 |
SEGMENT
3 DANIEL 7
Segment
3 - Daniel 7
God is Sovereign
page 6 of 7
____________________
page l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l 7 l
Three
and a Half Times
Daniel 7:25 also says the
little horn would “wear out the saints of
God (through persecution).” In fact, the
Bible says “they” [the saints] shall be
given into his hand [e.g., the hand of the little
horn] for a time, times and half a time!”
(Insertions mine) This single verse should cause
every believer in a pre-tribulation rapture to
think about his position, because this verse
indicates that God Himself handed His saints over
to the little horn to be persecuted for a
prescribed length of time! If God subjected His
saints to persecution in times past, why should
the last generation expect to escape from the
coming tribulation? Instead of delivering the
saints from persecution, God did the opposite by
handing His people over to the little horn for
1,260 years! Why would an all-wise God do this? I
can offer two possible reasons:
First, persecution keeps
the saints on their knees and their focus on the
Word of God. When life is easy, faith in God
evaporates. Moses warned Israel: “Be careful
that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing
to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees
that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when
you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine
houses and settle down, and your herds and flocks
grow large and your silver and gold increase and
all you have is multiplied, then your heart will
become proud and you will forget the Lord your
God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the
land of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14) When
we contrast the Church at Rome (the little horn)
with the Church in the Wilderness (the persecuted
saints), we clearly see what prosperity and
persecution produces. Prosperity produces
decadence. Persecution, on the other hand, pushes
people into a life of dynamic faith, clinging to
Jesus as their hope and salvation. Persecution
made God’s Word extremely precious to the
Church in the Wilderness. Many Bibles, or
portions of the Bible, were laboriously copied by
hand so that people could have the Word of God to
study. Meanwhile, back in prosperous Rome, the
Bible was not important. The Bible was chained to
the walls of monasteries and libraries because
the authority of the church rested in its clergy,
not the Word of God! The Church in the Wilderness
hungered for every word that proceeded out of the
mouth of God, while the Church in Rome preferred
the authority of popes and priests who spoke
boastful things. For the saints, a plain
“thus saith the Lord” was more
important than any papal bull. The saints loved
and honored the Word of God and held it in much
higher esteem than life itself. In summary, the
persecution of God’s people kept the Word of
God alive.
The second reason God
handed His saints over to the little horn is
this: Persecution keeps faith in Christ alive.
This is ironic. The very circumstances that cause
faith to grow are the very circumstances that
human nature hates the most! The selfish desires
of the carnal nature include pleasure,
prosperity, power, unchallenged authority, and
limitless amounts of money, fame and respect.
Faith during times of persecution means trusting
God for survival of life itself. Furthermore, as
the Holy Spirit led the saints into a greater
understanding of the truth, the Church in the
Wilderness proceeded to follow God’s Word
without regard for social and financial
consequences. This is the essence of faith –
obeying God at any cost. When the Church in Rome
rose to power, the word, “faith,” was
changed. Faith came to mean a religious view, not
a religious experience. Even today, people
typically ask, “What faith do you belong
to?” Therefore, the second reason God wisely
gave the saints over to persecution was to keep
faith in Jesus alive!
What Is a Time?
We do not need to review
the atrocities of the Roman Catholic Church or
those of her enemies during centuries past.
(Historians have devoted thousands of pages to
this topic and these works can be found in public
libraries.) However, we do need to consider a
specification about the Roman Catholic Church
that is profound. Daniel 7:25 say the saints
would be given over to the little horn for a
time, times and half a time. According to Rule
Four, this time-period amounts to 1,260 years in
length. It began in A.D. 538 and ended in 1798.
You may recall, until the
sixteenth century A.D., men believed the Earth
stood still and the Sun orbited our planet. For
purposes computing time, the ancients used 360
degrees of arc to represent a completed circle
or cycle of the Sun. The Jews did not count a
year as 365 days because the number of days in
their year is either 354 or 384. God gave Israel
a solar/lunar calendar to measure time and the
cycles of the Sun and Moon determine the number
of days in a year. (Exodus 12) Since the Sun
moves about one degree of arc per day in a year,
the use of 360 degrees of arc (the number of
degrees in a circle) to represent the length of a
year was a practical method for measuring “a
time.” This type of averaging was also done
for the length of a month. Even though a month is
actually 29.53 days, the ancients counted a month
(or a moon) as 30 days for the purposes of
calculation.
The Aramaic word,
‘hiddan, translated “a time” in
Daniel 7:25 (and used elsewhere in Daniel),
refers to “a set time” or “a
turning.” The word, ‘hiddan, indicates
the beginning or turning of a year at its
appointed time. Revelation 12:14 also contain the
phrase “a time, times and half a time,”
and according to Revelation, 12:6, this phrase
represents 1,260 days. Some people question if
the word “times” means two times or
more than two times. First, Revelation 12 reveals
that 1,260 days are “a time, times and half
a time.” (Revelation 12:6,14) Second, at the
minimum, the plural of “a time” is two
times. If there are more than two times, the time
period cannot be measured because no one knows
how many times to count. Last, historical
evidence confirms that God had 1,260 years in
mind when He defined this time-period. The number
of days in “a time, times and half a
time” is determined by the following
formula:
- One
time of the Sun equals one circle of 360
degrees of arc.
- Two
times of the Sun, equal two circles of
360 degrees of arc or 720 degrees.
- Half
a time equals half a circle or 180
degrees of arc.
- Total:
1,260 degrees of arc
(360 + 720 + 180= 1,260 degrees)
It is widely known that
God gave the Jews a calendar in which a day of
the week represents a year, e g., and a week of
seven days equals seven years. (See Leviticus 25;
Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:5,6.) Many Bible
students understand the 70 weeks mentioned in
Daniel to be 490 years (that is, 70 weeks times
seven days equals 490 days, and each day
represents a year). Therefore, if God used the
Jubilee Calendar to measure the 70 weeks in
Daniel 9, then it is possible that He used the
Jubilee Calendar to determine the 1,260 days in
Daniel 7 as 1,260 years. This is a good place to
repeat Rule Four which states: “God
reckons apocalyptic time in two ways: (a) a day
for a year, and (b) as literal time. The presence
or absence of the Jubilee calendar determines how
God reckons time.” Even though it
is essential to understand the Jubilee Calendar
when applying this rule, for now just consider
the fact: History confirms the duration of the
little horn’s power was 1,260 years –
to the very month! The Roman Catholic Church
persecuted the saints for 1,260 years. Even
though Protestants in centuries past did not
properly understand the operation of the Jubilee
Calendar, they did conclude that history and
prophecy are in perfect harmony, and many
Protestants predicted a “wounding” of
papal powers prior to 1798. In short, Daniel was
told the Roman Catholic Church would persecute
God’s saints for 1,260 years – and
history confirms this to be the case.
Part Ten:
I
beheld, and the same horn made war with the
saints, and prevailed against them; Until the
Ancient of Days came, and [a favorable] judgment
was given to the saints of the Most High; and the
time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the
fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse
from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole
earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in
pieces. (Daniel 7:21-23, KJV, insertion mine)
page l 1
l 2
l 3
l 4
l 5
l 6
l 7
l
|
