“As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.””
– Daniel 8:17
Hi James and Ellen,
It is 2566 years ago. Your name is Daniel. You are an exiled Jew who is living in the city of Babylon. You write an account of what you experienced while you are in the city of Babylon. You recount in Daniel 8 – in your Daniel Book, the first of two ominous visions that God gave you. When you have these two visions, Belshazzar has been king for three years ruling over the guys and gals who are living in the land of Babylonia. This vision has you standing beside the Ulai Canal in the city of Susa’s citadel. You see a ram standing next to the canal. The ram has two horns. One of the ram’s horns is longer than the other horn. As you are watching, the shorter horn becomes the longer of the two horns. The ram charges towards the west, the north and the south. Because of having unrivaled power, nothing is stopping the ram from doing what he pleases to do. As you are trying to comprehend what you are seeing, a goat suddenly flies into your sight from the west. The goat has a prominent horn between his eyes. In a rage filled attack on the ram, the goat breaks off the ram’s two horns. The goat knocks the ram down to the ground and tramples the ram. You watch the goat become very great. You see the goat – at the height of his power, having the horn broken off that was between his eyes. You watch as four horns replace the goat’s single broken off horn. You see the goat’s four new horns growing towards the four winds of heaven. You watch as one of the horns sprouts another horn which grows and grows. You see this new horn becoming a power player in the south, the east and the Beautiful Land. You watch as this new horn reaches for some of heaven’s starry hosts so that it can throw them down to planet Earth so that the goat can trample them. You watch the new horn setting itself up to be an equal to the Prince of host. You see – because of their rebellion, the hosts of saints being handed over to the new horn for the horn to do whatever it wants to do to them. You watch the new horn prosper while it is destroying absolute truth.
If you have tonight the kind of sinister, alarming vision that Daniel had 2566 years ago, what would you do? Verse 17 has Daniel’s reaction after he hears a man’s voice tell Gabriel – who is one of God’s angels, what to tell him, “As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. ““ Son of man,”” he said to me, ““understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.”” As Daniel went into a deep sleep – lying face down on the ground, God uses Gabriel as a message currier to touch Daniel to get him to stand. Gabriel tells Daniel that the ram’s two horns symbolize the Medo-Persian empire. About 8 years after Daniel has this vision, the Babylonian empire – which at the time that Daniel had this vision was planet Earth’s most powerful country, was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. The larger of the ram’s two horns represents Persia’s land area – which is today Iran’s land area. Persia – as Iran, is still often making the news because of this country’s inherent desire to be recognized as an international power broker. Gabriel tells Daniel that the goat – which Daniel describes as being shaggy, denotes the land area of Greece. About 220 years after Daniel had this vision – in 331 B.C., Alexander the Great and his army of Greek soldiers – crushes the Medo-Persia army. Somewhere around 54 years after Greece becomes planet Earth’s most powerful country, one of the four replacement horns began growing and growing. This rapidly growing horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Stern-faced, evil Antiochus IV extends his power until he is even ruling over guys and gals who are living in the ‘Beautiful Land’. The ‘Beautiful Land’ is the land of Israel. God had earlier returned a portion of the land of Isreal to His specially chosen guys and gals. Antiochus IV – during his lifetime, triggered shocking devastation including defeating men who were Godly believers who were living in the ‘Beautiful Land’ – murdering many of these Godly believers because of their unshakable and resolute faith in God and ordering the living Godly believers to end their daily sacrifices to God.
Daniel describes the horn that grew – who would be Antiochus IV Epiphanes, as a guy who would use deceit to prosper and who would consider himself superior to everyone else. What immediately came to your mind as you read through this Daniel Book chapter? Your grandpaa is finding himself wanting to understand what the words ‘the time of the end’ really means. The chapter’s footnotes imply what is prophesied in this chapter through Daniel came to an end in 164 B.C. when Antiochus IV died from an illness or accident. Do you think– like your grandpaa does, that ‘the time of the end’ may be something that is still in the future? It is really intriguing to your grandpaa that the Ayatollah’s proxy in the country of Iran (which was once Persia) today is an egotistical narcissist while at the same time the President of the United States is a megalomaniac psychotic. Both of these arrogant, patronizing dupes use duplicity to continually underpin their perceived superior beings. These two bigheaded, self-adulating ‘fools’ to your grandpaa’s thinking just may have a play in a secondary implementation of ‘the time of the end’. Your grandpaa is thinking that because of Iran’s conditioned need to annihilate totally God’s specially chosen guys and gals – who are Jews, and the progressive’s conditioned need for total disarmament and world equality – which is being championed by the President of the United Sates, that these polarizing ideologies might soon lead to another ‘end’ time scenario.
Daniel 8 (1055)