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Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

The Hour of His Judgment

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

Have you ever been so nervous, frightened or upset that you fainted?

About 15% of adults are apt to faint at the sight of blood.

And it's not uncommon for people to pass out at weddings or other public ceremonies that require prolonged standing or stress.

People have even been known to faint in response to disturbing movies or when they're startled.

The medical term for this is vasovagal syncope, a condition caused by an extreme and rapid drop in blood pressure that causes an individual to temporarily lose consciousness.

In Daniel chapter 8 we read that 1 of God's great prophets had a similar experience.

When he saw something in vision that was so distressing, he fainted from shock and was sick for days.

But what happened in this disturbing vision that so troubled the prophet?

And what's the meaning of the terrifying image he saw?

How does this longest Bible time prophecy relate to God's people and the Antichrist?

You might be surprised how the answers to these questions affect your life today.

So join me now as we take a closer look at this very important subject.

The wisest man who ever lived in Ecclesiastes, Solomon says at the end as he's talking about the vanity of life, what really matters, He pursued wisdom, he tried to understand, he had building projects, he pursued a hedonistic life, he had done it all, tried it all, and he wraps it all up by saying, here is the conclusion of the whole matter, Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil.

Now this is not a statement for just a few people.

Paul says we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

There is a judgment day coming, but the Lord tells us that because there is a way for us to prepare.

Well there's a prophecy in the Bible that talks about this great judgment day where everyone is going to give an account 1 way or the other and we're not only looking in Revelation but the book of Daniel and Revelation are parallel books.

Daniel chapter 7 talks about these 4 kingdoms that would persecute God's people, a lion, a leopard, a bear and then this nondescript beast.

Then you go to Revelation 13, the beast in Revelation 13 says he's like a lion, a leopard and a bear and some nondescript beast.

There's great parallels between Daniel and Revelation.

And in Daniel you've got this image with the 10 toes and then you get to Revelation you get the beast with the 10 horns and a lot of overlap so to understand the judgement in Revelation we also need to go to the book of Daniel we're going to do that now as we delve into our lesson.

Question number 1 Daniel's vision starts with a ram that has 2 horns.

Do we need to guess or does the angel help us understand it?

The angel comes to explain it and he said, the ram that you saw having the 2 horns, they are the kings of what empire?

Okay, now listen very carefully, when you read the prophecy in Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 7, Daniel chapter 8, Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 10, 11, 12, it's not dealing with every government of the world, those prophecies are dealing exclusively with the governments and the world powers that have a dramatic impact on God's people and his movement.

So you're not going to find the prophecy of Daniel talking about India, so to speak, or actually Persia covered part of that, but let's pick Australia, Inca Empire, China.

They're dealing with the ones that occupied God's people, the Jews, and then later as Christianity spread that persecution.

So these are the kingdoms and the powers that are listed.

And since these beasts represent kings, When we get to Revelation we talk about the mark of the beast.

I remember when I first became a Christian they said the beast, that's a big computer.

And we thought the bar code the bar code on all the products when it first came out, that's the mark.

Don't buy anything that's got a barcode on it.

All my friends that believe that are now dead.

But the beast even in Revelation 13 is a power, it's talking about a political religious power.

Alright, next Daniel sees a goat appears in this vision with a great big horn between its eyes.

The male goat is the kingdom of...by the way a male goat is what we'd call a billy goat.

And the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

And as for the broken horn, he 33 and he died at the zenith of his power.

It says he died and that 4 horns stand up in its place for what?

Kingdoms shall arise out of that nation but not with the same power.

They did not have the consolidation of power that Alexander the Great had.

So you've got this goat, this billy goat, I don't know if you've ever been budded by a billy goat, but I had a neighbor that once had me take care of his goats while he was gone, he said watch out for Billy, they're very creative, they named their billy goat Billy, and so they said watch out for Billy, and boy you turn your back to do anything that goat is just waiting, his whole life revolves around hoping that you will turn your back.

And he charged me and fortunately he kind of reached the end of his chain, so I did not get the full brunt of him.

But they look for opportunities to charge, this goat charges the ram, the sheep, the male sheep, and kills it, and Alexander destroyed the Persians.

But, and he's really an incredible soldier, you think about it, just in 12 years, he had Aristotle for a teacher.

In 12 years, he marched his soldiers 22, 000 miles.

He conquered the world but he could not conquer himself.

He died from either malaria or alcoholism, drinking too much, a fever at 33 years of age.

And as he was dying, they said, who will rule in your place?

And he is said to have responded, the strongest.

Well his generals, he had a young son that was not old enough to rule as general sort of fought and divided up the kingdom into 4 parts.

This is exactly what the prophecy said would happen.

And there you've got a map of the ancient Macedonian or Greek empire.

You can see the influence of Alexander went all the way from Greece to the borders of India, into Egypt, and up north into Turkey, and it was amazing how much ground he covered, and the influence of his conquest, that's why the Bible is written in Greek, the New Testament, because it became the language of education all through that part of the world back then.

Divided up among Lysimachus and Cassiander and Ptolemy and Seleucius, the different generals of Alexander, and then it went through a lot of carving up and intrigue after that.

Then the vision as you read on, it says, from 1 of the 4 horns, or the 4 divisions of Alexander's kingdom, a little horn sprouts, Daniel 8 verse 9, What power does it represent?

It says, it came to pass, you look in Luke chapter 2, what power came after the Greeks?

Came to pass in those days that a decree went out from who?

From Caesar, Augustus, that all the world should be registered.

You can also look in John 19, 15, Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king?

And the chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.

It's kind of frightening, and it was Caesar who had expelled all the Jews from Rome in the days when Paul was out preaching.

So you've got this goat that had the 4 1 central horn is broken off, Alexander dies, his 4 generals and divide up the kingdom from 1 of the 4, the general that occupied and ruled the territory where Rome is, he lost his power and Rome began to grow into an empire until they conquered the Greeks in about 168 BC and they continued to grow now something you're going to notice with each 1 of these empires, they're stronger than the 1 before, talks about this strong ram and then this very strong goat, and then this exceedingly strong little horn, And you'll also notice when you get to the vision in Daniel 2, it says that you've got each kingdom has a harder metal than the 1 before.

Yeah, because the clay and the iron, that's concrete.

And by the way, it's a stone that destroys the whole thing.

And you'll notice in that vision in Daniel 2, I'm assuming some of you have read it, that there's a progression.

Each 1 of these kingdoms lasts longer, each empire lasts longer than the 1 before it.

It's all been fulfilled by the history books.

So now, just back up a little bit, number 4, what time prophecy, we're going to study the longest time prophecy in the Bible in the time that remains, what time prophecy is introduced into the vision?

2, 300 days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

Now is that talking about 2, 300 days, literal days?

Or when you have a prophecy like this, what is a day?

The Bible tells us, if you look in Ezekiel 4 6, I have laid on you a day for each year.

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The Hour of His Judgment

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