It Is Written Canada

Philosophy's Achilles Heel: His Real Presence

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Chris Holland (Host)

Home

Series Code: IIWC

Program Code: IIWC201517A


00:00 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:05 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:11 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:18 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:23 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:29 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:37 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:41 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:45 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
00:49 IIW-PAH-HIS REAL PRESENCE
01:31 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time.
01:34 God's book, The Bible
01:38 Still relevant in today's complex world
01:44 It Is Written
01:46 Sharing messages of hope around the world!
01:59 You know, I am not a big fan of cliffhangers. I am quite sorry that I left you in suspense
02:04 during our last show. Today we return right to were we left off in Daniel 8 with the little horn
02:13 power and his activities. Daniel 8:13-14 is exactly were we left off. Now if you missed any of
02:23 the previous shows you can go to our website www.itiswrittencanada.ca to see
02:31 any of our previous shows. But we left off with Daniel 8:13-14 and as a reminder, this is what
02:41 it says,
03:09 What is this all about? And what does it mean? In order to understand all of this we need
03:16 to ask several questions. What is this the 2300 days all about? What does it pertain to? Where
03:24 is this sanctuary? Why does it need to be cleansed? How did the Little Horn attempt to cast down
03:33 the place of His sanctuary?
03:38 So let's begin by trying to understand these 2300 days. Now, right at the outset, we need to
03:46 hearken back to our study of the work of astronomer-philosopher de Chéseaux and his work that
03:56 indicates that these days are actually years Now, there are several reasons beyond his
04:04 reasoning that also leads to this conclusion. First of all, Daniel 8:14, in the original
04:12 language, literally reads unto 2,300 evening-mornings, which is a bit of an odd way to express a
04:22 time period if speaking in a literal sense. Second, we need to understand the context in
04:30 which this time period is expressed. You'll remember it comes in the speaking of the
04:36 beasts of a ram and a goat, along with the little horn power and is therefore highly
04:47 symbolic. So, it would seem to make sense that Daniel would express this time period in
04:53 symbolic terms like the rest of the vision. Third, in Daniel 8:17 Gabriel explained that the
05:04 vision "refers to the time of the end." If this time period simply referred to literal days,
05:13 it would mean that the time of the end is only about six years after Daniel had received the
05:21 vision. That doesn't seem to make much sense. Fourth, in Daniel 8:26 Daniel is told to
05:35 In several instances in the book of Daniel, the word "days" can actually mean centuries. Thus,
05:43 if Daniel wanted to communicate this in plain language, he would have said something like this:
05:48 the sanctuary will be cleansed in just over 6 years. And so with all of that and the reality
05:55 that the word "days" in the book of Daniel often can mean years, we must apply the day for a year
06:06 principle of de Cheseaux. And so all of this means that God is telling Daniel that in 2,300
06:16 years the sanctuary will be cleansed.
06:22 Where is this sanctuary to be cleansed? To help us understand where this sanctuary is, we need
06:30 to understand a bit more about what time period this prophecy covers. After Daniel 8:14, the
06:38 angel Gabriel interprets the vision. However, this 2300 year prophecy, he does not give much
06:45 understanding or most importantly.a starting date. And so Daniel is left as verse 27
06:54 points out,
07:12 Daniel was sick, because he did not understand. Now I want this chapter of Daniel to be so clear
07:21 to you, that you have complete understanding. To help us understand this 2300 year
07:27 prophecy, we need to understand some technicalities of the word vision in the original language
07:36 of the text of Daniel 8. So focus with me know, because it is not too confusing. Several
07:46 times in the book of Daniel, you have the word "vision" appear Most importantly in our study
07:53 today, it occurs several times in Daniel 8 That word "vision" actually has two Hebrew root
08:04 words "Hazon" and "Mareh." Now, that first word for vision, "Hazon" encompasses all of what
08:19 was revealed to Daniel in Daniel 8 - from the ram, the goat, 4 horns, little horn and his
08:27 activities, daily, and the 2300 days. As an example, in Daniel 8:15, Daniel was seeking the
08:40 meaning for the entire vision"Hazon" since an explanation of it in its
08:47 entirety had not yet been given.In Daniel 8:17,26 it says that the entire vision, "the
08:56 Hazon," is for the time of the end. The second word for vision in Daniel 8 is "mareh." It is
09:08 this word that is directly linked with the 2,300 day prophecy. In Dan 8:26, the Bible
09:15 says,
09:24 What is the vision of the evenings and mornings? That's right, the vision of Daniel 8:14
09:31 - 2300 days or evenings and mornings. Daniel 8:27 also has an appearance of the word
09:41 "mareh". The Bibles says
10:01 Would God leave Daniel with no explanation? God would give him understanding. However, that
10:10 understanding wouldn't come until 13 years later when Daniel was praying. That prayer is
10:17 recorded in Daniel 9. Daniel was praying about the promised deliverance of his people after
10:33 70 years of captivity in Babylon.We don't have time to read the entirety of that
10:40 prayer, so I would encourage you to go and read it this afternoon. But in Daniel 9:21,
10:46 it reads,
11:00 So Daniel sees the same angel he encountered in Daniel 8. In Daniel 9:23 Gabriel speaks to
11:09 Daniel and says,
11:26 What vision did he need help understanding? The vision of the 2300 years and this word here
11:34 for vision is the word "Mareh." Which refers directly to the 2300 year prophecy This means
11:45 then that what follows verse 23is to provide the answer to the lingering questions about
11:56 the 2300 year prophecy. Let's read the amazing words that follow Daniel 9:23 and read
12:06 verses 24-25.
12:49 Daniel first mentions that this 70 week period is determined for Daniel's people. Who are Daniels
12:59 people? The Jews of course. It also applies to their holy city Jerusalem. Just as in the 2300
13:11 days, 70 weeks is an unusual way to express a time period, which means that these 70 weeks
13:20 actually refer to years. So if we multiply 70 times 7 we arrive at 490 days, and then if we
13:28 apply the day for a year principle we arrive at 490 years. Even more critical is the
13:34 reality that the original Hebrew actually says 70 weeks of years. Now the prophecy stated that
13:46 these 490 years are determined for Daniel's people and for Jerusalem. The Hebrew word for
13:55 "determined" actually means "to cut off."
14:04 So, the logical question is what is the 70 week prophecy cut off from? Well In light of Gabriel's
14:12 instruction that Daniel should "consider the matter and understand the vision ("mareh"),
14:22 Gabriel was referring to the 2300 days. The only logical conclusion is that the 70 weeks
14:30 would be cut off from the 2300 days. And so, if this prophecy gives us a starting point, it
14:39 will share that starting point with the 2300 day prophecy. In Daniel 9.25 the angel tells
14:47 Daniel,
15:03 We will be studying Daniel 9 next week, but for the mean time we must understand. At the time
15:10 this vision was given, Jerusalem and the Temple were still in ruins. And now Heaven announces
15:18 that a command will be issued to rebuild and restore, and that from that date a definite number
15:25 of years will reach to the long-looked-for Messiah. When we look to history, there are three
15:32 decrees dealing with the repatriation of the Jews. All of them are recorded in the book of
15:38 Ezra: the first in the first year of Cyrus, about 537 (Ezra 1:1-4); the second in the reign
15:48 of Darius I, soon after 520 (Ezra 6:1-12);the third in the 7th year of Artaxerxes in 457
16:00 b.c. (Ezra 6:14; 7:7) So which one is it? Interestingly enough, in their decrees neither Cyrus
16:14 nor Darius made any genuine provision for the restoration of the civil state as a complete
16:19 unit, though a restoration of both the religious and the civil government was promised in the
16:26 prophecy of Daniel. The decree of the 7th year of Artaxerxes was the first to give the Jewish
16:34 state full autonomy, subject to Persian overlordship. History reveals that the 7th year of
16:44 Artaxerxes, which was 457 BC. And it provides the date when the 2300 years began and the 490
16:56 years begin. But returning to the 2300 year prophecy, if we add 2300 years to 457 BC we
17:07 arrive at 1844. Remember there is no year zero, so we need to skip that number and we arrive
17:16 at 1844.
17:20 Remember, according to Daniel 8:14, this marked the year when the sanctuary would be cleansed.
17:29 Where is this sanctuary?
17:34 Friends, in 1844 the earthly sanctuary no longer existed, it had been destroyed. The Bible
17:41 predicted in many places that the earthly sanctuary wouldn't be cleansed, but destroyed. The
17:49 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9 states that
17:58 Also Dan 9:27 states
18:06 In Matt 24:2 Jesus Himself predicted that the temple would be destroyed, and in Matt 24:15
18:13 Jesus cited the abomination of desolation of Daniel 9:27 as the power that destroyed the temple
18:23 in AD 70. Moreover, the book of Hebrews anticipated the destruction of the earthly
18:27 temple in 70 AD, and as a result it directed its hearers to the reality of the heavenly temple
18:34 where Jesus ministers. This is found in Hebrews 8:1-5. If it couldn't be the earthly
18:42 sanctuary, it must the heavenly sanctuary that needed cleansing. This cleansing apparently begin
18:52 in 1844. How could the sanctuary in heaven, of all places, need cleansing? To help us
19:01 understand, we need to understand the function and significance of the heavenly
19:07 sanctuary. The sanctuary functions a lot like a pair of eyeglasses. Eyeglasses, of
19:14 course, that help the person wearing them to more accurately determine what it is they are
19:21 viewing. A correct understanding of the heavenly sanctuary helps us to interpret the great
19:28 doctrines and themes of the Bible. And so, at this point, I would like us to look at three
19:34 areas that the heavenly sanctuary helps us to understand that which the Little Horn has
19:41 greatly distorted. Those three things are spirituality, salvation, and worship.
19:50 Let's talk about spirituality. In Daniel 8:11-13, the Little Horn casts down the place of
19:58 God's sanctuary, it took away the daily, and it cast the truth to the ground. In last week's
20:04 show, we mentioned that the Little Horn of Daniel 8 grew out of one of the four horns that
20:13 came up in the place of Alexander of Greece. The Western Greeks of Italy make up that
20:15 Little Horn that eventually grew into Papal Rome. A great deal of Christianity has been
20:23 negativelyaffected by the influence of Western Greek philosophers such as Parmenides
20:30 and Pythagoras whose ideas were systematized through Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. According
20:38 to their principles, ultimate reality is timeless. Now don't be confused, this is a technical
20:45 philosophical term that simply means that ultimate reality does not consist of time or space
20:54 because they don't exist there. Theologians in the early and medieval church began to assume
21:05 this definition of ultimate reality and even applied it to God and heaven. And if that
21:13 didn't makes sense, here is the important end result.Since the sanctuary is a spatial and a
21:19 temporal structure, it is simply thought of as shadow of a timeless and spaceless
21:32 reality.Which means, the sanctuary does not provide us with any useful information
21:37 about either spiritualigy, salvation, or worship. But my dear friends, by neglecting the
21:46 central and interpretive role of the heavenly sanctuary, the early and medieval church began
21:51 to develop a theory of spirituality from Aristotle in which during the Eucharist, the
21:59 substance of the bread and wine is transformed literally into the substance of the divine and
22:05 human Son of God.As a result, spirituality, the real presence literally became linked with the
22:13 bread and the wine instead of with the high priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly
22:23 sanctuary.
22:25 But then, this Greek philosophical concept was also linked with salvation. You see,
22:32 a person had no hope of salvation without partaking of the real presence within the
22:39 Eucharist. One of the early church fathers referred to the Eucharist as the medicine of
22:44 immortality. And this principle has pervaded many protestant denominations. In addition to
22:52 all of that, many Christian today experience what they believe is the real presence by
22:57 combining the Eucharist with the many variations and styles of rock music in the corporate
23:02 worship service. In this way they have come to believe that music is synonymous with the
23:11 real presence in much the same way that the real presence was synonymous with the Eucharist.
23:18 In Exodus 25:8 God said
23:29 This means that God's presence is understood in the context of the sanctuary and that He is
23:38 able to dwell in a spatial and temporal structure. In John 1:14 the apostle states,
23:54 Not only did God dwell with His people in the sanctuary of old, but John tells us He actually
24:02 became flesh, which means that He has taken upon Himself a reality He did not previously
24:09 possess. Not only that, but He has carried His human nature into the heavenly sanctuary and
24:17 He will retain it forever!! All of this is impossible according to the principles and methods of
24:29 Greek philosophy that came in through the Little Horn. According to Aristotle, God is
24:37 the unmoved mover who cannot act in any historical sequence of time. It is this understanding
24:47 of the real presence from Greek philosophy that is completely incompatible with Christ as He
24:54 is revealed in the Incarnation and in the spatial temporal structure of the heavenly
24:59 sanctuary. The heavenly sanctuary is the place where Christ, the real presence
25:07 abides. He is alive and invites us to come before Him and enter into relationship with Him. That
25:16 personal encounter leads us into the true spirituality of His abiding presence when the
25:23 principles of the law of God as a part of the new covenant are written in our hearts and minds.
25:33 The key to this spirituality is the reality that Christ is in heaven and not in the bread and
25:43 wine, or in the music, as the Little Horn suggests. This means that Christ wants to live in us
25:56 by having the Holy Spirit implant His laws into our hearts and minds instead of those who
26:07 are led by the philosophies of the Little Horn who teach that Christ must be in us in an
26:15 essential or substantial way similarly to how He is in the Eucharist and how He is in the
26:21 music.
26:24 My friends, the Little Horn attacked the heavenly sanctuary First, by relegating the
26:28 heavenly sanctuary to an insignificant relic that has no meaning by denying the Bible and
26:35 accepting greek philosophy. Second, instead of directing people to come to Christ for
26:40 forgiveness and grace in the heavenly sanctuary, the mass and the earthly priestly system have
26:47 eclipsed Christ's role in these areas. Third, through a system of corporate worship and
26:54 spirituality that assumes that the real presence is in the music, and not in the heaven.
27:01 And so the heavenly sanctuary needed to be cleansed from the attacks of the Little Horn. My
27:08 dear friends, Jesus is real. He dwells in the sanctuary and He invites you to come to Him.
27:16 Hebrews 4:14-16 promises,
27:57 What a powerful promise. Let us pray.
28:01 Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that Jesus is real, in a real sanctuary and wants to
28:08 minister to us in a very real way. Thank you so much, we pray in Jesus name, amen.
28:24 >>Chris Holland: Friend, I hope you enjoyed the program today. I want to offer you the book "The
28:28 Great Hope". "The Great Hope" is going to be a book the talks about Jesus in the real
28:33 sanctuary who wants to have a real relationship with you. It will also go over some of these
28:38 prophecies. If you would like to receive today's offer, here is the information that you need.
29:34 >>Chris Holland: My dear friend, Jesus is in the real sanctuary ministering on your behalf and
29:39 He invites you to come boldly to him and there you can meet grace and mercy. I hope you enjoyed
29:48 today's program and I invite you to join us again next week Until then remember, It Is
29:53 Written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
30:00 God.
30:03 $$$$$$$$$$


Home

Revised 2016-01-27