As we march onward in our study of Daniel 9:24-27, we’ve arrived at Daniel 9:26. What happens after the 69th “seven”? That is, after Daniel 9:25? There is still one “seven” left, and a lot of stuff still to be fulfilled from the six-item list Gabriel revealed in Daniel 9:24. As the prophecy goes on, in Daniel 9:26, two key events happen:
The Messiah will be “cut off,” and
“the people of the prince who is to come” will destroy Jerusalem and its temple.
Let’s look at these one at a time.
Messiah and the “gap” between “weeks” 69 and 70
Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined (Daniel 9:26).
When will the Messiah be “cut off and have nothing”? What does it mean? Considering the bible’s whole story, it seems to suggest Messiah’s death:
He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him … By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off from the land of the living, for the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due? (Isaiah 53:3, 8).
Jesus was despised, rejected, and abandoned—he had nothing. Then he was “cut off”—the Romans executed him. According to Daniel 9:26, this will occur “after the sixty-two weeks …” Remember, there are two sets of “sevens” in Daniel 9:25—(a) seven “sevens,” and then (b) 62 “sevens. The Messiah’s death happens after this second set—the 62 “sevens,” like this:
So, while the phrasing is awkward, it seems that the Messiah’s death will happen after the 62 “sevens,” which means after the 69 “sevens.”[1] However, because the 70th “seven” will not begin until Daniel 9:27 (“And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week …”) it seems there is a “gap” of time here between the 69th and 70th “seven.” If there is no gap, then the 70th “seven” happens immediately—the Messiah dies during the 70th “seven,” because it happened after the 69th “seven.
Figure 2. In which “week” does Daniel 9:26 and Messiah’s death occur?
Evidence suggests there is a gap between “weeks” 69 and 70 because of this chain of logic:
Because the evidence for the first 69 “sevens” suggests each “seven” is a set of seven years, we are obligated to see the 70th “seven” as also being a set of seven years.
Because Messiah was “cut off” after the 69th “seven,” we might assume this happened during the 70th “seven.”
If true, then Jesus was “cut off” at his crucifixion in ≈ A.D. 30.
But …
This would mean all six tasks in Daniel 9:24 (“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city …”) must take place within seven years of Messiah being “cut off” (A.D. 37-ish)—which must be the case if the 70th “seven” truly followed right on the heels of the 69th.
In other words, if there is no gap between the 69th and 70th seven, then …
Because each “seven” is seven years,
and the 70th “seven” begins with Jesus’ death in ≈ A.D. 30 (when he is “cut off”),
then the 70th “seven” would have ended in ≈ A.D. 37,
and so all six promises from Daniel 9:24 would have to be fulfilled by A.D. 37.
That did not happen! So, there must be a gap between the 69th and 70th “seven.” Bible-believing interpreters who do not account for this gap are left with an impossible dating problem. So, they are generally forced to take one of two options:
Option 1: Push the entire thing backwards and make the sinister figure at Daniel 9:27 the wicked Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who ruled in the early 2nd century B.C. (read about him in 1 Maccabees 1).[2]
Option 2: Make the mysterious ruler at Daniel 9:27 be Jesus and wrap the entire prophecy up with Jesus’ ascension to heaven.
Neither of these make the best sense of a straightforward reading of the bible. The “gap” between the 69th and 70th “seven” seems to be the best solution. If true, then the 70th “seven” doesn’t begin until the events of Daniel 9:27, which is yet future. I can’t yet make a full case for the “gap theory” of the 70th “seven” until we wrestle with Daniel 9:27, and that must wait for the next article.
The mystery prince
We now turn to the second event from Daniel 9:26:
Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined (Daniel 9:26).
The word translated as “prince” means leader, ruler, or a male sovereign other thanthe ruling king (i.e., “the prince”). This means that some ruler will come along one day, whose people will destroy Jerusalem and the temple the Jewish people just re-constructed in Daniel 9:25—the tale told to us in the books of Haggai, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
Well, this makes identification pretty simple—who destroyed Jerusalem (“the city and its sanctuary”) and when did they destroy it?
Daniel says it was “the people of the prince who is to come” (Dan 9:26) who will destroy Jerusalem and its sanctuary. Because the Roman army later destroyed this very city and that very temple in A.D. 70 (some ≈ 600 years after Daniel wrote this prophecy), this means our “prince” in Daniel 9:26 is somehow connected to the Roman empire—which Daniel 7 suggested will exist in three phases.[3]
Phase 1: The old Roman Empire under whose jurisdiction Jesus and Pontius Pilate lived (Dan 7:23).
Phase 2: Sometime after Jesus’ day, a splintered remnant that has divided into various pieces (the “10 horns” of the scary fourth beast, Dan 7:23-24).
Phase 3: A very powerful king who will arise from among the splintered bits of Phase 2 (Dan 7:24-26).
History tells that a Roman general (and later emperor) named Titus Vespasianus destroyed Jerusalem during the First Jewish War,[4] when the Roman empire was still intact in its original form (Phase 1, above). This will be a nasty finish to a brutal war. Gabriel tells Daniel: “… its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined” (Dan 9:26). Now, on the other side of this event, we know that God brought this judgment on his people in A.D. 70 because they rejected the Messiah and Savior whom he sent to rescue them.
The Roman (and Jewish) writer Josephus tells us what happened to Jerusalem when the Romans destroyed it. He knows, because he was there that day.
There was no one left for the soldiers to kill or plunder, not a soul on which to vent their fury; for mercy would never have made them keep their hands off anyone if action was possible. So Caesar now ordered them to raze the whole City and Sanctuary to the ground … [a]ll the rest of the fortifications encircling the City were so completely leveled with the ground that no one visiting the spot would believe it had once been inhabited. This then was the end to which the mad folly of revolutionaries brought Jerusalem, a magnificent city renowned to the ends of the earth.[5]
Josephus tells of one Jewish woman named Mary, driven mad by hunger, who killed her infant son, roasted him, ate one half of him and saved the rest for later[6] (cp. Deut 28:53-57). The temple itself was destroyed by fire in a frenzy of rage by Roman legionnaires who ignored their commander’s orders.
All the prisoners taken from beginning to end of the war totalled 97,000; those who perished in the long siege 1,100,000 … No destruction ever wrought by God or man approached the wholesale carnage of this war.[7]
This must be very hard to hear and understand. We wonder what Daniel thought when he heard this news!
Daniel asks for assurance from God that he will set everything right (Dan 9:3-19)
God sends the angel Gabriel to say that he will make it right (Dan 9:20-23).
In fact, things will be set so right that the six-item list at Daniel 9:24 shows us paradise restored.
This shakes out with (a) Jerusalem being rebuilt, and then (b) Messiah the prince arriving on the scene (Dan 9:25). This will take 69 “sevens” to happen, but it’ll happen.
Everything sounds great. But then, after the 62nd “seven” (i.e., 69 “sevens” in total):
The Messiah will be cut off and have nothing (Dan 9:26).
Jerusalem and its (as yet) un-rebuilt temple will be totally destroyed (Dan 9:26)!
This is a shock. What can it mean? Why will it happen? Why this bizarre reversal? Who is this mysterious prince who is to come? At this rate, Daniel may be thinking, the glorious six-item promise list from Daniel 9:24 seems far, far away. Clearly this is a one step forward, two steps back kind of thing. What is the endgame, here?
Evidence suggests there will be a long series of events after Messiah’s arrival at his baptism at Daniel 9:25 (the end of the first 69 “sevens”), and before the 70th “seven” begins in Daniel 9:27.
At least one of those events will be Messiah’s seeming abandonment (“have nothing”), and his execution by Roman soldiers (“be cut off”).
Another event will be the destruction of the rebuilt temple and the city of Jerusalem by the people of the Roman ruler who will come on the scene (Dan 9:26)—the general Titus, who indeed razed the city in A.D. 70.
This “intermission” seems to best explain the “gap” between the 69th and 70th unit of seven years in the prophecy.
Nevertheless, in our next article on Daniel 9:27, the angel Gabriel tells us how God plans to make good on his six-item list of promises.
[1] John Gill: “To be reckoned from the end of the seven weeks, or 49 years, which, added to them, make 483 years” (Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:346). Stephen Miller writes: “After the reconstruction of Jerusalem in the first seven sevens (forty-nine years), another ‘sixty-two sevens’ (434 years) would pass” (Stephen R. Miller, Daniel, vol. 18, in New American Commentary (Nashville: B&H, 1994), 267).
[2] This is why Moses Stuart, an outstanding American bible scholar from the early 19th century, remarks: “The third period (one week) of course begins with the same excision of an anointed one, and continues seven years, during which a foreign prince shall come, and lay waste the city and sanctuary of Jerusalem, and cause the offerings to cease for three and a half years, after which utter destruction shall come upon him, vs. 26, 27” (Daniel, 274; emphasis added). Stuart does not consider the possibility of a gap between the 69th and 70th “seven.”
[5] Josephus, The Jewish War, trans. G.A. Williamson, rev. ed. (New York: Penguin, 1969), 7:1 (361). Chrysostom suggests, “And let not any man suppose this to have been spoken hyperbolically; but let him study the writings of Josephus, and learn the truth of the sayings. For neither can any one say, that the man being a believer, in order to establish Christ’s words, hath exaggerated the tragical history,” (“Homily 76,” in NPNF 1.10, 457).
[6] Josephus, The Jewish War, 6:199-219 (341-342).
[7] Josephus, The Jewish War, 6:420f. See ch(s). 13-21 (i.e., 3:422 – 6:429).
The traditional Advent theme is that Jesus is on the way. Old covenant prophesies tell us so. Today, I offer something a bit different—a sketch of how Jesus defeats Satan.
The scripture paints this in a grand, epic style. It’s very unlike the dense legal analysis of Jonathan Edwards or Francis Turretin … or the Book of Romans. Instead of logical outlines, Revelation (and good bits of Zechariah and Daniel) tells us its story in a style beyond earthly reality. There are bizarre, otherworldly creatures, vivid pictures, symbolism, and fantastic imagery. There are women in baskets, huge flying scrolls, women with the wings of storks, a seven-headed dragon, a ten-horned beast who crawls out of the sea, a two-horned lamb who bursts out of the earth like a vengeful orc, a woman with a crown of stars, and another who is a dolled-up prostitute with pearls and jewels.
This is a world of fairy tale-like vibes that invites us to experience its message as a fantasy world. It paints in cosmic, sweeping strokes—it is often not about communicating detailed timelines—just contrast the styles of Revelation 12-13 with 2 Thessalonians 2! We know Frozen isn’t set in a “normal” world, even though it communicates real and true things, and so we instinctively re-calibrate our hearts and minds accordingly. We ought to do the same with Revelation—we can’t read it like a legal brief.
The bible paints Satan as an evil dragon who loses a series of battles in the war against God.
We meet a holy woman, pregnant, glowing in white, with a crown of 12 stars. She cries out, ready to give birth (Rev 12:1-2).
A dragon stands beside her, waiting to kill the child. He is blood red, with seven heads (Rev 12:3-4). We know this isn’t a good character. Dragons never are. Perhaps we ought to picture a hydra-like creature—if one head is chopped off, another will spring up. His evil is unkillable. We can almost see the dragon flexing his claws, snorting bursts of flame, purring madly. Waiting.
The child arrives but is caught up to God and his throne. This child will rule the world with a rod of iron. Of course, he is Jesus—the child born at Bethlehem on Christmas morning. The dragon has failed. The woman, who likely represents God’s covenant people from whom Jesus hails, flees to the wilderness (Rev 12:5-6).
Meanwhile, in heaven, now that the child has returned to his throne of glory (Rev 12:7-9; cp. Jn 17:5; Acts 2:22-36) the dragon and his minions are tossed down to earth—a forced eviction (cp. Lk 10:18).
This is like the scene from an old Western movie where the hero tosses the bully who has been terrorizing the town out of the saloon and into the dirt in the street outside. The bad guy scrambles to his feet, shakes his fist, and vows revenge. He then rides off to gather his crew and start trouble.
This is what happens to Satan once Jesus accomplishes his work here—he is cast down and will now flail about like a crazed, wounded beast (Rev 12:10-12). He is angry. He is furious.
But we know the bad man has already lost and John Wayne will surely win—just like Jesus.
Enraged, the dragon races after the holy woman to destroy her (Rev 12:13). God gives her eagles wings (Rev 12:14)—just as he did for his people in the Exodus (Ex 19:4)—and she flees to the wilderness. The dragon breathes out a tidal wave of water to drown her before she can reach safety (Rev 12:15) This is a demonic reversal of the Exodus escape—then the water was a wall of divine protection that allowed God’s people to escape death, here the water is a tsunami intended to kill.
But once again God foils the dragon’s plans. Having failed to strangle the new covenant people (whom the holy woman represents) in the cradle, the dragon storms away “to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17). We are these children—in Jesus communities large and small. We come from this “woman,” who is God’s family—just as surely as the harlot of Revelation 17 represents Satan’s family.
This is the cosmic sketch of world history.
The dragon tries to destroy the Christ-child. He fails and is “kicked out” of the heavens above and cast down into the dirt. He is on borrowed time.
Enraged, he tries to kill the holy woman. He fails there, too. Once more, God carries his people on eagle’s wings away from the clutches of evil.
Now, more furious than ever, the hydra-dragon darts to and fro, trying to immolate the woman’s “children” with fire. Despite local successes, he cannot stamp them all out. Like a divine hydra, God’s new covenant family cannot be killed. There are too many of us.
John’s vision shifts to the dragon standing on the seashore, perhaps huffing and puffing, maybe melancholy. He has failed, but has he given up? Far from it. John shows us two frightening images of the last days, when “the great dragon … the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9) rolls the dice one last time and goes all in on his wicked schemes.
The first horror is a seven-headed beast who crawls out of the sea, spewing blasphemy against God and his people. Mimicking Jesus, he appears to die and is revived. “And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast” (Rev 13:3). The dragon gives his power and authority to this ghoul, just as God the Father gives his power and authority to Jesus in the incarnation. This creature is the antichrist—Jesus’ “evil twin.”
The second creature bursts out of the earth as a two-horned lamb (Rev 13:11)—perhaps a deliberate mockery of Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). Like the Holy Spirit, he too performs miracles and points everyone to his Christ-like figure (Rev 13:12-14). The true good news, properly understood, is accepted by willing faith. The kingdom of darkness operates by terror and coercion: “he makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast …” (Rev 13:12).
But the apostle John does not leave us there. The wicked woman, the alluring false front for evil, will be no more (Rev 17). God destroys Babylon, the city of darkness, from on high with great violence (Rev 18). Jesus returns with the armies of heaven, clothed in a robe drenched in his own blood, to slay the two beasts and cast them into the lake of fire to burn forever (Rev 19). An angel casts Satan into prison and shuts him up for 1,000 years, then afterwards the great red dragon joins his creatures in hell (Rev 20:1-3, 7-10). Jesus reigns with his people, “married” to them in an eternal union that will never be broken again (Rev 19:7-10).
What does this have to do with Christmas? Well, this is how it all ends for the serpent from the garden.
Satan loses. His great creature (the antichrist), the false prophet, his evil city, and his wicked woman are gone forever—never to return. The kingdom of darkness is no more. The dragon is cast down and will burn forever.
God wins. His eternal Son (the real Christ) reigns forever, heaven is here on a new earth, and the “holy woman” is safe forever in covenant union with him. “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in [the city], and His bond-servants will serve Him” (Rev 22:3).
This is real prophetic history painted in fantasy hues. And it all kicks off with the Savior born in Bethlehem on Christmas morning. This is how it will all end. This is what the boy from Bethlehem will do. This is why Christmas is so beautiful. This is when the dragon’s doom is sealed—it’s the beginning of his end.
Daniel 7 has the same message as Daniel 2. But, while Daniel 2 is more of a summary, Daniel 7 expands that message by way of more fantastic visions. It’s like how Genesis 2 expands on Genesis 1. Curiously, Daniel doesn’t write in chronological order—Daniel 7 returns us to Babylon on the eve of the Persian conquest, but the reader just finished Daniel 6 which shows us Darius the Mede after the conquest!
First, a word about how to interpret prophecy. As we sit comfortably—far removed from the anxious times in which God revealed these visions to Daniel—we can make a mistake. We can obsess over unimportant details and miss the larger point. God didn’t give us these incredible visions so we’d bog down in irrelevant questions. Some enthusiasts teach that Daniel’s visions “provide[] the most comprehensive and detailed prophecy of future events to be found anywhere in the Old Testament.”[1] Perhaps, but that isn’t Daniel’s point or God’s point. This turns Daniel into fodder for abstract speculation, which as far from the point as the east is from the west. Obsessive focus on, say, the identity of the four beasts might be interesting and profitable, but they’re not the point. God gave this vision to Daniel as hope for desperate people. So what’s the point of this vision?
Daniel’s angelic guide tells us plainly: “16So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever,” (Dan 7:16-18). The point is that God wins. He wins big. And even the most fearsome nations will fall before Him. Whatever else you take away from Daniel 7, make sure you get that right.[2]
The dream (Daniel 7:1-14)
Daniel 7 easily divides into two sections; (a) the dream (Dan 7:1-14), and (b) the interpretation (Dan 7:15-28).
First, here is the cast of characters from the vision with my identification for each:
Beast 1: the lion with wings. This is Babylon/Nebuchadnezzar.
Beast 2: the lopsided bear. This is Persia—the nation in which Esther lived, and from which Cyrus let the Jewish people return home, etc.
Beast 3: a leopard with four heads. This is Alexander the Great and the kingdoms belonging to the four generals who succeeded him after his death.
Beast 4: iron teeth + ten horns + one little horn. This is the Roman Empire in three derivative phases; (a) the historical kingdom of Jesus’ day, (b) the interim period of nations which in some way derive from the historical Roman Empire, and (c) the kingdom of antichrist of the last days, which grows from among the nations of the interim phase.[3] Some teachers think only “liberals” deny that the fourth kingdom is Rome, but this cruel and incorrect.[4]
Ancient of Days: God the Father.
Son of Man: Jesus—this is his favorite way to describe Himself.
Second, forget the first three kingdoms. Daniel is simply not interested in the first three kingdoms in this vision. He only asks the angel for clarification about the fourth (Dan 7:19-20). So, the first three kingdoms are not relevant. I believe the “four beasts” in Daniel 7 are parallel to the four-fold statue at Daniel 2, which means the first kingdom remains Babylon (Dan 2:36-28; cp. Dan 7:2-4, 17-18). A different vision addresses the second and third visions (Daniel 8), but they are not the issue here. So, this article will not address the first three kingdoms at all.
Third, focus on the fourth kingdom. The remainder of the article will do just that.
The fourth kingdom is “terrifying and frightening and very powerful.” Like the character Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me, it has “large iron teeth.” It crushes and gobbles up everything in its path. It also has ten horns (Dan 7:7), about which the angelic guide later explains.
This focus on four kingdoms doesn’t mean they are the only four nation-states that matter in human history. Instead, it suggests there are four kingdoms that will have a particular impact on the people of Israel. God could have discussed a particular Chinese dynasty, but it would have meant nothing to Daniel. In context, this is a message of hope to the people of Israel as they’re in exile in a foreign land. China would have meant nothing to them. This indicates our interpretive options are limited to a nation which has relevance to the people of Israel.
As Daniel stares at this awful creature, pondering the meaning of the ten horns, “there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it,” (Dan 7:8). This “little horn” emerges from among the ten—it is not an outsider. Whatever this “little horn” is, it doesn’t represent a revolution from without. Instead, it signals the gradual rise of a new power-center from within. This last horn “had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully,” (Dan 7:8). The angelic guide will soon elaborate, but we get the impression of intelligence, shrewdness, and arrogance.[5]
As Daniel looks on in horror, he spies another vision in the heavens above. This one seems parallel to the rise of the fourth beast—it takes place at the same time. “[T]hrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat,” (Dan 7:9). This is a solemn, choreographed event. The Ancient of Days has snow white hair, a flaming throne with wheels ablaze, a river of molten fire flows from the chair, and “thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened,” (Dan 7:10). This is the same imagery Ezekiel used (Ezek 1), and that the apostle John later re-purposes (Rev 5:11, 20:11-15). In other words, the Ancient of Days is God, and the setting is a courtroom.
Then, like a person watching two screens at once, Daniel looks back to the first vision “because of the boastful words the horn was speaking,” (Dan 7:11). He keeps looking “until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire,” (Dan 7:11). Its doom is like the antichrist’s fate in John’s apocalypse. Jesus tosses the antichrist into the lake of fire at His second coming (Rev 19:20).
Daniel now looks back at the second “screen” depicting the heavenly courtroom. He sees “one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven,” (Dan 7:13). “Son of man” is a woodenly translated phrase which means “person” or “human being.” Jesus often identifies Himself as this mysterious human figure in the context of His triumphant return to this sphere (Mt 16:27, 24:30; Lk 17:30). Once the Son of man arrives, He receives His eternal kingdom: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed,” (Dan 7:14). Jesus is the rock from Daniel 2 which smashes the evil kingdom and fills the whole earth (Dan 2:34-35, 44-45).
Christians have strong opinions about when this happens—at His ascension or later? The evidence suggests both are correct.
Jesus hints that He arrives at the holy court immediately after His death (i.e., at His ascension).[6] He tells the Sanhedrin that “from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven,” (Mt 26:64). Jesus says His “arrival” to rule His kingdom will be a reality from here on out, and this “seeing” is repetitive—“from here on out, you’ll be seeing …”[7] That is, the Sanhedrin will be seeing Jesus rule and reign “from now on.” The irrefutable evidence will be that nobody can stop the good news about His kingdom. This is the comforting vision Stephen saw just before the Sanhedrin murdered him (Acts 7:55-56)—meaning it’s a reality right now.
Yet, in Daniel’s vision, the Son of man arrives in the divine courtroom to receive His kingdom after or as the terrible beast is slain—suggesting an enthronement in the last days. This is the future great arrival for which the apostle Paul waits (1 Thess 2:19, 4:16-17)—meaning it hasn’t yet happened. The apostle John refers to this Daniel passage as a future event: “Look, he is coming with the clouds …” (Rev 1:7) and pairs it with a Zechariah quotation about a divine victory over evil (Zech 12:10)—an event that closely resembles those of Revelation 19 (cp. Zech 12:10–13:6).
Evidence suggests:
Jesus arrives in heaven after His ascension to take the throne. He immediately makes His authority known to those on earth.
Yet, sometime in the future when the kingdom of darkness is at its zenith—the age of the terrible fourth beast of Daniel 7 and the fourth kingdom of Daniel 2 (cp. Rev 17:1-13)—Jesus will return here to destroy evil and establish His kingdom on earth.
The distinction is like an incident from World War 2. Admiral Chester Nimitz took over his duties as Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Fleet in December 1941—just after the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor. His headquarters remained at Pearl Harbor, HI. However, as the war went on, Nimitz’s Central Pacific campaign re-took territory the Japanese had captured earlier in the war, and he became further and further removed from the center of action. Eventually, in January 1945, Nimitz moved his headquarters from Pearl Harbor, HI to Guam. He had always been the Pacific Ocean Area theater commander, but his move to the scene of action allowed him to exercise more direct and convenient control over his forces.
In a comparable way, while God declared Jesus to be His eternal Son and King at His ascension (Acts 13:32-37; cp. Ps 2, 110), the time will come when Jesus moves His headquarters from heaven to earth. Unlike Admiral Nimitz, Jesus is not hindered by distance, but the concept is similar. He wants to be with His people—it’s why one of His titles is Emmanuel (Isa 7:14, Mt 1:23). His people are here, and so when the time comes Father, Son, and Spirit will shift their flag to Jerusalem.
Daniel is confused. He asks the angel, who (as we saw earlier) gives him the bottom line: “17The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever,” (Dan 7:17-18).
But Daniel is still troubled. The fourth beast terrifies him. Who is it? What does it mean? When will it happen? It’s so fearsome—what does it signify (Dan 7:19)?
What the dream means (Daniel 7:15-28)
Daniel is worried about the fourth beast because it’s horrifying. It has iron teeth, bronze claws, and it “crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left,” (Dan 7:19). He’s curious “about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully,” (Dan 7:20).
Daniel looks again at this image, as if the angel had paused it on a screen, and at the same time the action on the second screen replays the scene from Daniel 7:11—perhaps in slow motion. Daniel sees the “little horn” waging war against the people of the Most High and winning—until the Ancient of Days raps His gavel and puts a stop to it all. Then, God’s people possessed the kingdom (Dan 7:21-22).
What does it all mean? The angel answers in two parts; (a) the rise of the “little horn” from among the ten (Dan 7:23-25), and then (b) the little horn’s demise (Dan 7:26-27).
The rise of the “little horn” (Daniel 7:23-25)
The angel explains:
23He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time (Daniel 7:23-25).
The beast represents a mighty kingdom of darkness. It’s identical to the fourth kingdom from Daniel 2, which the angel described as strong as iron—“and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others,” (Dan 2:40). We don’t know what kind of animal the fourth kingdom is. It’s teeth and claws sound dragon-like, which would fit with the dragon symbolizing Satan (cp. Rev 12-13).[8]
This fourth kingdom has three phases, each separated by large periods of time but having traceable connections.[9]
Evil Kingdom Phase 1. The historical Roman Empire. It is “different” from all the other kingdoms because of the extent and ferocity of its realm (“devour … trample … crush,” Dan 7:23).
Evil Kingdom Phase 2. This is the age between (a) Jesus and the apostles, and (b) the last days. This makes sense because the ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom (Dan 7:24). They are future developments after the Evil Kingdom Phase 1 leaves the stage.[10] Many bible interpreters lose their audience trying to identify the ten kingdoms. The angel doesn’t tell us what they are, so we should drop the attempt. It is idle speculation that accomplishes nothing—no matter how ingenious it may be.
We can say these ten kings (or kingdoms—the kings in Daniel’s visions are always synonymous with their realms) are a second phase of the historical Roman Empire because one could trace their origins back to it. This line need not be direct. For example, (a) South Korea’s existence derives from Japan’s defeat in the second world war, (b) the present-day Federal Republic of Germany comes from Otto Von Bismark’s unification of 39 independent nation states into the German Confederation in the late 19th century, and (c) the United States derives from the British Empire.
Neither example is a straight line from past to present, but each nation only exists today because of its historical ancestor—the same way a Tesla derives from a Model T Ford. The “10 horns” of Evil Kingdom Phase 2 may be like that—which means they could be any nation in the Western world. The number ten may also be symbolic, which would obviously complicate quests to identify them.
Evil Kingdom Phase 3. This is the time of the antichrist and the last days. We know this because “after them [that is, after the period of the 10 kings] another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings,” (Dan 7:24). This mysterious “little horn” is the antichrist, who John later reminds us is on the way (1 Jn 2:18). The angel tells Daniel the little horn will “put down” (RSV) three of the ten nations and arise from somewhere among them (“came up from among them,” Dan 7:8).[11] He’s different from the others because (Dan 7:25):
First, he will speak against God. Earlier, Daniel saw that he had “a mouth that spoke boastfully,” (Dan 7:8). This is blasphemy. The apostle Paul later calls this individual “the man of lawlessness” who “will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God,” (2 Thess 2:4; cp. Rev 13).
Second, he will oppress believers. This is a long and deliberate campaign that wears believers down (NASB) or wears them out (KJV).[12] The apostle John later saw a vision of antichrist—a horrid beast which combined imagery from all four monsters from Daniel’s visions (Rev 13:1-4). “It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation,” (Rev 13:7).
Third, he will try to change set times and laws. The antichrist will pervert and twist public morality, virtue, and decency into a lie.[13] Some also believe this refers to anti-religious sentiment in general—a pure secularism[14] and a “new table of religious festivals.”[15] It’s both.
God gives His people over to this evil figure’s power for a set period (“3.5 times”) that the angel doesn’t define here but is probably three-and one-half years (cp. Dan 12:5-7, 11).[16] The significance here is not the length of the evil king’s reign, but its sudden crash after a rapid acceleration.[17] It speeds up quickly (“a time, times …”), and then hits a wall and crashes with no warning (“half a time”).
The little horn’s fall (Daniel 7:26-27)
Why does antichrist’s kingdom crash and burn so suddenly?
Because, the angel explains, “the court will sit, and [antichrist’s] power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever,” (Dan 7:26). This is an elaboration on Daniel 7:14. We know the evil empire’s fall will be sudden and violent—remember the stone that smashes the statue from Daniel 2? The apostle John tells of an angel picking up a huge boulder and throwing it into the sea: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again,” (Rev 18:21). This is when God avenges the blood of His servants, and the heavenly chorus sings: “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever,” (Rev 19:2-3).
Daniel’s vision is the divine courtroom where the Ancient of Days declares: “Enough is enough!” John’s apocalypse tells us that, as antichrist’s evil kingdom smolders in ruins, Jesus the King returns to this sphere with the armies of heaven to do battle with His sinister counterpart. “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God,” (Rev 19:13). This is the blood of God’s enemies, tramped and splattered like so many grapes in a vat. The prophet Isaiah explained: “I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground” (Isa 63:6). John warns that Christ “treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty,” (Rev 19:15).
Then, the angelic guide tells Daniel, “His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him,” (Dan 7:27).
What does all this mean?
Daniel’s vision tells us six things:
A singularly evil figure will rise from a nation which derives, in some way, from the historical Roman Empire.
This antichrist will then subdue three nations which stem from the historical Roman Empire.
He will persecute God’s people, twisting public decency and morality against everything God says is good—a program of pure secularism that is rabidly anti-religious.
Antichrist will rise rapidly then experience a sudden and spectacular crash (“time, times, and half a time,” Dan 7:25). Revelation 18-19 tells us this “crash” is God’s violent overthrow of Babylon (Rev 18:21-24) and Jesus’ second coming (Rev 19:11-21).
Antichrist will be “slain and his body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire,” (Dan 7:11; cp. Rev 19:19-21).
The Son of Man will take His seat as King and make all things new (Dan 7:13-14, 28; cp. Rev 21-22). “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” (Mt 13:43).
To Daniel and the exiles then, God’s message was: “The kingdoms of this world will surely fall, and I’ll judge them, and I’ll make everything right.”
To churches great and small today, God makes the same promises—even as we’re now several episodes further along in His story. His truth is still marching on. No matter what is happening in your life, in your country, and in your world—God will win. Babylon will lose. And Jesus’ “dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed,” (Dan 7:14). God wanted Daniel and the people of Israel to believe that as they lived in exile in an unholy land. He wants us to believe it too.
Here is a recent sermon I preached on this passage:
[1] John Walvoord, Daniel, rev. by Charles Dyer and Philip Rawley (Chicago: Moody, 2012), 181.
[2] Walvoord represents the dispensationalist habit to favor prophetic timelines instead of the author’s point. He devotes two pages to defending the historicity of Daniel’s statements at Daniel 7:16-18, yet never stresses that this is the very point of the whole vision (Daniel, 211-12).
[3] I am following Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949), 147-50.
For a very compelling argument from a conservative that the fourth beast is the kingdom of the Syrian madman Antiochus Epiphanes, see Moses Stuart, A Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1850), 205-11. For the old saw about the fourth kingdom being the papacy, Albert Barnes does an excellent job (“Daniel,” in Barnes Notes, vol. 7 (reprint; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 76-99). Leon Wood’s wonderful commentary advocates the dispensational perspective of a “revived Roman Empire,” (A Commentary on Daniel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973), ch. 7).
[4] Walvoord does this (Daniel, 7), and so does Andrew Steinmann (Daniel (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2008), 145).
[7] Gk: πλὴν (contrasting conjunction) λέγω ὑμῖν ἀπʼ ἄρτι (temporal preposition + temporal adverb = marks the time at which something changes) ὄψεσθε (iterative future) τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. “But I’ll tell you all this—from here on out you’ll all be seeing the Son of Man … arriving on heaven’s clouds.”
[8] John Goldingay declares the fourth beast has no dragon-like qualities, and bizarrely suggests it may be a war elephant! (Daniel, vol. 30, in WBC (Dallas: Word, 1989), 163, 186).
[10] Barnes, “Daniel,” 56. Wood (Daniel, 188, 200) and Stephen R. Miller believe the ten will be contemporaneous with each other. “They reign contemporaneously as one empire since all exist together, and this fact is expressly stated in Rev 17:12–13. Daniel was predicting that out of the old Roman Empire will arise ten kings (or kingdoms) that will constitute a new phase of that empire at the end of the age,” (Miller, Daniel, vol. 18, NAC (Nashville: B&H, 1994), 213). This may well be the case. The citation from Revelation 17 is a strong one.
[11] Again, Miller makes a good point about these ten kingdoms: “Coming ‘after them’ signifies that the empire will already have been formed by the first ten kings when Antichrist rises to his position of dominance over them. The text does not mean that the new king (Antichrist) will originate from a separate nation from those symbolized by the ten horns, for the empire seems to remain a confederacy of ten after he comes to power,” (Daniel, 213).
[14] Barnes, “Daniel,” 72-3; Peter Steveson, Daniel (Greenville: BJU Press, 2008), 137. “Denying religious liberty is characteristic of dictators (e.g., Antiochus IV, Nero, Domitian, Stalin, Hitler, and others), but Antichrist will go beyond what anyone has done before in his attempt to create a thoroughly secular world. Even now there are those seeking to rid society of all vestiges of religion,” (Miller, Daniel, 214).
Stuart believes it refers to the Mosaic law because he sees the fourth kingdom as being that of Antiochus Epiphanes (Daniel, 222-3). Steinmann goes beyond the evidence by declaring that antichrist seeks to destroy justification by faith by substituting another gospel (Daniel, 374).
[16] On the three- and one-half years, see Wood, Daniel, 201-2; Stuart, Daniel, 222-4, and Miller, Daniel, 214. For a rejoinder, see Steinmann, Daniel, 375-6. Barnes takes a middle road and says both figurative and literal senses are well supported (“Daniel,” 72-5).
[17] Keil and Delitzsch, 9:652; Baldwin, Daniel, 162. Dispensationalists often miss this.
The Book of Revelation gives God’s people some very precious glimpses into His heavenly throne room. The Book of Hebrews tells us all the rituals, furniture and setup for the holy place in the tabernacle in the wilderness and, later, King Solomon’s temple was just a figure, a representation of the real throne room (ἀντίτυπα τῶν ἀληθινῶν) in heaven (Hebrews 9:24; cf. Exodus 25:40, 26:30, 27:8, etc.). Throughout Revelation 4-5, God gave us a look at His real throne room.
The scene opens on the Apostle John being granted a vision of supreme importance; a vision so vital that God chose to have Him write it all down in a book which is preserved in your Bibles even today. John saw a scroll in God’s hand. The scroll had writing on both sides, and was sealed with seven seals. A mighty angel proclaims with a loud voice,
. . . who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon (Revelation 5:2b-4).
But, all was not lost. A man enters the throne room. One of the 24 elders motions to John and says,
Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof (Revelation 5:5).
These allusions probably seem strange and bizarre to a non-believer, or to a Christian who ignores the Old Covenant books. These are deliberate allusions, freighted with all sorts of Messianic and triumphant implications. The man is Christ Jesus. He is the “lion” who sprang from the Jewish tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:9ff). He is the “root” descended from King David’s father, Jesse (Isaiah 11:1ff). This is the risen Christ who has been continually interceding for His people since He returned to His Father’s house in the days after his resurrection (Acts 1:9ff). This is the Savior of whom John the Baptist declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
This is the crucified, resurrected, co-equal and co-eternal Son of God who came to give His life a ransom for many (cf. Mk 10:45). John the Baptist continued, “This is he of whom I said, ‘After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me,'” (John 1:30). Jesus is greater than John, because he existed before John. And yet, John the Baptist is several months older than his cousin, Jesus! How can John be younger, then? It is because Jesus is the co-equal, co-eternal Son of God . . .
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:2b-3).
This is who has strode into God’s throne room. This is why the Apostle John need not dispair. Someone worthy has been found to open the seven-sealed scroll and unleash the terrible but righteous judgments of God upon a rebellious and wicked world (cf. Gen 6:5).
But, why is Jesus Christ so particularly worthy? The 24 elders are angelic beings and are perfectly holy – why can’t they open the scroll? What about the four living beings who are also before God’s throne? Are they tainted in some way? Our passage tells us why only Jesus is worthy:
Then he came and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne, and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders threw themselves to the ground before the Lamb. Each of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints) (Revelation 5:7-8).
Pay attention to what these angelic beings say, to what they sing in praise and worship to Jesus Christ. Here it is, in my own translation (detailed translation notes are available here):
and they were singing a new song, saying, ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and by your own blood you bought for God [people] from every tribe, language, people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will rule on the earth’ (Revelation 5:9-10).
First, they make a simple statement – “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals.” Only Messiah, the Anointed and Chosen Son of God, can perform this task. Why? How is He uniquely qualified? There are several reasons:
1. because you were slaughtered
He was murdered, slain and slaughtered like a sacrificial animal. He died to take away the sins of the world. More than that, He did it willingly and voluntarily. He wasn’t checkmated into it. He wasn’t cornered and out-manauvered. He didn’t struggle valiently and die fighting. He deliberately, passively and meekly allowed His enemies to destroy Him (cf. John 14:28-31). He let Himself be slaughtered. What do you think about that?
2. and by your own blood
We observe the Lord’s Supper because of Jesus’ shed blood, which is a synonym for His death. It is through His death, by means of that death, that Jesus Christ perfectly saves men, women, boys and girls on this earth from slavery to the kingdom of darkness and transfers them to His own kingdom (Colossians 1:13). His death is the instrument which accomplishes this miracle.
3. you bought for God [people] from every tribe, language, people and nation
Jesus’ death has purchased people for God from everywhere on earth. This purchasing was done in the past, when He died. It happened in the past. From God’s perspective, all His chosen people from all over the world already are saved. It’s so certain and sure that He regards it as a done deal. The angelic beings in God’s heavenly throne room sing about it as an accomplished fact. Jesus is not buying; He bought. Jesus did not die intending to save every single person in the world. Everybody is born hating God (Romans 3:18). Everybody is born inherently worthless to Him (Romans 3:12). Many people continue to hate Him until their dying day, or cloak their hatred in a noxious shroud of good works intended to bribe the Lord and “earn” His favor, as if such a thing were even possible (cf. Galatians 2:21). Jesus died to save His chosen people, and those chosen people are from every tribe, language, people-group and nation in the entire world. The Gospel isn’t restricted by racial divide, the highest mountainpeaks, the lowest valleys, the most treacherous waters or the most bigoted, sinful and hateful prejudices of sinful men. It is intended for all people, and among all people, Christ has already purchased His own for God!
4. and you have made them a kingdom and priests for our God
God’s people want to serve Him. Christ is building His kingdom, which is not here yet. His people are priests in the sense that they have direct and personal access to Him which outsiders do not have. If you do not have salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, then you do not have God (1 John 2:23). You have no access to Him. He is actively angry with you. You reject Him and His Son. You hate Him. You are a criminal in His world. His people, however, make God known to those who hate Him. They tell others about God and His dear Son, Jesus Christ. They mediate the Lord to a pagan world. They don’t offer up literal sacrifices, they offer up their own selves as spiritual sacrificies to Him for His work (Romans 12:1f, 1 Peter 2:5). They regard themselves as slaves for His sovereign, holy and appropriate use. And, again, this is presented as an accomplished fact, a done deal, a past event with ongoing results.
5. and they will rule on the earth.
God’s people will rule with Him in eternity. God’s enemies will suffer for all eternity.
Jesus Christ is worthy because of what He did. He died to save sinners. When this scene takes place, the world has definitively rejected Him and the Good News He suffered and bled and died to bring to people. The world deserves judgment. He and His Father are the Ones the world is rejecting. It is only fitting that the “Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world” be the One who unleashes His Father’s righteous judgment on the very world which rejected Him and has “no cloak for their sin,” (John 15:22).
Almost every Christian of a certain age is used to the KJV’s wording in Rev 6:8:
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth (Revelation 6:8).
But, is the horse actually pale? William Tyndale, the genius Greek and Hebrew scholar from the 16th century, the man who gave us the first English translation of the New Testament from the original Koine Greek, rendered it as, “And I looked and behold a green horse.”
Green isn’t pale! What on earth is happening? Alas, the plot thickens even more:
NKJV: pale horse
NASB: ashen horse
ESV: pale horse
NET: pale green horse
ISV: pale green horse
RSV: pale horse
LEB: pale green horse
NRSV: pale green horse
What saith the Greek? Here it is: καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος χλωρός. This is not a textual issue; the Textus Receptus, Robinson & Pierpont’s Byzantine Text, and the UBS-5 all have the same text here. This is a translation issue. It’s also not a simple matter of right and wrong; translation is not that simple here. My translation is, “and I looked, and along came a pale green horse!” The key word here is χλωρός. Most of the standard Greek lexicons agree this word means something like “pale green.” The issue is whether the word should be taken literally or figuratively:
BDAG defines it as pale, greenish gray (s.v. “7938 χλωρός,” 2).
Friberg goes for green, pale green, yellowish green. He classifies the use here as figurative, so he opts for a sickly sense and gives the gloss “pale,” (s.v. “28653 χλωρός”).
Gingrich also opts for the figurative sense, and prefers “pale,” to convey the picture of a sickly person (s.v. “6893 χλωρός,” 2).
Louw-Nida keep the sense of pale, greenish grey, “evidently regarded as typical of a corpse,” (79.35 χλωρός).
As you already saw, the English translations are evenly split. How is the word used elsewhere in the New Testament? Here, it’s pretty clear that the color of light, pale green is the idea. For example, Jesus had the crowd sit in groups upon the green grass (Mk 6:39). The Book of Revelation speaks of the grass being burnt up (Rev 8:7).
What does the context say? Here is the story of the fourth seal:
Then when the Lamb opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come!” So I looked and here came a pale green horse! The name of the one who rode it was Death, and Hades followed right behind. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill its population with the sword, famine, and disease, and by the wild animals of the earth (Revelation 6:7-8).
The fourth horseman was named Death, and the Grave followed after him. Together, God will give them power to kill 25% of the world’s population during the coming Great Tribulation (Jeremiah 30:7; Mt 24:21-22) by way of war, famine, disease and wild animals. This is bad news. The overriding sense is that this fourth horseman represents death and the cold grave which awaits the wicked.
By this point, it seems clear that the pale green sense is conveying the idea of a decaying, bloated and rotting corpse. The colors of these horsemen of the seven seals mean something. The horseman is not merely pale and sickly. He’s pale green to represent the rotting corpses of the wicked who will experience God’s terrifying judgment, wrought at the hands of unwitting and fiendish men.
Jesus is writing to the people in the local church in Philadelphia, and He says something very simple and yet very profound – Jesus always knows our deeds, and what we do. Here is the text, from my own translation:
8I know your deeds. (Pay attention! I have put an opened door in front of you, and no one ever has [the] power to shut it.) I know you have a little strength, and yet you have obeyed my message and have not disowned my name.
The relevant portion of Revelation 3:8 from Codex Sinaiticus.
We can hide nothing from Him. He is omniscient and all-knowing. Jesus never takes in knowledge and learns new things. He is equal in power, glory, honor and attributes to the Father. He knows what you have done, are doing and will do.
There is nothing you can do that Jesus does not already know all about:
Proverbs 5:21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
Job 34:21-22 For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
Jesus’ remark gives the sense of, “I always know your deeds!”[1]
He knows the good and the bad. He knows our faithfulness and our deliberate failures. He knows whether your heart and spirit is hypocritical or tender. He knows your motivations and your motives. He knows what you’re planning and what your ambitions are.
Jesus’ remark will either (a) strike fear into the unregenerate, pretending heart, (b) convict and rebuke the lazy Christian who stopped trying a long time ago, and is just treading water on autopilot; or (c) comfort the weary sinner who is honestly trying to serve the Lord day by day.
Let everybody sit up and take notice of these simple truths:
God created this universe and everything in it, and He did it through His unique, one and only Son, Jesus Christ; “by whom also he made the worlds,” (Hebrews 1:3)
We are – each of us – products of this creation, and we owe our lives, our blessings, our comforts, the air we breathe and the blessings we enjoy to Him
We are alienated from God and estranged from Him because of the wicked things we think about and do every day, which violate His holiness and His law
Because God has great mercy, love, grace and kindness (cf. Ephesians 2:4-7), He provided a way for people to be reconciled, forgiven, adopted into His family and saved from Satan and ourselves
As you go about your day to day life, whether you are a non-Christian who thinks this is all ridiculous superstition, a “slacker” Christian who lives a life of pitiful hypocrisy, or a sincere Christian who tries day by day to be cleaving tighter unto the Lord (Acts 11:23), know this – the Risen and Resurrected Christ knows your deeds. “He is Lord of all,” (Acts 10:36), and the Father demands you apologize to Him and set things right by repenting of your sins and believing in His Son’s perfect work for your sake, in your place, as your substitute. As the Scripture reads,
Mark 1:14-15 After John was taken, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying: ‘The time is come and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.’ (Tyndale 1534 translation)
[1] I take the word translated “I know” to be expressing a timeless truth. Here is my note on this from my own pitiful translation; Οἶδά: (1) Voice – a simple active voice. (2) Tense – context suggests a gnomic perfect, suggesting that Jesus has always known the church’s deeds. He never comes to know anything – He always knows all. (3) Mood – a declarative indicative.
![Revelation 59 [widescreen].png](https://eccentricfundamentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/revelation-59-widescreen.png?w=800)
The Book of Revelation gives God’s people some very precious glimpses into His heavenly throne room. The Book of Hebrews tells us all the rituals, furniture and setup for the holy place in the tabernacle in the wilderness and, later, King Solomon’s temple was just a figure, a representation of the real throne room (ἀντίτυπα τῶν ἀληθινῶν) in heaven (Hebrews 9:24; cf. Exodus 25:40, 26:30, 27:8, etc.). Throughout Revelation 4-5, God gave us a look at His real throne room.
Almost every Christian of a certain age is used to the KJV’s wording in Rev 6:8:
The Eccentric Fundamentalist 