All right, we're going to finish the book of Daniel tonight, and since there'll be a review, and I'll give you opportunity for questions here in a moment. And if you don't have questions now, when I get done, you might have questions. So if not now, then later. Next week, as for the future, we're going to turn our focus on to a short series that I'm calling Highlights from the Book of Ezekiel, because Ezekiel went into the exile of Babylon around the same time as Daniel, and so they wrote during the same time period, and they knew one another's writings. Ezekiel records some very key prophecies that I want to take a closer look at. In particular, Ezekiel 38 and 39, the prophecy of Gog and Magog, which many of you probably heard about, where there's an alliance against Israel that is supernaturally defeated by God. And today in the Middle East, there's a lot of movement and hope for the formation of a Muslim caliphate. And this may be stage setting for this and maybe some other prophecies to be fulfilled. And so I think it's important in our time to take a closer look at that prophecy and a few others in the book of Ezekiel for what we're facing today. After that, we're going to go on to the book of Esther. Esther and her uncle Mordecai were living a century after Daniel in exile to Persia. The story is that God rescued the Jews in the Persian Empire from annihilation through Esther and Mordecai providentially. The anomaly, however, is that Esther and Mordecai were not really godly Jews like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. There are many questionable actions that those two take that are contrary to scripture. And yet God used her and Mordecai to save the people from certain annihilation. The reason then appears to be that it's not Esther and Mordecai's faithfulness to God, but God's faithfulness to his own Abrahamic covenant. And so Esther and Mordecai were examples of a time in history when they were that they were like under ungodly leadership. But God saved Israel from annihilation. And I think in the modern state of Israel today, once more, you have ungodly leadership. And yet God has saved them from annihilation in the war of 1948, the war of 1967 and the war of 1973. And I think that the basis upon which God has saved Israel in those wars and any future wars is the fact that he is once again faithful to his Abrahamic covenant. So since the world situation today is so close closely related to the history and prophecy in the book Daniel and the book of Ezekiel and Esther then I think we really need to stay on top of these books and take a look at the current situation with Israel so we can understand God's ways as we get near to the rapture. But we're going to open the night with any questions that you might have from the book of Daniel. Because this is the most important book for understanding the framework of Bible prophecy. Daniel was told seal up the book until the end time. Many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase. That's speaking in the latter times. See today the nation Israel is not to understanding of the prophecies in the book of Daniel. But it is the key to the end times. And many Jews in that day are going to go back and forth and they're going to find the answers to what is happening around them in the book of Daniel. And that's going to make sense to them of Matthew 24 and 25. It's going to help Revelation four through 19 fall into place for them. So it's very clear and very important that we understand Book of Daniel. OK, so are there any questions about the Book of Daniel? OK, come on. I know you have some questions. Yes. Oh, the pattern, the kiastic structure. Yes, there is a kiastic structure in the first six chapters. So one and Let's say it like this. Okay. So chapter one is, the way I've drawn this is like a chiasm in a way. It's trying to show that chapter one and chapter six correspond to one another. Because in chapter one, Daniel is faithful to God by not taking of the pagan meat. and eating it. And God was faithful to advance Daniel in Chapter six. At the other end of this chiasm, Daniel is faithful to not stop praying to God when it was decreed that if you do pray to God, you'll be thrown in the lines then. So in both chapters, he committed an act of civil disobedience in a way against the rules and regulations of the kingdom. And because of that, God prospered him. In chapter 2 and chapter 5, chapter 2 is the dream of the metal statue and in chapter 5, we have the handwriting on the wall, right? Yes. OK, so in chapter 2, Daniel was required to come in and give the king an interpretation of the statue. In chapter 5, Daniel was required to come in and give an interpretation of the handwriting on the wall. So those two chapters correspond. And then chapter 3 and chapter 4 correspond because chapter 3 is where Daniel's three friends refused to bow down and worship the great image of Nebuchadnezzar that he had built on the plain of Dura. And again, they were you know, rescue from the fiery furnace. And in Daniel chapter 4, how does this correspond? It's the great tree where he sees the great tree and the great tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself and then he goes into a period of Therianthropy where he's like crazy like an animal and goes around eating all sorts of grasses out of the field and so forth. And I can't remember how this corresponds. What? Maybe the pattern is 4 and 5 go together. Oh, OK. See, I just messed everything up. Oh, thank you. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. OK. So the four kingdoms, it would have been easier. It's like this doesn't seem Four kingdoms are depicted in two and seven. Three is the refusal to worship anything besides God. Four and five is the handwriting on the wall. And five is the I mean the tree and the handwriting on the wall. That's both the Jindal kings get in trouble for being arrogant. OK. Sorry. Yeah. It's common in Scripture. It's a way that Jews organize some of their writings. This section, interestingly, is all written in Aramaic, chapters 2, 4 through 7, 28. Oh, yes. Yeah. Now, he may have been conscious of doing it right, and he did it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And there are other sections of Scripture that have a chiastic pattern to them. It's a literary structure. Obviously, people say, well, that's not really that important. But I mean, the Holy Spirit used these writers to organize their writings a certain way and for whatever purpose. Sure. That's right. I'm trying to think of some others right now. I'll probably think of one in a minute. OK, what else? Yeah, it's called a kiastic. OK, that's called a kiastic structure. So review the resurrection of Old Testament saints with. With what? With the tribulation. OK. So Daniel 12 is talking about the resurrection of Old Testament saints there in verse 2. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Now, he's talking here in particular about the resurrection of Jews, Daniel's people. And this will, if you have like, say, the 70th week of Daniel here, and that's a period of how many years? 70th week or the 77th, so it's a period of seven years. And the resurrection of the Israelites will be after the second coming of Jesus Christ, because You see there in Daniel 12, verse 11 and 12, that you have a mention of 1290 days and you have a mention of 1335 days. What these days amount to is accounting from the abomination of desolation, which is in the middle of the 70th week of Daniel. If you were to count to the end of the 70th week, that'd be 1260 days. And so 1290 days would take you 30 days longer. And then the 1335 days would take you even 45 days longer than that. And at that point is the official beginning of the kingdom. So looking at this picture sometime during this, let's say, 75 day interval. Sometime during this period, the Old Testament Saints will be raised, Daniel's people. Also, and this would be Revelation chapter 20 for the tribulation saints. Now, these would be Gentiles who'd be martyred during the 70th week of Daniel. Gentiles, saints that were martyred or killed, died for some reason or another will be raised also during this 75 day interval. Now, since the principle is always to the Jew first and then the Gentile, then the Jewish saints will be raised first and then the Gentile saints. But they'll both be during that 75 days. They'll be raised to enter into the kingdom because everybody who's born again enters the kingdom. You can't have any kind of believers being resurrected later on after the kingdom. That's a whole other ballgame. when you get to the believers in the kingdom and what happens to them. These that are the tribulation saints are there. Yeah. They're the results of the hundred forty four thousand their ministry. There is all to the two witnesses. And they're the result of an angel in Revelation 14 that proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. So as far as I can tell those are the three major tools that God uses to bring those people to faith during that time. And of course, these tribulation saints are called in Matthew 25, the sheep, because you have the sheep, goats, judgment. And the sheep will enter into eternal life and the goats will enter into eternal destruction. Yeah, I'd have to look closer at the Matthew 25 to make sure it's those who died, but I think it is. Does that make sense? Okay. Now, Dave Olander holds that, if you want to know, he holds that those who are killed in the first half will be raised at the midpoint, and those at the end will be raised at the end. So, he holds a different view. I don't know. I just know. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe. Oh, Whitcomb held that he what he he held that the Jews would believe at the midpoint that and that the national regeneration of Israel would occur at the midpoint, not at the end, like some people thought. Yeah. I tend to think that's probably right myself, too. Okay, what else? Unless somebody wants to... Yeah, this is a book. Somebody, maybe me, needs to write a book about this, because there are three keys, what I think of them like puzzle pieces. What's the first thing you do when you get a dump a puzzle on the table? Well, you turn all the pieces over. Yeah. And then you look for the four corners. Right. So I would think I think that what I'm about to say here are those three of the corners of the puzzle. One of those is and these all relate to the Antichrist. Now, people don't realize there's so much of the scripture is dedicated to talking about Antichrist. I mean, many, many, many chapters are dedicated just to him. Because he's such an important part in God's plan for history. And because he's anti, he's opposed to Christ or he stands against Christ. Now, the three things. Now, number one is the revealing of the Antichrist. And this passage that speaks about this is 2 Thessalonians 2. OK. Now, when he is revealed, that starts what is called the Day of the Lord. I just put D-O-L, but that's because I do everything in acronyms. It takes too long. That starts the Day of the Lord. Now, the rapture will have already occurred. Then, the revealing of the Antichrist. The next thing is the peace treaty of the Antichrist. And that, where's that found? I'm asking y'all, where does he sign the peace, where's the peace treaty predicted that he'll sign with Israel? And arguably the most important prophecy of the Old Testament, Daniel 9, 27. He will make, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. Did you have a question? OK, the question is, when the revealing of the Antichrist occurs, who does that mean? Everybody's going to go, that's him. I mean, or is it who will know that this is the Antichrist? Well, yeah, he isn't. We have that hasn't happened yet. So. The revealing of the Antichrist, and you would turn for this to Revelation 13, is it 18? The last verse of that chapter, which says, the one who has wisdom will be able to calculate the number of his name, and the number is the number of a man, 666. So, no, not everybody is going to know, but the ones who have wisdom will be able to identify him by calculating the number of his name. That means that you will take his name and you will transliterate it over to, I think, Greek. Some people say Hebrew, but the Book of Revelation was written in Greek. And when you transliterate it into Greek, each letter of the Greek alphabet has a numerical equivalent, like alpha is one, beta is two, and so forth, gamma is three, and so forth. And so you would transliterate his name and then you would add up the number of his name and the person would identify that he is indeed the Antichrist before He becomes a major world ruler. So the first thing is the revealing of Antichrist. That starts the day of the Lord. The second thing is the signing of a peace treaty with the Antichrist. This starts the 70th week of Daniel. I'm just I'm saying and I'm saying these are not at the same moment. Yes. Yes. There's a meteoric rise and at some time between the revealing of the Antichrist identity and when he signs this peace treaty. So that shows you see that the rapture over here. Could occur, you know, some quite some period of time before the actual what most people call this tribulation, but I call the 70th week of Daniel begins because during that time he's got to rise to great power enough to where Israel will commit to him their national security. You have to be somebody to do that. The third thing is the abomination of desolation committed by the Antichrist. And that is spoken of in many places. Daniel 9.27 is one of them, again, but Jesus mentioned it in Matthew 24.15 as well. And that happens at the midpoint. So that starts. what we call the Great Tribulation, or the last three and a half years of the 70th week. Okay? So, anyway, that's a book right there, an outline for a book if you want to write one. Not a big book, but it's a book. I may be the only one who's probably not, but a long time ago I was just talking about Rapture, boom, 70th week stuff. Right. And then the end of Tribulation, boom, the end of the human cycle. Right, right. We don't know how long this gap is between the rapture and the beginning of the 70th week. We don't know, you know, Walvoord and these guys, they say things like whenever you have a transition in the Bible from one dispensation to another or it's not long, you know, the time between the dispensation of promise with Abraham. And the dispensation of law, there was just a transition of like 50 days. I mean, when you go from the exodus from Egypt to Mount Sinai, that period of time is only 50 days. And when you go from, you know, the cross of Christ to the birth of the church again, it's just 50 days. It's not like a long period of time. And that may be the case here, too. But we don't know that the rapture could happen 20 years before the 70th week of Daniel begins. We don't know that. All we know is that the rapture can happen at any moment, and I take it in 2 Thessalonians 2 here, this first great event, that when the rapture happens, that the Holy Spirit, who is the restrainer, removes the restraint that is holding back anybody from identifying the Antichrist. At that time, when he removes his restraint, the day of the Lord has begun. First Thessalonians 5 says what's strange about it is that the day Lord is a period of judgment. The first part of it is a period of judgment. All this is part of the day of the Lord. OK, all this, including the millennium. But the first period of the day of the Lord, the first phase is a judgment phase. And the last phase, the millennium, is a blessing phase. But when it initially begins, it begins with the identity of Antichrist being revealed. People can figure out the number of his name and 1st Thessalonians 5 verse 1 and 2 say. Interestingly, they pick up a phrase from Daniel and 1st Thessalonians 5 1 as to the times and the ethics that comes right out of Daniel 2 20. As to the times and the ethics, which he's talking about, kingdom changes in world history, which is the subject of the book of Daniel five kingdoms, he says now as to the Rise and fall of kingdoms and so forth. That's what he means. Brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night while they that's the world are saying peace and safety. Then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. Look, if you are not raptured, you will come. You are under the wrath of God. The wrath has already come, even if there are brief moments of peace. after the rapture, such as it sounds like here, peace and safety. We got, you know, now these Christians are out of there and we got peace and safety. We can run our program. They're already under the wrath of the God and wrath of God in the sense that they will not escape. Sudden destruction, it says, will come upon them. Actually, that's how it says in the Greek, sudden destruction will come upon them. It's a kind of destruction. And it's like the kind of sudden destruction that came upon the people who didn't get on the ark. Remember, they got on the ark and. God shut the door and there were seven more days. Now, look, if you weren't on the ark seven days before that, you ain't getting in. While it may not have rained a single drop for seven days, you were going to face the wrath of God in the flood, and it's the same type of thing with the beginning of the day of the Lord, I mean, There may be a brief period of safety and peace, but then, I mean, nobody who's there after the rapture is going to escape the sudden destruction. It's going to come upon them. Okay. I think that's subject to Matthew 24, not 2, but 24 also. I think this is discussed, but not everybody's agree with me. See, you got to understand. OK, so anyway, that's a book right there. The rapture day of the Lord begins, the 70th week starts, the seven year tribulation, and then the last half is started by the Antichrist committing the abomination of desolation. What else? OK, now see, a Jew cannot be the Antichrist, see, because what does Daniel say? Daniel says, Four Gentile kingdoms will rule before a Jewish kingdom will come. You can't have a Jew ruling during the kingdom of the Gentiles. You cannot have that. That's just another reason that the Antichrist can't be a Jew. See, the next Jew to be a king is Jesus Christ. Period. Over and out. And he'll rule the world. OK, so anything else now? OK, yeah. Oh, yeah. The question was, last time there was some discussion, I barely remember, but it had to do with the Egyptians wandering around in the kingdom, their land being desolate during the millennial kingdom for the first 40 years. Yes, it's in Isaiah somewhere. I can't remember where it is right now. But yeah, because of Egypt's treatment of Israel, I mean, there will be a nation Egypt in the millennium, but they will not have their land for 40 years. And then after that, they'll be able to return to their land after the first 40 years of the millennium. There's a lot, a lot about the millennium that probably we don't study because it's just in these books in the Old Testament that we don't look at very much. OK. Yes, the Antichrist will be of Roman descent on the basis of what verse? 926, yes, Daniel 926. So he will be descendant of those who destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in eighty seventy and since that was Titus and the Roman armies even though the armies were auxiliary armies people argue and therefore compose the people from Middle East region and maybe not Italian in origin. Nevertheless they were serving the Roman interest. I take it that the Antichrist will be descendant of the Roman therefore obviously a Gentile. Even though someone like Paul, who was a Jew, could have Roman citizenship, that's not really what we mean. Right. Yeah, he doesn't have to be an Italian. Right. Could be an Italian. Well, I've taught that before, that there's always an Antichrist in every generation in the sense that, you know, 1 John 2, I mean, Who is the liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Father and the Son does not have the Father. The one who confesses the Son is the Father also. You know, there are always Antichrists. I mean, in fact, that's just a term that refers, you know, here to someone who holds to false doctrine, opposing the fact that Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Christ, he is the Messiah. So, I mean, we have taken that term and we call that figure in the future the Antichrist, but that's not the only name. I mean, he's got lots of names and really that's probably not the best one to choose, but that's the one everybody uses. So we just use it now. Satan doesn't know God's timetable exactly. He's not omniscient, so he doesn't know anything more than what the Bible says about what's coming in the future, a timetable. So it would make sense that he has someone in every generation prepared to be his man. But, of course, only one of them is the one who is to come. Is he in the world right now? He could be. Was Hitler the one he had in that generation? Maybe. Was Stalin? I don't know. That's crossing generations. But it could be. These could all have been Satan's men. You know various times in history people that persecuted the Jews or whatever could be Satan's man for that hour. But it didn't turn out that the rapture happened and so forth to where the Holy Spirit would unrestrain his identity and that would be the one whom he would ultimately supernaturally energize to be his man to rule the world from Jerusalem. So I kind of say that on a theological deduction that he doesn't know the future, but he's always prepared to take over the world and try to set his kingdom in Jerusalem. Yes, especially when in Revelation chapter 12, he is kicked out of heaven, right? And he can no longer accuse the saints who are dwelling on earth. And so when he no longer has that excess, he will come to earth with great wrath, it says, knowing that his time is short. And then he's going to personally indwell the Antichrist. So you could say Judas was Antichrist, just made me think of that. personally indwell the Antichrist and then go after the Jews. That's when Daniel 12 pipes in and says, Michael will arise, the great prince who keeps watch over Israel, and he will protect them for the last three and a half years while the Antichrist tries to destroy them. So, yeah, he knows his time is short. He knows because he knows the 70th week of Daniel is only seven years, even if the amillennialists don't know that it's just seven years and not some kind of symbolic. Satan knows more than some amillennialists. It's not nice, but anyway. OK, what else? National what? Well, he'll be trying to. I don't think he ever will. He's trying to get all the kingdoms together. But remember, Daniel 2, 38 and 39. Remember, the statue has 10 toes and the feet are partly of iron and partly of clay. And they will try to join together in the seat of man, but it will be unsuccessful. See, what they're trying to do in the last days, because you've got these 10 kings, Daniel 2. Let's see. Daniel is given the interpretation, starting in verse 36. He goes through, he gets to the fourth kingdom in verse 40. And you see in verse 41, in that you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom, but it will have in it the toughness of iron in as much as you saw iron mixed with common clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. So you'll have these 10 kings, like the 10 toes, and some of the kings will be strong and some of the kings will be weak. Okay, and so it's a brittle combination. And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay. They will combine with one another in the seat of men. Now I take it this is them trying to coalesce and form a one world kingdom. The strong parts with the weak parts. The strong kings with the weak kings. But they will not adhere to one another and so forth. That is it's going to fail. So he never really gets his hands around the whole world as far as one world. Government or whatever, but he's trying to do that. Because he's trying to counterfeit Christ, who will have a one world kingdom, he will rule the whole world. There will be but one king, but he's trying to counterfeit that and he's just going to be unsuccessful. That's a strange thing there. You know, they will try to adhere in the seat of men. That's a very hard expression, but that's what I think it means. Michael. There are a number of scholars who have commented on this saying that the different stages represent different kingdoms. What kind of indications do you have as to whether it's more correct, or is there any way to look at it? For what the four kingdoms are? Most people agree, you know, with Babylon. And if you're conservative, you agree that it's Medo-Persia and then Greece. If you're liberal, you say Babylon-Media is the second, Persia is a split, and then Greece is the fourth. Because they're trying to get all this fulfilled I mean, they're trying to get it all in history, because the liberals all date the book late, like around, well, they used to historically date it 165, so we'll just put that down. And they're trying to get all this as Daniel, or whoever this pseudo-Daniel was, is writing history, but all the conservatives say, no, he's writing in around 600 BC, so then most of this is prophecy. And then most will identify this as Rome. But not all, like you said, because, for example, some say ancient Islam and the future Islamic caliphate are the fourth and not Rome. So they say, yeah, we agree with this, but instead of Rome, we say the fourth one is Islam and the Islamic caliphate. Now, I think What I think makes Rome really the fourth is the fact that the way these prophecies are laid out in chapter two and seven is that there are four kingdoms and then it appears that the Messiah's kingdom comes as the fifth kingdom, right? Well, I always say, well, when did the Messiah come? What kingdom did he come under? Well, he came during during Rome. And so. It's a real offer of the messianic kingdom in the Gospels that the kingdom could come. He says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It can come. All that had to happen was Israel had to receive her king. Jesus as their king and then the kingdom would come. But see Islam didn't come around till 600 right. 600 AD. So if it's really the fourth, then Jesus came after Greece, after the third, but before the fourth and the kingdom really could not have come because the fourth kingdom would have had to run its course and it didn't even come on the scene for another 600 years. So while I think Islam and all of that is very important as far as end times prophecies are concerned, I don't think that that is the fourth kingdom. I think that the depictions of these kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, when you study the history, it fit very well with what Daniel predicted. Especially the really detailed ones in Daniel 11 about the Greeks, you know, but all of them. They just, they don't fit really any other kingdom, you know, but I know there's people going around saying these things. But most of the really top scholar people that I consider credible, which are like older Dallas seminary type professors, they all hold these first four, are the Four Kingdoms, for what it's worth. Okay, what else? Anything else? The Antichrist will not be a woman. Okay. No. Or Ted Bundy or some monarch somewhere in Europe. Okay. Or Bill Gates. Yeah, and when I go to the book of Ezekiel, am I going to work mainly with Ezekiel 38 and 39? Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to try to. And there'll be some other chapters, I think, that I'll deal with. Ezekiel 4, 20, and some from 33 to 37, and then 38 to 39, and then 40 to 48. But some of this will be not all of 33 to 37, not all of 40 to 48. It'll just be like a kind of a quick overview of some of those things. Like Ezekiel 38 and 39, that battle or something like that. What is the interpretive principle that helps us know that those things refer to not the present, which is what we call the church, but to something after the church, the Israel, the end time, the 70th week of Daniel, stuff like that. The interpretive principle, I mean, how do we know these things? Well, Israel basically divided history into two parts, okay? The future, the future kingdom, and the time before that is the present, the present reality. Okay? So, this is the way they divided it. When you read something like the end time and there's a war, battle, they knew that can't be in the future kingdom because that's a time of peace. That's when we are ruling. There is no war. So the end time for Jews was the time just before the future kingdom. Preceding on that basis when we read chapters like Ezekiel 38 and 39 or Daniel 11 40 to 45. We take it that those things occur at the end time not the end of the church not the latter days of the church but the latter days of Israel which is the time just before their kingdom arrives. So that's where we try to organize them somewhere in a sequence there. Right before the kingdom and you know you have. You have Jesus saying there will be wars and rumors of wars and don't worry, that's not the end because the end is the day he comes back to set up his kingdom. So there are a lot of wars during that time. The second seal says war will be unleashed, the second horseman, you know. Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of war. There's going to be a lot of wars. There's the war in Daniel 11, 40 to 45, the king of the north and the king of the south coming to see Antichrist in a land and sea battle. There's the battle of Ezekiel 38 and 39. Many nations, you know, in the north, like Russia, that are remote, farther away from Israel, as well as Iran, as well as Libya, and Africa, and another place in Africa, I can't recall right now. will come against them. And the result of that one seems to be that they are restored and brought into the kingdom and God's name is no longer cursed. So you're trying to or that sounds like the kingdom say a time when God's name isn't cursed and so forth. So you're just trying to organize them right before the kingdom. Because the way the Jews divided history. I mean the church that was an unknown. That was a complete unknown. You never read in any of Daniel about the church, did you? Nothing about the church. It's just four Gentile kingdoms and then the Messianic kingdom. Yeah, when. Yeah, when you speak. Absolutely, I mean. Especially something like the period of the Great Tribulation because, I mean, this period of time is completely unparalleled by any other period of time in the history of the world. I mean, when you read the judgments in the book of Revelation, which gives the most detail about them, one judgment moves every island on earth. That's over 18,000 islands today, if you study islands and so forth. And then another judgment, all the islands on the planet are submerged underwater. So, I mean, Katrina, Sandy, I mean, these are nothing. These are nothing at all compared to the devastation that will come. I mean, there will be no major city in the whole world standing. They will all be crumbled. Every building. There will be nothing standing. I mean, there are earthquakes during that time that will destroy all of that. You know, that's why that time period is likened to the time of the flood. And the flood is a global judgment. And the tribulation period is a global judgment. So, you know, that's the only thing that even comes close. And even the flood isn't anything compared to what's coming. So if you can think about that. Yes. Then you have another battle. You have a battle, Armageddon. And the question is, is Daniel 11, 44 and 45, is that Armageddon? I don't know. That's one of the battles I want to work into the highlights of the book of Ezekiel and maybe try to figure out that battle. See, it's really hard. It's really hard, let's just say that. That's why I want to study this in detail, because it's so hard and because people are saying a lot of things and I just want to do my best to try to expound the scriptures. I don't think Daniel 11, 44 and 45. Right now, I don't, I'm not thinking that it is. I am thinking that because of the context in verse, well, you're asking about the ones from the east and the north there in verse 44. That's what you're asking about. OK. Right. Right. It. This could be verse 44 could be Ezekiel 38 and 39 and that and it all could be Armageddon. It could be. That. Right now in my mind that's a possibility that I'm trying to figure out because East and east is Persia, that's Iran. The north, that's Russia. So you're starting to think about Ezekiel 38 and 39 because they're part of those people. And Armageddon, you have the kings come from the east and so forth. So you start to start to try to see if maybe these are the same. Yeah. Yes, so they go back and he sets up his camp in Jerusalem and his military is organized there. Of course, they are going to, at some point or another, organize in the Valley of Armageddon and from there move south. People think the battle is in Armageddon. It's not in Armageddon. Armageddon is a huge valley, of course, and it's probably the gathering point for all the armies of the world. And from there they deploy south to defeat Israel or try to. That doesn't turn out so good for them. But. Well, you can't destroy, you can't destroy the Jews. I mean, that's that's a big part of the Book of Daniel. You can't the Jews cannot be destroyed. They may be under a lot of intense persecution and suffering during the times of the Gentiles, but. At the end of that, they are delivered and taken into their kingdom in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. So that's a very important message in the book of Daniel. It gives them hope. You know, I think that's one of the major themes of the book of Daniel is hope. There is hope for Israel. I think the other message is there's a warning to Gentile nations. how they treat Israel. If they bless Israel, they'll be blessed. If they curse Israel, they'll be cursed. I think that is a message that is right there in the book of Daniel, because the kings who honored Daniel and his friends, like Nebuchadnezzar, prospered. You could even think of Nebuchadnezzar as somebody like a Cornelius in the New Testament. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar became a believer. He worked with Daniel. He loved Daniel. But he became arrogant and he had to undergo that time when he was on all fours and so forth. Now he knew he knew he couldn't do anything else. He had to go around like that but he knew he could still kind of think enough to where he could glance his eyes to heaven in recognition that God is sovereign over all. And I think it's a recognition from his confession there that he became a believer and he had he had blessed He had blessed Daniel. And Cornelius is really the same in the New Testament, isn't he? Because he was a God-fearer. He gave alms to the Jewish people, and God sent Peter to his house, and he and his household believed. So, you know, you can find these kind of parallels and stuff that are kind of neat. You don't teach them, but you think about them, you know, when you study. OK, there are three things, maybe four, unless there's another question. Go ahead. Then I want to make sure we say about the book of Daniel. First of all, technically, the times of the times of the Gentiles, what Jesus calls the times of the Gentiles and Luke 21, 24. is the time when the Davidic throne is vacant. When there is no king from the line of David sitting on the throne of David. And so when Zedekiah was deposed from the throne in 586 BC that was the beginning of the times of the Gentiles. And when the Messiah sits on his throne in the kingdom that will be the end of the times of the Gentiles. So I wanted to find technically and importantly the times of the Gentiles as that period in which the throne of David is vacant. The second observation that's very important from the Book of Daniel is that the kingdom is future. It is not here now in any sense. The church is not the kingdom. So the kingdom is yet future. Now the reason the how I get to this is the fact that there are over and over in Daniel's vision for Gentile kingdoms that each are successive and then they are followed by a fifth kingdom, the Messianic one. So Babylon was succeeded by Medo-Persia and Medo-Persia by Greece and Greece by Rome. That's one, two, three, four. So it follows that the Messiah's kingdom will come only when the final form of Rome ruled by the Antichrist has completely been destroyed. Since this did not happen in the first century in conjunction with his first coming, then it is safe to say it will occur at his second coming in the future. Why is this so important? Because Amillennialism is saying that when Jesus came at his first advent, he established the kingdom on the day of Pentecost. And the kingdom will end at the second coming of Jesus Christ. They then also say that the kingdom is spiritual, that is, it's either in the hearts of believers or through his saints in heaven. However, this is completely contrary to the book of Daniel, which knows nothing about this because the messianic kingdom succeeds and replaces all four kingdoms, Gentile kingdoms on the earth. It replaces them on the earth. If they were on the earth and the messianic kingdom is on the earth. It follows then that the throne of David. Is future it is not now in any sense. Is the times of the Gentiles again is the period when the Davidic throne is vacant but Jesus is now. On the Davidic throne in heaven, then we cannot be in the times of the Gentiles. If the kingdom is future, the throne of the king, the throne of David must also be future and be at the same time. So you don't there's no kingdom now, there's no Jesus on David's throne in heaven right now. What throne is Jesus on right now? He is on the throne. What throne is he on? The father's throne. Revelation 3, 20, 21, he's sitting on the father's throne at the right hand of the father, not on David's throne. David's throne is on earth. And that's the one Jesus is coming back to sit on, and that will finish the times of the Gentiles. The fourth thing is that there's no replacement theology. Replacement theology says that the church has replaced Israel because Israel crucified the Messiah and therefore God is through with the Jews. No. The book of Daniel shows that Israel is not been replaced by any other people but that Israel's covenants will be fulfilled in the fifth kingdom the kingdom of the Messiah which has yet to come. God made promises to a believing remnant of Israel that must be fulfilled in history, and God is faithful to his promises. He will do it because he is God. Israel's very existence down through the four kingdoms is evidence enough that God's reasons for protecting their existence is that one day they will be restored to a promised kingdom. If the church had replaced Israel, why has God not eliminated Israel from history? Why are they still around? The reason should be apparent enough. God is not seeking to eliminate Israel from history. He is seeking to purify Israel so they will repent and come to into the bond of the new covenant. Therefore, the church has not replaced Israel in any sense. God has a program for Israel as a program for the church. And that's all fine. Other good lessons for Jews, if any Jews are listening to this ever. Is this that individual Jews may be blessed during this time of Israel's national discipline despite the fact that God is is disciplining them with Gentile powers. Individual Jews can be blessed by God by consecrating themselves to God that is setting themselves apart to God and Daniel one. We have example because Daniel and his three friends refused to defile themselves with unlawful meat that was sacrificed to idols. That was contrary to the Mosaic law. Because they observed God's law, God supernaturally made these men's minds excel in the training that the Babylonians put them through so that they were exalted to the highest post in Babylon and enabled to intercede for the Jewish people while they were in exile from governmental positions. God is faithful to bless Jews who consecrate themselves to him, even though the nation at large is under divine discipline. A second example of this is Daniel 3, of course, right, where Daniel's three friends refused to bow down to the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up of himself in the plain of Jura. And when given a second chance to bow down with the threat of being thrown in the fiery furnace, they refused and they said they would not, even if their God would not save them, they would not bow down. Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. When cast into the fiery furnace, what happened? Well. God supernaturally saved them from harm. Not even a smell of fire or smoke was on their clothes. So is God able to save even to the utmost. So again if individual Jews will consecrate themselves to God during this time of divine discipline on the nation. God will bless these individual Jews. The third example is in Daniel six when Daniel was exalted in the kingdoms of the meat. Darius the meat. He was second only to the king. I mean goodness gracious. The other presidents and satraps under the king became jealous of Daniel and wanted to get rid of him. They made the king sign a law prohibiting anyone to pray to any other god for 30 days except him. And the threat was upon Pana being tossed into the den of lions and ripped limb from limb. Since Daniel could not go along with this because he prayed daily toward Jerusalem from his second story window. He continued to pray to the God of Israel and when they caught him they reported to the king. The king could do nothing else but toss him in the lion's den. But God once again miraculously protected Daniel so no harm came to him. So again you see this principle over and over and that is if individual Jews will consecrate themselves to God while their nation is under divine discipline God will supernaturally bless and protect them. So those are really good lessons as far as practical application, and they're like heroes for faith. They show us how to live by faith and how God supernaturally blesses as we live by faith. And that's very important to do that and to understand, because the challenge is always to live by faith. When the Bible says something to do something, it may not make sense to you how it could ever work. Nor did it make sense to the great military strategist Joshua that merely walking around the city once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day was somehow going to bring walls down. That didn't make any sense. But God says if you trust me I will deliver you and I will produce results you could never dream of. Trust me. And that's a great message of the book of Daniel. Trust me, whatever I've said, you follow it and you let me be responsible for the results. You just follow me. All right. There's no other response to God but faith. OK, let's close with a word of prayer because we're out of time. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that you gave us this great book with these great prophecies spanning over 2600 years and on into the millennium. And certainly, Lord, we live in interesting times when Nations are lining up to turn against Israel and many of these battles that you prophesy may be ready to unfold. We ask Lord for wisdom as we pursue study of these battles to understand where we are in history and what may be coming on the horizon and certainly to be looking for the blessed hope and looking for our Lord to come and to take us to the father's house that where he is we may be also. We thank you Lord that you have confirmed your promises over and over consistently throughout history. And we may have more than adequate grounds, perfect grounds for trusting you in all things. And we ask, Lord, that we would go forth from this place trusting your promises, that you would deliver us. And we ask all these things in Jesus.