The Book of Daniel - Number One-Hundred and Sixty-Nine

Verse ten, of chapter eleven of Daniel, pulls together the internal and external message with the word “fortress.” The connection that it makes with Isaiah’s sixty-five year prophecy, identifies the “fortress” of the external prophecy as Russia, and the internal “fortress” of the temple which Christ raises during the same history. The external fortress, which is in verse thirty-one is identified as the “sanctuary of strength,” represents an earthly king or kingdom. The internal fortress, or the internal sanctuary of strength, is the temple which the Messenger of the Covenant raises in forty-six years.

In the Most Holy Place of that temple (the citadel), God is seated in heavenly places.

In the book of Daniel two Hebrew words are both translated as “sanctuary.” One is “miqdash,” and the other is “qodesh.” “Miqdash” can represent a pagan sanctuary, or God’s sanctuary, or even a stronghold. “Qodesh,” is only used to represent God’s sanctuary in the Bible. The “sanctuary” (miqdash) of strength (fortress), in verse thirty-one of Daniel chapter eleven, is translated as the “sanctuary of strength”, and the Hebrew word translated as sanctuary there is “miqdash” which represents the City of Rome, which is the symbol of Roman strength in the history of both pagan and papal Rome. Daniel employed the two Hebrew words in a very careful manner. In the verses which are the central pillar of Adventism, we find the word “sanctuary”.

The Hebrew word translated as “the sanctuary,” in both verses is “qodesh,” and is only used to represent God’s sanctuary. In verse eleven, identifying pagan Rome, and specifically the Pantheon temple in the City of Rome, we find the word “sanctuary”, but in that verse it is the Hebrew word “miqdash.”

The “sanctuary of strength” in verse thirty-one of Daniel eleven is the Hebrew word “miqdash,” and it appears in connection with the Hebrew word that is translated as “fortress” in verses seven and ten in chapter eleven. In verse seven the king of the south went right into the city of Rome and took the king of the north captive, for he entered into his fortress, but in verse ten, the king of the north only goes up “to” the “fortress,” for he stopped at the borderline of his kingdom and Egypt. It is at the borderline of Raphia that the next verse was to address. The “sanctuary of strength” in verse thirty-one is the “miqdash,” of the “fortress”.

The battle of the borderline in Raphia typifies the battle of the borderline in the Ukraine. That prophetic history is recognized by understanding that the “head” is the kingdom or the king, it is the fortress of his strength, but the prophecy is addressing an internal and an external truth. The “sanctuary of strength” for the external line is represented by the “miqdash” sanctuary, and the sanctuary of strength for the internal line is represented by the “qodesh” sanctuary.

1844 to 1863 represents a line of prophetic history which illustrates the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. The twenty-five hundred and twenty years of scattering against the northern kingdom ended in 1798, and the same twenty-five hundred and twenty year line against the southern kingdom ended in 1844. Those two lines represent the lower nature of mankind and the higher nature of mankind. The lower nature, which is represented by the northern kingdom, is the body, and the higher nature is the head. The head is the capital of the kingdom, and it is the king. For this illustration Christ chose Judah, the southern kingdom, to place His name, and the capital city is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is where the true sanctuary of strength is located, and in that sanctuary there is a throne room for the king, who is the head.

The “seven times” of Leviticus twenty-six was the final sealing truth in 1856, that was intended to empower an ensign to finish the work. From 1844 to 1863, Christ intended to combine His Divinity with humanity for eternity, but humanity rebelled.

He was unable to transform man’s lower nature at that time, for that takes place at His second coming. He will then transform man’s higher nature into His image, by combining mankind’s head, with Divinity’s head. The head was the capital of the kingdom. The head was the king, and when Christ performs the transformation of Divinity uniting with humanity, He combines the head of both humanity and Divinity in the sanctuary at Jerusalem in the Most Holy Place, where Christ is seated with His Father.

Christ promises that those (Laodiceans), who overcome as He overcame (and become Philadelphians), will be seated with Him, in the heavenly places.

The joining of Ezekiel’s two sticks (humanity with Divinity) is accomplished in God’s sanctuary of strength (qodesh), at the very time that the fortress of strength (miqdash) is identified as the prophetic key that connects both the internal and external lines of the prophecy which Gabriel came to make Daniel understand concerning what was to befall God’s people during the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. Christ desired to accomplish this work in the Millerite history, but the work was thwarted by the rebellion of 1863, but the history of 1844 to 1863 still remains as a line which illustrates that attempted work.

Verse ten of Daniel chapter eleven, contains the key to understanding the internal and external message of verses eleven through fifteen, which arrived into our prophetic history in 2014. Verse ten identifies 1989, which is the time of the end in the reform movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, but it also contains the key that allows 2014 to be recognized as a waymark in the history of the sealing.

On October 22, 1844, the Messenger of the Covenant suddenly came to the temple He had erected. That waymark typifies September 11, 2001 when the third angel arrived again, and the seventh trumpet again began to sound. Then the history of 1840 to 1844 was also to be repeated, because the angel that descended on August 11, 1840 was no less a personage than Jesus Christ, and His work was to lighten the earth with His glory.

1840 to 1844 also represents from September 11, 2001 to the soon coming Sunday law, as does 1844 to 1863, represents September 11, 2001 to the soon coming Sunday law. Sister White aligns the history of 1844 with the history of the cross, and the cross represents a division of two histories of three and a half years, which both align with one another. The cross establishes that the preceding history beginning in 1840 and ending in 1844, and the following history unto 1863 are two parallel histories, which both represent the sealing period.

The first line from 1840 to 1844 represents the victory of Philadelphian Adventists, the other line from 1844 to 1863 represents the failure of Laodicean Adventists. Both classes are represented in Daniel chapter ten, for Daniel, representing the victorious wise virgins during the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, saw the vision, but those who were with him fled from the vision.

In Daniel chapter seven, after Daniel had seen the vision of the beasts of prey, Gabriel came to explain the vision.

In Daniel chapter eight, after Daniel had seen the vision of the sanctuary beasts, Gabriel came to explain the vision.

In Daniel chapter nine, after Daniel had understanding of the number of years identified by Jeremiah and represented in the writings of Moses as both a curse and God’s oath, Gabriel came to explain the vision.

Therefore, upon three witnesses, all from the book of Daniel, when Gabriel says to Daniel in chapter ten, that he is come to make Daniel understand what shall befall God’s people in the last days, Gabriel is interpreting the feminine “marah,” causative vision that Daniel saw and the other class fled from.

The vision Daniel had seen that produced a separation of believers, was the vision of Christ’s appearance, the vision of the twenty-three hundred years, but it was the feminine expression of that vision. It was the understanding of the vision of Christ’s sudden appearance as the Messenger of the Covenant that changed Daniel (and those represented by Daniel), into the image of Christ. That which “befalls God’s people in the latter days” is represented by the history of the Millerites from 1840 to 1844, and also by the Millerites from 1844 to 1863. One class flees from the vision in rebellion, and the other class follows Christ by faith into the Most Holy Place, to be seated with Him in heavenly places.

Yet when Gabriel interprets the vision where God’s last-day people are changed into the image of Christ, he sets forth the external history of the world. Daniel’s vision of Christ was interpreted by Gabriel as the external history of the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. When the history of September 11, 2001, in Gabriel’s interpretation, is reached, the history that is emphasized as preceding the Sunday law of verse sixteen, is only recognized with the key of understanding represented as the “fortress” in verse ten. On September 11, 2001 the effect of every vision began to unfold as wheels within wheels.

Of all the prophetic wheels that are spinning within other prophetic wheels in that history, there is one wheel that inspiration has informed the students of prophecy of the last days is the wheel by which their eternal destiny will be decided. Line upon line, that wheel must also be the vision which Daniel saw that changed him into the image of Christ, for that is the vision identifying what befalls God’s people in the last days.

The test that is identified as the image of the beast test is twofold. It is the test that demands that the student of prophecy recognize the development of the image of the beast, which is the combination of church and state in the United States in advance of the Sunday law. It is also the test that produces either the image of the beast or the image of Christ within those represented by Daniel or those who fled. The separation is based upon whether those virgins “see this great vision,” as did Daniel, or whether they flee from the vision. The key to seeing the great vision is represented by the word “fortress.”

We will continue this study in the next article.