00] That's the point. Right? We're also told in verse 25 that he will wear down the saints. The word wear down means to oppress or persecute.

[15:12] So in the image, he saw him warring against the saints. And in the interpretation, we're told that he wears down the saints or he persecutes them. So I think that the war, that the little horn wages against God's people, against the saints, is that of persecution.

[15:30] Okay? So that's what that's going to be. And then verse 25, also he will intend to make alterations to times and law. That is, he is going to seek to rewrite the law of God, maybe related to the festivals and the other laws of God.

[15:49] He's going to come up with his own law, his own festivals, his own holy days. Okay? And then also, the saints were given into his hand for time, times, and half a time.

[16:01] So, so that's all the data. Okay? So let me summarize the data for us. Alright? These are the things that I think are the big picture that we need to take away from all of this information that we just heard.

[16:15] Number one, the horn is a blasphemer. The horn is a blasphemer. Okay? He's blaspheming God.

[16:27] And that's one of his key descriptions. Secondly, the horn seeks to destroy the saints.

[16:39] The horn seeks to destroy the saints. Number three, the horn has a limited time to work.

[16:55] The horn has a limited time to work. And number four, the horn arises from the Roman Empire.

[17:14] The horn arises from the Roman Empire. And fifth, the horn will be judged. The horn will be judged.

[17:26] Okay, so let me pause there. What we're not doing yet is trying to say exactly what these things are. We needed to get the data together and give us kind of a summary picture of this.

[17:38] But what I'm about to do is I'm going to go to the New Testament and I'm going to show you two passages that basically say some of the same things. Okay? So let me ask you if you have any questions about the data we've just looked at before we move on.

[17:50] Excellent. Okay. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Two New Testament passages that kind of I think will help fill out the picture for us, right?

[18:11] This is Paul writing to the church at Thessalonica and he says in verse 1, Now we request you brethren with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

[18:35] Let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God do you not remember while I was still with you I was telling you these things and you know what restrains him now so that in his time he will be revealed for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming that is the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan with all power and signs and false wonders and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved alright so a couple of things that we're seeing out of this passage we're seeing in verse 4 that whoever

[19:57] Paul's talking about this man of lawlessness is a blasphemer that's what he's doing in verse 4 he's opposing and exalting himself above every so called God or object of worship taking a seat in the temple and displaying himself as God he has a limited time to work verse 6-8 says that he is kept from working he's being restrained then he will work and then he'll be destroyed right so he's restrained then he's going to be let loose then he is going to be destroyed so he has a limited time to work third the work that he's doing is to deceive verse 9-10 he's deceiving with power signs false wonders deception of wickedness this is particularly so this passage is known to be talking about the antichrist right and so the spirit of antichrist is already at work so he calls him the man of lawlessness and then the mystery of lawlessness is already at hand and we're going to come back to that thought but just pointing that out and it says that he sits in the temple okay so here is here is probably the most controversial thing that I'm probably going to say okay and but good biblical interpretation you take the author at his own words

[21:26] Paul the apostle uses the term temple of God he uses it in other places in the new testament as a matter of fact he uses it one two three four five other times and I want us to look at all five of those real quick to understand what he means by temple of God because if you take your definition of temple of God and plug it in there you might think something different than what the apostle Paul is thinking so let's look at the first one first Corinthians 316 do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you who's Paul talking to he's talking to the Corinthian church to those believers and therefore to us right okay first Corinthians 317 if any man destroys the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are so again he's talking to believers talking to the believers at Colossians not Colossians that's Sunday morning to Corinth and therefore talking to us we got two more in Corinthians 1 Corinthians 619 or do you not know that your body is a temple of the

[22:42] Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and that you are not your own so he's referring to the body of Christ as the temple of the Holy Spirit right both individually as well as collectively as a group 2 Corinthians 616 or what agreement has the temple of God with idols for we are the temple of the living God just as God said I will dwell in them and among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people so not only is he saying that the church is the temple of God but he's using covenant language saying I will be their God and they will be my people okay and then the final one is in the book of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 21 in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord I should have added a few more verses for you to get the context there I apologize verse 20 and then verse 22 I think it is this is speaking about how

[23:44] Jews and Gentiles are now one new man okay and so he's saying that they're being built into a house into the temple of God every one of the references from Paul the apostle as he talks about the temple of God is he's not talking about a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem he's talking about the church of the living God and that is probably the most controversial thing I'll say and some of you are sitting there going like how's that controversial because you already agree with me and that's so good that's good okay so those are the things we see out of Thessalonians you can see some connections between them right between what we read in Daniel about the little horn and what you see in 2nd Thessalonians y'all have a safe trip well let's let's take a look at Revelation chapter 13 okay let's see some more here chapter 13 and the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore and then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea having ten horns and seven heads and on his horns were ten diadems and on his heads were blasphemous names and the beast which I saw was like a leopard and his feet were like those of a bear and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority I saw one of the heads as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast they worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast and they worshipped the beast saying who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him there was given him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months it was given to him and he opened his mouth and blasphemies against

[25:52] God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle that is those who dwell in heaven it was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him and all who dwell on the earth will worship him everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world and the book of life of the lamb who has been slain if anyone has an ear let him hear if anyone is destined for captivity to captivity he goes if anyone kills with a sword with a sword he must be killed here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints okay there's a lot there we're not going to touch on everything but you can kind of see some of the parallels already starting to kind of form right things like there's a beast that rises out of the sea with ten horns seven heads we don't care about the seven heads are right now but he's got ten horns or ten diadons right he's rising out of the sea just like in Daniel chapter seven all four of these beasts come out of the sea not only that but this the beast in Daniel seven we have a leopard a bear and a lion and so does this beast right this has got all three of those plus it has seven heads so it's kind of a monstrosity kind of beast number four like right he has he speaks arrogant words and blasphemies he has authority for a limited time 42 months which by the way 42 months three and a half are the same right verse six he is against

[27:33] God's tabernacle which is those who dwell in heaven in other words he's against the saints verse seven he wages war against the saints so there we go and we've got all these connections between all three passages so let me summarize them one this this horn will seek to be worshipped speak out against God will make war on the saints and has a limited time to work let me talk about the limited time for just a second time times half a time is one two and a half so it's three and a half three and a half whatever the word could mean years the word could mean just period of time and it's been used and translated in lots of different ways or interpreted in lots of different ways but it's three and a half if it's three and a half years 42 months matches that so does 1260 days okay and so you see these three numbers in all of this when we get into further into daniel we're going to see 1260 days that kind of a thing and so in some places there's 1290 it kind of matches depending upon you know the calendar that you use that kind of thing the point is that we have all of this data now so what does it all mean what does it all mean well

[28:57] I have a chart for you and what I want to show you is kind of how different people throughout history have looked at this okay there are people there are godly people godly men and women theologians that differ about what these different images mean and we're going to look at it related to the ten horns the little horn the laws and the times and the time times and half a time there are I think I have five groups here there are what you call the futurists futurists what these and this is how you could fill in the across the top of that chart if you want to they see the ten horns as the revived Roman empire in other words as futurists they see everything in Daniel 7 as something that is still yet to be fulfilled that all of it is still something way out of the future or close to the future depending upon who it is and that's something that is all still yet to be fulfilled so the ten horns are revived from the empire the little horn is the antichrist figure that we've kind of all grown up hearing about the laws and times are going to be religious laws specifically related to the

[30:27] Jews because in this scheme not only do you have the revived Roman empire but you also have a rebuilt temple and those kinds of things and in the times times is the first three and a half years of the tribulation period that is normally considered to be the seven year tribulation so that's futurists okay and there are several different groups that fall into this category okay somebody like dr.

[30:57] ! David Jeremiah this is where he would be but also there's a guy named dr. James Hamilton who's also in this group but the two of them don't agree okay so I'm just saying this futurist has very it's not a monolithic group they've got a lot of variation in there in how things work okay we're not going to dive into all that because I don't want to explode your brain okay any questions about futurists before I move to the next category I just want to know the revived Roman Empire does that mean similar to the so what a lot of people will say is that because the last beast the fourth beast is the Roman Empire they know that Rome has fallen and so they're looking for the Roman Empire to come back again!

[31:45] the! little horn can come back so the actual nation of Rome yes that Roman Empire and so often times this is looked at as like when the European Union came together everybody began to say revive!

[32:02] Roman Empire you know and so you know yeah there you go maybe okay the next group is called Preterist Preterist the word Preterist has the idea of something that's already fulfilled okay so most of these and I got two groups of these because they look at it very differently but they think that all of these things have already been fulfilled okay that all of it's already happened and so we're not really looking for these things to happen so for them the ten horns!

[32:38] are ten provinces the senate of Rome because you'll remember one of the things the text says is that the fourth beast out of the fourth beast arose the ten kings so for them they would say that the beast would be say the senate and the horns might be the caesars right or they might say that the ten provinces that made up the Roman empire to begin with from that arose the senate and then from there came the caesars they would say the little horn would be all the caesars okay so not one single figure is in mind but several figures the changes of laws and times under the caesars you can just think about this they perverted every kind of law you could think about human law divine law you just think about Nero and all the things that he did and you can that

[33:39] God has appointed and put an end to the rain okay so they're not trying to give a specific distance of it but they're just saying the beginning and end of that rain is appointed by God all right so that's one preterist the second kind of preterist oh wait a minute let me do you need anything from here okay all right let's get the next group of preterists for them the things that does happen in time and space is that three of the caesars gave power to the herods the reason king herod was king in israel which was kind of an unusual thing in that period is because the caesars that were there while the herods were around gave power to the herods to be able to rule and reign that's why there's this play between Pilate and herod in the new testament so they see the little horn as being this herodian dynasty and maybe herod the great and obviously he has that boastful mouth you can go to

[34:48] Acts chapter 12 and see how the herod comes out and says you know the people say you've got the voice of a god and he says oh yes I do and then god strikes him dead right and so for then the three and a half years of Nero's persecution of the church and so they kind of put it all over the place there any questions what you'll find is that in each of these there there's a portion of something that they're saying that makes a whole lot of sense there's some things that they're saying that doesn't make sense but everyone all of these that I'm representing none of these people would be heretics these are all orthodox views we talked about the word orthodox before do y'all remember what that means a historist view the historist view is one that sees that it is fulfilled in the past but it sees it fulfilled perhaps several times or over the course of a long period of history okay and so for them the ten horns represent the ten provinces of the

[36:14] Roman Empire the little horn is the power of the Pope okay for them it was the power of the Pope and which kind of makes sense in this that if the man of lawlessness takes his seat in the temple of God and the temple of God is the church then you can kind of see why they would say that the Pope would be the Antichrist or that the power of the Pope would be the Antichrist the laws and times of course I mean the Roman Catholic Church has done all kinds of alterations to what God's word has said in terms of the laws and things you're supposed to do the different holy days that exist I mean you know from the Old Testament the holy days are basically what you know the feast of booths the feast of tabernacles and the feast of trumpets and that's that's it right and so what do you have in the Catholic Church I mean you've got November 1st All Saints Day I mean so adding to the holy days adding to the times but for them instead of saying time times and half times being three and a half years they take the 1260 and turn those 1260 days into years and so this whole system ends at the

[37:23] French Revolution which destroyed the power of the papacy right I mean the papacy was fairly strong had been kind of kicked out of France earlier but anything from the French Revolution pretty much just destroyed the power of the papacy in France yeah so it would go from about the fall of Rome and the pope coming to power to the 1700s no it's supposed to say 1260 years they changed so you know you got three and a half 42 and 1260 days so they changed 1260 days to 1260 years because the point is that this number is coming to us in apocalyptic language and so we don't know what this ought to be so it being symbolic of a period of time is not a problem it's really not okay anybody else let's go to the last one what okay the idealist the idealist sees the ten horns as a fragment of kingdoms that were there after the fall of

[38:42] Rome okay so the fall of Rome and broke up into lots of different kingdoms and they just they don't see ten as a literal number but just as a kind of a symbolic number of these broken up kingdoms the little horn is both type and anti-type so let me explain that for you for just a second the new testament uses a word called tapos uses it in first corinthians and the word means like easter egg or shadow and substance so think about this one of the one of the best examples in the new testament is in john checker three verse 15 where where jesus is talking to nicodemus and he says as moses raised up the serpent and the wilderness even so must the son of man be raised up okay why did moses raise up the serpent in the wilderness right everybody all the children of israel with moses they're complaining and god sends serpents to bite them so they're being bitten and as they're being bitten some of them are dying so god tells moses make a serpent out of bronze it looks like these serpents put it on a pole go outside the camp raise it up tell them that if they look at the serpent they'll be healed so jesus says as moses lifted up the serpent even so must the son of man be lifted up and then he says for god so loved the world right so so you've got the serpent the bronze serpent is the type jesus on the cross is the anti-type the serpent on the pole is the shadow and jesus on the cross is the substance the bible works this way where you've got these these things in the old testament that are shadowy object lessons of the substance of the real thing you know how god told moses to go build the tabernacle he says build it according to the pattern that i've shown you the pattern was in heaven right so that's the substance and what was here on earth is the shadow now let me just pause does that make sense what i'm saying it's kind of like saying that jonah being in the belly of the well three three days is like a picture or an image or an object lesson related to the resurrection of jesus christ right he's in the tomb for three days and he rose up that's the way the bible kind of works so what the idealists say is that this little horn has had lots of different antichrist fulfillment throughout history but still awaiting a final antichrist figure that seems to be coming okay um then any kind of corruption in law or anything is what's there and you'll see because i'm going to talk about this in just a second this is the idea that each of these types each of these little antichrist have created all kinds of chaos with the laws that they have brought forward and then the last category the time times and half a times for them is the entire interadvental period do you know what that means interadvental okay so it's the word advent what does the word advent mean coming who is that related to advent jesus right so enter is between so it's between the two comings of christ the first coming the incarnation the second coming when he comes in judgment and ends everything this group sees that this whole thing is talking about the entire period

[42:42] between the first and second coming of christ okay now put your put your paper away and we're going to take a test so I'm not sure that any one system captures all the truth completely I think each system has got a little bit of truth in it that we can kind of pull from it seems difficult to say that all of this has already been fulfilled there seems to be some of it that seems to be coming especially as you read thessalonians and you read revelation there seems to be a future element to it but also there does seem to be some sort of things that look like fulfillment in the past you can see some fascinating connections and so

[43:45] I think that the way we have to look at this is we just have to say okay what was the whole point of this and I think it's fascinating that the very last verse of Daniel chapter 7 says this at this point the revelation ended and as for me Daniel my thoughts were greatly alarming to me and my face repel this makes Daniel nervous he has studied Isaiah Jeremiah he knows Solomon and all that has taken place with Solomon he's a student of the word and they're in captivity he knows we're going to find in chapter 9 he knows that they're supposed to be there for 70 years but yet God is giving him a vision to the end of time and he is disturbed because he can see yes God wins in the end but there's a long time to get between here and there and he kept the matter in his heart except he wrote it down for us you know and I think one of the things that we have to do is that it's a sobering reality to know what we're about to face wisdom remember this is wisdom literature wisdom does not hide the reality of the situation wisdom does not live in pie in the sky escapism wisdom sees the reality of what is going to happen and says okay we have to be ready you cannot have an escapist mindset that says we are going to get out of this

[45:31] I mean I'm going to tell you something whether the future has us not going through some seven year tribulation or not the point is this we're not going to escape persecution because whether the futurist are right the idealist are right or whomever we're still going to go through difficult times and to have a mindset that says this is not going to come to Medina is very wrong headed and we have to be wise and the way to be wise is to recognize that things are going to go from bad to worse and we just need to be ready for that and I think Daniel's alarm and pale face just reminds us to be sober minded in our thinking about these things but the second thing that I want to talk about is that God puts an end to everything in verse 11 I kept looking until the beast was slain in verse 22 the angel of days came and judgment was passed verse 26 but the court will sit for judgment and his dominion the beast dominion will be taken away and he'll be annihilated and destroyed forever in the end

[46:42] God wins God wins he is on his throne he will continue to be on his throne he will never be off his throne he will win he will destroy all of his enemies first this means that our salvation is secure because our salvation comes through the judgment think about this Adam and Eve they were sitting before God and as he comes they're saved because God judges an animal right and takes the animal's life and covers them with the skin Noah and his family are saved while everyone else gets judged Isaac is saved because God judges the ram that's caught in the thicket Israel is saved through the judgment upon the Israelites the Israelites were saved through the judgment upon Goliath we are saved by the judgment that the father places upon the son of

[47:49] God and then we will be finally fully saved when the son of God puts judgment upon the kingdoms of the world that is that is the point of all of this is that is that we are saved by judgment this also means that we can have a hope knowing that God is consistent in the way that he acts so long as we are in Christ there is therefore Jesus so we have a hope even though we know judgment is coming even though we know it's going to get bad there's hope for us because we can be in Christ there are those then that need to hear about this coming judgment and that's what the gospel is the gospel is not about you can make your life better you can be a little bit!

[48:42] person the gospel is you mind of a house on fire and our family and our friends they're in a house that's on fire do you want to stand outside and say I'd like to tell you some good news or you want to run in and snatch them out of there that's what gospel ministry is we're snatching people out of the fire and the final thing I'd say is this there is going to be in my estimation from all that we've seen a future antichrist figure from all that we've seen this is what I believe but I think we need to think of a couple of things number one he is primarily religious and not political he's primarily everybody I know is always looking at the governmental affairs around the world and going he's going to be there he's going to be there!

[49:42] the church he will come up out of the church secondly there have already been many antichrists throughout history in first john I put these verses I didn't put these verses in first john chapter two first john chapter four it talks about antichrists who've come but let me just give you a couple of historical figures just to put this in here Antiochus Epiphanes the fourth he besieged Jerusalem he sacrificed a pig on the altar before the Lord set himself up to be worshipped for three and a half years then he had an end put to him Nero Nero was so deviant in all of his behavior every Caesar was to be a god to be worshipped and when Rome burned he threw off suspicion by saying it was the Christians and then persecuted the

[50:43] Christians guess how long three and a half years now not every time do we see the three and a half years but understand that's kind of fascinating to me and if you go back through history you can see people who were of the spirit of Antichrist I'll give you one more that I think was of the spirit of Antichrist Hitler Hitler was of the spirit of Antichrist if you look at what happened to the Christian church in that time I mean they were told to preach certain truths they were told to talk about how bad the Jews were they were told to do things and some of them acquiesced and remained as state churches and some of them refused and they ended up being killed along with Jews and the point is the spirit of Antichrist is always with us the spirit of Antichrist is false doctrine the spirit of Antichrist is always seeking to deceive and so I think that what we need to do is instead of trying to look to the end and figure out where this

[51:45] Antichrist is coming from we need to recognize that the spirit of Antichrist is already here and we need to not be fooled false doctrine abounds all doctrine even if I'm teaching the doctrine okay I know I'm your pastor I know you love me I know you think that I'm perfect but even what I say has to be tested by scripture and I'm trying to give you the tools that our weekly Bible studies I'm trying to give you the tools that you can actually I don't think you're right and that's fine that's great because you don't need to be fooled by anybody else either and so the spirit of Christ knowing that there is one coming we should also see all the things that are around us that try to call for us to follow them instead of follow Christ I think we see that in all kinds of progressive chants that are coming five years or so and there's been so many chants and protests that want us to give of ourselves to that instead of to

[52:58] Christ but we are to follow after Christ we are to remain faithful to him because in the end the sovereignty the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one and his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him he wins let me pray for us and then I'll take some questions father thank you for your word and I pray that it would encourage us it would encourage us to look to you encourage us to read the word encourage us to know the doctrine to encourage us to have faith and hope in you knowing how bad it could get we be sober minded and we be wise in all our dealings and may you get all the praise in

[54:01] Christ's name amen