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- Daniel 11
interpreted -
By Tim Czapiewski
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Those familiar with the classic
interpretation of Daniel 11 wonder how I can jump over 2200 years to our
day and apply recent events formerly associated with the power of Greece
to this chapter. Below is my explanation. |
Before we
begin:
I have
observed in the
religious world that the good interpretations and the better
interpretations often conspire together and make intellectual war against the
best interpretations. Please do
not investigate this presentation with the thought in mind that
any
classic viewpoint must set itself at war with an idea that is new.
Consider that classic ideas are very similar to our old,
comfortable, and good fitting garments. That old garment is
certainly useful for certain occasions but that does not mean that
it is appropriate for
all occasions. And if you were required to stand before a great
and powerful figure such as the King of Heaven Himself,
wouldn't the thought cross your mind that your favorite old
garment might not be the most appropriate thing to wear for a once in a lifetime occasion? The following is a warning that Jesus has given to the
church of the last days concerning the wearing of garments.
"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king,
which made a marriage for his son...And when the king came in to see the
guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he
saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding
garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants,
Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer
darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are
called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:2 & 11-14)
The man was not cast out of the
festival because he entered it stark naked. He was rejected from the
feast because he insisted on wearing
an item that HE WISHED to wear. The man willfully ignored the
established dress requirements. To better understand this illustration, we must understand the
nature of the oriental wedding feast. When a person was invited to a
festival, he was given a garment by the host. In
this instance, the host was a great king. The man who was cast out of
the festival should have realized that it was his duty to leave off the old garment and put on the new.
There was no excuse for this man’s negligence. Everyone knew that
entering a feast without wearing the proper attire was considered highly disrespectful. One would almost have to intend on “not” wearing
the garment provided by the King.
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So here is the relevant application
of the parable. If God's servants are to endure the great tribulation that Jesus predicted
is certain to come, His servants must develop an accurate mental picture
of the crisis in order to rise above the crisis. Jesus is indicating in
His parable that the old garment (our old mental pictures of the last
days) are inadequate. This is why the angel of Revelation 7:2-3
has postponed the crisis until the servants of God (those who are to
pass through the last days without seeing death) are properly "sealed". In
the parabolic language of Jesus, this means that God's servants must get
out of their old garments (old perspectives) and settle into garments that are
appropriate for the occasion. Our old garments (old perspectives) may
have served the church well in the past, but these old concepts will do the servants
of God a disservice when the final crisis begins. This means our old
perspectives will have to sit outside the feast on the prophetic coat
rack.
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God's people have been in this
position once before and they failed miserably. Long ago, the Jewish
church had expected that the Messiah would come with great
power and place the government of nations into the hands of the people
of Israel. Although this prophetic concept is certainly going to occur,
their expectation for the fulfillment of this event was off by 2000 years.
Church leaders had mingled the prophetic writings with ideas of their
own and this gave birth to many false views. The weight of these popular
teachings produced a unifying effect among the common people. Not even
the disciples could free themselves from many of the established
prophetic viewpoints and believed that Jesus Himself needed to correct
some of His viewpoints. Sadly, the only way the minds of the people
could be changed would be through a forceful campaign designed to
contradict the popular teachings. The only way the people were going to
perceive the progression of the Kingdom of God was by the setting aside
of their old garments (old concepts).
Jesus knew that this would surely
cause a shaking and create division among the ranks of the chosen
people. Jesus was feared by the leaders as an irresponsible and
dangerous man who brought disunity among them by striking against the
doctrines that bound them together. As signs and wonders were performed
in Christ's favor of the interpretations, the proud leaders refused to recalibrate their understanding
and poisoned the minds of the multitudes. Today, the church has come
full circle. We are standing on the threshold of a prophetic events that
are
going to come crashing into the unsuspecting church with blinding force.
The great
religious leaders of today have mingled together human wisdom with Bible
prophecy and have created a deadly concoction. The church at large has
lost the art of personal consultation of the scriptures and are eagerly
rallying under the banner of the false teachings of men. In the
providence of God, you may be receiving a timely forewarning in order to
research the matters I am bringing to light and “see if these things are
so”. (see Acts 17:11) The understanding of the
prophecy of Daniel eleven is hugely important to the church of the last days
and all who wish to endure them to the very end must develop the
discipline to make a distinction between the old garment and the new.
- The
biggest hurdle -
The prophecy of Daniel eleven describes in
specific detail the actions of
two key powers. 1)
The king of the South, and
2) the King of the North. The
times, faces, and places are vastly different between the
old established interpretation and the new interpretation. They are as different as an old garment is in
comparison to the new. Everyone knows that the old feels much better in
comparison to a new garment. Jesus knew this as a fact when he drew a
parallel between old and new wine. "No
man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith,
'The old is better." (Luke 5:39) Please understand that I am not
requiring that you throw away your old interpretation for you will find
that there exists many valuable parallels between the two. I am asking
that the seasoned prophecy student temporarily lay aside the old
interpretation and try on the new and see how it fits without
considering his traditional biases.
- Context of the
new view -
I am going to draw your attention to
the ideology of Roman Catholicism along with her Papal heads which I
symbolize as the King of North. This ideology has been struggling for
the past two centuries against its chief nemesis, the ideology of
atheism. As strange as it may seem today, the ideology of atheism in a
political form had
never been adopted by a society until the French
revolution in 1795. Over a century later, this ideology flourished into
the power of Communism and the notion that there is no God has
influenced the western world heavily today. I will symbolize this
ideology and the nations who have adopted it as spiritual Egypt or in
the terms of Daniel 11, the South. Let me summarize:
The Papacy
= The North
Atheism = The South
Now do I have the authority to make
ideologies symbolize whatever I please in order to suit my purposes. No.
However I am justified because the the scriptures have translated these terms into symbols long ago. "Spiritual Egypt"
was specifically mentioned nineteen hundred years ago when John wrote
the book of Revelation.
"And their (the two witnesses)
dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which
"spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt" where also our Lord was
crucified." (Revelation 11:8) In the classic view of Daniel
chapter 11, the south has been identified as Egypt. But we see
that another application can be made to Egypt in a symbolic sense. In
order to gain an accurate understanding of symbolic description, the
historical context that led to the fulfillment of Revelation 11:8 must
be examined. The time frame for this event was to terminate at close of the 1260 day
prophecy and
prophetic scientists over three centuries ago applied
spiritual Egypt to France. They also believed that the 1260 days of the
prophecy could also be translated into 1260 years based on the prophecy
rules found in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 and many
prophetic scientists were
anticipating its collapse.
In 1789, these watchers were
rewarded! The French revolution was
under way. Its former bonds it had shared with the Papacy were abruptly
severed. Man's hatred was so great towards the religious authority of
Rome that the citizens of the new France arose and wiped out the Catholic clergy.
Anything having to do with religion was
abolished. This included marriage and even the weekly day of rest. At
this time, it was declared in their new constitution that there was no God.
Human reason without the consultation of religion became the new god to be served by the people.
The fulfillment or this prophecy validated the day for year theory. Yet
the rise of French revolution brought to light much more. It revealed
the identity of another prophetic beast which prophetic scientists
rarely mention in their discourses today. "And when they
(the two witnesses) shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit
shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them."
It is here that we must closely observe what rose up out of
France near the close of the 1260 years. A Beast had
indeed arisen which had fully cast off the restraints of religion and the fear of
God. It was and is an ideology that strikes fear in the heart of the
Papacy. Out of this revolution the Pope was led into captivity by
this Beast. So we can see that
Atheism was the Beast that arose out of the
bottomless pit and it did so in the place that is called
spiritual Egypt.
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Prophetic scientists
have emphasized four political powers composing the image
that would manifest themselves in the western world through
the course of time. Beginning with the Kingdom of Babylon
around 600 B.C. Many have focused on the age when Iron (the
Papacy) shall mingle unsuccessfully with Clay.
(click illustration on left)
This Kingdom would eventually form a forbidden image.
Classic interpreters have rightly focused their attention on
the power of the Papacy. Yet there is a fifth element in
this image that must also be understood. It is the element
of clay which is Atheism. We must note that this clay is
moist and not baked when its builders foolishly attempt to
mingle it with iron and hastily prop up it up for all of the
world to follow. When this begins to occur, the citizens
composing everlasting Kingdom will come, and with the help
of the God of Israel, they will grind this unholy structure
into powder.
(see Isaiah 41:7-16) |
The Papacy
= The Iron
Atheism = The Clay
Let us now apply the theory. When anti-Christ
performs his seemingly miraculous wonders, the notion promoted by
secular societies that God does not exist will seem eradicated through
the miraculous wonders wrought by Papacy. But the lies of the Papacy
will be exposed by God's chosen people. All who are sensitive to the
spirit of God will perceive that the miracles he performs are lying
wonders. These upright ones will realize that all nations are drunk with
her inebriating potion and know that they must expatriate themselves
from these corrupted systems. These disheartened have nowhere to turn
but heavenward. They rejoice when they see an ancient system rising higher and higher in their
view. It is the long anticipated Kingdom of God setup on earth.
"In the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the LORD
will be established in the tops of the mountains, and it shall be
exalted above the hills; and many people shall flow unto it. And many
nations shall come, and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of
the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of
his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of
Zion" (Micah 4:2)
The great exodus of these upright ones
who flee from this unholy image will have a disastrous effect upon the
new structure.
The image will collapse because the righteous were the integral parts
the image needed to hold it together. What remains are liars and lovers
of rebellion. These are the very same circumstances that led to the time
of the French revolution. Those who remain among the remnants of
this image will try to keep it together but to no avail. The Kingdom of God
represented by the everlasting mountain that covers the earth will
continue to crush whatever it tries to build into powder.
"Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for
I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou
shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto
the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth." (Micah
4:13)
History and the prophecies of Daniel
11 can help us better understand the predictable life cycle of the
Papacy. When God gives her full control of a specified domain and once
her domain has been systematically "purified" of any righteousness, then
her bastard son (Atheism) will arise and will bring her to ruin. After
three and a half years, those who have sold their souls to the Papacy
will no longer be deceived. Yet she (The papal Whore) will have
masterfully done her work by unfitting the hearts of her constituents
for the Kingdom of heaven. In their anger, they will rise and fulfill
the prophecy of Revelation 17, "And the
ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore,
and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn
her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and
to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God
shall be fulfilled." (Revelation 17:16-17)
The Papacy
= The Whore of Revelation 17
Atheism = The
scarlet colored Beast
With these principals in
mind, let us now proceed to interpret the prophecy of Daniel chapter
Eleven.
The angel Gabriel sent to Daniel is preparing him for what he is about
to hear back in chapter ten and indicates that the focus of the prophecy
is specifically for the Last days.
(Daniel 10:14)
"Now I am
come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter
days: for yet the vision is for many days."
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