Well, good evening, everyone.
Glad that we can be here together.
It's great to be back.
We were not able to be here last week.
My wife and I were in Indianapolis.
She had a film screening in the Heartland Film Festival,
and we had a great time.
We saw a lot of great films that were almost as good as her film.
Really amazing experience to be around so many people
who are doing great work, but happy to be back here.
And for this day that we call All Saints Day.
As we get started, I want to start this way.
Scientists are and have long been concerned with a question
of consciousness and perception.
They've long been concerned with the question of whether or not
we're able to perceive reality accurately.
In other words, using our five senses,
can we see things as they really are?
And this is picking up steam in the scientific community,
particularly among cognitive scientists
and theoretical biologists.
There's a man named Donald Hoffman,
who's professor of cognitive science
at the University of California, Irvine.
And here's what he says.
The world presented to us by our perceptions
is nothing like reality.
What we see is a magnificent illusion
that maximizes evolutionary fitness
by driving truth to extinction.
That's an interesting thing to assert.
In other words, he's saying,
we don't necessarily see things as they are.
We see things in ways that are most beneficial to us
at the expense of truth and literal accuracy.
So this question is very important.
Do we live all of our lives only seeing what we want to see,
what we need to see,
what is most beneficial to see?
Or is it ever possible to actually cut through
that magnificent illusion
and to see things as they actually are?
And scripture is also very concerned with that question.
In particular, there's a genre in the Bible
that is very concerned with this question
of perception versus reality,
and it's called apocalyptic literature.
Now, I know that you began looking at this last week with Dan,
and many people, when they hear the word apocalyptic,
think of great end times battles between good and evil
and buildings crashing down and fire and brimstone
and all that stuff.
Well, the word apocalyptic really just literally means unveiling.
It means revealing.
And the function of apocalyptic literature is to reveal,
it's to unveil reality.
It cuts through the illusion.
It cuts through our perceived reality
and illuminates the spiritual reality underneath.
And so we're going to be looking at the book of Daniel
as we've been doing for a number of weeks.
It just so happens in our series,
this week we just happened to come to Daniel chapter 8,
and this passage today is one great example of apocalyptic writing.
God gives the prophet Daniel a vision,
and then the vision does two things.
It describes a number of historical events,
and then it cuts through that layer,
and it shows us an underlying spiritual reality.
And so we're going to look at this chapter together,
and even though it's about things that happened a long time ago,
what I hope you'll see is that we can use the same approach today
to make sense of current reality.
Once you know the underlying story,
the underlying spiritual truth,
you can overlay events in any historical period
and use it as a means of interpreting the times.
And so this is what we're going to do.
So first we'll look at the events themselves
described in this vision,
and then we're going to look at the underlying spiritual reality
that is revealed.
So let's pray as we get started.
Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you for this gathering of saints here, Lord.
We know that all who belong to you,
all who have put their faith in you,
are made saints,
and we thank you for this gathering.
We also thank you for all those who might be here
who are still seeking,
still searching,
still wondering if you're there,
and who you are,
and what it means to know you, Lord.
We thank you for all you have brought here tonight.
And we pray that by your wisdom and by your power,
you would speak to each one of us
as we need to hear you.
Meet us where we are,
as you promised to do,
because you love us.
And we ask this in your Son's name.
Amen.
So as we look at Daniel chapter 8,
I just want to say right off the bat,
this is a very bizarre, bizarre chapter.
There's lots of crazy stuff happening here.
There's goats and rams and multiple horns coming out of heads
and stars and planets getting pulled out of the sky.
It's a crazy sort of trippy thing going on here.
And so I want to give you a little context first,
in case you're unfamiliar with Daniel.
Daniel takes place in the 6th century BC.
That's when this story is happening.
And Daniel is an Israelite who is living in Babylon.
He's lived in Babylon his entire adult life.
And that's because Babylon,
the Babylonians,
sacked Judah and Jerusalem,
and they took the best and the brightest of Israel
into captivity.
So this is where Daniel has been.
He's been serving under a number of kings by this point.
And he's gotten famous because of his God-given ability
to interpret dreams and visions.
And what we realize here,
and what we began to see last week with chapter 7,
is not only is Daniel able to interpret
other people's dreams and visions,
but at some point Daniel began to have dreams and visions of his own.
And so God not only gives Daniel the vision,
but he also sends emissaries, messengers,
to explain the vision.
So that's what we're going to look at.
Now I want to say that the historical events
that are described in this vision
don't actually happen for another 200 years.
So we're moving from the 6th century
up to the 4th, 3rd, even 2nd century
as we're looking at what is described here.
And yet there's a surprising amount of historical accuracy.
So the first thing Daniel sees in this vision as it opens,
it says, you know,
Daniel ate one,
in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar,
a vision appeared to me, Daniel.
And the first thing he sees in this vision is a ram.
And the ram has two horns,
one slightly longer than the other.
Interesting detail.
And this ram is very powerful.
It's able to do anything it wants.
It can go north or east or south or west.
It can do anything it wants,
and nobody can challenge this ram.
Very powerful, right?
So this ram is sort of hanging out in the vision,
and then Daniel looks,
and all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
a goat appears.
And so, you know,
right now things are starting to get strange.
So how do we begin to understand this?
Well, it's interesting.
History tells us that,
and later in the interpretation,
we find out that the ram actually represents
the Medo-Persian Empire.
And you say, well, why a ram?
Well, it actually turns out that a ram
is a good symbol for the Medo-Persian Empire
because the Persians often had rams,
ram's heads, on their armor.
So this is what this symbol represents.
And then out of nowhere,
this male goat appears.
And the male goat just has one prominent horn
sticking out of his head,
so it's like a unicorn goat.
And the unicorn goat starts racing toward the ram,
and it's going so fast
that the feet aren't even touching the ground.
It's just flying over the land,
and it's coming at the ram,
and it, you know, takes the ram down.
And it says that the ram is utterly powerless
against this goat.
The goat totally crushes the ram.
So how do we make sense of that?
Well, a little later in the vision,
this is explained that the goat
actually represents Greece,
the Greek Empire.
And history tells us that Alexander the Great
rose to power at a very young age.
He unified Greece, right?
People said,
we're not going to follow this kid.
So he rose up, took his army,
slaughtered them all.
Said, anybody else have a problem with me?
Okay, good.
And then from that point on,
they were unified.
And then, like most 20-year-olds,
he said, you know, this isn't enough.
I want to conquer the whole world.
And so he sets out to conquer the whole world.
And in order to conquer the world,
he says, well, I have to take out
the Medo-Persian Empire.
Because they're the big threat.
So he gets his army,
and he goes after the Medo-Persian Empire.
And he crushes them.
Obliterates them.
Now, what's interesting in the vision
is that it says that right after the goat
is victorious,
at the height of his strength,
this prominent horn is broken.
What's going on there?
Well, we know from history
that after Alexander,
conquered the Medo-Persian Empire,
at the height of his strength,
at age 33,
he contracts malaria,
and he dies prematurely.
So after he dies,
pretty quickly his sons are killed off
because nobody wants them
ascending to the throne.
And then his four generals
divide up his kingdom.
And in the vision we see
in verse 8 and verse 22,
after this prominent horn is broken,
four smaller horns rise up
in the place of the one horn.
Four generals,
the kingdom is divided.
By the way,
why is Greece represented
by a goat?
Seems kind of random.
Well, history tells us
that as Alexander and his army
sailed toward the Medo-Persians
to attack them,
guess what was on the sail
of Alexander's ship?
It was a goat.
So we have this story
of the Medo-Persian Empire
falling,
Alexander conquering them,
but then Alexander himself
falling,
and his generals
dividing up his kingdom.
Then the vision skips over
about two centuries of history,
and the focus goes immediately
to one particular horn.
And by the way,
you should know by now
that horns represent
rulers or kings.
One particular horn
comes into view.
This is a new ruler.
And this ruler grows
out of one of the four horns
that replaced Alexander.
But this ruler is worse.
Scholars almost universally agree
that this horn represents
the 2nd century B.C. ruler,
Antiochus Epiphanes.
Now, Antiochus Epiphanes
started out small,
but he became very powerful.
He got big fast.
And he gained a lot of power.
It says in the text
that this ruler
is one who understands riddles.
And we know about
Antiochus Epiphanes
that he was a master
of political manipulation.
He was a crafty type of king.
He was exceptionally brutal,
exceptionally wicked.
He had an agenda
to eradicate all cultures
except for Greek culture.
You know,
the approach in the past
had been bring the cultures in.
Our culture will become richer
as these cultures
are integrated into our culture.
But he said,
no,
make the world Greek.
And so he began
the process of Hellenization.
And as a part of this,
he put an end
to the Jewish temple worship.
Put an end to it.
And when the Jews
tried to revolt,
tried to fight this,
he slaughtered them
by the thousands.
He sold just as many
into slavery.
So if you're a Jew
in this time
and you're looking
at what's happening,
you had to be baffled.
How is all of this happening?
Right?
You look back to the exile
and many of the Jews
who celebrated
being freed from the exile
were probably thinking,
well,
that was great
compared to this.
You know,
what's God doing?
This is a confusing,
violent,
upsetting vision.
It actually says
in verse 27
that the vision
makes Daniel sick.
Right?
For several days.
And it says
that even when
he got up
and started to be
about the king's business,
he continued to be
appalled by the vision.
And he was confused.
He didn't understand it.
Okay,
so how do you preach that?
Okay?
I've been trying
to figure that out
all week, right?
So what does this
have to say?
And I think that this
actually is the place
where it begins
to get relevant to us.
Because I think
as we look at the world
around us,
I think that we all
see all kinds of things
that are upsetting.
And we see all kinds of things
that are appalling.
You know,
you look at the election
that's happening in two days,
and I don't care what side
of the aisle you're on,
I think we're all
more or less appalled.
It's an appalling state
for our country to be in,
right?
I think as we look
beyond that,
we realize that as appalling
as that is,
there are things
that are a lot worse,
right?
If you look around the world,
even in our own country,
the ongoing racism
and violence
that divides our country,
right?
South Sudan,
the ongoing refugee crisis,
right?
The ongoing reality
of human trafficking
that's happening
all around the world
right under our noses.
All of these things
are appalling realities,
and I could list them
again and again and again.
And I think one thing
we need to see
is that like Daniel,
we are right to be appalled
by these things.
And if we begin
to get to the place
where we're no longer
appalled by them,
that's a problem.
We should be appalled.
We can't allow ourselves
to ever get so numb
that we lose
our sense of horror.
But I think the danger
lies in thinking
that this is all there is,
that things will never
get better,
that there is no hope,
and so the beautiful
thing about this vision
is that it not only
narrates historical events,
but it also,
as I said before,
lifts the veil.
It unveils them.
It points beneath them,
beneath the surface,
to a deeper story
that is unfolding.
So now I want to turn
our attention
past the story itself
and below it
into the unfolding
spiritual reality
that is anchored
by three certainties.
The underlying story
is anchored
by these three
certainties.
God will be opposed.
God will be victorious
because God is in control.
God will be opposed,
but God will be victorious
because God
is in control.
And so I want to look
at what each of these
means.
By nature,
the Bible says that
all human beings
are from birth
born in opposition
to God.
We are born opposing
God and the truth
of God, right?
So this vision
makes it very clear
that underneath
the political conflicts
and the military conquests
and the elections
and all of that,
there is a deeper
cosmic conflict raging.
And it's not between
Democrats and Republicans.
It's a deeper
cosmic conflict
where evil
is opposing
and fighting
God and God's truth
and God's people
in every way possible
with all of its might.
If you look at
Antiochus Epiphanes
as he's represented
in this vision,
he's larger than life,
right?
He's putting himself up
as a rival
to the prince
of the hosts,
right?
To God himself.
He's taking stars
out of the sky
and flinging them
to the ground, right?
This is no mere mortal.
This is no human being.
He's portrayed
as a kind of antichrist.
He's a,
what we call a type.
He's a type
that points to
this cosmic conflict
and the personification
of evil.
And look how he gains
and keeps his power
in verses 11 and 12.
It says that he puts
an end to the worship
of God.
So the first thing he does
to gain and to keep power
is to put an end
to all worship of God.
And the second thing he does,
and this is a very
interesting image,
is it says he throws
truth to the ground.
We didn't read that part.
It's a little earlier
in the chapter.
He throws truth
to the ground.
So he wants
ultimate power,
which means he has
to get rid of anything
that might threaten
his autonomy,
namely God
and God's truth.
So if you're
the most powerful king
in the world,
if you're the most powerful king
in the world
and nobody can challenge you
politically,
the only thing left
that is above you
is God
and God's truth.
And so if you do away
with that,
then you have
total power,
right?
Or so he thinks.
We see the very
same thing today,
right?
I think in our culture,
I think as human beings
by nature,
we throw truth
to the ground.
We throw truth
to the ground.
We say,
you know,
everyone should be able
to believe
whatever they want
and then we go
beyond that
and we say,
not only does everybody
believe what they want,
but all of those beliefs
are equally true.
And if you challenge
that idea
or challenge the truth
of somebody's beliefs
or if you make the claim
that you believe
in a truth
that is absolute,
a big T truth,
then you are automatically
seen as closed-minded,
ignorant,
bigoted,
intolerant,
all of those labels
that we fear.
So the first point
is this,
the illusion
that we prefer to see,
right?
The illusion,
our perception
of reality
is that there are
a lot of different
approaches to God
and a lot of different
approaches to truth
and a lot of different
approaches to these things
and that they're all
equally true,
all equally valid.
Right?
Now there's a kind
of pluralism that says
we should fight
for the rights
of everybody
to believe
whatever they want
and I think that
Christians should be
leaders in that fight.
We should fight
for a pluralistic society
where people have
religious freedom
and they're able
to believe
whatever they want,
they are free
to disagree.
But that is not
the same thing
as saying that
all of those beliefs
are equally true.
And yet more and more
in our society,
I think that we're hearing
not only are we able
to believe what we want
but all of those beliefs
are equally valid,
equally true.
The only way
that that would be possible
is if there is no such thing
is capital T
truth.
Right?
So we have this illusion
that everything
is equally true,
everybody believes
what they want
and it's all true,
but if we begin
to lift the veil,
this vision shows us
loud and clear
that the underlying reality
is that there is
only one God,
that there's one truth
and that human beings
by nature
are opposed
to those things.
Right?
So think about it
just for a second.
Right?
The reason that we prefer
to believe
that there are
multiple truths,
the reason that we want
to reject
the absolute truth
of God
is not because
we've thought deeply
about it.
I mean,
for most of us
it's just not.
We haven't reasoned it
through, right,
and said that's the best
way to make sense
of things
because saying
there is no truth
is actually nonsense.
In other words,
it doesn't hold up
to scrutiny
because the minute
you say there is
no such thing
as absolute truth,
you're making
an absolute truth claim.
It undercuts itself,
right?
It's contradictory.
It doesn't hold up
if we really think
about it.
The reason that we
reject the idea
of absolute truth
and fling it
to the ground
is the same reason
Antiochus Epiphanes did.
It's about accountability.
We don't want
to be held accountable,
right?
We know that
if we get rid of truth
we can live
and do as we please
and that's why
we do it,
right?
So when I was,
you know,
years ago
before I was a believer
in college
I loved to say
well,
there's no such thing
as absolute truth
that's so arrogant
and people believe
what they want
and I'm an agnostic
and you have no right
to tell me
what I can believe
and that was my rhetoric
and I said that
to everybody,
right?
Is that because
I had spent years
reading all the philosophers,
reading all the great thinkers
throughout history,
reasoning my way
through their arguments
and arriving
at this conclusion
as a kind of
a well-founded statement
of existence?
No, no, no.
It's because I wanted
sex without consequences
and so I knew
that the only way
to do that
was to fling truth
to the ground.
You can't hold me
accountable,
how dare you?
What makes your truth
any more true
than my truth?
Right?
So all of history
shows human beings
doing this,
fighting against God,
fighting against
the truth of God
because we would rather
be our own gods,
right?
Like Adam and Eve
at the fall,
we would prefer
to decide right and wrong
to decide truth
for ourselves.
So this is the first
thing we see.
God will be opposed.
Now the second thing
is this,
that despite
that opposition,
nevertheless,
God will be
victorious.
It says in verse 13,
for how long
is the vision
concerning the regular
burnt offering,
the transgressions
that make desolate,
and the giving over
of the sanctuary
and host
to be trampled
underfoot?
And he said to me,
for 2300 evenings
and mornings,
then the sanctuary
shall be restored
to its rightful state.
Now don't get locked
in on the number 2300.
That can be misleading.
There are lots of ways,
both literal and poetic,
to interpret that number.
Jesus himself says,
no one will know
the hour or the day
when all of this
will take place.
He says no one's
going to know,
not even the son of man
knows,
only the father knows,
right?
So that's Jesus' way
of saying,
this is not about
getting out your calculator
and trying to figure it out,
right?
People like Harold Camping
who think that they have
decoded this
and they know exactly
when all this is going
to happen.
That's not the point.
The point is
that God has fixed
a time
when he will bring
deliverance,
restore the sanctuary,
and reinstitute worship.
That there will be
a time
and God has it.
It's not in our calendar
but it's in his calendar
and he knows exactly
when it's going to happen.
It is a certainty.
So even though
in the vision
God's people suffer
under one tyrant ruler
after another,
even though things
seem to get worse
and worse
and worse,
this is saying
that eventually
God will overcome.
God will be victorious.
Eventually the tyrants
will be thrown down.
And see,
this is the second point
we need to see.
The illusion,
our perception,
is that we live
in a world
where things seem
to be getting worse.
They're getting worse
and they're getting worse
and there seems
to be very little hope
of that ever changing.
But what this does
is lift the veil
and it shows us
that despite appearances
God's plan
will ultimately lead
to victory.
It is unfolding
exactly as he established it.
Right?
So the time will come
when we see
in the book of Revelation
another work
of apocalyptic writing.
The time will come
when the heavens
and the earth
will be joined as one.
Oh, don't think
this is talking about
the temple in Jerusalem.
The reestablishing
of that temple.
No, no, no, no.
This is talking about
the time when the heavens
and the earth are joined.
When we are reminded
that in Genesis chapters
one and two
God created
the entire world
as a sanctuary.
And that one day
the new Jerusalem
will come
and it will be
established here
and all of creation
will become
one great sanctuary
devoted
and centered
on the worship of God.
That one day
that will happen.
And it says
very amazingly
in Revelation
that Jesus
at that time
will come
and he will wipe
away every tear.
Which means
every single tear shed
will be accounted for.
There will be
a reckoning.
Even though we don't
understand the suffering
and the tyrant rulers
and all of that now
even though it doesn't
make sense
and all we do
is cling to God
and trust him.
But we don't
understand the evil.
We don't understand
the suffering.
We don't understand
why it all has to happen.
That one day we will.
Because Jesus will account
for every tear
personally.
Right?
So no matter how bad
things might seem
our hope
is certain.
Which really
brings us to a question
right?
How can we be so sure?
Right?
As we look at the
the kind of
juxtaposition
of these two
certainties.
On the one hand
this is saying
God will be opposed
and on the other hand
it's saying
but God will be victorious.
How is that
possible?
And it's possible
because God is in
control.
God is in control.
And this is the
refrain that you find
in the book of Daniel
in the earlier chapters.
Quote,
the most high
rules the kingdom
of men
and gives it
to whom he will.
So if you look closely
you see this right here.
I don't know if you
caught it in the reading
but in verse 24
it says about
Antiochus Epiphanes
his power shall be great
but not by his own power.
Verse 25
finally
he shall be broken
but by no
human hand.
It's making this point
that God is firmly
in control.
God is in control
of Antiochus Epiphanes
rising to power
and God is in control
of him being
thrown down
out of power.
That God is firmly
in control
that it's all part
of his plan.
Right?
So this is our
third point.
The perceived reality
is that
life is chaotic.
It's meaningless.
There is no God.
Nobody's in control.
There is no plan.
We're on our own.
We're abandoned.
We're just
matter and
dust and energy
playing out
randomly
according to
the laws
of physics
and there is
no ultimate
plan for any
of this.
That's the
perceived reality.
But this vision
lifts the veil
and shows us
that God was,
God is,
and God will
remain
completely
in control.
We're not going
to understand
the hows
and the whys
until the end
of things.
But it says
that until then
we trust that
God is in control.
So really on
Tuesday,
regardless of
who becomes
our next
president,
right,
regardless of
how that plays
out,
on the one
hand as
Christians we
need to be
involved.
We need to be
engaged politically.
We need to be
thoughtfully voting
and participating
and lending our
voice to the
shape as best
as we possibly
can.
And we're called
to fully
integrating our
faith.
We need to be
doing that as
best as we
possibly can.
And we're called
to submit to
the rulers and
the authorities in
our lives.
We're called to be
fully a part of
the system.
But this is
saying that
ultimately,
regardless of
who becomes
our next
president,
God is firmly
in control.
Regardless of
who becomes
our next
president,
that person
is there
because it
is a part
of God's
plan.
And one
day that
person will
step out of
power because
that is a part
of God's
plan.
But somehow
this will
fit into
God moving
all things
toward his
victory despite
the opposition.
And that's
the truth
that we need
to hold
on to.
So underneath
the illusion,
underneath the
perception,
I think the
more we look
underneath it,
the more we
begin to realize
that it's not
such a
magnificent
illusion.
It's not so
beneficial to
see things in
this way.
Underneath it,
we see an even
better story,
that God will
be opposed,
but God will
be victorious
because God
is in control.
And I want to,
as we're kind of
bringing this
together, I want
to address one
potential sort of
objection or
question that this
might raise.
And that is the
question of how.
Right?
If God will
always for certain
be opposed, and
yet at the same
time it is certain
that God will be
victorious, just on
a practical,
logistical level,
how does that
actually work?
Right?
If there are two
certainties,
opposition and
victory, how does
that happen?
Wouldn't that mean
that one was more
certain than the
other?
And the answer
is no, they're
both equally
certain.
Opposition and
victory.
So if you're God,
how do you do
that?
And this is the
genius of the
Christian faith.
Right?
How do you, if
you've created
people and you
love people, and
yet they all,
without exception,
turn their backs
on you, rebel
against you, oppose
you, try to kill
you so that they
can be gods and
live as they
choose, right?
If all human
beings do that,
then how do you
bring about a
victory over that
opposition that on
the one hand upholds
your justice and
vindicates you as
God, but on the
other hand, because
of your love, doesn't
annihilate everyone
that you've created?
How do you do
that?
The only way you do
it is if you bring
the victory through
the opposition.
That's the only way
it works.
And that's the
beauty of the
cross.
When Jesus Christ
died on the cross,
on the one hand,
what you see at the
cross is the
ultimate defeat.
The opposition has
won, right?
All those who
oppose God and the
truth of God, they
win.
They finally get the
Son of God in their
grasp and they put
Him to death once and
for all, the greatest
defeat in history.
And yet,
simultaneously, no one
could have known
that God had made
that person, Jesus
Christ, to be a
representative of us
and our sins.
So the moment we
killed Him, we
actually paid the
price of our sin,
all of our sin,
including that sin,
in full.
Right?
So the moment He
died, we were set
free, even though it
was our hand putting
Him to death.
And I think that
that's one of the
most beautiful things
I could possibly
imagine.
God bringing victory
out of defeat.
So that shows us
that we have every
reason to remain
hopeful.
So the encouragement
I hope that you
leave with is this.
Let us not live with
and accept the
illusion of our
perceived reality
that God and truth
are just ideas and
don't really mean
much, that things
are just getting
worse and hope is
failing, or that life
is random and that
we're on our own.
Let us not content
ourselves with that
perception of reality.
Let us go deeper,
let us trust what
this vision shows us
as the underlying
story.
Let us trust what
this vision promises
and what the cross
of Christ proves,
that God will be
opposed, but God
will be victorious
because God is
firmly in control.
Let's pray.
Our Father, we do
trust You, and we
know that You know
better than us what
we need.
And we know that
right now there are
things that each of us
needs to hear from
Your Word.
And so we pray that
by the power of Your
Spirit, You would
take those things that
are meant for each of
us and drive them
into our hearts, Lord,
that they would be
planted like seeds that
begin to grow and give
life.
Lord, we pray as we are
reminded this day of the
communion of saints.
We pray for all of
those who have come to
know You, to come to a
deeper knowledge of You
through Your Word.
We pray that all those
who may not know You,
that perhaps through
these words and these
promises, there would be
in them a hope kindled
that can be answered
through Your Son,
Jesus Christ.
Lord, we pray all of
this in His name.
Amen.