quick review of a couple things from chapter seven that I just preached on Wednesday night
so that today's sermon will make perfect sense to you.
But if you remember all the way back in Daniel chapter two, there's that great image that
Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about that had the head of gold and then the shoulders and arms
of silver, the loins of brass, the legs of iron, and then the feet that were mingled
of iron and clay.
And so there are four main sections, but there's sort of a fifth section too because of the
toes that are mingled with iron and clay.
And those represented four kingdoms.
That was interpreted to Nebuchadnezzar that he was the head of gold and then obviously
after that you have the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, and then the Roman Empire.
Those were the four great kingdoms that he saw in Daniel 2.
Then in Daniel chapter 7 we had a similar vision.
If you would just flip back to Daniel 7 for just a moment.
And instead of having a vision of a great statue, he has a vision of four beasts or
four animals.
And if you remember, the first one is like a lion.
And we talked about on Wednesday night how that represented Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.
And then the next one was a bear, which represented the Medo-Persians.
But I want to point out specifically the third kingdom here.
It says in verse number 6, "After this I beheld, and lo, 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."
It gets into the fourth beast, "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, it stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all
the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns."
Now flip over to chapter 8, we already talked about on Wednesday night how the ten horns
are ten kings, and then the Bible talked about in chapter 7 how after the ten kings, and
it's very specific about that timing, after the ten kings there arose another little horn,
and that other little horn who rose up after the ten kings, he had a great mouth speaking
great things.
And then we show down Revelation 13, that's exactly what it says about the Antichrist,
he's going to be given a mouth speaking great things.
It talked about in Daniel 7 how that little horn that came up after the ten kings would
make war with the saints and prevail against them.
Then in Revelation 13 we saw that the Antichrist would make war with the saints and overcome
them.
So we saw all these undeniable parallels between the little horn of Daniel 7, which comes after
the ten horns of that fourth kingdom, and the Antichrist of End Times Bible Prophecy,
there's no question about that.
Now let's dig into Daniel chapter 8 with that in mind.
Daniel chapter 8 starts out in verse number 1, "In the third year of the reign of King
Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared
unto me at the first.
And I saw in a vision, and it came to pass when I saw that I was at Shushan in the palace,
which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in a vision I was by the river of Uli.
Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold there stood before the river a ram which had
two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher
came up last.
Now let's just jump ahead to verses 20 and 21 just to get the identity of who this ram
is.
The Bible says in chapter 8 verse 20, "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are
the kings of Media and Persia, and the rough goat is the king of Grecia, and the great
horn that is between his eyes is the first king."
So this ram, the Bible says in verse number 3, had two horns.
Later it tells us that that represents the kings of Media and Persia.
Then it says in verse 3 that one was higher than the other and the higher came up last.
This is because the king of Persia was greater than the king of the Medes.
So the latter of those two, the Medes and the Persians, was more powerful and was higher
than the other.
The Bible says in verse 4, "I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward so that
no beast might stand before him.
Neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand, but he did according to his will
and became great."
So here we see a picture of the Medo-Persian army that it presses in these different directions.
It's conquering and cannot be defeated.
No one can stop them.
No one can deliver out of their hand.
They are a powerhouse at that time.
Look at verse 5.
"And as I was considering, behold, an he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole
earth."
And we know that to be, the Bible says, the king of Grecia and that the horn that's on
the goat is the first king.
So the Bible says that the he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth and
touched not the ground and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes and he came
to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river and ran unto
him in the fury of his power.
Now if you remember from chapter 7, after the Medo-Persians came the Greeks and they
were represented by the leopard with four heads.
What is a leopard known for?
Its exceptional speed and that is because Alexander the Great, who is that first king
or that notable horn on the goat, Alexander the Great and his armies were known for having
great speed, sort of a blitzkrieg where they could move in really quickly and defeat the
enemy and that was one of their greatest strengths was their mobility and speed.
That's why they're represented by a leopard in Daniel chapter 7 and then that's why here
in Daniel chapter 8 it says that the goat when it came touched not the ground and it
ran in the fury of his power.
So again, speed is there.
If something's running so fast that it's not even touching the ground, right, that's very
rapid indeed.
So the Bible says that the goat at the end of verse 5 had a notable horn between his
eyes.
We know from verse 21 that that is the first king or Alexander the Great.
Verse number 6, "And he came to the ram that had two horns which I had seen standing before
the river and ran unto him in the fury of his power and I saw him come close unto the
ram and he was moved with collar against him."
Collar is rage or anger.
You might have heard of someone being a caloric personality.
They get angry easily.
"And it says here that he smote the ram and break his two horns and there was no power
in the ram to stand before him.
But he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him and there was none that could deliver
the ram out of his hand.
Therefore the he goat waxed very great.
And when he was strong the great horn was broken.
Now who is that great horn on the goat?
Alexander the Great or the first king of that Grecian empire.
So when he's strong the Bible says the great horn was broken and for it came up four notable
ones toward the four winds of heaven.
Now the reason why is because Alexander the Great died unexpectedly at a young age.
He was in his early 30s not expecting to die.
The story goes that he drank himself drunk and then the next morning he had a fever and
pretty soon he lost his ability to speak and within a few weeks he was dead at a young
age.
Why?
Because a lot of times wicked people are cut short early in their lives.
The Bible talks about the wicked not living out half their days and that was certainly
the case with Alexander the Great.
So when he died there was no clear successor.
He had not made provision, because he probably didn't think he was going to die so young,
he had not made provision for someone else to take over after him.
So there ended up being fights or disputes about who was going to take over and the kingdom
ended up being divided amongst four of his great generals and there became four separate
kingdoms there.
And that's why the leopard is pictured in Daniel 7 as having four wings and four heads
and then here it specifically states at the end of verse 8 there that for it, meaning
in place of that great horn that was broken, four notable ones came up, right?
So four others take over toward the four winds of heaven because there were four different
kingdoms now that are geographically separated.
You have one that's mainly in Greece, one that's in Asia Minor or modern day Turkey,
one that's in Mesopotamia or Babylon or modern day Iraq, and then one down in Egypt.
And these four kingdoms continued that Greek empire, but they didn't just have one king
anymore.
They didn't have one centralized power like they did under Alexander the Great.
So the Bible says that four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven came up.
Look at verse 9, "And out of one of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding
great toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land."
Now let me stop and point something out here that's very important.
In Daniel chapter 7, it's crystal clear that the little horn who represented the Antichrist
of Revelation 13 came up not during this Greek period, because the Greek period was the leopard
with the four wings and the four heads, but rather came up in the fourth section where
you had the dreadful beast with the seven heads and ten horns.
And it even specifically said that that little horn of Daniel 7 came after the ten kings.
After the ten kings.
This little horn, on the other hand, is coming up during this Greek empire, and I'm going
to prove that to you further.
But it says here that out of one of them, in verse number 9, out of one of what?
Out of one of the four kingdoms, because you remember, the main empire of Alexander the
Great is broken into four smaller Greek kingdoms, and out of one of those rises up this little
horn.
Now, those four kingdoms, there were two that were the most important, okay?
The one called the Seleucid Empire, which is the one in Mesopotamia, Babylon area, and
the one down in Egypt that was run by a guy named Ptolemy.
You might have heard of the Ptolemies or the Ptolemaic Empire, Greek kings that ruled Egypt,
okay?
Later in the book of Daniel, these are going to be referred to as the King of the North
and the King of the South, because out of these four kingdoms, these two are the most
important.
The Seleucids are the King of the North, the Ptolemies are the King of the South.
So out of one of these, it says, "There came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding
great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
And it waxed great even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host, and of
the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them."
Now this idea of taking down some of the stars of heaven and casting them to the ground,
it's reminiscent of what?
The devil, right?
Satan, in the book of Revelation, where it talks about the dragon's tail grabbing a
third of the stars of heaven and casting them to the earth.
So there's something satanic about this guy because language is being used about this
guy that's reminiscent of language about the devil in Revelation 13.
It says in verse 11, "Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him
the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down, and
a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down
the truth to the ground, and it practiced and prospered.
Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake,
How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice?"
And watch this phrase.
"And the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden
under foot, and he said unto me unto two thousand and three hundred days, Then shall the sanctuary
be cleansed."
Now, what I want to point out here, I don't want you to get lost in this because I know
that this is a complicated chapter, this is a strong meat of the word, but if you pay
attention this morning, you're going to understand this, okay, that out of one of these four
Greek kingdoms, a man arises up, a little horn, he's demonic in nature, and he takes
away the daily sacrifice and he commits something known as the transgression of desolation.
Now if you know anything about Bible prophecy, this sounds pretty familiar, a guy causing
the daily sacrifice to cease and setting up the abomination of desolation as being an
end times thing about the Antichrist, that's what we're familiar with, right?
But in this passage we're talking about someone that's even before the Roman Empire, someone
that's even from the period when the Greeks are in power.
Now let's jump forward a little bit and look at more evidence.
We'll come back to some of the verses we're skipping, but look at verse number 20.
It says, "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia,
and the rough goat is the king of Grecia, and the great horn that is between his eyes
the first king," or Alexander the Great.
Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it.
So there wasn't one guy who stood up and took over where Alexander left off, but rather
four that stood up for it.
Four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power, meaning they're not
going to be as powerful as Alexander the Great was.
And 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.
Now this guy is that little horn that we read about.
And notice, when does he come up?
In the latter time of their kingdom.
Whose kingdom?
The four guys who take over after Alexander the Great.
In the latter time of their kingdom, meaning the latter time of this Greek Empire, but
before the Roman Empire starts, it says that this man is going to stand up and he's a
man who the Bible says understands dark sentences.
Now what does it mean to understand dark sentences?
What this is referring to is a man who is practicing the occult arts, the dark arts,
witchcraft, black magic, that which is sorcery and that which is demonic.
This man is in touch with dark forces, which makes sense because earlier in the chapter
we saw evidence of his satanic nature.
But let's keep reading here.
It says in verse 24, "And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power."
Okay, where is he getting his power from?
He's getting it from the devil.
"And he shall destroy wonderfully and shall prosper and practice and shall destroy the
mighty and the holy people.
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand."
Now when you see these words practice, he's going to practice, he's going to understand
dark sentences, you know, practicing there is a word we'd often use with witchcraft,
you know, practicing witchcraft or practicing sorcery.
And then the fact that it even says that he shall cause, in verse 25, craft to prosper.
This isn't a guy who's into arts and crafts, you know.
This guy isn't buying a lot of pipe cleaners and Elmer's white glue.
You know, this is talking about witchcraft, it's talking about sorcery, dark arts.
And it says, "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."
Now, when the Bible talks about him here lifting up himself and exalting himself, go back
to verse 11, it said, "Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host.
And by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down."
Now, history tells us that the name of this man that we're reading about in Daniel chapter
8 is Antiochus Epiphanes.
You see, around the time of Alexander the Great and forward, there's a lot of historical
record that still survives.
You know, when we go way back to ancient history, it's pretty hard to piece together sometimes
what happened because a lot of things have not survived.
But from Alexander the Great on, there's a lot of historical evidence.
There are a lot of books and documents and papers and sources that you could go to.
Just like if we wanted to know about things that happened in the 17, 18, 1900s, there's
just a lot of evidence, right?
Obviously there's not as much back then, but you start getting into what we would consider
modern historical record where we pretty much know what happened with a pretty good degree
of certainty around the time of Alexander the Great and forward.
It's pretty well documented.
And this guy, Antiochus Epiphanes, came out of that King of the North, as Daniel calls
it, the Seleucid Empire, in the latter times of that kingdom.
This king arose up, Antiochus Epiphanes.
And in fact, archaeologists have found coins with his face on them.
And you can look at images of these coins and they say on them, "Antiochus Epiphanes,
God Manifest."
Basically, he's claiming to be God Manifest.
Now, does that remind you of someone else who the Bible says God was manifest in the
flesh?
That's talking about Jesus Christ.
Now, what does the word "antichrist" mean?
The word "antiprist" means in the place of Christ.
See, we often misunderstand the term "anti."
Sometimes the prefix "anti" could mean you're against something.
Like if we said, "Hey, I'm anti-abortion."
But "anti" has a different meaning in this context, "anti" here means in place of, instead
of.
And so when we talk about the antichrist, we're talking about someone who's instead
of Christ.
We're talking about one who takes the place of Christ, who claims to be God manifest on
this earth.
And so this man, Antiochus Epiphanes, claimed to be God.
His predecessor did not do that, but he was manifest God on earth in his own mind, right?
So he lifted up himself even unto the prince of princes, or against the prince of princes,
which is obviously referring to the Lord himself.
This man was an Antichrist, and not only that, but he actually did what?
Cause the daily sacrifice to cease.
He also did what?
Set up the transgression of desolation, which sounds an awful lot like the abomination of
desolation, which also involves the daily sacrifice ceasing.
He's also called the little horn, which the Antichrist is called in Daniel chapter seven,
the little horn.
But the thing that is without question is that these are two different people.
Daniel seven's little horn cannot be the same person as Daniel chapter eight's little horn.
It just can't be the same guy.
Now why is that?
Because the Bible is clear in Daniel chapter seven that the little horn comes after the
ten kings, whereas this little horn comes up in the latter times of their kingdom, referring
to the Greeks, before the Romans have even come, let alone the ten kings.
So this man came before the time of Christ.
History tells us 167 BC.
So isn't it interesting that even before Christ's first coming, there's a guy who the Bible
identifies as an antichrist who came first, claiming to be God manifest and doing a lot
of same things that the end times antichrist is going to do according to Daniel 7 and Revelation
13.
But they have to be two different guys because the timing is so far off, the timing is so
far removed.
Now there's a doctrine out there that people have in regard to end times prophecy called
preterism or historicism, who's ever heard those terms and you're kind of familiar with
those terms?
And this is basically the idea that the end times events that we talk about when we preach
about Bible prophecy, that it's all already happened, oh that stuff all already happened.
And this doctrine comes in various flavors and various shades, but let me tell you right
now it's a false doctrine.
What we believe is often referred to as futurism, because we look at the prophecies of the Bible
in the book of Revelation and say most of this stuff is still coming in the future.
And in fact, I think it's pretty silly in 2018 to even think about being a preterist
or a historicist when you can actually see it happening all around us.
You can see a lot of the things of Revelation coming together right now.
And I was talking to one of these preterists not too long ago and he was making his arguments
with me.
And finally I just said, "Just stop for a second.
Are you telling me that you don't think that we're heading toward a one-world government?
You don't see us heading toward a new world order?
You don't see these things coming together that we read about in Revelation of a one-world
currency and a one-world religion and a one-world government?
And isn't the world getting more evil, not better?
Don't you see it happening?
And he said, "Well, you know, you've got a pretty strong point with that.
I guess I do see it happening."
But you see, where these people miss the boat that get into this preterism or historicism
argument is they say, "Well, it already happened, so it's not going to happen in the future.
It already happened."
But guess what?
It already happened, and it's going to happen again.
It already happened on a minor scale, and it's going to happen on a grand scale.
You see, all throughout the Bible, we have examples of dual fulfillment of Bible prophecy,
or even a triple fulfillment of Bible prophecy, and it'd be pretty hard to ignore that reading
your Bible, because how many times do you read in the Old Testament about the Day of
the Lord, and it tells you the Day of the Lord's at hand, meaning it's about to happen.
Well, if it was about to happen back then, how come it's still coming in the future?
I'll tell you why.
Because in the Old Testament, there were all kinds of small Day of the Lords, but often
when you read those Day of the Lord passages about something that was going to happen back
then, there's a foreshadowing of the big Day of the Lord that's coming in the future, in
the end times.
So, you'll have a shadow fulfillment back then, and then you'll have a major fulfillment
later on.
And sometimes when you look at those passages, you say, "Well, that's pretty exaggerated
because what actually happened wasn't as dramatic as what the prophet said was going to happen."
Well, I'll tell you why.
Because what happened back then was just the appetizer.
It was just the foreshadowing, the big stuff is still coming.
It's just like with the destruction of Babylon.
You read about the destruction of Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51, that's not exactly
how it went down.
Why?
Because a lot of that is not about back then because Revelation 18 tells us that the destruction
of Babylon is still coming.
So yeah, you had Babylon being wiped out by the Medo-Persians, the first kingdom being
replaced with that second kingdom on that statue.
But you also have Babylon being destroyed in the end times.
How do we know?
Because Revelation is still talking about it as a future event in chapters 17 and 18.
Now if you would flip over to Matthew 24, while you're turning there let me give you
some other examples of a dual type fulfillment.
You know Abraham in Genesis chapter 22, that famous chapter where he's supposed to offer
his son Isaac upon the altar, he makes a prophetic statement, "God shall provide himself a lamb
for the sacrifice."
But yet, what is it that's actually literally provided in Genesis 22?
It's actually a ram, which is a different animal.
Why?
Because God's signaling us that sure, there's a partial fulfillment there where God provides
himself a sacrifice, but the big fulfillment is when God provided Jesus.
That's the real lamb of God, which taken away the sin of the world.
So you have a literal animal that God provides back then, but then you have the true provision
being further up.
What about the book of Jonah?
I mean, when you read Jonah chapter two, Jonah is calling out to God out of the belly of
the whale, and he talks about the seaweed being wrapped around his head.
He talks about being in the ocean, but then in the next breath he says, "Out of the belly
of hell," cried I.
Now, Jonah didn't go to hell.
Jonah's still alive.
He's in the belly of the whale.
He talks about going down to the bottoms of the mountains and that the earth with her
bars was about me forever, he says.
You know, "about there" means around him, surrounding him.
He says the earth with her bars was about me forever.
You can hardly say that about being in a whale's belly.
You can hardly say that about being in a whale's belly that you're in hell.
Now, figuratively, but not literally.
But then when we go to Matthew 12, what do we see?
As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man
be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
See, it was David who said, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thine holy one," to see corruption, but it was actually about Jesus, because Jesus
was the one who was in hell for three days and three nights, and out of the belly of
hell he cried, and his soul was not left in hell.
It says in Acts 2.31, "This spake ye of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption."
So we could go on and on, all the different examples of a dual fulfillment of a prophecy.
In fact, we could go back to the very first story in the Bible where it talks about how
Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And they're told, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."
He said, "The day that you eat thereof, you'll die."
So the day that they ate thereof, there was somewhat of a fulfillment of that because
their spirit died.
Their spiritually did, but they didn't physically die, but they did physically die later as
a result of that sin.
If they had not sinned, they would have lived forever.
Because they sinned, they died.
There was an immediate fulfillment when they died spiritually, but then there was a greater
fulfillment when they actually physically fell over dead.
So all throughout the Bible, and we could go on and on and on the examples, if you look
at prophecies that are specifically applied to the first coming of Christ or the second
coming of Christ, they also had minor fulfillments in the Old Testament.
They also had shadow fulfillments back then.
And you say, "Well, where do you get this idea of a dual fulfillment?"
Well, here's the smoking gun.
Here's the proof that there's already been the abomination of desolation.
The daily sacrifice already ceased.
You already had this guy, the Antichrist, the little horn, back in the Greek period.
But yet, what does Jesus say in Matthew 24?
He brings this up, and he specifically mentions Daniel.
He says in verse 15, "When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken
of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand.
Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains."
What in the world sense would that make if the abomination of desolation has already
happened?
What in the world sense would it make?
Hey, when you see that, that's when you head for the hills if you live in Judea.
It wouldn't make any sense at all, would it?
Why?
Because of the fact that he's talking about a future event.
And then you get all the way to the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, and
he's still talking about the abomination of desolation, not in those words, but describing
these events and the abomination of desolation as still being future even at that time.
Even though we know that there was an abomination of desolation, there was a stopping of the
daily sacrifice, there was an antichrist, even before Jesus even walked on this earth
around 167 BC.
So that proves that there's a dual fulfillment because you got an antichrist in Daniel 7
and an antichrist in Daniel 8 that are totally different people separated by centuries minimum.
So that proves it right there.
Now go back if you would to Daniel chapter number 8, Daniel chapter number 8, Daniel
chapter number 8, the Bible says in verse number 11, "Yea, he magnified himself even
to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place
of his sanctuary was cast down, and an host was given him against the daily sacrifice
by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced
and prospered.
Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake,
"How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation
to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?"
And he said unto me, "Unto 2,300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
So one question that we would ask is, was the temple desecrated back in those days when
this happened with Antiochus Epiphanes?
Was it desolated or did that vision last for 2,300 days?
I don't know for sure, history tells us that it didn't last that long.
History tells us it was dramatically shorter than that, but it's hard to say for sure because
the historical sources here are not as detailed and necessarily accurate and it's really from
a pretty untrustworthy source that we get the actual timing of how long the desolation
of the temple took place.
But let's say that it wasn't.
Let's say that it was shorter than that, which is what most people think.
Well then, that would just mean that this 2,300 day figure is part of the foreshadowing for
the end times abomination of desolation.
And if you plug in those numbers, it actually fits like a glove.
And as you've seen, maybe if you've seen my chart on Daniel's 70th week where I plugged
that in and show how that number actually makes perfect sense.
So it could have applied to back then and the future.
I think it for sure applies to the future.
And let me say this.
Everything in Daniel chapter 8 though that we read about has already happened.
All of it.
But that doesn't mean that it's not also pointing to something that's going to happen.
Same thing with Daniel chapter 11.
If you look at Daniel chapter 11, all that elaborate wrangling, those of you who know
the Bible pretty well, between the king of the north and the king of the south and his
daughter and this battle and that battle, you can go from verse 1 to the end of chapter
11 and all of those things happened back then.
But when preachers get up and preach out of Daniel chapter 11 and make an end times application,
they're correct.
Why?
Because it's going to happen again.
Because that was the shadow fulfillment back then.
The real fulfillment is still coming.
You're making that up?
Nope.
Because Jesus said the abomination of desolation is still coming, even though it was documented
as having already happened back then because it's happening again.
The Bible says in verse 15, "And it came to pass, when I, even I, Daniel, had seen the
vision and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of
a man.
And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Uli, which called and said, Gabriel, make
this man to understand the vision.
So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid, and fell upon my face.
But he said unto me, Understand, O son of man, for at the time of the end shall be the
vision."
So notice right there that he's telling Daniel this vision is going to be for the time of
the end.
So that means that even in the end times, this vision is still relevant.
So the mistake that people are making is they look at Daniel chapter 8 and they identify
these things as already having happened.
So then they just say, "Oh, not relevant for the end times."
Well the Bible just said that this is relevant for the time of the end.
Why?
Because it's going to happen again.
You know, in many ways, people on both sides of this argument are wrong because you have
the historicist or preterist who is saying, "Oh, already happened.
Not relevant.
Forget about it.
We don't even need to study this Bible prophecy stuff as future because it's all been fulfilled.
It's all done.
It's all over.
It already happened."
They're clearly wrong.
But then you have the futurist who basically just wants to try to say that this is all
only about future events and then it's kind of like putting a square peg into a round
hole when you realize that you have to acknowledge some of this stuff did happen.
And then the preterist will exploit that weakness of, "What do you mean it didn't happen?
Sure it did.
It's right here.
You can see where it happened."
But the true answer here is that it's both true because it happened back then.
It's going to happen again.
So if you look up what different people believe about this, the Jews, the Christ-rejecting
Jews, their belief on this is they say, "Well, you know, this already happened.
It's done.
Forget about it because it was Antiochus Epiphanes and it's totally done."
And they don't acknowledge any kind of a 70 A.D. fulfillment and they don't acknowledge
any kind of a future fulfillment.
To them, this is just past.
Already happened.
Right?
Then if you look at your Protestant types, you know, Protestant Reformation type doctrine,
Baptist Reformed Theology types, they won't even point to Antiochus Epiphanies as even
a fulfillment.
They just say, "Oh, this is all about 70 A.D."
This all happened in 70 A.D.
That's what a lot of preterists will constantly point to, 70 A.D., 70 A.D.
Now what happened in 70 A.D.?
Well, if you remember, Jesus Christ, when he was on this earth, he preached over and
over again about how as a result of the Jews rejecting him, that their city was going to
be destroyed.
He told a lot of parables about that, and he talked about how the temple would not have
one stone left upon another, and how they were going to be wiped out because of that.
Well, that historically happened in 70 A.D. when the Romans came in, destroyed the temple,
burned Jerusalem, wiped it out, not one stone was left upon another.
Now, if you think about it, today the Jews don't do an animal sacrifice, right?
When did it stop?
When did they stop doing a sacrifice?
Well they stopped doing the sacrifice in 70 A.D. when the temple was wiped out.
Now, we believe that 70 A.D. was the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy that said, "Hey, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, given to another nation, bringing forth the fruits
thereof."
And when the Lord of the vineyard comes to those who did not bring forth fruit, the Jews,
Israel, He will utterly destroy those murderers.
And He's going to give the vineyard to somebody else.
And it also talks about He's going to burn their city.
And that's what happened back then.
So if you think about it, it makes perfect sense that when Christ came shortly thereafter
and in the lifetime of the apostles and in the lifetime of the people who heard Christ
preach, the daily sacrifice stopped, right?
Now that's because of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation
of the world.
Let me ask you this.
He's the one who takes away the sins of the world.
Let me ask you this.
The apostles and people that Christ was preaching to and that followed Christ on this earth,
before Jesus died on the cross, wouldn't they have offered sacrifices unto the Lord of an
animal sacrifice if they're devout Jews?
So people like Peter, James, John, those types, you know, they were offering animal sacrifice.
They're celebrating the Passover.
They're killing a lamb.
They're participating in that system.
But after Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried in rows again, did they have to
participate in that system anymore?
It's over, right?
Why?
Because Jesus is slain once for all.
We don't have to keep continually offering a sacrifice.
Jesus died once for all, one death, burial, and resurrection.
It's not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins.
It's Christ's blood that takes away our sins.
And even in the Old Testament, it was still the blood of Christ that took away their sins.
The animal sacrifices were only a picture pointing to Christ because Jesus is the Lamb
of God slain from the foundation of the world.
And that was all just foreshadowing Christ's death on the cross once for all.
So after Christ died on the cross, we don't need to sacrifice anymore, right?
So in that sense, Christ's death on the cross for our sins put an end to that Levitical
priesthood and that animal sacrifice.
That's why when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was rent in two pieces,
right?
It's over.
It's done.
He didn't eat the Holy of Holies from the holy place anymore.
It was ripped in half.
It's done.
And then he made sure to put a stop to their sacrifices by 70 AD because he wiped out their
temple and they stopped doing it.
And today Jews don't do animal sacrifices.
So think about this.
If Antiochus Epiphanes was an antichrist and if this guy who's coming in the future, according
to Revelation 13 and Daniel 7, the antichrist that's still coming, is going to impersonate
Jesus Christ, isn't one of the ways that he would do that by what?
Stopping the sacrifice.
Jesus is the one who's coming, put an end to the need for sacrifice.
So Antiochus Epiphanes, what did he do?
He caused the daily sacrifice to cease.
What is the antichrist going to do in the end times?
He's going to cause the daily sacrifice to cease.
Now you say, "Pastor Anderson, how can he make something stop that's not happening?
You just told us the Jews don't have a sacrifice."
Well, that's because in the end times, the temple's going to be rebuilt and the daily
sacrifice is going to be re-implemented, re-instituted.
And you know, a lot of Jews and even Zionist Christians are already talking like this,
aren't they?
Like, "Oh man, if we could just get rid of that mosque and we could just get the temple
rebuilt, we'll start up those sacrifices."
If you ask Jews why they don't do the sacrifice, they'll tell you because we don't have the
temple.
They are ready to start it up again when they have their temple.
And that's what they're going to do in the end times.
So you can see how there is a major fulfillment of the prophecies in Daniel that happened
before Christ with Antiochus epiphanies, already happened.
That there's also a partial fulfillment of some of these things in AD 70.
Because what happened in AD 70, I mean, Jerusalem is laid desolate, so that can fulfill some
of these things.
And there, you know, other chapters in Daniel will talk more about that.
But there is somewhat of a fulfillment in AD 70, but the main event is still coming
way off in the future.
So for the Protestants to just harp on AD 70, that's to ignore Antiochus Epiphanies
and to ignore the end times Antichrist is still coming.
And for the Jews to harp on Antiochus Epiphanies, that's to ignore AD 70 and to ignore the future
major most important fulfillment of this.
Look the book of Revelation talks about these things as still happening, still coming.
Revelation chapter 13, you've got just a crystal clear plan laid out of the 42 month reign
of the Antichrist and how he's going to cause everybody to receive a mark in their right
hand and in their forehead.
How can you say that all these things have already happened?
Really?
So Jesus Christ already came in the clouds?
Every eye already saw him?
Really?
It's silly isn't it?
How can you say, "Oh yeah, he already came in the clouds?
The resurrection of the dead has passed already?"
That's a false doctrine according to the apostle Paul.
Are you going to sit there and tell me that nobody on the earth could buy or sell without
a mark in their right hand or in their forehead that that already happened?
Nothing like that has happened.
So you have to pretty much just throw out all these clear scriptures that talk about
all these things that are going to happen where water is going to turn into blood and
there are going to be all these plagues and locusts from hell and all these horrible,
wrathful things in Revelation.
How can you say that stuff already happened?
Well, it's all figurative.
Oh really?
Was it figurative for Pharaoh?
I mean, God sent some literal plagues to Pharaoh and you know what?
The end times the Bible talks about it's going to be affliction, it's going to be tribulation,
it's going to be the wrath of God like the world has never seen.
There are going to be earthquakes like the world has never seen.
There is going to be persecution of God's people like the world has never seen.
There are going to be natural disasters unlike the world has ever seen.
God didn't just give us the book of Revelation as some fairy tale of, "Oh, you know, this
is all just kind of symbolic of the struggle between good and evil."
Wrong.
It's very detailed.
It's very specific.
And in the past when God said things like that were going to happen, they happened.
And they're going to happen again.
The main event is still to come.
So don't let people convince you that, "Oh, because the things in Daniel already happened,
it has no end times relevance."
Because it happened, that does not prevent it from happening again.
It can still happen again.
It has to happen again.
It must happen again.
It will for sure happen again.
And that's why Jesus is still talking about it even after it happened.
Vomitation of desolation again.
There's going to be another Antichrist.
It's repetitive.
Why?
It's a certain cycle of events that's happening, but it's culminating in the great tribulation.
I mean, there have always been tribulations, right?
There have always been times when God poured out his wrath on various groups of people
at various times throughout history.
But then there's the great tribulation and then there's the unparalleled wrath of the
lamb that's going to be poured out in the end times.
So how do we apply this?
You say, "Pastor Anderson, it's Sunday morning and this is a really heavy Bible prophecy
sermon.
You know, I want a little pick-me-up vitamin pill to get me through the week."
You know?
Well first of all, you don't want to go through the Christian life just constantly needing
this little pick-me-up.
I don't know about you, but my Christian life isn't always just hanging by a thread where
I just kind of stumble into church on Sunday morning and I just barely get that little
bit of strength that's going to get me through the week or something like that.
You know, if you actually spend time studying your Bible, obeying God's Word, and you love
the Lord and you're faithful and consistent in your walk with God, you could actually
get through many weeks without a special encouragement or pat on the back or pick me up.
And you'll even be able to go several weeks of swift kicks in the pants and still feel
great spiritually.
But not only that, we need another kind of preaching besides just a swift kick in the
pants, which we need, amen.
We all need that to keep us out of sin and keep us living right and keep us serving the
Lord.
But we also need encouragement to motivate us and make us feel better and cheer us up
and things like that.
But we also need doctrine.
We also need knowledge.
We also need some strong meat of the word.
And Daniel chapter 8, sure it's a difficult chapter, but I feel like the vast majority
of people who are sitting here this morning understood just about every word that came
out of my mouth this morning.
Who understood the sermon this morning?
I think virtually everybody did, why?
Because if we actually just slow down, turn off the cartoons, put away the comic books
for a minute, and actually dig into God's word and just take it verse by verse and
go through Daniel 8 verse by verse and compare scripture with scripture, it can be understood.
Now why didn't Daniel understand it?
Because Daniel didn't have the book of Revelation.
Daniel didn't have the book of Matthew.
Daniel didn't have 66 books.
But we, from where we're standing in 2018, we can understand this stuff.
We need to study to show ourselves approved unto God.
We need to get some smarts.
We need to get some intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and not just always
seek for the simple teachings and the easy chapter.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 13, you know, turn to Psalm 23, turn to John chapter 3.
Look, we love those chapters, but we need to also be willing to dig into Daniel chapter
8.
We need to be willing to dig into Daniel chapter 11.
We need to be willing to take on the hard scriptures.
Why?
Because all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.
It's profitable.
We need to read all of it and we need to learn all of it.
And I don't know about you, but if I happen to be living in the generation when these
things actually happen, the main event that is, which is quite possible that we could
be living in the generation that will face the Antichrist and the New World Order and
the One World System, I want to have as much information as possible.
I want to have the greatest possible grasp of the book of Daniel that I can.
I want to have the greatest possible grasp of Revelation and Thessalonians and all of
the scriptures that God has given me.
I want to go into it with as much information as possible so I can be ready to understand
the times that we're living in and to be able to act in a way that would please God and
to be equipped and throughly furnished unto all good works.
I want to know what Daniel means and you ought to want to learn everything that God has for
you in the Bible.
And so don't shy away from tough sections like this.
It's pretty tempting to just read Daniel 1 through 6 where all the fun stories are and
then get to chapter 7 and start to glaze over.
And then you get to chapter 8 and really start to glaze over as you watch this, you know,
animal fighting arena between this ram and this goat.
You know, you're standing by a river watching a ram and a goat fight and you just decide
hey I think I'm just going to go do something else.
No, stay with it.
Stay with Daniel chapter 9.
Stay with Daniel chapter 10.
And stay with the big bear of a chapter, Daniel chapter 11.
Why?
Because it's all profitable.
And if we didn't need to hear this stuff, if this stuff wasn't for us, then God wouldn't
have told us to read it.
And God wouldn't have given it to us and told us that it's profitable.
So stay with the book of Daniel.
Stay with all the teachings of God's word.
And come to church ready to learn something.
Not just to be encouraged or not just to have your face ripped.
You also need to come to learn something, right?
And walk out of here a little smarter than when you walked in and to be able to go home
and read the whole book of Daniel and say, "You know what?
Some of this stuff used to perplex me a little bit, but now it is really making a lot of
sense."
You know, that's what I hope these type of sermons will do for you.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for this chapter in
particular.
And Lord, we thank you so much that all the answers are in the Bible.
Help us to be diligent to search for them and find them, that we might have a clear
picture of what's going on in the world and what's going to happen in the future.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.