The Daniel Chapter 8 video

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Mark McMillion

I’ve been able to complete a 29 minute video on Daniel chapter 8. You can click here to see the full version.

There is also a two minute clip of the video for those who’d like to have a preview.

This is the fourth in the series of videos I’ve been working on concerning Bible prophecy and the prophetic chapters in the book of Daniel. Like the other videos before this one, much of the video is filled with illustrations of Daniel, the angel Gabriel, “the ram and the goat”, Alexander the Great, and the Antichrist of the endtime. Much of this was partially fulfilled in ancient history. But it’s explained in the video how there are important parts that are yet to be fulfilled in the times leading up to the return of Jesus.

This chapter builds solidly on the previous revelations of Daniel chapter 7 where we saw the 4 beasts. But, in putting the video together, I was struck by how much this chapter lays the groundwork for what is revealed in perhaps the most important chapter, Daniel 9.

For example, perhaps the most difficult part of Daniel 8 is where, almost out of the blue, two angels are discussing “the sanctuary”, “the daily sacrifice” and “the transgression that makes desolate”. These are all totally new subjects to these visions and prophecies but they introduce key factors in the revelation of Daniel 9.

Understanding this information and seeing how it all fits is a challenge for those who are new to all this. In fact, we find that during this revelatory experience, Daniel himself evidently fainted twice. He said the vision disturbed him for days and that he didn’t himself understand it. So we can expect that it will not be all that easy to understand for those who are going over these things for the first time.

There’s much in this chapter about Greece and Alexander the Great. There is also key information about the Antichrist of the endtime. And we note that Gabriel specifically tells Daniel three times that the vision relates to “the end”. This is particularly important because some Bible teachers have tried to say that the most important parts of this chapter were already fulfilled in the century or two before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

As I’ve done in the other videos, this class has been produced with the target audience being folks who are mostly new to the subject of Bible prophecy. There are English subtitles which will help those whose first language is not English.

I hope this video will be a blessing to you and yours. I’d be glad to hear any questions or comments on how these videos can be more of a help to you. You can reach me at mark@markmcmillion.com. God bless you, love you lots! Mark

He said it 3 times

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Mark McMillion

God doesn’t waste His breath. He just expects, like a good Father, that if He says something, we’ll do it. But on rare occasions, He’s said something three times. So, probably, whatever He said was important. One of those places is in Daniel chapter 8, the chapter I’m making the next video on currently. But let’s start off with what’s probably the most famous example of the Lord saying something three times.

After His resurrection, Jesus was with His disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. They’d just finished a fish supper that Jesus had prepared for them and it says in John 21:15-17, “So after they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs’ . He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’. He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’”.

That’s an amazing passage in Scripture. Jesus told Peter three times, “Feed My sheep.” It must have been important to the Lord that He did something that emphatic and insistent. Feeding His sheep, teaching, instructing, nourishing and guiding the Lord’s sheep, His flock of believers is obviously just as important as it gets in God’s eyes.

And strangely, another time in the Bible it says that Peter was told something three times from God, in no uncertain terms. In Acts chapter 10 Peter was in Joppa in northern Israel. Peter was the head of the growing group of believers who spread Jesus’ message and truth, after He’d ascended to heaven years before. Peter was on a house top, in prayer, when in a vision he saw a sheet let down from heaven with all kinds of “unclean” animals. The Laws of Moses gave strict rules for the Jews as to what animals were “clean” to eat, permissible, and which ones weren’t.

So Peter sees this sheet coming down with these “unclean” animals and then he hears God’s voice, “Arise, Peter! Kill and eat!” Peter, being a righteous Jew replied, “Not so Lord, for I’ve never eaten anything that’s unclean.” And the voice said to him, “What God has cleansed, you do not call common.” (Acts 10:13-15)

It says, “This happened three times” (Acts 10:16) and then the sheet was let back up to heaven. It sounds like Peter was arguing with God but this seemed so contrary to everything Peter thought was righteous. Then it says that immediately there was a knock at the door downstairs at the house Peter was at. And the Lord told Peter that there were three men there who’d come to see him and that Peter should go with them, “doubting nothing”. (Acts 10:20)

“What’s the big deal with that?” you might say. The big deal is that these men at the door were Romans, “Gentiles”. The Jews weren’t supposed to have anything to do with Gentiles and certainly not go to their house. But Peter went, as the Lord had so firmly told him. The result? Peter preached to a big gathering of Gentiles, telling them about Jesus and they all experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, just as the first disciples had in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

Nowadays it’s easy for us to not appreciate all this. But it was a very, very big deal at that time. Basically this event was when the Lord opened the door clearly to non-Jews to receive all the blessing and provision of His promises, breaking down the wall between the Jews and the Gentiles, making it possibly for anyone through Jesus to receive salvation through Him. But God had to tell Peter plainly and emphatically, three times, that this was of Him and that Peter should go and flow with it, “doubting nothing.”

In Daniel chapter 8 something similar also happened. In a vision, Daniel was by the river Ulai, in what’s now modern Iran, and the angel Gabriel was commanded to explain what Daniel had just seen, a goat and a ram clashing in battle and the goat conquering the ram. But there was more to it, much more, and Daniel tells us he just didn’t understand it. But the angel Gabriel then tells Daniel three times in two verses that “at the time of the end shall be the vision”. (Daniel 8:17-19)

Daniel chapter 8 is a somewhat difficult chapter to understand or even to teach. Prophecy teachers through the years have had some huge debates about parts of it and I’ve been in some of those debates. Some say that it’s all already been fulfilled. But then we can go back to the words of Gabriel, spoken three times to Daniel, “at the time of the end shall be the vision.” At the time of the end. And we’re not there yet. But we may be getting real close.

[Since completing this blog post, I’ve also completed the full video on Daniel chapter 8. That video in English can be seen here.]

When God says something three times, it’s important. Whether it’s to feed the flock of God, or to not call unclean what God has cleansed, or that the prophecies of God are going to have a future, endtime fulfillment, God thought those were important enough to say it three times. Lord help us to get the point, to believe it and act upon it.

“So who is Armageddon, anyway?”

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Mark McMillion

This the fourth in what was originally intended to be a series on “Jesus coming back? No way!”

Some of you may laugh. “Ha, ha,” you say, “everyone knows that Armageddon is not a ‘who’”. But the joke may be on you.

If you look at the broad picture, how many people in the world know who, or what Armageddon is? Five percent? One percent? And how many have heard the word “Armageddon” somewhere, but have no idea what it is? (Just that we’re supposed to be afraid of it.) I dare say that the ones who don’t know anything about what “Armageddon” means is a far larger group than the ones who do understand that word.

If you’ve heard of Armageddon but don’t know what it’s about, what’s written here is for you. In short, “Armageddon” means “hill of Megiddo”. So it’s not a “who”; it’s a “what”. It’s a rather small hill that’s in the plains of Megiddo in the north of modern Israel.

“Why is everyone talking about that and trying to get everyone afraid?” you ask. Here’s why. In the book of Revelations in the Bible, it says the final cataclysmic event before the return of Jesus to the earth will take place at that location in Israel, the hill of Megiddo, “Armageddon”.

So that word has come to signify the final events before the return of Jesus to the earth. And sadly, it’s often referred to as “the end of the world”. Even in the dictionary I just looked in, when looking up Armageddon, it used the phrase “the end of the world”.

My friends, that phrase, “the end of the world”, is not really helpful or accurate. I grew up during the nuclear arms race in the 1960’s and we’d regularly have drills in school to prepare for a full nuclear attack on our country. “The end of the world” was very real then and that’s not the kind of thing the Bible predicts, the utter destruction and end of our planet and humanity.

A better way to describe what the Bible predicts would be to say, “the end of the age.” It will certainly be that. But this “end of the world” phrase is just another thing that scoffers and mockers use to exaggerate and ridicule Bible prophecy.

So then you could ask, “If Armageddon is the catchall term for the return of Jesus and the coming of God’s Kingdom on earth, if it’s not the end of the world, what is it?” Well, like I was saying, it will be the end of the age, and the biggest change humanity has seen in thousands of years. And it wasn’t just Jesus that told about this.

To me, one of the best and simplest explanations of all this is found in chapter 2 of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. I’ve made a 27 minute video on this chapter and you can view it by clicking here. God gave a dream to the leader of the emerging world power at that time, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. But then God made it so that Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t remember it.

As it turned out, a young Hebrew captive of Babylon, Daniel, was able to tell Nebuchadnezzar both what he dreamed and what it meant. Nebuchadnezzar had seen a strange statue of different kinds of metal, gold, silver, brass and iron. Then in his dream he saw a stone which struck the statue and turned it to dust. And the stone itself turned into a great mountain that filled the whole earth.

Young Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the statue and the various metals represented his kingdom of Babylon and the kingdoms that would come after his. But the stone that struck the statue, destroying it and then filling the whole earth represented the coming Kingdom of God on earth, a kingdom that God Himself would ultimately bring and cause to take root right here in our world. The climax of Daniel’s explanation to Nebuchadnezzar is found in Daniel 2:44. It says there, In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people. But it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. And it shall stand forever.

This basically sums up in a beautiful, hopeful way what’s eventually going to happened in our world, and what God has been foretelling for many centuries. Armageddon is just going to be a major physical location in the very final physical events of the end of this age and the beginning of the next. The big picture is that the nations of earth will eventually be overcome and brought into subjection by the kingdom of God Himself in the person of His son, Jesus.

If you get a chance to watch the video on Daniel Chapter 2, you can see there how what took place is like God’s explanation Himself to Nebuchadnezzar, someone for whom this was all really new. Maybe like you. I hope this is some help. I look forward to sharing more with you about all this.

Your friend, Mark

“Jesus coming back? No way!”

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Mark McMillion

When I was 20, I’d sometimes meet Christians who’d talk to me about Jesus of Nazareth. I usually really enjoyed it. I felt I could always argue with them and usually make them feel stupid or embarrassed about their faith. Back then, I liked to do that.

So I know how nutty it can seem to some people when they hear about the idea of a person who died 2000 years ago “coming back” to our modern world.

I won’t tell you how I came to believe in God, that’s another story. But, if you’re not too sure about this whole thing and wonder how anyone could have such an eccentric idea, let me give you some information which you may not know. Maybe you’re a very rational person and like facts. Let’s look at some.

First, let me introduce you to something which you are perhaps not familiar: prophecy. Now, don’t run off. I said I wanted to share some facts with you. But the word “prophecy” may conjure up for you some crazed fellow in robes, running around shouting about the end of the world. Or maybe some strange mumbo-jumbo of predictions someone said was going to happened, when there was nothing really prophetic about it.

But what if there was a phenomenon of prophecy that consistently came true? What if there were people who really had a proven track record of foretelling future events and those events happened? Well, there is. And this is going to bring us back to our original subject, Jesus of Nazareth.

[By the way, one of the videos that I have produced is explaining the whole phenomenon of prophecy, against the backdrop of the history of ancient Israel. It’s called “An Introduction to Prophecy in History.” You can view it here.]

Continue reading →

The Daniel Videos

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Mark McMillion

A special interest for me over the years has been the subject of Bible prophecy. Having grown up as an atheist, discovering Bible prophecy after I became a Christian was an astonishing experience. Knowing that God has a plan and ultimate destination for mankind (and that He’s revealed that plan through His prophets) has been such a deep wellspring of fascination and strength for me. And it’s been a thrill for me over the years to share with others the truths I’ve found when studying Bible prophecy.

Nebuchadnezzar’s-dream Around 10 years ago someone said to me, “You should video these classes you teach about the book of Daniel.” That was the beginning of a new stage in my life. Till now I have completed three videos and they are now available to view on the companion website to this one, propheciesofdaniel.com.

Moving abroad again in 2003

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Mark McMillion

This is the second Fields newsletter that I sent to friends in 2003, shortly after I arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia at the beginning of what turned out to be 5 amazing years in that wonderful country.

Hello to you again, this time from Sweden! Since my last newsletter, many things worked out well so that I was able to fly from Austin, Texas and arrive here on March 20th.

Visiting my kids and former wife on the Swedish countryside, on the way to Indonesia, 2003

Before going any further, I’d like to thank the many of you in Austin who helped make it possible for me to move on like this. Quitting my job with the State of Texas, closing the apartment, selling my car and getting rid of most of my things was all a lot less traumatic than it could have been and none of the things that I was afraid might happen actually did. Thank the Lord and God bless you! I’ve been staying on the Swedish countryside with my former wife and her husband and seeing my children.

A surprise

A year ago I was preparing to make a video of a Bible class I’d been teaching in Texas.

Reviewing texts before filming

It’s one I also taught before on the mission field, in such places as Hungary. My son, Ariel, and I prepared a number of charts and maps for the class but, after most of it was ready for videoing, complications arose and the project was shelved.

In March I was saying goodbye to some friends in Texas who’ve had years of experience in videoing. The subject came up about the class and they said they really hoped they could film it before I left.

From a map that’s used in the video

My schedule was tight but I was able to take 2 days to try to do the filming. The class is on the subject of Bible prophecy and the history of Israel, an introduction to both. It’s primarily aimed at those who are new to these subjects, spiritually hungry but possibly without a background or knowledge of Christianity.

Ultimately it did get done but it was a fight. Do you ever wonder why strange things happen right when you are trying to go forward for the Lord? The first thing was that, 48 hours before we were to start, I came down with a really bad cough, just out of nowhere, the first for me in many months. Hmm.

But since everything had been prepared a year before, mainly what was needed now was that I “know my lines”, the 25 minutes of the class which I needed to quote on camera, like in a theater or play. In some of the pictures you can see me with a text in hand. I’m furiously doing my last bit of rehearsing before the camera roles for the next part of the class.

Filming in Texas, 2003

The first day went well and by the evening I was totally “horse”, only able to whisper. Meanwhile their professional camera had broken down. The backup camera was set up for Europe and so things were looking bleak. I mentioned to my friends that I’d brought my own handheld camcorder and they thought they might be able to complete the filming with that. We prayed desperately for my health and the technical side and decided to try it again in the morning.

The next morning I was rested but still couldn’t even talk. So it came down to one of those “Lord,-we-need-your-help-right-now!” kind of prayers. The Lord promises power for the hour, “as thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25b), for that day.

But sometimes, “as they went, they were healed” (Luke 17:14), we have to do the “wenting”. I kept rehearsing and praying, believing and preparing and they kept getting set up. I had to drive back to Austin in the early afternoon so it really was now or never.

Well, it wasn’t a sudden flash of healing but I got better. By late morning I was finding enough of my voice that I was able to go back on camera. In the end it did get finished, a real answer to prayer and a blessing that this project was able to be completed before I left.

Leaning against a papaya tree,
Jakarta, Indonesia

I’ve been in Indonesia now for about two weeks and it’s been wonderful. It reminds me of what Mark Twain said, “95% of all the things I ever worried about never happened.” Here’s a picture, next to a papaya tree. In the yard are also coconut, star fruit, mango and jackfruit trees. So in some ways we don’t have it so rough.

I have had some involvement with the projects my friends have here. On an evening last week I went to a Christian orphanage and I have an appointment to do a Bible study with the young people there next week.

FOR NOW…

They say, “out of sight, out of mind” but that’s not been the case with my thoughts of you to whom I send these. I think of you often, pray for you and look forward to hearing from you. Please do continue to pray for me, it really does matter and help. And I very much enjoy hearing from you, how things are for you as well as any reactions, questions or comments you have on the things I’ve sent you.

With love and prayers, your friend, Mark

Mark McMillion

Creeds and Deeds, Facts and Acts

Category Archives: The Daniel videos and texts