Inquiring Minds… Goats and Rams and Beasts, Oh My!

Part 2

Tim Moore: Well, fellas, obviously, I borrowed that title from the famous line in The Wizard of Oz, “Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!” And yet a lot of Christians would look at passages like this and say, “Oh my, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.” And they’ll just skip over it for something a little bit more serene and calming to their spirit. But there’s much to understand from what God has chosen to reveal through prophets like Daniel, and even through visions that he saw, like these beasts we’re going to unpack today.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, I’ve got to be honest, Daniel 7 and 8 to me, is probably the most difficult prophetic passage to understand if you take it by yourself. But if you parallel it with Daniel 2, then it starts to become easier to understand. And that’s what helps me to try to figure it out. So, I sympathize with anybody who gets to Daniel 7 and 8 and go, “What is this?”

Dave Bowen: Well, the key to Daniel 2, is given to a king, and Daniel himself interprets it. But here, it’s given to Daniel, and he needs an angel to interpret it. So, you go back to an earthly perspective with the king, and a heavenly perspective with the angel coming to interpret it, which is a key to understanding of the two chapters.

Nathan Jones: And now, what do we need? We need prophecy teachers, right, to help us all understand. So, we’re just carrying the torch.

Tim Moore: Well, we’re carrying the torch, but frankly, even we rely on the Holy Spirit to bring understanding to us. And I think you made a great point, Nathan, even as prophecy teachers, there’s things that sometimes we don’t fully comprehend or understand, and we’re not going to try to tell you that we know it all. The Lord knows it all, but we treasure His Word and that means all His Word, including His prophetic Word.

So, you mentioned that this segues from another vision that Daniel was able to interpret. We talked about that in a previous session of our Inquiring Minds series. And so, today, we want to perhaps review what that vision was that that Nebuchadnezzar had, and then we’ll talk about the vision that Daniel has as a follow up.

Nathan Jones: Right. Like I said, we’ll understand these two visions if we understand Daniel 2. And what we said was the time of the Gentiles from the Jewish deportation to the end of the Tribulation, the Gentiles will trample the world and be in control over Israel. So, we saw successive kingdoms depicted by a statue, and mighty statue, gold, silver, bronze, and then iron, and then feet of mixture of iron and clay, and a stone not cut out by human hands, smashes into it, destroys it and fills the Earth.

And if we want to recap on that, that is how the Gentile kingdoms will be destroyed and the kingdom of Christ will be established, and it will grow to fill the whole world. And we know that’s the Millennial Kingdom. So, with that in mind, we could then approach Daniel 7 and 8 in these visions, which are parallel to the different phases of the Gentile world kingdoms.

Tim Moore: So, we think of history being relatively recent. We don’t typically talk about the Babylonian Empire, but from the perspective of Scripture, obviously the Babylonian Empire was the big enchilada in that day and age of the Old Testament that was followed by the Medes and Persians, who were eventually conquered when Greece, under Alexander the Great, became the preeminent empire in this portion of the world. Nathan, you made a great point in a previous episode. We’re not talking about the Chinese peoples, the Incans, the Aztecs, the Iroquois, and other Indian tribes here. It’s all relative to Israel.

Nathan Jones: Israel is the key.

Tim Moore: So, Greek nation, or the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great became very prominent. And that was succeeded by Rome, which then devolved into the world as we know it for the last 2,000 years, but will be reconstituted in this empire of 10 kings and kingdoms. We’ll talk more about that later. That was the earthly perspective. And so, Dave, that brings us to Daniel 7 and 8, where he has yet another vision.

Dave Bowen: And this bothers him that the first dream in Chapter 2 bothered the king, and this one bothers Daniel. He’s very disturbed by seeing this. I think it’s important, too, because you said it highlights Israel. Well, I don’t want to get too technical, but the language does change, from Arabic to Hebrew. So, changing into Hebrew, we know now the audience that this message is for is Israel and what’s going to happen with that. But now, Daniel is taken back by the four beasts that he sees coming out of this.

Tim Moore: So, describe those beasts that we see here in Daniel 7, and now it’s explained and interpreted even later into Chapter 8.

Dave Bowen: Right, and you’ve got to remember, Scripture always interprets Scripture.

Tim Moore: Amen.

Dave Bowen: So, we need that for understanding. The first beast here is the lion that we see here. Now, the lion is a symbol of Babylon. Ishtar Gate has a lion on it. So, we understand that. We understand that the lion, the wings are plucked out in this vision, which is very unique.

Nathan Jones: The winged lion.

Dave Bowen: Yeah, so the wings get plucked out, which means it’s going to, Babylon, the country’s going to have a downfall. They’re going to fall. Like the head is going to be limited here. Nebuchadnezzar was called a lion in Jeremiah 49 and Jeremiah 50. So, there’s a tie in there, too. Scripture interprets Scripture. So, the first one being a lion and the second one being the beast has the…

Tim Moore: The bear.

Dave Bowen: Yeah. I said the beast. Not quite to the beast yet, but the bear. Correct. And you go back to the Medes and Persians with that. And you understand these are nations that are conquering it. The bear is less majestic than the lion, which that was. It’s a bulky body. So, it moves slower, which happened there, too. You look at the historic conquest. It had three ribs in its mouth too, while those nations conquered, there were three major conquests for that. So, you combine history with Scripture, the picture becomes very clear.

Tim Moore: Yes, it does.

Dave Bowen: And that’s where it gets scary, but you’ve got to take your time and study it, which we talked about in the past. And as you study it, then it starts coming through. The third beast being a leopard. Well, that was the bronze belly from the last dream we had there. Jeremiah 5, Hosea talks about this.

Tim Moore: And the leopard is a very fast beast as opposed to the bear. It moves very quickly. And we know that Alexander the Great conquered in a matter of years, all the known empires in that part of the world very quickly.

Dave Bowen: Right, right. And the key; it has four wings.

Tim Moore: Four wings.

Dave Bowen: And Alexander the Great, when his kingdom fell, what happened? His four generals took it over. So, this is just fascinating. And when I first understood Bible prophecy, I learned it through history.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Dave Bowen: Because I can go back to history, and say, okay, well, if this was Persia, what happened? If this was Greece, what happened? And his kingdom fell apart. And his four generals took it over. And that happened.

Nathan Jones: That’s why the book of Daniel is so attacked by so many liberal theologians and unbelievers is because they say, “Well, how could Daniel have prophesied future empires that are hundreds of years after him with such accuracy? Well, he must have written this in the second century or something.” No, it’s been historically and archeologically verified that Daniel wrote this in the 500 BC, the sixth century BC. So, I find it’s fascinating that it’s proof that the Bible is indeed the Word of God.

Tim Moore: And even Alexander, when shown the visions and the prophecies, recognized himself, he understood it, and he had great reverence for the fact that these Jewish prophets were, through their God, able to reveal prophecies that pointed directly to him. He understood…

Nathan Jones: And he didn’t destroy Jerusalem because of that. This prophecy saved Jerusalem…

Dave Bowen: Absolutely.

Tim Moore: So, we got the three beasts, or we say beast. I mean, they’re obviously animals that we would be familiar with. A lion, a bear, and a leopard.

Dave Bowen: A leopard. Right.

Tim Moore: And that is succeeded by a final beast, which is described how?

Dave Bowen: Well, that one is the most disturbing to Daniel as he sees this come, that’s the one that bothers him the most. And that’s the one that has to be interpreted to him because that becomes this final kingdom. And now, that becomes what we call—I don’t want to get ahead of myself too much, but the little horn, which leads us up again into end times in the Antichrist.

Tim Moore: But this was a great and terrifying beast…

Dave Bowen: Yes.

Tim Moore: …with large iron teeth, back to that Iron Empire being Rome, and 10 horns. So, a beast so devastating that Daniel can’t even liken it to an earthly animal. It’s just a terrifying beast.

Nathan Jones: Well, it’s a chimera, it’s a mixture of the three obvious kingdoms. Because it consumed those three kingdoms and brought in attributes. The Romans were very strong on Greek teachings and Greek language. They still practice. Greek gods, they just renamed and slapped Latin names on them. So, it was very much an amalgam of the others, and a final form of what the world empire would look like in the last days.

Dave Bowen: And the Romans had a system called divide and rule. And that whole system, the Romans put in place, did that. They would go in and conquer a people. But then it’s interesting, they then incorporate their people into their culture. And that’s exactly what happens.

Tim Moore: And their gods sometimes.

Dave Bowen: Yeah, exactly. So, the divide and rule conquering of the Roman Empire is what’s playing out here. So, what happens with these, again, this fourth beast is not described by an animal. It’s not compared to an animal. It’s very disturbing when you look at this. But the nations that Rome will conquer, and we see this close to the End Times too, they will be incorporated into the Roman Empire. And many gods come out of that. Many things come out of that. But that’s ultimately what leads to the first advent of Christ. Because the Roman roads allowed the Gospel with Paul being out there.

The fact that they controlled, there was one world government basically in a way, they controlled that area. They even invented a postal system so their leaders could talk. So, everything was in place. I sometimes wondered, why did Jesus come when He came? Why not during the time of David, when Israel’s at its pinnacle? Well, why not when Abraham was there when Israel’s being created? The Gospel would not have been preached at those times because you didn’t have the roads, the communication, or the kingdom, which you see here in the Romans with…

Nathan Jones: Technology…

Dave Bowen: Yeah. Exactly.

Tim Moore: Sometimes people will question why we use certain means to distribute our outreach, whether it’s the internet. Well, the internet’s full of filth. You’re right, it is. But there’s the Gospel being proclaimed. Why certain television networks or certain radio stations, whatever, because we will use any means. Just like Paul traveled Roman roads and went on Roman ships to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, reaching people where he couldn’t have gotten to had he not used all those different mediums.

Dave Bowen: Right.

Tim Moore: And we’re doing that still today.

Nathan Jones: Well, this…

Tim Moore: Go ahead.

Nathan Jones: Oh, I was just going to point out Daniel 7:7, you had brought up the point about how much he had a lot of fear. He had night visions of this, so really, it should have said nightmares.

Tim Moore: Nightmares.

Nathan Jones: But this fourth beast, he calls it dreadful and terrifying and exceedingly strong. And we know from history, the Roman Empire was everything like you said. It was unstoppable and unbeatable. And then, it talks about devouring and breaking the pieces and consuming the others. But then, it gets up to this point where it’s got horns.

Tim Moore: Mm-hmm. How many horns?

Nathan Jones: It says it’s got…I was considering the horns and there were 10 horns.

Tim Moore: 10 horns.

Nathan Jones: And…

Tim Moore: Just like the 10-toes.

Nathan Jones: The 10 toes, so we again, we got, ooh, parallel here.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: And a little one comes up amongst it, it overthrows three or comes before three, plucks them out by the roots, and then it grows. And this horn isn’t just a horn. He says the horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. This is bizarre.

Dave Bowen: Had human characteristics.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, you got to wonder if he ate a pizza before bed or something.

Dave Bowen: What’s wrong with pizza?

Tim Moore: Yeah, that was one of the things that Ebenezer Scrooge thought that his visions were caused by something he ate. In this case, it’s not something Daniel ate, it is a manifestation of someone that we know of as the Antichrist.

Nathan Jones: Right.

Tim Moore: So, he’s seeing this little horn that grows not only in his power, but also in his arrogance and makes mighty boasts. And this is yet another foreshadowing of the antichrist to come.

Nathan Jones: Well, the fact that we’re talking about 10 horns is that matching the 10 toes is, okay, we’ve been talking about history, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and then the Roman Empire. But the Roman Empire, even though we think it got destroyed in 500, it really kind of spread throughout Europe and was divided, brittle but strong.

But in the end, it will be a 10-region control over the world. So, now, we’re talking future. This prophecy spans the entire, like we said, the time of the Gentile. So, it’s going to be from the Jewish people being kicked out of their land all the way till the end of the Tribulation. So, this is a prophecy that we’re actually living in.

Tim Moore: We’re living in it. I find it fascinating and very encouraging that in the midst of this prophecy between the having of the prophecy in Daniel 7:1-8 and the interpretation of the prophecy that begins in verse 15, we almost have a preview of the style of Revelation. Because in the middle of this prophecy, Daniel has yet another vision where he sees a great throne room and the Ancient of Days takes his seat.

Nathan Jones: Right.

Tim Moore: And he’s describing God Almighty in His radiant glory there in Heaven itself. And so, that’s a great affirmation. It should give great encouragement to those reading about this prophecy. In the midst of this scene, he sees another individual step forward, and talk about who steps forward to take a seat next to the Ancient of Days.

Dave Bowen: Well, can I do a little rabbit trail there for a second before we do that?

Tim Moore: A second, but don’t keep me waiting.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, because…

Tim Moore: This is important person.

Dave Bowen: Well, verse 10, again, becomes divine judgment. And you have a courtroom scene. And I think that’s important to tie it into what you were mentioning about the future because the Book of Revelation, John says he’s called to be a witness.

Tim Moore: Yes.

Dave Bowen: Which becomes a courtroom scene. So, if we understand this, does that not give us some clarity for what’s going to happen in our future yet?

Tim Moore: It certainly does.

Dave Bowen: And doesn’t that mean it’s so important to take the time to study this so that we can reveal it to other people, especially those who don’t know what’s coming.

Tim Moore: And frankly, I’ll go down that rabbit trail with you for a moment to say, even in verse 11 and 12, we see that the beast and this horn that’s boasting all kinds of spiteful things is about to get his comeuppance. But in the midst of this trial, this courtroom scene, there we get to this individual who I think is most important. And who is that, Nathan? There in verse 13?

Nathan Jones: Well, we’re going to talk about the Antichrist. Now, there’s a typology…

Tim Moore: But this shows up in this…

Dave Bowen: This is your rock coming out the…

Nathan Jones: Yes. Well, because, and this is where it gets confusing for some people, because you go back to verse nine, is it talking about Jesus or the Father, right? “The Ancient of Days, He’s got a garment as white as snow. His hair is like pure wool. His throne as a fiery flame and it has burning wheels.” We know that’s the Father, because that’s the Father’s throne. And then, who comes up walking up to Him, “One like the Son of Man,” verse 13, “coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days.”

Tim Moore: Amen.

Nathan Jones: So, this is the Son coming up to the Father. And as we talked about…

Tim Moore: And He was presented before Him.

Dave Bowen: Right.

Tim Moore: “And to him, this Son of Man was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples and nations, and men of every language might serve Him.”

Nathan Jones: Daniel 2, that stone not cut out by human hands that destroyed Gentile Empires and filled the Earth with His kingdom, it’s Jesus Christ. It’s Jesus Christ.

Dave Bowen: If they doubt that, the title Son of Man is His favorite title used over 80 times the New Testament by Him. So, we know that this is Jesus.

Nathan Jones: You know, I grew up always wondering, why was Jesus always calling Himself the Son of Man? But by saying the Son of Man, He was pointing to Daniel’s prophecy of the Messiah. So, basically, He’s saying, I am the Messiah to everyone.

Tim Moore: Yes, He is.

Dave Bowen: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: And that just, poof.

Dave Bowen: Yeah, fully God, fully man. So, we have His divinity and His humanity both, but…

Nathan Jones: An excellent point.

Tim Moore: And I think it’s a beautiful way that Jesus communicates, I am with you. We talk about God with us, Emmanuel. What better way for our divine God to take on the form of a man, the Son of Man, to be like unto one of us in terms of knowing all of our trials, all of our struggles, all of our humanity, and yet still be God. So, even this title, it has so much importance and meaning.

Dave Bowen: So, this is a devastating time for Daniel. He’s bothered by it. But you just described a picture of God’s grace.

Nathan Jones: Of course.

Dave Bowen: So, even in this chaos, even in this time of despair for Daniel, God’s grace is highlighted.

Tim Moore: In the midst of wrath, God remembers mercy. And He always offers it. He’s always calling us to repentance, to salvation, because He does not want to pour out His wrath on us. And thankfully, He won’t. My wrath that I deserve, and, Nathan, we talked earlier about how all of us deserve hell, but Jesus received the punishment I was deserving of. And so, that’s the good news. That’s the glory of God’s grace and His mercy toward each of us.

Nathan Jones: It’s interesting that as Daniel sits here, now he’s in his own vision here, so, he’s before the throne room of God. So, whether he was raptured up to Heaven or just mentally there, or his spirit was brought up, although he’s feeling him, he’s got emotions, he’s grieved, he’s troubled, and all, and what does he do? He turns to an angel standing by…

Tim Moore: Yes.

Nathan Jones: What does this mean?

Tim Moore: Exactly.

Nathan Jones: And oh, he adds an angel.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: And it’s neat that the Lord put an angel there to help as a messenger, which that’s what angel means.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: To give him the interpretation.

Dave Bowen: And you see that Earth perspective, Heaven perspective, which carries over the theme in the Book of Revelation as well. You go from Earth to Heaven, Heaven to Earth. You have that analogy and Revelation.

Tim Moore: And there’s some analogies, you used that word and I think that’s appropriate, because sometimes, there are mysteries that the uninformed, or shall we say, the un-spiritually enlightened. And who does the enlightening? Not me, not you, not even prophecy teachers. It is the Holy Spirit of God. But in this case, there can be no confusing what these symbols mean. Because if we go to chapter 8:20, we’re told, “The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia.” Very next verse, “The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.”

Nathan Jones: And that’s the next vision he has in chapter eight, right?

Dave Bowen: Yes.

Nathan Jones: Which parallels this vision he has in chapter seven.

Dave Bowen: Correct.

Tim Moore: So, it interprets itself right here within the passage. So, let’s go to that next vision, Nathan, because this does get a little bit more complicated, dare we say. We probably can’t, in a few minutes, unpack every portion of this passage. We want to give the great overview.

Nathan Jones: Sure.

Tim Moore: But what is that next vision all about?

Nathan Jones: Well, I’ll give you the cliff notes version then.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: All right? So, we read about those four kingdoms, those four animals in chapter seven. In chapter eight, you only get two. It only deals with a ram and a goat. The ram, of course, is equivalent to the bear, equivalent to the silver on the body. It is the Medo-Persian Empire.

Tim Moore: Yes.

Nathan Jones: A powerful empire that took over all the land and ruled. But then you’ve got a goat, and this goat comes flying in super-fast and it just tramples that ram and destroys it. And it’s like a unicorn. It has one horn, but it breaks into four. And like you said earlier, Dave, you’ve got the four wings on that one animal showing the four generals. The four horns would be the four generals…

Tim Moore: So, the great long horn was Alexander, and then the four horns that followed are his generals who took over after his death.

Nathan Jones: Right. And we know that Babylon went down in 609 BC, the Medo-Persian Empire in 539 BC, Greece in 330 BC, and the Roman Empire technically in the fifth century altogether. But again, it doesn’t go into the future. We don’t deal with Rome in chapter eight. We don’t deal with the Antichrist in chapter eight. But it was another prophecy to show that this Medo-Persian Empire that was coming would be destroyed by the Greek Empire.

Tim Moore: Well, we know that during that time of the Greek Empire, that was prior to Christ arrival here on Earth in His manifestation as a man. And during that Greek era, of course many Jews embraced Greek. They spoke Greek, they took on kind of Greek culture.

Nathan Jones: Hellenized.

Tim Moore: Hellenized. Yes, the Hellenized Jews. And we know that one of these Greek generals actually tried to set himself up as to be God in the Temple itself. Antiochus Epiphanes.

Dave Bowen: Yes. Correct.

Tim Moore: So, we would say, when you have an epiphany today, you have a great vision. But it hearkens back to him because he thought of himself…

Nathan Jones: Well, he called himself Epiphanes, which meant Antiochus the Great or the Magnificent, but he was criminally insane. And so, the Jewish people who are terribly persecuted by him call him Antiochus Epimanes, which meant Antiochus the Madman.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: And he truly is a symbol or a–which the Bible here is prophesying this guy as an antichrist…

Dave Bowen: Right.

Nathan Jones: …but then it also ha—it points to the fact that this is a future prophecy, but a far future prophecy as well.

Tim Moore: So, it was pre-filled what we’re talking about when he came to the Temple and desecrated the Temple, he actually sacrificed a pig, there desecrating the Temple, we know that the Temple was restored and reclaimed when, under the Maccabees, they came and…

Dave Bowen: Well, Hanukkah, that’s what Hanukkah comes…

Tim Moore: And that’s what the Jews celebrate to this day during Hanukkah, the festival of lights, but prefiguring and foreshadowing the actual Antichrist, that will do the same thing in the end of times when the Antichrist comes and desecrates the Temple again.

Nathan Jones: And there’s even a prophecy about how long between the desecration and the Hanukkah, the rededication of the Temple as either 2,300 days, but since it says morning and evenings, it’s actually 1,150, 167-164 BC, three years, and on December 16th, the Temple was desecrated, but then it was restored. This prophecy gives down to the day how long the Temple would’ve been desecrated and then brought back and consecrated.

Dave Bowen: Now, let’s not lose the fact, too, that king of Syria, who he is, and he went in to take over Jerusalem, but he was very violent. What he would do, he would go city to city to city, and he would make people bow to him and worship him. And he got to one area and you wonder who the priest was in that area. It was the Maccabee, it was the Father Maccabee, and he refused to bow to him. In fact, the soldiers he brought in, they rebelled and killed the soldiers. That’s what caused him to come in. Why is that important? Because when we get to the End Times, we’re going to see such chaos and such… If this is a foreshadow of what’s coming, and it is, everything ties in, including the violence and what’s happening. So, when those things take place, if you understand this, you know, okay, this is a call to turn towards Christ…

Tim Moore: Amen.

Dave Bowen: …not to reject Him.

Tim Moore: So, many people reading this passage, and again, thinking, “Oh my goodness, rams and goats, and beasts, and all these animals, it’s too much. I don’t want to think about it.” And of course, the fact that the great and terrifying beast in Daniel points to the beast who is revealed in Revelation. Again, many Christians say, “I just don’t want to think about that.” Because they think, “Well, if this beast that’s coming is Satanic, shouldn’t I be afraid of that beast?”

Nathan Jones: That’s why this book, Non-Prophet’s Guide to the Book of Daniel, Todd Hampson, who wrote this book, has this wonderful little chart of the statue and of the animals and makes a comparison. I tell you, Todd makes this easy to understand the Book of Daniel.

Tim Moore: Yeah, as a matter of fact, we really encourage you and you will see how to get a copy of this book because it brings in great light. And the fact that even he shows through cartoons, this is not something for us to be afraid of. But should we as Christians be afraid not only of the beast that are seen in Daniel, but the beast that’s coming in Revelation?

Nathan Jones: Well, I think for those who get saved after the Rapture of the Church, not for the Church, I don’t think we have to worry about Antiochus Epiphanes. We can look at that and know that this antichrist is going to be really the most dreadful person in human history. And those who get saved during the Tribulation are going to be hunted down by him. He’s going to murder two-thirds of the Jewish people. He’s going to proclaim himself to be God and he’s just going to be a horrific, or he’s going to have the blood of billions on his hands. So, for Christians of that era, he is going to be a terror.

Tim Moore: But for Christians today, Dave, should we be afraid of what’s coming?

Dave Bowen: No. We should not be afraid.

Tim Moore: Why?

Dave Bowen: We should never walk in fear because we have that hope. We have a promise. When you have hope, what do you have a hope in? Well, I have the hope in the promise made of God, which I can rely on and trust in.

Tim Moore: Amen. Amen. We are not afraid because we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Therefore, Satan and all his minions, his beast to come have no power over us.

Nathan Jones: Amen.

Tim Moore: And frankly, we’re not going to be here when that beast is revealed. And so, we would urge our viewers today to put your trust in Christ today so that you do not have to fear the things which Daniel saw, the things which are foretold in the Book of Revelation. And we have no fear here today. We do not deny the power of Satan that is being wielded all around the world, but again, he has no sway over us because we belong to the Lord God.

Dave Bowen: Amen.

Nathan Jones: Yes, the Lord Jesus is coming back. He’s that stone not cut out by human hands. He’s going to smash these failed, flawed governments that we’re all suffering under, And He’s going to establish His kingdom. No antichrist little horn, nothing can stand against this King of kings and Lord of lords. It’s something to be excited about.

Tim Moore: Nathan, you said something a little while ago. We’re still living in the period of those kingdoms in this Gentile age, but that doesn’t mean we are tied to this Gentile age. We can already be a part of the kingdom of God that is coming and that we already can be a citizen of. Dave?

Dave Bowen: Right. Amen. There is a glorious future waiting for us, for those who understand this, for those who, the promise, those who read this and take it and live it out is a promise and a glorious future.

Tim Moore: A promise and a glorious future.

Closing

Tim Moore: Folks, the reality is other than Jesus Christ Himself, Daniel is one of the preeminent exemplars in Scripture. And that is because with his extensive biography of this gifted prophet of God, there is no record of a character flaw or a failing.

Nathan Jones: Still, Daniel also exhibited Christ-like selflessness when he took responsibility for the sins of his people, Israel. Studying God’s prophetic Word just like we encourage you to do, he came to understand that the exile in Babylon would soon come to an end.

Dave Bowen: Daniel 9 describes how this aging prophet sought the Lord through intense prayer and fasting. He humbled himself and expressed personal remorse for the sins of his people in a sense taking responsibility for their rebellion against God and beseeching the Lord to forgive and restore them for His Name’s sake.

Tim Moore: The only Person who has intervened on your behalf, sacrificing Himself so that you could be forgiven is Jesus Christ. Not only did He pray for you and for me, He took on your sins and mine, dying in our place so that we can live eternally.

All you have to do to lay claim to His free gift of salvation from your sin and from the wrath of God is believe in Him. Believe that He died for you and rose again by His own power to ascend to the right hand of God. Join us in longing for Jesus to come again, to receive those who are His, and usher us to the place He is preparing for us.

Just pray, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I am not deserving of Your mercy. But I believe that You lived a sinless life and gave Yourself on my behalf, bearing my punishment so that I can live with You forever. I gladly accept Your salvation and will worship You as Lord from this day forward.”

If you have believed in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confessed before men, that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. And in the words of Daniel 9:19, “You’ll be called by His name, a Christian.”

We have earnestly prayed that is true for you today and forevermore. Godspeed!

Nathan Jones: Christ in Prophecy is made possible through the faithful and generous support of viewers like you. Please consider making a donation to Lamb and Lion Ministries so that we can continue broadcasting the message of Jesus’ soon return. Thank you and God bless you.

End of Program