Part 1B: The Prophesied Political Destiny of the Anti-Christ Entity (cf. 2 Thess 2:8-12; Rev 13:11-18; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21)
Note: This is Part 1B of this preceding post on the Prophecy of Daniel 7. So all references to earlier already (i.e. “above”) commented on parts of Daniel 7 are found in that preceding posting.
Eschatological(ly-also-Applicable) Portion(s) of Daniel 7 Prophecy
As a guiding overview background, here is the Biblical text (simply as the NASB) from this Daniel 7 vision where its culminating, Eschatological part is mentioned, namely Dan 7:9-14, 18, 22, 26-27:
Daniel 7:9 - "I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire.
Daniel 7:10 - "A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.
Daniel 7:11- "Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.
Daniel 7:12 - "As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time.
Daniel 7:13 - "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.
Daniel 7:14 - "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:18 - 'But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.'
Daniel 7:22 - until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
Daniel 7:26 - 'But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.
Daniel 7:27 - 'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'
Now, also as a guiding overview, here are these same passages, but broken up by each predictive point being made, and grouped together in regards to their common predictive subject matter:
Kingdom of God/Saints is Set Up (=Rev 15)
Daniel 7:9a - "I kept looking until thrones were cast (out/down),
Daniel 7:22a - until the Ancient of Days came
Daniel 7:9b - And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
Daniel 7:9c - His vesture was like white snow
Daniel 7:9d - And the hair of His head like pure wool.
Daniel 7:9e - His throne was ablaze with flames,
Daniel 7:9f - Its wheels were a burning fire.
Judgement Session is Set Up (=Rev 16)
Daniel 7:10a - "A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him;
Daniel 7:10b - Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
Daniel 7:10c - And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him;
Daniel 7:10d - The court sat,
Daniel 7:26a - 'But the court will sit for judgment,
Daniel 7:10e - And the books were opened.
Verdict in Favor of the Saints (=Rev 17)
Daniel 7:22b - and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One
Daniel 7:26b - and his dominion will be taken away
Sentencing of the Fourth+Fifth+Sixth = Seventh Kingdom (=Rev 18)
Daniel 7:11a - "Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking;
Daniel 7:11b - I kept looking until the beast was slain,
Daniel 7:11c - and its body was destroyed
Daniel 7:11d - and given to the burning fire.
Daniel 7:26c - annihilated and destroyed forever.
Judgement/Probation/Fate of Other Kingdoms (=Rev 19)
Daniel 7:12a - "As for the rest of the beasts,
Daniel 7:12b - their dominion was taken away,
Daniel 7:12c - but an extension of life was granted to them
Daniel 7:12d - for an appointed period of time.
Presenting of “One Like Unto A Son Of Man” (=Rev 20)
Daniel 7:13a - "I kept looking in the night visions,
Daniel 7:13b - And behold, with the clouds of heaven
Daniel 7:13c - One like a Son of Man was coming,
Daniel 7:13d - And He came up to the Ancient of Days
Daniel 7:13e - And was presented before Him.
(Everlasting) [“Eighth”] Kingdom to/of the Saints (=Rev 21)
Daniel 7:14a - "And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom,
Daniel 7:14b - That all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him.
Daniel 7:14c - His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away;
Daniel 7:14d - And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:22c - and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
Daniel 7:18a - 'But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom
Daniel 7:27a - 'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under Daniel 7:27b - the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One;
Daniel 7:27c - His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom,
Daniel 7:18b - and possess the kingdom forever,
Daniel 7:18c - for all ages to come.'
Daniel 7:27d - and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'
The overall theme of this culminating part of the vision, and each of these passages and their predictive points are now Biblically and exegetically analyzed and discussed:
The Ever-Planned Kingdom of God/Saints
This great prophecy of God has a specific end point in mind. Though its delineating of the 4+ Major Hegemonic powers which are to rule the Earth, i.e. from (1) Babylon, to (2) Medo-Persia, to (3) Greece, to (4) Rome and then to various&amalgamated forms of the Roman [= “Dragon”] Ruling Model, (=Rev 12:3; -discussed in this post at Rev 17:3) i.e. (5) Papal Rome/Holy Roman Empire (=Rev 13:1-10), and then/now, in the present Eschatological (vs. Historical) Age: (6) The Neo-Babylonian American (Effective) Empire, -which firstly ‘speaks like a dragon & exercise the authority of the First Beast’ (Rev 13:11-12) and then (7) heighteningly goes on to ‘make an image to/of that 7-Head|10-Horn Beast’ (=Rev 13:13-18); well God has in mind His Overarching Prophetic Plan to defeat and supercede these Human-established&achieved “Babylonian” World Ordering & Ruling Model(s), with His own, Kingdom of God/Christ Model, and that, in the existence times of these leading powers and that of their subservient nations, and also at their own/latest/crowning “Democratic/Populace/Freedom” game.
Meaning that, as various (prophetic) portions/passages of Scripture, (which will be cited and discussed later), stipulate, God has always had (cf. Num 14:21) the (Prophetic) Plan to establish a Kingdom of His, -i.e. “Israel”, right in the figurative “midst” of this World’s Fallen Age and have that Kingdom, due to its now implemented, and thus tangibly demonstrated, principles of (True/Biblical) Righteousness and Practical Godliness, unstoppably grow and spread throughout this World/Earth and literally/tangibly, naturally, i.e. populacely=Democratically overturn and overtake the countries/sovereign realms of this World (~Acts 17:6) as a/the (clear) majority of people freely and volitionally choose to live by the Model of the Kingdom of God (=e.g. Mic 4:1-5ff = Rev 21:24-27; cf. 11:15-18).
So, after having given what effectively is an establishing/validating background in those Secular World Ruling Models, -all which show that these will only be striving to pervert Righteousness and (murderously) persecute those who do not want to ascribe to that (‘most “deluding”|deceptive’) False/Spurious Righteousness/Godliness, i.e. the (True) [Remnant] People/Church of God = His “Church Triumphant” (=2 Tim 3:12); God knows and will show that His Truth is most appealing to those who are honest in heart, i.e. not ‘liars and murderers’ (John 8:44) like Satan had to resort to being to (deceivingly -see DA 761.2) maintain his, long-known losing/futile/worthless Great Controversy stance&opposition to God, and so this is why He has always planned to fully establish His Modeling Kingdom in this World.
And so the remainder of this “World Hegemony/Order” Prophecy focuses on this ‘Divine End-Game’ part. And as this “Kingdoms Overturning/Overtaking” endeavor of God is ‘not one of “power”, but of (democratically-convincing) inner demonstrations’ (Luke 17:20-22|DA 506-510); -even the stark, and seemingly forceful/militaristic/violent ways in which this Kingdom is said to be established (e.g. Rev 19:11-16, 17-21 -discussed in here), are actually merely figurative symbols, which actually are depicting the effectively trouncing results that this “Warring Lamb” approach will nonetheless effectuate...as if these Leading World Powers and Sovereign Nations had literally been overrun by an unstoppable Economic+Military World Power...Just like Christianity came to “bloodlessly/warlessly” bring the Roman Empire to its knee, with that Proud Pagan Power becoming a Christian Nation, -but then, this Godly effectuation was perverted when the Papacy “revived” this fatally wounded “Militaristic Head=Ideology” of Pagan Rome (=Rev 13:3ff); in these Eschatological times, ‘the God of Heaven will indeed, sooner or later, some way, succeed in bloodlessly/warlessly establishing His own Kingdom in the days of the Kings/Kingdoms of this Fallen World (Dan 2:34-35, 44-45; -discussed in here).
And so, as this Divine Effectuation will indeed be a Democratic one, the stipulations of God as to how all of this will transpire involve Democratic Institutions namely Truth and Judgement. Just like, in a healthy democracy, those who run afoul of the populacely-established order are not dealt with by unwarranted force, but by legal/warranted Law Enforcement and then public Judicial means, God Himself will make up the subjects/constituents of His Kingdom through a transparent Judicial Process, =Joel 3's Eschatological “Valley of Decision”, which will also warrant the execution of any judgement of/on those entities/people who stubborn refuse to acknowledge Truth then. (=Joel 3:13=Rev 14:14-20; cf. Isa 63:1-6)
This is indeed all what the remaining/ending part of this Great “World Order” Prophecy stipulate:
Present Thematic&Chronological Background/Setting
To best understand and thus interpret what will be stated in the remaining tier of this prophecy, it is necessary to clearly see what its subject-matter and historical context is. For the next two discussed passages, namely Dan 7:9 & Dan 7:22a, which both cover the same prophetic section, these contexts are easy to figure out as they are linearly stated in the preceding verse:
In Dan 7:8 it is stated/seen that the “Little Horn Power”, i.e. Papal Rome and its “Holy Roman Empire” are then reigning supreme and seeming then to be unstoppable triumphing, even as it turns its pompous and blasphemous arrogance towards Heaven and the Godhead. In Dan 7:21, the Little Horn is exercising/“enjoying” its blissful triumphing by, seemingly impunitively savaging the saints of God who refuse to bow to its Truth & Godliness-perverting rule. But what is respectively revealed next to Daniel in this vision is that God is actually not ignoring all of this, -but is actually letting all this unrighteousness build up to its self-evidencing full maturity...just like a proper Law Enforcement operation would, and then, when all of that candid, investigative proof is collected, this evidence is then turned over to the Legal/Judicial Branch for charges/indictments and trials.
Well in Dan 7:9/Dan 7:22a God does indeed turn His attention to exercising Judicial oversight into these affairs of this Little Horn power, and pointedly, -as God’s Purpose then is to convict the guilty and clear the innocent in this world-dominating “Babylon”, upon the individual people who are in this Satanic system. Indeed, the most sensitive part of God’s Judicial process is not separating the outrightly wicked and unbelieving from the righteous and genuine believers, but indeed making a clear and convincing delineation between True vs. Spurious/False (professing) Believers. This is especially the case as this then comes to involve, as in any sensitive Trial, the actual motivations/intentions of the person, especially, in this Court’s case, when even good/right actions are actually being done for/with wrong/sinful motives/purposes.
Nothing but/less/short of True&Full Righteousness will qualify a person to become a subject of the Kingdom of God.
Overarching/Controlling Thethical Note: After now years of having viewed, interpreted and understood this ending portion of this prophecy of Daniel 7 according to the SDA level of comprehension, recent original and more indepth study of this prophecy has clearly shown to me that, -as by now seen with many other end time/eschatological prophecies in the Bible, therein too, God had seamlessly included many elements which would allow for either a “Plan B” (=SDA) “Emergency Rescue Plan” Fulfillment, or God’s originally planned “Plan A Temporal Jubilee Millennium = Earthly Kingdom of God”.
Well, having by now fully seen how it is God’s “Plan A” development that is, since ca. 1996, in effect now, this ending portion of Daniel’s World Order/Hegemony Vision is being viewed and interpreted according to this Divine Development...And as patently the case, this “Plan A” context for interpretation has the self-validating/confirming advantage of being able to allow the Biblical Text to fully and accurately speak for itself, in the sense that every expressed/included lexical, grammatical and syntactical element in the underlying, here Aramaic, text, has value and an application meaning. Typically, in the SDA “Plan B” approach to interpretation, the original Biblical text is actually not fully considered and applied, and typically an overlaying “anecdotal” understanding of ‘what the prophecy is suppose to mean and applied to” is “traditionally”, stubbornly stuck to, no matter if/how it conflicts with the original text.
This approach is, actually was, perfectly acceptable when God was, prior to ca. 1996, endeavoring to have the valid strictly/straightly Historicist (=SDA) understanding be fulfilled, but due to the failing of the Church to ever enter into a sustained (righteousness) path to accomplish what needed to be accomplish in order to ushering in that “Plan B” scenario, God has indeed since then been (mercifully) working according to His Original, and salvificly better, “Plan A” scenario. And so, as it will be seen in the following exegetical interpreting and Biblical/Spiritual applications, God indeed has here (fully) revealed His Great “Plan A” Kingdom prophetic plan where He is closely working during this period with His Church Triumphant = Kingdom of God on Earth who are ministeringly Finishing His Redemptive Purposes & Work in/for this (Fallen) World).
So, with all of this contextualizing information given, while SDA’s will have validly seen that this ending “Judgment” portion of the prophecy of Daniel focused mainly on the beginning of this Heavenly Investigative Judgement on October 22, 1844 (=Jewish Day of Atonement that year), this “Theological Views” Blog, based on WBSC Studies rather is seeing, as it will be textually seen below, that this prophetic portion is rather putting a focus more on the ensuing, expected progression and development of this Judgement (which actually started on ca. October 12, 1844 = at the Jewish Feast of Trumpets that year, and could have ended ten days later on the Day of Atonement:: Oct. 22, 1844).
Kingdom of God/Saints is Set Up (=Rev 15)
Daniel 7:9 - "I kept looking until thrones were cast (out/down), And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire.
Daniel 7:22a - until that time when the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
Daniel 7:9a - "I kept looking until thrones were cast (out/down),
thrones - Most significantly here, the word “thrones”, and the verb grammatically concording to it, i.e. “cast”, is/are in the plural. So it is clear the ‘more than (just) one throne is being related/depicted/seen here. With God the Father (= the “Ancient of Days”) later coming into this scene and seating Himself on a throne, it would indeed be expected that He would have a throne, but here, other thrones are also cited.
It can be plausibly claim that the other throne is for the later presenting “One like a Son of Man” personage (Dan 7:13), who would here be understood to be the post (permanent) humanly-incarnated God the Son: Jesus Christ, but it would likely be the case that if only 2 thrones were being mentioned here, that the original text would have been specific to mentioned that qualifying/restricting number of “2”....So it more likely seem that a plurality of throne, i.e. more than 2, or even more than a handful, or few, was being shown and seen by Daniel here.
Later in the Bible, when Jesus speaks of the end time judgement, the mention of ‘multiple thrones’ are also brought up. First in Luke 22:29-30|Matt 19:28, while speaking of what will take place in His Kingdom, Jesus states to his 12 Disciples that, in that coming Kingdom, they, who have stood by His side during His trials, will be also seated on a throne, 12 in number, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Then in Rev 4:4 and 11:16, it is shown that the 24 elders each sit on thrones in the throne room of God around the throne of God. And then, in Rev 20:4, it is, in language quite allusionary to Dan 7:9, mentioned that thrones are set up for the Millennial judgement and reign.
It is the studied out comprehension of this Theological Views Blog, pointedly about the subject of the 24 Elders, that God’s judgement process involves “jury (=lay judges) of one’s peers”. And so the 24 thrones which are in God’s throne room where 24 Elders sit, are not limited to only 24 individuals, but to a rotating group of 24 pertinently representating elders. So, depending on what these formal throne room proceedings/trial are about, 24 pertinent individuals present themselves to represent that people’s group and/or realm from God’s Universe. So, the representative people who occupy these thrones change, but the number of thrones, i.e. representative seats remain the same. Indeed just like a jury group changes members per trial so that a “jury of one’s peers’ is obtained, but the number of seats in the jury section remain the same, e.g. 12.
So in Luke 22:29-30|Matt 19:28, when Jesus was speaking to His Disciples about the future judgement of the 12 tribes of Israel, manifestly to determine who should be saved from the History of OT Israel into the Kingdom of Christ, Jesus speaks of 12 thrones, as that was the perfect (structural/organizational) representation for (merely) OT Israel then. In the NT Era, the New Covenant Spiritual ministry of the Apostles is added to the structure of God’s Israel (cf. Rev 21:12, 14) and so the perfect/complete(d) representation then is, -as seen in Rev 4's scene, 24 thrones [for 24 (lay judges = jury) elders]).
So these ‘multiple thrones’ in Dan 7:9 are, in the light of what is fully said about this matter in the rest of the Bible, in reference to: kingdom/ruling thrones which are also used for judging (professing/prospective) kingdom constituents.
Later elements from Rev 20:4's prophetic stipulation come to shed explanatory light on what is being said in Dan 7:9ff
were cast (out/down) - To translate the Aramaic term here: remah #7412 (=Heb. ramah #7411a) as “placed” (e.g. RSV; ESV), “put/set in place” (e.g. NKJV; NRSV; NIV; NJB), “set up” (e.g. NAB; NASB (1977)) as these do, are really quite generous translations as there really is no ‘careful setting up’ notion involved in this term, but rather a more than less random ‘throwing/ hurling/casting’, albeit to a specific, but wide, location, and any resulting organized “setting up” is, like rolling/casting” of dices, merely a random, but inherently potential, chance turnout/result.
So: God “hurled” the threatening armies of Egypt into the Red Sea (Exod 15:1, 21). The general target for this hurling was the vast body of the Red Sea, but certainly no specific or careful endeavor was made to”set them up” in this Sea or in any organized (i.e. upright) way. They were just hurled to that general area and were left up to chance to determine how they (actually irrelevantly) landed and stood afterward. Similarly in Dan 3 & Dan 6, the faithful friends of Daniel and then Daniel himself are “thrown/cast” into, respectively, the fiery furnace (Dan 3:6,11,15,20,21,24) and the den of lions (Dan 6:7,12,16,24). Of course, no care is being related here as being taken so that they are properly/uprightly set into place. They are instead just randomly flung about, and/but into a general specific/target location. No attention/detail, or even intention, is given as to where exactly they are suppose to land, let alone that they land properly/uprightly.
In Psa 78:9 and Jer 4:29, this term is used in reference to ‘archers’. Archers of course quasi-randomly fling their arrows in/towards a general/intending location without being sure where and how they will land. But archers were/are skillful enough to, by varying the degree of launch as well as they stretching of the bow, to target, more than less, the general area where their arrows should land.
So this term remah/ramah does indeed referring to a random flunging/throwing about without care as to where, or how, these flung/thrown things land. So, all such lexical meanings considered, the KJV perhaps translated it best when it rendered this expression as “cast down”....Particularly as the wider theological/prophetic position held by this Theological Views Blog is that these are thrones of subdividing realms of/for the (Temporal) Kingdom of God, and so, which are to be established upon the Earth, and together, in Spiritual/Prophetic connection and coordination with the Heavenly Intelligence, are to assist God in effectuating the Millennial Judgement on this Earth. So these thrones being “cast out/down” i.e. from Heaven to the Earth, thus representing, ruling/judging thrones of the Kingdom of God becoming established on the Earth by the Church Triumphant to reign/rule and judge with/for Christ on the Earth, however without a specifying here as to how and exactly where these Kingdom Establishment would/should take place. So Daniel effectively saw thrones being randomly hurled/cast down but they evidently (somehow, still) ended up being functionally set for their judgement duty.
NJK Project Application - The founding and enduring objective of the NJK Project is to provide this Biblical establishment for the then inherent rule and judgement of God through this Temporal/Earthly Kingdom of His. As this setting up is to be done by the volitional free will of the faithful members of God’s Triumphing Church on Earth, the careful process of establishment is not involve in the depiction here. Indeed in the real life application, this development involves these faithful members doing whatever they, talent-wise and/or means/resources-wise, can to collectively arrive at this Triumphant Church=Kingdom end goal. So this would indeed be best depicted by some general randomness. Then add to that the fact that the precise physical locations of these Kingdom establishments is also not precisely predetermined. Their general location is however given (e.g. in Dan 11:45 -discussed in here) as being on somewhere, both, on land, and in the midst of the Seas/Oceans.
Again here God respects the (Democratic) Free Will of even people who are following after Him. So He has general indicated what His objectives are, and has left it to people willing to accomplish these goals to determine how and where they are going to realize such Kingdom plans.
So as the Little Horn Power is coming towards the ending of its rule and influence, which actually does not all end in 1798 A.D., i.e. at the end of the 1260 prophetic days, hence why the
‘sound of the arrogant/boastful words of this power and the slaying of this beast’ occur sometime after this judgement process has begun (=Dan 7:11 = Rev 18), God indeed is working on establishing His Kingdom entity which will take the Earth/World Hegemonic place of that Babylonian Power. (=Rev 11:15-17; 19:15-16).
According to the SDA “Plan B” understanding, the Investigative/Heavenly Judgement began in 1844, and while that is technically correct/Biblical, there manifestly is also being stipulated in this passage that a furthering aspect of this judgement process is to take place, -one which involves the establishment/institutions of God’s priorly then formed (Militant) Remnant Church glorifiedly transforming into the (Triumphant) Remnant Church which are the needed Kingdom Institutions for this Millennial World Ruling and Judging Era.
So while the Temporal rule of (First Beast) Babylon (i.e. the Roman Catholic Church) was brought to an end in 1798 it’s Babylonian “arrogant/blasphemous’ = Satanic ideology was seamlessly continued by (Second Beast) “Daughter-Babylon” (i.e. (Protestant/Capitalistic) America/West). And so that is what this ongoing, really prolonged judgement session, is then, i.e. now, also trying to overcome with/by God expecting that His faithful Church Triumphant Members will (freely) establish His required Temporal Kingdom of God entity.
Daniel 7:22a - until that time when the Ancient of Days came
until that time when - The underlying Aramaic includes a relative particle “diy” [#01768] which has the basic translation of “which/that”. Here in Dan 7:22, the vision-relating/explaining Angel had already made extensive mention of this coming of the Ancient of Days back at Dan 7:9-10ff. So here, as he is again making allusion to the scene, and as he has just mentioned in Dan 7:21 the persecution that the saints of God will have been enduring, then he is now summarily stating how this persecuting will come to an end when the Ancient of Days interveningly comes to that set up Judgement Hall. So he is saying that: ‘these persecutions will last until that (already mentioned) time when the Ancient of Days would in/through judgement intervene’.
Judgement inherently culminatingly involves: a verdict, a sentencing, and an execution of that verdict+sentence. So the Ancient of Days intervening in/through Judgement inherently involves that an execution of Judgement against the persecutors, and thus in (delivering) “favor of the saints”, guarantees that this warring and persecution against the saints will thus be put to an end, with/by the offending party being destroyed in this fully-carried out judgement.
the Ancient of Days came - This scene implyingly involves the Ancient of Days “came” to some place where He previously was not. It has been seamless to assume/think that this Judgement Session must be taking place in the very Throne Room of God, which was depicted in the Hebrew Sanctuary as the Most Holy Place, but if that was the case, then there would be no need for God the Father here to displace Himself in order to come to this place. It would rather be said that He had stayed where He was, i.e. His throne room, and others were coming to where He was. So it is Biblical to see here that God moved Himself from His Throne Room, thus from the Most Holy Place, in order to come/go to this place where a Judgement Hall had been set up.
Additional SOP Light: Most pertinently enough, in (e.g.) EW 54-56 the Spirit/Gift of Prophecy (here manifested/given through/to Ellen G. White) relates a received pointed vision which was entitled “End of the 2300 Days”, which therefore spoke of when and how the Investigative Judgement began when the time of 2300 Prophecy of Daniel 8:14 came to its end (=on October 12, 1844 = The Feast of Trumpets). As this is a vision which is directly parallel and linked to this finalizing section of Dan 7, then it has been examined and commented upon in detail in this dedicated post.
Here is the full, here uncommented/unannotated, text/content of that SOP vision:
God showed me the following, one year ago this month:
In February, 1845, I had a vision of events commencing with the Midnight Cry.
--I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and his/the Son (Jesus Christ). I gazed on Jesus' countenance and admired his lovely person. The Fathers person I could not behold for a cloud of glorious light covered him. I asked Jesus if his Father had a form like himself; He said he had, but I could not behold it; for, said he, if you should for once see the glory of his person, you would cease to exist. Before the throne was the Advent people, the Church, and the world. I saw a company bowed down before the throne, deeply interested while most of them stood up disinterested and careless. Those who were bowed before the throne would offer up their prayers and look to Jesus, then he would look to his Father and appeared to be pleading with him. Then a light came/would come from the Father to his Son and from him to the praying company. Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from the Father to the Son and from the Son it waved over the people before the throne. But few would receive this great light. Many came out from under it and immediately resisted it. Others were careless and did not cherish the light and it moved off from them. Some cherished it and went and bowed down before the throne with the little praying company. This company all received the light, and rejoiced in it as their countenances shone with its glory. Then I saw the Father rise from the throne and in a flaming chariot go into the Holy of Holies within the vail, and did sit.
There I saw thrones which I had not seen before.
Then Jesus rose up from the throne, and most of those who were bowed down rose up with him. And I did not see one ray of light pass from Jesus to the careless multitude after he rose up, and they were left in perfect darkness. Those who rose up when Jesus did, kept their eyes fixed on him as he left the throne, and led them out a little way, then he raised his right arm and we heard his lovely voice saying, wait ye, I am going to my Father to receive the Kingdom. Keep your garments spotless and in a little while I will return from the wedding, and receive you to myself. And I saw a cloudy chariot with wheels like flaming fire. Angels were all about the chariot as it came where Jesus was; he stepped into it/(the chariot) and was borne to the Holiest where the Father sat. Then I beheld Jesus as he was before the Father a great High Priest. On the hem of his garment was a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate.
Then Jesus shewed me the difference between faith and feeling.
And I saw those who rose up with Jesus send up their faith to Jesus in the Holiest, and praying, Father give us thy spirit. Then Jesus would breathe on them the Holy Ghost. In the breath was light, power and much love, joy and peace. Then I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne. They did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne and pray, My Father give us thy spirit. Then Satan would breathe on them an unholy influence. In it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy and peace. Satan's object was to keep them deceived and to draw back and deceive God's children.
I saw one after another leave the company who were praying to Jesus in the Holiest, go and join those before the throne and they at once received the unholy influence of Satan.
{DS, March 14, 1846 par. 1}
And as this SOP vision covers many of the same imagery and development details as this Biblical Vision, then when such details here have already been discussed in that other post, a reference to the section where it is commented on over there is simply made here.
Daniel 7:9b - And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
And the Ancient of Days took His seat - This is an era of close Heaven and Earth connection, cf. John 1:51). And so while God the Father, the “Ancient of Days” takes His seat on His throne, which is in Heaven, the other thrones are established elsewhere, i.e. as fully understood, on Earth, in the endeavored temporal extension of God’s Kingdom here (cf. Matt 6:10; TMK 131.5; 18MR 103.3) .
In the parallel SOP vision above, when this Earthly establishment attempt runs into the obstacle of the expect Christian people on Earth not then yet ready to, in 1844, accomplish this kingdom establishing task, those thrones are recalled back into the throne room of God, to instead begin a now judgement session (cf. Rev 20:4) which will determine the qualifying 144,000 constituents for this temporal Kingdom. So this is how EGW came to ‘see thrones in the Most Holy Place/Throne Room which she had not seen before’ (See in Section #45 DS 1.2q). Priorly these throne had been, as stated above at Dan 7:9a, (untimely) cast out/down to this Earth in random, quasi-desperation, hope for a possible kingdom establishment.
Daniel 7:9c - His vesture was like white snow
vesture like white snow - The ‘whiteness of snow’ is consistently used in the Bible figuratively represent/indicate purity. This of course is indeed applicable to the Ancient of Days”, as well as the victorious Son of Man (Rev 1:14), but also to the other Heavenly beings who likewise have also not sinned. (cf. Matt 28:3). And God’s Amazing Grace also allows for this representation to be applicable to those who confess and forsake their sins and thus become holy (Isa 1:18; Psa 51:7; Lam 4:7).
Daniel 7:9d - And the hair of His head like pure wool.
hair...like pure wool - “pure wool” is also cited for its whiteness, however, although this too can indicate sinlessness (see Isa 1:18), it is rather making allusion to the old age of the individual as this is indicative of one’s wisdom given all of the years of experience they have had. Much more valuable than mere (“book/theoretical”) knowledge is (“field/life”) experience. That is indeed how God’s elect come to figure out the mystery of God’s encrypted prophecies (=1SM 25.4) even surpassing the capabilities of those who have had “knowledge”, even at an exegetical depth, of the statements of these prophecies. Indeed, as Dan 12:4, 9-10 mandates: only God’s ‘purified holy ones’, who will (naturally) be “seeking to advance (in God’s Truth)”, will be able to decrypt these end time guiding prophetic plan.
Fittingly enough, the victorious Son of Man of Rev 1 who is about to minister in God’s Seven Churches, like has had an experience which gives him such “pure wool hair” “wisdom” (Rev 1:14).
Daniel 7:9e - His throne was ablaze with flames,
Daniel 7:9f - Its wheels were a burning fire.
throne ablaze; wheels burning - As discussed in detail at Sections #43 DS 1.2p & then #59 DS 1.3b this is actually a “techn(olog)ical” description of the actual, i.e. tangibly necessary, lifting/propulsion system used to move this throne of God, which is heavier for God the Father than the Son, hence why it requires from “flaming” power.
Judgement Session is Set Up (=Rev 16)
Daniel 7:10 - "A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.
Daniel 7:26a - 'But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be (caused to be) taken away, in order to be (caused to be) annihilated & destroyed forever.
Daniel 7:10a - "A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him;
river of fire... - As with all symbols cited in Bible Prophecy, at surface view, it may seem to be having a merely straightforward meaning..So here: ‘a simple river of fire flowing out from before God’. But when the tried, tested and true principle of: “letting/using the Bible to interpret these symbols in Bible prophecy’ is applied it unfailing brings out the always embedded deeper/further meaning and understanding behind/for these encrypting symbols.
Here the symbol is a “river”. As discussed here the river, as the source of water on Earth conducive to Life as it provides fresh/desalinated flowing/non-stagnant water, [-even Perfect Eden had a river =Gen 2:10ff], is representative of the grouping of “peoples” (i.e. “waters” Rev 17:15) into religious/Church bodies. The Bible Believer can easily see and understand how this “Church” grouping is indeed the most vital element for this Earth.
In Ezek 47:1-12 we see God previewing His future plans of causing a River (=a/the Church) to come forth from the OT Sanctuary system to water and prosper the rest of the world....And that is exactly what we see the Heavenly Intelligence doing in the Messianic Age with the Israel-furthering Church that Jesus Christ established....And not surprisingly enough, we related see that Jesus Himself, the “Head of this Church” (Eph 5:23), is the “Water of Life” (John 7:37-39).
Then, God had always had plans for this “River/Church” to go from this Church Militant phase, i.e. one which gradually, increasingly flows throughout the Earth to provides to its “healing” (Ezek 47:12) to a (religious/Church) body of water which (naturally) also flows into the Seas (Ezek 47:8-10), with the “sea” being representative of “political people grouping”. The Seas were considered then in Bible times, and long afterwards, as the largest bodies of water until later further sea-going navigation led to the discoveries of other land/continental masses on the Earth, and so the concept of Continent-separating bodies of waters came to be understood known as “oceans”. So the Bible’s “sea” was equivalent to “oceans”. And with God planning for His “River” Church movement to eventually, naturally, =democratically, flow into and positively affect the “Sea”, i.e. the State, it then can be seen how He long envisioned that the Israel nation which He had forged in the OT (Gen 12:1-3) would eventually come to ‘spread throughout the Earth’ (Num 14:21) ‘as waters cover the sea’ (Hab 2:14). So this would come to be achieved through the work of the Zionistic Church Triumphant. (=Sol 6:10|PK 725.1||2).
So all this to say/show that now, with this “river of fire”, God is engaging in doing a new thing with/through His Church. “Fire” of course is used to represent the empowering power of the Holy Spirit (e.g. Acts 2:1-4). So a Church which had priorly been engaged in preparatory evangelistic works of repentance and cleansing, and then later did become empowered at Pentecost to more powerfully do these works (cf. Luke 3:16-17; John 7:37-39), would now, under the Third Angel’s Message (Rev 14:9-11) naturally extend this ‘inner fiery/Spiritual power’ to its outer form, with water being exchanged for fire, to collectively become a “river of fire”. As discussed here, it is this “river of fire” which produces the “Sea of Glass” (Rev 15:1-2) which also tangibly is the foundational basis for the 144,000's New Jerusalem Kingdom.
This “river of fire” tangibly serves to rid/purify the Earth of any of its concretized/formed impurities (cf. Luke 3:17). Relatedly, in Rev 22:1-2ff, only a “River of Life” is then needed as God’s rained down “Hell Fire” (Rev 20:7-10) will have already done this Earth-purifying step.
So with this “river of fire” being the presented form here in this Judgement Session of God, manifestly indicating where He is now intending to take His Earth Redemptive actions, the only question is, will He be able to find a people on Earth through which this Divine project will tangibly be done. And this is what this Kingdom-prepping Judgment Session (Dan 7:14; =the Eschatological application of Rev 11:1-10ff) is all about. (=Rev 11:11-14, 15-18)
As discussed in detail in here, the Heavenly Intelligence would not find the subjects needed to then deploy this Kingdom Movement when the prime time for its establishment had come at the ending of the 2300 Day prophecy of Dan 8:14, thus starting on October 12/13, 1844 and by October 22, 1844, so they had to go “back to the drawing board”, or more thematically applicable here: back to the Throne Room of God, to work to raise and select a new and ready “144,000" constituency from out of the vast professing Christian Church then (=Rev 7:1-8ff). And that is what the resulting Investigative Judgement is all about.
It is quite interesting that in the SOP “inset” revelation of these prophetic developments of Dan 7:9-10ff, God revealed there this tried, but non-completed, attempt to select these 144,000 right at that close of the 2300 Days by October 22, 1844. It is indeed an “inset” revelation for this “larger/wider picture” revealed to Daniel. So what Daniel 7:9-14 is showing is what straightforwardly is/was to happen in this Kingdom Judgement Session Process. So without the occurring/transpired (merciful) interruption revealed in the SOP. Fittingly enough, just as the Heavenly Intelligence had “approached” this Earth in Gen 18:1-3, 16-21ff to do its pre-judgement-execution “in person” investigation of the Sodom and Gomorrah matter, in the SOP vision (see section #21 DS 1.2f) of this Dan 7:9-15 development, it is shown that God and the Son likewise approached the Earth, indeed tangibly moving their throne within its ‘atmospheric realm’, to better, and quite investingly, consider their Kingdom-establishing prospects. Indeed, if the burgeoning America then had repented under the Millerite Message, it would have validated its opportunity to indeed establish a (truly) “Christian Nation” for God in this Earth. Hence/Therewith would God’s temporal Kingdom of God plans have been fulfilled. But as the people, even professing Christians, proved themselves to not be ready, those plans were literally scrapped, and God went back to His Throne Room to work on the replacing alternative.
...And, as discussed in detail at Section #81 DS 1.4c Satan has since been endeavoring to revive and lead those abandoned “America-Christian Nation/Kingdom” plans of God (=Rev 13:10, 11ff)...as God knowingly has permitted Him to (=2 Thess 2:11-12)....
Daniel 7:10b - Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
Daniel 7:10c - And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him;
“Thousands” & “myriads” -It is natural to deem this numbered reference to angels as not literalistic, but merely figurative of many. So though “thousands upon thousands” would, -if meant to be multiplied, represent: (1000x1000) “a million” or “millions”; and with “myriads”understood to be a unit for 10,000, then the product of its reference would be (10,000x10,000) “one hundred million” or “hundreds of millions”, this would still not be meant to be understood as being such strict/literal counts. That’s understandable in regards to the numbering itself, (though see a case for an initial literal number application of Rev 5:11 around 70-95 A.D. here.)
“attending” vs. “standing” - But what this two groups of numbering do involve is that there were “millions” of angels who were “attending to God”; while “hundreds of millions” were “standing before Him”. It is acceptable to view the “attending angels” as the officers of this court, as in God’s Court Clerks....and I would advance that the “hundreds of millions of angels who are (instead) standing before God, are not there merely to observe, but are actually representing their human clients on the Earth. So these are making this court appearance on behalf of the human beings that they were assigned to on Earth. And I would further deem that, for this Kingdom evaluating Judgement, not all of the humans on Earth are here/thus being represented by an angel, but rather only humans who are professing believers in Christ.
These representative angels would therefore duly have the records, -later mentioned as “books” (cf. Rev 20:12), of the lives of those Christian humans that they are representing. Jesus Christ Himself, and alone, is the (priestly-intercessory) “advocate” (=defense attorney) for these Christians (=1 John 2:1). So these representing angels are merely there to straightly present the documented factual record of these Christians. ...
This Great Controversy is tangibly real....No one implicated is merely “going through the motions”...
So like the Throne Room Session of Rev 4-5, which, as discussed here, was to decide/plan what to do in the Lamb-forged (Rev 5:6) prolonged World History time, a similar Session is now being held here in Dan 7:9ff to re-determine the make up of the planned Kingdom of God now in/for this also Lamb-prolonged (see EW 36.2-38.2; 15MR 292.3-4) time (of the end).
attending/minister - Here also, a deeper comprehension of what is fully taking place with/from those “attending” angels. The underlying Aramaic word which is translated as: ‘attending’ (NASB, NIV) “ministered” (N/KJV); ‘served’ (N/RSV, ESV). It is an Aramaic word, namely: shemash [#8120] which occurs only one in the Bible. The Strong’s Concordance Dictionary has claimed that it is related to/derive from the Hebrew term for “sun”, namely: shemesh [#8121] “through the idea of activity implied in day-light”. So a ‘daytime service’. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) claims that it is unrelated to the Hebrew term, and is probably an Egyptian loan word. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon cites its meaning as “to minister” and provides the list of the terms from other contemporary languages that it is probably related to.
Here, my own World Biblical Society of Christ (WBSC) Institute makes the judgement call that both sides contain some elements of truth, but not for the reasons that they provide: Yes the Aramaic shemash is derived from the Hebrew term for sun, and Yes it is related to contemporary languages’ terms which refer to servants. But not it, nor those other terms, indicate a servants service because it is speaking of “day-light work”, but rather, figuratively because of the ‘essential, even vital, entity and service that is, and is provide by, the sun’. So in other words, a shemash was much more than just a “slave”, who provided menial services, and a shemash can technical be considered to be more than a “servant”, though the term “servant” is more convenient used to express it. The position and service held and provided by a shemash can indeed be considered to be that of a “minister”. It can be compared today as a professional who is paid for their specialized, skilled even indispensable services, such as a (personal) physician, an (senior) adviser, a (field) secretary or a (fitness) trainer. The understanding today of a “public servant”, i.e. someone who hold public office, would also be contributive to the understanding of shemash given the recognized “authority” that this person does have, though it is actually bestowed by the (greater) person who is benefitting from these services.
So in the category of “servitude”, there, hierarchally, were: slaves, servants and attendants/ministers. In Dan 7:10, shemash is rendered in the Greek translation/version, i.e. the LXX, with the term derived from “therapeuo”, which of course is where the English term “therapy” comes from. In fact, the exact form of the Greek term in Dan 7:10 LXX occurs again in the Greek texts of the Bible in Mark 6:13, which speaks of Jesus’s disciples doing a “healing” miracles. Indeed this meaning for therapeuo [Strongs #2323] of: “healing” is the consistent rendering of it in the NT (i.e. 41 out of 42 times in the NASB)...And quite notably, that NT loan exception is in Acts 17:25 which, like in Daniel 7:10, speaks of ‘service towards God’, but here: ‘human hands not being able to serve God’.[20]20
The WBSC harmonizing synthesis of all of these uses is in indeed from the basic notion that is involved in shemash which is the notion of the ‘work/benefits of “the sun”’. A shemash is one who provides an assigned, essential/needed, complimentary service to its superior. Like a “healing”, it is a service which helps makes the receiver “whole”, as in repairing, or providing a part of them they had lost. Likewise, living things on Earth greatly need the sun to be able to grow and fully become what they are supposed to be.
Corroboratingly, see Mal 4:2 where these notions of the sun and healing, and even angelic features i.e. “wings”, (and also (the sun of) Righteousness/Right-Doing) are thematically associated.
Plus, interestingly enough, angels are symbolicly referred in prophetic passages as “stars” (Rev 1:20; 12:4 =the fallen angels; Rev 8:10; 9:1 =the fallen angel Satan)....and...in God’s Other Revelatory Book: Nature (see Rom 1:20ff) a star is actually a distant sun. So it can be technically seen here that angels do indeed have some constitutional element which can be of tangible benefit to God that “flesh and bone” humans don’t have. So while the “millions” of “attending/ministering” angels in Dan 7:10, are evidently doing this for God, humans hands actually cannot likewise to so towards God (Acts 17:25)
As per my WBSC’s Creation’s matter view, all created things were materially formed from the Divine Energy of God the Son’s bestowed Divine Glory, and so angels, who are essentially beings with a body of light/energy, would have been created to constitutionally be made up of a more “energized” form of this material, thus beings of light. So they would be more containers of the original Divine Glory/Energy than are the next level of God’s Creation: humans. And as I am Theologically seeing that their “ministering” to God in/for this Judgement session has to do with some assistance in regards to the added energy which is required to fully and properly execute this task. Indeed even “powering” energy to, actually redundantly, i.e. ‘reviewingly”, go over all of the pertinent facts, details and information (because God Himself has already ‘crunched these facts” and even has come to His Righteous Decision, which only Christ’s intercession/pleading may lead Him to mercifully overturn). Then it is manifest that the “essential service” that these angels have been assigned to “empoweringly” do is in regards to tangibly aiding God to avoid to have to, redundantly/again, expend His own energy towards the public deliberation of this Judgement process. So they themselves are providing this energy, perhaps even being allowed by God to “tap” into His own mind, i.e. directly access His judgement-thought-process as they now make known His Judicial reasonings...Or conversely, these Divine-Energy powered angels are just addingly supplying/providing from this personal energy of their to/towards God and this Process so that God does not have to again draw from His own energy.
So this all can indeed be seen as a “therapy”. I.e. an assisting service which helps to ‘keep God Himself “whole/intact”, thus not deficient of His optimal form/health.
Daniel 7:10d - The court sat,
Daniel 7:26a - 'But the court will sit for judgment,
sat - While this may seem, at least from our modern understanding, to merely be a technical reference to a court session being established and beginning, the Aramaic and Hebrew term here [Ara.: yethib #3488 = Heb.: yashab #3427] speaks of “settling” “dwelling” “inhabiting”. This is significant as it implies that ‘this court may be here for a while’. So this judgement process is a deliberate one which those involved knew could take some time to complete.
So it was not a pro forma session. What, and pointedly the people who, will be investigated, evaluated, deliberated and adjudged here, -all to determine the make up of the Kingdom of God, is a tangible, careful and real issue. And this may all be due to the actually “diceyness” of the situation: i.e. there were many professing Believers to examine, many of which outwardly seemed to be genuine and worthy candidates for the Kingdom of God, but there were many or key issues with their record (e.g Matt 25:40-46) which warranted their closer review here.
Daniel 7:10e - And the books were opened.
books - If one has ever doubted that Heaven, and this Great Controversy (GC), and pointedly Heaven dealing with this GC is real, this mention of a record keeping system in Heaven of all that is pertinent taking place on Earth should settle this issue.
Now the popular thing to do here, mainly by SDA interpreters [as they virtually are the only ones in Christian circles who (competently, if at all) present this prophetic section] is to claim that here “books” is merely a sort of “anthropomorphic” expression which was used here to help the reader of the time relate to the record-keeping and archiving that Heaven was doing here....But, in our technologically most advanced day & age, with computers, digital records, etc, we can understand that Heaven likely has a much more advanced record keeping system. Of course this take is quite plausible take...And with today’s technological knowledge looking to realize Quantum Computers and even more advanced DNA Computers it is quite likely that God has a record keeping system which essentially is a second brain unit for every human on Earth which exactly records/reproduces what its “linked” to human on Earth thinks....But I would then still see the work of an individually assigned observing and recording angel to be needed, even, similar to the work of a court stenographer, to concretely transcribe, perhaps even index, what is being live-recorded, and to serve as a trusted eye-witness to these recorded events. So these “books” may be these corroborating/contexting notes by these recording angels. And perhaps, also includes/involves a hard copy, i.e. the transcript, of would be in those “brain” recording/storage systems....Who concretely knows....
But the fact still remains that a tangible record of those who will be judged here is both kept in Heaven and here produced for this Heavenly Court Session.
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Now what takes place from here on in this prophecy of Daniel was actually restated in the formulation of Apocalyptic Prophecy in the light of the New Covenant/Testament, i.e. in the Book of Revelation, namely, protractedly in Rev 17-18-19-20-21. As a guiding overview, here is how these chapters correspond to the basic template of Daniel 7:
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Dan 7:9ff = Rev 15-21 Charting
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As seen from the earlier made, but uncommented on, citations, the correspondence of the prophetic sections of Dan 7:9-14, 18, 22, 26-27 with Rev 17-21, actually began back with Rev 15 & 16.
In Revelation 15 we see a connection made between Heaven and Earth as the 144,000 are established as if they are in a Heavenly Realm. That is because these Triumphant ones have managed to have the (Sea of Glass) “basis/foundation” for God’s Temporal Kingdom set up. So the “thrones” which were random cast from God’s throne room onto the Earth (=Dan 7:9a), did “catch” with certain perceptive righteous people, and so they came to be established then.
In Revelation 16, in the outpouring of the 7 Plagues, we see the concentrated execution of what had been warned about by the prior sounding of the 7 Trumpets, now squarely on the quasi-worldwide Mark of the Beast camp. This process is in order to fatally “wound” the apostates here and hopefully lead some of people in this Valley of Decision to get off the fence and choose which side they will stand with. God’s most merciful (further/secondary) probation actually only fully (now individualistically (cf.1MR 370.3; Mar 242.5), versus corporately) closes on the MOB camp at the Seventh Plague, when it is then said, “out of the temple from the throne”: “It is done” (=Rev 16:17).
This “Plaguing of the Earth” is reflected in the “River of Fire” that is spoken of in Dan 7:10. No more is God working through a ‘river [=Religious Organization] which brings reviving life upon the Earth’ (=Ezek 47:1-13), but, as discussed above at Daniel 7:10a, rather through a Religious Organization which purifies the Earth of its God-offending refuse.
The Seventh Plague is the Execution of Judgement on Babylon, and that is next expounded upon in specific contexting (i.e. what are the warranting circumstances) and detailing in Rev 17&18.
Verdict in Favor of the Saints (=Rev 17)
Daniel 7:22b - until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given [=passed] in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
Daniel 7:26b - 'But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be (caused to be) taken away, in order to be (caused to be) annihilated & destroyed forever.
Daniel 7:22b - and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One
Daniel 7:26b - and his dominion will be (caused to be) taken away
judgement was given [=passed] in favor - If you’ve ever been involved in a civil prosecution, and/or are familiar with the civil judicial process, you can probably recall when you starkly discovered that being given a favorable verdict and collecting what that verdict has granted you are two completely different things. “Executing” that granted verdict is an entirely distinct process, which may actually require added expense of money, contracted (collection/bailiff) resources and/or further judicial measures. Well, as it historically plays out here in this Dan 7 prophecy, though God’s judgement “bangs the gavel” in favor of His faithful saints, in their now long-endured case against the murderously persecutive Little Horn power and its Spiritual Babylon entity, the execution of the relief stipulated in that verdict, i.e. the complete destruction of this Global-dominating Babylonian Power and also the take over of this hegemony by a Kingdom of God establishment are actually two distinct things...As it will be exegetically seen later, the exaction of the Saints’-favoring verdict are all prophetically-planned to be, naturally, ‘indirectly’ realized and executed via an ‘agency’....Why is that???...I.e. why does not God openly/Supernaturally act to strikingly bring about this Deliverance/victory??!
Well while that would/could have been the ‘literalistic’ case in the “Emergency Plan B” Rescue” scenario, as that would then be the utter end of things, as there most likely would then be no one else that would be saved by a prolonging of time, In God’s “Plan A” scenario, which is mercifully allowing for an opportunity for more people to come to see and heed His Truth, then Faith, -only by which all/any can/must be disculpated (Rom 14:23) & forgiven/saved (Rom 4:16; Eph 2:8), needs to be candidly/genuinely manifested & exercised during these times....And so, a striking/overt manifestation of God’s Power overthrowing Babylon, would lead people to make false, i.e. non-faith, conversions, but to such people, -who actually did/do not love/trust God, His mercy cannot be extended...Not to mention that such ‘“loaves & fishes” believers/converts’ (John 6:26) are the worse kind to get because when a later a faith-trying/testing time comes...and, by God’s Purposes, it always will, [because God cannot babysit “grown-up children” (cf. 1SM 110.1); -i.e. do for them what they can and should be doing for themselves], well such people will then not only lose faith, and not only act corruptly, but will also influence many others to also act faithlessly....And so these spurious adherents come to “spoil the whole bunch”, and God then cannot (Supernaturally) act to intervene, save or even convince such faithless people. So that cause would become a loss cause. In fact, God can accomplish more through a faithful (remnant) few, than a Lukewarmly faithless whole.
So that is why God strictly refrains from manifesting overt Supernatural Power in this/such matter(s).* Only if it came to be a “Final Event” development, where the world had resolutely decided to knowingly oppose God’s Truth and Light, and were then seeking to murder/destroy God’s Faithful ones, would He then (literalistically) Supernaturally act to end all GC things. (cf. GC 635ff).
* Indeed when one reads about God’s miraculous interventions in the Bible, and more revealingly through the Inspired, behind-the-seen, Light of the SOP, every such Acts can easily be explained away by faithless “Skeptics”, or even by faux-righteous “Character of God” proponents, as a mere random “natural” coincidence, -indeed as is the Grand Miracle of Creation. [E.g. the “fire of God” which is said several times to strike down and/or burn people or things (e.g. Num 11:1; 16:35), was manifestly, actually God causing a directed discharged of lightning. (See e.g. in Lev 10:2; see PP 379.1) -hence why lightning is the Biblical symbol for ‘God’s visible/manifested judgement’; and correspondingly “thunder” is the mere “sound/declaration” of that judgement.]
So God here “giving/passing this judgement” (=verdict) is merely, in His now applying Plan A scenario, the initiating beginning of the natural overthrow of the rule and influence of Babylon...And that “naturally” would come to begin to be concretely manifested in His, post-1798 A.D. [=post-end of the prophesied ‘1260 years’ reign], formation of His Remnant Church Entity which is supposed to, when remaining faithful, fully blossom into His finalizing and adequately-empowered Temporal Kingdom of God entity, which would, just by preaching and showing God’s Full Truth and Righteousness, break the deluding influence that Initial & Neo-Babylon have Globally been having (Rev 17:18).
The {Rev 16:14-16; 17:14; 19:11ff} Final Showdown between God’s {Rev 5} “Little Lamb” Power/Kingdom vs. the {Rev 13:11-18} False-Lamb Dragon Beast needs only to be a Spiritual War....unless/until the Mark of the Beast Camp would choose to make it Literal....And if God’s People/Kingdom then is not (yet) in a position to be able to adequately defend and protect themselves then, as in OT times, when God’s Israel People/Kingdom were so ambushed and assaulted, God then would (supernaturally) intervene....
Daniel 7:22b = Rev 17 - The judgement of Babylon is indeed first mentioned here in Dan 7:22b. As discussed above, this is merely the pronouncement of this judgement and not then/yet its concrete/realized execution. So this here is merely the “gavel-banging” verdict where God declares that “Babylon is to be ‘dethroned’ and destroyed”....Fittingly enough, we see exactly this development in the corresponding expansion of this Daniel prophecy in Revelation 17. There, one of the Plague Angel, -probably the Seventh Angel of Rev 16:17ff, comes to John to elaborate on what the judgement of Babylon will be and also exactly why. (=Rev 17:1-3ff). So Daniel 7:22b and Rev 17 are indeed parallel prophetic passages.
And what is also key to note here, as discussed in this post at Rev 17:3 , the “woman” Church which is, by having been corrupted, this Babylon which is to be judged, is not, as it had been acceptably assumed by early generations of Protestants and SDAs, at least merely so, the Historical Babylon, namely the Roman Catholic Church and its Papacy, but now is more prominently actually the woman which had been persecuted by this RCC and had fled into the wilderness to escape it. (Rev 12:6, 13-15), i.e. the Protestant Church. Only a faithful Remnant would emerge from that wilderness (Rev 12:17), initially the SDA Church, but now the Fellowship of Sabbatical Zionistic Christianaires (FSZC), but that “Protestant Church” which had fled into the wilderness, would emerge from the unpopulated “earth/land”, -where it would further flee for its freedom, namely to the newly discovered new land of America, as an ‘imaging’ form of that Dragon-empowered (Rev 13:1), Babylonian Beast Power (=Rev 13:11ff).
So the prophesied overthrow and destruction of the Babylonian Beast power spoken of in Daniel 7:22ff and Rev 17 is actually, at least fully so, applicable to the First Beast Power, but even more so to the fullest manifestation of this AntiChrist entity, when it then will have combined the Doctrinal Heresies of the First Beast (=Papal Catholicism), with the Socio-Economic heresy (i.e. Capitalism) of the Second Beast (=Protestant America) and then be Globally-exerting its influence, even through the United Nations Organization. (=Rev 17:12).
So as the fullest fulfilment of this prophecy is being sought for our day and age, it will indeed be its application to that Second Beast Power.
and his dominion... - As stated just above, at the end, this here applies presently to “(Protestant/Capitalistic) America” and so this “dominion” [#7985] speaks of wherever this power’s realm is, and wherever it ‘rulingly’ [#7981] is “imperially” exerting its influence. (cf. Dan 4:3).
...will be (caused to be) taken away - That is a clear enough pronouncement in itself, again here declaring what the final outcome of a now only begun “causitive” [=Aramaic: Haphel (=Hebrew: Hiphil) verbal form] overthrow process will surely be.
And also, as discussed earlier at Dan 7:25c1 in its Exegetical Factor #3 - (Hhet) Preformative Section since this Aramaic causitive form is an Haphel and not merely an Aphel form, thus it deliberately implicates the “outsider agent” (Hhet) Preformative, then this action of this Power’s dominion being taken away will be effectuated through an entity that is foreign/outside to itself. So it will not be through an “internal national/civil collapse”, but from the actions of a foreign/outside entity, namely from the influence, authority and/or power of the more/most Righteous, Kingdom of God...and actually/truly “(Biblical) Christian Nation”!!! Everyone in the world will then indeed see that that prior Protestant-Capitalistic America Imperial Power “has no clothes”... (=Rev 19:17-18ff)
Sentencing of the Fourth=Fifth=Sixth=Seventh Kingdom (=Rev 18)
Daniel 7:11- "I kept looking from within that because of that sound of those arrogant/(blasphemous = slanderous) claims which that horn was uttering; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.
Daniel 7:26 - 'But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be (caused to be) taken away, in order to be (caused to be) annihilated & destroyed forever.
Daniel 7:11a - "I kept looking from within that because of that sound of those boastful words which that horn was uttering;
Daniel 7:11b - I kept looking until the beast was slain,
Daniel 7:11c - and its body was destroyed
Daniel 7:11d - and given to the burning fire.
Daniel 7:26c - in order to be (caused to be) annihilated & destroyed forever.
I kept looking - The overall exegetical evidence points to this statement indeed intended to be expressed first, i.e. before the next, assumedly segment-transitional, ‘then’ statement, discussed next/below. So Daniel here “came to be continuing to look” into this unfolding vision, and though a thematic transition does occur here, he soon sees that it is conjoining what he had just been seeing.
from within that - So a protracted dissertational-type of explanation/evidencing can here be done to fully substantiate what has been precisely observed about this statement here, but these technical details won’t be fully reproduced here. Rather, succinctly said, the Aramaic “particle adverb” here edayin {Strongs #116 ~ Hebrew: az #227 ~Greek/LXX: tote #5119 -discussed in here at Matt 25:1} is basically used to speak of two situations/scenes/episodes which are in some way related to each other, e.g. in sequential time, or in concurrent time. There is a substantive, even interdependent, relationship between the two, where the second occurs, or has meaning, or is derived, due to the transpiring of first. Then the Aramaic patently goes an extra step to pointedly indicate if the second situation does indeed have much more than a time/order sequence relationship with the first, by [in 27 out of 53 instances] prefixing the “beyt” letter [=ben preposition] to edayin [= “from within”] as this then indicates that the second situation has an integral/concurrent relationship with the first. So, in the distinguishing Aramaic, b{en}+edayin means “from within this” thus indicating concurrent related developments; while simple edayin means simply: “from this” in regards to sequential related developments. And these/such related developments are more than just mere time, but are also related in regards to theme/subject-matter.
So here, Daniel is indicating that what is now seeing in the vision is actually concurrent to what had been occurring in the prior segment/(verse). Namely: while those court records “books were opened” (Dan 7:10) thus indicating the judgement in Heaven had started, and was now going on, Daniel’s attention was redirected to what was then concurrently going on, which is, as discussed next, that persecutive “arrogant/blasphemous” beast still ‘being heard from’.
So in summary, this pointed linguistic indicator here is meaning that Daniel sees that the Judgement of Heaven will have started, and be going on, even before things have been resolved and ended on Earth. That is indeed what the “Pre-Advent Investigative Judgement Doctrine” is all about. This is quite contrary to the glib majority Christian understand that think that the judgement will only take place at the very end. Even in Matt 25:31-46's Judgement, Jesus then merely/tersely ‘separates the Sheep from the Goats’...and so “tersely” so that either side is surprised that at the outcome. If this had then been the deliberation of their judgement process, i.e. their trial, then all of these details about their case would have been brought up and evaluated. But a “trial” is not what occurs here. Jesus then merely delves out the “rewards” that He has already ascertained (Rev 22:12)...i.e. in this Heavenly Investigative Judgement before His “Second Coming” Appearing. This would be like a Court today telling a defendant at his/her very first appearance in that Court that “they are guilty” and then directing the court officer to take you away to prison. And then, when you try to argue or ask why such a decision, the judge then informs you that the details of your case have actually already been evaluated, and in what was actually a fair and binding deliberation.
Well clearly Jesus is doing His judgement in this way to, -also as per the pervasive demand of Faith, which does perfectly weed out the true from the false, candidly see if people are faithful and righteous. Because of course, if someone concretely knew that they were being watched and judged, they would then only conform their behavior just to pass that judgement, and not because they truly believe in those passing standards of this judgement.
So while the Heavenly Intelligence has given sufficient information and revelation throughout the Bible about this Pre-Advent/Investigative nature of God’s/Christ Final Judgement, they certainly now are not going out of their way to force people to know this as a concretely, presently-transpiring reality, because the actual/genuine Faith of each person who is being judged in this court is to be candidly determined.
because of that sound of those arrogant/(blasphemous = slanderous) claims - So Daniel came to be continuing to look at the now begun, and ongoing Judgement, process to see what would become of this AntiChrist entity that he was still hearing to sounds of, pointedly in the still standing arrogant/(blasphemous = slanderous) claims that it had made.
Compounded to that are those people who had been misled by these AntiChrist claims. What would become of them in this Judgement. In the First manifestation of this Beast (Rev 13:1-10), those AntiChrist claims slandered the character, image and will of God in matters of religion and also politics. The Roman Catholic Church has perverted Biblical Christianity, and then when it came to be in a position of political power, it further misrepresented Christianity before people...a perversion which has it lingering effects to this day. In fact that is what reactionarily gave birth to the Atheistic/Secularist Revolution of the French. Then the Second manifestation of this Beast Power (Rev 13:11-18), i.e. the United States of America, follows in such Christ-slandering ways in regards to cultural and socio-economic matters. Protestant America with its Satanic Capitalistic world view, tell people ‘it is God’s will’ that they be selfish, greedy, self-seeking, covetous and individualistic. All are traits that Christ and the rest of the Bible clearly speak against.
So Daniel is made to keep looking on in the context of this ongoing judgement to see what will happen to this AntiChrist Power.
which that horn was uttering - By using an Aramaic participle here for “uttering”, instead of, as normal, an verbal form, an ongoing/continuous/durative circumstance is being emphasized here, It is functioning here as a predicate (cf. IBHS pp. 623-626). So as the judgement process was going on, Daniel was still hearing that Little Horn power uttering its blasphemies/slander “towards/against the side of the Most High” -Dan 7:25) = Christ. So Daniel could still hear these AntiChrist pronouncements.
his dominion will be (caused to be) taken away - This judgement of God does have plans, indeed it is its purpose, to overthrow the rule of this Horn/Beast Power. And it does so by reducing and removing the influence that this Power had through which it projected authority. For the First Beast manifestation of this AntiChrist, this had been done in 1798 AD, ending the reign of the Roman Catholic Church as the effective leader of the “Holy Roman Empire”. Although since 1798, the Church has been able to regain some of its temporal power, independence and jurisdiction, it has not compared in any way to the level that it had prior to that 1798 deposing at the hands of France.
But the prophecy here stipulates that, more precisely, this curtailing of the dominion of the AntiChrist Power occurs after the beginning of the Heavenly Judgement, therefore after October 1844. Well as the book of Revelation expands on the understanding of the AntiChrist Power, by revealing that a Second Beast will come on the scene of World History (=the U.S.A.) and will, in its own way and right, set up an “image” to that First Beast, then this “post-1844 loss of dominion is to be sought in regards to the United States of America. Will it be a complete loss of the present physical territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.?? It actually does not prophetically have to be so. As with the First Beast, simply the curtailing and limiting of the Imperial influence and projection of this Power is sufficient to accomplish that end of reining in that world-distributed AntiChrist deception. So in regards to this Second Beast which has a Capitalistic socio-economic version of the Mark of the Beast deception, God acting to end this spreading and exercising of (American) Capitalism is enough to bring that effective Hegemonic Global Empire to its knees/ground/end....
in order to be (caused to be) annihilated & destroyed forever - Once that Imperial projection “dominion” is taken away, “causing” this ‘forever annihilation and destruction’ of this Eschatological/Second/Fullest AntiChrist Power.
the beast was slain, [...] body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. - Notice that it is the beast which is targeted for the execution judgement and not the Little Horn itself. So it is a world power/kingdom which will be judged here, and that beast indeed is the Second Beast Power (Rev 13:11-18). It is indeed all of the later morphed forms of this 4th Beast, namely the Fifth (Rev 13:1-10) and then the Sixth (Rev 13:11-18) which are involved here.
This ending of the Global Hegemony Dominion and then the destruction of this Babylonian Second Beast Power, thus its “slaining, destruction and burning”, is discussed in such details in the expanding prophecy of Rev 18 (=Rev 19:19-21; cf. 17:11-14).God’s purpose here is to “cut off the head” of this Mark of the Beast camp and then, as discussed next, deal with the nations which were sheepishly subservient to this AntiChrist system distinctly, for fairness purposes.
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Note: So I have heard tens of presentations by SDAs and their Historicist view on this prophecy of Daniel 7 and/but when have they ever also discussed what is stated above in Dan 7:11 or in the (chronologically) next segments of Dan 7. It seems to me that upon jumping in this prophetic passage to Dan 7:25, no other exposition of what is then stated about what happens to the beast, or, as presented above, that this beast is much more than the effective (Holy Roman) Empire that the Roman Catholic Church had control of in Church history. Nor of course, (-since SDAs preachers/expositors, are patently, predominantly exegetically deficient, incompetent or outright ignorant), the exegetical fact also presented above that the Heavenly Judgement is said to be going on at the same time that the beast is still doing its damage on Earth. I can somewhat/generously understand why this is not delved into during an Evangelistic presentation, i.e. due to time constraints, but I don’t even see this being brought up, let alone expounded upon in most written/book expositions on this prophecy. Perhaps some have stated this, at least in passing {I highly doubt it], so I then surely have missed it... I have indeed heard nothing on what will be discussed next on Dan 7:12ff. Even their pet reference to Dan 7:13 is, as seen later, actually strictly-chronologically misplaced.
Again this is yet another demonstration that SDAs have been going by a “Plan B” scenario, one which cannot account for all of the exegetical details of a prophecy, but needs to skip around and pick and choose which parts of a prophetic passage it can apply to this/their scenario. But under God’s, currently in (unretractable) effect, Plan A Scenario, all stated details and aspects of a prophecy are, as they most fittingly can be, taking in full, especially exegetical, consideration and application, as it will be seen in the remaining, ending, portions of this prophecy.
Again, though the following statement is “anathema” for SDAs, to the point where they’ll ‘block their ears and take up stones to expel you from their circles’ (cf. Matt 21:42-46), the SDA Church is not, indeed as amply stated in the SOP/by EGW herself (e.g. LDE 59.1-61.1ff), God’s “best”, “only” or “last” attempt or realization of His Remnant Church entity. At the very best, the SDA is/was the initial, “Church Militant”, phase of God Remnant Church movement, and when it failed, as long expected by the Heavenly Intelligence, it has come to be replaced by the also long-expected/planned, superior “Church Triumphant” phase of God’s Remnant Entity. So like the failing Jews of Christ’s Day, SDA cannot have insight into the furthering, Plan A, light into God’s Prophetic Plans (=Dan 12:9-10). They are at best stuck in their coming-up-short understandings, most of which are, as easily demonstrated in this blog’s prophetic expositions, significantly, crucially and/or outright grossly deficient in supporting what they claim the interpretation and application of these prophetic statements/details are...Not to mention the, by now completely defunct takes/understandings on prophecies, such as, most emblematically: Daniel’s Chapter 11.
I frankly don’t know what’s individually and collectively worse about SDAs:
-(2) how they prefer to be stupid...
-or (3) how they are so systemically stupid that they don’t/can’t even know/realize how stupid they are...
::The denominational synergy of all of the 3 above is actually what’s worse...In fact, as it actually respectively is specially manifested by/in: (1) their members; (2) their clergy; and (3) their scholars/professors/teachers. It is the ‘blind (mis-)leading the blind’ (Matt 15:14)...moreover through a circular human-loop at best...
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Judgement/Probation/Fate of Other Kingdoms (=Rev 19)
Daniel 7:12 - "As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them unto an appointed period (of time) and a (point in) time.
Daniel 7:12a - "As for the rest of the beasts,
Daniel 7:12b - their dominion was taken away,
Daniel 7:12c - but an extension of life was granted to them
Daniel 7:12d - unto an appointed period (of time) and a (point in) time.
As for the rest... - The term “rest” [Aramaic shear #7606] is, as in its equivalent Hebrew term [=shear #7605] a “remnant” term, in the sense of referring to ‘what remains; is left behind’ [=shaar #7604]. So in interpreting context here, these ‘beasts which are left behind’ are the kingdoms which are not destroyed and annihilated when the beast=kingdom which had the Little Horn is deposed and destroyed.
In Rev 17, discussed in here, that beast-controlling “Little Horn” is, more extensively, replaced by a Woman that is riding that 4th Beast which then is past even its 6th Beast (Rev 13:11-18), being then in its distinct, furthering & finalizing 7th Beast form, the one which coalesces certain Doctrinal Heresies of the 5th Beast, the present-day Vatican/Holy See, the systemic Capitalistic selfishness of the 6th Beast, the United States and forces the rest of the world’s rulers to join in if they are allowed to be empowered (=10 horns of Rev 17:12-13).
...of the beasts - So then when that “finalizing Beast” is, in a Final Showdown, here engaged and destroyed by God’s Little Lamb power as depicted in Rev 17:14; Rev 18:6ff and Rev 19:19-21, there indeed are then kingdoms which are “left behind”, I.e. which survive this pointed destruction judgement of/on that 7th Beast, and even come to revolt and oppose it (see Rev 17:16-17; Rev 18:9-10; 19:21).
But backtracking a little here first, these ‘remaining beasts’ cannot be the 3 beasts which had preceded the Fourth Beast (Pagan Rome) in Dan 7. These would have to be the Kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. But by the time of merely then beginning of this judgement in 1844, from which the AntiChrist reign’s was being worked on to be ended and destroyed, those prior 3 World Hegemonic Kingdom had long been deposed and destroyed, in fact, successively by each other, and most definitely by Rome as it ascended in it World Hegemony over its ca 600 year rule. Whatever was left of those former Superpowers, was indeed stamped out by the Rule and Empire of Rome. And that is what the prophetic stipulation here in Dan 7 consistently emphasizes (see in Dan 7:7, 19). So these beasts do indeed need to be the ones which will be in existence at the time when this 4th=5th=6th=7th Beast will be judged, thus the rest f the world’s (lesser) kingdoms in the end.
So as indeed clearly detailed in the later expansion of Dan 7 in Revelation, those “judgment-remaining/surviving beasts” are indeed the ones of Rev 17:16-17; Rev 18:9-10; 19:21. They had priorly enjoined the then 7th Beast, having given over their sovereignty to her, -actually as if the General Assembly of the United Nation is then operated as its Security Council is with only a (rotating) very few nations (ca. 20) having an influential say in what is decided at those times, and the final decision depending on literally only a handful of World (Super) Powers (=the “Permanent Five”|“P5”). So in a General Assembly then controlled by a handful of (Western) Powers, and probably with only one, the United States, then having final decision/veto power, to likewise be able to have a seat at the deliberating table, those other world powers would have to fully align themselves with the will of these few/lone Power(s), thus effectively given over their sovereignty to them/it. Surely strong arming, militaristic pressures will have been exerted to whip them into line. But upon seeing those judgements which God will pour out on the leading powers of this Mark of the Beast camp, then kingdom will break apart from that losing cause and even stand against their former overrulers.
their dominion was taken away - Still, as detailed in Rev 19:15, these surviving beasts/kingdoms will also be subdued in this judgement outpouring. Their dominion will be ‘caused to be taken away’, and simply (indirectly) by the global proclamation of the ‘sharp Truth of the “Word of God”’ (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12). That is what comes to eventually also “kill”, i.e. bring to an end the UnBiblical worldview of, the peoples in these, now Statehood-status-less, initial-judgement-surviving other kingdoms. (Rev 19:21). As the parallel Rev 11:15-18 states, God does indeed have well laid plans to eventually make His Zionistic Jerusalem Kingdom be the only ruling power in the Earth then, will all other kingdoms subject to it (=Mic 4:1-8ff).
but an extension of life was granted to them - Indeed, as discussed above, these other kingdoms will be, unlike the Mark of the Beast ring-leading powers, granted an extension of life...manifestly so that they can have a chance to learn righteousness without the (militaristic or economic) strong-arming powers then around to prevent them from choosing to do so. God will in effect here, remove the “entity of perdition” (2 Thess 2:3; Rev 17:8, 11; cf. John 17:12; Matt 26:24|Mar 14:21; Matt 18:7) that it had crafted/allowed here (cf. Isa 45:7; Rom 9:22) in order to influentially accelerate this oppositional Free Will choices to manifest and develop themselves (John 13:26-30). For the sake of the righteous, even for the sake of the well being of the rest of His Universe, God had to see that such rebelliousness was manifested and developed as fast as possible. Hence, towards this beneficial ends, it had allowed for these Satan-coopted perdition agents to be present and empowered. Really, as with His righteous prophetic plans, these were just open, scripted characters and parts for this Great Controversy which Free Willed people chose to fill. But now, in His Great fairness, God then removes this misleading, hegemonic, agents and now grants these lower/weaker/poorer kingdoms and their people an opportunity to candidly show what they themselves would choose to do if they had no overbearing pressure exerted on them.
unto an appointed period (of time) and a (point in) time - Now this granted probationary time is the one which is incorporated in God’s Plan A Scenario as this involves a Temporal Millennium period of up to 1000 years. This is the “period of time” that is, as discussed next of Rev 20. Earlier at the discussion of the chronological elements in Dan 7:25 (see above), it was discussed in detail the difference between the two Aramaic terms separately mentioned here, namely: zeman [#2166] and iddan [#5732]. Zeman indeed speaks of wider, more general period of time, such as an “epoch/era”. Iddan hones in more on a specific date/day in time. So the zeman era is indeed overall speaking of that (Plan A) Millennial Era, while iddan is referring to the expected future day, when despite this greatest of chances to fully repent of their unGodly ways, these peoples/nations will again choose to rebel against the will of God. This is spoken of in Rev 20:7-8ff as their revived Gog & Magog assault on God’s Jerusalem Kingdom.
Like Adam and Eve in the very beginning who had no valid reason to turn away from God and easily heed the deceiving voice of Satan (Gen 3), these people now in the very end, will, upon the transpiring of that Righteousness Millennium, have no valid reason to heed the lying voice of the purposefully released Satan and choose to go back to those prior unGodly ways. So they will have thus candidly demonstrated that they are beyond redemption. So hence now will be implemented their prior commuted day of utter destruction like their Mark of the Beast ringleader powers before.
Presenting of “One Like Unto A Son Of Man” (=Rev 20)
Daniel 7:13 - "I came to be looking in the night visions, And (lo and) behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man came to be coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.
Daniel 7:13a - "I kept looking in the night visions,
Daniel 7:13b - And (lo and) behold, with the clouds of heaven
Daniel 7:13c - One like a Son of Man came to be coming,
Daniel 7:13d - And He came up to the Ancient of Days
Daniel 7:13e - And was presented before Him.
I came to be looking - While rendering this common expression of Daniel, (especially in this vision experience - i.e. at Dan 7:4,6-7,9,11,13,21), as: “I kept looking” seems to make perfect sense in itself, the expression here is actually more passive, than that seemingly active rendering. In other words, it actually was not Daniel who was “actively”, and ‘logically’ (=a would be: Heb./Ara. Imperfect/Prefix conjugation) making himself to “keep on looking” into the vision, but rather it was God’s Spirit which was ‘suddenly’/‘accidentally’, almost ‘out of the blue’ and not out of the ‘logical consequence of some (prior) thing’, (=the actually used: Heb./Ara. Perfect/Suffix conjugation), and forcefully, -thus making Daniel a passive subject here, bring these new/added, dream-furthering/continuing ‘visions’ to the mind of Daniel.
So Daniel only ‘kept on looking’ because it was actually God’s Spirit which was continuing to bring up new visionary scenes to his mind. So he had no choice but to ‘keep on looking’, as he, here “suddenly” “came to be looking” at something new in this continued vision.
Night vision - So there are 3 seemingly, (to the English mind) exactly synonymous expressions in the Hebrew/Aramaic to refer to what is glibly commonly jointly understood as a ‘vision’ in English. There is:
* hizayon [#2384] seems to be the technical term for a “vision of the night”
but as discussed in here, there is a distinct way in which God’s Spirit of Prophecy makes use of these three revelatory means, to reflect the pointed/intended purpose/scope of the prophetic revelation. Namely:
-a dream comes to, partially or entirely, involve the recollection/remembrance of elements of already transpired or presently developing events. So these “thoughts”/“knowledge” are already in the mind of the prophetic revelation’s receiver however God makes special use of these present, referential, elements to craft the prophetic message/revelation. And he may even inject new/added elements to complete the revelation. The whole point here is that God does not waste added Divine Energy to reveal what is actually already available to be made use of in the prophet’s/person’s mind
-for a vision however, God has to bring to the prophet’s/person’s mind entirely new elements as this person has not yet cognitively encountered or come to know of such details. The vision therefore is pointedly used to speak of future, priorly unknown/unforseen details and events.
-an appearance is (more vivid) distinct segment/scene of a larger revelation (usually a “vision”). So it can be understood that a mareh|marah are the scenic building blocks of/for a larger revelation/vision. So when an “appearance” is cited, the automatic question that needs to be figured out is ‘from which revelation/“vision” is it from’. (e.g. Dan 8:16, 26-27 = Dan 9:23 = Dan 10:1).
So a mareh|marah is actually a visionary revelation in itself, but it is a component part of a larger visionary revelation, one which serves to help better understand that larger revelation. Or even, with each such visionary “appearances” being the “component parts” of the larger prophetic visionary function/office/experiences (e.g. Num 12:6; Ezek 1:1).
-So, generally speaking a dream involves past/present events, while a vision foreplans future developments and events. These two types of prophetic revelation can actually be mixed together, i.e. for revelations which start, or explain, or deal with, the past or present, but also extend into revealing God’s future prophetic plans. This “mixture” is actually tangibly manifested in a “vision of the night” as it is a “vision” which is in the couching context of when a “dream” normatively occurs. As stipulated in this verse, the vision of Daniel here in Dan 7 is this type of “vision of the night”/“night vision” (see also at Dan 7:2, 7), as it indeed is a revelation that was both a ‘“dream” and/with a “vision”’ (=Dan 7:1; cf. Dan 1:17). And a vision can also instead be a fully-awake experience (Dan 8:1-3ff; cf. 10:7, 8) rather than occurring while the receiver is asleep.
So revelations which crucially involve past or present events/states of affairs, -even merely as a foundational basis for subsequent interpretations and understandings, are typically given as dreams. While revelations which will focus on entirely new, future events are given as vision. Thus, by having, like the prior revelation of Daniel 2, started in the context of the then presently empowered Babylonian Empire (see Dan 2:36-38; 7:4), However the revelations of Daniel 8 and Dan 10-12 deal entirely with forthcoming events and developments, and so are given as visionary experiences. (Dan 8:1-3; 10:7, 8)
So here, Daniel has been having a dream+vision revelation, (and during his regular nighttime sleeping), and it indeed is a revelation which begins by depicting the then standing & world ruling Babylonian Empire.
And (lo and) behold - This is the distinct “aru” [#431] expression in the underlying Aramaic. This interjection was discussed and explained in detailed back at Dan 7:2. It indeed is used to ‘emphatically mark the striking shifting to a new, unforeseen/unexpected scene in the prophetic vision.’ Here, unlike for its prior occurrences in Dan 7:2, 5, 6, 7), it is being more starkly/fully rendered as “(lo and) behold” in other to highlight its pointed meaning.
So this next scene that Daniel is about to be make to look at by God in this ongoing vision is indeed a striking, as in new/unexpected/unforeseen depiction. The shift here also indicates that the scene is indeed changing theater, i.e. here from the judgement on the beast events going on on Earth (Dan 7:12) and this scene taking place in the Heavenly realm: the presentation to the Father of “one like unto a Son of Man”.
with the clouds of heaven - As seen in depiction for Hebrew prepositions in IBHS p. 191, there are too very close, quasi-synonymous, ways in which the notion of “with” is expression in the Hebrew/(Aramaic). There is the ‘itt- preposition (=IBHS p.195) and there is the ‘imm- preposition (=IBHS pp.219-220). However there is a distinguishing notion between the two. ‘itt- is actually used to speak of an “alongside” accompaniment. ‘imm- however is used for an additive accompaniment. An “addition” that is needed to assist or complete the entity involved with it. So ‘itt- basically indicates/means: ‘with the [various] enjoining of X’; while ‘imm- basically indicates/means: ‘with the aid/assistance of X’. With ‘itt- the subject is enjoined, while with ‘imm- the subject is complemented.
I would generally illustrate this distinction with the following example:
A) Jill went to the banquet along with [=‘itt-] Larry
B) Jill went to the banquet with [=‘imm-] a taxi
In (A), Larry is actually accompanying Jill to (+into) this banquet. But in (B) the taxi is merely serving to assist Jill to get to the banquet. Unlike (A), in (B), the taxi (driver) is not actually Jill “alongside” companion for this banquet. He is just merely providing what she is lacking/needing to be able to accomplish this task. And in (A) Larry is merely enjoing Jill in going to this event, but she/they could each have gone on their own, by themselves, but they decided to go together, even if Jill (nor Larry) needed the other to get this task done.
So here when Daniel is seeing ‘someone coming “with” [=‘imm-] the clouds’, he is pointedly relating that his individual actually was depending on the transporting capability of these clouds to make this move....and that is because, as seen next, this individual is not an angel, i.e. has wings with which to fly, but is like one that has been born of humans (=a son of mankind), therefore is flesh and blood and needs some supernatural and/or tangible technological assistance to move about in the air, through space.
one like a Son of Man... - Now, who is this “Son of Man”, Well, most straightforwardly, since (1) Jesus constantly referred to Himself as a “Son of Man”, and (2a) with this vision of Daniel actually having post-Incarnation fulfillment, and (2b) Jesus has remained in his Incarnation Human form since, and for eternity (see DA 25.3), indeed depicted as still needing a cloud to be able to move about (e.g. Rev 1:7; 14:14, 16), as was the tangible need at His Ascension (Acts 1:9), so this figure can indeed easily be Him, and indeed, in anti-typological application, it is representative of/fulfilled by Jesus Christ Himself.
In the earlier cited parallel SOP vision given to EGW, (see EW 54-56; discussed in detail in this dedicated post), when Jesus steps unto a flaming cloud which borne Him to the Father in Heaven’s Most Holy Place (=God’s Throne Room), when and where the Dan 7:9-10 judgement was being held, it is indeed a view of what is described here in Dan 7:13....However, this application is depicted under the (Emergency Rescue) Plan B scenario for prophetic fulfillment granted to SDAs as effectively a covenant; but who of course, have failed to see it through.
Under God’s (original) Plan A scenario for His Apocalyptic prophesies, a sequitur reading of the flow of text and the fulfilling developments is easily seen. Namely here, in Dan 7:9-14, as already discussed earlier:
Dan 7:9 - An attempt is made to try to establish a Kingdom of God on this Earth, starting upon the end of the 1260 years in 1798....But the Reformation sputtered (cf. Rev 3:1-6), and the newly formed nation in America of then mainly&predominantly Protestants did not exalt the full will of God, pointedly in regards to the Seventh Day Sabbath. The Millerite Movement was a last effort in these times to try to rally this potential, or even go beyond this and bring about the Second Coming if the results (i.e. sealed people) were completed, but that too came up short&deficient. So those Earthly regnal plans of God were “recalled” for an alternative proceeding now to take place in the Heavenly.
Dan 7:10 - A judgement session in Heaven was set up to determine who from this Earth, pointedly among profession Christians, would qualify as the founding constituents (=Rev 7:4-8) for this (temporal) Kingdom of God.
This Investigation/Judgement to achieve this 144,000 number has been going on since 1844, with of course new cases constantly being opened as new generations and individuals have come and gone.
Dan 7:11a - Meanwhile the blasphemous and slanderous pronouncement of the Little Horn AntiChrist have continued to still be heard as the daughter of this Babylon, the United States of America, has been setting up an image to this First Beast through Religiously, even Politically, the maintaining of various Doctrinal and Prophetic Heresies by the vast majority of the Protestant Church, including desires to merge Church and State to enforce unBiblical views; and even amplified/furthered, namely Socio-Economically and Cultural with the Capitalistic mindset and sinful society globally-championed by America, all under an ever-present threat of many times guisely exercised, military-enforcement for those who do not comply (=Rev 13:11-18).
Dan 7:11b - God’s judgement of this fully-realized Endtime Babylon are due to be poured out (=Rev 17; 18; 19)...Dan 7:12 - but with other subservient nations/kingdoms being post-poningly spared similar fates, and it is actually then, under God’s Plan A fulfillments, that: Dan 7:13 “one like unto a Son of Man” is presented before the Father to Dan 7:14 be given this (temporal/Earth-established) Kingdom.
So from this orderly development, it can be seen that what is described in Dan 7:13 does indeed correspond with the vision about the Millennium of Rev 20. As discussed in detail in this dedicated post, this understanding of a temporal “Plan A” Millennial period is indeed in best harmony (textually, exegetically and Spiritually) with what the Bible has said on this topic/Era. (See Isaiah 24; Jer 4:19-23-29; Rev 20) So then, typologically again, instead of an effectuated Second Coming then, at best a Typological One transpires, and then that “Son of Man” is not seen glorious appearing on this Earth, but instead is taken to meet with the Father to assess and implement this temporal Kingdom’s, and its Millennial rule, plans.
So this is indeed where things are heading towards in the present, “Plan A”, fulfillments for Dan 7:13=Rev 20....And then, with the expression “son of Man” also being applied to other people than Jesus Christ, namely, pertinently enough, the priest-prophet Ezekiel =91 times throughout his book, and also to the statesman-prophet Daniel (Dan 8:17), it is Biblically seen that someone other than Jesus Christ can, albeit typologically, fulfill this pivotal prophetic role.
Eschatological “one like a Son of Man” - Variously throughout this blog (see e.g. here; here; here; here; here), it has been brought up that this “one like unto a son of man” prophetic persona is indeed also (typologically) realized by someone other than Jesus Christ. The Biblical/Prophetic/SOP-corroborated fact is also made that the Heavenly Intelligence has probably done this by literally/tangibly “infiltrating” the human race through the natural, (i.e. normative conception, birth, life) of an incarnated heavenly being, namely an angel. As angel have no “flesh & bone” bodily form, it actually would only have been the “Spirit/Psyche” of that angel which would have had to be “incarnated”, (during the gestation period), into a normatively-existing human being.
It has also been mused that, given the patent (i.e. 91 times) appellations to the priest-prophet Ezekiel as “son of man”, as if to subtlely point out that his existence/being and calling was not normative, was actually the OT application of this actually pivotal prophetic “one like a son of man” factor. As cited earlier, the prophet Daniel was once (in Dan 8:17) also referred to as a “son of man”...Manifestly that was/would be to similarly, but merely “cosmetically” so, emphasize to Daniel that, although he was a (normative) man, i.e. human being, his virtually flawless living and devotion to God was indeed distinguishing among all other men, and had indeed caught the “highly esteeming” attention of Heaven (see e.g. Dan 9:23; 10:11, 19).
This humanly-redundant “son of man” appellation, [“humanly-redundant” because it does literally refer to ‘a descendant of man/humans’ (Heb 2:6)], is to draw the attention that the person being so referred to is ‘not a normal man’, i.e. ‘(constitutionally) is not (fully) like a normative human being’ or, when used merely “cosmetically”, i.e. for Daniel’s case, that: ‘this human being does not behave like a human being normally/normatively would/does’.
Now, the working Theological Thesis/Theory is indeed that Ezekiel himself was the realization by the Heavenly Intelligence of an Incarnated Angel. This was not whimsically done, but it was done because of how crucial and pivotal this ministry of Ezekiel was to the redemptive plans of God. A contemporary of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, had a similar crucial prophetic mission, but his mission had failed to bring about the saving repentance of Judah, and so the Exile to Babylon had come. Ezekiel’s calling was to try to avert further damage to Judah (e.g. the complete destruction of the city and its Temple)...and if that failed, as it indeed did, God then reveal to/through Ezekiel the future Messianic Plans He had for Judah and all of Israel. But Ezekiel’s Temple & (Full) Nation -restoring message was actually in the hope to best prepare Israel for the subsequent advent of Jesus Christ the Messiah. If they had heeded Ezekiel’s message and implemented His Messianic-preparation reforms, Judah/Israel would indeed have been best prepared for a transition to an also temporally-Triumphal Advent of the Promised Messiah.
So it is as if this last, stop-gap, message and revelation given to/through Ezekiel were so important that God could only entrust it to a being which had been “injected” with the proper basis of a Spirit to be able to see this crucial commission through. God was thus also in effect ‘putting all of His eggs in this one basket’, which came to balance the Great Controversy “fairness” of this Angelic-Incarnation tactic. It was all or nothing for Israel, and also for the best chance for a temporally Triumphant Messianic Advent.
So, again, the WBSC (working-)thesis/theory/insight is that the “son of man” Ezekiel was actually a (from birth) incarnated angel.....And what’s more, it is Biblically viewed that the angel which received this redemption-crucial incarnation-commission was none other, or rather, none lesser, than the Angel Gabriel!!! (=“the angel next in rank to the Son of God” DA 234.2)
Interestingly enough Ezekiel is said, albeit in the apocryphal work: Lives of the Prophets, to have lived until ca. 560 B.C. [=ca. 10 years after his last dated biblical testimony Ezek 29:17 [21]21; when he was then murdered by someone who had not like that his idolatry had been rebuked by Ezekiel. If true, that would then corroborate the WBSC view that the Messenger+Interpreting-Angel that the prophet Daniel became to have interactions with in his visions starting in 551 B.C. (Dan 8:1) and who seemed to be (merely) a “man” to Daniel, and/but was indeed the Angel Gabriel (Dan 8:16; 9:21; 10:10-18ff), who had by then been “released” from his commission as the human-incarnation Ezekiel. In fact, he may then have been appearing to Daniel still as his exact form as Ezekiel, if Daniel had never actually seen/met his partly-contemporary prophet Ezekiel. If they had met and so Daniel would know what Ezekiel looked like, and would then here recognize him, Gabriel would then have taken on a different physical human resemblance.
As for the man-like being that Daniel saw in his vision of Dan 10:5-6, it is also the belief of WBSC, that that too was an incarnation-manifestation entrusted to, and realized by, the Angel Gabriel, but as it referred to a future, “time of the end” incarnation mission of Gabriel, He then had taken on the form/resemblance of that future human...and so when Gabriel appeared to Daniel after this vision (Dan 10:10ff) Daniel did not make the link that it had been Gabriel in that vision he had just had.
That incarnated Incarnated-Angel of Dan 10:5-6 and his message and mission is restated in the vision of Rev 10 (discussed here), which, non-coincidentally at all, is, contextualizingly allusive to the commission and mission of Ezekiel (i.e. Rev 10:9-11=Ezek 3:1-3ff cf. here). The Angel Gabriel is also seen to be “incarnationally” involved in/as the (Sabbatically) Sealing Angel of Rev 7:1-3ff)...a function that was also implicated in Ezekiel’s ministry (Ezek 9). See also about the priestly-ministering (Eschatological 7 Trumpets-initiating) angel of Rev 8:2-6ff in here.
So all of these “one like unto a son of man”/Angel Gabriel mentions in the prophecies of the Bible, all having “time of the end” implications, are indeed similar allusions to the pivotal Incarnation-Mission of the Angel Gabriel. It is as if God only entrusts such crucial, virtually only-one-shot, redemptive messages and mission to the angel next in rank to the Son of God. (Cf. DA 98.4-99.1). This would also shed light about the WBSC understanding that the Revelation’s “Little Lamb” figure is also fulfilled by a human-incarnated Gabriel, and that too proved to be a pivotal role in God’s redemptive prophetic work (e.g. Rev 5:6)
So all this to contextualizedly say that the “one like a Son of Man” in Dan 7:13 is actually an Incarnated Angel Gabriel doing his typical, typological, crucial, reformatory last stop-gap, preparatory work before the various (Doomingly) Final Work is begun and done by the Anti-typological “Son of Man”, Jesus Christ Himself....
So here in/for Dan 7:13, even the Millennium Era of Rev 20, is allowed to also have a typological application, led by this human-incarnated Gabriel. So the “one like a son of man” in Dan 7:13 who is transported by clouds to make his appearance before God is, as substantiated below, actually the angel Gabriel, then in his incarnated human form.
came to be coming - So here, as is the patent operational norm for WBSC in regards to spotting/perceiving what most, if not all, others have missed in the field of Biblical Research, the upon-observations thesis is made in regards to the expression “came to be” here in Dan 7:13. It is the, here, Aramaic hava/havah [#1934] (=Heb. havah [#1933b]).* It most basically means: “(come to) exist”, as in something that suddenly “comes to life”, thus” happens”, “comes to be”. It’s use is to consistently present something that priorly was not seen or occurring, but now suddenly is. And either “(relatively) out of the blue” (indicated by a Perfect/Suffix conjugation) or from the logical/natural consequence of prior things/developments (indicated by a Imperfect/Prefix conjugation) This expression is patently used by Daniel when relating the details and scenes of his visions, including amply here in Daniel 7 (inaccurately rendered by the NASB as: “I kept looking” (e.g. Dan 7:2,4,6,7-9,11,13,19,21,23)), because he does repeatedly “suddenly come to see come into existence/“life”/view a different visionary scene, figure and/or imagery’. It is an expression that is used to introduce a dramatic shift in a “storyline”, presenting some new.
* {There are actually many more occurrences of this expression than what is cited and listed by the Strong’s Concordance as many times it is [detrimentally] deemed to be trite/inconsequential in translation that it is not marked by the Strong’s numbering}
Furthermore WBSC is perceiving, and so “thetically” claiming, that there is a lexical significance in this expression, pointedly by it root letter/composition, being (seemingly) related/cognate in meaning to terms which speak of “disaster” [hovah #1943] and the suddenness of something “falling”/“befalling” (-as in [the Middle East freakishness of) a snowfall (Job 37:6 #1933a). Also terms speaking of sudden “drops” such as in a “chasm”, “calamity”, “destruction”, -figuratively ‘‘fallenness’ (of soul)’ e.g. Psa 52:7; Pro 10:3; Mic 7:3) [=havvah #1942]. So here in the sense of ‘something suddenly befalling (seemingly out of nowhere) and/but with great/binding consequence.’
All this to say that Daniel is here quite evidently trying to indicate that this ‘“coming” of this one like a son of man’ was itself a ‘suddenly existing circumstance” Daniel had already distinctly used the expression “came to be” in regards to the shift to this new scene here, i.e. at the start of Dan 7:13 ([mis-]translated as: “I kept looking” NASB; but which accurately means: “I came to be looking”), with the implication here being that God is continuing to draw Daniel’s attention further into this unfolding vision by ‘suddenly bringing into view/existence’ new scenes/imagery. But now, Daniel is emphasizing that within this transitioned-to “new scene”, the coming of this one like a son of man is itself a sudden-significant happening/development. “He came to be coming” I.e., more protractedly: This “son of man” (suddenly) came to be in this [traveling] action/state of coming [=a participle].
This technically implies that this traveling/coming by this son of man (to the Ancient of Days) was itself a suddenly occurred development. It was not supposed to actually happen. From the paralleling, more in detail, vision on this prophetic development given in the SOP, it was seen (at #59 DS 1.3b-#63 DS 1.3c2), it was upon the failure of the attempted enthroning session at the ending of the 2300 days, when (Protestant) Christians in America being further reformed from their (Mother) Babylonian roots, starting with the Millerite Movement, could then have spearheaded a valid temporal Kingdom of God in this newly established nation of America. But when that failed, to even have an acceptable/Biblical foundation to build upon, that is when the “son of man” was transportingly relocated from that Earth-near throne (back) to the Heavenly Realm in right into the Most Holy Place = Throne Room of God where and when a judgement session was set up and began. This was/is an Investigative Judgement Session to try to determine which of the, by now billions of, professing Christians actually are meeting the judgement passing qualification to be “144,000” members of God’s Church Triumphant which is the Zionistic nucleus for His Temporal Kingdom of God.
So it is upon this initial failure, interruption and postponing of God’s plans that this son of man now “suddenly” has to be transported to a new phase of God’s Final Work, a Judgement Phase where the subjects of His endeavor Kingdom are therein determined and chosen.
The, oddly/ironically enough, quite “comical” thing about humans frustrating God’s plans by their indifference and rebellion to His Will, is that, and even when they then engage in murdering the messengers of this Will that God sends to them, God actually always has an intention, if not already drafted plan, to still Triumph despite this set back (cf. Num 14:20-24), and including making those faithful ones who suffered loss for His Truth and Cause to also (ultimately) Triumph. (cf. Isa 54:15-17) =Rom 8:28!!! For such martyrs, this is the martyr’s (early) resurrection reward. [22]22
So when, in His First/Messianic Advent, it seem to most/all, especially by the leaders of the opposition, the Jews, pointedly in the Jewish Leaders, that Jesus was atrociously failing in His endeavor to bring about the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15), and especially by the seeming sealing of this failure with His death, God was still working to bring about an even greater accomplishment (cf. 15MR 292.2-4)...although this would then require the forging of a new path forward (=the pivotal Rev 4-5 session, discussed in here). Of course this won’t be a favorable development for those who had opposed and prevented the prior plans of God. Only those who will pass the testing of the prior plan will be acceptable constituents and beneficents of God’s new, further endeavor. (=LDE 62.1)
As revealed in EW 149-153 (discussed here), God the Father had actually been wanting to not allow for this redemptive sacrificing of Christ, and just starting all over with the human race, but God the Son insisted and so the Plan of Redemption for (then just) Fallen Man was allowed/enacted....But later, in Gethsemane, Jesus then saw for Himself just why the Father was not willing to go with this (potentially infinitely costly) option (Matt 26:36-46|DA 685-696)...
...Tellingly, and typologically, similar to this, when (all of) Israel rebelled and failed God very early on in the Wilderness (=See Exod 32|PP 315-330), God had, in a first of subsequently two times (other Num 14|PP 388-394), offered to Moses to completely start over by forming a new Israel People with now him. But the humble Moses turned down that serious, wise offer from God....and it ended up costing him his Earthly reward and perhaps almost his Eternal one (Num 20:8-12; cf. Deut 1:37; 3:26)...But the effectively martyred Moses here was forgiven by God and granted a martyr’s reward (Jude 1:9)....
Later Elijah actually technically, through his prayer for God’s judgement (see PK 119.2-120.2), effectively opened/offered himself to be God’s prophet to a Baal-smitten Israel Nation...and later he felt that he had failed to completely/properly/sustainedly represent God when Jezebel sought to avenge her slaughter prophets on him (1 Kgs 19:1-14)....But God understandingly granted this faltered “quasi-volunteer prophet”, while alive, a martyr’s reward. Elijah had virtually sacrificed his “life” for the cause of God....Evidently God then, i.e. before Elijah made himself available to try to lead a Nation Reform, had intentions to just let this idolatrous nation just keep going forward and further into their corruption until they would meet their due consequences. (E.g. -and as it would later be the case with Assyria, some powerful nation attacking/invading them, and God doing nothing to protect and defend them). Indeed even when Elijah had managed to do his Reform, God’s instructions then, -which perhaps may have renewedly been in response then to the intention of Jezebel to continue the rebellious leadership of Israel), was for, (as highlighted here), Elijah to set up the various entities which would still bring about judgement and destruction on this people. (1 Kgs 1:15-18).
So all of these examples show that God is Most Just/Judicious and Wise/Far-Thinking when He judges. He does take into consideration all pertinent circumstances, which significantly in these cases where a martyr’s reward was variously, and quite immediately, awarded, is whether the individual in question had volunteered to do a redemptive task towards wayward/fallen/rebellious People that God Himself wisely did not care to see be done. God took note of this fact if/when what He expected would happen with that prophet, comes to happen, i.e. the stubbornness of the Rebellious People virtually get the better of these prophet and, except in the case of Jesus, cause them to critically falter.
Succinctly said here/then/now, (-but see the fuller expounding on this here), God had, in June 1999, in a “First Vision”, given me this option to just let the wayward keep going on their dead end course and thus just let them hit that prophetic “adamant wall” (=Amos 7:1-9)...But as I myself had not realized how deeply and systemicly entrenched the “Fuller Mark of the Beast” deception was seated in these people, including in/by the SDA Church, I literally “balked” at this “abandonment” offer from God...but now, in retrospect, I can definitely, concretely see, how wise God’s option was...seeing how variously much better for myself, and my literal and figurative “life”, it would have been...But like Moses and Elijah, I thought there was a chance to bring about the required Reform which would allow God to fulfill His (prophetic) promises with/in this present generation of professing believers....
So that generation has no intention to fully conform to God’s Biblical Religious, Cultural and Socio-Economic Will...being variously perfectly satisfied with just “going along” with the Capitalistic=Mark of the Beast delusion of the sinful world....And it goes without saying that clearly none of them want to engage in the temporal, Righteous Works-executing, alternative of God in the NJK Project .... And they indeed surely cannot even begin to see that all along during this time of endeavored ‘True Revival & Reform’ God had been fulfilling his “Final-Plagues preluding, 7 Trumpets “warnings” towards these “Church+World’ apostates...
...So, given this knowing, indifferent, resolute refusal to seek and do God’s will in these crucial and pivotal matters, here is how this will, full-circle here, likely develop...and all in perfect fulfillment of the Dan 7:13-14 = Rev 20&21 prophetic template...As if God Himself did know all along that this is how things would eventually still turn out: The SDA-surpassing, True and New, Triumphant Remnant Church of God, may never be tangibly established...in this generation nor my own lifetime...Let alone its derived furthering/expanding NJK Project... ...but/so do therefore expect a “martyr’s reward” to be likewise awarded in this case, indeed also likewise: an immediate one...and so, (deliberately typologically paraphrasing the expression of Jesus in Matt 24:30; 26:64 -as, {as I just here/now realize}, it has been pertinently involved in another vision of mine in regards to the “sign of the Son of Man”): ‘one like unto a Son of Man, {one who has overcome in Laodicea, and therefore is given that Christ’s “Right Hand”-side throne seating promise (Rev 3:21)), will (firstly) be transported on flaming cloud to the Father, in the Most Holy Place, where then a pertinent judgement session about God’s Temporal Kingdom Plans will be conducted to determine its implementation on Earth sometime in the future in/with a subsequent generation of believers.....And then, when that time will come to execute these plans, will a typological Second Coming be effectuated (=Rev 19:11ff) from/with this “son of man” who indeed has been sharing in Christ’s throne seating, and now temporal ruling (Rev 2:26-29) promises....=The Church Triumphant....
So, as seen in all of these cases, the wicked and rebellious, in that ‘(“Synagogue of Satan”) Church & in the World’ (see #21 DS 1.2f), may jubilantly rejoice and celebrate together about how they (surfacely) have triumphed over the “Two Witnesses” of God which had been [since June 2000] rebuking them (=Rev 11:7-8, 10)...But they thus will only be sealing their fate and further compounding their due judgement/punishment (=Ezek 9 & Rev 11:13-14)...because God indeed has marvelous/supernatural “resurrecting” plans (=Rev 11:11) to aid this Faithful Witness to ‘have the last word’ (=Rev 11:12)!!!...And that is the sure, necessary, establishment of His redemptive temporal Kingdom (=Rev 11:15-18)...which is discussed next:
(Everlasting) [“Eighth”] Kingdom to/of the Saints (=Rev 21)
Daniel 7:14 - "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:18 - 'But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.'
Daniel 7:22 - until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the period of time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
Daniel 7:27 - 'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'
Daniel 7:14a - "And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom,
Daniel 7:14b - That all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him.
Daniel 7:14c - His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away;
Daniel 7:14d - And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:22c - and the period of time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
Daniel 7:18a - 'But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom
Daniel 7:27a - 'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under Daniel 7:27b - the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One;
Daniel 7:27c - His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom,
Daniel 7:18b - and possess the kingdom forever,
Daniel 7:18c - for all ages to come.'
Daniel 7:27d - and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'
These above joint statements about how God intend to finalize the progression of Earth’s (Political) History is quite straightforward. It is indeed parallely, restatingly, represented in more details in Revelation 21...Of course, most Christians believe that this is speaking of Post Millennium Kingdom that God will be establishing on the Earth....and ultimately, i.e. anti-typologically, this certain will be the case...But the pointed language in these statements also do allow for a prior, Millennial Era, temporal establishment of such a Kingdom, through God’s Faithful 144,000, all to give this world its best and final, chance to learn, be and do God’s Righteousness...
As much of these expression are quite straightforward indeed, and as the details of this “Eighth” (=renewing) ‘temporal-hegemonic’ kingdom (=Rev 11:15-18) are discuss variously in other parts of this blog, (e.g. at the endings in: here (Dan 2:34-35, 44-45); here (Dan 11:45); and the Matt 25 post=here), not much is going to be, effectively restated, here... However a couple of further substantiating points made therein will be highlighted:
Dan 7:14c-d; Dan 7:27c
First, do see how it is envisioned that even this temporal kingdom can tangibly indeed not be destroyed within those Daniel 2 endings section]
Dan 7:22c
Earlier in the discussion of Dan 7:12 it was seen and exegetically distinctly shown that God had postponed the destruction of the other nations of the world, other than the Mark of the Beast agenda ring leading powers, and this postponement was for/towards a future “Era” (=Heb. zeman [#2166]) ...Well here, in this “Final” Act of this Dan 7 prophecy Dan 7:22 points out that that (delineatedly) allotted “period of time” had here/now come in this allowed temporal Millennial “Era”!!!
Daniel 7:28 - "At this point the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself."
It’s interesting that even after having been given, -as asked for (Dan 7:15-16), an explanation to this vision...and even upon seeing how this all turns out well for God’s faithful ones (Dan 7:14, 18, 22, 27), Daniel is still greatly ‘sickly “alarmed”’ by the revelation....Perhaps it is the understanding of how great the warring between God and Evil would increasingly become, with great suffering inflicted on God’s Holy Ones, before God will ultimately cause them to Triumph that so ‘shock/shook’ him...
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Epilogue: So then, a perennial question that is patently pose in such discussion is: ‘What is God waiting for to bring about this prophesied end? (i.e. of Dan 7:14, 18, 22, 27). Well most succinctly/summarizingly said: As presented in this post, God is actually waiting for His “Work” to be Done/Finished....and that is His ‘Kingdom proclamation&witnessing’ Work (=Matt 24:14). The type of Kingdom Work expected by Christ is, as discussed in this dedicated post, outlined in comprehensible detail in Matt 25!! This issue is picked up in prophecy in Rev 7. There the end is shown to be postponed by God heeding the observational counsel of the Sealing Angel and holding the “Four Winds”...
So what is this (In-Person-observing = Incarnated) Angel (cf. Gen 18:1-3, 20-21) seeing as the critical hold up?? “The servants of God right in His own Israel (Rev 7:4-8) [i.e. not worldly unbelievers (Rev 7:9ff)] are not (yet) sealed in their foreheads” (Rev 7:3ff; -[with most of them, i.e. ‘11/12 of them’ = the former Northern Tribes-Kingdom spiritually and/or physically being in Babylon] (Rev 18:4)]). These are professing believers in God, who moreover are being deemed by the Heavenly Intelligence as ‘faithful workers’ (i.e.: like also Paul even viewed himself: “bond-servants”/“slaves”)...Well these ‘most faithful ones’ still do not have the seal of God in their forehead, i.e. ‘a Spirit-ual [=Eph 1:13] understanding of Christ and His Gospel, Truth/Teachings & Mandate [=2 Cor 1:21-22] so that, whatever then happens, they will not be moved [=Eph 4:30]’ [=LDE 218.3ff] This is a Sabbatical Sealing, one which goes beyond just the (sole) observance of the Seventh Day as Holy to God (Exod 20:8-11), but one that also incorporates the righteousness (=good right doing) healing [=Mal 4:2 (cf. Mal 4:1-4=Isa 66:23-24); Isa 58; Matt 25:31-46] and restoring [cf. Acts 10:38] Sabbatical rest [=Matt 11:28-30] and lasting (temporal) peace [=Heb 4:1-13] that Jesus also fully [=Isa 42:19-21; Matt 5:17-20] and deliberately/pointedly [e.g. Mar 3:4|Luke 6:9; Mar 2:27-28|Luke 6:5; Luke 13:16] revealed.
This Sabbatical-Law Seal (cf. Isa 8:15-17; [vs. EW 263-266-269-273]) leads the receiver to, -as stipulated in Rev 3:12 to ‘mindfully’ (=“in the forehead”) know & understand, and so act towards/on, the ‘character=glory’ (=“name”) of God; of His Kingdom’s Holy City, and of Jesus’ new ‘all power on Earth’ [=Matt 28: Phil 2:9-11|Heb 1:3-4, 8-9] =Rev 11:15-18.
So in summarizing short, God is waiting for ‘a number of Christian believers’ to be sealed in their minds/volition/understanding about ‘engaging to do God’s Kingdom Will on/in this Earth as it is in Heaven’ (Matt 6:9-10). Then when that work is done and firmly established, God will then allow the Final Events to unravel upon this Earth through allowing human passions to no longer be restrained by the intervention of His Spirit. And so do expect another, and greater “Woe”, 9/11-type event to be effectuated in patent-Divine-sanctioned judgement, but then, don’t expect it to be curtailed, thus unleashing this world’s various worst/unsanctified religio-tempers...
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-For ease of verse referencing/indexing, the following is merely a continued chronological listing of verses in Daniel, but the statements of these verses have already been discussed in the thematic grouping of prophetic details done in the above commenting:
Daniel 7:15 - "As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.
Daniel 7:16 - "I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things:
{Inclusively covered}
Daniel 7:17 - 'These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth.
[Commented above at Dan 7:4]
Daniel 7:18 - 'But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.'
[Commented above at Dan 7:14]
Daniel 7:19 - "Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was being different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet,
[Commented on above at Dan 7:7]
Daniel 7:20 - and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates.
[Commented on above at Dan 7:8]
Daniel 7:21 - "I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them
[Commented on above after Dan 7:9]
Daniel 7:22 - until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.
[Commented on above at Dan 7:14]
Daniel 7:23 - "Thus he said: 'The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.
[Commented on above at Dan 7:7]
Daniel 7:24 - 'As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.
[Commented on above at Dan 7:7, 8]
Daniel 7:25 - 'He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
[Commented on above after Dan 7:9]
Daniel 7:26 - 'But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.
[Commented on above at Dan 7:11]
Daniel 7:27 - 'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'
[Commented on above at Dan 7:14]
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Daniel 8 Prophecy - The Religious Agenda of the AntiChrist Entity
Given the length for the examination of the Daniel 7 Prophecy, see in this separate post for the examination of the Daniel 8 Prophecy...Proper Biblical studies show that, as with Daniel 2, it goes over the same historical sweep/grounds as here in Daniel 7, but then focusing more on the Religious implications and dealings of the World Powers, and so particularly the actions of the (Historical) AntiChrist Entity.
Notes
20. [20] Interestingly enough, we find that the only time that this NT notion of ‘service towards God’ [#2323] is used to speaking a servant [Greek therapon #2324] is in reference to Moses in Heb 3:5, which says that Moses was a faithful servant of God. That statement by Paul is from the OT passage of Num 12:7 which is in the context of God pointing out the uniqueness, and higher/special value of Moses to Him, even compared to other/normative prophets which God did not so speak “face-to-face” (Num 12:6-8). But in that OT passage, God uses the term for a lowly “slave” (Heb. ebed #5650. This is equivalent to the NT term doulos [#1401] which Paul himself, [as well as other apostles/disciples] repeated uses to characterize his ministering standing/function before God (inaccurately rendered as: “bond-servant(s)” in the NASB: Rom 1:1; Tit 1:1; Phil 1:1; [2 Pet 1:1; Jam 1:1; Jude 1:1; Rev 1:1]). So Paul is actually promoting Moses in servitude ranks in Heb 3:5 by using this higher term of an “attendant/minister” instead of “slave”. Could this be because, when God was speaking about Moses then in the OT, though Moses was indeed most special towards and for Him, it was still before God had manifestly had decided to give Moses the special reward of being very soon after his death, resurrected and ascended to Heaven. And perhaps Moses then served as God’s Counselor in regards to His future dealing with the Nation of Israel on Earth.
So, by the time of the NT, Paul would, at the very least, have known, as was the strong Jewish tradition about “the Assumption of Moses” (Jude 1:9), and so, he would have now been seeing it as most worthy to now refer to Moses by His resurrection-confirmed higher servitude status towards God: namely this ‘angels-like, essential-service attendant/minister’.
21. [21] When Ezekiel would have been at least ca. 53-63 years old depending on when exactly he had begun to be a priest which, as discussed in here, had been lowered (by David) to 20 years old. See in here at the commentary at Ezekiel 1:1, 2 for the likeliest meaning of the “thirtieth year” mention in Ezek 1:1.
22. [22] Fittingly enough, if the prophet Ezekiel’s life came to an end at the hands of a murderer trying to silence the rebuke being borne to him by Ezekiel, then Ezekiel himself was also a martyr...and therefore received that martyr’s reward, which would fittingly explain how this, WBSC-believed to be, actually incarnated Angel Gabriel would soon later reappear to the prophet Daniel...though God would surely have brought this Incarnated-Gabriel back to life even if he had not been killed as a martyr (Btw, for those to whom this is concerning: if the Human-Incarnated God the Son could actually/truly die, so can a human-incarnated angel).
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