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It Is Written Canada

What in the World is Going On?

Chris Holland

What in the World is Going On?- Part 1

God's book, the Bible, still relevant in today's complex world.

It is written sharing messages of hope around the world.

On July 14, 2016, the headlines broke across the screen of major news outlets.

The horrific details of that day once again drew attention to the terrorist organization ISIS.

Mohamed Lahoue Boulaou, a Tunisian resident of France, drove his cargo truck into the crowd celebrating Bastille Day.

86 people were killed and over 300 people were injured.

Just 1 day later, There was an attempted coup in Turkey.

Over 300 were killed and thousands were injured.

It seems that there is not a day that goes by without some type of calamity unfolding.

Many are left wondering, what is to happen next?

Some believe that these stirrings are merely part of a grand plan in the closing events of Earth's history.

Some are waiting for Jerusalem's temple to be rebuilt.

Many wonder, will Earth's last war, Armageddon, begin somewhere in the Middle East, or should we be focusing our attention elsewhere?

Today we begin a series of teachings that will help answer those questions.

Because I am quite concerned, friends, that we are living at a time when many Bible teachers and students are looking the wrong direction and will miss out on 1 of the most fundamental Bible teachings.

I'm afraid that we may just be missing out on 1 of the most hopeful teachings as well.

As we have studied the various prophecies of the Bible, we have found that the prophecy of Daniel chapter 2 is vital to understanding the overarching prophetic timeline of the Bible.

In fact, Daniel chapter 2 is a foundational prophecy that helps the reader understand not only the rest of the book of Daniel, but also understand the entire book of Revelation and the entirety of Scriptures for that matter.

Now we don't have time to go into the details of that dream, but just as a reminder, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had a dream.

And in that dream, he saw an image, an image that was completely made of metal, and particularly interesting metal image for that matter because the metal image had the highest value metal at the top and the lowest value metal at the bottom.

However, it had the metal of the least strength at the top and the strongest metal at the bottom.

So it was in decreasing value but increasing strength.

And also as a reminder in Daniel 2, as Nebuchadnezzar had this dream, he could not interpret the dream.

In fact, he could not even remember the dream.

So he called together his astrologers, his soothsayers, his psychics, and asked them to tell him the dream and its interpretation.

They could not give him the interpretation.

The prophet Daniel was among the wise men of the empire.

Daniel prayed to the God of heaven and God gave him the dream and its interpretation.

And as a brief overview of that image that was in the dream, The head of gold represented the empire of Babylon.

The chest and arms of silver represented the empire of Medo-Persia or simply Persia.

The midsection of bronze or brass was the empire of Greece and the legs of iron Rome and then the feet of iron mixed with clay was a divided Roman Empire.

Now later in the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 7, there is another vision.

However, in this prophecy, Daniel is the 1 that receives the dream.

And when Daniel has this dream, there isn't a metal image, but rather an assortment of animals.

Now these animals are not animals that you would find at a zoo.

These are animals that are amazing creatures.

There was a lion with wings, a bear that was humped up on 1 side with 3 ribs in its mouth, a leopard with 4 heads and 4 wings, and then a beast that Daniel said was an indescribable beast.

Now once again, God gave to Daniel the history of world empires.

Now this idea of having a prophecy that describes the same time period is a principle that is called repeat and enlarge or the larger word for it is recapitulation.

Now recapitulation is the idea that you tell someone something and then you tell it to them again with a little bit greater detail.

And so in Daniel chapter 7, God provides that greater detail, but the same empires are represented.

The bear humped up on 1 side being the Persian Empire.

The leopard with 4 heads and 4 wings representing Greece and its rapid advancement to conquer the world.

Its 4 heads representing the 4 divisions of the Greek Empire.

And then this indescribable beast that had 10 horns representing the Roman Empire and the eventual fractioning of that empire into 10 major divisions.

Now today, however, we take a journey into Daniel, the 8th chapter.

And it is in Daniel, Chapter 8, that there is a key that unlocks the answers to the crises that we are facing today in the 21st century.

And in this eighth chapter of Daniel, We have an extraordinary prophecy.

The prophet Daniel once again has a dream and this is what the Bible says he saw found in Daniel chapter 8 and in verse 1.

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared to me the first.

This dream took place in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar.

I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had 2 horns, and the 2 horns were high, but 1 was higher than the other, and the higher came up last." So Daniel's dream once again has animals, And this first animal was a ram.

Now the simple question we must ask is, what does this all mean?

Well in this prophecy in particular, we don't need to turn to the pages of history to get our answer.

The Bible actually supplies further details of this ram to clue us in on who the ram is.

The Bible continues, I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no beast might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand.

But he did according to his will, and became great." Who is this ram?

Now, a beast in the Bible, in prophetic language, represents either a king or kingdom.

And so to help Daniel and to help us clearly understand, the angel visitor who has been giving this dream to Daniel tells him exactly who the ram represents.

The Bible says, the ram which you saw having 2 horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.

Now as I explained earlier, this is a perfect example of recapitulation or repeating and enlarging.

In Daniel 2, the metal image represented the history of the world empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and then the division of Rome.

Then Daniel chapter 7 once again outlines these empires Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the division of Rome.

In Daniel chapter 7 it came through animal representations.

Now in Daniel chapter 8, Daniel has a dream and once again it is an animal representation.

Now what would be our expectation as we come to Daniel chapter 8?

Well of course the expectation would be that if it is a repeating and enlarging or a recapitulation that you would once again find Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the division of Rome.

But we have something interesting happen here.

The first beast is this ram, the ram which represents Medo-Persia.

Now why would Babylon have been left out of this prophetic dream?

My dear friends, Because Belshazzar, although he was the current king, and he was the king of Babylon when Daniel received this vision, the Babylonian kingdom was in its final years.

No longer was Babylon critical to the prophetic outline.

And so God does exactly what would be expected, and he does not have an animal or a beast to represent Babylon, because Babylon was simply going off the scene.

And so the first beast starts at the chest and arms of silver in Daniel 2 or the bear humped up on 1 side of Daniel 7.

Now the ram has some interesting characteristics.

The ram represents the Medo-Persian Empire, and the Medo-Persian Empire reigned from 539 BC to 331 BC.

What you will notice is that in Daniel 8, We are given more details.

First the prophecy tells us and gives us an indication of its conquering westward, northward and southward.

What a fitting symbol because there in modern day Iran is where we would find the ancient Medo-Persian Empire.

And that is exactly the way it conquered.

The book of Daniel records that the Medo-Persian Empire conquered the Babylonians in a most spectacular fashion.

The Babylonian Empire, and particularly the city of Babylon, had a walled city with 3 actual walls and those walls were so wide, according to historians, a chariot could ride on the top of the wall.

And then on the interior of the city of Babylon, historians record that they had an over 20-year supply of food.

At that time, Babylon the city was considered an unconquerable city and an unconquerable empire.

What in the World is Going On?- Part 2

Is there anything that we can place our trust in?

Is it possible that many Christians are looking for answers in the wrong place?

In order to find answers, we turn to the only dependable source when it comes to answers for our day.

In our last program, we left off in Daniel chapter 8 with the symbol of the goat, wondering what that goat represents.

The angel of Daniel chapter 8 makes it very clear what that goat represents in Daniel chapter 8 and in verse 21.

The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king.

Now in an amazing prediction of the prophetic word, we once again find the Greeks.

The symbol is the same as the midsection of brass or bronze from Daniel 2.

It is the same as the four-headed, four-winged leopard of Daniel 7.

As we see, the Greek Empire would rule from 331 BC to 168 BC.

Alexander the Great, as he conquered the Middle East, planned to rebuild the city of Babylon.

He wanted to make it a provincial capital.

And for 2 months, he assigned 10, 000 men to work and clear away the debris for the rebuilding of Babylon.

You know, when we look at history, it is very interesting to note.

You see, in history, there were 2 different Persian kings, Darius I in 490 BC and Xerxes in 480 BC.

Both of them would unsuccessfully try to subdue Greece and they massacred many.

The Greeks would not forget their national humiliation.

You see, the Persians attacked the Greek Empire.

They went to this small place called Macedonia.

There in Macedonia, there was a king by the name of Philip of Macedon.

And in so doing, they killed many innocent men, women, and children.

The Persians happened to be a very harsh people when it came to war.

There was a young man amongst the Greek empire, a young Greek man, the son of Philip of Macedon, who lived there in Macedonia.

Young Alex would not forget the Persians and their attacks.

Young Alex would become Alexander the Great, and he conquered the known world with such incredible speed, marching all the way to the valley of the Indus River in northwestern India and how rightly symbolized by this goat who went across the surface of the earth without touching the ground.

They pushed all the way to India, conquering the known world faster than any other entity had ever done.

There are many stories in history, but 1 of my particular favorites in the history of the Greeks is a battle, a battle where Alexander and his army were on 1 side of the river and Xerxes and his army were on the other side of the river.

Now, Alexander and Xerxes were facing off, and Alexander began riding his horse up and down the bank of the river.

Some estimates say 2 to 1, other estimates say 10 to 1.

But the most important aspect of this is this.

Alexander's armies were outnumbered at least by 2 to 1.

And Alexander began riding up and down the shores of that river and his armies began to get welled up with excitement and they all began to roar and then they crossed the river toward the Persian armies and at that time the Persian armies who outnumbered them 2 to 1 turned and ran.

Alexander was almost a mythological type individual.

But the Bible says that his kingdom would break.

In fact, it says he as a king would break.

Now the goat was a familiar figure and it was found on Greek coins and the original capital of Macedonia was Aegei, to which Alexander the Great belonged.

And There is similarity between the capital city word AGI and the Greek word AGS, which is the word for goat.

It is no accident that God would use this symbol of a goat to represent the Greek empire.

So in an amazing prophecy of such particular detail, we see once again this book.

We can see God putting His name on the line saying, I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is none like me, knowing the end from the beginning and things not yet done." You see, in amazing fashion, this book is seen to be true.

Over 2 centuries before the Greeks began to conquer the world, the prophecy of Daniel 8 predicted that Alexander and his kingdom would be cut down while they were at the very height of their power.

You see, because while Alexander had an amazing mastery over battle tactics, Alexander did not have mastery over himself.

Alexander died a drunken mess and his kingdom was broken.

Daniel chapter 8 and verse 8 says these words, Therefore the male goat grew very great, but when he became strong the large horn was broken and in the place of it 4 notable ones came up toward the 4 winds of heaven.

When Alexander was dying, he was asked by his generals, "'Who shall get the kingdom?

Who shall lead the kingdom, Alexander?' And Alexander answered, "'He who is strongest.'" Needless to say, the empire was divided between the 4 generals, Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucius.

The mighty, mighty empire of Greece would simply be divided because the king was broken, just as the book of Daniel predicted.

In the book Alexander the Great by Theodore Monson, It says these words, each 1 whetted the sword against the other and the empire went down in a tangle of strife.

You see the generals could not communicate with 1 another.

The generals could not get along with 1 another, and so the kingdom was divided, and in strife it would go down.

But the Bible goes on to say that something happens to this now broken and divided Greek Empire.

Daniel chapter 8 goes on to say, And out of 1 of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, toward the glorious land, and it grew up to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars of the ground and trampled upon them.

He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of Hosts by him.

The daily sacrifices were taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down because of transgression.

An army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices and he cast truth down to the ground.

He did all this and prospered." Now the angel would go on and tell us exactly what all this means.

A king shall arise having fierce features who understand sinister schemes.

He shall even rise against the prince of princes.

Now what is happening here is very interesting.

It wasn't until recently that it was understood that the Roman Empire actually emerged from the Western Greek Empire.

The Roman Empire comes out as a horn power of the Western portion of the Greek Empire.

And then out of this Western portion of the Greek Empire, this new Roman Empire, which we have seen in other prophecies, would simply divide.

And here in Daniel chapter 8, you have the Medo-Persian ram, you have the Greek goat, and then you have Rome and the horn coming out.

And then once again, a little horn entity, this little horn speaking blasphemous words against God, fighting against the prince of princes, fighting against God's people, this church-state union that goes against God.

But the dream was not complete, because then the angel visitor told Daniel in Daniel 8, verse 14, for 2, 300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

Here's the problem that Daniel faced and we now face.

The angel visitor gave to Daniel the interpretation of the ram and the interpretation of the goat.

But he did not explain to him this mysterious 2, 300-day prophecy.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says as it concludes Daniel chapter 8 and verse 27, and I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days.

Afterward I arose and I went about the king's business.

I was astonished by the vision, but no 1 understood it.

The angel did not explain the vision to Daniel of the 2300 days.

However, God does want us to understand His Word.

So here in Daniel chapter 8, God gives some remarkable clues as to what this mysterious 2, 300 day prophecy, what it might mean.

Now as a reminder, what kind of animals did we have here in Daniel chapter 8?

Series

What in the World is Going On?

What in the World is Going On?- Part 2

Transcript

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