Our Bibles together to the book of Daniel and
the eighth chapter You'll recall that the first
six chapters of Daniel are chapters recording
personal incidences from history Prophecy certainly
is intertwined with that personal history, but
as we come to the final check of six chapters
of Daniel There are visions here that are fully
loaded with prophecy. There are four prophecies
recorded for us in the six chapters, Daniels
7, 8, 9, and then 10, 11, and 12. Tonight we
come to chapter 8, which begins by saying, In
the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the
king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent
to the one which appeared to me previously. Daniel,
by this, dates the vision for us. It occurred
in about 550 BC. It is three years after the
last vision that he had, between two and three
years later. Daniel is, by this time, about 70
years of age. So he's getting to be a senior
saint. And all of his life, from those early
teens, he has walked with God. He is a man that
God has blessed with position and prominence
in the empires of which he served in positions
of importance. He tells us that he looked in
the vision and it came about while I was looking,
he says, that I was in the citadel of Susa, which
is in the province of Elam. And I looked in the
vision and I myself was beside the Uli canal.
So Daniel, although he is in the city of Babylon,
in the vision, sees himself some 230 miles to
the east in a city called Susa. It was the capital,
Susa was, of the ancient land of Elam in Abraham's
day. After Daniel, it became a city of prominence
again because it became the royal city of the
Persians. This is where Esther lived. This is
where Nehemiah was the cup bearer to the king,
the city of Susa. But in 550 BC, in Daniel's
day, Susa was not a city of that much prominence.
Susa is famous in archaeological history because
it was there that the code of Hammurabi was found,
which some of you would be familiar with. And
in the city of Susa, archaeologists also have
uncovered the very palace in which Esther lived
under the reign of Xerxes, the king of Persia.
Now the Ulai Canal was mentioned here and that
is a little more difficult to locate. However,
it is understood to be an artificial man -made
canal. Some identify it with one that is about
900 feet wide and which stretches from one river
to another. And it passed in that day near the
city of Susa. So Daniel gives us the date, he
gives us the place that he sees in the vision.
This vision, it seems, was received during the
daytime, not during the nighttime as part of
his dreaming, but during the daytime he had a
vision of certain beasts. And these beasts that
we see, namely a ram and a goat, have symbolic
meaning, as we will understand. Apparently, from
what he says in the chapter, there were other
beasts that he saw as well. And so that's the
reason I named this the Gentile Zoo, this message
tonight, because in this chapter, he seems to
see an array of beasts. He talks mainly about
two of them. Just by way of passing, let me mention
that the Hebrew language is used once again,
beginning with this chapter in Daniel. You remember
back in chapter two, a switch to Aramaic, and
then now it comes back to the Hebrew in the original
copies of this. Now, this vision that we're going
to look at tonight fills in some of the detail
regarding the two middle kingdoms that we talked
about last week in the vision of chapter 7. Those
two middle kingdoms of the four empires are Medo
-Persia and Greece. In this vision that came
three years later, Daniel's given additional
information regarding those two middle kingdoms.
Let's take a look now at the vision. He says,
I lifted my gaze and looked and behold a ram
which had two horns was standing in front of
the canal. Now the two horns were long and one
was longer than the other with the longer one
coming up last. I saw the ram butting westward,
northward, and southward and no other beasts
could stand before him. So there you get the
idea there are other beasts that he sees in his
vision. Nor was there anyone to rescue from his
power, but he did as he pleased and magnified
himself. Now normally a ram has two horns, but
this obviously is a little different. The language
here can be understood to mean that as Daniel
was watching this ram, the horns grew out. Or
it may mean that one horn was in front of the
other. But the idea is that the one that was
obviously second was larger. Now that has significance
because the empire of the Medo -Persians, which
is represented by this ram, as we'll see, the
second of those nations, Persia, became the more
dominant of the two. That is the reason the second
horn is seen as being larger. This ram pushes
its way in three directions, westward, northward,
and southward. And this ram pleased himself,
magnified himself, and became great. Now in verse
5 it says, Well I was observing, behold a male
goat was coming from the west over the surface
of the whole earth without touching the ground.
That is, its speed was so fast that the feet
didn't even touch the ground. And the goat had
a conspicuous horn between his eyes. And so now
there is a male goat coming from the west over
the whole earth and he comes with tremendous
speed. You may recall that the third kingdom
looked at last week, in fact it might be good
just to go back and look at chapter 7 and verse
6, the third kingdom in this vision was symbolized
by a leopard and we noted the four wings. that
it had on its back. Four wings of a bird, which
we said last week, indicated the speed. A leopard
is fast anyway, but this leopard is seen with
wings on its back, so it's a very fast animal.
Now in the vision that we see in chapter 8, we
have a male goat that is moving with tremendous
speed across the face of the earth, and it has
a conspicuous horn, one that's very prominent,
which represents its leader. And normally goats
have two horns to them, just like rams do, and
so this is an anomaly. This is a strange -looking
ram, or goat rather, that has just one large
horn instead of two horns. Well, he came up to
the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen
standing in front of the canal and rushed at
him in his mighty wrath. And I saw him come beside
the ram. And he was enraged at him. And he struck
the ram and shattered his two horns. And the
ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled
him to the ground and trampled on him. And there
was none to rescue the ram from his power." So
there's a conflict that takes place. The goat
attacks and defeats the ram, even though the
goat is a smaller animal. The goat is pictured
as being filled with hot fury and anger, thus
perhaps explaining the extra strength that this
goat had. The adrenaline was really flowing in
this animal. And now in verse 8 it says, Then
the male goat magnified himself exceedingly,
but as soon as he was mighty, the large horn
was broken. And in its place there came up four
conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
And out of one of them came forth a rather small
horn which grew exceedingly great. And so you
understand what he's saying. This goat magnified
himself and then the horn was broken. And in
the place of that horn there grew up, while Daniel
was watching, four horns. And then out of one
of those horns there came yet another A small
horn, he says, which then began to grow exceedingly
great. And he mentions it grows toward the south,
toward the east, and toward the beautiful land.
A phrase that signifies Palestine or Israel.
And it came up to the host of heaven and caused
some of the host and some of the stars to fall
to the earth. And it trampled them down. It even
magnified itself to be equal with the commander
of the host, a reference to God. And it removed
the regular sacrifice from him. And the throne
of his God's sanctuary was thrown down. The place
of his sanctuary was thrown down. And on account
of transgression, the host will be given over
to the horn along with the regular sacrifice.
and it will fling truth to the ground to perform
its will and prosper. Then I heard a holy one
speaking and another holy one said to that particular
one who was speaking, how long will the vision
about the regular sacrifice apply while the transgression
causes horror so as to allow both the holy place
and the host to be trampled? We understand the
host mentioned here in this context to refer
to the people of God, primarily the Jewish people.
And he said to me, for 2300 evenings and mornings,
then the holy place will be properly restored.
And so there we have the laying out of the vision.
Daniel's response is interesting. It says, it
came about that when he had seen the vision,
he says, I sought to understand it, and behold,
standing before me was one who looked like a
man, and I heard the voice of a man between the
banks of Uli. And he called out and said, Gabriel,
give this man an understanding of the vision.
So he came near to where I was standing. So Daniel
was struck with a desire to understand what all
of this vision was about. And as that desire
filled his heart, there was a voice, understood
by most Bible commentators to be the voice of
God, instructing the one who looked like a man
nearby, whose name was Gabriel, to come and to
give to Daniel the interpretation of it. Now
this Gabriel is the same Gabriel that announced
the Lord Jesus Christ, his birth, to Joseph and
to Mary. He is the one who had part of the announcement
of the coming of Christ. This is an angelic being,
Gabriel, who is in view. And now he ministers
to Daniel, giving him understanding. But Daniel
was frightened by his appearance and fell on
his face. But Gabriel responded by saying, son
of man, understand that the vision pertains to
the time of the end. Now we're going to take
a look at the interpretation. But before we do
that, I want you to notice that phrase here,
the time of the end. We'll see something similar
in just a moment. While he was talking with me,
I sank into a deep sleep with my face to the
ground. The idea is that he fainted, but he touched
me and made me stand upright and he said, behold,
I am going to let you know what will occur at
the final period of the indignation for it pertains
to the appointed time of the end. Now the language
that Gabriel uses here indicates to us that there
is something about this vision that he's about
to explain that has a double fulfillment. It
will have a fulfillment in the time when all
of these other things happen, but there is something
about the vision that also pertains to the time
of the end. Of course the question is the end
of what? And the best answer to that, the end
of Israel's suffering, Israel's domination by
the Gentile powers, which is something that's
still going on in our day. And so it's yet to
the future from our day. Most of the vision that
we're going to see here had an historical fulfillment
after the days of Daniel, some of it in his day
and then afterward. But there is something about
it, as we will see, that stretches all the way
down to the time of the end, perhaps even the
days in which you and I are living. Verse 20
gives us an understanding of what the ram is
all about. Gabriel says, now understand God himself
is speaking through Gabriel, telling us the meaning
of this vision. The ram which you saw with the
two horns represents the kings of media and Persia.
Now it's interesting that this vision came in
550 BC because that was almost the exact time
that those two nations formed a coalition. They
joined together. And so to Daniel is given the
message, the ram, which corresponds now to the
second kingdom that is represented by the bear
in chapter 7. But this ram represents Medo -Persia.
This empire primarily grew in three directions,
just as the vision had suggested it would. It
grew toward the west, toward Babylonia and Syria,
up into Asia Minor. It grew toward the north,
geographically, into Armenia, what is today southern
Russia. up around the Caspian Sea. And it also
grew and stretched itself down to the south around
Israel and to Egypt and Ethiopia. If your Bible
has maps in the back of it, it may be that there
is a map that would give you some of this information.
In the Ryrie Study Bible, which I happen to have
with me tonight, map number seven outlines for
you the empire of the Medes and the Persians.
Your Bible may have a similar map in it. If you
don't have a Bible with maps, don't feel like
you're missing out. Your Bible isn't inspired
or something. These are just study aids included
in some Bibles to give you the helps right there.
If you don't have a Bible with maps in it, you
may want to get a hold of them. of a book that
would help you, Unger's Bible handbook or some
other Bible study aid that would give you maps
so that you can visualize where these kinds of
things took place. Now this nation of the Medes
and the Persians became great. In about the time
that Daniel got this vision there was a man who
was coming forth strong on the scene in Persia.
His name was Cyrus. Up to this point, the nation
of Media was the stronger of the two. In fact,
the Medes helped to defeat the Assyrians in 612
BC. They joined together with Babylonia at that
time and helped defeat the Assyrians. And so,
the nation of the Medes was the more powerful
nation. But now, just about the time Daniel's
getting this vision, Persia starting to come
on strong under the leadership of Cyrus. The
empire of the Medes and the Persians lasted on
the historical scene for about 200 years before
it was then replaced by another empire. And that
is the next one that is mentioned here. And that
is represented by the goat. Gabriel says the
shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece.
and the large horn that is between his eyes is
the first king. Well, the first real king of
Greece as an empire was Alexander the Great.
Alexander was the son of a prominent man whose
name was Philip of Macedon. Alexander was born
almost 200 years after Daniel got this vision,
356 B .C. He became ruler of Greece as it was
in his time at the age of 20 when his father,
Philip, was murdered. This young man, Alexander,
was brilliant. He had been educated under the
famous Aristotle. He was a man who is known as
one of the great military strategists of all
the ages. He ranks up there with Napoleon as
being one of the great military leaders of all
times. One person pointed out that Alexander
conquered more foreign soil than any ruler in
the history of the world. He attacked Persia
not long after he became the king just a couple
of years later. Remember now, the Medes and the
Persians are the major dominant force there in
the Middle East. But out of the West, over in
Asia Minor, Macedon, and that area, comes this
Greek army under the leadership of Alexander
the Great, an army of about 40 ,000 men, we are
told, against a force of hundreds of thousands
among the Medes and the Persians. But because
Alexander was so brilliant as a military strategist,
he devised strategy no one had ever seen before.
Because he had a small, fast -moving army, in
three battles over the course of about three
years, he defeated the Medes and the Persians.
That was in 331. And so at that time, Medo -Persia
passes off the scene. The ram has been butted
against and he's down and the goat tramples him.
Alexander finishes with the Medes and the Persians
and marches on. He marched on eastward, all the
way to the Indus River, to the border of what
is today India, and south to the Indian Ocean.
And then he turned back toward the west, having
conquered everything that he knew that there
was to conquer. and he was only 32 years of age.
Well, he got back to the city of Babylon and
there he was taken with malaria. He was a man
who suffered from alcoholism. He was also greatly
disillusioned as a brilliant young man who had
conquered the known world. He sat down and wept
because there was no one else to fight. As far
as he knew, there was no more territory to conquer.
And in just two days after he got malaria, he
died. He was so weak after getting it that they
had to prop him up in bed and they brought his
generals by and with just the slightest motions
or the nod of the head or even the blink of the
eye, he acknowledged them coming by and then
he died. Just suddenly broken, this prominent
horn on the goat, you see, was just broken away.
And Alexander was dead at the age of 32. Well,
they tried to hold the empire together, but they
couldn't. And four of his generals finally divided
up the Greek empire. And that's where the four
horns come in, mentioned in 22. It says the broken
horn and the four horns that arose in place represent
four kingdoms which will arise from his nation,
although not with his power. The four generals
are Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus.
The four of them divided up Alexander's empire.
They were never as strong as he was, but they
did maintain control in the area that they took
over. Cassander took over Macedonia and Greece
back there in the west. Lysimachus took over
an area called Thracia and the western part of
Asia Minor. Again, if you have a Bible with the
map in it, it may give you this information.
Ptolemy, of course, if you know anything about
Egyptian history, you know that there were the
Ptolemy kings of Egypt, Hellenistic Greek kings
down there. So Ptolemy, General Ptolemy took
Egypt and developed that whole Hellenistic influence
in Egypt. But the fourth one is the one that
we want to focus on because Seleucus or Seleucus,
took Syria and all of the empire to the east
of there, and this included Palestine. Now it
was from this particular horn, Seleucus, the
Seleucians, that another horn eventually arose
in this vision called the little horn that is
now explained in from verses 23 and on. So you
see, Alexander the Great Horn was broken off.
There are four generals now that divide up the
empire. And now out of one part of that empire,
the Seleucid Reign brings forth one who was known
as, in biblical prophecy, as the Little Horn.
Now it's important to understand that this little
horn in chapter 8 is not precisely the same as
the little horn in chapter 7. They have a relationship
as we'll see, but the one in chapter 7 refers
entirely to the Antichrist of the last days.
This little horn in chapter 8 refers to a man
who lived in the second century BC. But who in
his evil foreshadows the Antichrist of the last
days? Here's where the double fulfillment comes
in. What is written here was partially fulfilled
in a man that we'll name called Antiochus IV.
But it was not entirely fulfilled in him. What
is said here in these verses has yet a future
fulfillment in the person of the Antichrist.
Well, let's go back and take a verse at a time
here. It says, in the latter period of their
rule, when the transgressors have run their course,
a king will arise. And this king, as I have said,
comes from the Seleucians. He is Antiochus IV.
He adopted the nickname for himself Epiphanes,
which means the illustrious. And so you get immediately
what Daniel is saying here. He is insolent, proud,
arrogant, and he is skilled in intrigue. He was
a man who was filled with evil, who was intoxicated
entirely with himself. He reigned About 150 years
after Alexander the Great, he came to power in
175 BC and reigned for about 11 years. That was
the latter period of the rule of the Greek Empire.
It was going to fall before too many more years
to Rome. His character is explained to us here
as being insolent, fierce, vicious is the idea.
He is a man who is skilled with intrigue. He
was able to solve, and history bears this out,
he was able to solve tough problems by the use
of deceit in his political maneuvering. He was
a man of great might or power, but not by his
own power, it says in verse 24. What does that
mean? Well, it means that Antiochus who is called
Epiphanes, was a man who, though he was in a
position of power and had the personage to fulfill
some of that, was really empowered by a force
beyond himself. I believe that without doubt
this refers to satanic, demonic involvement in
his life. He was able to fulfill what he did
because he was in league with the devil. and
that will be, I think, borne out by what he did.
It says he will destroy to an extraordinary degree
and will prosper and perform his will, at least
temporarily. He will destroy mighty men and the
holy people and through his shrewdness he will
cause deceit to succeed by his influence. This
man is a politician's politician in the worst
sense of that word. He will magnify himself in
his heart and he will destroy many while they
are at ease. He will even oppose the prince of
princes, we'll talk about that in a moment, but
he will be broken without human agency. Well
let's talk about Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus
was a man who allowed the Jews to be at ease
for a period of time, even though he ruled over
Palestine. But as he expanded his rule, he desired
to consolidate and he wanted to enforce Hellenism,
that is Greek culture. He wanted to unite the
people under a single religion rather than having
many religions. He wanted to have a test of loyalty
because he was a man who feared people who might
be disloyal to him. He feared plots and intrigue.
And so although he allowed the Jews to carry
out their religions up to a point, there came
an end to it. About eight years after he came
into power in the year 167, on December the 16th,
he ordered that the offering of the sacrifices
in Jerusalem, along with the other ceremonies
of the temple, that those be stopped. He also
ordered on that day that there be set up in the
temple a statue of Zeus. from the Greek pantheon
of gods. And from that time forward, the Jews
were no longer allowed to worship the god of
their fathers, but they were to worship Zeus
in the temple. Furthermore, he ordered that the
Jews eat pork, the flesh of swine, which was
unlawful for them to do. It was an unclean animal
and God forbade them to eat pork. But he ordered
them to eat pork as a test of loyalty. He ordered
about this same time that none of the male babies
should be circumcised. The sign of the Jewish
covenant, the Abrahamic covenant. So he was a
man who came full force against the religion
of the Jews and these things became a test of
loyalty. Now, if you want to read about these
things and the horrible cruelties that he carried
out upon those who refused to go along with him,
you can read the Apocrypha, the books of 1 and
2 Maccabees, because the writer of the Apocrypha
records this history and goes in, in some cases,
to gruesome detail as to what happened to people
who refused to go along with Antiochus Epiphanes.
So wicked and insane. was this man that the Jews
came up for another name for him. He liked to
be called Epiphanes, and behind his back they
called him Epimenes. You can hear the similarity.
The one means Epiphanes means illustrious, Epimenes
means madman. And so behind their back they called
him Epimenes. This terrible persecution of the
Jewish people, their death, in the case of thousands
of them, continued for a period of time. And
we are told earlier in the vision that it would
be for 2300 evenings and mornings before the
holy place would be properly restored. Now the
question is, what does this mean, 2300 evenings
and mornings? I'll tell you, there are good men
on both sides of the argument here. There are
two understandings of it primarily. On the one
hand, there are those who take this to mean 2
,300 days, evening and morning, evening and morning.
That's a day. And so they say it's 2 ,300 days
or just something under seven years, about six
and a half years. There are others who understand
it to mean not days, but 2 ,300 evening and morning
sacrifices would pass. before the temple could
be properly restored. So if that's the case,
then it's 1150 days. And people on both sides
of the argument go to great detail to show why
they are right. And you can trace it back to
certain dates. I think that the bottom line for
us here tonight is to note this, that it was
in December in 165 BC that the temple was restored.
This man died, and as a result of his death,
the leader of the Jews, whose name was Judas
Maccabeus, was able to end the persecution and
to cleanse the temple and to restore the temple's
ceremony. And he did so. And that, by the way,
is the reason the Jews celebrate Hanukkah. It
is in connection with that event. Now, Antiochus
Epiphanes died a terrible death. He was broken,
it says here in Daniel, without human agency,
which means that he was not defeated by some
military army and killed that way. But after
he began to lose battles, he was so filled with
insolence and pride, after he began to lose a
battle here and there to Judas Maccabeus, he
went into shock and grief. And history records
that he died from his insanity. And that his
insanity may well have been related to a venereal
disease. Now in his action, And in his character,
Antiochus Epiphanes foreshadows to us a man who
will come up in the last days of this age who
will also be a great persecutor of the Jews.
And that man is known to us as the Antichrist.
As surely as in history, Antiochus Epiphanes,
the small horn, the little horn, came forth but
was finally broken without human agency. So in
the latter time, the time of the end, as Gabriel
says it, there will come another ruler who, like
Antiochus, at first will be friendly with the
Jews, but who will eventually establish in the
temple in Jerusalem, which is yet to be rebuilt,
who will establish in Jerusalem an image of himself
which he will command the Jews to bow down and
worship. Now I would like you to turn to the
New Testament just to see this. We only have
time to do it in one place and that's 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. I want you to notice the kind of language
that is used here by the Lord through Paul to
describe this future Antiochus. In 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 3 it says, Let no one in any way deceive
you, for it will not come, that is the day of
the Lord, unless the apostasy comes first. and
the man of lawlessness. Now that is the name
for Antichrist in this book. The man of lawlessness
is revealed the son of destruction. Remember
Antiochus was noted for destroying to an extraordinary
degree. This future man will be the son of destruction
who opposes and exalts himself above every so
-called God or object of worship So that he takes
his seat in the temple of God Displaying himself
as being God It is interesting that the historical
Antiochus in his reign minted a coin On which
he put his inscription Or his image rather and
there was an inscription underneath his image
that said God manifest And you see here we have
the future Antichrist with the very same kind
of spirit displaying himself as being God manifest.
Paul says, don't you remember I told you these
things? He goes on to say, and you know what
restrains him now so that in his time he may
be revealed for the mystery of lawlessness is
already at work. Only he who now restrains will
do so until he is taken out of the way. I believe
the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit of God and
that He is restraining that spirit of lawlessness
by the presence, His presence in the church which
He indwells. But the church is going to be taken
out of the way, you see. And lawlessness will
then have no restraint. And it says in verse
8, then that lawless one will be revealed whom
the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth
and bring to an end by the appearance of his
coming." And so you see this future person will
be broken too without human agency. God will
break him. He says that is the one who's coming,
is in accord with the activity of Satan. Just
like Antiochus of old did not have the power
in himself to pull off everything he did. but
was filled with the devil. So this future man
will be the same. He will have all power and
signs and false wonders, it says, and with all
the deception of wickedness for those who perish
because they did not receive the love of the
truth so as to be saved." And so Paul here gives
us a very interesting paragraph regarding the
future antichrist. Let me conclude by just making
a couple of comments and we need to go back to
Daniel so I can make the first one. I want you
to notice Daniel's response to this. In verse
27 it says, then I, Daniel, was exhausted and
sick for days. Has going to church ever made
you sick? Daniel here had a vision from God and
the result of the vision was so overwhelming
Daniel was exhausted and he was sick for days.
He could not carry out the king's business apparently
during this period of time. You know the Puritans
used to call this the weight of truth. The weight
of truth. When there was truth that settled upon
them, They called it a weight that sobered them,
that caused them to think carefully and soberly
regarding what they had come to understand. This
seems to be what happened to Daniel. I was talking
to a pastor friend this last week who was at
a conference where a man spent two hours preaching
on the doctrine of hell. And he said that when
this man who was eloquent and gifted as an orator
was finished, that instead of getting up and
leaving the church, the only thing he could do
was just sit there in his chair for a period
of minutes. The weight of truth. When you and
I see what is coming in the future, there's a
weight about that. This is not the kind of thing
you hear about and you run away and say, oh,
praise God, isn't it exciting? Well, there is
an exciting side to it, but it's heavy stuff.
As I mentioned last week, the dear Jewish people
whom we love for Christ's sake, these dear people
who brought the Savior, through whom the Savior
came into the world, these people who today who
are in blindness for the most part, people whom
I hope that we love and desire to win to Christ
now, but these dear people as a nation are in
for some tough days ahead. I was sitting in a
meeting yesterday with a man who is one of the
noted biblical scholars, I think, across the
country. He has preached in thousands of churches
on Bible prophecy. We weren't there at the meeting
to talk about prophecy, but we got to that subject.
And he began to share with us some of the things
that he knows and has heard. And he was reminding
us of what's taking place in Russia today. That
along with the glasnost and perestroika and the
additional freedoms that seem to be given to
the Russian people, as that is rising there is
something else rising right beside it. And if
you've read the paper you've seen hints of it.
Beside this new sense of freedom there is anti
-Semitism rising. Have you read about that? All
across Russia, back in the villages, There is
a tremendous hatred of the Jewish people is developing.
They are blaming the Jewish people for the economic
crisis in the Soviet Union. Some of them are
blaming the Jews for the collapse of communism.
And that is the reason that groups are desperately
trying to get Jews out of Russia at this time,
because they fear that if something happens to
Gorbachev, The result is going to be another
holocaust to the Jews in Russia today. Well the
fact is that someday there is going to be another
holocaust and the Jewish people are going to
be terribly persecuted at the hands of the Antichrist.
I notice here the inevitability of biblical prophecy.
The minute detail that was revealed to Daniel.
In fact the detail here is so minute that liberal
scholars who deny that God could give prophecy,
who deny a supernatural God say Daniel couldn't
have written this book. They say somebody had
to write it in Daniel's name after all these
things took place. There's no way that Daniel
could have been given this vision by God. But
we know that God did give Daniel this vision.
And over the course of about 300, 350 years,
the exact detail of everything God said came
to pass. Now the exciting thing that I mentioned
earlier is this, that we're living in a day when
God is moving. This gentleman said yesterday,
none of us who have studied biblical prophecy
expected to happen what has happened in Russia.
And he said none of us understand it either.
But he said one thing we know, God is at work
in human history today to a degree that we've
not seen God at work so obviously in many generations.
God is moving in our world today, folks. He is
stirring up the Gentile zoo. And those aspects
of biblical prophecy that have not yet been fulfilled
will inevitably come to pass. How wonderful to
know the Lord and to walk with Him. to have His
Word to guide us, and to know that we need not
fear the future, but we can relax in the hand
of God, knowing that God is able to care for
us, whatever the future holds. Now, lest you
go away fearing that the Antichrist is going
to come upon you, let me just say, that I believe
the Bible clearly teaches that before the Antichrist
comes into prominence the church is going to
be taken out of the world. I don't say that as
an escape hatch to the trouble. I say it because
I believe the Bible teaches that. I believe the
Bible teaches that the church will not be here
during the tribulation period when the Antichrist
comes on so strong and powerfully. God will in
that period of time be dealing with the Jewish
people. once again who are set aside now. But
when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, when
the church is completed, the church is going
to be removed and taken out and then God is going
to bring to pass these things that Daniel will
be talking to us about in the ninth chapter and
in the twelfth chapter. So we've got some exciting
things ahead in our study and we must close.