Daniel 9:20-27 – 70 Weeks – An Alternative View

EzekielsTemplesmall
[audio: http://versebyversebibleteaching.com/wp-content/uploads/Dan9b.mp3]
Download mp3
Download PDF of the text of this teaching
The longest and most research intensive study I have done in the series so far. I expand on former Moody professor Charles Cooper’s view of Daniel 9 from his book God’s Elect and the Great Tribulation.  I hope this challenges you as much as it did me.

VBVBT – Daniel 9 Part 1 – Daniel’s Leviticus 26 Prayer

sc
[audio: http://versebyversebibleteaching.com/wp-content/uploads/Chris%20White%20-%20Daniel%209%20Part%201.mp3]
Download mp3 here

Dan 9:1  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans

Daniel says he received this vision In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus. There are a lot of different views about who this is, and it actually will play a significant role in the chronology of the prophecy that Daniel is about to receive so we should look at it in detail.

At the moment there is no historical record of such a king. There are two main options that conservative scholars take here. They say that because this king Darius is apparently the same one who began ruling directly after the fall of Babylon according to Daniel 5: 30-31

Daniel 8 – More on the Antichrist and the 2300 “Day” Prophecy

[audio: http://versebyversebibleteaching.com/wp-content/uploads/Chris%20White%20-%20Daniel%208%20-%20More%20on%20the%20Antichrist%20and%20the%202300%20Day%20Prophecy.mp3]
Download mp3 here

Daniel Chapter 8

Chapter 8 continues in Hebrew after about 5 chapters of the underlying text having been written in Aramaic[C1] . Some commentators say this is because it is now done talking about gentile history and that the rest of the book is about Jewish history. This idea I think loses a measure of credibility due to the accepted fact that this chapter as well as chapter 11 will extensively deal with the history and future of nations like Persia, Greece, Egypt and other nations which are obviously Gentile nations. So although there may be significance for the change in languages at this point, I am not convinced that is the reason for it.

The events that will be prophesized here and in the next few chapters, would not occur for hundreds of years after the time that Daniel wrote them, though many of these events are history to us they were future to Daniel and his readers.

Many commentators have an issue with the prophecies here and in the following chapters simply because they are extremely accurate. There are many worldviews in the academic world that cant allow for the accurate foretelling of the future, and so, based solely on this prophecy’s accuracy, many have argued that these next few chapters were written after the facts that they detail. A theory that strains credulity because the book of Daniel appears in the Septuagint which can be shown to be in wide use, a demonstrations that it was an accepted part of the Hebrew cannon, around the same time as these events.

These prophecies also were probably of great encouragement to the Jews who at this time were still in captivity, they would have been hearing about all kinds of rumors of wars, such as the impending war with Persia, and it would be comforting for them to know that although many nations would rise and fall, Israel would remain, even in the distant future. They would not have to wait much longer for this prophecy to begin to be validated either. In just a little over a decade they will be allowed to return home to Israel, and there would indeed be a Persian king on the throne just as this chapter will suggest.

But as we will see there is a large portion of this prophecy that is relevant and import to us today, especially in relation to the so called antichrist. Continue reading “Daniel 8 – More on the Antichrist and the 2300 “Day” Prophecy”

Daniel 7 – How to Find the Antichrist – An Alternate View

[audio: http://versebyversebibleteaching.com/wp-content/uploads/Chris%20White%20-%20Daniel%207%20-%20How%20to%20Find%20The%20Antichrist%20101.mp3]
Download MP3 Here

You can download a PDF of this text here

The Contemporaneous Beasts View of Daniel 7

By Chris White

Daniel 7 is considered by some to be the most important chapter in the book of Daniel, others even consider it the most important chapter in the entire Old Testament for reasons which we will get into later, but certainly one of those reasons is because of its prophetic significance.

In Daniel Chapter 7 Daniel has a vision of 4 beasts: a lion, bear, leopard and a “diverse beast”. These beasts are identified as kings and/or kingdoms by the angel who interprets Daniel’s dream starting in verse 17.

The question is which kingdoms are being referred to with these beasts.

Most conservatives believe that Daniel 7 is simply a retelling of Daniel 2. In other words the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel 2 of a multi-metal statue which represented the four kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome are again described here in Daniel 7.

I don’t agree with that view, but I do agree with them that the fourth beast in Daniel 7 is the kingdom of Antichrist, however because of their insistence that this chapter is simply a mirror image of Daniel 2, they are forced to defend the position that the Antichrist must somehow come from something they call the Revived Roman Empire (RRE) because in Daniel chapter 2 the last section of the statue is clearly talking about Rome, so if this chapter is the same as that one then the fourth beast is Rome.

But as I will demonstrate not only is that not necessary it could cause many people to miss the signs of the Antichrists kingdom. For more information on why the belief of the RRE is based on a bad exegesis of Daniel chapter 2, please see my video or audio on Daniel 2, which should be linked in the notes, that study should be considered a companion study to this one.

I would also recommend a 4 part paper by Charles Cooper who is a former professor of Hermeneutics at Moody Bible Institute called “Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 Equal or not Equal.”

In the traditional view the beasts of chapter 7 are succeeded in time by the next beast, for example, the lion, the first beast (who they say represents Babylon) would be followed after much time by the bear (who they say represents Medo-Persia) since Babylon was conquered by Medo-Persia, and then the leopard (Greece) would conquer the bear after that, and so on.  I believe there are significant reasons to challenge this view of the kingdoms being in temporal succession of one another. In other words to challenge the idea that these beasts existed one after the other instead of all at the same time.

 

In this study I will propose that this vision of the four beasts in Daniel 7 is not simply a picture of 4 kingdoms that have come and gone in the past, but rather this is a picture of the four kingdoms that will be on the earth at the same time when the Antichrist begins his reign. If this is the case, then this chapter, along with the latter half of Daniel 11 and Revelation 13 gives the church it’s best chance to recognize the geo-political precursors to the rise of Antichrist. Continue reading “Daniel 7 – How to Find the Antichrist – An Alternate View”