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An eye-opening prophecy
The Lesson: Time is ticking and many ask the question: What does the future hold? This question has been ringing through the minds of millions in our society today. Terrorism, an uncertain economy, moral decay… Where are we headed? What is next on the horizon? What can we expect in the near future? There is an answer to the questions and uncertainty that is pervading our world today. What we see in the news today was foretold centuries ago, and even more importantly – tomorrow’s headlines were predicted, too. Cryptic symbols, mystical numbers, and fascinating imagery! All revealed in the prophetic portions of the Bible. These revelations are now in the hands of millions all over the world. What are these special messages all about? Are they really relevant for us today? Many believe that the Bible is just a boring old book. Others enjoy the stories and history, but fail to see the great depths this Book contains. The goal of this Discovery Seminar is to give you a taste of what this ancient Book has to offer for us today. As we journey through the prophetic pages of Scripture we will see that it does answer that intriguing question: What does the future hold? The definition of prophecy is very simple: The prediction of future events. Things that have not yet transpired are foretold. Many don’t know that 30% of the Bible is prophecy. This fact sets aside the Bible from the writings of other religions. The writings of Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius and many others, contain little or no prophecy. Bible prophecy authenticates the Bible as a true and reliable book as all its predictions have come to pass. To predict the future, you must know the future. The God of the Bible is presented through the prophets as one that knows the past, the present, and the future! “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isaiah 46:9,10 Through this study we will learn exciting things about the near future; and also we will see how God has an interest in our personal lives. It is important to understand that God not only foretells the future, but that He also controls the future. Who else can we perfectly trust besides the One who created us and has the best in mind for our present and future condition? The importance of studying prophecy is greatly overlooked in our world today, but it is the foundation of a correct understanding of God’s Word. In the beginning of the last book of the Bible ‘the Revelation’ we read the following promise: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” Revelation 1:3 A blessing is pronounced upon those who study the book of Revelation. During this prophecy seminar we will be studying portions of this book together. There are actually two books in the Bible that deal mainly with prophecy. These are the books of Daniel and the Revelation. In our last study we already had an introduction to the book of Revelation, and now we would like to look at its twin prophetic book: The book of Daniel. The Book of Daniel The book of Daniel is written against the backdrop of ancient Babylon. Daniel was a young Jew when he was taken captive to Babylon by the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar. This took place in 605 BC. Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish nation came under the dominion of Babylon. In the first attack of King Nebuchadnezzar, which was followed by two more, the king took many of the Jews captive to serve in his empire. Daniel was chosen from amongst the captives to serve the king in his court. This was because of the wisdom the Babylonians saw in this young man. You can read more about this in the first chapter of the book of Daniel. Throughout many years Daniel served the Babylonian king, but he never denied or forgot his true King in heaven. The prophet Daniel manifested a steadfast, courageous character in the midst of a heathen nation. We all remember the story of Daniel being thrown into the lions’ den, just because he did not deny his God. The Lord preserved his prophet time and time again and granted to him dreams and visions of future events. A great number of the prophecies of Daniel are specifically for our times, and Jesus recommended the study of this book. “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4 “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” Matthew 24:15 The Foundational Prophecy During this series, we are going to be focusing on the prophecies that deal with the time in which we are living. In order to understand the rapidly fulfilling prophecies around us, we must understand the first major prophetic vision of the end-time prophet, Daniel. This prophecy lays a foundation for all subsequent prophecy, and thus in order to understand further prophecy, we must start at the beginning. The events that led up to this prophecy are most fascinating. “And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.” Daniel 2:1-6 “For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon… Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions.” Daniel 2:12, 16, 17 “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.” Daniel 2:19-23 “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:31-35 Interpreting Prophecy Before going further, we need to recognize two very important points. Without an understanding of these two points, we will not be able to understand further prophecy, but with these two simple keys, the fascinating world of prophecy will come alive before our eyes. These are the two principles that the Bible gives for interpreting prophecy. We have already mentioned them in our last study, but let us review them quickly so they are fresh in our minds. 1) The prophecies are given in symbols “I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.” Hosea 12:10 Obviously, the prophecy that we have just begun to look at is in symbolic form. It has no meaning and makes no sense by itself. The Lord gave the dream in symbolic form, and thus it is with most prophecy. Most of the Bible is given in literal language and is to be understood literally, but when it comes to prophecy, it is clearly given in code or symbols. 2) We must allow the Bible to explain these symbols. “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” Isaiah 28:9, 10 “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” I Corinthians 2:13 If we are going to arrive at a correct understanding of prophecy, we must allow the Bible to interpret itself. If we just interpreted it by what we thought or what the majority thought, we might come up with some interesting ideas, but they would be as varied as the people who came up with the thoughts. God has given prophecy, and God alone can teach us what it means. If we search through the Bible, we will find that God has done just that. The symbols used in prophecy are always explained in other parts of the Bible. The Bible is its own expositor. Having seen how to understand Bible prophecy, let us apply these simple principles to discover the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s mysterious dream. Head of Gold “This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” Daniel 2:36-38 The head of gold represents Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Therefore, this head of gold represents the kingdom of Babylon! In Isaiah 14:4 Babylon is referred to as “the golden city.” Babylon was known through out the world for its abundant use of gold. It had a golden temple for its golden god, Belmarduke. This golden god sat on a golden throne before a golden table by a golden altar in a golden temple. Babylon was “the golden city,” so accurately represented by God as “the head of gold.” Babylon was a city of luxury. The river Euphrates flowed right through it, and at the bottom it was lined with tiles. Archaeologists found some of these tiles; they are beautifully and intricately painted with peacocks and fine blue. Babylon was the home of the hanging gardens. The walls of Babylon were two hundred feet high, and they were so wide that you could race two chariots around the top. Babylon had enough food for all its inhabitants to last for many years. It was an impenetrable fortress in the desert. This was the head of gold that Nebuchadnezzar had built to prominence. A clay tablet was unearthed, probably written by Nebuchadnezzar himself. Speaking of Babylon, he says, “These portals for the astonishment of multitudes of people with beauty I adorned. May it last forever.” Nebuchadnezzar had built Babylon up to this splendor, to this golden city, and it was his dream that it would last forever as an eternal, unconquerable city. Chest & Arms of Silver “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” Daniel 2:39 Although Nebuchadnezzar had envisioned Babylon lasting forever, God was revealing to this proud king that He was in control and that this was not to be. And exactly as God had foretold, Babylon was conquered by an inferior kingdom. This kingdom was made up of two kingdoms. The kingdoms of Media and Persia joined to subjugate the provinces of Lydia and Egypt and finally Babylon. One of Babylon’s feast days to their god was the fatal night that brought an end to the magnificent empire of Babylon. Cyrus of the Persians had camped outside of Babylon, but why should they care? They had food and water for years, and who could penetrate those massive walls? So instead of being watchful and guarded, they threw an enormous feast of drunkenness and debauchery. That very night Cyrus diverted the waters of the mighty Euphrates, filled a huge reservoir, and lowered the water level enough to march underneath the city into the very heart of Babylon. He still would have been powerless to enter Babylon unless the gates to the city had been left open. The most phenomenal thing about this incident is that the God of heaven had predicted that Cyrus, by name, would conquer Babylon in exactly this way one hundred and fifty years before he was even born! “That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid… Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” Isaiah 44:27, 28; 45:1 Belly & Thighs of Bronze The dream continues, though. Notice in Daniel 2:39 that after the inferior kingdom, was to come a third kingdom of bronze, which was to rule over all the earth. By studying history it is readily seen that it happened exactly like God said. The youthful Greek general Alexander the Great, with fifty thousand men conquered the Persian military might of a million men. On the fields of Arbela, Darius, king of the Persians, sent word to say, “You can be the king of the West, and I’ll be the king of the East.” Alexander the Great retorted, “As there is not room for two suns in the sky, there is not room for you and I.” And he totally defeated Darius, with about one man to every twenty of Darius’. From there he went and conquered the entire then-known world from Greece to India in about eight years. They marched incessantly, conquering and conquering. They stopped only because it seemed like there was no one left to conquer, and the soldiers were tired of constant warfare. Legs of Iron “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” Daniel 2:40 The fourth empire that arose, so accurately depicted by the legs of iron, was none other than Rome, which continued for six hundred years. It was strong and terrible—exceedingly terrible. It was Rome that called Joseph and Mary to make the journey to Bethlehem. It was Rome that killed all the babies in Bethlehem. It was Rome that crucified Jesus. It was Rome that put her seal on Jesus’ tomb. It is from Rome that we have the legacy of our months of July and August, from Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar. And it bore sway over the entire world, just as God had predicted. The historian of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, saw an exact fulfillment of the metallic image of Daniel 2 when he said: “The arms of the Republic [Rome], sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine and the ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.” Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 3, ch. 38, pg. 634. Feet of Iron & Clay “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Daniel 2:41-43 To our human thinking, we would expect that a fifth empire would conquer the fourth of iron, but that is not what God foresaw and that is not what happened. Instead of a fifth world power arising, God predicted a breakup, a fragmentation of the legs of iron. Was this fulfilled? From the years AD 351 until AD 476, barbarian tribes swept across Western Europe, dividing up the once mighty Roman Empire. There were the Anglo-Saxons who went to the shores of England, the Franks who established France, the Alemanni who built Germany, the Burgundians, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Suevi, Heruli, Lombards, and the Visigoths—ten in number. Rome was divided and God had predicted that it would never again unite. Many have tried to reverse this prophecy, but to no avail. Charlemagne in the 800’s, Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon,Hitler… not one has been able to prove the vision of Daniel to be false. Napoleon declared, “I wanted to found a European system, a European code of law, a European court of appeals.” Europe would have become one nation, one people. But that was not what God had foretold. When Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, he said, “God Almighty has been too much for me.” God’s Word had said, “They will not adhere to one another,” and not once from the ages of Rome have those words been contradicted. God’s Word is sure. When we see those who are trying to unite Europe again, on the authority of God’s never-failing Word, we know that it will once again end in miserable disaster. The Challenge Answered In the sixth century BC, when this foundational prophecy was given, the Lord gave a panoramic view of what is now world history. Any history student today studies the rise and fall of these four successive empires, but when this vision was given it was still a prediction. Today that prediction has been fulfilled so accurately that we can be certain that God can see what will transpire in the last days from the very beginning. If this prophecy had failed, every skeptic in the world would have heralded high and low that God’s Word had failed and it could not be trusted, but we don’t hear this. Why? Because the sure word of prophecy has not failed, but has proven God’s ultimate challenge. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Daniel 2:44-45 Although the prophecy pictures the rise and fall of world empires, the din and strife of the world, God does not leave us without hope. After portraying the history of this world, He opens to our view the greatest promise that He could give. The earthly kingdoms rose and waned. Nebuchadnezzar wanted Babylon to endure for ever, but it is a heap of ruins in the desert. Although earthly powers will fail, God is soon going to set up a kingdom that will never pass away. A kingdom in which the bloodshed and injustice in our world will cease, a kingdom in which there is no sorrow, pain or death—and best of all, a kingdom that will know no end. In the days of a divided Europe and divided world, God will send the rock which will dash all the kingdoms of this world into pieces. In scripture the rock is used as a symbol of Jesus Christ. “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:4 “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” Matthew 21:42-44 The Rock which will become a kingdom that will fill the entire world is a symbol of Christ Jesus and His followers that will constitute His everlasting kingdom. If we want to become a part of that perfect, everlasting kingdom, all we have to do is open the door of our heart to Him and let Him in. John, in the book of Revelation, compels us to open “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Revelation 3:20-21 Do you want to be a citizen of the everlasting kingdom? That kingdom finally gives stability to your life in this world of change. Will you open your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and allow Him in? Will you allow Him to be the Lord of your life so that you can live with Him through eternity? |
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Prophetic Symbols and the Future of this World
the door of our hearts.
