Daniel’s Dreams

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The Purpose of the Endtimes

The framework of the biblical story so far…

  • From Adam’s sin to Abraham and Moses – the promised chosen people of Israel and the covenants
  • From King David to King Jesus – the fulfillment of the first phase of the Messianic Kingdom – The Church (Isaiah 53, Daniel 9)
  • From Pentecost to the Rapture – The Times of the Gentiles
  • The Endtimes then is the CULMINATION!

 

 

As the book of Daniel is quite large, the approach here is to summarize the key prophetic themes and give some quotes, but mostly links for further study. There are many great commentaries to help assist with the historical references implied by the list of the world empires.

The Nature of the Prophecies of Daniel

We will find visions and dreams in Daniel, and as we mentioned in the pages on Interpreting scripture, while the visions may have symbolic elements, the objective is still some literal truth. The elements of the vision were meant to help convey that truth more graphically.

“1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. 2Daniel said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3“And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. 4“The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it.”

In this case we have an easy job of interpreting the prophetic vision. The Angel gives us (and Daniel) the interpretation since Daniel is as confused as we are.

Daniel 7:15 – “As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. 16“I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things: 17‘These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth.”

The literal interpretation is perfectly consistent in this case. The imagery is telling a story, and it becomes clear that no one is literally coming out of the sea. The visions revealed a literal truth, that the beasts represent literal Kings. These are real future world leaders.

 

The Messiah

The same passage in Daniel 9 describes the Messiah in the Purpose:

““So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 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. “

Of course that is not that end. This passage describes the crucifixion of Jesus (cut off) and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. By whom?

The Antichrist

To summarize, the Antichrist is described as a future Endtimes figure that is somehow related to the Roman Empire, seen in various dreams and visions. Daniel 9:26 says in relation to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD :  “the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary”

We already know that Rome represents the people. The interesting part is the prince. He isn’t the Messiah, but he is the Antichrist. 

“And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

Anyone familiar with Endtimes prophecy should be having an “Ah Ha” moment about now. Jesus picks up on this passage and warns about the Antichrist who will make a peace treaty of sorts with Israel for 7-years, and then at the midpoint will turn on them to kill them, along with desecrating the Temple in Jerusalem, just as his predecessor Antiochus Epiphanes did in the inter-testamental period. The historical Antiochus Epiphanes was a type of the Antichrist.

 

The Timeline

The obvious revelation or new information we get about the timeline of the Endtimes then is the 7-Year Tribulation, which is separated in the prophecy and associated with the Antichrist:

he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week

So that week is the 70th week, or the final week of human history, as we will see.

 

Seventy Weeks

However, Daniel gives us a lot more detail in chapter 9 in the seventy-weeks prophecy. More on that below. The Purpose is spelled out in Daniel 9:24

“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness”

We will discuss the Seventy weeks timeframe below, but the purpose is clearly stated in this way:

  1. The primary people in focus are the Jews (Daniel’s people) and their holy city – Jerusalem.
  2. To finish the transgression (Israel’s sin of disobedience which caused their exile, and the answer to Daniel’s prayer)
  3. To make an end of sin. Blot out sin itself, meaning the destruction of the world system including Satan and all unbelievers
  4. To make atonement for iniquity. (Jesus death and resurrection)
  5. To bring in everlasting righteousness (The kingdom of God)

NOTE: This should make it clear that Endtimes prophecy was not fulfilled by Roman Emperor Titus in 70AD as some believe. To start, there is no end of sin in this world. There is more sin and evil.

It’s not just about the culmination of the current age. In some important way, this coming time is directed at the Jews. In other words, it’s not just God’s culmination of the world system, but also the final resolution of God’s promises to Israel. As we will show in The Christian Age section, the Church on earth is gone during the 7-year Tribulation through an event described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 – the Rapture. As we have seen in early pages here, God made promises to the Jews (in the covenants)  that cannot be undone. The Jews will see their Messiah coming again and standing on the Mount of Olives. While Daniel was praying about his people and their exile to Babylon, God sent the angel Gabriel to give him far more details than he ever expected. He gave him an outline of the rest of human history and some baffling news about the Jewish Messiah.

Israel’s exile in Babylon was 70 Years. This prophecy is a response to Daniel’s prayer about the Jewish 70 Year exile in Babylon.

Seventy (Weeks) – the word in Hebrew can be Seventy Sevens, and not specifically 7-day weeks as we would say in English. The high-level breakdown of the 70-weeks division is this:

(7 weeks + 62 weeks) + 1 week = 70 weeks

The text suggests a gap between the 69th and the 70th week, and this is what we call The Church Age. How did we get that? 

  • The Messiah would be cut off after the 69th week. 
  • The 70th week is associated with the Antichrist, who is seen in the future Endtimes.

Note also that the 69 weeks delineates the earthly life Christ, death, resurrection and his Second Coming.

This leaves a time-gap that we can clearly see now as the age we are living in, a time previously unseen in the Bible, but alluded to here in the book of Daniel. Some theologians refer to this as a Parenthesis. We live in the time of Gentile rule that was predicted in Daniel, and correlates to the 70-week prophecy.

Notes on the Book of Daniel

Before we proceed let’s review the idea of typology or types. In prophetic writings in the Bible we sometimes see something we call a Near-Far prophecy. That just means that a prophetic text can refer to something in the present, and yet be picturing something in the future as well. This line up nicely and serves as an instructive example or picture. The Bible uses this technique on many occasions. At times this presents a challenge.

The first look at the book of Daniel is exciting and tough at the same time. It is complex in its historical and prophetic account of things now past, and things to come. Chapters 8 and 11 have some sections that are hard to distinguish between the historical figure Antiochus Epiphanes and the Antichrist. There is an initial excitement when reading about the details of the future, which is natural. After all, who else in this world can claim to know the future? However, it is also important to see the big picture of Daniel. God wasn’t just telling Daniel about the Endtimes, but was giving a timeline of all future world kingdoms leading up to the Messiah’s second coming in power and glory. Of course the timeline is not absolute (dateable), but relative. There are no dates, but there are successive events in relation to successive kingdoms. The fourth kingdom (Rome) has come and gone, although we still have remnants of Roman culture in much of the world today. We only wait for the reviving of that empire in a new form to usher in the antichrist. It seems that as of this writing (2002) we don’t have to wait any longer, as the European Union now controls much of the territory of the Roman Empire, and it seems will fulfill the prophecies in Daniel. 

Context is everything in the book of Daniel. The book is organized very logically once the context and purpose of the book are known. The key to the book is revealed in the relationship between the future Gentile dominion and the Jewish historical context. In other words, understand what God was doing with the Jews and the World, and you’ll understand the book of Daniel. The Jews were in a very special situation. The Jewish nation had a theocratic government, as opposed to democratic, dictatorial, or monarchical. Since God had given them the land they were not subject to anyone but God. God was making Himself known to the world through the special nation, inspiring the word of God, and doing mighty works. As far as the Jews were concerned, this was going to go on forever, and it could have. (Until the eternal state)

However, God began to speak through the prophets warning the Jews that they were far from Him, and if they didn’t turn back to Him, they would be scattered in judgment. The natural effect of being scattered would be that they would be subject to authorities other than God. Isaiah prophesied God’s message to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and Jeremiah to the Southern Kingdom of Judah later. The people didn’t listen to the prophets, so they were scattered to Babylon and Assyria. They lost their special theocracy. If they wouldn’t serve God, they wouldn’t have their nation. They had no temple, no Levites, no High priest, and no sacrifices for sins. God made a change. Because of their disobedience He said that they were going to be under the dominion of Gentiles until the end. This seems harsh but God gave them many years to repent, and He did forewarn them that this would happen if they didn’t obey Him. They didn’t have such a special relationship with God that they could continually disobey Him. He chose them, they didn’t chose Him. He therefore had the right at any time to remove His hand of blessing. He would never forsake them forever though. That was an unconditional promise made to them.

They went into exile with their new prophet Daniel. God used this time in exile to explain to Daniel that the rule of the Gentiles was not going to be just the 70 years of Israel’s captivity, as prophesied in Jeremiah, but 70 times 7. This contained a gap between the 69th and 70th weeks that Daniel probably didn’t see. The gap of course is the church age, which wasn’t seen by the prophets, but was clearly part of God’s plan.

The book of Daniel then shows God’s plan to give dominion over to the Gentile nations until the time of the end when the full plan would be sealed up or finalized. It doesn’t exclude there being other kingdoms in other parts of the world. The world empires described in Daniel are all kingdoms that encompass the land of Israel. Also note that the book of Daniel clearly shows God’s sovereign control over the Gentile rule. God hasn’t just left the planet only to show up again at the end. The book of Daniel shows the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, the future destruction of Jerusalem, the reign of antichrist, and the coming triumphant Messiah who is given an everlasting Kingdom by God. Atonement is done, prophecy and visions are no longer needed.

Chapter 1 – Sets up the historical background and introduces Daniel and his friends.

Chapter 2 – First glimpse of the prophetic purpose of the book. The first prophecy is given to Nebuchadnezzar, and pictures the future Gentile empires in a nutshell, the statue. It leaves out the hidden part of the fourth kingdom and antichrist. (Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece, Rome and the Millennial kingdom.) The whole plan is not laid out yet, just the basics. He sees four kingdoms from Daniel’s time, and then the Millennial kingdom. Now the news is out that God is giving the Gentiles world dominion.

Chapters 3-6 – Building on this new truth, that the Gentiles will have dominion, God shows us and Daniel that even though Gentiles are ruling, He is still sovereign and in control. This truth is acknowledged by Nebuchadnezzar when he credits God with being the one that gives and takes away dominion and authority.

Chapter 7 – We’re back to the purpose of the book of Daniel. An expanded vision is given to Daniel. This time there is an added feature, the fourth kingdom evolves into a fifth kingdom, and has an individual that is singled out for some reason. This individual speaks blasphemous words. While introducing this new element, God also lets us know that this individual will be defeated. This would have been important to Daniel and to future readers of the word of God. Daniel 7:9 shows the Ancient of Days, God the father taking His seat, and the Son of man coming before Him to receive the Kingdom. Interesting how the angel encapsulates the context of the revelation when Daniel asks him to explain the meaning. The angel tells him that…

    1. Kings will arise
    2. The saints shall receive an everlasting kingdom

He makes it clear how simple the message is. Of course there are lot of complex details under this umbrella, but they should always be kept underneath the truth of what the angel tells Daniel. God had ordained that Gentiles would rule from Babylon until the second coming when the Son of man would destroy Gentile rule by smashing the nations into dust. From Daniel 7:19 to the end we have details about these various kingdoms. Remember that the nations in general never follow God. As a group they always reject God and create their own gods.

Chapter 8-11 – Both chapters mix details specific to the Greek empire and the Antichrist. Chapter 8 goes into Alexander the great, and Antiochus IV, who named himself Antiochus Epiphanes (god) during the Intertestamental period. He is seen as a type of Antichrist. Some prophecies from both chapters are hard to distinguish between Antiochus Epiphanes and the Antichrist. (Daniel 11:36-45 changes from Antiochus to Antichrist)

Chapter 9 – Daniel is asking “Why aren’t the people returning to the land of Israel?”, and God gives the prophecy of the seventy weeks, indicating to Daniel how long it would take to bring an end to God’s plan for the nations, and sin.

Chapter 10 – Daniel learns of God’s protection of His people through angels.

Chapter 12 – Daniel is assured that it will all happen, and it is all true.

 

 What amazing truths did Daniel himself learn from his own prophesies?

  1. That God would subject the Jews to Gentile dominion. This must have amazed him. He must have felt horrible to know that his country had so offended God that there would be such a lasting effect. The Jews didn’t regain their sovereignty after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. until 1948, albeit with less land. The Jews are still partly under Gentile world rule today in that they depend on certain allies and not on God alone. There is an indication that this is winding down now though.
  2. That the Messiah would not bring in the kingdom at His first coming must have been a surprise, although he doesn’t tell us that. The timing of the seventy weeks prophecy was probably too much for Daniel to figure out since it was all yet future. He might have known from Isaiah 53 that the Messiah would suffer if he understood the passage to refer to the Messiah, but now he knew more than this. He knew that Gentiles would rule until a time after the Messiah was killed. He knew that the temple would be destroyed, which was good news and bad news. It was good because he now knew that it would be rebuilt from it’s present ruined state. It was bad news to know that it would come down yet again. Remember that the temple was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar, so to hear that the temple would be destroyed in the future again told him that it would also be rebuilt again.

 

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