Daniel Lesson 32

Oppression in the Kingdom of Man – Daniel 8:23-27

Daniel 8 is the profile of the antichrist, the beast, and for that reason has great prophetic significance and we’re going to touch upon that today. But always remember that the book of Daniel is not primarily a book on prophecy; Daniel is a book on wisdom, and because it is it is written not only as a view to the end times, but as a handbook for Christian citizens. It gives them a yardstick as they monitor the political processes and try to exercise their own judgment. Daniel was written for guidance, so although this chapter does look forward to the beast, don’t just think it’s the beast. There have been a lot of little beasts in history and many of them have gotten away with a lot of beastly things because believers were asleep at the switch; believers did not know doctrine and when the man was there they failed to exercise restraint. In fact, in several cases in history believers have been behind the beast, promoting them.

We have studied in this chapter the near fulfillment of the passage in Antiochus Epiphanes, we have shown that the same tendency toward centralized power where the government attains control over every area of life, that that same tendency was present in Solomon, in Jeroboam I and in Ahab. That is a tendency that is universal because the tendency for the kingdom of man is universal. Remember that behind the book of Daniel lies a concept; the concept is the kingdom of man. And that means that apostate sinful fallen man is always, always trying to generate an environment for prosperity, for happiness, independently of God. Therefore the kingdom of man is simply man’s creation urge to subdue the earth coming out in the wrong direction. He wants to subdue the earth all right, for himself, not for God, and because of this he still has his tendency to make kingdoms, except they’re oriented to himself and that’s why in Daniel 2 the symbol is man.

We have seen several things about this and we’ll review some of those principles and then go on to the last part of Daniel 8, the true beast who is coming.

The kingdom of man is made and built on human good. It is not primarily something immoral. Always remember that, because in this part of the country particularly, the so-called Bible belt, Christians get up in arms over what are the obvious things, the bars, the saloons and that kind of thing, and that’s considered evil. Yet in Scripture evil is considered to be something that most believers think is good, security, material prosperity is sometimes very evil, religion can be very evil, a lot of things that most people think are good are actually evil, and by studying the Scripture you understand that things that were formerly thought to be good are just human good, that is, they have the appearance of good and on the surface they are good but all the great men of history who have been antitypes or types of the beast, such as Antiochus Epiphanes, built their kingdoms on apparent good. Antiochus was a philanthropist, Antiochus believed in welfare to the poor, and surely people would say that was good and God says that was evil. We have Caesar Augustus who built his concept on the Hellenization of the culture, as Antiochus did, of doing a lot of good things for a lot of good cities, and God said it was evil.

So somewhere along the line we’ve got off the track as to what true evil really is like, and that’s what Daniel 8 is to remind us. Daniel 8 reminds us just what is evil. And the heart of the kingdom of man and what makes it so evil is simply its independency of God, its autonomy, its rebellion against the Word of God. Solomon tried to rebel against the restraints the Word of God placed on his foreign policy. Ahab rebelled against the restraints the Word of God placed on his selection of deity, and because all these men are autonomous, seeking solutions apart from the Word of God, they’re evil. Any group, any political group, any minority group, any pressure group, any lobby group that is seeking to solve any problem apart from the Word of God is evil according to God’s Word. Daniel 8 is an exposition of this. Security and fulfillment apart from God is evil.

We also have in the kingdom of man that the enslavement of the individual is always to God, if God isn’t the savior then the state must become the savior, and when the state becomes the savior then everything is thrown out of balance. All the great divine institutions are injured because they are distorted. Under Scripture we have certain divine institutions in very good balance. These institutions are in balance perfectly only when the Word of God is followed, but when the Word of God is not followed, inevitably the fourth divine institution, which is the most powerful institution, starts to expand. It expands into the area of the family and begins to tell parents how they ought to run their home. It begins to tell parents whether they can corporeally punish their children or not, which is none of the government’s business, obviously as long as there is not brutality in the home. Corporeal punishment according to Scripture is not brutality, but under the child advocacy concept in the United States we have the fourth divine institution, in some cases, infiltrating the third divine institution. Now there are some legitimate areas here, we hasten to point out, but we also have a lot of abuse of this system.

We have the fourth divine institution invading the first divine institution through the minimum wage law. That is a violation of the first divine institution. And employer, according to the parables of Jesus has the right to pay his employees whatever he wishes and if the employee doesn’t like it he can leave. That was the whole point of the parable of the person who had the vineyard, and the people came to be hired in the morning shift and the man paid them a flat wage; then came in the afternoon and the man paid the afternoon shift the same amount of money that he paid the people who had been working all day, and if the NLRB had been there the guy would have been shut down. But he wasn’t because Jesus didn’t follow this whole concept that we have gotten ourselves into. He said that the owner of that vineyard had the right to pay his works anything he wanted; he was the owner and not the workers. The reason, the balance of it is, obviously if he’s unfair nobody will come to work for him. But the point remains that it’s a violation of the individual.

We have a violation all across the board of this because we are well down the line to the picture we find in Daniel 8 of this beast. It doesn’t require too much imagination to see him agreeing with many of these policies. The concept that the government can dictate the amount of money in circulation is a violation of the first divine institution. We see the fourth divine institution invading the international sphere by proposing world law and one United States of the World. That is also against Scripture because that violates the doctrine of the tower of Babel. God’s will for the international community from the time of the tower of Babel until the time of the return of Jesus Christ is for nationalism, not internationalism and there’s a reason for it. It’s not arbitrary, it’s not just dogmatic, there’s a certain reason for this. In the navy when they build certain vessels they build them with various water tight holes, so if a torpedo hits at one point it won’t sink the whole ship. So God has designed history and culture the same way, so there’ll be certain nations that will not go down when other nations go down, and the more the world is tied together in a world government the more danger there is of a world dictator taking over everyone. So God runs the risk of nationalism rather than world government. We could cite dozens of instances where the fourth divine institution expands.

Then we have the leadership of the kingdom; the leadership of the kingdom is always someone who promotes human good on the most massive scale. That is one of the foremost characteristics, a person who is always busy doing good. That person is evil, according to Scripture, because that person is always in the name of charity voting your money to pay somebody else while they send their kid to a private school and keep all their funds in a trust found and foundation. They’re being very good by taking our money and voting it for somebody else’s needs. That is not charity, that’s theft. It’s not called theft, but that’s what it amounts to, it’s confiscation of your private goods by the force of law to be used according to a bureaucracy, and that’s a violation of individual freedom.

So whatever happens you’ll have the fourth divine institution expand where there’s apostasy. They’ll expand into the area of local church. Like the state of Texas wants to start telling all the local churches how to run their nursery program and this represents a violation of the separation of church and state. We had in this country a beautiful concept; we erected a wall at one time between the church and the state and said that you don’t cross that wall, but that wall is gone because most people who are elected to public office never heard the doctrine, leave alone know what it says. So as we come to Daniel 8 let’s think of the fact that we may be using some of these criteria we see very shortly. We are one of a privileged group of believers in the world who so far have escaped the worst results of this kind of tendency.

In Daniel 8:23 we come to the end of the vision, and the end of this passage deals with the future. A lot of the principles we’ve seen were fulfilled by these men who have been in the past, Antiochus Epiphanes and so on. But there are some factors about this prophecy that have not yet been fulfilled, and it’s those aspects that we must study. “In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. [24] And his power shall by mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and continue, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. [25] And through his policy also he shall cause deceit to prosper in his hands; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many; he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand. [26] And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true; wherefore, shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. [27] And I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.”

We have a number of feedback cards that we’re going to answer and several of these have to do with this last verse. How come Daniel cannot understand it if there was an angel to interpret Daniel’s vision? Why does Daniel 8:27 say there was none to explain it.” We’ll get to that section when we come to it. Verse 23, ““In the latter time of their kingdom,” who is “their?” “Their kingdom” refers to the previous verse, verse 22, and remember history is going like this: you have the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire and the Roman Empire. These are the four great empires in history, the fourth one shades into our present world system.

Daniel so far has been looking at the Grecian Empire because toward the end of this, after Daniel died, after Alexander died in 323 BC his generals took over and formed four kingdoms. Those are the four in verse 22, “whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation,” that’s Alexander’s nation, “but not in his power.” In other words, these four generals will not rule with the power of Alexander the Great. Out of one of these groups, the Seleucids, came Antiochus Epiphanes as we have studied. Now “in the latter time of their kingdom,” that sentence applies two ways. “Their kingdom” means that in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, particularly between 171 and 164 BC, during that seven year period you have this reign of terror. That was in the end of the Grecian kingdom.

However, we also know that down in the future there will be this ruler. What does it mean? Will the Greek kingdom be revived at that time? No, if you turn to Daniel 7:12 you notice that the previous three kingdoms, the Neo-Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian and the Roman, all continue until they are destroyed by Jesus Christ. When Christ destroys them, it says in verse 12, it says “As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.” In other words, Christ destroyed the Roman kingdom, removes it, and destroys its existence, but the Grecian kingdom was destroyed by the Roman kingdom but it persisted. It was destroyed back here by the Romans but it persisted for this little season. The Medo-Persian Empire was destroyed by the Grecian but it persisted for a little season. And the Neo-Babylonian Empire was destroyed by the Medo-Persian Empire and it persisted for a little season. The Roman Empire did not. When Christ destroyed it, it’s over.

Now that persisting for a little season means that the Grecian Empire is still with us; the Medo-Persian Empire is still with us. The Neo-Babylonian Empire is still with us. Now “with us” because our culture has part of these previous cultures in it. For example, the Neo-Babylonian culture was great on centralized economics. And we have that same concept in the modern central bank. It is still with us. That’s why the Babylonian system in the book of Revelation is related to economics. The Medo-Persians contributed the concept of internationalism in history, that it wasn’t the case of just this group having their culture and this group having their culture and that was fine. The Medo-Persians wanted to make one great international culture and that idea is still with us, solidly interwoven in our culture. And we have the Grecian Empire, the Hellenism, the worship of man’s reason; that is still with us. So therefore we know from this verse that the Greek Empire still goes on. True, in one sense it doesn’t, in the sense that it’s a politically visible entity, but from the spiritual point of view the Greek influence still lives today.

Turn back to Daniel 8:23 and take this in the second sense. “In the latter time of their kingdom,” now we are taking this not just 171 BC to 164 BC but we’re taking this all the way down to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ when the Neo-Babylonian contribution to culture is there, the Medo-Persian contribution to culture is there, the Grecian contribution to culture is there, the Roman contribution to culture is there. This is all down at the return of Jesus Christ. World culture will be made up of elements borrowed from these past civilizations. This should encourage some of you who cannot stand history to take a history course in ancient history and ask yourself, what about these ancient peoples have we inherited that is so evil, that the Bible tells us to beware of, be very careful of. So we have the contributions at the end of the era.

Now the question is often asked, why in Daniel 7 does the beast come out of Rome and in Daniel 8 the beast appears to come out of the Grecian Empire? Because these two visions emphasize two different parts of the beast. Daniel 7 is talking about the chronology; there’ll be this kingdom, then this kingdom, then this kingdom, then this kingdom. So obviously the beast comes out of the last kingdom or the Roman kingdom. But in Daniel 8 the emphasis is more on the character or piece of culture that will breed the beast. If we have these four streams inherited from ancient history today in our culture, the stream that will particularly propagate and breed the atmosphere that the beast needs will be the Greek part of our culture. And thus the beast of Daniel 8 is related to Hellenism. Hellenism shows up today in the classics; Hellenism shows up today in the concept of a rational world state, that men are going to get together, negotiate and by their own autonomous reason come up with the idea of the perfect society. Karl Marx and Lenin and Mao are all men followers of the Hellenistic idea of man creating the perfect social order. So it will be out of effort directed in the Greek direction that the beast will be found.

So this is a tip off; the first characteristic, right here in verse 23, when we look in the modern scene where will be the most beast-like people? The people most influenced by the dream of the Greeks; the dream of man rationally constructing his own perfect society. Whenever you see that dream and read of it, you ought to smell a rat because the Bible says beware; beware! That’s precisely the place, the breeding ground of the beast. “In the latter time of their kingdom, when “their transgressors are come to the full.” The “transgressors,” it’s a Hebrew word that means rebellion, the word is pashaa, there are words in the Hebrew that mean sin but this particular one emphasizes rebellion against authority.

Turn to Isaiah 1:2, this is a verse reference where this word is used in its basic picture form. The last part of Isaiah 1:2, God says, “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.” In the divine institutions there’s something you always want to remember, particularly parents; when your children disobey and you’re tired and you just don’t feel like sticking with the program any longer, it’s when the home breeds authority and unfortunately as parents you have been given that obligation to maintain authority. Now it doesn’t mean you have to be a dictator but it means there has to be a basic law structure in the home. And everything will be oriented against you to maintain that law structure in your own home, everything from the telephone ringing at the wrong minute, to people dropping in when you’ve got something else going on or something like that, always something to tear down, to erode your patience to keep at it and keep at it and keep at it to maintain that law structure in the home. But if you don’t and you yield to chaos, and you find your home and your family torn up…people tell kids to do something 8500 times and the kid knows you’re going to tell him 8501 times so why do it this time when you’re going to tell him again, any kid knows that. So when no action is taken to enforce law, then you breed disrespect for authority, and the Bible insists wherever authority goes out of the home you’ve had it socially. Police on the street, the military can do a little bit to keep authority but they cannot breed authority if the authority isn’t residually there. So authority, pashaa means the violation of authority and it begins in the home. Isaiah 1:2, the children have rebelled against Me,” that’s where it all starts.

Now come back to Daniel 8:23, “the transgressors are come to the full,” so the second characteristic that will be evident in the future day will be a massive society of rebels, pashaa means a participle, “the rebels,” there will be a large group of people who cannot stand authority. They will reach their peak in history at this point. There will be a total disrespect for authority. Now in Antiochus Epiphanes’ day there was this disrespect for authority confined locally to Israel, because you had a disrespect for the Law. Remember when I read those sections about the Jewish young people going off to the gymnasiums, and as the gymnasiums were built in Jerusalem they would go ahead with the hats, the games and so on, and in complete defiance of the dietary legislation and so on, you had a massive influx of Hellenism, you had a breakdown of the Jewish home in the days prior to Antiochus Epiphanes. So the Jewish young people were by and large mobs of undisciplined people.

Now this prophecy in its final fulfillment will be on a global scale, you will have a massive group of people who have defied authority, and we know from pashaa and from its logical basis that probably these people get a good start in the home life of the world. It won’t just be in Europe, it will be all over the place, North America, South America, Asia, everywhere the home will be destroyed and the “transgressors shall come to the full.”

Now something in history always happens when this occurs, always has and this passage in verse 23 is teaching that it’s going to happen once again finally, and that is when you lose internal authority, and when you lose the authority in the home, obviously you have chaos, but man can’t stand chaos, so what do men do when faced with chaos? They willingly go into a dictatorship. They have to substitute the power of the almighty state to make up for what was lacking in the home, what was lacking in their soul, in their character. People will recognize look, we just can’t go on like this any more, we can’t continually have one riot after another, we can’t have the continual breakdown of law and order, so we willingly will give up our freedom to the hands of one with power. We willingly will go to a massive police state on a world scale. So rebellion always breeds loss of freedom. All these people who are the rebels today fail to realize that they are incapable of constructing anything positive. Can you imagine an entire city ran by one of these groups; take the Black Panthers, nobody else in the city except Black Panthers; they obviously couldn’t get along with one another, you’d have Black Panthers shooting Black Panthers because they are incapable of constructing anything positively.

Rebels always have this nature, they can destroy but they never can construct. The person who can construct is going to be the beast; he’s going to be the person who can walk into that mess, that chaos, that situation and say okay, you people have fouled up, and he probably won’t be one of the rebels, he will probably be a fine (quote) “law and order” person with a genius for organization. So “in the latter time of their kingdom,” that is in the future time, whether it’s our own generation that’s going to see this, or maybe 50 years later or whenever, it will be a time characterized by the rising of the beast out of the Hellenistic dream of a manmade perfectly ordered society; it will be a time when in the streets there will be mobs, there will be general disrespect for law and order.

Daniel 8:23 says, “a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” So we have a third characteristic to look for. Now by “looking for” I mean that… I’m not teaching the posttribulational rapture because the Church will be raptured before this king appears. What I am saying is that there will be tendencies for this before the final one, there will be tendencies locally to have a beast-like person to take over. Because this book of Daniel doesn’t just give future, it gives principles of history that occur over and over and over again. It could even happen on a very small scale to a local group. So these principles are universal. There will be “a king of fierce countenance.” “Fierce countenance” is a word which means a destroyed conscience. I’ll give two illustrations where this occurs.

Deuteronomy 28:50, just to get the flavor of what this word means. Rather than define the term, just look at some of the uses of it. “A nation of fierce countenance, who shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young.” See how it’s used there, “fierce countenance?” There it is used for people who have no compassion, absolutely no compassion whatsoever. They don’t have sensitivity of conscience. So one of the marks of this tremendous genius who will one day take over will be…he’s an organizational genius, but he has no conscience, none, he can be as ruthless as can be, no compassion.

The other passage where this word is used is Proverbs 7:13, this is the harlot seducing young men in the streets, “So she caught him, and with an impudent face said unto him,” now the King James vacillates in the translation. They can’t put “a fierce” face here, it just doesn’t fit the context, yet it’s the same word in the Hebrew, exactly the same word. So if you compare the usage in Deuteronomy 28 and the usage in Proverbs 7:13, what do you come up with? In Deuteronomy 28 it’s a person who has no compassion, and here it’s obviously a person who has no sensitivity of conscience whatever, goes ahead anyway. So we generalize with this and many, many other passages, and the man with “fierce countenance” means scar tissue all over his conscience; scar tissue ALL over his conscience, no moral sensitivity, he could care less. He acts like a computer that has no conscience. Remember the Greek dream, manmade perfect social order, the computer is a massive organizer, beautiful; there’s only one thing wrong with a computer, it has no conscience.

Daniel 8:23, “a king of fierce countenance” doesn’t mean he’s a Frankenstein. It’s not referring to his looks, it is referring to his character, “a king with no conscience, and understanding dark sentences,” we don’t have time to trace this, this was used when Solomon interprets the dark sentences for the Queen of Sheba when she comes to him, she says oh you can interpret riddles, how brilliant you are. So this is an idiom for massive intelligence. So another characteristic, this man combines absolute genius with zero conscience, and that is an explosive combination. He is going to be a genius that is greater than Solomon. He is going to be Satan Solomon is what it amounts to, “understanding dark sentences.” Solomon understood dark sentences, dark sentences is just riddles, Solomon is known for his solution of riddles and this man is Satan’s counterpart to Solomon. And he “shall stand up.”

Daniel 8:24, “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power,” now this is an enigmatic sentence that can’t be understood really until the prophecy is fulfilled… [tape turns, some missing]

… He is going to have the appearance of strength, but he really doesn’t have the strength he appears to have, that’s the point. He gains it by deception. Now maybe we can get a little insight here if you think of how temptation happens to you. Here you are in the Christian life going along and all of a sudden there comes into your soul this temptation. Now when that temptation comes into your soul and you’re debating it, and you’re thinking on it, have you ever noticed that it’s very easy for you, while you’re in this debate stage with the temptation, you never think that that temptation has no control over you because if you’re filled with the Spirit the sin nature can’t control you. The only way that temptation can gain control of you is for you to give it permission to do so. But 99 times out of 100 when you’re grappling with temptation you always get snookered at this point, and that is, it comes to you with a “you must yield to me” kind of thing, where we know theologically we don’t have to yield to it, “no testing has taken us but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above what you are able but will, with the temptation, also provide a way of escape.” But inevitably, like a sandwich, you have the temptation here and it’s like a sandwich with filling inside, and the filling is always this lie that you’re helpless, you’re helpless, you’re helpless. So the temptation comes to us with greater force than it really has, and it gains its greater force sheerly by deception and causing us to get our eyes off the promises of the Word over on it, from Christ to Satan. And once this disillusionment occurs the temptation has power, power that isn’t its own, power that’s only gained by causing us to look in the wrong place just for a second, just long enough to get in.

So apparently this same mechanism is working here with this king. He will have power but not by his own power, just like temptation. And if he’s Satan incarnate, so to speak, obviously he’s going to use this par excellence, he’s going to use this very skillfully; it’s one big scam. And by one big deception this man gains power after power. Now applied to the lesser beasts of the world it’s the same thing. Did Hitler really have that power in the 30’s in Germany? No, Germany was sleeping so Hitler attained power, but Hitler had power but not by his own. It’s always that way. Did the communists in 1917 after the Bolshevik government, before the Bolshevik revolution occurred did the communists really have that power? No they didn’t. It was due to the inability of the Russian people to see the issue, but it wasn’t that they were so powerful. Lenin didn’t have that much power; he could have been eliminated very quickly. So always you’ll see this tendency, these evil men apparently have more power than they really do. And if you are a person there in the situation with doctrine you’ll see through the delusion, and everybody else may go along because they’re afraid and you won’t because you know, now this guy is one big bluff, he doesn’t have power, it’s not there. Just like temptation. So that’s another characteristic.

Now we go to a further characteristic in Daniel 8:24 of this future man, “he shall destroy wonderfully,” now the word “wonderfully” just means miraculously or in a very astonishing way. It doesn’t necessarily mean a direct miracle but it just means he destroys his enemies in the most amazing ways possible. So if you try to conceive of a political leader ingeniously ridding himself of his enemies, that’s this man. He has the most ingenious way of solving problems of the opposition. “…he will destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and continue,” this means after each victory he increases his strength, “and shall destroy mighty ones and the holy people.” It’s not the mighty and holy people in the original language, “he will destroy many people and the people of the holy one,” that’s what it’s saying. So other nations will be involved, Daniel 7 tells us he’s going to destroy three kings. And then he’ll destroy… so we have nations plus Israel. There will be other nations. He will destroy many ones and the holy people.

Verse 25, suggests how he does it; maybe this is what amplifies the word translated “wonderfully” in verse 24, “through his policy also he shall cause deceit to prosper in his hands;” treason, treachery will “prosper in his hands.” We have had treachery in high places in the political scene. And in eternity when God judges people are going to pay for the blood of young servicemen who have died on the battlefield because of treachery in high places. One of the poignant experiences that General MacArthur ever had was one day when he walked in the hospital in Tokyo and this guy looked up from his bed, he was half alive, just chewed up, he could barely talk, and the guy said General, whose side is Washington on? And MacArthur asked what do you mean by that? Then he went on to relate the story how he was on a bombing mission and he said we had orders to take out this bridge and when we filed our flight plan to come in for the raid we were refused permission direct from Washington for that raid, we couldn’t put one wing tip in communist territory; whose side are they on? And this has gone on and on, we have had soldiers die in Vietnam for the same reason, can’t go over the DMZ. We should have raided North Vietnam, they had all their troops in the south, but no, that’s too simple. If you are sour on the military don’t forget, it is not the military’s fault; the military has been the people’s whose blood is poured out because of these mistakes and treason in high places, deals that have been made.

Now this treason isn’t going to get any better, and what it says is that in the final game of history the beast is going to make the most phenomenal, underground, underhanded deals that you have ever seen; Daniel 8:25, “And through his skill” the word is, not policy, it’s the word for skill in Hebrew, it’s used in the book of Proverbs, this guy is a negotiator like you haven’t seen. “Through his skill also he will cause treason to prosper in his hand,” that means by his power, he’s the one that’s going to enter into the deal. And one of the deals he’s going to enter into is the covenant with Israel. He’s going to make the treaty. “And he will magnify himself in his heart,” so he becomes more bold. Now that principle of verse 25 is one that is true of every bully in the world. You retreat before a bully and you’re going to get hit again. This principle will come out in the future; it will come out before our eyes. Those to whom you capitulate and back up “magnify” their heart. There’s only one thing a beast understands, that’s to get clobbered. And Christ knows that and He’s going to clobber him. “He shall magnify himself in his heart.”

Now look at the next one, “and by peace” except the Hebrew doesn’t say shalom, this is not the word for peace, this is the word which means deception, the word means kind of a false security, not peace, a false security, “by false security he shall destroy many,” now doesn’t that sound familiar? False security, we don’t have to have a strong military, our enemies won’t touch us, let’s disarm, we’ve got more than enough nuclear weapons, we’ve got all this power, let’s back off. He will “destroy” it says, notice how many times the verb “destroy” has come up, destroy, destroy, destroy, the beast will be one of the greatest conquerors of history and he will do it by treaties, negotiations, deals and deceit. He will probably not do it by outright military conquest. It will not be that clear a case; it will be a deal here and a deal there, that’s how he’s going to conquer.

And finally, “he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes,” this is a reference to the Messianic line in Antiochus’ day, the high priesthood, and also in the future to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will stand up to the believers of that day identified with Christ. Just as Paul on the Damascus road Jesus said, why are you persecuting Me,” Paul; Paul said I’m not persecuting you, I’m persecuting the Christians. And Jesus said by persecuting the believers you’re persecuting me. So this man is going to have a holy war directed against believers. But now the promise given at the end of verse 25, and the promise is a promise that will apply in minor situations and can be used as a prayer petition, “but he shall be broken without hand.” That means God will intervene, “without hand” means without man’s gimmicks, without a manmade solution. There won’t be an assassination to pick off Antiochus Epiphanes; he dies in the same way that Arius died, that famous apostate bishop of the tremendous pain in the abdomen. God does have a sense of humor. He “shall be broken without hand” and that’s how he finally died.

In Daniel 8:26-27, summarizing the visions, “And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true,” this is the angel telling, and “the evening and the morning” refer to both chapter 7 and chapter 8. Notice Daniel 7:1 for a moment; compare 7:1 with 8:1. In Daniel 7:1 it says “the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel had a dream and visions … on his bed.” So there’s the night vision, and “he wrote the dream,” notice, “he wrote the dream.” Now Daniel 8:1, “In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar,” two years later, “a vision appeared,” not a dream, a vision now, apparently during the daytime, “after that which appeared unto me at the first.” And I indicated when we exegeted that verse that it’s a continuation of that first vision. Chapters 7 and 8 are linked together logically, though they are two years separated; one was a night vision, one was a day vision.

Now in 8:26, “And the vision,” singular, “of the evening,” that’s chapter 7, “and of the morning,” that’s Daniel 8, “which was told you,” and notice it was accounted, verbal revelation, “which was accounted is true,” in other words, it is worthy of your trust now, believers throughout history can trust in the principles of this vision, this is their political salvation under various regimes of history. “…wherefore, shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.” Now that word “shut up the vision” doesn’t mean it can’t be understood. What it means is that Daniel has written it and he is to keep the document and not lose it, that’s what it means. Shut up the document on which he has written the vision. File it away and don’t lose it the angel tells Daniel; keep this on record; there are believers who are going to need it in the future.

Daniel 8:27, “And I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days;” this shows you, by the way, that all sickness is not due to immediate sin, in this case this is apparently due to the fact that Daniel’s body, as a result of the fall, cannot stand the glory of God in a visionary experience. Every case where we see in the Bible where there’s a Theophany and where there’s been a vision of Scripture we have this kind of reaction, this nausea, this sickness. Apparently our physical bodies literally cannot take the glory of God. When we see it it’s just too much; John collapses on the island of Patmos, the angel has to reach down and pick him up. The same thing happens to Isaiah, and we just have to conclude that our bodies are not ready for glory and that’s why we have to have resurrected bodies to be able to stand it.

So “Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business,” “I rose up” means that he wasn’t… remember back in Daniel 8:2 we said he was apparently in Persia and not in Babylon, that was a vision, he was transported there only in vision, but Daniel 8:27 shows us that in fact physically he was located in Babylon all the time, “I did the king’s business,” that was Belshazzar, “and I was astonished at the vision, but had no understanding of it,” now why did he have no understanding of it. It goes back to this point, in prophecy up to the present moment we can understand; in the future we can only understand generally. The angel can say okay Daniel, this is going to be a king, this symbol stands for this king out here, this symbol stands for another king out there, but that’s as far as the angel can carry the future. Why? Because until history actually occurs prophecy remains inherently vague. I’ve never been sold on this concept of drawing these fine diagrams and every little piece of prophecy fits in for the reason that until the prophecy occurs you can’t really tell how it’s going to happen. You can tell the broad outlines but that’s all. Do you suppose, for example, as acute thinker as John the Baptist could have predicted every little detail about the life of Christ; he obviously didn’t, in fact during the Gospels he has deep reservations about how this prophecy is playing out, it looks different. So prophecy has an inherent vagueness of the future. The angel, even, does not give it to Daniel because probably the angel doesn’t know, he hasn’t seen it, he hasn’t literally seen what’s going to happen. I was astonished and I had no understanding.

Turn to Revelation 13 for a very quick view for John’s perspective on this beast. Notice it begins exactly like the chapters in Daniel, Revelation 13:1, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea,” because the sea is a picture of doctrine-less humanity, “having seven heads and ten horns….” [2] “And the beast which I saw was like a leopard” and so on, he goes on to describe it. Verse 4, see how that fits with what we’ve seen, “And they worshipped the dragon who gave power unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” He’s got them all spooked; “he shall have power but his power shall not be his own.”

Revelation 13:5, “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. [6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.” Obviously, by the way, this shows that Daniel’s prophecy was not fully fulfilled in Antiochus Epiphanes if John could write about a future fulfillment. “Them that dwell in heaven” refers apparently to the raptured Church. This is the Church after it’s raptured and the beast is actually going to blaspheme the believers who have been removed from the earth. We don’t know how he’s going to do it or why he’s going to do it. We would guess, maybe one reason why he’s going to do it, he’s going to blame the social problems on the Church. These people are going to disappear and he’s going to say they were the cause of all the problems, he’s going to blaspheme “them that dwell in heaven.

Revelation 13:7, “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,” those are the believers on earth, “and to overcome them,” notice, “and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues and nations,” so he will truly be an international ruler. [8] And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. [9] If any man have an ear, let him hear.”

In other words, for the first time in history believers and unbelievers are going to be clearly marked off. Today we can’t tell that, a person can walk in here and you can’t really tell. But in the future all believers and all unbelievers will be clearly and visibly seen because every person who has not trusted in Christ in that era will be worshiping this man, and every person who is a believer in the future will be persecuted because he doesn’t worship this man. This man will be the divider of men, and that’s why when the judgment occurs right after this, when Christ returns to the earth, it’s going to be no big deal about the sheep and the goats because it will be visible for a long time, the sheep are going to know who they are and so are the goats; no question.

This is a portrait of the beast, and we are, as Christians, to apply this.