The Book of Daniel – Number Twenty

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Daniel and the Revelation: Unveiling the Prophetic Tapestry of Kingdoms’ Rise and Fall

 

Key Takeaways

• Introduction
  • Sister White emphasizes the importance of understanding prophetic lessons through the rise and fall of kingdoms.
  • The fall of Babylon is cited as an example of the transient nature of worldly glory.
• The Fall of Babylon
  • Babylon fell twice, once represented by Nimrod’s Babel in Genesis and later in Daniel chapter five.
  • The papacy’s rise to power in 538 AD and its fall in 1798 is another representation of Babylon’s fall.
  • In Daniel 11:45, the papacy (king of the north) comes to its end with no help, coinciding with the closing of human probation.
• The Message of the Second Angel
  • The second angel’s message in Revelation 14:8 declares Babylon fallen twice.
  • The repetition of Babylon’s fall in the second angel’s message signifies the importance of identifying the combined messages of the second angel and the Midnight Cry.
  • Understanding the fall of Babylon requires considering all instances of Babylon’s fall in prophecy, establishing the message of its final fall.
• Prophetic Methodology and Latter Rain
  • The doubling of Babylon’s fall in the second angel’s message reflects the prophetic methodology known as the latter rain.
  • The latter rain is the application of bringing various lines of prophecy together “line upon line” to establish a message.
  • The correct methodology is essential to identify the correct prophetic message and experience.
• Different Approaches to Bible Study
  • Many people trust others’ opinions about what the Bible teaches instead of studying it themselves.
  • The Bible encourages personal study and understanding of its methodology to rightly divide the word of truth.
  • Church leaders should exhort and guard against false doctrines but must not replace individual study.
• Isaiah Chapter 27
  • Isaiah 27 addresses the “ensign” that calls God’s children out of Babylon at the Sunday law.
  • The chapter begins and ends with the Sunday law, representing the progressive punishment of the dragon, beast, and false prophet.
  • The song of the vineyard is sung to God’s people, symbolizing the transition from a former covenant people to a new covenant with spiritual Israel.
• The Song of the Lord’s Vineyard
  • Jesus used the song of God’s vineyard in Matthew 21, showing how the vineyard represents a transition between covenant peoples.
  • The song points to the work of revival, symbolized by Josiah and the discovery of the “seven times.”
  • The day of the Sunday law in Isaiah 27 represents the history leading to the Sunday law, including the first and second messages.
• The Third Message and the Redeemed
  • The third message, the Sunday law, encompasses the first and second messages.
  • Revelation 14:1-5 describes the redeemed who sing a new song before the throne, representing those not defiled by false teachings.

 

Sister White often identifies that the prophetic lessons that are needed to be understood are portrayed with the rise and fall of kingdoms.

“From the rise and fall of nations as made plain in the books of Daniel and the Revelation, we need to learn how worthless is mere outward and worldly glory. Babylon, with all its power and magnificence, the like of which our world has never since beheld,—power and magnificence which to the people of that day seemed so stable and enduring,—how completely has it passed away! As ‘the flower of the grass,’ it has perished. James 1:10. So perished the Medo-Persian kingdom, and the kingdoms of Grecia and Rome. And so perishes all that has not God for its foundation. Only that which is bound up with His purpose, and expresses His character, can endure. His principles are the only steadfast things our world knows.” Prophets and Kings, 548.

 

The “rise and fall” of the kingdoms that are represented in the books of Daniel and Revelation are the focal point of a correct approach to the study of prophecy. The fall of Babylon is typified by the fall of Nimrod’s Babel in Genesis eleven. Then in Daniel chapter five, Babylon falls again. The papacy’s history of its rise to power in the year 538, and its subsequent fall in 1798, also typifies the final fall of Babylon, for the papal power is prophetically spiritual Babylon. The papacy fell in 1798, and Revelation chapter eighteen outlines its final fall. In Daniel chapter eleven, and verse forty-five, the papacy, represented there as the king of the north, comes to its end with none to help. This takes place when probation closes, for verses forty-five of chapter eleven, and verse one of chapter twelve, represent the same history.

And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Daniel 11:45, 12:1.

 

The message of the second angel is structured upon the fact that Babylon has fallen twice. Literal Babylon, represented by Nimrod and Belshazzar fell twice, and spiritual Babylon fell in 1798, and does so again, when human probation closes.

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Revelation 14:8.

 

The repetition of the fall of Babylon in the second angel provides the prophetic justification for identifying the doubling of words and phrases within the Scriptures as a symbol of the combined messages of the second angel and the Midnight Cry. It also upholds the principle identified by Sister White, concerning the study of prophecy being based upon the rise and fall of the kingdoms represented in the books of Daniel and Revelation. It illustrates the concept that to understand the fall of Babylon, the student prophecy must bring together all of Babylon’s falls, “line upon line,” to establish the correct prophetic message of the final fall of Babylon.

Babylon falling twice in the message of the second angel, is based upon the prophetic rule which identifies that truth is established upon the testimony of two witnesses. The doubling of Babylon’s fall within the message, represents the prophetic methodology that is identified in the Bible as the latter rain. That sacred methodology, which is the latter rain, is the application of bringing various lines of prophecy together “line upon line.” When employed by the student of prophecy, the methodology establishes the “message” of the latter rain. The latter rain message that is established through the application of the sacred methodology, is thereafter proclaimed in the combined prophetic histories of the second angel and the Midnight Cry. This was true in the history of the movement of the first angel, and it is true today, in the history of the movement of the third angel.

Chapters four and five of the book of Daniel, represent the line of history which covers the rise and beginning of Babylon, represented by Nebuchadnezzar in chapter four, and then the fall and ending of Babylon, represented by Belshazzar in chapter five. Together they produce one prophetic line. The prophetic line produced by those two chapters is to be laid over the top of Daniel chapters one through three, in order to establish the latter rain message.

The two chapters present the fall and rising again of Nebuchadnezzar and the fall and destruction of Belshazzar, and therefore present the fall of Babylon in the beginning and ending of the line. The line of prophecy created by the two chapters is structured upon Babylon falling, rising, and then falling again. That fact alone identifies that those two chapters represent the message of the second angel. The two chapters represent the history of the earth beast of Revelation thirteen, and in that history the message of the second angel and Midnight Cry is twice proclaimed.

Therefore, before we begin our consideration of chapters four and five of Daniel, we will identify the sacred methodology which is the latter rain, and then by employing that methodology we will identify the message of the latter rain.

A significant waymark of the history of the first and second angel was the methodology represented by William Miller’s rules of prophetic interpretation. Those rules were used by men to identify the message of the Midnight Cry, and that message was the latter rain message for that history. A significant waymark of the history of the third angel is the methodology represented as “Prophetic Keys”. Those rules are to be used in conjunction with the rules of William Miller to identify the message of the Midnight Cry in our current history, and the message that is now being established by those rules is the latter rain message of the last days. Miller’s rules represent the early rain in the prophetic history of the earth beast, and those rules combined with the “Prophetic Keys” represent the latter rain in the prophetic history of the earth beast.

The latter rain is the methodology employed to produce the message. There are those who are deceived because they seek for the latter rain experience, without first seeking the message that produces the experience. The Pentecostal churches of Christianity are a clear example of that deception. That same type of misguided direction is available to those who do seek for the latter rain message, but refuse to seek for the methodology that identifies and establishes the latter rain message. Without the correct methodology, the correct message cannot be identified. Without the correct message, the correct experience is an impossibility.

The significance of this biblical fact goes unrecognized by most, for they have never considered the possibility that there is one right way to study the Bible, and that there are many wrong ways to study the Bible. The wrong way to study the Bible, that is by far the most often chosen, is to trust other men’s opinions of what the Bible teaches. It is such a common issue with men, that every church organizes a system to address this falsely perceived need of their flocks. That false need, produces the false work of establishing a system of leaders who are identified as the spiritual experts of biblical understanding that will correctly direct the understanding of the untrained flock. The Bible does identify a very organized system for the structure of a church, which includes elders, prophets and teachers, but the Bible never endorses the corruption of church organization that produces a system of leaders who have been ordained to identify what is or what isn’t truth, and thereafter, who is and who isn’t a heretic.

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.

 

A church leader is to exhort, rebuke, teach and guard against false doctrines and those who promote the false doctrines, but we are each to “study to show” ourselves “approved unto God,” by “rightly dividing the word of truth.” In doing so, we must know the methodology that the Bible identifies as the correct way to rightly divide the word of truth. The book of Isaiah sets forth these issues in the context of the latter rain, so it is there that we will begin.

In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof. When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. Isaiah 27:1–13.

 

In the previous articles, we have repeatedly addressed the “ensign” that is lifted up to call God’s other children out of Babylon. The last verse of Isaiah chapter twenty-seven, addresses the work of the ensign when it says “the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria.” Assyria is a symbol of Babylon in the last days, and those that hear the warning message to come out of Babylon in the verse, come and worship with those represented as the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are prophetically located at “the holy mount at Jerusalem.”

The verse says, “and it shall come to pass in that day.” “That day,” which is the day when the second voice of Revelation chapter eighteen, calls God’s other children out of Babylon, is the setting for the entire chapter. The second voice of Revelation chapter eighteen, cries at the Sunday law, when the whore of Tyre is remembered.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Revelation 18:4, 5.

 

Isaiah chapter twenty-seven, begins by identifying the same day that the chapter ends with, when it says, “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”

At the Sunday law God’s executive, retributive judgment begins upon the kingdoms of the dragon (the United Nations), the beast (the papacy) and the false prophet (the United States). At the Sunday law the false prophet is overthrown as the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy, and national apostasy produces national ruin. The Sunday law is where God’s executive judgments begin to fall upon the dragon, who is Satan (and whose earthly kingdom is represented as the dragon), the beast and the false prophet. It is a progressive punishment, that begins at the Sunday law. The beginning and the ending of chapter twenty-seven of Isaiah is the Sunday law, and the chapter represents specific issues that are directly connected with the history that leads up to and follows after the Sunday law.

We are considering chapter twenty-seven, for it establishes the prophetic setting for chapters twenty-eight and twenty-nine. In those chapters we will find the definition of the latter rain as a methodology, which will allow us to understand the significance of laying chapters four and five of Daniel over the top of chapters one through three of Daniel. After Isaiah chapter twenty-seven, identifies the beginning of the progressive punishment of the dragon’s kingdom, he records that in that period of time, God’s people are commanded to “sing unto her.” Sing unto who?

The answer of who is to be sung to is in the title of the song, for they are to sing “a vineyard of red wine, that the Lord keeps.” The story of the vineyard is the story of God’s people, and it is first mentioned by Isaiah in chapter five.

Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. Isaiah 5:1–5.

 

In the history of the Sunday law crisis, God’s people are to sing the song of the vineyard to God’s people, for the song says, “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.” The song of the vineyard is the song identifying the passing by of a former covenant people, while God enters into covenant with those whom Peter says were “in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.” It identifies that no rain has fallen upon the vineyard, thus identifying the work of Elijah who comes in that period of time, and who alone can produce rain during that period. We know the song is about the passing by of a covenant people, for the song of the vineyard was sung by Christ to ancient Israel, in the period that ancient Israel was being passed by, while God was simultaneously entering into covenant with spiritual Israel.

Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. Matthew 21:33–45.

 

When Jesus sang the song of God’s vineyard to ancient Israel, they were so drawn into the logic and strength of the message, that when Jesus asked the quibbling Jews, what the Lord of the vineyard would do to those who slew the Son, they could not help but provide the correct answer, when they said, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus then immediately added another verse to the song, when he sang about the rejected stone, and pulled their answer together with the closing stanza when he stated, “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” The “grinding him to powder,” echoes Isaiah twenty-seven making “all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.” Both are references to the work of revival carried out by Josiah, who symbolized those in the last days that rediscover the “seven times”, which is the stumbling stone that crushes those who refuse to find it precious.

In the day of the Sunday law, as represented in Isaiah chapter twenty-seven, those who “in time past were not a people,” are to sing the song of the Lord’s vineyard of red wine. These articles have often identified that there is no third message, without a first and a second message. The Sunday law is the third message, and the day of the Sunday law includes the history of the first and second messages. In chapter twenty-seven of Isaiah, the Sunday law is identifying the period represented in Daniel chapter one, and then again in Daniel chapters one through three. Prophetically, the day of the Sunday law in chapter twenty-seven is identifying the history of September 11, 2001, when the first message was empowered through to the soon-coming Sunday law.

We will continue on in our consideration of the song that the redeemed are to proclaim in the time leading up to the point where the whore of Rome will begin to sing her song, in the next article.

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. Revelation 14:1–5.