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# The Book of Daniel - Number Eighteen

The Hour

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

December 13, 2023

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Key Takeaways

- Daniel 3 is interpreted as a prophetic representation of the Sunday law in the United States.
- The whore of Tyre in Isaiah 23 is linked to the whore of Babylon in Revelation 17.
- Historically, the whore of Babylon was recognized as the Roman Catholic Church, but modern interpretations have obscured this understanding.
- The United States, as the earth beast of Revelation 13, began its prophetic role in 1798 after the Papacy received its deadly wound.
- The seventy-year reign of literal Babylon symbolizes the prophetic seventy years of U.S. history leading up to the Sunday law.
- Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image dedication in Daniel 3 is a prophetic type of the enforcement of the mark of the beast.
- The “hour” in Daniel 3 represents the arrival of the Sunday law and religious persecution for those who refuse to comply.

Inspiration is clear that chapter three of Daniel, represents the Sunday law in the United States. In Isaiah chapter twenty-three, the whore of Tyre, who commits fornication with the kings of the earth, is the whore of Revelation that commits fornication with the kings of the earth. In Revelation seventeen, that whore has Babylon the Great written on her forehead.

> And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Revelation 17:4, 5.

Before 1950, English dictionaries correctly identified the woman represented in these two verses, as the Roman Catholic church. The whole world knew after the Dark Ages of Catholic persecutions that were accomplished from 538 through 1798; that the Roman church was the whore who commits fornication with the kings of the earth. The Declaration of Independence was designed as a rejection of the rule of Catholicism and also the rule of the earthly kings that had formed unholy relationships with the whore. Isaiah chapter twenty-three, identifies that the whore would be forgotten. You would never find the definition of the whore of Revelation seventeen as the Catholic church in any modern search engines, for God’s Word never fails, and God’s Word states that she would be forgotten.

> And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing. Isaiah 23:15–18.

God’s Word never fails, and since 1798, the whore has been forgotten, but in the last days she will be remembered. She is remembered when God’s seventh-day Sabbath is attacked, and it is the one commandment of the Ten Commandments, that was always to be remembered. She is remembered when she takes her harp, travels around the city and makes sweet melodies and many songs. She sings her songs at the end of seventy years, that are the days of one king. A king, according to Daniel chapter two, is a kingdom.

> And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. Daniel 2:38.

A “head,” or a “king” are both symbols of a kingdom. The kingdom that is represented by the “days of one king,” is the United States. The United States began its prophetic rule as the earth beast when the deadly wound was delivered to the whore of Babylon in 1798. It continues as the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy until the Sunday law. The literal kingdom of Bible prophecy that actually ruled for seventy years was Babylon.

> Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. Jeremiah 25:9–12.

Literal Babylon ruled for seventy years, typifying the kingdom in the last days which will reign for seventy symbolic years. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, attacked Judah three times. The first attack was against Jehoiakim, and the seventy years of Jeremiah’s prophecy then began. It ended with the death of Belshazzar, when God punished “the king of Babylon,” as he had punished king Jehoiakim in the beginning of the seventy years. The prophetic kingdom that is represented as “days of one king” (one kingdom) as “seventy years” was Babylon, and the kingdom of Bible prophecy that rules for the seventy symbolic years during the time when the whore of Tyre is forgotten, is the earth beast of Revelation thirteen. The transition from the fifth to sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy in 1798, is part of the truth that John is illustrating in Revelation chapter thirteen.

> And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. . . . And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. Revelation 13:1, 11.

The seashore which John stood upon in Revelation chapter thirteen, represents 1798.

> “At the time when the Papacy, robbed of its strength, was forced to desist from persecution, John beheld a new power coming up to echo the dragon’s voice, and carry forward the same cruel and blasphemous work. This power, the last that is to wage war against the church and the law of God, is represented by a beast with lamblike horns. The beasts preceding it had risen from the sea; but this came up out of the earth, representing the peaceful rise of the nation which it symbolized—the United States.” Signs of the Times, February 8, 1910.

The beast from the sea was divided by the sand of the sea from the beast of the earth. The fifth kingdom of Bible prophecy in 1798 (the seashore), represented past history, and the sixth kingdom was future history. The Millerites did not see this truth. William Miller was given insight into the dragon power of paganism and its relationship with the following kingdom represented as the beast of Catholicism. Revelation thirteen, opens up the story of the false prophet, that is the third of the three powers which lead the world to Armageddon. The story begins on the seashore of 1798.

The United States begins its history with the symbolism of the lamb, but ends its history speaking as a dragon. The history of the symbolic seventy years of the reign of the earth beast is represented in one verse, in chapter thirteen of Revelation, for the verse identifies both the beginning and ending of the earth beast in the same sentence.

> And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. Revelation 13:11.

When the United States speaks as a dragon, it passes the Sunday law. Before it accomplishes the enforcement of Sunday worship the apostate churches of Protestantism will come together and take political control of the apostate government, as they form the image of the beast. When inspiration identifies (and it does so repeatedly), that Nebuchadnezzar’s dedication service of the golden image represents the Sunday law, it is marking the end of the seventy symbolic years of the earth beast. Daniel chapters one through three, represent the three angels’ messages of Revelation chapter fourteen. The third angel becomes a living truth at the Sunday law.

Prophetically, chapters one through three in the book of Daniel, represent the seventy symbolic years of the earth beast of Revelation thirteen. The dietary test represented in chapter one, and the symbolism of Jehoiakim, identify that chapter one, prophetically begins at the empowerment of the first angel, either on August 11, 1840, or on September 11, 2001, in the history of the third angel.

Babylon is the nation that ruled for seventy years, and those years, represents the history of the United States. Babylon’s seventy years did not conclude until well after Nebuchadnezzar’s dedication of the golden image, but prophetically the seventy symbolic years that Isaiah employs in chapter twenty-three, ends in chapter three of Daniel. When Nebuchadnezzar’s orchestra plays the music for the dedication ceremony, the mark of the beast is enforced, and at that time the whore of Tyre and of Babylon begins to sing her songs to the kings of the earth, while apostate Israel bows and dances.

> Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Daniel 3:1–7.

At that “time,” or in that same “hour,” which is the Sunday law in the United States, anyone who refuses to worship the golden image will “be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” The only book in the Old Testament that contains the word translated as “hour,” is the book of Daniel. The word “hour” in chapter three, represents the arrival of the mark of the beast. The word “hour” also represents the message of the first angel in chapter four, for it there symbolizes the warning to Nebuchadnezzar of the coming “hour” of God’s judgment.

> Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonied for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof, trouble thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies. Daniel 4:19.

Daniel presented the warning to Nebuchadnezzar of his coming hour of God’s judgment, that Nebuchadnezzar later rejected. The “hour” in chapter four, when used again in the chapter, then represents the “hour” that the judgment arrived. In Millerite history the first “hour” in chapter four, would represent the arrival of the first angel in 1798. That message was fulfilled when the investigative judgment began on October 22, 1844. The “hour” in chapter four, is first a symbol of a message of coming judgment and then it is employed as the symbol that the judgment has arrived. The first use of the word “hour” represents 1798, and the arrival of the first angel, and the second use represents October 22, 1844, and the arrival of the third angel.

> The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. Daniel 4:33.

The “hour” in chapter four is therefore a symbol of both 1798 and 1844, which are the ending points for the two curses of “seven times,” against the northern (beginning in 723 BC) and southern (beginning in 677 BC) kingdoms of Israel. Those two curses, representing twenty-five hundred and twenty years of scattering and slavery, represent the execution of God’s first and last indignation against His apostate people. They both started with God’s judgment, and their respective endings represent the warning message of God’s approaching investigative judgment, or the arrival of the investigative judgment. Both of the judgments represented by the ending of the two judgments of “seven times” are represented by the word “hour,” in Daniel chapter four.

In Millerite history the “hour” represents the beginning of the movement at the time of the end in 1798, when the first angel arrived, and the second “hour” in chapter four represents the end of the movement, when the third angel arrived on October 22, 1844. The Millerite movement of the first angel is repeated in the movement of the third angel, so the two usages of “hour” in chapter four, also mark the time of the end in 1989, and also the soon-coming Sunday law. The Millerite movement of the first angel announced the opening of the investigative judgment, and the movement of the third angel announces the opening of God’s executive judgment, which is progressive, beginning at the Sunday law, and continuing and escalating until the Second Coming of Christ.

We will continue our study of Daniel chapter three, and conclude our consideration of the word “hour” in the next article.

> Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:16–28.

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