Category Archives: Bible studies

Defeated… by Increments

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Mark Twain once said, “The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.” It was a joke about his advancing age but it’s also sort of a deep thought. By increments is the way things often come, both good and bad. I’ve been thinking about how sin can end up actually defeating us. So often it is by increments.

It’s a sad fact that we are much more likely to be defeated by the devil when he takes the slow, methodical approach rather than some sudden shocking attack. They say, “The storm that keeps us awake is safer than the calm that puts us to sleep.”

When God was leading Gideon in preparation to battle the huge army of the Midianites, He told Gideon to take his men down to the river to drink. As Gideon watched them, God brought to his attention a tiny minority of the men who drank from the river while also being watchful of their surroundings, looking to be aware of any encroaching enemy. And God told Gideon that with that tiny band of 300 soldiers he would defeat the vast army of their enemies. And they did.

Gideon’s tiny band of 300 was seen to be watchful while the rest of the army of Israel was not. How fitting for our times. How much the forces of darkness are roaming and rampant in our lands. But so many of God’s people are indolent, somnolent and almost acquiescent as the forces of darkness claim more souls daily in our countries.

And I’m not making this up. I could cite examples in my own home town in the last month that are things that are almost like out of a sci-fi horror movie. But it seems only the tiniest handful of Christians are aware of what has transpired or are taking any action to protect their own children in my home town from the gross darkness that public institutions are now mandated to instruct them in.

It’s like what they say about the frog. I’m told that if you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. But if instead you just slowly turn up the heat on the frog in the pot, he’ll get boiled. By increments. That’s so often how the devil and sin will defeat us: just slowly wear us down and get us accustomed to what will finally kill us in the end.

As I’ve written before, I believe we’re not called to only “believe in Jesus” but also to serve the Lord. This is clear both in the Old and New Testament. We are not just supposed to be sluggish grazing sheep of the Lord. Instead, it’s God plan and will for us to grow to be shepherds of the flock ourselves who care for the people of God and even stand up to fight in the spirit the battles of the Lord against the forces of darkness who come against His people.

Jude, the Lord’s brother, said in his short book that “we must earnestly contend for the faith.” (Jude 3) I so much pray and hope that the Spirit of God can find among the many millions of nominal Christians at least some Gideon’s band who are watching and prepared to go into spiritual battle in the real world in these times. Not politically in a worldly sense but still in devout, ardent Christian activism as the Lord leads.

Solomon said, “The prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself but the simple pass on and are punished.” (Proverbs 27:12) I like the part about “foreseeing the evil” but maybe sometimes the way to take is not to “hide yourself” but to confront and expose the evil before it takes your children and claims the land that is supposed to be our inheritance in the Lord.

But when the devil comes along as the sly, persuasive snake, talking us out of our faith, reasoning with us out of our convictions, it’s pitiful how well this seems to be working in so many places. Christians are being seen to be backed into a corner, divided, confused, surrendered and fainting in the face of the march of darkness. It’s like the article I wrote about where Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Well, there is room for encouragement. I’ve always been encouraged by some obscure verses found in Daniel 11, a chapter Jesus Himself very specifically referred to, about the last days before His return. It says there of those final times, “The people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many.” (Daniel 11:32 & 33)

So from those verses I’m led to believe that there will be at least a Gideon’s band in the final days who recognize the steady incremental advance of the forces of Satan in my country as well as throughout the earth. God has said in His Word that there will be some, perhaps very few, who will not bow the knee before the “strange gods” (Daniel 11:39) of our times but will hold fast to their faith and the Word of God, “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom they shine as lights to the world, holding forth the Word of Life.” (Philippians 2:15 & 16)

Frankly, right now I’m not seeing very many like that who have that holy vision and fearless boldness. But according to God’s Word, there will be some. Please pray with me that the Lord will find those few and raise them up.

Did the ancient prophets actually exist?

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Are the writings of the ancient prophets just all Jewish myths? A number of people have written me to say that the prophecies of Daniel are all myth, without any historical fact. I’m sure that millions of people have been told that and probably believe it. But is it true? Are the prophecies of Daniel (or Isaiah or David for that matter) just total fabrications? Inventions, fictions of cunning men to delude and enslave mankind?

Some of you may find this outlandish. But, believe me, there are hundreds of millions of people who look at things this way and I hear from them nearly every day. And after all, how can we really know? These writings are from hundreds of years before Jesus, very ancient history for many people. Therefore it’s easy to assume that there’s no real way to know. And so the assumption follows that it’s probably something some other race, creed or nationality foisted on my race or creed. And some conclude that it’s just all totally, utterly rubbish!

But is it? Can we possibly get to the root and empirical facts of the mater without getting all religious and mystical? Thankfully the answer is emphatically yes. You may not be of my race, nationality or faith. But some things are understood by all to stand outside these boundaries or classifications. You may not share my views or even like “my people”. But if I said “Two plus two makes four”, the majority of you would not find fault with that. (Don’t laugh; there are those who will definitely argue with that assertion.)

“So how can we factually know that the ancient prophets truly and fully existed in real time?”

The best answer I can give to as broad a range of people, beliefs and views of all kinds is this: research the Dead Sea Scrolls. This isn’t a matter of your faith verses mine, your nation verses mine. This is about as certain and sure a thing as you can ascertain when it comes to fact in our modern times.

Here’s what happened. In 1947 a shepherd boy, looking for his sheep, threw a rock into a cave in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. And he heard something break. Creeping inside the cave, he found a group of ancient urns, some of which contained scrolls with writing on them. This is how the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These scrolls had been placed in these urns in these caves around the time of Jesus, 2000 years ago. They are considered to be probably the most significant and astounding archeological discovery of the last 100 years.

And let me just add here that this is not about, or contingent on Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Communism, Hinduism, Buddhism or any other faith. This is about something as definite and concrete as anything can be known to be real in our times. The reason these scrolls are so significant is that they contain at least parts of every book in the Old Testament except Ester. Some whole and complete books are in the Dead Sea Scrolls collection, like the book of Isaiah and the book of Deuteronomy.

These are the actual physical writings from 2000 years ago, visible, touchable, utterly verifiable and known to be real by scientists around the world, uncontested when it comes to the facts of their existence. Furthermore, when these ancient texts were compared to what are now found in the Old Testament scriptures in the Bibles of our times, they corresponded almost completely exactly to the way we have received the Scriptures that we have today.

So if someone maintains that the ancient prophets are just myths, passed down like fairy tales, translated hundreds of times and completely unworthy of any respect, I suggest you do some research yourself on the Dead Sea scrolls. If English is not your first language, I’m sure there are reputable sources of scientific information in your language which explain in much more detail than I have here about these things.

You may not like what the ancient prophets told. Perhaps because of the crisis in the Middle East for the last 70 years, you may even be someone who has a strong prejudice against anything remotely Jewish. But I hope, if you are a seeker and lover of truth, pure and real truth from the God of truth, the God of Abraham, I suggest you research these things to find out if the ancient prophets of God were a reality. God bless you in your search. Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find.” (Matthew 7:7)

The Black Horse in the north country

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Did God speak and foretell the condition of modern northern Europe to an ancient prophet over 2400 years ago? “Impossible!”, you say? But Zachariah was told by God that “the black horses …go forth to the north country” and that “These that go toward the north country have quieted My Spirit in the north country”. (Zachariah 6:6 & 8)

Admittedly this is pretty advanced, esoteric Scripture. But it doesn’t stand alone and some will recognize “the black horse” which is not seen again until Revelation 6. It says there, “And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, ‘Come and see’. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, ‘A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see you hurt not the oil and the wine.’” (Revelation 6:5 & 6)

Still with me? If so, hang on; it’ll be worth it. And you’re wondering “What in the world is he talking about?! What in the world is the Bible talking about?!” Some of the more debated, mysterious figures in the whole Bible are these “4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse” , seen first in Zachariah chapter 6 about 400 BC and seen again in Revelation chapter 6 around 90 AD.

I’ll add one more verse that may shed some light on this Black Horse. The only other place in the Bible which references someone with “a pair of balances in his hand” is Hosea 12:7 which says, “He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand, he loves to oppress.”

I and many others believe this glimpse into heaven in the Old and New Testament pictures four of the most vast, fundamental forces which work in our world, shown as four horses and horsemen. And this black horse encompasses the whole materialist, mercantile enterprise that has dominated such an immense portion of the lives of mankind for millennia.

Jesus said that “You cannot serve God and Mammon” (Matthew 6:24), Mammon being an ancient word for money and material wealth. Thus the Black Horse and rider symbolize the pursuit of wealth and material gain that dominates the heart of the substantial majority of people and has since the beginning.

What does this have to do with northern Europe? Those obscure, almost cryptic verses in Zachariah 6 have held my interest for many years. Because much of my adult life has been spent in Europe, mostly northern and eastern Europe as a missionary, or at least trying to be one. And I can say from firsthand experience that I’m even now seeing in my recent few weeks in northern Europe how “the Black horse” has “stilled” the Spirit of God in these northern countries.

It is said of Jesus, “He could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58) And from my many travels almost all over the world in the last few years, I know of no place on earth comparable to modern northern, western Europe for the level and extent of unbelief.

And yet in many human ways it’s seen by so many as almost Utopian here. In Scandinavia, where I am now, unemployment is almost eliminated. Crime by international standards is very low. Inequality of most kinds, by international standards is very low. Lawns are impeccably kept, everything runs on time, economies are humming and the whole Scandinavian neo-socialist model of society seems to continue to work as it has mostly since back in the 60’s and 70’s.

Of course some will vehemently debate me on this but that’s not what I’m focusing on here. It is that despite such material success in these countries, such tranquility and even a large degree of individual and national benevolence, the “Black Horse” has successfully stilled (for the most part) the Spirit of the Lord in these countries.

There are still some Christians around, there always will be. But they are few, far between and usually not bold about their faith, if they say anything at all. It’s extremely out of vogue. And if there’s anywhere in the world that the so-called “Progressive”, “identity politics” have fully taken the high ground and rule almost unopposed culturally as well as politically, it’s in places like here in Sweden.

If there was no God, no Jesus, no death and afterlife, if we didn’t have a soul and our whole existence was just in the affairs and pleasures of this earthly existence, then this would be one heck of a place. Sweden hasn’t gone to war in 200 years so they’ve had time to get their act together. And they have. But in the process the great majority has essentially abandoned their faith in God and any respect for the spirituality given us through the Word of God. It reminds me very much of what it says in Psalm 10:4, “God is not in all their thoughts.” I know and recognize it because this was totally the way I was from around 12 to nearly 21.

So as much as this is like a heaven on earth from one view, from another there’s an ominous sadness here for me as well. It’s like Jesus said about the man who’d gained much wealth and built bigger barns, “You fool. This night your soul will be required of you. Then whose shall those things be that you have stored up?” (Luke 12:20)

I think unbelief is one of the most difficult of all sins to overcome. Especially if you are also pretty much “a good person” as well. But conversely, “With God, nothing is impossible.” (Luke 1:37) The mindset so prevalent here is very similar to how I was and how so many people in the general northern and western part of the world are now.

Is there any way to end this on a happy note? I guess the thing is that, if the Lord can do it for me, He can do it for others. Zachariah 6:6 even amazingly says, after it says that the black horses go into the north countries, that “the white go forth after them”. And in history this part of the world has had centuries in the past where faith in God and Jesus was paramount. But it may take the fiercest rigors of the final days before the return of Jesus to shake some people here out of their atheist stupor. All we can do is pray, hope and continue to be a witness, as best we can.

Our giants

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One of the more interesting, and to me puzzling guys in the entire Bible is the patriarch Jacob. Some may chide me for saying so but he’s always seemed like almost an anti-hero among the pantheon of Biblical greats.

Jacob even means “deceiver”. He lied to his dad. He tricked his brother out of his inheritance. And he conspired with his mother to do these things. He ended up having to flee for his life and he never saw his beloved mother again.

Did that really teach Jacob a lesson and he was a changed man from then on? No, certainly not immediately it seems. But then God had Jacob work under a more conniving and hard man than he himself was, his uncle Laban. It’s a long story but after some 21 years of work, growth and certainly some bitter lessons learned along the way, God spoke to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” (Genesis 31:4?)

“Oh, great”, you could say, “He’s finally going to be able to go home.”

In Jacob’s case, it was a good deal more problematic than that. By this time Jacob was pretty much a rich man, with vast flocks and herds, wives and children, servants and helpers. And his twin brother, Esau, who he’d so blatantly and subtlety tricked out of his inheritance, was a fairly major local warlord. One way we know this is because, when Esau heard that Jacob was on his way back, he gathered 400 of his personal troops to go out with him to meet his brother.

For what purpose? To get revenge? To give him a big hug? It seems Jacob didn’t really know. But most likely his conscience was still eating away at him because of the scoundrel/crook/rogue-like nature that seemed to be a part of his personality. And this is where it gets really interesting.

Did Jacob boldly walk at the head of his tribe and go forward to meet his brother? No, he sent almost everyone else ahead of him: wives, children, flocks, etc. And then, the night before he was to meet Esau himself, it turns out that the Bible says Jacob “wrestled” with an angel. (Genesis 32:24 & 25)

What a scene, what drama, what pathos. God had evidently softened Jacob’s heart through the years at least somewhat. It wasn’t just him alone anymore. He had a large family who he evidently loved very dearly. And now the possibility was strong that he would get what in most ways he deserved: judgment and destruction of himself and his whole family for the perfidy he’d worked on his parents and brother many years before. He probably knew that if that happened, he would only be getting what justice would decree.

Jacob’s giants were not like David’s hundreds of years later. Jacob’s giants were his own sins and his own evil inclinations. Had he outgrown the sins of his youth? Or was now the time when they would finally catch up with him and it would mean the death of himself and all he loved?

For most of us, our biggest enemy is not someone else, or even the Devil. Our biggest enemy is ourselves. “The devils are subject to us“. (Luke 10:17) But it’s our own evil spirit, our own ornery will that seems to constantly rise up like an ogre to defy God and to lead us astray, even without the devil’s help.

jacob and angelBut Jacob knew the jig was up. We don’t have the entire dialog of that night and all the details. But it must have been one of the most intense battles any man ever fought, pleading with God through the angel as Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Genesis 32:26)

What kind of blessing did Jacob need? Well the next morning he would face his brother and 400 armed men. He needed God to have his brother’s heart touched so that he would receive him as his long lost brother rather than as the trickster and villain he’d actually been. If ever someone had to get their heart right with the Lord and probably really plead with God for the cleansing and remaking he so desperately needed, it must have been Jacob right then.

It sounds like it went on for hours, hours of desperate prayer, wrestling not only with the angel but also his own sins that so easily beset him. But at last, Jacob found grace in God’s sight. The angel even gave Jacob a new name at that time, “Israel”, meaning prince of God and man, perhaps signifying that he was “a new creature” (II Corinthians 5:17) in God’s eyes.

Jacob and esau meetAnd although we don’t know all the story of that momentous night, we do know that, almost surprisingly, the next day Esau didn’t go forward to kill Jacob. It says, “And Esau ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.” (Genesis 33:4) A heartfelt embrace of brothers, much matured and changed through the years who were just glad to see each other again.

Would things have been different if Jacob had not been so desperate in prayer the night before? I’ve always really thought that. Because Jacob really got down to desperate prayer with God, perhaps one of the most desperate in the Bible, most likely God was able to change Esau’s heart also to have mercy rather than justifiable judgment against his brother. God saw that Jacob was desperate for God’s mercy and the Lord did a major miracle.

What a story. Our biggest enemy is ourselves. Getting the victory over “the sins that so easily beset us” (Hebrews 12:1) is our greatest challenge. And, let’s face it: a lot of us don’t always win that battle. May God help us all to fight our “giants” that defy us and will defeat us except for our desperate prayers for the Lord to “deliver us from every evil work and preserve us unto His heavenly kingdom.” (II Timothy 4:18)

Christmas and prophecy

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No other event from 2000 years ago holds the attention of the world like Christmas and the birth of Jesus does. On the other hand, some might say of Christmas, “Not again!”. Or their words might be, “Some unwed teenager has a baby in some shed and we all go crazy!”

But I can tell you one element that’s almost always left out about the story of Christmas which originally was virtually paramount to those who first heard it in the time of ancient Israel. “What’s that?” you ask? Here’s what: Christmas. Was. Prophesied! It’s that important and now virtually unknown. I’ll attempt to explain.

As much as some castigate Christmas, it’s helped make it so that the events of Jesus’ birth are known far and wide and are celebrated yearly, as they have been for 2000 years. People all over the world, Christian or otherwise, often know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. You may be a kid in Baluchistan or in a yeshiva in Brooklyn. But if you ask your teacher, “What’s this thing about Christmas?”, they’ll probably be able to tell you what Christmas is.

But almost no one knows why it matters that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, much less the circumstances of His mother, Mary. And that’s because fulfilled Biblical prophecy has become one of the unknown phenomenon of our enlightened times. Has there been a conspiracy or intentional cover-up to remove Bible prophecy from our knowledge? I don’t think it’s actually that. Nevertheless the plain fulfillment of prophecy is one of the greatest proofs of a supernatural God who has a plan for mankind and is steering events toward an ultimate showdown between Light and Darkness.

“Great, Mark; so what was prophesied about Christmas?”

First, Bethlehem itself was predicted specifically by God through the mouth of the prophet Micah to be the birthplace of the coming King of the Jews, over 700 years before Jesus’ birth. It says in Micah 5:2, (God speaking to the town of Bethlehem), “But you Bethlehem, though you be small among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth the one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth is from old, from everlasting.”

The Jews of Jesus’ time knew exactly what this meant and even used it to try to prove Jesus was not the Messiah. Jesus was born in Bethlehem but grew up in Nazareth. So the unbelieving Jews knew Jesus was from Nazareth and said, “Has not Scripture said that Christ shall come from the seed of David and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” (John 7:42) But Christ did come from the town of Bethlehem; He was born there although he grew up in Nazareth. I guess those folks who were trying to use this against Him hadn’t done their research.

What does that mean about “the seed of David and the town of Bethlehem, where David was”? Again, it was majorly significant to people 2000 years ago, but virtually not at all to us now. The Messiah to come for the Jews  was to be a direct descendant of King David, Israel’s greatest king. And, like we’ve read, the Messiah was to be from Bethlehem. Now, 2000 years later, folks still know Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But the significance of this has been erased from the story.

It was prophesied, foretold and every Israeli at that time knew it! They also knew the Messiah was to be a descendant of King David. Was Jesus a physical descendant of David? Absolutely. The opening 16 verses of the book of Matthew traces the linage of “the Virgin Mary” directly back to King David. “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1)

And what about that “Virgin Mary” thing? Please, humor me here but… It. Was. Prophesied! It was prophesied of the Messiah to come that He would be born of a virgin. Isaiah 7:14 says, “The Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.” And Emmanuel means “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

The Messiah that every Jew back then looked for would be born in Bethlehem, born of the linage of David and born of a virgin. That’s why Christmas is so important, because Jesus was not some ordinary little baby born to an unmarried teen. He was and is the Messiah promised to Israel.

There’s more. The Roman world of that day knew already that a King was about to be born to the Jews because the knowledge of the prophecies of Daniel was known to some degree throughout the world of that day. In ancient Roman writings can be found places where they knew that Rome was “the fourth kingdom” (Daniel 2:40 & 7:23) and that at that time God would “set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed”. (Daniel 2:44)

If your Christmas has been whittled down to some quick meal like at a fast food joint, if the ingredient of fulfilled prophecy has been eliminated from your spiritual meal, then you surely aren’t getting what was originally there. I just get incensed at how spiritually weak, depleted and malnourished the people of this world have become because they’ve lost the knowledge of God’s mighty power and willingness to foretell the key events of our existence and future here in this world. Christmas was not only a historical event; it was one of the most prophesied events in the history of mankind. But that’s been virtually lost to us.

I hope you have a merry Christmas. But I also hope you “grow in grace and knowledge” (II Peter 3:18)  and are “strengthened in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16) by the power of the truth and Word of God, so much of which is so distant and foreign to the vast majority of those of us in these times. God help us all! Merry Christmas.

Follow God and miracles will follow you

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There are so many promises in the Bible for those who follow God, who not only believe in but also actually obey the Lord, that He will manifest Himself unto them. Jesus said in John 14:21, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he is it that loves me. And he that loves me will be loved of my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself unto him.”

[This is the text to a talk I gave last week at a Christian retreat in India  to about 85 people.]

That was the kind of Christianity that was presented to me by some young “Jesus people” when I was 21 years old. A few months before this I’d had a series of miraculous experiences, including a very traumatic one where I nearly died and was about to leave my body, unfortunately heading in the wrong direction from what most of us hope will be our final destiny. But this was what it took to wake me up and shake me up enough to fathom that there is a spiritual world and that it is more real and important than the physical world we’re so often enmeshed in.

But I didn’t know who Jesus was. I’d come to know that God was real, I now knew the spiritual world was real and I’d even come to know that the devil was real. But I didn’t know who Jesus was or is. And those teenage, Bible-sharing “Jesus people” showed me through the Bible who Jesus was. So I received Him in prayer as they led me to do.

And as I continued to hang around these new friends, they eventually challenged me to do as the early followers of Jesus had done. Jesus said to some, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) To others He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it.” (Luke 9:23)

Having already experienced so much of the froth, frivolity and poison of this world, I had an easy time in making that decision. I decided to take them up on their challenge and to commit my life to Christian service, following the Lord and His Word as best as I could.

“So how’s that working for you?” you might ask. My answer would be, “Really, really well.” And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning. I know that, for most of you here, we’re on the same page when it comes to Christian discipleship. That’s why you’re here at this retreat. Yesterday we talked about Bible prophecy and that can in some ways be a rather long and sometimes steep learning curve. But Christian discipleship can and should be something you are born into when you receive the Lord, like what happened to me.

We could start off talking about salvation in the Lord, like we did yesterday. That’s where it all starts. I assume and believe that all of you here are saved. You’ve received the Lord as your personal savior, you understand the basics of Salvation and you have a personal relationship with the Lord.

And I assume that you’ve all received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I know that’s your shared belief and you understand the importance of the Holy Spirit. Not all churches and Christians do. Some churches teach that receiving Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit is the same thing. But in Acts 19:2 the disciples said to ones they met , “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” Those ones answered, “We haven’t even heard of the Holy Spirit.” So the Apostle Paul went on and led those folks in Ephesus to be baptized with the Holy Ghost.

These are all basics. It won’t help to talk about following God if you aren’t yet saved and then have received the power that Jesus promised us in the Holy Spirit. But if you have come that far, what’s next? Just go now to heaven? “We’re ok now, we’re saved and filled. What else is there but to go to be with the Lord, right?”

Well, as I’m sure you know, that’s not right. Jesus gave what’s called “the great commission” in Mark 16:15 when He said to the disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” And, as the phrase goes, this is often what separates the men from the boys. Or, much more accurately, this is what has come to differentiate between what has been called “churchianity” and the original Christianity of the book of Acts and the early church.

We’re called and commissioned to “preach the gospel”. Those words sound  slightly funny in our times because we can envision that we are suppose to ascend some pulpit somewhere and “preach”, which nowadays is a word almost only used in a religious sense. Even the word “witness” is pretty much only thought of in a religious sense. But if those words are maybe uncomfortable to you or sound out of style with the times we live in, you could think of it in the way of sharing. Most folks understand and even approve of sharing.

Here’s something in Isaiah that maybe puts the great commission in another framework that is perhaps easier to see yourself in. “If you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall rise in obscurity and your darkness shall be as the noonday. And the Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought and you shall be like a watered garden and like springs of waters whose waters fail not.”  (Isaiah 58:10 & 11)

Or as Jesus taught when He was on earth, “Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. For with the same measure that you give, it shall be given unto you.” (Luke 6:38) That’s an integral ingredient of what our present life should be as disciples of Christ while we are still here on earth.

“But, Mark! I thought you were going to talk about miracles! When are you going to talk about miracles?”

The good answer to that is found just a few short verses after Jesus’ famous ringing words of Mark 16:15. He told them to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Then, five verses later, at the end of the book of Mark, it says, “And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming His word with signs following.” (Mark 16:20)

“Signs following”. As they began to obey and get out and do what the Lord told them to do, witness and win souls and share all they had, the Lord was right there with them (since He’s always way out in front anyway), and He “confirmed His word with signs following.” Miracles. The book of Acts is just almost one continual testimony of this, with the disciples, in fits and starts, obeying the Lord and following the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you want to read about miracles happening to disciples, you should read the book of Acts. That’s the blueprint and plan for Christianity yet so few churches really take it seriously for our times.

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Acts chapter 10. Talk about following God. Talk about “going” and pioneering. Peter was already “going”. He was up in Joppa, up the coast from the home church in Jerusalem. So he was already obeying and the Lord “gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him.” (Acts 5.32) And Peter was even taking things to the Lord in prayer, alone with God on a housetop.

And then the action starts, when the Lord seems to just go completely contrary to what Peter was expecting. God shows him a sheet full of unclean animals and the Lord says to him, “Arise Peter, kill and eat.” What does Peter respond? “Yes sir, Lord! Anything you say, Lord!”? Nope, that’s not what Peter said. In fact Peter directly disagrees with and says no to the Lord, as he had been prone to do from time to time in the past.

The gentle, loving son of God was patient and kind, telling Peter that there were three men downstairs, “unclean” and that Peter should immediately go with them, “doubting nothing”. As you know, sometimes just the “follow God” part of our contract with Him can get to be a little challenging, as it was for Peter here.

But Peter knew the Lord enough, loved the Lord enough and had gone through so many breakings and remakings that he somehow here obeyed, probably with some trepidation since good Jews were not supposed to hang out with Romans, which evidently those folks at the door were.

The result? Cornelius the Roman centurion, leader of 100 Roman troops, got gloriously saved and filled with the Holy Ghost, as did his family and friends who’d come to hear Peter.

“So what?”, you could say. But this was the monumental moment in the history of God’s relationship with man when His Spirit and you could even say His focus turned towards “the gentiles” rather than the Jewish nation within which the Lord had been almost exclusively working till then. (Here’s the link to a blog article I wrote on Acts chapter 10, as well as a recording of a live class on Acts 10 which the article was based on.)

But God had to find a man. God had to have someone yielded enough to obey Him, to physically get up and go, “doubting nothing”. The miracles didn’t precede the obedience. But in this case, it wasn’t just a showy miracle for those folks right there but it involved a major change of direction in the history of mankind, the beginnings of the early church as the Lord got Peter, the leader of the early church at that time to truly go even further into all the world than their Jewish heritage would allow them to go, except by the almost forceful leading of the Holy Spirit.

What does it mean to us in our times? The conditions of discipleship are pretty much still the same today. We still have to do the going. “As they went, they were healed.” (Luke 17:14) But we have to do the “wenting”. The Lord raised the dead. But they had to roll away the stone.

Many of you here understand the fundamental link between obedience and blessings. We are not our own, we are bought with a price. We may not understand but all we have to do is obey. If you can accept those conditions, like the Lord laid out for His first disciples, then there’s still that cup of discipleship to be drunk in our times. There’s a poor sin-sick world that needs his love and truth. The harvest is still plenteous but the true laborers are still few.

But the good news is, the Lord has already spoken in prophecy of these very times we live in. And somebody, maybe you, is going to fulfill those prophecies. It says of the very last days “the people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” (Daniel 11:32)  It says, “They that understand amoung the people shall instruct many.” (Daniel 11:33) It says in Revelation, talking about the ones who are here at the time of the worst of the Antichrist and his forces, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Revelation 12:11)

It is written. It is ordained. It’s already happened in the eyes of God. There are going to be victors in these final days, a called-out, separated-from-the-world discipleship church of the endtime who will be shining brightly, “doing exploits” and “instructing many” in the last days before the return of Jesus. They’ll be truly following God and the Lord will be working mightily with them, performing miracles on their behalf. I believe that’s the calling and heritage that is there for every person in this room. May the mighty God of Abraham and His Son Jesus help us to be what He has called us to be.

“The LORD said to my Lord…”

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Perhaps the biggest surprise of my life was finding out who Jesus is/was. Maybe it’s second only to finding out earlier that God actually is for real. I’d been told that Jesus was a great man, a wonderful teacher. But that’s about it. “God? Well, yeah, He’s up there somewhere but we don’t hear much from him. Be good, do good and, yes, love people. That’s about all that it really amounts to.” So I’d thought.

But it took basically the edge of death and hell to bring me to realize that the spiritual world is real. And through some indescribable rough times, I did come to experience the reality of the God of Abraham, the God of the Bible. But then what?

Well I then had this question on my heart for months, “Who is Jesus?” And it was some activist young Christians who finally showed me from the Bible about receiving Jesus into my heart. I’d already been so whittled down by the Lord, my self confidence shaken and my heart engaged by the Holy Spirit that I did take that step and prayed for Jesus to come into my heart and life.

But I still didn’t feel like I knew who Jesus is or was. So a few days later I was asking my friends again, “But, who is Jesus?” So then one of my friends showed me verses that just exploded inside my mind and heart virtually like a bomb.

They showed me where it says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1) Then they showed me John 1:14, that was the one that really did it. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Spontaneously, almost immediately I got on my knees and face and prayed for I don’t know how long, for the first time in my life, to Jesus. “There are two of them!”, I thought. “Jesus was with God in the beginning and even before the beginning! He was like us but also He was not!” John 1:14 exploded in my heart and mind to show me for the first time who Jesus is and was, the question that had been on my heart for months.

Maybe it’s like the Bible says, “We are to be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead.” (Romans 7:4) But even in a worldly marriage, it goes through stages. The first time you saw each other. The first time you touched or kissed. Your marriage ceremony. The first time you were intimate. Your honeymoon and thereafter. There are so many stages in love and I think it’s the same in our relationship with the Lord.

But like a good marriage, it continues to grow and get better as the years go on. And it was the inflowing of truth into my heart of the Word of God through the Scriptures that began then and has continued since then. One of the most amazing things is the depths of it and particularly of prophecy. In fact the reality of Jesus as being one with God and also with God from the beginning was shown repeatedly to the Old Testament prophets. And maybe it’s like someone you are married to, you just never get over how amazing they are. I guess that’s how I am with Scripture and the truth revealed there.

To me perhaps the most amazing revelations of Jesus being with God and co-equal with God can be found in Psalm 110 and Daniel chapter 7. King David wrote “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’” (Psalm 110:1) But perhaps what some people notice, after the first reading, is that the word “Lord” is used twice but is written differently. Why?

Like a good mystery, the plot thickens with the telling. And we find that Jesus Himself, when He was on earth, specifically used Psalm 110:1 to try to elucidate His religious detractors. Here’s what the Bible says happened.  “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,  ‘What do you think of Christ? Whose son is he?’ They say to him, ‘The Son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying,  ‘The LORD said unto my Lord, ‘Sit on my right hand, till I make your enemies thy footstool?’ If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” (Matthew 22:41-45)

The Jewish leaders expected a Messiah to come who would be a descendent of King David (which Jesus actually was) and they expected the Messiah to be an earthly leader, a military man. But Jesus was bringing out through Psalm 110:1 that David in the Spirit of God, had seen “my Lord”, the Messiah to come, sitting at the right hand of God and being told that God was preparing for his future kingdom. David saw the Messiah and called him “my Lord”. This was a very different view indeed of the Messiah to come from what the Pharisees had, a Messiah sitting next to God the Father who David would call “Lord.”

Even in Old Testament times, God was revealing that the Messiah to come would be more than just a man. And this is something I brought out when I did the video on Daniel chapter 7. Because that’s another place where there’s an almost indescribable vision of Jesus Himself, seen over 500 years before He was on earth.

Abruptly, in the middle of his vision Daniel saw this, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garments were white as snow… Thousand thousands ministered unto Him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The judgment was set and the books were open.”  (Daniel 7: 9 & 10) This is one of the clearest visions of God the Father, the “Ancient of Days” in the Old Testament. And it has a strong resemblance to what King David spoke of at the beginning of Psalm 110, calling God the Father “The LORD…”.

And like we saw in Psalm 110:1, we see Jesus again in Daniel 7: 13 and 14. “And I beheld in the night vision and one like the Son of Man came unto the Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Jesus Himself on earth almost never used the term, “the Son of God”. But He did use over 70 times in the 4 Gospels the term used to describe Him here in Daniel 7, “the son of man”.

What an abundance of grace and truth has been revealed to us! And for those who’d like to make this just some concoction of the followers of Jesus after He was crucified, we have it all here from centuries before Jesus’ birth on earth that the Son of David, the one David saw in the spirit seated next to God, and the one Daniel saw in spirit being brought before God, was already seen, spoken of and foretold to come. And then Jesus did.

It’s been decades ago since I was led into this truth and life. And like a good marriage, it just gets better, deeper and stronger through the years. I hope this look into the Scriptures to see our dear Lord in His glory and in His Word, even before He was ever even here on earth, has been a blessing to you. God bless you!

 

Jonathan, son of Saul

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Real heroes don’t often get the credit for their heroism in this world. But God has a great big book and He’s writing it all down, the good as well as the wrong. Jonathan, son of King Saul has always seemed to me one of the greatest heroes in the Bible. But you seldom hear much about him and few Christians know what a part he played as Israel rose to its glorious years under King David.

Jonathan was “the crown prince”, next in line to the throne of Israel, after his father, Saul. But King Saul’s life turned out to be one of the very saddest in the Bible. I have every reason to believe that King Saul was saved and that we’ll see him in heaven. He started out really great, anointed by Samuel the high priest, specifically chosen by God and he even had the gift of prophecy.

But through disobedience, self-will, arrogance and hellish pride, King Saul lost the anointing he had as king. Samuel ultimately told Saul, “When you were little in your own sight, the Lord highly exalted you. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought Him a man after his own heart. And the Lord has commanded him to be captain over His people, because you have not kept that which the Lord commanded you.” (I Samuel 13:13 & 14, 15:17) And that “man after God’s heart” turned out to be Israel’s best loved and most remembered monarch, King David, even though at the time Samuel spoke this message to Saul, David was still an obscure young shepherd boy.

And did King Saul humbly and meekly step aside at Samuel’s words and turn over the reins of government and power over the nation to young David? No, not at all. In fact, evidently Saul even got violent to some degree with the prophet and priest Samuel, for having spoken the word of the Lord to the king.

But then, like an excellent book or movie, “enter stage left” comes Saul’s son, Jonathan. “Samuel! What’s this about my dad loosing the kingdom!?” This would be what you could expect from 99% of men in Jonathan’s position. “Lose my crown, my throne, my future power!?” That’s what virtually every man of the world and of power would say. But Jonathan didn’t ever do that, even though he had been brought up by such a power-hungry, fallen failure of a man like his father, Saul. Wouldn’t Jonathan be just like Saul? Would his DNA pre-ordain him to follow the same Godless path?

This is where the miracle and godliness of Jonathan shows so brightly, so much so that it’s almost strange. Rather than working with his father, Saul, to resist the hand of God which was moving to make David the future king of Israel, Jonathan evidently saw from the beginning that God’s anointing was on David. When Saul, Jonathan and the whole army of Israel were pinned down by Goliath and the Philistines, it was the young teenage shepherd boy, David, who stepped out of the crowd to miraculously defeat the champion of the Philistines in single combat.

Sometimes, as some say, “You’ve got to see God.” And evidently Jonathan from the beginning saw the hand of God on David’s life, that he was God’s chosen and blessed to lead Israel. “Sure, easy enough,” you might say. But I’m sure it wasn’t. Never was it so clearly summed up when his own father, Saul, in an absolute rage, yelled at Jonathan, “Don’t you know you’ll never be king as long as David, the son of Jesse, is alive?!” (I Samuel 20:31) In other words, “David is going to take your crown! You are going to lose the kingdom to David!”

And this is where it’s almost a mystery what really went on in Jonathan’s heart. Because, as difficult as it must have been, he remained loyal to David and to what he knew was God’s will, rather than to his own career, power and supposedly inheritance. He even worked as an insider within the inner circle of Saul’s court to keep David informed of what his father’s plans were against him during the years when David was growing to full adulthood and was often on the run as a fugitive from Saul’s deteriorating regime and unhinged life.

It’s all just an incredible story that I don’t have room to go into here if this is to not become too long. But if you want drama, intrigue, heroism and the mighty hand of God working to have His will against the very worst of human nature and sin, you should read I Samuel 12 to 28 where this is all found.

Jonathan stayed true to David throughout his life, to his own loss in this world, as well as the loss of his dad’s kingdom and the kingdom of Israel shifting to David and his descendants. But there’s no sign Jonathan ever wavered in this. He played the role that God had for him to the utmost, against the course of this world, against his father’s raging and against what would seem to be all his own self-interest, as far as the world looks at things.

And David was fully aware of the sacrifice Jonathan was making for him during this time and the amazing loyalty, friendship and love in the Lord that Jonathan had in his heart for David. The last time they saw each other, as far as we know, Jonathan had just brought David word of Saul’s continued rage and vengeful attitude towards David. The Bible says:  “David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times [towards Jonathan]: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.”  (I Samuel 20:41)

It’s perhaps one of the greatest “love stories” in the Bible, but of Godly, selfless love and camaraderie between two men who were brought together in a drama of God’s making and who played their roles to the hilt. And it should go without saying that there was nothing of the remotest sort that was physical in their love for each other. But in our depraved and sunken world that we live in at this time, I’m probably compelled to just mention that here.

Jonathan must have been able to say what Paul said 1000 years later, “I have not been disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19) The Bible doesn’t specifically tell us how Jonathan came to such an understanding and the stand of faith he took to go God’s way but to what was his own personal determent in this world. And he isn’t really remembered very much in the annals of the greats of the Bible.

Nevertheless, he was one of the most integral players and factors in the rise of David to the throne of Israel, someone who laid down his life in this world so that God’s will could prevail, even as he himself seemed to be one of the greatest losers in God’s plan. But I expect that we’ll see a mighty crown on Jonathan in heaven and be able to learn a lot more about his almost other-worldly vision, understanding and stand of faith that helped God’s will to be done on earth in his lifetime. “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) God help us all to have the selflessness and vision of Jonathan, even when it comes with our own personal loss in this world.

Did Jesus Christ “Confirm the Covenant”?

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I generally try to address a wide audience on matters easily understood. But here I’m going to write about something that only a relatively few people are aware of. It has to do with the intricacies of Daniel 9:27 and how that verse has, or has not, already been fulfilled. This is one of the most disputed subjects in the study of Bible prophecy and the future.

First, here’s what that verse says in the King James version of the Bible. “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. And in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and offerings to cease. And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even to the consummation. And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

If this is new to you and you’re interested in it, I suggest that you view the video I’ve done on this verse and its relationship to what Jesus taught in Matthew 24. That video is “Daniel 9:27 & the Last 7 years”. It’s made for a wider audience, going slower than I will here, giving the background and build-up to the significance of this verse. But here I’ll aim to go rather quickly into greater detail and unraveling of it all. And if you don’t have a background in this, it may be hard to follow.

There’s no doubt that Jesus “confirmed the covenant” but the question here is if this is what Daniel 9:27 is talking about. Paul said, “The covenant which was confirmed before in Christ…” (Galatians 3:17). Jesus is, “…the mediator of the new covenant.” (Hebrews 12:24) Jesus was “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). His “blood cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:9). This future covenant to come was prophesied through Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31-33). There’s no question of whether Jesus fulfilled this prophecy in Jeremiah. And even Jesus’ ministry on earth evidently lasted 3½ years, seemingly corresponding to “the middle of the week”, the middle of 7 years, spoken of in Daniel 9:27.

So certainly there are details which seem to match the work of Christ on earth with what is spoken in Daniel 9:27. The question is, was Christ’s atoning work on earth and the subsequent beginning of the Early Church specifically what Daniel 9:27 refers to? Those who believe it does say that when Daniel 9:27 says “and in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease”, this refers to Jesus’ death and resurrection which then made unnecessary the ceremonial offerings made by the Jewish priests in the temple in Jerusalem.

But this is the first of several places where focused scrutiny on the verse and then the historical facts brings uncertainty that Daniel 9:27 was specifically referring to Christ on earth. Because there is no Scriptural or historical record of any kind that the temple sacrifices were stopped in Jerusalem after Christ’s Crucifixion and resurrection. There’s no reason not to believe that the Jews continued their temple sacrifices up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Another place where neither Scripture nor history gives any backing to Daniel 9:27 being fully fulfilled at the time of the Crucifixion and the Early Church is where the idea is put forward that 3½ years after the Crucifixion was the amount of time before the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7. Those who hold to the belief that Daniel 9:27 was finished with the martyrdom of Stephen teach that the period of time from the Crucifixion to Stephen’s martyrdom was the second 3½ years of “the last week”, the 70th week of Daniel 9:27. But there’s just nothing in Scripture about this at all. Or in Early Church teachings. Neither do the Apostolic fathers make this assertion. And those believing Daniel 9:27 was fulfilled in Christ have even greater difficulty trying to explain how Jesus was involved with any “abomination of desolation”, alluded to in Daniel 9:27 and referred to repeatedly elsewhere. Neither did Christ confirm any 7 year (“one week”) covenant. His was an eternal covenant, having nothing to do with any 7 year period.

If Daniel 9:27 has some definite similarities to events which have already passed, but still it has not been truly fulfilled, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. One of the bigger controversies in Bible prophecy circles from the 1800’s to our times has had to do with Antioch IV Epiphanies, a leader of the Greeks around 165 BC. There were modern bibles for years that explained in their footnotes that the final Antichrist of the endtime, spoken of in Daniel and Revelation, was none other than the Greek tyrant, Antioch IV Epiphanies, who violently persecuted the Jews in Israel at that time.

Antiochus IV Epiphanies ruled for 3½ years, just as numerous places say the final Antichrist will. He even desecrated the Jewish temple in Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig there, seemingly fulfilling the scriptures about the Antichrist placing “the abomination of desolation” (Dan. 11:31) in the temple, after stopping the sacrifices. I made a short video about this man and this subject called “Some Say the Antichrist Has Come”. But as bad as he was, few today still teach that Antiochus IV Epiphanies was the final fulfillment of the many verses about the Antichrist.

But what about Daniel 9:27? Didn’t Jesus confirm the covenant? Well, yes He did confirm the covenant spoken of in Jeremiah, no question about that. Is there any other covenant? Actually, a study of the word “covenant” shows that it appears over 250 times in the Old Testament and many of those times it was not referring to the holy, eternal covenant of God with His people.

In some places it’s used to mean a compact, a confederacy or a league and it has no religious significance. For example, when the Gibeonites came to Joshua, it says, “And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live…” (Joshua 9:15). That word in Hebrew for “made a league” is the same as “covenant” but it is referring to an agreement between individuals, much the same as we see in the affairs of the world in our times.

And this is where it gets interesting when we look at the next major message in Daniel, actually the last revelation he received. This is Daniel 10 through 12 which read as if it was one experience, rather than something that was to be divided into 3 different events or chapters.

One of the most important verses there is Daniel 11:31. This is because it’s almost certainly the one Jesus was referring to in Matthew 24:15 when told His disciples “When you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoso reads, let him understand”. And then the Lord goes on to say in verse 21, “for then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world, to that time, no, nor ever shall be.”

We could go off on a track here with some who say that this event, “the abomination of desolation”, happened with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. But then those who believe this also conclude that Jesus’ Second Coming, to take over the earth, also happened in 70 AD. And few can look at the world we live in today and believe He now rules and reigns on earth.

But where in Daniel was Jesus actually referring to in Mat 24:15? The clearest mention of “the abomination of desolation” in Daniel is found in Daniel 11:31. It says this. “And arms [armaments] shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength. And they shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.” I don’t believe there’s any clearer place in Daniel that Jesus could have been referring to than to this verse, Daniel 11:31.

It follows that Daniel 11:31 is of extreme importance in our understanding of the Lord’s return to earth. But then we find that simply turning to Daniel 11:31 to understand it all is not exactly simple. That’s one reason I’ve done the prophecies of Daniel video series, aiming to open the prophetic Scriptures one chapter at a time as God makes known and builds upon His revealed truth, chapter after chapter. And by the time we get to Daniel 11, the revelation of truth is pretty advanced.

But for relevance to the issue of the question, “Is Daniel 9:27 already fulfilled?”, to me the most important fact to be found in Daniel 11 is that this word “covenant” is used repeatedly in the verses leading up to the verse Jesus pointed us to, Daniel 11:31. There are a recurring referrals, immediately before Daniel 11:31 to “the prince of the covenant” (Dan. 11:22), a “league made with him” (Dan. 11:23), “his heart shall be against the holy covenant” (Dan. 11:28), he shall “have indignation against the holy covenant” (Dan. 11:30), “them that forsake the holy covenant” (Dan. 11:30).

As God continues to build upon the revelation from each proceeding chapter, Daniel 11 and 12 become the climax of those revelations. As we understood better the 4 kingdoms first shown in Daniel 2 when viewing the 4 beasts in Daniel 7, so in Daniel 11 we are given much more information about “the covenant” first mentioned in Daniel 9. And in this case it does seem that the narrative points towards more of some kind of political agreement, with spiritual overtones, as being what is the given picture of the covenant to come.

We only get a glimpse of this in Daniel 9 but there’s much more information in Daniel 11. And when we look to Scripture to get our answers, we basically have to take what is given and to see the picture being shown, rather than let our imagination lead us to our own conclusions. It’s rather like a mosaic as we attempt to piece together the bits of the picture given us.

And it’s worth mentioning here that a primary rule in interpreting Bible prophecy is to, if possible, take the literal fulfillment of the words being spoken as our default choice in anything. True, sometimes there is a spiritual meaning. But going this route without taking the literal fulfillment into account has brought a lot of people into some strange doctrines. I wrote about this in “Spiritualizing Prophecy”.

Most scholars believe Daniel 11:21 begins the narrative of the endtime antichrist, spoken of as “a vile person” there in verse 21. In verse 22 there is spoken of “the prince of the covenant” who is overthrown. Who is that? We hold off on coming to any conclusion as we assemble the pieces being given us. In verse 28 it’s said of this man, “his heart shall be against the holy covenant”. Then twice in verse 30, he “has indignation against the holy covenant” and “he has intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.”

What is this all referring to? What does this all mean?! Our hearts throb to understand this better. But rather than going into speculative conjecture, my feeling has been that it’s best to just remember it strongly and let the Lord clarify its full meaning in His time. But these are the verses leading up to the verse Christ specifically pointed us to over 500 years later, Daniel 11:31. I’ll add it here again. “And arms [the Hebrew word here is armaments] shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strengthen, and they shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.”

This series of verses immediately before Daniel 11:31 (which Jesus pointed us to) repeatedly refer to a covenant or league made with the man of sin, the Antichrist. This is a major clincher for me that the covenant spoken of in Daniel 9:27 is further explained and amplified by these verses in Daniel 11. And actually there are even more. In Daniel 11:32 it says, “And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries. But the people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.”

I’ll admit I don’t know and can’t tell you exactly what this endtime covenant is. But there certainly does seem to be a large number of verses referring to it and the context strongly points towards something other than the eternal covenant that Christ confirmed with His death and resurrection. It reads very much like some kind of treaty or pact with religious overtones, rather than to what is spoken of in Jeremiah 31 or Galatians 3.

Taken out of context, Daniel 9:27 can be made to look like it is connected to the Crucifixion and resurrection of Christ in the first century. But within the context of the chapters before and after Daniel 9, the evidence undermines that view and points towards it being one of many verses picturing an endtime scenario of some kind of Middle Eastern peace/religious pact, followed by renewed sacrifices at a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.

This article is now about three times as long as my other articles usually are. As mentioned before, most people may not be able or have the interest to follow this discussion to this length. But, equally, more and more people are coming to realize that what’s discussed here may be of primary importance to our understanding of future prophetic events.

I personally continue to hold the view that part of the endtime to come will include some kind of pact, league, covenant or treaty having to do with renewed sacrifices at a rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem. My views are not based solely on Daniel 9:27 but also on the ones shared here in Daniel 11, plus others mentioned in Daniel 8 which I’ve discussed in the video I’ve done on Daniel 8, seen here.

My apologies if this is too long or intricate. But this is, as far as I know, what is necessary to look fully into the prophecies given Daniel on this subject over 2500 years ago, which Jesus Himself pointed to. My hope is that this discourse has been some help to you in knowing the foundations of why some believe than Daniel 9:27 has a future fulfillment in the last days before the coming of Jesus to bring in God’s Kingdom to earth. God bless you and God help us all.

 

Indonesian Video: “Kitab Daniel Pasal 2”

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I’ve been able to complete in Indonesian the second video in the Prophecies of Daniel series, Daniel Chapter 2. This chapter is considered by scholars of almost all faiths to be the briefest and most concise overall picture of the history and future of the world in the entire Bible. Daniel chapter 2 is like a foundation on which we can understand the many fulfilled prophecies of the past, as well as see what still is to be fulfilled in times soon to come.

It has often seemed to me that this chapter was intentionally designed by God as an easy first step along the path of prophecy. It’s like a preparation for the more advanced prophecy chapters, such as Daniel chapter 7. That chapter is where we will begin to really climb up into the mountains of prophecy. I hope to finish the Indonesian version of Daniel 7 sometime in early 2018.

The English version of “The Book of Daniel Chapter 2”, can be seen here.