The Ram Tough GOAT | Sunday, July 30, 2023
July 30, 2023 · Pastor Miles DeBenedictis
In this teaching
A teaching from Daniel 8 that cautions against sensationalized "newspaper" or "YouTube" eschatology and models sound, plain-sense interpretation, showing how Daniel's vision of the ram and goat accurately foretold the rise of Medo-Persia, Greece, Alexander the Great, and Antiochus Epiphanes. Pastor Miles argues that prophecy is given to comfort and steady God's people, not to fuel fear or speculation.
- Apocalyptic passages must be studied through observation, interpretation, and application—never speculation; much "prophecy interpretation" is fantasy fiction rather than careful exegesis.
- Much of Daniel 7–12 was future for Daniel in the 6th century BC but is now history for us, fulfilled in Medo-Persia, Greece, Alexander the Great, and Antiochus Epiphanes.
- Sound principles: if the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense; let Scripture interpret Scripture; biblical prophecy is not completely opaque.
- Many prophecies have both early and latter fulfillments; Jesus said Daniel's abomination of desolation pointed beyond Antiochus to something still future.
- God reveals His plan in advance so His people will remain calm, steady, and faithful—prophecy is given as comfort, not cause for panic.
- We should hold end-times views with humility and charity, focus on living faithfully, and build our lives on Christ rather than on eschatology.
Readable is a lightly edited reading copy; Verbatim stays close to the spoken words. The audio and video are the record of what was said.
In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me—to me, Daniel... I saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns... Suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground... And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great... Then I heard a holy one speaking... "For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed." (, abridged)
Daniel's strange vision of a ram and a goat teaches us how to read Bible prophecy—and why God reveals the future at all.
Magic Eye Prophecy
Those who lived through the 1990s probably remember Magic Eye pictures—abstract images full of color that, if you stared long enough, revealed a hidden three-dimensional picture. Some people saw a T-rex or a whale; others stood there seeing nothing and feeling foolish.
Over the years I've discovered that a lot of Christians look at the apocalyptic visions of the Bible the same way. When we get into passages like the last half of Daniel, or Ezekiel, or Revelation, people stare intently and think they see things that may or may not actually be there. Sometimes we see more of what we want to see than what is actually there. And what do we call people who see things that aren't there? We call them crazy. So we must be careful to survey these things properly.
Fantasy Fiction or Good Exegesis
My concern coming into the apocalyptic genre is that much of what passes for interpretation of these passages is more akin to fantasy fiction than to good Bible study. It's fantasy fiction for Christians who don't read Harry Potter.
We need the proper principles of inductive Bible study, which moves through three steps: observation, interpretation, and application. But when people get into Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, it often becomes observation, speculation, and application. Speculation is not one of the steps. Years ago we called this "newspaper eschatology"; today I'd call it "YouTube eschatology." Many people have built quite a following doing observation, speculation, and application of these texts, and more than a few Christians have gone down the algorithmic rabbit hole spending hour upon hour trying to decipher them.
Everybody Has an Eschatology
The hysteria reaches a fever pitch whenever chaotic or catastrophic things happen. Those who grew up in the Cold War remember the fear over the Soviet Union and "the bear" of Russia. (If you still have a map that says "Soviet Union," it's time to get a new map.) Then came Y2K—some of you still have a generator in your garage with gasoline from 1998 in it. Then 9/11, the Mayan calendar of 2012, every presidential election, COVID, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Interspersed through it all are wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, earthquakes, pestilences, persecution, and talk of peace accords in the Middle East.
This isn't only a Christian phenomenon. Everybody has an eschatology. Greta Thunberg is an evangelist for hers, fearful about what's coming. AOC has gone on record saying we have twelve years until we all die. People who don't believe the Bible can be just as bad as date-setting Christians. When the world or our own lives are shaken, our minds run out to the end, and "It's the End of the World as We Know It" plays on repeat.
The Late Great Planet Earth
We are made in God's image, and so we can grasp the finiteness of our lives and of this world. We look into the future, imagine an end, and wish someone could tell us what's coming. Astrology is a multi-billion dollar industry built on that longing.
Maybe you came to church because a Christian friend told you there is a way to know the future. Many of you may still have the dog-eared, highlighted bestseller on your shelf: The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. It was the number-one non-fiction seller of the 1970s—10 million copies by the end of that decade, 28 million by 1990, 35 million by 1999, translated into more than 50 languages. As Christian books go, it's second only to Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church.
It fanned the flames of what became America's doomsday industry—films like The Terminator, Armageddon, Deep Impact, and the Left Behind series. In the introduction, Lindsey writes that people are searching for answers, and his thesis is that the Bible contains "clear, unmistakable prophetic signs" being fulfilled before our eyes. I read it for the first time this past week, and through the lens of 2023 looking back to 1971, it's fascinating—because things did not turn out quite as proposed.
How I Learned to Hold This Loosely
When my family started attending Calvary Chapel of Escondido, I was told as a kid that as much as two-thirds of the Bible is predictive prophecy telling us what will happen in the last days. I learned the vocabulary—the tribulation, the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, the One World Government, the abomination of desolation, and the harpazo and the parousia (the rapture of and the Second Coming).
Out of this arose prophecy conferences, prophecy updates, names like Chuck Missler and cassette packs, then the Pre-Trib Research Center and endtimes.org. Like many people I knew, I became an amateur expert in all things dispensational—dispensational, pre-tribulational, pre-millennialism. At nineteen I could have articulated a confident statement about what is clearly going to happen, and I'd have thought it was all clearly stated in the Bible.
But when I actually dug into the Scriptures, I discovered that some of what Left Behind presented was simply filling in gaps. The Antichrist's name is not Nicolae Carpathia. I'm not saying these views have no validity. I'm saying we must be careful, because we see through a glass dimly and we know in part. If you have strong convictions about the future, make sure they're built from study of Scripture and not from a fiction series—and that you follow observation, interpretation, application, not observation, speculation, application.
I've watched a number of pastor friends shift their view of Bible prophecy in the wake of 2020—not because they found something new in Scripture, but because they wanted to change their behavior in response to the culture. If you're changing your beliefs to justify your behavior, you're doing it backward.
Future for Daniel, History for Us
So what does this have to do with ? As you read –12, you find there certainly are predictions of things that would come to pass in the future from Daniel's point of view in the 6th century BC. But much of what was future for Daniel is history for us in 2023. Not all—I think some things still speak to our future—but much of it has already been fulfilled.
That raises the question: does this text still speak to us today? Yes—but the answer isn't always as neat and tidy as we'd like, and it won't be found in The Late Great Planet Earth. Looking forward, these prophetic illusions are cryptic and strange. Looking back, we can often see how they fit. But even the man who received the visions was scratching his head. At the end of chapter 7 Daniel says his thoughts troubled him, and at the end of chapter 8 he says, "I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for many days... I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it." If Daniel didn't fully get it after an angelic interpretation, why would we expect perfect clarity?
Read It Plainly
After decades of studying these passages, I think I have a good general sense of the plain meaning, but I'm very careful about making future pronouncements—because we see through a glass dimly. Approach the Bible with a plain-sense methodology. I appreciate Jordan Peterson, but he is terrible at interpreting Scripture; he grabs a Jungian, archetypal, psychological meaning when the text plainly says something else.
Point one: If the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. Consider when, where, by whom, to whom, and why a text was written. Many of you have been in a Bible study where someone says, "I think this means this for me," and you wonder where on earth they got it from the text. Their application may not be wholly invalid, but be careful.
The Vision of Daniel 8
In verse 1 Daniel gives us a temporal marker: "the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar," around 551 BC. He has a second vision (the first came around 553 BC), and in it he is transported some 200 miles east from Babylon to the citadel of Shushan in the province of Elam—the setting of Nehemiah and Esther, in modern-day Iran.
Standing by the river Ulai, he sees a ram with two horns, one higher than the other, the higher coming up last. The ram pushes westward, northward, and southward, and no animal can withstand it. Then a male goat—a hairy goat—comes from the west across the whole earth without touching the ground, moving very quickly, with a notable horn between its eyes. The goat runs at the ram with furious power, breaks its two horns, casts it down, and tramples it.
When the goat becomes strong, its large horn is broken off and four horns grow up in its place. Out of one of these comes a little horn that grows exceedingly great toward the south, the east, and the Glorious Land. It exalts itself, takes away the daily sacrifices, casts down the sanctuary, and casts truth to the ground. Daniel hears one holy one ask another how long the vision will last, and the answer is "for two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed." Totally clear, right? Except it isn't. Left with verses 1–14, we'd be at a loss and tempted to invent our own interpretation about laborers and capitalist overlords.
Let Scripture Interpret Scripture
Point two: As much as possible, let Scripture interpret Scripture. For years I taught Isaiah and Jeremiah at Calvary Chapel Bible College, sometimes to seventy or eighty students, and I always told them: to understand Isaiah or Jeremiah, familiarize yourself with Deuteronomy and with Kings and Chronicles. Those are the keys.
In , the interpretation is built right into the text. In verse 15, as Daniel seeks the meaning, one having the appearance of a man stands before him. The Hebrew word here isn't adam but geber, and a voice calls out, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision." This is the angel Gabriel—the same Gabriel who later announces to Mary that she will bear a child. Daniel is afraid and falls on his face, and Gabriel tells him the vision refers to "the time of the end."
We read "the time of the end" and immediately think eschatology and the end of the world. But Daniel lived in 551 BC; the "end" Gabriel speaks of may concern Daniel and his people in exile, not necessarily you and me.
Medo-Persia, Greece, and Alexander
Gabriel then makes it remarkably specific. The ram with two horns is the kings of Media and Persia—and when Daniel received this, he was still twelve years from the Medo-Persians destroying Babylon. The male goat is the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes is its first king. When that horn is broken, four kingdoms arise from it, "but not with the same power." And in the latter time of the Greek kingdom, a king of fierce features and sinister schemes arises, destroying the mighty and the holy people, even rising against the Prince of princes—but he is broken "without human means."
Critical scholars look at this with derision and insist Daniel must have been written centuries later, because it's "too accurate" to be a genuine prediction. But they say this only because they don't believe in the supernatural or in a God outside of time. What Daniel sees is an outline of the next 250 years. The goat with the great horn moving swiftly is Alexander the Great, who from age 24 to 32 expanded the Greek Empire from Macedon, overtaking everybody, including the Persians. One ancient historian tells us he despaired because he had nothing left to conquer, and he died at 32—before he'd even be old enough to be President of the United States—having conquered the known world.
Antiochus Epiphanes and the Little Horn
Alexander died without an heir, and his kingdom was split among his four chief generals—Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. Seleucus ruled Syria and south toward Ptolemy's Egypt, so the land of Israel lay between them. Over the next centuries the Ptolemies and the Seleucids battled over Israel, and Jerusalem changed hands roughly 26 times, leaving the land devastated.
Out of this rose the little horn with fierce features: Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Empire, who called himself Antiochus Epiphanes, "the enlightened one." History records that in 168 BC he caused the temple sacrifices to cease, erected an image to Zeus in the temple, and offered a pig on the altar—the abomination of desolation Daniel describes in chapters 9 and 11. You can read more in 1 Maccabees, and the Maccabean Revolt that followed gave rise to Hanukkah.
Point three: Biblical prophecy is not completely opaque. When we seek the plain sense, it makes far more sense. The challenge is that we so often try to see ourselves through the lens of Scripture instead of using Scripture as the lens to understand what actually took place.
More Than One Fulfillment
Does this then have anything to say to us today? If not for something Jesus taught, I'd answer no. But in the synoptic Gospels Jesus gives us something striking. During the week of His crucifixion, He confronted the religious leaders in the temple, calling the scribes, Pharisees, and Herodians hypocrites and blind guides. As He left, His disciples admired the temple, and Jesus said, "You see this temple? Not one stone will be left upon another that will not be cast down."
On the Mount of Olives the disciples brought Him three questions: When will these things be? What will be the sign of Your coming? And of the end of the age? Jesus answered:
When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not troubled... the end is not yet. You will hear of earthquakes and pestilences in diverse places... these are the beginning of birth pangs.
I was talking with someone this week who insisted these things are increasing as we near the end—more wars, more earthquakes, more pestilence. But are there actually more, or do we simply get notified instantly of what happens halfway around the world? Fewer people die today from earthquakes and tsunamis than 150 years ago, yet we watch a Beirut explosion or a Japanese tsunami live on our phones. Bible teachers once wondered how "every eye will see"—now we know, because we all get the notification.
The Abomination Still to Come
Jesus told His disciples that this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness, and then the end will come. Then He said, "When you therefore see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, then flee." This is important: by the first century, the Jewish understanding was that Daniel's abomination had already happened 200 years earlier under Antiochus. But Jesus says there is something more coming. Forty years later the temple was destroyed, just as He said—and there are reasons to believe a further abomination of desolation still lies in the future, which we'll explore next week.
Point four: Many of the prophecies in the Bible have both early and latter fulfillments. Just as there was an abomination under Antiochus 2,200 years ago, and another commemorated this past week by the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av, there may yet be one in the future.
Keep Calm and Carry On
All these words were given to encourage Daniel and the people of God that God knew what was happening. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurs to God? I've seen many Christians act as if COVID took God by surprise—as if He said, "Whoa, where did this come from?" That's how we respond. But God says, "You will hear of pestilences and pandemics; see that you are not troubled, the end is not yet. What will you do? You will preach the gospel."
Alistair Begg says this vision was given to forewarn Israel of a future period of severe persecution and to assure them that their sovereign God would limit those days and destroy the persecutor. It was meant to be an encouragement: you will go through difficulty—don't be troubled. God is in control. He often reveals what is coming, though not always with perfect clarity, so that we remain steady in faith and faithfulness until He comes.
Jesus told His disciples, "These things I have spoken to you, that you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Point five: God's plan is revealed in advance so that we might keep calm and carry on. When the disciples asked, "Will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus said it is not for us to know the times or seasons; instead we receive power from the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses to the end of the earth, and this gospel will be preached in all nations, and then the end will come. We don't need to worry. We need to be waiting, watching, and working.
So study the Scriptures carefully, whether apocalyptic or not. Hold your end-times views with humility and charity. Focus more on how to live faithfully, and build your life more on Christ than on eschatology—because God has a work for us to do, and it ain't over until it's over.
Closing Prayer
Father God, we thank You for Your word, and I pray that we would hold these things in our hearts and minds and recognize that You have given them so that we might have Your comfort—just as in and 5, dealing with Your Second Coming, You say twice to comfort one another with these things. It should comfort us that You are on the throne and will one day come to rule and reign with righteousness. So we say, come, Lord Jesus; Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As we look at the lions' den and the fiery furnace of Daniel, and how You continue to protect and carry Your people, remind us that You are still on the throne and in control. Help us to trust You and to be a light to those in darkness. This world needs good news, and we have great news—You will come again. So we say, come; but until You do, help us to be about Your business like the wise servant, using the talents You gave us to further Your mission. Work through us, Your church, we pray, in Jesus' name. And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Seated this morning, welcome! That is good news. How many of you like good news? Your friends, neighbors, and co-workers like good news as well. We actually have a lot of good news here at Cross Connection Church and in the Scriptures. Amen!
When you leave today, there will be a whole bunch of these cards out at the U-shaped table. They say, "Ready for some good news." You can take these and give them to your friends, co-workers, family members, and neighbors to share with them some good news about Jesus and about Cross Connection Church. So, take some of these and make sure you hand them out. I think they'll be a blessing.
As you saw in the announcements, we had a great week last week. All week long, we had a whole bunch of kids here for Vacation Bible School. I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and recognize the people who helped with that. If you helped with children's ministry or were part of serving at VBS, would you just stand for a quick moment? We just have a few of you in this service. Thank you very much! Some of our super star servants here at Cross Connection, we are so grateful for all of you.
We are going to be getting into the Scriptures in a moment, so take out your Bible. If you don't have one, you can raise your hand, and one of the ushers will bring you one. If you don't own a Bible, you can keep that. As we go through the Scriptures, several years ago, Pastor Mark and I did a thing called the Questions Podcast. We just started redoing that again. If you have questions as we go through the Scriptures or have questions about the Christian faith or anything that comes to mind, you can text your questions. The phone number is on your sermon guide; it's in the bulletin: 760-814-1223. Text your questions, and those will come to Pastor Mark and me. We will record a podcast this week, which you can find at thequestionspodcast.com.
So, we are going to be in the Book of Daniel this morning. If you open your Bibles to about the middle of your Bible and turn to the right, you will find the Book of Daniel. Those of you who lived through the 1990s probably remember something called Magic Eye pictures. Does anyone remember these? They were sometimes called 5D pictures, though they weren't exactly five-dimensional. What they were was a kind of abstract image with a whole bunch of color. If you stared at it a certain way or long enough, then some sort of image would come out, like a three-dimensional figure.
Do any of you remember Magic Eye pictures? Some of you do! You probably remember in the early 90s at the North County Mall, if you walked through, you'd see a whole bunch of people standing there staring at them, saying, "What is it?" Then they'd be like, "Oh, I see it! Oh, it's a T-rex!" or "Oh, it's a whale!" You'd stand there and look.
I look at it and think, "I don't see anything." It seems like we look like a bunch of dopes. Oh, I see it! These are called autostereographs; that's the kind of picture they are. They were quite popular in the 1990s, but not so much anymore. However, as with everything, they will probably come back. You'll see these again for sure. In fact, some of you might be able to make a business out of creating new Magic Eye images and reselling them.
Unfortunately, I have discovered over the years that many Christians look at the images and apocalyptic visions found in the Bible in a similar way to how people viewed those Magic Eye images back in the 1990s. Often, when we delve into the apocalyptic genre, particularly passages like the last half of the Book of Daniel, or images from the Book of Ezekiel, or especially the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, people begin to look intently at these images. Many think they see things that may or may not actually be there. Sometimes, we might see more of what we want to see than what is actually present.
What do we call people who see things that aren't actually there? We call them crazy. Therefore, we must be very careful when examining the apocalyptic genre of the Scriptures. It is essential that we survey these texts properly so that we can begin to understand what is truly there.
One of my great concerns in approaching a text like the Book of Daniel is that I had a strong sense at the beginning of the year that this book would contain important insights for us as a church to consider together. That is why we are going through the Book of Daniel this summer. However, my concern as I began to engage with this book, or the apocalyptic genre in general, is that we can get carried away when we start to look at the themes that occupy the last half of this book, which we began last week and will continue to explore over the next several weeks. A concern I have had for many years is that much of what passes for interpretation of passages like these can lead us astray.
Apocalyptic literature is more akin to fantasy fiction than it is to good exegesis or good Bible study. A lot of what passes as interpretation of prophetic passages in the Bible today is nothing more than fantasy fiction for Christians who don't read Harry Potter. We have to be really careful when we come into these passages to use the proper principles of what's called inductive Bible study. I taught a class on this here at the church last year. You can find it on RightNow Media; look in your bulletin to see how you can log in and watch the class that I gave.
Inductive Bible study is a method of studying the Bible where we go through three steps: observation, interpretation, and application. However, a lot of times when people get into books like Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, it becomes more like observation, speculation, and interpretation, or application and speculation. Speculation is not one of the steps in studying passages like this, but it has created quite a market. Many people who study after that format—observation, speculation, application—years ago we would call such interpretation of the Scriptures "newspaper eschatology." Today, I would call it "YouTube eschatology."
There are quite a few people on YouTube who have made a career and developed a following by doing observation, speculation, and application of the things they find in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation. Many Christians have gone down the algorithmic rabbit hole, spending hour upon hour trying to decipher the strange elements of these passages. The hysteria surrounding such things really stirs up to a fever pitch whenever there are chaotic or catastrophic events happening in the world.
Some of you know this really well because you grew up during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, in the Cold War era, with all the events related to the Soviet Union. If you still have a map that says "the Soviet Union," it’s time to get a new map. The issues surrounding the Soviet Union caused a lot of people to experience great fear, stress, and anxiety about the end times and the bear of Russia. Many were spun up by those things, but then...
After that went away in the early 1990s, how many of you remember Y2K? There are more than a few of you that might still have a generator in your garage that's never been turned on. It still has gasoline from 1998 in it; you probably need to get rid of that thing. Y2K spun people up; they were freaking out. Not just Y2K, but the turn of the century as we moved into a new millennium.
Then you move from there into the early 2000s, and of course, we had the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, which kind of spun that up. How many of you remember the Mayan calendar in 2012? The world was supposed to end according to the Mayan calendar. After that, every single presidential election, especially 2016 and then 2020, was chaotic. Now, we're already spinning up for 2024, and there are all kinds of people saying there are so many signs of the end times with everything going on.
Then you add to that COVID-19, which was chaos, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. All these things really spin people up. Interspersed throughout all of this are wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Some of you know those words because they're found in the prophetic passages of Jesus in . There are earthquakes in various places, pestilences, pandemics, and persecution.
Every time there's talk of a peace accord in the Middle East, like the Abraham Accords that happened just a few years ago, people start to think, "Oh my goodness, these are signs of the times; they have prophetic significance." This is not only for Christians. As I shared last week, everybody has an eschatology. I don't think Greta Thunberg is a believer, but I can tell you right now, she has an eschatology. She is an evangelist for her beliefs and is fearful about what's coming.
Some people who are not Christians and don't believe in the Bible still have an eschatology. They're just as bad at date-setting as some Christians. I mean, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has set on record that in 12 years, we're all going to die. Everyone has an eschatological perspective, and when there are major shake-ups in the world as a whole or in our individual lives, we immediately grab hold of these things in our minds and let our thoughts start to run wild.
We start to think this is it; this is the end. We're done. We begin to hear that song, "It's the End of the World as We Know It," playing on repeat in our minds when these thoughts arise.
Now, we human beings are unique. I think you would recognize that we are clearly set apart and different from other breathing, eating, sleeping creatures. One of the ways in which we are different, as the Scriptures say, is that we are created in God's image. As a result, we have the capacity to understand the finiteness of life—our own lives and the finiteness of this world. We are able to look into the future, and in doing so, we can speculate or imagine an end that is going to come.
When we look into the future and speculate about an end, those thoughts start to build in our minds. In the midst of all that, we wish there was someone or something that could tell us what is going to happen—something that could reveal the future. It is a multi-billion dollar industry: astrology, with people trying to figure out through the stars what is going to come to pass. We wish someone could tell us what is going to happen next week, next month, next year, or in the next decade. Constantly, we are trying to prognosticate what will happen with markets, geopolitics, demographics, and all sorts of other matters. If only there were someone who could tell us what was going to come to pass.
Then, maybe you ended up in church because a friend of yours, who was a Christian, told you, "Well, don't you know there is a way to know? There is a way to know what is going to happen in the future." Some of you may still have it on your shelf at home. It might have pages that are dog-eared, worn, and highlighted: the best non-fiction bestseller of the 1970s, "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey. I won't ask you to admit that you have that book, but some of you do.
Did you know that it was the top seller of that decade? By the end of the 1970s, it had sold 10 million copies. By 1990, it had sold 28 million copies, and by 1999, it had sold 35 million copies. It had been translated into more than 50 different languages. As Christian books go, it is the number one bestseller, second only to "The Purpose Driven Church" by Rick Warren. Millions and millions and millions of copies were sold.
Copies translated and spread throughout the whole world generated an entirely new industry, not just within the church but also within the world. It kind of fanned the flames of a burgeoning industry now known as America's doomsday industry. From that comes great classics like "The Terminator," "Armageddon," "Deep Impact," and, of course, the "Left Behind" series.
In the opening pages of "The Late Great Planet Earth," Hal Lindsey writes that people who are confronted with the state of the world today are eager to learn what the best seller, the Bible, has to say about the future. He goes on to say that people are searching for answers. We all recognize that this is true regarding the basic questions, and the Bible, he asserts, contains clear, unmistakable prophetic signs. We are able to see right now in this best seller the predictions made centuries ago that are being fulfilled before our eyes. That is his premise. You can find in the Bible the outline of what is to come.
I read "The Late Great Planet Earth" for the first time last week, and it is fascinating to read through the lens of 2023 while looking back to 1971. Things are not quite as they were proposed to be. The book is almost single-handedly responsible for biblical texts like Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation coming to the forefront of Western minds ever since the late 1970s. Inquiring minds want to know about the future; we have questions, and Hal Lindsey said the Bible has the answers we need regarding these matters.
I can remember when I was about 11 years old, my family started attending Calvary Chapel of Escondido. It didn't take long, as just a kid in the children's ministry, to be told that as much as two-thirds of the Bible is predictive prophecy that tells us what is going to happen in these last days. The Bible is filled with predictive proclamations and pronouncements. If we pay attention to the things contained in the scriptures, we will be able to have advanced knowledge of what is coming: the tribulation, the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, the One World Government, and the abomination of desolation.
One of the concepts I encountered early on was the Harpazzo and the Parousia. You might be wondering what those terms mean. The Harpazzo is found in First Thessalonians chapter four, referring to the Rapture, while the Parousia pertains to the Second Coming. I remember hearing these terms as a child in church and being amazed by them. Like many others, I became fascinated with the details, believing that if I paid attention, I could know what was going to happen and that it would occur very soon.
This fascination led to the rise of prophecy conferences and updates. How many of you know the name Chuck Missler? How many of you still have a cassette pack, even though you no longer have a cassette player to play it? The internet also played a significant role, bringing resources like the Pre-Trib Research Center and EndTimes.org into the mix. Along the way, various dates were proposed for significant events.
During my early years in church, I became somewhat of an amateur expert in all things dispensational. Over time, I learned the terminology associated with this worldview, including terms like dispensational, pre-tribulational, and pre-millennialism. I remember hearing these concepts frequently and began to understand the proof texts that supported this specific perspective on eschatology, which is the study of the last things.
If you had asked me, as a 19-year-old, I could have articulated a clear statement about what I believed would come to pass in the future. I thought the things I could clearly state were explicitly outlined in the Bible. However, as I delved deeper into the Scriptures, I discovered that some of the ideas presented in the Left Behind series were merely filling in the gaps. For instance, the Antichrist's name is not Nikolai Carpathia. If you recognize that name, it’s likely because you’ve read the Left Behind series.
In the 1990s, I remember being fascinated by all those things. Now, I am not saying any of this to imply that those concepts lack validity. The things that Hal Lindsey says or the teachings from Dallas Theological Seminary regarding dispensational pre-tribulational premillennialism do have some merit. However, I believe we need to be very careful when we approach these topics. We must recognize that we see through a glass dimly and know in part.
I want to ensure that if you have strong convictions about what you believe will happen in the future, as it relates to what is found in the Bible, those convictions are built from a study of the Scriptures and not from a fiction book series called "Left Behind." We need to dig into the Scriptures, following the method of observation, interpretation, and application, rather than observation, speculation, and application. This distinction is especially important in the last few years.
I have observed a number of people, including peers of mine who are also pastors, who once held a futurist view of Bible prophecy. This view suggests that there are still things in books like Daniel, Ezekiel, or Revelation, as well as other apocalyptic passages like , that have implications for the future. However, I have seen many of these pastors shift their views in the wake of everything that happened in 2020 with COVID-19 and the responses from government officials and health advisors.
What I have noticed is that many of these individuals changed their views not because they discovered something new in the Scriptures that they hadn't seen before, but rather in response to how they wanted to behave regarding what was happening in our culture. If you are changing your beliefs because you want to change your behavior, you are doing it the wrong way.
It is crucial that we understand how to look at these matters. At this point, you might be asking, "What does this have to do with ?" Well, is part of the apocalyptic section of this book. As you read through Daniel chapters 7 through 12, you will discover that there are indeed significant insights to be gained.
This text contains predictions of events that were to come to pass in the future from the perspective of Daniel in the sixth century BC. However, one of the things we must recognize is that much of what we find in Daniel chapters 7 through 12, though it was future for Daniel, is history for us in 2023. I am not saying all of it is history, as I believe there are some elements in these passages that still speak to the future from our standpoint today. Nevertheless, much of what we find in this text was future for Daniel in the sixth century BC, but it is history for us living in 2023, and we need to acknowledge that.
This brings up an important question: Does this text still speak to us today? I believe the answer to that question is yes. However, I think that the answer will not be found in books like "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey. The insights regarding what this text has to say about future events from our perspective in 2023 are not always as neat and tidy as we might wish. Sometimes, it is more challenging to discern these prophetic allusions in the apocalyptic literature of the Bible, which is quite extensive. These texts can be cryptic and strange when viewed from a forward-looking perspective.
Many times, when we look back on these prophecies, we can see how they fit with various historical events. As we will see in the text today, this is often clearer in hindsight. However, looking forward into the future, even Daniel, the one who received these visions, was perplexed. If the man who received these visions struggled to understand them, even after receiving an interpretation from an angelic being, why should we expect to grasp them perfectly? It will still be somewhat dim; we see through a glass darkly and know in part.
In , we noted last week that Daniel expressed his troubled thoughts. He was overwhelmed by the vision. In the last verse of , he states, "I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for many days. Afterward, I rose and went about the king's business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it." Even with an angelic interpretation, he did not fully comprehend the meaning.
Passages like this have been studied for several decades at this point, and I believe I have a pretty good general sense of the plain meaning of the text. However, I am very careful in making any future pronouncements as they relate to the predictive passages here. I think we all should step into these areas rather lightly because, again, I will say it a third time: we see through a glass dimly, and we know in part.
As you start to look at this passage, and really any other passage of Scripture, you need to make sure that you approach the Bible with a plain sense interpretation methodology. What does it plainly say? Many of you know I really like Jordan Peterson; he is an interesting guy, but he is horrible when it comes to interpreting biblical passages. He loves to do it, but he grabs all these weird interpretations, saying, "Well, this means this and this means that." I get it; he is looking at this through a very Jungian, archetypical lens, focusing on the psychological significance of the Bible. However, it clearly says this and clearly means that.
We have to be very careful in how we approach a lot of these passages. We need to consider the timing in which these things were written, the place in which they were written, whom they were written by, to whom they were written for, where they were written, and why. What was the purpose at the time that they were written? The plain meaning of the text is essential when we get into these passages. The old interpretive adage is still true: if the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. I was taught this very early on, and I am very grateful that I was.
However, many times—probably more than a few of you have been in a small Bible study before—someone says, "I think this means this for me," and you look at it and think, "Where on Earth did they get that out of the text? I don't understand where that came from." Their application of the text might not be wholly invalid, but you have to be careful.
With all of that in mind, let’s look at . Look at verse one: "In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar." Daniel here gives us a temporal marker, a point that we can place on a timeline of history.
Because he says this was in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, we can determine that this happened right around the year 551 BC, in the middle of the 6th century BC. He says, "In the third year, King Belshazzar had a vision that appeared to me, Daniel," after the one that appeared to me the first time. He had another vision a couple of years before, in the first year of King Belshazzar, around 553 BC.
So, I had a second vision, and I saw in the vision that while I was looking, I was in Shushan. In this vision, he is transplanted from the palace there in Babylon, about 200 miles east to Persia, to the citadel or the fortress in the city of Shushan. If you've read through the books of Nehemiah and Esther, then you know this place because those books happened in that location. I was in the citadel in Shushan, which is in the province of Elam, modern-day Iran. Back then, it was known as Elam or Persia.
I saw in the vision that I was by the river Uli. I lifted my eyes and saw that there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns. The two horns were high, but one was higher than the other. If you read chapter seven, you'll see some similarities; the same basic things are happening between the bear—remember the bear that likes barbecue in chapter seven with the ribs in its mouth? One side was bigger than the other.
I saw the ram had two horns; the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so no animal could withstand this ram, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand. He did according to his will and became great.
As I was considering this, suddenly a male goat came from the west. Now, another animal—a goat. When we read "male goat," you could actually read "a hairy goat" came from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. What does that tell us? It's moving very quickly. The goat had a notable horn, a big horn between its eyes.
Then it came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river. The goat ran at him with furious power. I saw him confronting the ram; they got into a fight. He was moved with rage against him and attacked the ram, breaking his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him. Previously, there was none who could withstand or deliver from the ram, but now...
He has no power against the goat, but the goat cast him down to the ground and trampled him. There was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore, the male goat with that big horn grew very great. However, when he became strong, the large horn was broken off, and in its place, four more horns grew up, coming towards the Four Winds of heaven.
Out of one of those four horns came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great. This is some strange vision. It became great towards the southward, towards the east, and towards the Glorious Land, which is Jerusalem. It grew up to the host of heaven and cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground, trampling them. It even exalted itself as high as the Prince of the host, and by him, the daily sacrifices were taken away. The place of his sanctuary was cast down. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices of the temple. He cast truth down to the ground, and he did all this, and he prospered.
I heard a Holy One, an angelic being, speaking, and another Holy One said to the certain one who was speaking, "How long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?" He said to me, "For 2,300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed."
So, there's Daniel's vision, totally clear, right? You understand it all; it all makes perfect sense. Except that it doesn't. If we were left with just those verses, verses 1 through 14 of , we would be at a loss. We would find ourselves scratching our heads like Daniel, because it just didn't make any sense to me. No one understood this vision.
We would probably try to make up some sort of interpretation. For example, the ram with the two horns, one higher than the other, could describe the laborers of the world and the unequal distribution of wealth among them. Then the goat that comes and destroys the ram could represent the capitalist overlords that destroy everything. What on earth are you talking about? As crazy as that sounds, there are some books on passages like that that sound just as crazy when we come to passages like this.
We need to do our best, point number two, as much as possible to let Scripture interpret Scripture. For many years, I taught classes at Calvary Chapel Bible College up in Marietta. I taught on Isaiah and Jeremiah; those were the two classes I probably taught more than any other. I would have dozens and dozens of students in my class. Sometimes, my classes would be as big as 70 or 80 students, which, at a school that size, was almost a quarter of the students coming to take a non-elective class.
On the first day of class, I would tell every single one of them that we had 15 weeks to cover 66 chapters, meeting three hours a week. It was a lot of work. I would tell all of them that if they wanted to understand the book of Isaiah or the book of Jeremiah, they must familiarize themselves with the book of Deuteronomy, which is what we've been doing here on Sunday mornings. They also needed to familiarize themselves with the texts of Kings and Chronicles because everything that happens during the time that Isaiah lived and prophesied occurs in the timeline of Kings and Chronicles. So, familiarize yourself with Deuteronomy and Kings and Chronicles; those are the keys to unlocking understanding.
To understand what is going on in this passage, we want Scripture to interpret Scripture. As we let Scripture interpret Scripture, it's very helpful that in the very next section of this passage, we look at verse 15. It says, "Then it happened, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning." I'm sitting there thinking, "What on earth did I just see?" Suddenly, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man.
This is interesting because the word "man" in Hebrew is the word "Adam." However, this is a different word, a distinct word for man here; it's "geber." You may think, "What's so great about that?" Well, notice we read here, "I saw the appearance of a geber, and I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai who called out and said to Gabriel, the man of God, 'Make this man understand the vision.'"
So, here Daniel sees this man, who is pretty awesome. There is something different about this man; he is not just a normal man because he is an angel—the angel Gabriel. You get to meet him again in the New Testament; he is the one who announced to Mary that she would be with child. So, here is Gabriel again. He came near, where I stood, and when he came near, I was afraid. There was something pretty awesome about this guy, and I fell on my face. But he said to me, "Understand, son of man, that the vision..."
Refers to the time of the end. Now, in 2023, we read about the time of the end, and what do we think? Oh my goodness, the end of the world! Eschatology! It's the end of the world as we know it. However, Daniel lived in 551 BC, so the end that Gabriel might be talking about may not necessarily have to do with you and me; it might have something to do with him and his people in 551 BC as they were in exile in Babylon. We have to be careful when we read these things. This has to do with the time of the end.
In verse 18, it states, "Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and stood me upright and said, 'Look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation. For at the appointed time of the end, it shall be the ram which you saw in the vision, having two horns.' This is what it means: they are the kings. The two horns are the kings of Media and Persia, the Medo-Persian Empire. When Daniel received this in 551 BC, he was still 12 years away from the Medo-Persians coming and destroying Babylon.
He says these are the kings of Media and Persia, and the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king of Greece. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, the four kingdoms shall arise out of Greece or out of that nation, but not with the same power of the first king.
In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise having fierce features who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. He shall destroy fearfully, or he shall cause everyone to be terrified, and shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people, that is, the nation of Israel. Through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule. He shall exalt himself in his heart and shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without human means.
The vision of the evenings and the mornings, the 2300, which was told, is true. Therefore, seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future. Now, it's passages like this...
Skeptical critical scholars in our day often look at the text of a book like Daniel with derision and mockery. They argue that what is revealed to Daniel is so clear and specific about future events from his point in 551 BC that it cannot possibly have been written at that time. They claim it must have been written centuries later because it is just too accurate and clear.
The reason these critical scholars say this is that they do not believe in the supernatural. They do not believe that there is a God who exists outside of time and can reveal to us what is going to happen in time. Therefore, they assert that this text could not have been written in 551 BC; it must have been composed after the events it describes.
In this vision, Daniel receives an interpretation from a being named Gabriel, outlining what was going to happen over the next 250 years. At that time, the Medo-Persians were on the rise. If you lived in 551 BC alongside Daniel, you would likely have heard discussions about the Medo-Persian people, who were about 200 miles to the east, and the potential problems they could pose in the future. It would be easy to connect the dots, much like we can today when we observe that China seems to be a rising world power, which could be an issue over the next 50 years.
When Daniel sees the goat with the big horn, which represents the great king of the future kingdom of Greece, he is looking forward more than 220 years to the great king of Greece, known as Alexander the Great. From ages 24 to 32, he expanded the Greek Empire from Macedon, where his father had been king, swiftly overtaking everyone in his path. One of the great ancient historians tells us that at the end of his conquests, Alexander was filled with despair and depression because he had nothing more to conquer. He died at age 32, before he even reached the age at which one could be president of the United States, having conquered the entire known world.
Daniel received this vision of a great king from Greece who would move swiftly to conquer and destroy the Persians, which we know from history actually happened.
In 551 BC, a great king was prophesied to be cut off in his strength while still young. Following his death, four kingdoms would arise from him, which is exactly what happened in history. When Alexander died, he had no heir, no child, and so his kingdom was split among his four major generals. Their names were Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. They ruled over different areas of the kingdom of Greece.
Seleucus ruled over the area of Syria and everything south to Ptolemy's area in Egypt, which included all of Israel. Over the next several hundred years, the Kingdom of the Ptolemies and the Seleucid Empire battled over the nation of Israel. Jerusalem changed hands approximately 26 times, and this place was devastated repeatedly.
In the midst of this turmoil, a little horn rose up with fierce features, causing the sacrifices to cease. We know him in history as Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Empire, who went by the name Antiochus Epiphanes, meaning "the enlightened one." In 168 BC, he caused the sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem to cease, erected an image to the god Zeus in the temple, and offered a pig on the altar of sacrifice, desecrating the temple. This event is referred to in and as the abomination of desolation.
If you want to read more about this, you can look into the books of Maccabees. First Maccabees discusses the Maccabean Revolt, which was a revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes. If you have ever heard of Hanukkah, it all originated from this event and what took place during that period.
Daniel received this vision, and when we let Scripture interpret Scripture, it becomes relatively clear—not perfectly clear, but relatively clear. I am fairly convinced that point number three, if you are taking notes, is that biblical prophecy is not completely opaque. When we seek the plain sense, it makes a lot more sense. The challenge is that we are often trying to see ourselves through the lens of...
Scripture should be viewed as the lens to understand what took place during this period of time. It's relatively clear. You may ask, "Well, wait a minute, doesn't this have anything to say to us today? Is there anything more to this than speaking about the Medo-Persians and the Greeks, speaking about Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes?"
If it were not for something that we read in the New Testament from Jesus, I would answer that question today and say no. However, Jesus teaches us something rather interesting in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The synoptic Gospels present a story at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, specifically in .
During the week that Jesus would be crucified, one day he went to the temple. While he was there, he spoke against the religious leaders in Israel. He called the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, and all the different groups of people that ruled in Jerusalem hypocrites and blind guides. He told them that they did not understand the Scriptures, and they became very upset. In fact, they were plotting behind the scenes on how to kill him.
After Jesus gave this scathing rebuke to the religious establishment in Israel, saying they should have known the times—which we will talk about next week—he walked out of the temple. It seems that his disciples were a little taken aback by what their Rabbi, their Master, just said to the religious establishment. They came to Jesus and said, "Oh wow, look at the temple! Isn't it a beautiful temple?"
Jesus responded, "You see this temple? Not one stone will be left upon another that will not be cast down; all will be destroyed." I think his disciples stood there, flabbergasted, looking at it and thinking, "What on earth?"
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus left and went up the Mount of Olives, which is east of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. He sat down on the Mount of Olives, and his disciples came to him. They brought him three questions: "When shall these things be? What shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Clearly, they were talking about the end of the world.
Jesus began to answer them, and his response was amazing. He said, "When you hear of wars and rumors..."
Of wars, see that you’re not troubled; the end is not yet. For a long time, you may have heard people say that the sign of the end of the age is wars and rumors of wars, kingdom rising against kingdom, nation rising against nation. Jesus said that’s not the end. You’ll hear of earthquakes and pestilences in diverse places. You’ll hear of persecution, but see that you’re not troubled. These are the beginning of birth pangs.
I was having a conversation with someone this last week about these various things, and they said, “Well, don’t you know the Bible says that as we get closer to the end of days, these things are going to increase? Just look at the world; there are more wars and rumors of wars, more earthquakes, more pestilence, more of this.” I said, “Are you sure that there’s actually more, or is it just that you get notified of what happens halfway around the world instantly? You hear about things that you would never hear about otherwise if it were not for this technology.”
Did you know that there are actually fewer people dying from major events like earthquakes and tsunamis in our day than there were 150 years ago? But we hear about it. You know, there was a massive explosion in Lebanon. How many of you remember this a few years ago? You were watching it live on your phone instantly when it happened. Remember a few years ago when there was an earthquake in Japan that caused a tsunami? We watched it live on our cell phones. Once upon a time, you’d hear Bible teachers say, “You know, the Bible says there’s coming a time where every eye will see. We don’t know how that’s going to happen, but every eye will see.” Well, now we know, because you get a notification and think, “Whoa, look at what’s happening in the world.” We know instantly about these things.
So, Jesus tells His disciples, “See that you’re not troubled. There will be false Christs who will rise up and gather people to themselves.” He says, “This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness, and then the end shall come.” Then He tells His disciples, “When you therefore see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet standing in the Holy place, then flee, because the end is coming.”
Now, why is this important? Because by the time that Jesus showed up in the First Century A.D., the Jewish teaching around Daniel’s abomination of desolation was that it had already taken place 200 years before by the hand of Antiochus Epiphanes. But Jesus says, “Yeah, that was an abomination of desolation.”
But there's something more coming in the future. Here's the amazing thing: forty years after that, sure enough, the temple would be destroyed just as Jesus said. There are reasons to believe that there are future implications about a further abomination of desolation, which we'll talk more about next week. It seems clear that there's going to be a similarity in the future to what has already happened in the past. Just as there was an abomination of desolation in 70 A.D., which was commemorated by the Jewish people this last week in a celebration on Thursday called Tisha B'Av, there shall potentially be another in the future.
This teaches us an important truth about apocalyptic passages of prophecy. Point number four, if you're taking notes: many of the prophecies in the Bible have both early and latter fulfillments. There are often more fulfillments than one. All of the words that we find in Daniel were meant to be an encouragement to Daniel and the people of God that God knew what was happening.
See, God isn't taken by surprise. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurs to God? Every time we think, "Oh wow, that took me by surprise," it doesn't happen with Him. I've seen a lot of Christians over the last few years who seem to think that COVID took God by surprise, as if He was saying, "Whoa, where did this come from?" No, that's how we respond. But God says, "You will hear of pestilences and pandemics. See that you're not troubled; the end is not yet."
What are you going to do? You're going to preach the gospel because this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached as a witness in all nations, and then the end shall come.
Bear with me for a moment. Alistair Begg, a great Bible teacher on this passage, says this vision is given to Daniel to forewarn Israel about a period in the future of severe persecution that is going to come and to assure them that their Sovereign God will limit the days of persecution and destroy the persecutor. This was meant to be an encouragement to the people of God: you're going to go through difficulty, but don't be troubled. God is still in control; God knows what is coming.
He's working behind the scenes, and He often reveals to us things that are going to happen before they happen. Not always with perfect clarity, so that we might remain steady in faith and faithfulness until He comes. Jesus told His disciples just before He was crucified about troubling things that were going to happen in the world. He said, "See that you are not troubled. I have told you these things beforehand so that you would not trip, fall, or stumble. They will persecute you; they will put you out of society, if you will. They will come against you. I have told you these things so that when those things happen, you will remember these things I have spoken to you."
In , He says, "These things I have spoken to you so that you may have peace. In the world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
Point number five: God's plan is revealed in advance so that we might keep calm and carry on. Jesus's disciples came to Him just before He ascended into heaven and said, "Will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "Listen, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put under His control. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the world. This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all nations as a witness, and then the end shall come."
You don't need to worry about these things; you need to be waiting, watching, and working. As we study the Scripture, whether it's apocalyptic or not, we should study the Scriptures carefully. We should hold end times views or beliefs with humility and charity. We should focus more on how to live faithfully, and we should build our lives more on Christ than on eschatology, because God has a work for us to do, and it ain't over until it's over. Amen.
Let's stand and close. Anthony, I'm just going to close.
Father God, we thank You for Your Word. I pray that we would hold these things in our hearts and minds. We recognize that You have given us these things so that we might have Your comfort. Just as we read in First Thessalonians chapters four and five, which deal with Your second coming, You say twice, "Comfort one another with these things." These things should be a comfort to us, knowing that You are on the throne and will come one day to rule and reign with righteousness. So we say, "Come, Lord Jesus, come. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven."
Lord, may it be that the lions' den or the fiery furnace of Daniel reminds us how You continue to protect and carry Your people through such trials. As we reflect on these events, would You remind us that You are still on the throne and in control? Help us to trust in You and to be a light to those who are in darkness. This world needs good news, and we have great news: You will come again. Until that day, Lord, help us to be about Your business, like the wise servant, using the talents You have given us to further Your mission. God, work through us, Your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name.
Now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Good morning, Cross Connection Church! It's Pastor Garrett here. We just finished an awesome week at VBS with all the kids, and we want to encourage you to be praying for our kids as they go home. Many kids at VBS received Jesus Christ for the first time and heard the good news of the Gospel. The waves this creates in the community are beyond our knowledge, and God is going to work in amazing ways as these kids take what they've learned here at Cross Connection home.
Please pray for the kids and their families as they discuss what they learned at VBS. God works in mysterious ways through the kids, so keep them in your prayers. Also, if you're looking for ways to get plugged in here at Cross Connection Church, we have a number of options for you. First, for the ladies, we have a...
The women's breakfast is coming up on August 12th, which is a Saturday, here at Cross Connection Church. It will start at 9:00 a.m. To sign up for that and get more information, you can go to ccchurch.com/events.
Additionally, if you're looking to serve here at Cross Connection Church, we really need some hospitality volunteers. We would love for you to sign up for that. It's just serving donuts, so if you love donuts, maybe you want to get the first pick of donuts here at Cross Connection and enjoy the good ones before they're all gone.
It's an option we have available on ccchurch.com/serve if you want to sign up. We really do need you. It's as simple as smiling and handing a donut to people here at Cross Connection Church and setting up some tables. Anyone can do it, and I encourage you to consider it.
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