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Hello again, you bunch of Bereans! [grinning] I trust you recognize that my greeting is one of respect! Because if you are a believer like unto the Bereans in Acts 17:10 & 11, then I have the utmost respect and admiration for you.
And that is because they did not blindly accept what ministers told them, but they searched the scriptures daily to see whether those things were so. And not only that, it says that they received the word with all readiness of mind.
So are you ready? This chapter is a continuation of the topic of chapter 5, Prophecies of Daniel Unsealed. That title is not meant to imply that we will accomplish an explanation of all of Daniel’s prophecies in these two chapters. This entire series is concerned with unsealing the prophecies.
Now, I should also say—just in case someone happens to read this part without first reading the previous chapter—I am not being egotistical with that title, as though I am somebody special who can do what scholars and Christians for centuries have been unable to do; namely, to unseal the prophecies of Daniel.
Rather, it is simply a fact that there would come a time in history when believers would be able to look at those prophecies and be able to clearly say, “Oh, I get it, this is that.” In other words, by our knowledge of both ancient and modern history, we can recognize how the prophecies of the visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar have been and are being fulfilled.
Moreover, I am simply standing on the shoulders of others who have gone before and were able to contribute parts to the puzzle. And of course, I am not alone in seeing these things coming to pass.
In chapter 5, we got as far as verse 38 in Daniel 2, and I want to go back to verse 37 to make some further points before we go on. And this is to tie together a couple of points which we laid out separately last time, but we did not have time to tie them together.
Remember our discussion of the seven times, and that equates in long-term prophecy to 2,520 years? You will recall how, when Daniel was interpreting the dream, he said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “Dude, you are the head of gold,-man!”
Well, actually, I am certain that Daniel knew his place and was extremely respectful of the king and his authority. In fact, seeing as how Daniel and the rest of the wise men of Babylon had been under a death sentence up until that point, I would suggest that when Daniel said “you are the head of gold,” it was a figure of speech in the sense that the king stood for the kingdom.
Because in due time, Nebuchadnezzar died, but his successors on the throne continued to represent the Babylonian kingdom, the head of gold.
Daniel 2:37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
Did Daniel speak truth to power here? Yes, indeed, for although Daniel showed great respect and honor to the king of Babylon, he also told him the truth. Can we take a lesson from that? Turn to Jeremiah 27.
Even though most of us never have, and never will, come before the throne, so to speak, whether at the White House, the Supreme Court or Congress, let us each examine our own hearts as to our attitude, as to how we respect—or perhaps we have not respected our present Mystery Babylonian rulers.
And I know what some of us are thinking, because when we first awaken politically to the horrendous evil that has been perpetrated against our people and our nation, our natural response is anger.
I understand that; I’ve been there. I still get angry as my initial response sometimes when I hear about the latest acts of government tyranny which is like “piling on” to the hundreds of “pokes in the eye” vis a vis our liberties. Or to our republic, it is like death by a thousand paper cuts. Sure it makes us angry.
But, as we learn of our Father’s overall Plan, we can then learn to channel that anger properly and to receive the grace of a different perspective on our Babylonian leaders. I had already pretty much finished my lecture preparation when I just received an email from a lady who said this:
“I am enjoying your series on David and Jonathan. [I am sure she means The Character of Saul and David series. She goes on:] I am especially enjoying your lecture on Mystery Babylon and I plan to download more of them. Because of my extensive reading of history from age 8, by the time I was in my early teens, I was aware that England and America were different.
“I read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged (for the first time) when I was 15, and learned of the Rockefellers and the concentration of power when I was 20. I felt so betrayed and was very angry. I first learned of the Israel truth when I was 28, but didn’t process it until I was in my late 30’s. I finally became un-angry. [Then she put the little smiley face icon and she closed by saying:] God is sovereign!!”
So, let us ask ourselves this: Were the apostles and disciples the servants of our Lord? Yes. Shall we honor and respect the servants of the Lord? Yes. Okay, now look with me at what God said in Jeremiah
Jeremiah 27:6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; …
…and the verse goes on but that is the point, right there. But I will add this: just reading that verse and intellectually knowing that God’s will is for us to honor and respect His servants does not make it any easier when that servant is Nebuchadnezzar or…many recent presidents. Many will grit their teeth and hold their nose, as they try to be obedient to God’s will in that.
It is my opinion that until we are given through grace to understand that God’s overall Plan is to reconcile all creation, it will always be a difficult task to show respect and honor for Babylonian leaders.
Jesus said, My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Once we see the Divine Plan, it becomes a light burden for us to respect and honor them and to pray for them, and not to curse them.
With all the honor and respect and humility he could muster, Daniel spoke a truth to the king which this powerful potentate might not have wanted to hear. And that is that there is a God in heaven, and it is He who chooses to bestow a kingdom, power, strength and glory on a given person. The implied message is that no earthly ruler should vaunt himself and get intoxicated with his own power and glory.
In that vein, but as a side thought: may I say that, although I have some issues with Rush Limbaugh, I admire him in certain ways, not the least of which is, that when referring to himself he acknowledges his talent comes from a Source outside himself, when he says, “Talent on loan from Gaw-w-w-w-d!”
If we look in Daniel 4, it seems that Nebuchadnezzar let it go to his head. Sometime after that, he had another vision which he did not understand, and so he turned to Daniel for the interpretation. We shall return to this passage later in the series as appropriate, but for now I only want to call your attention to verse 25.
This is the vision of a tree and now here is Daniel having to speak truth to power again. Daniel has to break some really bad news to the king, to the effect that the king is about to go insane for a period of time.
Daniel 4:25 That they shall drive thee [Nebuchadnezzar] from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Most Bible commentators agree that the seven times here means seven years would elapse before Nebuchadnezzar would come into his right mind again. The lesson he had to learn was that humility is required of royalty, and rulers in general. It is God who gives you your position and you had better remember it and act accordingly.
I would like to suggest that the decree of the seven times punishment not only came upon Nebuchadnezzar personally, but upon the entire, long-term succession of empires. And remember, we are still in it, and we are still under their rule, because we are in the overtime period. Much more on that later on in the series.
I am suggesting that all of the empires will eventually learn that same lesson that King Nebuchadnezzar learned personally. Look at what happened after seven times or seven years of the king’s insanity.
Daniel 4:33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.
34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
36 At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
Can you believe that?! That is a non-Israelite emperor who has just bowed the knee to the great God of heaven, acknowledging, in effect, that as Yul Brynner playing the Pharaoh in the movie, The Ten Commandments said, “Moses’ God is God! In other words, that He is the God of the whole earth, and all people will bow to him.
Turn to Isaiah 45. Now, does it seem to you as though the humbled Nebuchadnezzar was gritting his teeth and muttering under his breath and mentally snarling against God because he was forced to confess El Elyon as the Most High God? No.
Well, he was forced, in the sense of learning his lesson by the things he had suffered, but when he ultimately confessed, honored and extolled the King of heaven, it was patently with a sincere, honest and willing heart, wasn’t it? In Isaiah 45:23, Yahweh God is speaking and He says this:
Isaiah 45:23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear [or confess].
I read that verse from Isaiah for two reasons. First, because many Christians are quite familiar with Paul’s statement to that effect in the New Testament, but I wanted to show you where he sourced it from in the Old Testament.
Secondly, I emphasized the word “me” because it was Yahweh speaking, and He said that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess Him, Yahweh. There is still a lot of the Arian heresy in Christianity, not only in the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect, but among many Christians in all denominations who have difficulty believing that Jesus is actually God, as opposed to the Son of God, as meaning (in their minds) something less than full and equal Deity.
Some time back, I published in blogs my lecture series called The Divinity of Christ. Here is the first one in the series. But every once in a while a proof that is new to me pops up in my study, and so here is the second leg of this proof which I may not have included in The Divinity of Christ series.
Philippians 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Do you see it? In the Old Testament, the prophecy was that everyone would bow to God; in the Old Testament, every knee will bow to Jesus Christ. If A = C and B = C, then A = B. Jesus is God. Okay, back on track now—my point was that not only did King Nebuchadnezzar have to learn that lesson personally, but that all the heathen Gentile empires will learn it as well.
I need to clarify that because I am well aware that Babylon and all the succeeding empires will be “broken in pieces and consumed” by the Stone Kingdom. So it is not the empires themselves—they are systems of evil—but it is both the rulers and the people in those empires who will eventually all be converted, willingly bowing the knee and confessing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Inanimate empires do not learn lessons. The rulers do, and so do the people under their control, who may have been deceived into godlessness. So I am saying that the empires of gold, of silver, of brass and of iron will all be converted for good. Evil is destroyed by converting those who practice it to good.
In Deuteronomy 32:49, when Moses was nearing the end of his life, God told him to go up on Mount Nebo. He did so and as he looked across the Jordan river, he saw the city of Jericho. Nebo is the name of a Babylonian deity; in fact, it is part of the name of Nebuchadnezzar, and we will deal with that later in the series.
But I will give you this much for now, just to get your wheels turning and your neurons firing.
The name Nebo means a “prophet.” Nebo was the Babylonian deity who presided over learning and letters—the arts and sciences. Nebo corresponds to the Greek god, Hermes, the Latin god, Mercury, and the Egyptian god, Thoth.
But for now, think about this: Moses and Elijah. The law and the prophets. Moses is always associated with God’s law, right? Do we not see a prophetic picture here then, that Babylon (as represented by Mt. Nebo) eventually comes under the feet of the law. (Because Moses stood on Mount Nebo.) In other words, Babylon will become broken in pieces by the application of God’s law. Do you see that?
Now, I won’t take time to go into it here because a certain anonymous, mild-mannered reporter of the good news has written a couple of reports on my blog about the New Orleans Saints and the Super Bowl, wherein he showed how Jericho represents not only the church with her denominational walls, but that Jericho also represents the entirety of Mystery Babylon. The harlot church is just part of it.
Jericho represents man’s system which has continued secretly all down through the ages, through Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome; that is, through the head of gold, the arms and breast of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron, etc.
Every Sunday School child learns about how the children of Israel came into the Promised Land and marched around Jericho and ♫♪ “de walls come a tumblin’ down.” But notice that in the instructions which Joshua, speaking on behalf of Yahweh, gave to the men of war, that they were not to take any of the treasure of Jericho for themselves because…
Joshua 6:19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.
So there we have the four empires: gold, silver, brass and iron. Do you see how that is a prophetic picture that all the evil, earthly kingdom-empires of Babylon down through the ages will be turned to good?
Because it says they are consecrated, that Hebrew word is qo’-desh, which means holy or sacred unto the LORD. That is a picture of Universal Reconciliation. We will come back to this idea to flesh it out more in future lectures in this series, but let me get back to the fact that Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind for seven years.
Here’s a pertinent question: If you are paying attention at all to what is going on in Washington, D. C., does it not seem like the Congress, the President and the various departments of the bureaucracy are acting insanely with all the horrible laws, rules and regulations they are passing? {Readers should note that this blog is drawn from a lecture I presented in 2010.}
It manifests in numerous ways. It seems like there is a new example every week. Do you remember how before the massive health care bill {“Obamacare”} passed into law, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the comment to the effect that “well, we have to pass it first so that we can find out what’s in it.” Remember that?
Of course, we all now know that the subprime mortgage-lending practices was in large part the immediate cause of the current financial crisis. During that time, the term NINJA loans entered our vocabulary. That referred to mortgage applicants who had No Income, No Job or Assets, but they gave them home loans anyhow, remember that? That is insane enough.
But then, in the recent so-called Wall Street Reform law, which is anything but, I recall reading that during the debate on this bill, there was one of the better Congressmen (can’t remember who it was) who tried to offer an amendment so that any future applicants for a home mortgage would have to put up at least 5% as a down payment on their home.
…To which (I think it was Congressman Barney Frank) who responded, well, no, we can’t do that; otherwise we would be limiting home loans only to those who could afford them!!
Those are just some of the examples which would lead a person with common sense to wonder if these rulers in Washington, D.C. have gone out of their minds. Later, we will expound on this further, because in the book of Revelation we find Mystery Babylon being associated with drunkenness. You and I know, of course, that it only appears to be insanity. That all of it is being done deliberately to further enslave the American people.
Furthermore, we have stated on numerous occasions how the Bible prophesies that Mystery Babylon deceives the nations by her drugs. That is one reason why we have been offering two DVDs which will probably shock your friends and neighbors, if not you yourself, concerning the means and methods that Mystery Babylon has been, and is employing to get everyone on some kind of drug.
Those two DVDs, by the way, are called: Making a Killing and The Marketing of Madness. The latter title refers to how the psychiatric industry is constantly coming up with new so-called mental illnesses, with the goal that everyone is a potential customer for their psychotropic (mind-numbing and mood-altering) drugs. To say it is criminal is vastly understating the reality. {Note: we carried those DVDs for several years, but no longer do. They are available online.}
For many years, I have been observing that in almost every case of mass murder—from Columbine to Virginia Tech—and you usually have to pay attention immediately before the Medianite news controllers flush the fact down Orwell’s memory hole, but it usually comes out that the perpetrator(s) have been on some kind of psychiatric or psychotropic drug.
The situation is dark and could be depressing, so before you think you need some kind of anti-depressant, let me attempt a little gallows humor here, as it were. You see, the experts tell us that one in every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness.
(Those experts would be those psychiatrists referred to on those DVDs, don’t you know.) But let’s pretend that were true. That is pretty staggering, isn’t it? So think of your three best friends. Guess what, if they’re okay, then it’s you!
We shall continue back in Daniel chapter 2 in the next part.
