Sept 24

Sorry I got late with this one....there's been a LOT going on the last couple days.......God is good! But I love this passage and didn't want to skip by it.

I used to read this and think that this all had to do with end times. It does, but it was also fullfilled amazingly and accurately fullfilled in the second century. Skeptics have alleged that such events were certainly recorded after the fact — the work of a historian and not a prophet. Peter C. Craigie notes the importance of the interpretation of Daniel, as he says, “in the minds of some”:


“The dreams of Daniel, if taken as sixth century productions, clearly and accurately predict the course of Near Eastern history down to the middle of the second century B.C. (at least), and are a testimony to the accuracy of God’s special revelation to Daniel. On the other hand, it is precisely the concurrence between the substance of the visions and the actual history of the Near East which compels other interpreters to claim that the visions must have been written after the events they describe” (The Old Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content, Nashville: Abingdon, 1986, p. 246).


 Really the whole book of Daniel would have had to have been faked because each vision builds on the next (and we know that Jesus himself references the book and that much of Revelation parallels it). In the previous vision we find that the big ram's kingdom is going to be broken up into 4 parts. In this vision, we concentrate just on two of the four parts, the king of the north and the king of the south.

I'm going to give you a cliff note version of what happened. (I encourage you to google a more complete version)  If you see Israel on a map, you realize they are kind of a pathway or road between the modern day nations and Syria and Lebenon to the north and Egypt to the south. A war between these empires would mean marching through Israel, which is exactly what they did. The king of the North (Antiochas Epiphanes) marched against the southern kingdom. (I forget all the names of the empires- Ptomames and Sulucids or something like that-I regret I dont' have time to be more accurate, but the info is out there). Upon marching to the south, Rome sails into to fight with the south and the north is turned back- marching again through Israel. They have no spoils or booty or anything to pay the soldiers with and they raid the temple. They set up sacrifices to greek gods and even slaughter pigs on the alters (especially detestable to Jews). Finally, there is the Maccabean revolt and the temple is retaken. It has to be rededicated and there is only enough oil for one day and the dedication much last 8 days. And it does. Thus the celebration of Hanakah (which Jesus himself attended by the way John 10:22)

Clearly this sacrificing a pig on the alter would have been thought of as the 'abomination that causes deslotation'. However, Jesus warns his disciples (and us) of the 'abominoation that causes desolation' in the end times. So clearly, even though a lot of this passage was fulfilled, (so much so that unbelievers cannot accept it was written beforehand), we are not done with this prophesy. (I wonder if the diciples were sitting around with their mouths hanging open thinking- "I thought this happened already!" Matthew 24:15.

I wanted to go into a lot more depth about this, but if I don't leave google alone, I will never get this published and it's already a couple days late. Until recently, I've never heard a word on this subject in all my years of church. And it's such a cool subject. But I can't see how it does not fit in a '3 point outline' of a sermon. Keep learning and searching on your own! Don't take my word for anything...search it out!