One once observed the difference between a learned and an unlearned person is that one says, “I don’t know,” while the other says, “I don’t remember.” This led me to reflect on the kind of person I was in school? I was a completely different person in College and Seminary than I was in High School or Junior High. I don’t know who that person was in Junior or High School.
Were you a fast learner? Legend has it that Daniel Webster was not a tidy child growing up.
One day in the district school the teacher told him if he appeared in school again with such dirty hands, she would thrash him. But the next day Daniel appeared with his hands in the same condition. “Daniel,” the teacher said in desperation, “hold out your hand!”
Daniel spat on his palm, rubbed it on the seat of his trousers, and held it out. The teacher surveyed it in disgust. “Daniel,” she exclaimed, “if you can find me a hand in this school that is dirtier than this one here, I will let you off.” Daniel promptly held out his other hand and the teacher had to keep her word.
Perhaps you were a ready learner (and if you “were” then, you probably still are now). Mortimer Adler, former professor at the University of Chicago once observed, “If when I entered a classroom and said, ‘Good morning,’ my students responded ‘Good morning,’ I knew they were undergraduates. But if they took out their notebooks and wrote down my greetings, I knew they were graduate students.”
[1]I had a deep respect for my math teacher. A deep respect. Not the teacher I had in Elementary, Junior or High School—those teachers (especially, my parents) deserve medals for all they expended to help me get by, but I never understood what I was learning in math. The teacher that held my deep respect was the one I had in College. I was in my Junior year, married, with three kids and was taking the most basic college math known to man. The reason why I respected her is because she understood people: those good in English or History may not be good in math. Guess where my strengths were? She was able to explain what I needed to know in a way that I could understand and she did such an excellent job that when I lost my math book just before the Final, I still passed with grades that I never knew could exist within that field of study.
I don’t know what kind of history student you were, but I was on the edge of my seat when it came to history. My Texas history book was, at that time, perhaps the largest book I had ever seen (no pun intended)—but I was fascinated by it. Church History was exciting, especially as we followed the development of thought and theology across the ages. Ancient History led me to study of Biblical Archaeology and that nearly sent me packing my bags to move dirt on some Tel in the occidental. Archeology is like a time machine. I suppose that if I could go anywhere in time and visit any culture, I would love to see Egypt at it’s peak.
Daniel 8 could perhaps be thought of a time machine because in these visions we skim many cultures across many ages. In the previous chapters we’ve considered Daniel’s background, as a Hebrew captive exalted in Babylonian courts. We’ve also taken note of how the God of nations moves to the consummate dominion of His Kingdom. Now we will be considering the more immediate destiny of the people of God from Daniel’s context.
Two years following the dream of Daniel 7 (and still before Chapter 5) Daniel has another dream. In the first dream he saw a lion with eagle’s wings, a bear, a four-headed and four-winged leopard and a nearly indescribable beast with a horn problem. In this dream Daniel is careful to tell us he is in Shushan (called “Susa” by the Greeks), a chief city of the Medo-Persian Empire, located about 250 miles east of Babylon. This is important because Daniel has in this explanation already told us the end of the story.
“Chapter 8 reveals Daniel’s vision of a ram and a goat. The ram is a picture of the Medo-Persian Empire, the two horns standing for the two entities (the Medes and the Persians) that merged into one. The goat represents Macedonian Greece with its great horn, Alexander, who with his army of thirty-five thousand men moved with such speed that he is pictured as not even touching the ground. His death (in 323 b.c.), and the division of his world empire among his four generals are prefigured.
The chapter also prophetically outlines the career of Antiochus Epiphanes (175–164 b.c.), called the “little horn,” who, in his idolatry and desecration of the temple, would foreshadow the little horn of chapter 7, that is, the Antichrist (see Revelation 13).”
[2]What Daniel saw could easily be described as the political cartoon of his day, only a newspaper depiction needs almost no interpretation. What Daniel saw was the rise and fall of world empires. The rulers themselves are almost non-identifiable, only their kingdoms are seen to wax and wane in these visions. When a ruler is described, he is identified by his arrogance, his inflated self-importance, his pride—all receiving the condemnation of God.
Compare a few highlights Daniel 7 and 8 with Paul’s description of what will happen before Christ returns (2 Thessalonians 2):
Jesus will come again.
Saints will be gathered to Him.
Men will be deceived.
The man of sin is revealed who will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or is worshipped.
This man of sin will be powered by the working of Satan.
Daniel seeks to understand what he is seeing in the vision and as if there was not enough to disturb an individual, he hears voices telling Gabriel, an identifiable person (an angel) to minister to Daniel. We often are bothered by our dreams or nightmares, so imagine if suddenly an unseen voice tells a person in your dream to address you, and touch you. So far, Daniel has been a passive observer. Now he is an active participant in the dream. Perhaps I would fall on my face and pass out as well. Daniel says later he was sick for days and astonished. Daniel has certainly been through an ordeal: time travel (so to speak), across many cultures and kingdoms; strange beasts; disembodied voices; the glory of God . . .
The point of the vision concerns contrast between the incarnation of righteousness (in the Son of Man, Jesus Christ) and the incarnation of evil. In this chapter the incarnation of evil is called an insolent king skilled in intrigue, among other things. Paul calls him the man of lawlessness (for sin is lawlessness) and the son of destruction in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. John calls him the beast. Yet, God will still be God and His kingdom will be of His Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever.
General eschatology (“macro-eschatology”) in prophetic scripture emphasizes the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. His return is a theme found in all scripture, is part of gospel proclamation and sets the tone for Christian living. While we may find cases of double-fulfillment in prophecy, the details of history are not the focus but serve as the tell-tale and confirming signs of what is to come. Eschatology is vital to biblical study because:
1) The so-called sacred books of non-Christian religions lack predictive prophecy. Not only do wrong guesses stain the credibility of those religions, at bottom, they have nothing to predict concerning their founder or their movement. Non-Christian religions all meet at the same “dead end.”
2) Non-Christian religions only share a vague concept of any future state (micro-, or “personal” eschatology).
3) Scripture includes a divine revelation of the future in the same proportion as its’ revelation of past events. “
Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; {I am} God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'.” (Isaiah 46:9-10)
4) The Christian depends on the Bible as the reliable source for information on future events; therefore, eschatology is not incidental, but a vital theme.
The study of prophetic scripture has in recent times become mishandled in such a way that attempting to comprehend details of the events have become the goal of study and the return of Christ has been relegated to being just one feature of those future events. For example, the practice of identifying a specific date and/or time of the rapture and/or Lord’s return has been strongly discouraged—some groups have done this to their discredit; on the other hand, there seems to be no hesitation to point to a notable individual or organization and say, “there is the anti-Christ.” This inconsistency wreaks havoc on apologetics and further eschatological study and we find ourselves merely “religious.” If the purpose of religion is “happiness,” then:
1) Jesus was mistaken when He taught that a soon and sudden appearance of the Kingdom of God would end the present order; or,
2) All prophetic passages are symbolic because happiness is found in the present life, trans-history; or,
3) Prophetic events occur concurrently with history; or,
4) We are now in the eschatological kingdom. There is nothing to come (we now live in heaven or hell).
We can trust the prophetic view of scripture, because many events have indeed already proven to be correct—prophecy has been affirmed. We could dust off our history books and find the rise and fall of the great empires as described already in Daniel. Once reminded, we should be alarmed as there are yet many other great cosmic events of scripture yet to be fulfilled, culminating in the final revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. At His Name every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
We can learn from the past that what the Bible says will happen in the future will happen.
Let’s return to one more observation in closing. Angelic visitations are always associated with major acts of God. Gabriel was interactive in this heavenly vision with Daniel. Modern society not only has a low view of angels, but an even lower view of God, as angels seem to be everywhere but there is no connection of them with God. Should an angel appear to any man or woman, they will not walk away from the experience with such passivity.
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[1]Tan, Paul Lee. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: [A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers]. Garland TX: Bible Communications, 1996, c1979.
[2]MacArthur, John. Daniel : God's Control Over Rulers and Nations. MacArthur Bible studies, Page 78. Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2000.
