Hi Cliff Goldstein, and I want
to welcome you to the Program
00:00:21.25\00:00:24.87
Contending for the Faith
00:00:24.90\00:00:26.80
During the fall of 1979
00:00:26.83\00:00:31.86
under the looming shadow
of my twenty-fourth birthday
00:00:31.89\00:00:37.08
I had a dramatic,
life changing experience
00:00:37.11\00:00:41.51
For two and a half years
I had been writing a novel
00:00:41.54\00:00:44.87
This novel was my god. I
mean characters in the book
00:00:44.90\00:00:48.12
controlled my life
more than I controlled
00:00:48.15\00:00:50.58
the life of the
characters. Then that evening
00:00:50.61\00:00:53.90
one evening the Lord Jesus
Christ came to my, in my room
00:00:53.93\00:00:58.47
and He said, Cliff you've
been playing with me long enough
00:00:58.50\00:01:02.17
if you want me
tonight burn your novel.
00:01:02.20\00:01:06.57
Just like that. Now this
all didn't happen in a vacuum
00:01:06.60\00:01:11.74
There was a whole
lot of background to this
00:01:11.77\00:01:14.32
things that happened that took
me from being an agnostic or an
00:01:14.35\00:01:17.73
atheist to someone who knew
there was something out there
00:01:17.76\00:01:21.64
ok? But then suddenly
I was sure at that moment
00:01:21.67\00:01:26.03
what that was. Now
the problem was simple.
00:01:26.06\00:01:30.46
The novel was my god. The Lord
showed me that I must, you have
00:01:30.49\00:01:34.88
no other gods besides me,
and so if I wanted the Lord,
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if I wanted truth,
the book had to go.
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Then after couple hours or
whatever you might call divine
00:01:42.76\00:01:48.82
human wrestling and
knowing nothing about salvation
00:01:48.85\00:01:52.83
nothing about the
Three Angels Message
00:01:52.86\00:01:55.26
nothing about myself as a sinner
00:01:55.29\00:01:57.99
I took this manuscript,
two and a half years of my life
00:01:58.02\00:02:02.07
everything that I had, and I
burned it on a small hot plate
00:02:02.10\00:02:07.01
in my room. And that was
the night I became a born again
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believer in Jesus. Now my exper-
ience that night was just that.
00:02:12.71\00:02:20.97
It was an experience. It
was personal, it was subjective
00:02:21.00\00:02:26.45
it was interior. I think
anybody standing in the room
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wouldn't have
heard or seen anything
00:02:30.02\00:02:32.08
and in one sense there
was really nothing logical
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nothing scientific,
nothing that could be explained
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from any other
common academic disciplines
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I think psychologists
might have had a hard time
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trying to explain it, or a
fun time trying to explain it
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But it meant nothing to me.
What happened to me that night
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it was mystical, it was
supernatural, it was beyond
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rationality. Kinda like Saul's
little road trip to Damascus.
00:02:59.13\00:03:04.15
as seen in the book of Acts.
00:03:04.18\00:03:06.51
Read the story of Paul again and
tell me how logical how rational
00:03:06.54\00:03:12.92
how scientific that
was. Anyway the next day
00:03:12.95\00:03:18.20
in a health food store I
had my first Bible Study ever
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And we went through Daniel 2.
And we went through the sequence
00:03:24.28\00:03:29.01
of Kingdoms. Babylon,
Medo Persia, Greece, Rome
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and the breakup of Rome. And
when they came to the feet and
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toes of iron and
clay in the statue,
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and the text says they
shall mingle themselves
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with the seed of men but they
shall not cleave one to another
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even as iron is not
mixed with clay. In Daniel 2:43
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all that's
symbolic of modern Europe.
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I burst into tears. And
I remember I looked at them
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and I said "it's all
true. It's all true."
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I mean here, for the
first time in my life
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was powerful
confirmation. Not just for God
00:04:09.17\00:04:13.78
but for His foreknowledge
and His sovereignty
00:04:13.81\00:04:17.20
Here on the page
before me in that store
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was logical, objective and
public evidence for belief.
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With Daniel 2 my
experience of the night before
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was now
underpinned on a platform
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a platform that remains
as solid, as faith affirming
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and as rational now as it
was for me over 34 years ago
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in that, in that room and
in that Health Food Store.
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And that's what I
want to talk about today.
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Because you
know, experiences fade.
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Experiences fade, and
there, and you can forget
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and you go on and on and on
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And some days I don't
have good spiritual experiences
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Some days I feel empty
inside, I feel spiritually empty
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But no matter how I feel,
no matter what bad experiences
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I must be
happening, I might be having,
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Daniel 2 is always there.
Never changing and remains solid
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and logical, rational
reasons for faith and for belief
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that can come in quite handy
when you might not necessarily
00:05:38.79\00:05:43.22
feel so full of faith,
feel so strong in your belief.
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But no matter how I
feel, I've always got Daniel 2.
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And that's what I wanna look at
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You know for
starters, there's no question
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that the narrative
story itself of Daniel 2
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isn't exactly
brimming with rationality
00:06:05.39\00:06:09.79
I mean, come on. A king has
a dream that he can't remember
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And so he demands the
wise men to tell him the dream
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And they can't tell him
the dream so he's gonna tear
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their houses down
and rip their limbs off.
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Well when they can't
do it y'know, they're
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you know looking in
sheep livers and all that
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isn't going to cut it for
them so he orders everyone
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killed. Then Daniel goes
back and tells his friends
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and Daniel prays and God gives
him the answer to the dream
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They interpret it
and it saves the day.
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Hardly the logic of
geometry to be sure!
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However, on the other
hand logic and reason exude
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from the prophecy itself.
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Without supernatural
interven- tion how could he have
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gone through the
ages, through millennia even
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and so accurately depict the
rise and fall of those empires
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as he did? Daniel
almost 600 years before Christ
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lays out the history of
the world that comes after him
00:07:26.78\00:07:31.47
Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece,
Rome, the breakup of Rome
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into the divided
nations of modern Europe today
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Again, the man was writing
5-600 years before Christ
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We're not talking about
some theoretical phenomenon here
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A few girls claiming to have
been visited by the Virgin Mary
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or someone given magic goggles
and enabled them to interpret
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sacred books,
supposedly sacred books
00:08:01.28\00:08:05.51
We're talking about reality
as firm, as public an unchanging
00:08:05.54\00:08:12.01
as world history. What firmer
broader and more immutable
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foundation, the history of
the world could God have used
00:08:17.04\00:08:23.79
to give us to build
an edifice of faith?
00:08:23.82\00:08:27.85
I mean the whole
world can blow up tomorrow
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but there'll have always been
a Babylon a Medo Persia a Greece
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a Rome. It's a
foundation rooted in the past
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and even God
can't change the past
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That's what God has given
us to help ground our faith
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and it is
powerful. It's so powerful
00:08:46.97\00:08:51.93
in fact that people
want to try to get around it.
00:08:51.96\00:08:54.83
The logic and
reasonableness of Daniel 2
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has been so strong for so long
that people try to undermine it.
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I mean if you
don't believe in God,
00:09:02.75\00:09:04.96
if you don't
believe in the supernatural
00:09:04.99\00:09:08.15
If you don't
believe in God of the Bible
00:09:08.18\00:09:10.26
you're gonna have to come up
with something to explain this
00:09:10.29\00:09:13.05
prophecy because it
presents on the face of it
00:09:13.08\00:09:16.75
powerful and logical evidence
for the God of the Bible.
00:09:16.78\00:09:21.88
You know I once read something
or someone tried to say
00:09:21.91\00:09:23.74
"well how did Moses
get the Ten Commandments?"
00:09:23.77\00:09:25.98
They said he was on drugs that's
how he got the 10 Commandments
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They had to
explain the story somehow!
00:09:30.95\00:09:33.19
So some folks have
tried to find a way to explain
00:09:33.22\00:09:37.38
Tried to find a way
to explain away Daniel 2
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Now the most entrenched attempt
00:09:41.57\00:09:45.53
remains the so
called Maccabean Hypothesis
00:09:45.56\00:09:49.12
Which claims the book wasn't
written when it says it was
00:09:49.15\00:09:52.36
But was written centuries later
after the events themselves
00:09:52.39\00:09:56.55
This idea was first promulgated
by a philosopher Porphyry
00:09:56.58\00:10:01.00
who lived about 234-305 AD
00:10:01.03\00:10:05.47
who argued that Daniel had been
written in the second century
00:10:05.50\00:10:09.73
by the Jews under
the Seleucid Greeks
00:10:09.76\00:10:13.44
Today this view
infects most of Christendom
00:10:13.47\00:10:18.29
including a
majority of commentaries.
00:10:18.32\00:10:22.89
The book of
Daniel, millions believe
00:10:22.92\00:10:25.65
was written about 167-164
BC towards the Maccabean revolt
00:10:25.68\00:10:34.67
against Antiochus Epiphanes
you know which Jews celebrate
00:10:34.70\00:10:39.23
that today as
Hanukkah, the feast of lights.
00:10:39.26\00:10:41.78
Growin up in a Jewish
home we weren't very religious
00:10:41.81\00:10:44.79
but I remember we
did celebrate Hanukkah.
00:10:44.82\00:10:47.57
I liked it. We used
to get the Hanukkah gilt.
00:10:47.60\00:10:49.95
It was chocolate, candy
made up like coins and so on.
00:10:49.98\00:10:54.46
The point is, the
point in all this is that
00:10:54.49\00:10:58.40
they said that Daniel was
written vaticinium ex eventu
00:10:58.43\00:11:02.79
a Latin Phrase for "written
after the happening took place"
00:11:02.82\00:11:07.46
in short what they're saying
is though Daniel dates himself
00:11:07.49\00:11:12.36
to the 7th-6th
century BC that's not true.
00:11:12.39\00:11:15.72
It was really written
hundreds of years later
00:11:15.75\00:11:19.85
Ok. Now, the Maccabean
hypothesis has always been
00:11:19.88\00:11:25.94
flawed for a lot of reasons even
though people still adhere to
00:11:25.97\00:11:30.12
it. Words that were supposibly
be used around the time of
00:11:30.15\00:11:35.27
Daniel were said to be there.
They said Daniel used words that
00:11:35.30\00:11:39.08
weren't supposed to
be there in his time.
00:11:39.11\00:11:41.27
Well that has proven to be
wrong. They have discovered
00:11:41.30\00:11:44.65
other things from that
time where those words were used
00:11:44.68\00:11:48.13
Supposedly he made
mistakes in the name of a king.
00:11:48.16\00:11:51.60
That's wrong. Turned
out he was right after all
00:11:51.63\00:11:55.14
Inclusion in the
dead sea scrolls.
00:11:55.17\00:11:57.23
How could Daniel have
been in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
00:11:57.26\00:12:00.35
They consider the dates that
the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
00:12:00.38\00:12:04.48
Now, not everybody has accepted
it. The Maccabean hypothesis.
00:12:04.51\00:12:10.39
But the vast majority
of the Christian world has
00:12:10.42\00:12:14.88
And yet, I believe the prophecy
itself shows how ludicrous
00:12:14.91\00:12:20.08
the Maccabean hypothesis is.
Let's assume ok, let's assume
00:12:20.11\00:12:26.33
for argument's sake ok?
Let's assume that Daniel
00:12:26.36\00:12:30.57
was written in 160 BC
ok? I totally reject it.
00:12:30.60\00:12:35.70
But here's the
thing. How could anyone,
00:12:35.73\00:12:38.84
living more than 150
years before the birth of Christ
00:12:38.87\00:12:42.48
predict with such accuracy this
dismantling of the Roman Empire
00:12:42.51\00:12:47.68
into the
smaller powers of Europe
00:12:47.71\00:12:49.89
that would not
cleave one to another
00:12:49.92\00:12:54.23
even as iron is
not mixed with clay.
00:12:54.26\00:12:58.26
You know I live in
the Washington DC area
00:12:58.29\00:13:01.46
and I have friends in
the Intelligence community
00:13:01.49\00:13:05.23
and I remember when I asked
one of my neighbors during the
00:13:05.26\00:13:07.59
as the Soviet
Union was collapsing,
00:13:07.62\00:13:09.75
I asked one of my
neighbors who worked at NSA,
00:13:09.78\00:13:12.98
he's one of these
NSA people you know,
00:13:13.01\00:13:14.71
they never tell you what they
do only after you wheedle it out
00:13:14.74\00:13:17.86
or at least find
out where they work
00:13:17.89\00:13:19.86
and I remember as the
Soviet Union was collapsing
00:13:19.89\00:13:23.02
I asked my NSA friend,
did you people have any idea
00:13:23.05\00:13:28.28
of this and he said,
"we're looking at this
00:13:28.31\00:13:31.72
with our jaws dropping," ok?
00:13:31.75\00:13:34.74
Here you have the
most sophisticated
00:13:34.77\00:13:36.76
spy agency in the world.
They probably knew every time
00:13:36.79\00:13:40.05
Gorbachev burped. They
were following the Soviet Union
00:13:40.08\00:13:44.03
and yet even up to a year and
a half before they had no idea
00:13:44.06\00:13:50.47
that the Soviet Union
was going to collapse.
00:13:50.50\00:13:53.53
so how could somebody
like Daniel, a 160 years
00:13:53.56\00:13:58.01
supposedly 160 years before
Christ so accurately predict
00:13:58.04\00:14:03.89
what was going to happen?
The whole point of the Maccabean
00:14:03.92\00:14:07.19
hypothesis was to
deny the supernatural.
00:14:07.22\00:14:10.37
Was to deny predicted prophecy.
Yet, Daniel 2's prophetic reach
00:14:10.40\00:14:15.87
was so great that it overwhelms
this pathetic human attempt
00:14:15.90\00:14:21.92
to nullify it. The
hypothesis fails to denude
00:14:21.95\00:14:25.68
the book of Daniel of
the one thing the hypothesis
00:14:25.71\00:14:29.06
tried to denude it of and that
was the supernatural element
00:14:29.09\00:14:33.38
of Daniel itself.
Now think about this too.
00:14:33.41\00:14:38.99
The power of Daniel was so
great that this guy Porphyry
00:14:39.02\00:14:43.11
writing in the
3rd-4th century AD
00:14:43.14\00:14:47.17
was so scared of the
book, he was so scared that he
00:14:47.20\00:14:50.46
tried to denude it of prophecy.
So he concocted the idea
00:14:50.49\00:14:54.37
that it was written later than
it was. This was 1800 years ago.
00:14:54.40\00:15:00.74
Now think about this. If
18 centuries ago the power of
00:15:00.77\00:15:05.06
Daniel's prophecies were so
strong that somebody back then
00:15:05.09\00:15:09.31
tried to undermine it. How much
more powerful should the book be
00:15:09.34\00:15:13.72
for us today? With so
much more history has unfolded
00:15:13.75\00:15:18.22
than had in Porphyry's time. And
a simple point worth considering
00:15:18.25\00:15:23.69
if Daniel was so
accurate about the future,
00:15:23.72\00:15:26.88
isn't it logical and reasonable
to trust him on something
00:15:26.91\00:15:30.59
easier than making predictions
100s, 1000s of years in advance
00:15:30.62\00:15:34.88
and that is on the dates that
he himself gave for the book.
00:15:34.91\00:15:41.09
Now there's more. The
King's dream in chapter 2
00:15:41.12\00:15:48.32
was of a statue, world
history symbolized in sculpture
00:15:48.35\00:15:52.84
The common interpretation,
the gold head Babylon,
00:15:52.87\00:15:56.82
the silver arms
and breast Medo Persia,
00:15:56.85\00:16:02.32
the brass belly
and thighs Greece,
00:16:02.35\00:16:05.06
the legs iron, Pagan
Rome and the feet and toes
00:16:05.09\00:16:10.20
part iron and part clay,
the divided nations of Europe.
00:16:10.23\00:16:14.94
This is not uniquely Adventist.
00:16:14.97\00:16:17.93
Millions of Christians and
Jews have understood it this way
00:16:17.96\00:16:23.28
for centuries. But
now, catch this point
00:16:23.31\00:16:27.39
because this is important.
Unlike the first three kingdoms
00:16:27.42\00:16:32.78
whose metal
stopped at their demise,
00:16:32.81\00:16:35.73
the iron of the 4th kingdom,
the iron that comes after Greece
00:16:35.76\00:16:40.57
it starts in the leg and it goes
all the way down in the feet
00:16:40.60\00:16:44.44
it goes all the
way down to the end.
00:16:44.47\00:16:47.89
See, in other words, the 4th
kingdom which arose after Greece
00:16:47.92\00:16:53.24
though changing
form extends all the way
00:16:53.27\00:16:57.05
into the end of the world
it extends all the way down
00:16:57.08\00:17:00.41
into the feet.
These facts help identify
00:17:00.44\00:17:04.89
it helps definitely identify
because what world power
00:17:04.92\00:17:09.68
arising after Greece
extends to the end of time.
00:17:09.71\00:17:14.53
There's one and only one.
It's Rome. Pagan and Papal.
00:17:14.56\00:17:21.73
What other power
arises after ancient Greece
00:17:21.76\00:17:25.35
which extends in the centuries
before Christ? Started then
00:17:25.38\00:17:29.95
and extends to the end?
Daniel 2 in this outline forms
00:17:29.98\00:17:35.11
with this forms a basic outline
for the rest of the prophetic
00:17:35.14\00:17:39.57
chapters in the book.
This is especially clear
00:17:39.60\00:17:44.25
in Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 which
all put, have the same sequence
00:17:44.28\00:17:50.03
Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece
Rome. Only they give more detail
00:17:50.06\00:17:55.20
And the point is if you lined up
Daniel 2, Daniel 7 and Daniel 8
00:17:55.23\00:18:00.73
you would have Babylon, Babylon
you wouldn't have Babylon
00:18:00.76\00:18:04.29
in Daniel 8 because it's fading
by then. But you got Babylon
00:18:04.32\00:18:07.89
you got Medo Persia,
Medo Persia Medo Persia
00:18:07.92\00:18:10.59
you got Greece, Greece, Greece
00:18:10.62\00:18:13.00
And then you got
Rome all the way through.
00:18:13.03\00:18:16.47
In Daniel 7 the four beasts
parallel to 4 metals in Daniel 2
00:18:16.50\00:18:21.50
and in Daniel 7 the 4th kingdom,
the one that arises after Greece
00:18:21.53\00:18:26.81
though changing form continues
to the end of the world.
00:18:26.84\00:18:31.62
It's the same four powers given
in more detail as in Daniel 2
00:18:31.65\00:18:38.02
ok, the iron, again the iron the
4th beast the last earthly power
00:18:38.05\00:18:43.67
arises after Greece and goes
down to the end of the world.
00:18:43.70\00:18:49.20
Again what could that be
but Rome? Daniel 7, after Greece
00:18:49.23\00:18:54.44
you got a power coming up
after Greece, that beast power
00:18:54.47\00:18:59.54
the emphasis then becomes on
the little horn which is then
00:18:59.57\00:19:03.19
destroyed at the end of time
but it is still the same power
00:19:03.22\00:19:07.82
after Greece extending till
the end. In Daniel 8 the same
00:19:07.85\00:19:12.55
sequence but the final
power, the power that arises
00:19:12.58\00:19:16.99
after Greece though
changing some characteristics
00:19:17.02\00:19:21.18
endures to the end as
well. So you have this sequence
00:19:21.21\00:19:25.89
in all these chapters. Babylon,
00:19:25.92\00:19:28.71
though it's not mentioned in
Daniel 8 but you've got Babylon,
00:19:28.74\00:19:32.17
you've got Medo Persia, you've
got Greece and you've got Rome.
00:19:32.20\00:19:36.83
Now here's the point. Here's
the point ok? In all 3 chapters
00:19:36.86\00:19:44.84
In all 3 chapters, don't
miss this. The power that arises
00:19:44.87\00:19:49.91
after Greece's fall, in
the century before Christ
00:19:49.94\00:19:54.79
remains until the end.
Daniel 2 Daniel 7 and Daniel 8.
00:19:54.82\00:19:59.41
This one power arises after
Greece and goes all the way
00:19:59.44\00:20:03.92
through to the end of
time. Though in one case though,
00:20:03.95\00:20:08.03
at one point it changes form.
Again, what the only power that
00:20:08.06\00:20:15.40
could be, it
solely, totally only will.
00:20:15.43\00:20:19.23
You know many people shy
away from this because it's not
00:20:19.26\00:20:23.28
considered a politically
correct interpretation.
00:20:23.31\00:20:26.78
Or some people they get
caught up in current events.
00:20:26.81\00:20:29.30
I can remember 30 some
years ago reading some people
00:20:29.33\00:20:32.78
in a magazine and they
were dissing all Oh we're wrong
00:20:32.81\00:20:36.16
the Adventist
interpretation everybody knows
00:20:36.19\00:20:38.50
coz if you look at it, the only
possible power that could be
00:20:38.53\00:20:42.43
that end time power could
be, the only possible thing
00:20:42.46\00:20:45.45
it could be was the Soviet
Union. Well they got it wrong.
00:20:45.48\00:20:50.28
And now people
are saying it's Islam.
00:20:50.31\00:20:52.67
I'm sorry Islam didn't
come up right after Greece
00:20:52.70\00:20:56.25
and go all the way
down. It doesn't fit.
00:20:56.28\00:20:59.11
This power, the only
possible thing it could be
00:20:59.14\00:21:03.10
coming up after the fall of
Greece going through to the end
00:21:03.13\00:21:07.56
is solely, totally and only Rome
00:21:07.59\00:21:11.23
We're on solid ground with this.
00:21:11.26\00:21:14.06
Solid as the
history of the world itself.
00:21:14.09\00:21:18.42
But anyway I don't want
to just focus on the past now
00:21:18.45\00:21:22.24
only on decayed
and dead kingdoms
00:21:22.27\00:21:25.10
because the hope the chapter
presents is a future hope.
00:21:25.13\00:21:29.09
From us, for our
perspective today
00:21:29.12\00:21:32.87
how Daniel handled
what came before our time
00:21:32.90\00:21:37.36
should make us trust
him for what comes after.
00:21:37.39\00:21:40.27
I mean Daniel was right
on all those other chapters
00:21:40.30\00:21:43.83
ok, all the other
kingdoms that came
00:21:43.86\00:21:47.17
why don't we trust him? Why
should we trust him on the one
00:21:47.20\00:21:50.82
kingdom that hasn't come
yet? Ok could you see the point?
00:21:50.85\00:21:55.23
Daniel says eventually
all these earthly kingdoms
00:21:55.26\00:21:58.98
you know Daniel predicted all
these kingdoms would come and go
00:21:59.01\00:22:03.97
You know I remember when I was
about, I grew up in Miami Beach
00:22:04.00\00:22:09.21
and when you turn 18
there's a rite of passage
00:22:09.24\00:22:13.95
you go to the race
track, the dog track
00:22:13.98\00:22:17.66
Well I was only 17 but I looked
older so I went to the dog track
00:22:17.69\00:22:22.36
And I walked into the dog track
00:22:22.39\00:22:26.76
I'm gonna gamble,
gonna make it big and rich
00:22:26.79\00:22:31.00
And I walk into the dog track
00:22:31.03\00:22:33.51
and something
catches my attention
00:22:33.54\00:22:37.51
And I'm lookin, and I
said there's something here
00:22:37.54\00:22:41.79
there's something speaking to me
here but I'm not sure what it is
00:22:41.82\00:22:45.63
Then it hit me. Then it hit
me. There were 12 ticket windows
00:22:45.66\00:22:53.15
12 ticket windows. 10 of
the windows took your money
00:22:53.18\00:23:01.36
Two of the windows
handed out winnings.
00:23:01.39\00:23:05.38
And right there in my precious
17 year old innocent mind
00:23:05.41\00:23:10.64
I suddenly saw not only
was this illusion proposition,
00:23:10.67\00:23:15.52
but I knew
exactly what the odds were
00:23:15.55\00:23:19.28
The odds were
5:1, I was gonna lose.
00:23:19.31\00:23:22.10
Now it just so happened
today that I put 5$ on a dog
00:23:22.13\00:23:25.00
I can make 35$. So I
happened to win that day
00:23:25.03\00:23:27.83
But I realized in the end what
a losing proposition this was.
00:23:27.86\00:23:32.38
But now look at Daniel. Daniel
was right. Medo Persia came and
00:23:32.41\00:23:37.40
went as predicted. I
mean, Babylon came and went
00:23:37.43\00:23:41.11
as predicted. One for
one. Medo Persia came and went
00:23:41.14\00:23:45.70
as predicted. Two for two.
Greece came an went as predicted
00:23:45.73\00:23:51.31
Three for three. Pagan
Rome came and went as predicted.
00:23:51.34\00:23:56.31
The breakup of the
nations of modern Europe
00:23:56.34\00:23:59.08
as predicted. From
our historical stand point
00:23:59.11\00:24:03.13
the only kingdom that hasn't
come yet is the final kingdom.
00:24:03.16\00:24:08.65
But we're here. We can
look back We could see Babylon
00:24:08.68\00:24:11.35
we could see Medo
Persia, we could see Greece
00:24:11.38\00:24:13.62
We could see Rome
and the break up of Rome.
00:24:13.65\00:24:15.74
He was right on all these
others. You will have to be a
00:24:15.77\00:24:18.90
a fool. The numbers alone the
math alone, the statistics alone
00:24:18.93\00:24:24.20
show us that we could
trust Daniel on the fifth
00:24:24.23\00:24:31.09
and final kingdom. The one
kingdom that hasn't yet come.
00:24:31.12\00:24:35.56
But you know we
have even a better reason
00:24:35.59\00:24:40.72
A better reason for
believing in this final kingdom
00:24:40.75\00:24:45.34
which Jesus
establishes when He comes
00:24:45.37\00:24:49.59
And the best reason I have for
believing in the second coming
00:24:49.62\00:24:55.12
of Jesus is the first
coming. I mean, think about it.
00:24:55.15\00:25:01.01
Without the second
coming, I hate to say it,
00:25:01.04\00:25:05.88
but Jesus wasted His
time at the first coming
00:25:05.91\00:25:09.36
What good does the
first coming do for me,
00:25:09.39\00:25:12.52
does the first coming do for me
without the second coming for me
00:25:12.55\00:25:16.05
Without the second
coming He wasted His time
00:25:16.08\00:25:18.66
Jesus should've stayed in heaven
and never bothered to come
00:25:18.69\00:25:21.42
to begin with, because
we're gonna be stuck here
00:25:21.45\00:25:24.21
Well you say Christ
left us a good example
00:25:24.24\00:25:26.90
on how to live and that's
fine and I appreciate that.
00:25:26.93\00:25:29.95
But Martin Luther King,
Gandhi left us a good example
00:25:29.98\00:25:33.62
Captain Kangaroo
left us a good example.
00:25:33.65\00:25:36.90
But I don't know about you.
My situation is too desperate
00:25:36.93\00:25:40.59
I need more than a good example
00:25:40.62\00:25:43.03
I need a Savior. I need
right- eousness credited to me
00:25:43.06\00:25:47.96
that I don't have. I need a
substitute, I need a Redeemer
00:25:47.99\00:25:51.57
I need someone paying a
price that I myself can't pay
00:25:51.60\00:25:56.33
More than anything else I need
someone who can take this corpse
00:25:56.36\00:26:04.66
this body of mine which is
one day gonna be in the ground
00:26:04.69\00:26:10.69
In other words I need more than
someone who could tell me to
00:26:10.72\00:26:13.74
turn the cheek,
go the extra mile
00:26:13.77\00:26:16.06
I need someone who's
going to raise this corpse
00:26:16.09\00:26:18.67
from the dirt. Who can clothe
our mortality with immortality
00:26:18.70\00:26:23.93
Who can change this
corruption into incorruption
00:26:23.96\00:26:28.22
Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Captain
Kangaroo can't do that for me.
00:26:28.25\00:26:33.30
Only Jesus can. So as
sure as I am about Christ
00:26:33.33\00:26:38.58
and what Christ did
for me at the first coming
00:26:38.61\00:26:42.20
That's as sure as I
could be that He will return
00:26:42.23\00:26:46.31
and that fifth and final
kingdom will be established.
00:26:46.34\00:26:51.45
I still remember my
first Bible Study of Daniel 2
00:26:51.48\00:26:56.48
34 years ago. It was so
far in the past in one sense
00:26:56.51\00:27:03.71
but what is 34 years but
just a faint little breath
00:27:03.74\00:27:07.37
amid the harsh winds of history
00:27:07.40\00:27:10.27
as depicted by the
metals of that prophecy.
00:27:10.30\00:27:13.51
And what are those
empires of gold and silver
00:27:13.54\00:27:17.18
and bronze and clay?
What are they compared to
00:27:17.21\00:27:21.00
God's fifth and final kingdom?
00:27:21.03\00:27:23.80
A kingdom which
shall never be destroyed.
00:27:23.83\00:27:27.53
And the kingdom shall
not be left to other people
00:27:27.56\00:27:30.61
But it shall break
the kingdoms in pieces
00:27:30.64\00:27:33.51
and consume all these kingdoms.
00:27:33.54\00:27:35.52
And it shall stand forever!
00:27:35.55\00:27:39.79
Whoo! That's the promise.
00:27:39.82\00:27:43.32
The promise of a kingdom
and a city which has foundations
00:27:43.35\00:27:48.85
whose builder and maker is God.
00:27:48.88\00:27:52.62
And I leave you with this.
00:27:52.65\00:27:54.83
I leave you with this coz
in one sense it's so simple
00:27:54.86\00:27:58.34
it's so logical,
it's so reasonable
00:27:58.37\00:28:01.36
Because Daniel was so right
about the first four kingdoms
00:28:01.39\00:28:06.74
How rational and reasonable
then to trust him on the fifth.
00:28:06.77\00:28:12.71
The one that lasts forever.
00:28:12.74\00:28:14.91
The one that is guaranteed
us through the blood of Jesus.
00:28:14.94\00:28:19.70