Daniel Unlocked #2

Daniel Unlocked #2. The Big Picture

I’m a big picture person. I study the trends and avoid getting bogged down in the details. After being immersed in history and Bible prophecy for over 50 years I’ve come to understand the trend of this world’s history. I have no time for speculation, or conspiracy theories which are side alleys and dark tunnels that inevitably lead us away from the truth. I have run many, many Daniel and Revelation seminars over the last 5 decades, but always I would fall short of Daniel 11 because it seemed so complicated, unclear, and hard to present. About 8 years ago I had an epiphany that opened my eyes to the last two chapters of Daniel. Our world is about to go through a great change.

An angel tells Daniel, “many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.” (12:4). This is knowledge in his book and understanding of its importance in “the time of the end.” Some people are turned off by end-time scenarios. However, a faithful and accurate take on Bible prophecy shows us what is really happening in our world and fills us with the hope of better things to come.

We are a planet in rebellion that was caused by Lucifer’s original rebellion in heaven and our first parent’s having sided with him in that rebellion. (see tomorrows’ study on this.)

Here’s the big picture. The statesman Daniel was one of the most important Bible prophets. Prime minister to two world powers, he began his civic career in his youth, about 605 B.C., when taken into exile in Babylon from the tiny country of Judah. His captors trained him to serve in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, the new emperor of Babylon. Through his long career Daniel endeared himself to the kings he served because he had a relationship with his God that gave him access to reliable knowledge and wisdom, and his integrity was unshakable.

God entrusted him with prophecies about the future that cover 4 cycles of repetition and enlargement. His first one recorded in Daniel chapter 2, explains Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about a giant statue. The later prophecies, revealed in Daniel 7 and 8, build on the first prophecy like students doing mathematics year after year, adding more detail and getting more complex. The apex of the timeline progression is Daniel chapter 11. In great detail, this chapter defines and explains in chronological order the prophecies of world history from Daniel’s time to the end of the world.

Daniel 11 predicts three holy wars between Islam and Western Christianity.

These ‘wars’ were lengthy conflicts between two broad powers in the world. The first war was the Arab expansion of Islam and seven major Christian Crusades from A.D. 1095 to 1291. The second was the growth of the Islamic Ottoman Empire during the period of the reformation and following, roughly A.D. 1449 to 1840. This information is even accessible from the secular Year 8 History textbook that I use at school but can be verified from any source.

In the third and final holy war, which is in the future but looking imminent, Islam will attack Western Christianity. Western Christianity, including the United States, Europe and its allies (NATO), will counterattack. As we study Daniel’s prophecies, we will build to the dramatic conclusion of Daniel 11.The third war will result in the destruction of Islam, a change that will likely be much more dramatic and pivotal than the crusades of the Middle Ages or any of our world wars.

As depicted in Daniel 11, the third holy war will dramatically alter the world and our freedoms as we have known them. Of course, the prophecies of the Book of Revelation will play into this scenario as well.

It is during the aftermath of this war that God will rescue His people. But before we get to Daniel 11, we must do the groundwork in the prophecies and stories that God delivered to Daniel over the course of seven decades.

This series is so relevant to the world we currently live in that I pray that you will start your own net work of friends and relatives and send the links to them. You can copy and paste the heading and link as I send them and paste them back into your phone or email and resend them. God bless you all.