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Man, Daniel chapter 7 is where we get into the really heavily prophetic part of the book of Daniel. It starts out in verse number 1. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. Now this is going to be a throwback to Daniel chapter 2, and if you remember in Daniel chapter 2, there's that great image that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about, and the image had the head of gold, and then as you went down the image, it went from gold to silver to bronze, and then to iron, and then you had the feet mingled with iron and clay. And that dream was interpreted by Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar that the head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar himself, the great king of Babylon, and that was the first great empire. And the reason that it was gold is because it was the most superior empire. And then the next empire was the Medo-Persian empire, which makes sense that it would be this portion of the body with the chest and arms because it had two arms. It had the Mede aspect and the Persian aspect, and it said that that kingdom was inferior to Nebuchadnezzar's great Babylonian empire. And then after that, the third section of brass was the Grecian empire, and then the iron empire was the Roman empire, and of course, Christ's first coming took place during the Roman empire. In Daniel 7, we're going to see that these four beasts represent those same four kingdoms, and they fit together perfectly. Look at verse number 4. The Bible says the first was like a lion. Now right away, the lion is used in the Bible often to symbolize a great king because the lion is considered the king of the jungle, and it's considered the strongest among beasts that turneth not away for any, as it says 30. So of course, the greatest king in this series, Nebuchadnezzar, is symbolized by the lion. It says the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings, and the eagle is considered the greatest flying bird. It says that I beheld, it says I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And this makes perfect sense about Nebuchadnezzar because if you remember in chapter 4, what happened? He was given the heart of a beast, and his hair grew like bird's feathers, and his fingernails became as bird claws, and he was on all fours like an animal eating grass outside for seven years. Well, after that, what happened? He was lifted up from the earth, he was made to stand up like a man, and a man's heart was given unto him, meaning that his sanity came back to him. So that fits perfectly, again, with Nebuchadnezzar. So everything fits there for verse number 4, with the head of gold being parallel with the lion. Okay, let's go to verse 5, and behold another beast, a second like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it, and they said thus unto it, arise, devour much flesh. So if this is parallel with Daniel chapter 2, this would be the Medo-Persian Empire, which makes perfect sense again. Why? Because in Daniel chapter 8, it likens the Medo-Persian Empire to a ram having two horns, and it talks about how one horn was higher than the other. Okay, because of the Medes and the Persians, the Persians ended up being much more powerful and dominant. So it makes sense that the bear is raised up on one side, meaning it's off balance, because it's a lot more heavily Persian than it is of the Medes. Now it says that there are three ribs in his mouth that say unto it, arise, devour much flesh. What do those three ribs represent? Well, flip over to Daniel chapter 11 to get the answer. Daniel chapter 11, because remember the bear with the three ribs represents the Medo-Persian Empire or the great king of Persia. Look if you would at Daniel chapter 11, verse 1. Actually, let's go to verse 2, and now will I show thee, behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than they all, and by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. Now chapter 11 is a continuation of chapter 10, and in chapter 10 verse 1, it says that this is happening in the third year of Cyrus, okay? So Daniel gets this vision in the third year of Cyrus that says that there are going to be three more kings in Persia, Cyrus being that first king of Persia, Cyrus the Great. There are going to be three more kings in Persia after him, okay? And the fourth, which is basically the three plus Cyrus makes the last of the three the fourth, that fourth king is going to be the greatest, most powerful one, and he's going to be the one that stirs up all against the realm of Grecia. Well, these are the three kings. If you study your Bible and if you look in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, you'll get the names of those three kings. Those three kings are named Artaxerxes, Darius, and Ahasuerus. And if you remember in the book of Esther, Ahasuerus is the really rich, wealthy, super powerful king that reigns over everything from Ethiopia to India, 127 provinces, and it just goes on and on about his wealth and luxury. Well, historically, we know that Ahasuerus, who's also known as Xerxes, is the one who ended up invading Greece. And you've heard about the famous battles of Thermopylae and Athens and so forth. So that's the king that's being referred to. So it makes sense, if you go back to Daniel chapter 7, it makes perfect sense that this bear has three ribs in its mouth because that represents the three kings that are going to be coming that are mentioned in Daniel 11. If we just kind of let the book define itself, there are three future kings associated with Persia. Okay, let's go to the next beast. It says in verse number 6, after this I'll be held in low another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl, the beast had also four heads, and dominion was given to it. Now, we know that the next great kingdom that came after the Medo-Persians, according to Daniel chapter 8 and the rest of the book of Daniel, is the kingdom of Grecia. Well, let's see if this description fits that kingdom. First of all, it's symbolized by a leopard. Well, what is a leopard known for more than anything else? It's known for its great speed, okay? Well, Alexander the Great was the one who conquered for the realm of Grecia, and Alexander the Great's army was known for its great speed. That's how it was able to be so effective was that it moved in really fast. And in Daniel chapter 8, the king of Grecia is represented by a he-goat, and it talks about that goat coming so fast that it doesn't even touch the ground. So whenever it talks about the Greek empire, it's always talking about the speed, whether it's a leopard or not touching the ground. This is because of the rapidity that Alexander the Great's armies had when they attacked. But then it talks about how this leopard-like beast has four wings and four heads. Why is that? Well, you'll notice that over and over again in the book of Daniel, the number four is going to come up in association with Greece, and here's why. Because Alexander the Great died as a very young man, and he died unexpectedly when he was only 32 years old. And so because he died young and unexpectedly, he hadn't really assigned an heir to take over for him when he was gone. Because when you're 32 years old, you don't really think that somebody else is going to necessarily need to take over, you're not necessarily thinking about those things. And so when Alexander the Great died, his kingdom was divided into four pieces. And Daniel brings that up repeatedly later in the book. So there were four of his generals that took over, and they carved up the kingdom, and it split into four kingdoms. And so that's why this leopard has four heads, because there are four different people that end up being in charge. You have the Seleucid Empire being the main one in the north, the Ptolemaic empires the main one in the south, but it was split into four pieces. And so we'll get into that in future lessons, I don't want to dwell on that for now. So that makes perfect sense. Then when we get to verse seven, it says, after this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it. And it was diverse, meaning different, from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. Now this fourth kingdom that comes up is the Roman Empire that just crushed everything with an iron fist and defeated and took over the previous empires. And so those are the four kingdoms in succession, the same ones that we saw in Daniel chapter two with the great image. And if you've seen the film Babylon USA, you remember we talked a lot about this in that film as well. And then here we have the four beasts that represent those same four kingdoms. Now if you remember the image in Daniel chapter two, it didn't just have those four main sections though. It didn't just have the golden head and then the silver and then the bronze and then finally the iron, because at the bottom, if you remember, it had the feet that were of iron mingled with clay, the ten toes of Daniel, you might have heard. Well in this scripture, instead of being the ten toes, we have ten horns. But it still is compatible with that same idea. And the ten toes of Daniel two and the ten horns of Daniel seven here, according to Revelation, they represent ten kings, right, that we're going to see in the end times. So we have these four kingdoms that led up to the first coming of Jesus Christ, right? But then there's also a foreshadowing of a great kingdom that's going to come up for the second coming of Jesus Christ, what we often call the new world order or a one world system that's going to be in place before Christ returns. Flip over just quickly to Revelation 13. Revelation chapter 13 just quickly and we'll see that comparison with end times events. Because certainly these things were relevant to Daniel's time and the time leading up to Christ's first coming, because they had to do with events that took place back then. The kings of Persia, Alexander the Great, his four generals and the kingdoms that they had. And then ultimately the Roman Empire taking control around 60 B.C. before Jesus Christ was born. And so you have the Roman Empire taking control in preparation for the coming of Christ. The stage was set so that Christ came at the perfect time in history so that the gospel could be spread most effectively. Only God in his infinite wisdom chose to allow Jesus Christ to be born at that particular time. So in Revelation 13, though, we have a future event. Because a lot of this, like I said, covered things that already happened in the past. But there's also a future fulfillment, because when we go to Revelation 13, which is written after all those things happened, we see a similar beast. Look at verse 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea. Now if you remember, back in Daniel 7, all four of those beasts, they arose out of the sea. Well this is an end times beast arising out of the sea. And it says that he had seven heads and ten horns, and upon the horns ten crowns, again the ten kings, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, does that sound familiar? And his feet were as the feet of a bear, does that sound familiar? And his mouth was as the mouth of a lion. So it's the same beast just in the descending order, the opposite order. Instead of going lion, bear, leopard, it's going leopard, bear, lion. And then it says, and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. So the devil is putting this king in power, this beast, this great empire is coming into play in the end times that's sort of a mixture of all of them. I believe that in the end times, this great one world system that the devil is going to put in place, it's going to have the power and the strength and the prestige of all four of those ancient kingdoms combined. I mean it's going to be greater than the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires all combined. It's going to be super powerful. It's like a mixture of all those elements coming together in one beast, in one great empire of the end times. But then it talks about how there are the seven heads, the ten horns, and one of the heads is wounded to death and so forth. But it talks about this beast in verse 6. It says, he opened his mouth in blasphemy, I'm sorry, let me back up. It talks about this beast in verse 5, and there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. So I want you to remember that. This beast that arises, which is symbolic of a king and a kingdom, the anti-Christ and his one world government, that's empowered by Satan, it says that he's given a mouth speaking great things, remember that, and blasphemies, and how long was he going to continue? For forty-two months, right? And then if you would, go down to verse 7, it says it was given unto him to make war with the saints and overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. Let's back up to Daniel 7 now and see how this fits together. In Daniel 7, it talked about how the fourth beast, the dreadful beast, the different beast, the diver's beast, with the iron teeth, had ten horns, it says at the end of verse 7. Well look at verse 8, I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, so this is not one of the ten horns, this is another horn, right? Another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots, and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and watch this, a mouth speaking great things, now does that sound familiar from Revelation 13? So this little horn of Daniel chapter 7 is the anti-Christ, so the little horn who comes up among the ten horns, the ten horns are ten kings, he ends up subduing three of those kings, and he has a mouth that speaks great things. We know from Revelation 13 they are great things and blasphemies, blaspheming the God of heaven and so forth. Let's keep reading. Verse 9, I beheld till the thrones were cast down. What thrones? The thrones of these ten kings and the thrones of the little horn, the anti-Christ. Till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit. That's a pretty interesting term, the ancient of days. It's only found in Daniel chapter 7, it's the only place in scripture that you come across it as a name of God, and it has to do with the fact that God has always existed. He is the ancient of days, meaning that he's always been around. It's referring to the eternality of God here. So it says here that I beheld until the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. What's ten thousand times ten thousand? Quick. A hundred million. The judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, or the Antichrist spake, I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. Now, when does that take place? Well, we know in Revelation chapter 19, the Lord wipes out the Antichrist and casts the beast and the false prophet into the burning flame. He throws them into what? The lake of fire. As concerning the rest of the beasts, who are the rest of the beasts? This would be the other kingdoms of this world. They had their dominion taken away. They're no longer in charge. Why? Because at that point, when the Antichrist is tossed into the lake of fire, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. So their dominion is taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. That goes to show that when Christ sets up his millennial kingdom and takes away the power from the Antichrist, not every unsafe person is going to be wiped out at that time, as some people erroneously believe. Now, Jesus Christ is certainly going to wipe out the entire army that's there at Armageddon with the Antichrist. The Antichrist and the false prophet and all the armies are wiped out. But what about the rest of the people in the world that populate their kingdoms? The rest of the people in the world are not all going to die. Many of them are going to survive and go into the millennium. So in the millennium, the saved will be ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ, but there will be unsaved people who survived all of the wrath poured out in Revelation that go into the millennium. Their lives are prolonged. So as we keep reading here, it says in verse number 13, I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before him. So a lot of this should sound really familiar from the book of Revelation if you're familiar with the book of Revelation. The first thing that you'll notice is that the guy who's sitting on the throne, the Ancient of Days, his description is similar to the description of Jesus Christ in Revelation 1, but there's an important difference. It says here that the Ancient of Days who's sitting on the throne, it says that his garment was white as snow. Isn't that what it says about Jesus in Revelation 1, that he has a garment that's white as snow? It says that the hair of his head was like the pure wool. Well it says in Revelation 1 that Christ's hair was white like wool. It says here that his throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire and a fiery stream issued and came forth before him. You say, what are the wheels? Well if you remember the descriptions in Ezekiel, it talks about wheels of fire and so forth that are around the throne of God. Well the big difference here though is that we don't see his face because if you remember in the account in Revelation chapter 1 when it talks about Jesus, it mentions his eyes were as a flame of fire. And it says that his countenance was like the sun shineth in his strength. So John is actually seeing the face of Jesus Christ and describing his countenance or face and the eyes that are like a burning fire. Whereas here the Ancient of Days is seated on the throne, but you don't see his face described. Why? Because no man can see God the Father's face and live. You say, well how do you know it's God the Father that's sitting on the throne? Maybe it's Jesus Christ that's sitting on the throne. Well the reason that we know it's God the Father is because look at verse number 13. It says, I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before him. So it's obvious that the Son of Man who comes in the clouds of heaven is Jesus and he's coming to the Ancient of Days. So it's one person coming to another. And then it says, there was given him dominion. Well who gave the dominion to Jesus? God the Father gave him the dominion. Just as the devil had given dominion to the Antichrist, the devil gave him his power and his seed and great authority, well Jesus Christ receives dominion from God the Father. Why? Because the devil is a counterfeiter. So his Antichrist is set up to be like Jesus Christ, to impersonate Jesus Christ, to be a counterfeit of Jesus and the dragon or the devil is like a counterfeit God the Father. And the false prophet is like a counterfeit Holy Spirit. So it's like a satanic trinity or an evil counterfeit trinity. So what we see here is that the Ancient of Days who is seated on the throne is God the Father and that's why we don't see his face described because Daniel would not be able to see his face and live. And then we have the Son of Man come in the clouds of heaven to God the Father and then there is given unto 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. So we know that Jesus Christ, the Son of Man who comes in the clouds of heaven is worthy of receiving all praise and all glory and all worship and that all people should worship him. Now the Bible is pretty clear that you're only supposed to worship God. It says thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. So this is another proof of the deity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is God because he's worthy of worship. And in fact when Thomas falls on his knees before him in John chapter 20 and says my Lord and my God and worships Jesus, he says blessed art thou because thou is believed. And in fact all throughout the four gospels you'll find Jesus Christ receiving worship. Now when people try to worship the apostles, what do they do? They pick them up off their feet and say hey we're men like you, don't worship us, worship God. That Jesus Christ being God is worthy of all worship. See the Bible tells us that in him, in Jesus Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now a lot of people misunderstand that word Godhead because it's a very old word and I think very few people actually understand what this word means. There's actually a suffix in the English language, hood. But in older forms of English like Middle English around the 1400s, 1500s, this ending was not hood, it was head. And it changed over time but Bible words are slow to change. So this word Godhead, it actually means Godhood is what it means, it's just an archaic form. For example there are old words like maidenhead, the word maidenhead you can even look it up in a modern dictionary, maidenhead means virginity. We would say maidenhood but it used to be called maidenhead. Well the same way with Godhead, Godhead is just an old form of the word Godhood. And in fact even if you just look up the word Godhead in the dictionary, you know what it will say as one of the definitions, Godhood. It's just an old form. So a lot of people have just taken the word Godhead or Godhood and just said oh well that's just another word for the Trinity like it's the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost all collectively are the Godhead. In a sense that's true because of the fact that obviously that does represent the Godhood of you know those are the three people that are God. Like when we actually look at the three times in scripture that the word Godhead is used because it's only used three times, it's not a word that's used a lot. It actually makes perfect sense that it means Godhood or divinity or the state of being God, Godness or Godhood. It's just like we have other words like brotherhood, maidenhood, etc. Well and I encourage you to fact check me on this and you'll see that I'm telling the truth. These are archaic forms from Middle English that just were still hanging around. Some of these forms even hung around until the 1800s. I first noticed this when reading a book from the 1800s and it used the word maidenhead and it kind of took me aback and then it all started to make sense. But if you look up the actual verses that use the term Godhead, for example in Romans chapter 1 it says that the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. It's even his eternal power and Godhead so that they're without excuse. It makes sense that it's his eternal power and Godhood or divinity. Then when you get to Acts when he talks about not making idols, he's saying look, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like to what? Carved images out of gold and silver and stone, right? You can't make divinity down to the level of being a carved chunk of whatever the material. And then when you get to Colossians chapter 1 it makes perfect sense to say in him, in Jesus Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. What does that mean? That means that Jesus Christ is fully divine. He is fully God. So it's not that he's part of God or partially God or that the other two have to all come together and then they form God like Voltron, okay? But rather, if you know what Voltron is, and I'm not a Voltron expert, but Voltron is like the Trinity in one way but unlike the Trinity in another way. Because it's true that all of the robots collectively make up Voltron. Who even knows what Voltron is? Anybody? Oh, well, great. Yeah. We're among friends here. No, I'm just kidding. I've seen it in about 25 years, so bear with me. But anyway, all of the robots collectively make up Voltron. So you could use that as an illustration that, you know, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost collectively make up the Trinity. But the difference between the Trinity and Voltron is that each robot, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think you could call each robot individually Voltron. Whereas the thing with the Trinity is that the Father, just on his own, can be called God. Just God the Father, all by himself, in his own right, is God. And Jesus Christ, all by himself, in his own right, is God. And the Holy Ghost is all by himself, in his own right, God. You say, well, that's three different Gods. No, wrong, because the Bible teaches that there's one God that is made up of these three persons. Three persons, one God. Okay? So the Father is God, the Holy Ghost is God, the Son is God, but yet it's one God. That's the whole reason why we talk about the Trinity, right? That's the unity is that it's one God in three persons. But each of them, in his own right, is God. That's why we say that they are co-equal persons of the Godhead. Why? Because they are all equally God. Meaning that Jesus is just as much God as God the Father is God. And the Holy Ghost is just as much God. Jesus is not an inferior God, or a separate God, or a created being, but rather Jesus is every bit as much God as God the Father is God. Right? Why? Because in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Jesus Christ is fully God. And part of being God is that you've always been around. So Jesus is not a later created being, but rather God exists. The one true God, Jehovah, the Lord, God, exists eternally as three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in eternity past and on into eternity future. So I hope that helps you understand a little bit once you get the right meaning of the word Godhead, it makes a little bit more sense. And if you would look at verse 13, it says, I saw in the night visions that, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to 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, whose dominion? Jesus Christ's dominion, is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Now you say, wait a minute. I thought that Jesus Christ is only going to reign for a thousand years. Why is it saying it's going to last forever? Here's why. Because at the end of the thousand years, Christ's kingdom is not destroyed. At the end of the thousand years, Christ's kingdom doesn't pass away. At the end of the thousand years, Jesus Christ delivers up the kingdom to the Father. And then it says that the Son himself will be subject unto the Father. And so at that point, Jesus Christ continues to rule and reign under the Father's authority. So it's accurate to say that he's going to reign forever. That's why it says the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. But then in the next chapter it says, well, he reigned a thousand years, right? Well, he reigned a thousand years until what? Until the devil rebels and Gog and Magog and all that. And then what? Then the Father rules directly, but Jesus continues to rule. Just as we continue to rule. For a thousand years we rule and reign with Christ, but you know what? After the millennium, we're still going to be reigning and ruling with him for all eternity. It's just that the kingdom will enter a new phase, but it hasn't been destroyed. I mean, that's what they're trying to do at the battle of Gog and Magog is destroy that kingdom, but they fail because the Lord destroys them. So the Bible says his kingdom, Christ's kingdom, Jesus Christ's kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed. Verse 15. I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by and asked him the truth of all this, so he told me and made me know the interpretation of the things. So now we're going to go back and interpret some of these things. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, and just in case that wasn't enough, even forever and ever. Okay. So not only is Jesus going to reign forever, who else is going to reign forever? The saints. Well, yes, the Father, but in this verse, who's going to reign forever and ever? The saints shall take the kingdom, and they shall reign forever and ever, even forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Okay. Verse 19. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast. So he wants to ask specifically about that fourth beast. And I think the reason why he wants to know specifically about that fourth beast is that he has a greater understanding of the first three beasts. It's a little bit of a simpler prophecy to understand Babylon, Medo-Persian Empire, the Greeks. That makes sense. He wants to know about that fourth beast. That's the one that's the most interesting. Which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass, which devoured, break in pieces and stamped the residue with his feet. Even of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows, I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them. Now what did it say in Revelation 13 about the Antichrist? It said that he made war with the saints and overcame them, right? Well here it says that he made war with the saints and prevailed against them. So again, there's no question that the little horn of Daniel chapter 7 is the Antichrist. That's crystal clear, isn't it? It says that he made war with the saints and prevailed against them until. So he prevails against them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Now wait a minute, earlier in the chapter it was the Ancient of Days that was sitting on that throne and it was the Son of Man who came, right? And that word came is pretty important because we talk a lot about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ's second coming in the clouds. So it said the Son of Man came with the clouds. Now earlier in the chapter when he comes with the clouds he's coming to the Ancient of Days who's on the throne. Why? Because he just finished coming in the clouds to the earth and all of the dead in Christ rose first and those which were alive and remain were caught up together with him and they all go where? To heaven, right? That's why the Son of Man comes with the clouds to the Ancient of Days sitting on the throne. But now in this scripture it says the Ancient of Days came. Now why is that? The reason why is that the name Ancient of Days can be applied to either the Father or the Son just as the name God can be applied to the Father or the Son or the Holy Ghost just as the name Jehovah is applied to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Now I think the best way to illustrate this is that we have names that we share with our Father, don't we? Like for example, my dad's name is Raymond Anderson. So if you were to call out Brother Anderson, we're both going to turn around. My dad's going to turn around and I'm going to turn around because we're both Brother Anderson. Okay? We both could share that title brother, we're both saved, we're both brothers in Christ and we could both share that name Anderson, right? But if somebody said Steven Anderson, well Anderson is a name that I share with my dad but Steven is a name that's unique to me. That's a name that my dad doesn't have. So if you said Steven Anderson, you're specifically talking about me, you're not talking about my dad. If you said Pastor Anderson, you're no longer talking about my dad because he does not share that particular title either. So there are certain titles and names that my father and I share and then there are certain names and titles that could be unique to me like my first name or my title of being pastor. It's the exact same way with Jesus, okay? Jesus shares certain names with God the Father. Like he shares the name God. He shares the name the Lord. He shares the name Jehovah, right? He does not share the name Jesus. Jesus is a name that is unique to the Son of God. The name of the Father is not Jesus, okay? God the Father does not share that name and again I don't have time, I've done other sermons, a lot of other sermons where I proved that with scripture that the name of the Father is not Jesus. But we see that the term Ancient of Days which is a rare title that we only find in Daniel 7 and nowhere else in scripture is applied to both Father and Son. What do we learn from that? We learn that they're both co-eternal. We learn that they both are the Ancient of Days. Why? Because they both existed in eternity past. That's why Jesus talked about the glory that he shared with the Father in Daniel or in... That's why Jesus talked about the glory that he shared with the Father in John 17. He said before the world began that Jesus shared glory with God the Father. So in eternity past you had the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. So the Bible says the Ancient of Days came, verse 22, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, that's us by the way, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom, us again. Verse 23, thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth which shall be diverse from all kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. That's what's coming in the future folks. This new world order is not all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns. It's going to be treading down and breaking in pieces the earth. That's what the Bible says. It says that the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise and another shall rise after them. Who is the other that rises after them? The little horn, the antichrist. It says that another shall rise after them and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three kings. Now we know from the book of Revelation that eventually in chapter 17 the ten kings have one mind, they're all in lockstep ready to do the antichrist bidding. They are ready to do his will to give their kingdoms unto the beast that the word of God might be fulfilled. But apparently in the beginning there are three kings that are offering the antichrist some resistance and he has to put them down. He has to subdue these three kings. But in the end all ten of them are on his side. The Bible says in verse 25, and he, the little horn, the antichrist, shall speak great words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. Now we know of course that the times are years. When Nebuchadnezzar went nuts, seven times was seven years. A time and times and half a time, or here it says a time, times, and the dividing of time, meaning part of a time, represents the three and a half years that the antichrist will be in power. How long did Revelation 13 say he was going to be in power? Forty-two months. What's forty-two months? Three and a half years. A time, times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume it and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him, meaning they're all going to serve and obey Jesus Christ. Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my cogitations, what are cogitations? His thoughts, right? Cognito ergo sum, right? I think, therefore I am. So cogitations, he says, they much troubled him. So his thoughts bothered him. And that's how some people feel about this sermon right now. You know, they're listening to all this Bible prophecy preaching, or maybe when they read this in the Bible, and it can be a little bit overwhelming. There's a lot to process. This is a complicated subject, so don't feel bad if some of this stuff goes over your head. The first time you read through Daniel, or the first time you hear Daniel preached, you might not grasp everything the first time through. The first time you read Revelation or hear preaching through Revelation, you might not grasp everything the first time through. This is some heavy stuff. And so it was so heavy that Daniel's cogitations much troubled him. And he said, my countenance changed in me. Meaning the way he looked, his face changed. Meaning you could look at him and tell, man, there's something wrong with you. He talks about later in the book, receiving similar prophecies and being sick for weeks. Just because this stuff is just so overwhelming, it's so stressful being in the presence of these angels and just seeing all these scary things that he ends up getting sick. These visions really lowered his immunity. So he ends up being sick and troubled and going to bed for a while. It talks about later in the book. His countenance changed in him, but he said, but I kept the matter in my heart. And then the next verse in chapter 8, we're in a totally different year. So at the beginning of chapter 7, verse 1, it said, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon. Well, when we get to chapter 8, it says, in the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar. So he gets this vision in chapter 7, and then it's two years later that he sort of gets the next installment. And the next installment builds on some of the things that he learned in chapter 7, but it's completely different. So when the Bible says that the antichrist in verse 25 is going to speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand unto a time and times of the dividing of time. Let me say a few more words about this verse, and then I'll be done. This is an important verse. First of all, this 42-month time period begins at the midpoint of what we know as Daniel's 70th week. Because it's at the midpoint that the abomination of desolation is set up, which we're going to talk more about in chapters 8 and 9. But when that abomination of desolation is set up at the midpoint, that's where the antichrist becomes the antichrist and begins to rule. And power is given unto him to continue from that point for 42 months. That's why even after God begins to pour out his wrath, for example, with the fifth vial being poured out in Revelation chapter 6, it says that the fifth vial was poured out upon the kingdom of the beast. Why? Because he's still reigning. The antichrist continues to reign through the trumpets and vials of God's wrath that are being poured out. His kingdom is not taken away until after all the vials are poured out when he's wiped out at Armageddon and cast into the lake of fire. So that's the timing. Now the Bible does say that he will wear out the saints. Why? Because when he begins his reign of terror at the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week, guess what? The Christians are not gone. The rapture hasn't happened yet. They're still there. So a lot of people believe in the pre-trib rapture, and they think that everybody's just going to be taken out of here before any of the tribulation starts or any of the events of the end times. That's why it's called pre-tribulation rapture or the imminent second coming of Christ or the imminent rapture. But what the Bible actually teaches is that he does not come in the clouds for his elect until the sun and moon are darkened. So we're not raptured until the day of the Lord. We're not raptured until the sun and moon are darkened, which is the opening of the sixth seal, which takes place after the midpoint, okay? Because at the midpoint is where the antichrist begins to make war with the saints. Well, who's he making war with if everybody's out of there? And a lot of people say, oh, well, you'll never see the church mentioned in Revelation after chapter 4. Yeah, but you see the saints mentioned, and the antichrist is making war with the saints. He's making war with Christians, and that begins at the midpoint. That's the opening of the fifth seal. Because what happens when the fifth seal is opened in Revelation? It talks about how there's all these martyrs that appear in heaven that have been beheaded for Christ. Why? Because that's the point where the antichrist begins to severely persecute God's people and to even slay many of them. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. The antichrist's reign of terror is going to be cut short by Christ coming in the clouds and the rapture. So there's going to be a period of great tribulation where many will be beheaded for the cause of Christ, where the mark of the beast is implemented, but it's not going to go the whole 42 months because Christ is going to come and rapture the believers out partway through that. Okay. Now, he will continue to reign for 42 months, but he's only going to wear out the saints until they're taken out of this world. So he's going to make war with them. He's going to wear them out. And then it says at the end of the verse, he shall think to change times and laws. Now modern Bible versions will change what the Bible calls the antichrist, which is the man of sin, right? In 2 Thessalonians 2, the antichrist is called the man of sin, talks about the man of sin being revealed. In the modern versions, they change it from the man of sin to the man of lawlessness, the man of lawlessness. So when you hear these so-called Bible scholars or people that are into these modern versions, the Bible of the month club, they don't talk about the man of sin because the King James is much too hard to understand here. The word sin is much too complicated and difficult of a word. So they're going to make it easier for you by calling it the man of lawlessness. Now the antichrist is not the man of lawlessness. Because does it say here that he's going to seek to eliminate laws? No. What does the Bible say? It says that he shall think to change times and laws. Now let me tell you something. The antichrist kingdom is not going to be a lawless kingdom. Let me ask you this. Does it seem like America is heading toward lawlessness? No way. We have more laws than we've ever had. We have too much law. So the new world order, this one world system that we see coming into place, it's going to rule with an iron fist. Didn't we see that in this chapter? It's going to break in pieces. It's going to subdue. It's not going to be some anarchist paradise. I mean a lot of anarchists would hear the man of lawlessness and say, yeah, that sounds pretty good. But let me tell you something. Nothing could be further from the truth. He's not eliminating laws. He's not coming in with a big tax simplification and a big law simplification and we're going to make it. No, no, no. He's going to be even more strict. He's just going to change laws. It's going to be a police state, but it's going to be different laws. He's going to seek to change times and laws. What is that about? The times and laws are the current world order, the laws that we have now and the times that we have now. You say, what does that have to do with the time? Well, all of our time is based on the Bible because even the very year 2018, what does it mean? 2018 years into Jesus Christ having been born in the year of our Lord, Anno Domini, 2018. Even atheists, every single day when they write the date or sign a check, they're actually acknowledging the Lord Jesus Christ and all of these wicked, God-hating, atheistic type scientists who create all these lies and don't believe the Bible, they'll say 2018 CE. So instead of saying Anno Domini in the year of our Lord, they say CE current era. But just because you call it current era, guess what? Nothing else big happened that year. So by saying 2018, you're still acknowledging that the current era started with what? The birth of Jesus Christ. So that most significant event in world history when God was manifest in the flesh is the basis of all of our times. Okay, how about the weeks? Where does that come from? God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh day. That's where that comes from. So the seven-day week is acknowledging God and it's acknowledging actually the God of the Bible, even the date itself. That's why in the French Revolution when things got a little bit out of control and the atheistic factions within the French Revolution started to get power and take over, you know what they did? They actually sought to change times and laws. They switched from a seven-day week to a 10-day week. Why? Just to distance themselves from religion, just to become irreligious. A lot of people thought the end times were happening when they saw those guillotines in the French Revolution 1793, 1794 beheading people and they thought Robespierre was the Antichrist. Many people thought that. Obviously he wasn't, but they saw things that were similar to that where they're getting rid of the seven-day weeks. They changed all the names of the months to be names that had nothing to do with religion from the previous French names and they even changed the years. They didn't call it anymore 1793, 1794. They called it year two and year three because they started with the French Revolution and started calling it one, two, three, four, five, six and counting the years in that way. Now that didn't last long. It fell apart. There was wrangling between different factions and eventually the monarchy was reinstalled and then there was another revolution and then the monarchy was reinstalled. I think France is on like their fifth republic right now because they've had so many revolutions and gone back and forth, but we know in the end times something similar will happen. So we've already seen how it could happen because you say, oh man, people will never change the date on the calendar. That's never going to happen. Really? It already happened in France in 1793. So there you go. So it could happen again. So that goes to show just a little bit of a lifelike, you know, dress rehearsal of what it could look like when the Antichrist thinks to change times and laws. So he's not the lawless one and I'll tell you why they changed it to the man of lawlessness. There's an agenda behind that. Because part and parcel of the end times is this Hebrew roots movement, right? Because we know that who is a liar but he that deny it that Jesus is the Messiah. He's Antichrist who denied the father and the son, okay? We know that Judaism is going to be part and parcel of the end times, going to be the religion of the Antichrist. Why? Because they're still waiting for the Messiah to come. So when the Antichrist comes, that's their Messiah that they're going to embrace and accept. Well, think about it. What are the Jews really into more than anything else? The Torah. Isn't it all about the Torah for them? What does Torah mean? Torah is just Hebrew for law. Don't let this fancy word Torah fool you. Torah just means law. It's the Hebrew word for law, okay? So they're pretty into what? The Torah. So to them, well, the Antichrist is the guy who's not into the Torah. The man of lawlessness, because we need to get everybody back on the Torah, right? We need to get everybody on the Judaic system. And that's what's going on, and you could listen to my sermon, The Devil's Master Plan for the End Times, where I lay that out very clearly and I prove all that from the Bible. That's outside the scope of this particular sermon. But he's certainly not the man of lawlessness. He'll have laws. They're just going to be different than the laws of the Bible. That's why he's called the man of sin, because he's all about violating God's law. Sin is when you're violating God's laws. But he's going to have his own laws that are different from the laws of the Bible. He will change times and laws, or he will at least think to or seek to, not to say that he's going to be entirely successful. And then we have the great happy ending that he's wiped out, and the saints are the ones who inherit the kingdom. Now I hope that tonight's sermon helped you understand Daniel chapter 7. And I hope that you'll see from this sermon that although on the surface the book of Daniel seems pretty hard to understand, pretty cryptic, pretty complicated, I feel like we were able to break it down together. I feel like everybody who's listening to me right now understands Daniel chapter 7 right now. You were able to follow along. So it's really not that hard when you just take it just one verse at a time. But the key to understanding Daniel 7, or any chapter in Daniel, is you've got to take what you learn in Revelation and apply it. Because without Revelation, you're going to end up like Daniel where your cogitations are really going to trouble you. You might end up having to take some sick days and just be getting a headache trying to process it all, but that's because Daniel didn't have the book of Revelation. I think if Daniel would have studied the book of Revelation, which was obviously not available to him, and if he would have just memorized it and understood it and known it like the back of his hand, when the angel would have explained this stuff to him, he would have just been like, of course. Because it all fits like a glove. And that's the wonderful thing about the Bible. The Bible is very consistent with itself. And so the point is that Daniel is not impossible to understand. It's not even that hard to understand, but you've just got to compare scripture with scripture and you can't isolate it from Revelation. You've got to put it side by side with Revelation and let Revelation interpret it and then it all comes clear. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great book, Lord, and this great chapter. I pray that you would help all of us to study, to show ourselves approved, to read your word, to meditate upon it. We have so much more of the Bible than Daniel had. We have the whole 66 books, Lord. Help us to take advantage of this great library of your perfect word and of absolute truth, Lord. Help us to meditate upon it day and night and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.