Micheal Stands Up Part 1 | Dr. Conrad Vine

Um this is our journey uh this morning.
Um let’s start out um with Daniel’s parallel prophecies.
And um this is the key text that we’re really kind of focusing on today is Daniel chapter 12 and verse one. And all
of the texts we’re going to use will be on the screen. if the Holy Spirit takes me down like a another path. I have my Bible ready here and you may want to
keep your Bibles handy just in case. Um, but this is the text we’re going to focus on today. And uh, as we begin, I know Pastor Fletcher has already prayed,
but I’d invite you to pray bow your heads with me and we’ll invite again the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Oh, our dear heavenly father, we thank you for
the the the light of prophecy that you’ve given us to guide us through dark times. Lord, we’re living in a world of darkness. We’re living in a world of
wickedness. We’re living in a world that says we will not have this man to rule over us. But father, we thank you as the apostle Peter says that this prophecy is
1:given to be a light in the darkness uh so that we don’t stumble, so we don’t fall, so we understand what is coming upon our world that may we may we may
1:walk with confidence and invite other people to walk with us in the light as well. So Lord, as we study these matters today, may the same spirit that inspired
1:the prophet Daniel, we invite the the blessing and the presence of your holy spirit aresh to guide our minds, to shape our thinking, to soften our
1:hearts, and to direct the direction our feet will take. Thank you, father, for hearing this prayer. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen. All right. So this is the text. It says Daniel 12 and verse one.
1:It says, “And at that time, Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish such as never has
1:occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time, your people shall be what?
1:Delivered.” Yes. Delivered. Anyone who is found written in the book. And so, um, how do we understand this verse? And
2:when does this verse take place? And when does Michael stand up? And what does Michael’s standing up mean? And who is Michael? And so we look at a verse
2:like this. And you know, one of the joys of of being a preacher, one of the joys of being a Sabbath school teacher, um, is that when you when you prepare a
2:Sabbath school class, you have to sit down and study it at home. And when you’re preparing a sermon, you have to study it at home. And one of the joys of being a preacher, a Sabbath school
2:teacher is if they tell you that you they want you to preach on X, Y, or Z topic, you have to sit down with the word of God and study it out for yourself. So, I want to encourage you
2:today. If you’ve been asked to preach or to teach or be a Sabbath school teacher or speak at a men’s or women’s ministries retreat, say yes. Not because
2:you want a chance to speak at the front, but because it’s an invitation to study the word of God. And it’s an it enlarges your mind like nothing else. It’s like
2:trying to put the Atlantic Ocean into a glass of water and somehow God makes it always fit. So, um this is the um we’re
3:going to start out by looking at Daniel’s parallel prophecies. Now, for some of you, you know this kind of basic stuff. Um, some of you may not, but uh
3:this is the first um the first uh table we’re going to look at up on the screen here. And this is the basic outline of
3:the of the kingdoms of this world. Um we find in the book of Daniel chapter 2. Uh this is kind of taken from the statue,
3:the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. uh where the head of gold represents Babylon, the arms and the chest of silver represent Meo Persia, and you’ve got the ending
3:dates up there for when those empires ended. Then you’ve got the thighs of brass, which is Greece. And incidentally, I just invite you to look
3:almost every Adventist representation of Greece is wrong because the thighs come down to the knees. Uh they they always
3:have the when it says the legs of iron, they have the thighs and the calves of of iron. But almost every Adventist image of Daniel 2 is wrong because the
3:thighs come down to the knees. It doesn’t just stop around your loins. So take a look at the next picture of Daniel C that two that you see somewhere. Then you have the legs of
4:iron. That’s from the knees down to the ankles. That represents Rome in her um pagan and her um imperial phase. Then you have the divided nations of Europe.
4:And uh uh the we see that today um with the the European Union which really is a European disunion. And then you have the
4:stone that strikes the statue and fills the earth representing the second coming of Jesus. And that’s kind of just a basic overview of Daniel chapter 2. And
4:the next outline prophecy we find has four creatures. The first of them is the winged lion in Daniel chapter 7 coming
4:out of the waters. And um if you go to uh Berlin today and you go to the Berlin Museum, I encourage you to go to the
4:Berlin Museum. Some wonderful German archaeologist dug up the the entire Ishtar Gate, the main ceremonial gate of
4:ancient Babylon and he transported it brick by brick back to Berlin and they rebuilt it and you can see it to this day. And um I think this is a terrible
5:act of archaeological theft. It should have gone to the British Museum, not the Berlin Museum, but never mind. So, but anyway, when you look on the walls, we
5:look on the gate the walls of the Ishtar gate that the symbol of ancient Babylon was a winged lion.
5:Just as what animal represents, say, Russia today?
5:The bear. And what animal represents America today? What animal is most commonly used? The bald eagle. Yes. And in England, we use the lion and so
5:forth. And so um that that lion um when Daniel had that dream or Nebuchadnezzar had that vision um you know he would
5:have understood that that winged lion that represents Babylon. And then you had the bear with that’s that’s raised on one side according to the prophecy
5:and he has three ribs in his side and that represents the Meo Persians and it’s raised in one side because they
5:started out as the Meoersians but the Persians came to dominate in that empire. So it’s now known historically
6:just as the Persian Empire. That’s the time of of Xerxes the great and and the battles against the Greeks such as Marathon and Salam Salamis and so forth.
6:But in its mouth he has three ribs. And he has three ribs because the Persians conquered from the east and they they
6:conquered west of Babylon. Then they went up and they conquered Turkey. Then they went south and they conquered Egypt. So the three ribs in the mouth
6:represent the three major kingdoms that the Meoersians conquered. Then you have a four-leheaded leopard with wings and
6:that represents the the Greek empire kind of parallel to Daniel 2. And uh uh the the um the wings represent the speed
6:of the conquest. Uh Alexander conquered over 2 million square miles. It was one of the largest empires ever seen in human history. It’s an amazing thing.
6:They didn’t have cell phones. They didn’t have the internet. They didn’t have uh the the fax machines. They didn’t have the computers. But they
6:could conquer vast territories of earth’s surface. And when Alexander the Great, when he finished conquering, he held a big party in Babylon and he got
7:drunk and he got malaria and he didn’t wake up. He died. He just conquered the greatest empire scene in Earth’s history
7:up until then. And he did not enjoy the fruits of his victory. He had a small son. Um, but the small son did not, he was a 2-year-old boy. He didn’t survive
7:the fighting that broke out. And the empire was divided into four parts. And Tommy took over Egypt. Cleopatra was the
7:last of the Tomies in the time of Julius Caesar. And Seucius took modernday Syria, Iran, and Iraq, and they became the Seucids. And then you had Lysa
7:Makus. He took modern day Turkey. And Cassandra, he took modern day um Macedonia and Greece. Then you have this fourth beast that comes out of the sea.
7:And uh my wife says I’m not to mention anything about mothers-in-law. So I won’t mention anything about mothers-in-law. But this is this is an
7:indescribable beast that has 10 horns on its head and it has a little horn that comes up and displaces three of those
8:other horns. And that represents um pagan Rome. And then the little horn that comes up represents pag papal Rome.
8:And then in Daniel chapter 7, uh, so you’ve got the the various animals coming up there. Uh, but then in
8:Daniel chapter 7, you actually have the pre the the the heavenly judgment between Rome and the second coming of
8:Christ. Daniel 2 doesn’t have this bit here because it’s the broadest outline prophecy. But Daniel 7 actually has the pre-advent judgment listed out there.
8:Those are the verses. And this is this is the the pre-advent judgment here, the interpretation. And then you conclude as
8:of Daniel 2 with the second coming of Jesus Christ. So um that’s kind of the outline of Daniel 7. Then you come to
8:Daniel 8. And Daniel 8 really focuses on the timing or the length um of of uh
8:when does that pre-advent judgment begin or the investive judgment. So some people prefer to call it the investive judgment. Other people prefer to call it
9:the pre-advent judgment. I prefer to call it the pre-advent because that situates in my mind in the flow of salvation history. Though this must take
9:place before the close of probation and before Jesus comes. So I’ll be calling it the pre-advent judgment today. And in
9:this vision here um Babylon is not shown in this vision because this vision was given in 548 BC um 9 years before
9:Babylon fell and Babylon was already a weak empire. But you have a goat and you have a ram. And the ram has two horns
9:that comes up first. One larger than the other. And uh the the prophecy actually refers to that as being Meo Persia. And
9:just as the bear was raised on one side, was higher than the other. Uh so the ram has one horn larger than the other
9:representing the dominance of the Persians in the Meo Persian Empire. And then you have uh the the the goat representing Greece. And Greece has a
10:little a large horn on it. And in this vision here, um the horn, it breaks into
10:four smaller horns, which represents the four um divisions of the Greek Empire.
10:But then the passage goes on once you’ve gone past the the the the um the ram and the goat. You then have um Rome in two
10:phases. You have in verse 9, you have this horizontal um geographical expansion representing Rome um in her
10:pagan phase. And then from verses 10- 12 and 23-2, now you have um this this little horn
10:that’s it’s no longer conquering horizontally. It’s it has a vertical conquests. We’re attacking things on a vertical dimension. And that represents
10:papal Rome and um the attempting to to displace the heavenly high pri high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ with
10:an earthly priesthood down here. And then it concludes with the heavenly judgment verses 13 and 14. Unto 2,300
11:days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. So, if you were to summarize those three outlined prophecies, Daniel
11:2, 7, and 8 thus far, side by side, this is what you’re going to get. And they all follow the same pattern. They they
11:have an identical pattern. Daniel is filled with patterns. And so, each one of them starts out with visions rep of
11:animals representing earthly powers. You got the statue of Daniel 2. You got the four beasts of Daniel 7. You’ve got the goat and the ram of Daniel 8. um and the
11:little horn there. But they all start out talking about earthly powers and then they all move on to God’s supernatural intervention.
11:And that’s really good news because it says that God has the final say. And when Daniel described the statue to
11:Nebuchadnezzar, the very first part of the interpretation, Daniel says, “You saw this this the statue of Nebuchadnezzar.” And he says, “And the
appearance of it was terrifying.” And before he goes on to describe all the parts of it, it was terrifying. And
12:what Daniel is saying is that the flow of human history that is based around the flow eb and flow of empires and
12:powers on this world. It’s terrifying because every time a new empire comes on the scene, there’s bloodshed, there’s slavery, there’s exploitation, there’s
12:oppression, there’s invasion, there’s displacement, there’s pain that goes on.
12:And so Daniel summarizes the flow of human history of Daniel 2. He says, “The appearance of it was terrifying.” And if you were on the receiving end of the
12:Roman legions, it truly was a terrifying experience. Or if you if you on the receiving end of the Meo Persians or of any of the empires of Earth’s history.
12:But the good news of these three chapters is that despite what the earthly powers do on earth, God always intervenes.
12:And God always intervenes. He intervenes in heaven above with a pre-advent judgment. and he intervenes down on earth when Jesus comes again. And so
13:each of these passages um concludes with a message of hope that despite what these earthly powers do to us from the
13:time of Daniel all the way through to 2026 until Jesus comes, there is always hope for those who trust in God. That God is going to make things right. That
13:Jesus is going to intervene and make all things new again. And when Jesus comes and that stone hits the statue, there is
13:going to be no trace of that statue left behind. That is the pain, the slavery, the oppression, the cruelty, the extortion, the deportations, the
13:genocides. There’s going to be no trace of that whatsoever in God’s new kingdom that he’s going to establish. And I say, praise God for that. Praise God for
13:that. So, um, those that kind of that kind of summarizes this is kind of like flying at 30,000 ft here. those those three those um that summary chart there.
13:Um but then we’re going to come a bit closer now to to uh Daniel 12. Michael’s standing up and uh Daniel chapters 10, 11, and 12. They go closely together.
14:They’re one unit. So Daniel 2 is a prophecy. Daniel 7 is a prophecy. Daniel 8 is a prophecy. Daniel 9 is a prophecy,
14:but it really explains the time elements of Daniel 8. We’ll come on to that this afternoon or or maybe this morning if we have time. And then Daniel 10-12, those
14:last three chapters, they’re a single unit. And um we tend to focus on Daniel 11, but Daniel 10, 11, and 12 all go
14:together. And Daniel 11 um this is this is where that that prophecy starts. Um this is what the
14:text says. Says, “Now, this is Gabriel speaking to Daniel.” Says, “Now I will announce the truth to you. Three more kings shall arise in Persia. The fourth shall be far richer than all of them.
14:And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a warrior king shall arise who shall rule
14:with great dominion and take action as he pleases. And while still rising in power, his kingdom shall be broken towards the four winds of heaven, but
15:not his posterity, nor according to the dominion with which he ruled. for his kingdom shall be uprooted and go to others besides these. So we may ask
15:ourselves who exactly are these kings and you know we had a d we had four I think it was four Daniel 11 conferences
15:d 2017 2018 2019 2020 at village church and um we made great progress. We
15:started out with like five different interpretations of Daniel 11. We winnowed it down to like two and a half which among theologians is is like
15:moving at the speed of lightning actually. Um and we became theologians became friends in that process. You know Luther says heaven preserve us from the
15:anger of the theologians. Well uh we actually became friends in that process and we’re doing the same again with Revelation 17 next year in May but this
15:will be at the AMI building in Berian Springs. So you want to maybe book that for your calendars. But this passage here out of all the Adventist scholars
16:who came together from around the world there was pretty much unanimous understanding for how do we understand this. So if you’re going to break that
16:passage down you see that um you can identify uh the kings of Persia and then the king and
16:then the king uh Alexander the great and the division of the Greek empire. So the the prophecy was given in the time of Das the me. He was a ruler in Babylon uh
16:like the local ruler dur under Cyrus the great. So that’s the time when Daniel 10 through12 was written. Then then the
16:prophecy says three more kings shall arise in Persia. That would be Cambes II. We know him from history. Um Smurdis
16:he’s sometimes called false because he was viewed as an impostor. He stole the throne. Then he was deposed. than Daras
16:the first, High Stapus. He ruled from 521 to 485. Then it refers to the fourth shall be far richer than all of them.
16:That would be Xerxes the Great. You’ve heard of Xerxes the Great and his invasions of Greece. In the Bible, he’s known as a Hajiras, the king who married
17:Queen Esther. And then you have a warrior king shall arise. That would be Alexander the Great who invaded from
17:northern Greece Macedonia. And it says hing his his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven.
17:And there on the screen you have the the the the Greek empire was divided into four parts and um those um Tommy,
17:Salucus, Cassandra and Lysmakus. And we say well this is all ancient history pastor divine but actually this stuff influences us today.
17:Like uh I I don’t have a watch on my wrist but if if you have a watch on your wrist just raise your hand. Okay. Now, if you if you have a watch on your wrist
17:that has has like the the the um know 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 on it. Keep your hand raised. Does your watch have that?
17:Okay. Do you know where those numbers come from? It’s from Babylon. Their mathematics was based around the number six. And they didn’t have the concept of
zero. So on your wrist watch, the mathematics of time are based on Babylonian mathematics. There are 60
18:seconds to a minute. There are 60 minutes to an hour. There are 360 degrees to a circle. The statue of Daniel 3 that Nebuchadnezzar built was
18:60 cubits high and six cubits wide. So it were they were working in in based around the number six. So you say, well,
18:you know, ancient Babylon has no impact on me today. Well, you know, we’re in our family worship at home in the morning, we’re reading through a devotional, the book of Daniel, and we
18:were reading uh yesterday or two days ago before I came here, we’re reading about how um President Ronald Reagan’s wife Nancy was drawing up horoscopes and
18:she was consulting the horoscopes to decide when to attack Libya and when to do certain policies and so forth. And um
18:the horoscopes also come from ancient Babylon. And so if you think that uh astronomy astronomy and astrology all come from Babylon um this affects
18:American foreign policy to this day at least under President Reagan it did. And on your if you have a wristwatch and if you measure time in 12 hours or 24 hours
19:to the day then you are you are carrying Babylonian mathematics on your wrist.
19:Okay? So so let nobody think here today that this stuff doesn’t affect us. And let’s say the Greeks um we all when somebody says something that sounds
19:nonsense to you, you say that doesn’t sound logical to me.
19:And our whole way of thinking like the the hardware of our brains is hardwired according to Greek philosophy and logic.
19:So we say that all A is A. You’re going to follow this logic. This is Greek logic. All A is A. All non A is B.
19:Therefore C equals B. Yeah, you follow me on that. It’s kind of early. I know it’s a weekend and it’s Sabbath and we’re just waking up.
19:So all A is A. All non A is B. So if it’s something’s not A, it must be B.
19:Therefore C equals B. Okay, that’s classical logic. And we we we we want to use reason. We use logic. This comes
20:from Greek philosophy. It’s hardwired into our brains. So we say, well, this stuff doesn’t affect us. Oh, yes. This affects how you speak to your spouse,
20:how you raise your children, how you plan your future. uh you you plan for time. I’ll see I’ll see you at what time will I see you? today. You’re
20:using Babylonian time. And our legal systems are based um across much of the rest the West upon the Roman imperial um
20:um legal system um with with codified law systems and and so forth. And so we could go more into that, but we won’t do that today because our time is pressing.
20:So this is the start of Daniel 11 and this is the start of the prophecy that leads up to Michael standing up. So
20:Daniel chapter 10, 11 and 12 are one unit and um the the actual prophetic bit
20:starts with these verses here and it starts with the the the the Persian emperors and then with the arrival of uh
20:Alexander the great then we move into the Roman era. There is then a special focus on the papacy in chapter 11:es
21:32-39 as a blasphemous and a self-exalting power that persecutes the saints of God until we come to what theologians call
21:the tote, the toot t or the time of the end. And we’re going to be spending a bit of time on that today. And chapters
21:chapter through 45 pictures the final assault on God’s people. The final crisis of conscience involves the mark of the beast. God’s judgment on the papacy before and this is good news.
21:Michael stands up at that time to deliver his people. So Michael standing up is an endtime prophecy of great
21:significance for God’s people today because we are living in the end of time today. And so this is a prophecy that is something we should be interested in. It
21:applies. It has applications for our lives today. So we’re now going to move on to the question of as who is this Michael that stands up in Daniel 12:1.
Now uh we may say as Adventists it’s Jesus Christ. But um we need to be able to give a reason for the faith that we
22:hold. We’re not just to say it’s Jesus Christ cuz somebody told me that was Jesus Christ. Um because some people say it’s not Jesus Christ. they dispute that
22:identification. So if we’re to be able to give an intelligent articulate reason for the faith that we hold, we need to understand why we believe this is Jesus
22:Christ. Um you know in in the book of Colossians um the the ancient Jews in the in the first century they they had
22:this um very developed what they call angelology. They studied the angels and Raphael and Gabriel and Michael were
22:some of the angels in in the Jewish um the Jewish theology and they believed that that Michael was one of the interceding angels on behalf of humanity
22:and he was next to Gabriel um by the throne of God. So um the the book of Colossians is written against these heresies. Um but it’s important we
22:actually we don’t just say Michael is Jesus. We need to know why Michael is Jesus from scripture. Not because the book Questions on Doctrine said it, not
23:because Sister White said it, but because the Bible, you can show it from scripture. So, we’re going to start out with um Daniel 10:4-9. This is that last
23:vision of Daniel, which is 10, 11, and 12. They all go together. So, um this is what the text says. And Daniel has a vision and it causes him to sink to the
23:ground. And it says, “On the 24th day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, that is the Tigris, I looked up and saw a man
23:clothed in linen with a belt of gold from Ufas around his waist. His body was like barrel, his face like lightning,
23:and his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his
23:words like the roar of a multitude.” I, Daniel alone, saw the vision. The people who were with me did not see the vision,
23:though a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled and hid fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone to see this great vision. My strength left me,
24:and my complexion grew deathly pale, and I retained no strength. Then I heard the sound of his words, and when I heard the
24:sound of his words, I fell into a trance, face to the ground. So what does Daniel see here? So he sees this this
24:incredible being standing in front of him and the response of Daniel when he sees this this being standing in front of him. It says that his strength left
24:him and his complexion grew deathly pale and he retains no strength in his body and he fell into a trance and he fell to
24:the ground. So there’s five physiological responses when Daniel sees this incredible being standing in front of him. He doesn’t reason with this
24:being. He doesn’t say politely, how are you doing? Have you had a nice day today? there’s there’s this physiological response. His strength leaves him, his the color leaves his
24:cheeks and he falls to the ground um face to the ground and falls in a trance. And this response of Daniel um
25:this response of Daniel is very similar to some of the other um cases in the Bible where where we call a theophony.
25:That is where God appears to somebody personally. And the the most obvious um example of that is found in Ezekiel
25:chapter 1. Now in in second temple Judaism, that was Judaism at the time of Christ, Jewish boys were not allowed to
25:discuss this chapter until they could explain the rest of the Old Testament because this verse, this chapter here,
25:Ezekiel 1, was viewed as almost the most the most um detailed description of God
25:in his throne. You don’t find this uh that you find in the in the entire Old Testament. Sure, Moses saw the burning bush, for instance. Um, but this passage
25:here, Ezekiel 1, was kind of offlimits for Jewish boys in the time of Christ because it was viewed as being the most sacred. This is the most personal, most
25:intimate picture of God that we have in the Old Testament. And so, this is what Ezekiel says. Now, I’m going to pick up the chapter in verse 26. And before
26:this, you’ve got the throne, you’ve got the living creatures, you’ve got the wheels going in multiple directions, you’ve got the eyes within the wheels, and so forth. We’re not going to go
26:through that now. But this is what if when when when Ezekiel raises his his eyes above the the wheels within the wheels and he looks at the throne, this
26:is what he sees on the throne. And what you look I’ve put the words in red up there. Um Ezekiel talks he doesn’t give
26:he he gives he gives you enough uh details so you know what he’s talking about, but everything is the likeness of something. He’s talking in
26:approximations because seeing God is is personally is is overwhelming for him.
26:So he says everything was the likeness of something. Uh this is what he says.
26:He says and above the dome over their heads that is living creatures there was something like a throne in appearance like sapphire and seated above the
26:likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form. Upward from what appeared like the loins, I saw something like gleaming amber, something
27:that looked like fire enclosed all around. And downward from what looked like the loins, I say saw something that looked like fire. And there was a
27:splendor all around, like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day. Such was the appearance of the splendor all around.
27:This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell on my face and I heard the voice of someone speaking.
27:So, uh, in England, when we want to fill a sentence, when we’re not sure what to say, we say uh, and I want to say, uh,
27:this about you. In America, you use the word like. Yes.
27:And so, he was like, and I was like this. And actually, you drop the word the verb to say alto together. So, if you’re recounting conversation, you say, well, I said to my son, what a good day.
27:And he was like, no, it isn’t. And I was like, yes, it is. And she he said, no.
27:Uh, it was like this. And so, uh, this isn’t Ezekiel using filler language. The word the the the words likeness of or
28:the appearance of, Ezekiel is speaking in these approximations like this is what God kind of looks like, but I can’t go into any greater detail than this. I
28:I met a lady um a few years ago. She used to work for us when I was in AI Frontier Missions. and um she was a
28:close relative of a recently deceased um Muslim leader in the Middle East um who was killed by an American bomb actually
28:just recently and she had a vision of Jesus 20 plus years ago. She was dying of cancer and she was a devout Muslim and she asked Jesus in the presidential palace, would you please heal my body?
28:And Jesus appeared to her and he he said I’ll heal your body but I I need you to follow me. And so I asked her, what does
28:Jesus actually look like? She said, “It’s kind of like a mixture of fire and diamonds.” That was her description to
28:me. This Muslim lady who then fled that country and uh she became a sent the Adventist in Southeast Asia and then she
28:was put into witness protection program by a western government um so they could extract information from her and protect her from the assassins that were coming
29:her way because she apostasized and went became a follower of Christ away from Islam. And so she described Jesus. He
29:was like fire mixed with diamonds. And this passage here, you’ve got the appearance, the likeness, the appearance, the likeness. Uh Ezekiel is
29:talking in approximations because he’s overwhelmed by the glory of God. So Ezekiel is giving a vision of God on his throne, but his response is the same as
29:Daniel. Um when Daniel sees the vision in Daniel 10, Ezekiel’s response is he fell upon his face. It’s the same
29:response as Daniel. He falls upon his face. So there’s something overwhelming about this. And if you go to Revelation 1 13-18, you’ve got a vision of Jesus.
29:And this was given to the Apostle John on the island of Patmos. And it says, “In the midst of the lampstand lampstands, I saw one like the son of man clothed with a long robe and with a
29:golden sash across his chest. His head and hair were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of
30:fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, furnished, refined as in a furnace. and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand
30:he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full
30:force. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, just as Daniel fell down in the vision of Daniel 10, just as
30:Ezekiel fell down in in Ezekiel chapter 1. So John the evangelist, he fell at his feet as though dead. But he places
30:on his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid, for I am the first and the last and the living one. I was dead, and behold, I’m alive forever and ever, and
30:amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.” So Daniel falls down um kind of like um um uh in worship before this
30:being. Ezekiel falls down in worship before the throne room vision of God when Jesus appears to John the evangelist on the island of Patmos. John
31:the evangelist he falls down at the feet of Jesus as though dead. And in the case of both Daniel in Daniel 10 before that
31:the vision he has and in Revelation chapter 1 immediately after they fall down somebody speaks to them and places
31:a right hand upon their shoulder. So we see the there are these common themes appearing throughout the scripture. So then we say well um this passage here is
31:of uh Christ the risen Lord. And if you come to Revelation 12, Michael is mentioned just a couple of times elsewhere in the Bible by name.
31:Revelation 12:7 says, “And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought against his angels and prevailed
31:not neither was their place found for them in heaven.” And that word for war is pmos. We get the word palemic from
31:that. Uh if something is pmical, it means this is propaganda. And so when when you have a palemic, this is a
32:battle about ideas. And a palemic is where there is a struggle over what is truth. So when there is war in heaven,
32:this was a war over what is true and what is false. And we’re going to see later on. It’s actually a struggle about the character of God. We’re going to
32:come to that later in this study this afternoon. But um in this passage here, we realize that Michael is the commander
32:of the armies of heaven. And in Joshua 5 13 and 15, I don’t have that passage on
32:the screen for you. Um Joshua bows and he worships the commander of the armies of the Lord. And he’s told by that
32:commander to the who appears to him to remove his sandals because the ground was holy. It’s the same command given to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3.
32:So that commander of the armies of God is Christ himself.
32:And uh when he comes again, he’s going to come with the armies of heaven.
32:Revelation 19 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. So what’s the conclusion about Michael? The conclusion is this.
33:On the basis of Ezekiel, Daniel sees a vision of God. On the basis of revelation, Daniel sees Jesus Christ in
33:his awesome glory. And uh when he learns that this is Michael, he sees Jesus in his role as the commander of the armies of heaven who fights for God’s children.
33:Well, there’s one other place we find um we find other than Daniel 10 here. It says uh this is um Gabriel speaking to
33:Daniel. It says, “I will show thee that which is noted in the scriptures of truth, and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael
33:your prince.” these things that he’s talking about are the battles behind the scenes against the demonic forces that
33:control Greece and Persia um that are actually oppressing God’s people. So this chapter 10 Daniel it tells us that
33:Michael that is that is Jesus Christ one of his roles as the commander of the armies of heaven is to fight the battles against Satan and his forces that are all around us but that we cannot see.
34:Two weeks ago, I did an evangelistic series in Slovenia in the capital. And when it was all over, um I was invited to go to this nice restaurant by uh he
34:was like the the um a very senior figure in the National Tourism Authority. And it was a beautiful restaurant on a little lake in the mountains and um he
34:brought in his his new um chef who was who explained the meal to me. When they have to explain the meal to you know it’s something very fancy. Yes. Yeah. uh
34:when it’s unrecognizable but you know it looks good and they have to explain this is this and this and this and you’re kind of afraid to ask well what exactly is that did you just say um so anyway it
34:was a delicious absolutely wonderful meal and um it involved one of the things was truffles I never had truffles before but it was like summer truffles
34:or thinly sliced they taste like earth basically an underground mushroom but uh while while we were talking um the owner
of the restaurant he said cory said We we bought this land because we consulted the local shamans and this is like a this is a n a figure
35:in the national level for administration for tourism in the country. He said this we in consulted the local shamans and we
35:bought this land here because the shamans told us that there’s a lot of energy lines for the earth and the universe meet in this lake. So for
35:people who practice raiki and stuff like that um this is they said this is a good spot for this kind of stuff. And then he said, “And the shamans tell me,” he says
35:that this building is surrounded by invisible beings. He says, “But don’t worry, there there are friendly forces.” And I said, I thought to myself, “No,
35:no, no, no, no. We’re surrounded by demons here. This this is a place devoted to the occult.” This is where I’m meeting right now. And these these
35:battles of Daniel 10, we read in these p in Daniel 10 that Michael fights those invisible battles against those
35:invisible forces of evil to defend God’s people. And I say amen to that. And so in Jude chapter 9 uh in the book of
36:Jude, sorry, Jude verse 9, um when when Moses died, Michael contended with Satan for the body of of Moses and he
36:resurrected Moses and took him back to heaven. So, Michael not only commands the armies of heaven, Michael not only um fights the forces of Satan, Michael
36:not only um is worthy of worship, Michael not only has the authority to raise the saints from the dead, but Michael is Jesus Christ himself.
36:And so there’s when when when we see that this Michael standing up in Daniel 12 and verse one, we need to understand just who exactly we’re talking about.
36:And what Michael tells us about Jesus is all these incredible beautiful things.
36:He’s the commander of the armies of heaven. He fights the forces against Satan. We cannot see. He is victorious over Satan. He has the authority to raise the dead from the grave and take
36:them to heaven. And he is worthy of worship as Jehovah God himself. We now move on to the third question, which is when does Michael stand up?
And um that’s a question I’d like to know the answer to. When does Michael actually stand up in this prophecy? Can we pinpoint in history when he’s going
37:to stand up? Is there a moment in time or are there a sequence of events that must take place? You know, we have different attitudes to time. Okay. When
37:I was raised in England, we were raised in a mixture of either Jamaican churches or white Anglo churches. All right? And this is how time works in both those
37:churches. In a white English church, the service starts at sharp, regardless of who’s there or who’s not
37:there. And it finishes by 12. And if you’re preaching at 5 12 people looking at their watches, they’re kind of
37:nodding and tapping them, letting you know that Dr. Vine, it’s potluck time. Then we need to go home. Okay. So in in the Anglo culture in England where
37:I come from, I’m not saying what this happens in America, but the service starts at regardless of who’s there. And when we went to the Jamaican
37:churches, the service starts when everybody gets there. And is the target time, but you may not start till
38:11:45. Okay? And so time is measured very differently in the in the Jamaican culture. What was important was that people were together. In the English
38:culture, the important thing was we kept a time even if nobody was together.
38:Okay? So we have these differences in things. So I learned that um if if you do a funeral in that culture, that was always on time because the dead know no
38:time. They they’re always on time. But weddings weddings were always late and and the later the bride, the more
38:important the the wedding was. And so, um, you always stocked up on food before some of those weddings cuz you never knew how long you’d be standing at the
38:front for. So, the question, when does Michael stand? Some of us want to know, uh, is there a moment in time like
38:for an Anglo an Anglo congregation in England? And other people maybe have a more of a more of a Jamaican view and say, well, what events have to take
38:place before he stands up? So, we we approach these questions from different perspectives. But let’s see what the Bible actually says about this. So this
39:is Daniel 11:40 and it says, “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a
39:whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.” So here
39:you have the the expression at the beginning of this verse is at the time of the end. The time of the end, the
39:time of the end. This is a very famous expression. It only appears in the book of Daniel. It doesn’t appear in Revelation. Doesn’t appear anywhere else
39:in the Old Testament. Nowhere else. It doesn’t even appear in the New Testament. This expression only appears in the book of Daniel. Now that that
39:word at is the Hebrew preposition b like be, Beth, Alf, Beth, Gim, Dalad, Hay.
39:So, this is B. And the preposition B can either mean in or at.
39:And that makes a big difference in how you translate this because if it says at the time of the end, it means that
40:precisely at this service is going to stand start. But if it says in the time of the end, that’s like sometime
40:after the service is going to start. Okay? So how you translate that preposition but in or at uh has a big influence on the rest of this chapter.
40:And of course, Michael stands at or in the time of the end. So that preposition in or at is a very important
40:preposition. And so um the [clears throat] time of the end appears these cases 1 2 3 4 six times in the
40:book of Daniel. It doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Bible. So um it’s obviously a big theme in the book of Daniel. And I’ve given you the verses on
40:the left and I’ve given you the texts on the right. And uh the first one is in Daniel 8:17.
40:Understand, O son of man, for at the time of the end shall be the vision.
41:There’s Gabriel speaking to Daniel. And then in, Gabriel again says to Daniel, he said, listen, uh and the text
41:says, for I will tell you what will take place in that period of wrath, for it appears it it it uh refers to quote
41:um at the appointed time of the end shall be. And some uh some versions say for at the time of the end it shall be.
41:Then you got and this is the persecution of the saints in the dark ages by the papacy. It says some of them
41:will uh some of them of understanding or some who are wise shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white even
41:to the time of the end. And that refers to the persecution during the 1260 years of papal supremacy in Europe. That’s in
41:the heart of Daniel 11. And then in Daniel 11:40 it says, “And at or in the time of the end shall the king of the
41:south push at him and that’s a key verse in interpreting Daniel 11.” Um because if you say this is a moment in time u
42:that’s different to saying this is a period of time and that depends on whether the preposition is in or at here. And then you’ve got 124 says but
42:thou oh Daniel shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end. So the book of Daniel is going to be um sealed. It’s going to be a closed
42:book. People won’t understand it up until this time of the end begins.
42:That’s Gabriel speaking to Daniel. And then the final reference to the time the end of the book of Daniel is 129. And this is Gabriel speaking to Daniel and
42:says he said go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. So those are the only instances of the phrase the time of the
42:end in the Bible. So if Daniel if Michael stands up um Daniel 12:1 either in or at the time of the end, we have to
42:look in the book of Daniel for how we interpret the phrase time of the end because it doesn’t appear in Revelation, doesn’t appear in Isaiah, doesn’t appear
42:anywhere else in the Bible. So Daniel 12 and verse 7, it speaks about a man clothed in linen.
43:And take it from me, this is Christ. You reference back to Daniel 10:5 for that.
43:says, “The man clothed in linen who was upstream raised his right hand and his left hand towards heaven and swear by
43:him that liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half. And when he shall have accomplished to scatter
43:the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” So, this is referencing the persecution and the scattering of the power of the saints of
43:God during the papal supremacy in Europe. Now these things are going to be accomplished in the time of the end which begins after the time times and
43:half a time. So you come to Daniel 7:25 speaking about the little horn power says he shall speak great words against
43:the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and laws and they shall be
43:given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. So uh let’s ask ourselves how does the book of
44:Daniel use the word time? Well the book of time other than these expressions time times and the dividing of time it only appears in the book of Daniel in
44:chapter 4 where in Daniel 4 16 23 and 25 it refers to a year.
44:So if you’re going to interpret scripture with scripture the word time in the book of Daniel refers to a year. We see that in Nebuchadnezzar’s madness.
44:So a time times and half a time is three and a half times or 3 and 1/2 years and a Jewish lunar year is 360 days. So that
44:works out as 1260 days in principle. And because this is prophetic time and not literal time, one prophetic day equals
44:one prophetic year. That gets us to the 1260 years of papal supremacy. And that
44:began in 538 and concluded in 1798 AD when Napoleon Bonapart’s French armies
44:under General Burchie took the prison the pope pas captive. So what happens just before Michael stands up? Three things.
45:Number one, Michael stands up after the end of paple supremacy in Europe.
45:This is uh we’re not we’re not not h we’re not narrowing it down too precise yet but these are things that take place. It takes place after the time
45:times and a half a time that is the 1260 years of papal supremacy. So Michael that is Jesus Christ stands up after the
45:end of papal supremacy in Europe which took place in 1798. It also takes place after the pre um after the the
45:pre-advent judgment um that gives judgment against the papacy, the little horn power.
45:And it happens if Jesus stands up after God judges and destroys the papacy. That is the end time foe of God. So you can
45:deduce that so far from the text. Are you following this everybody? I hope.
Yes. So, Michael stands up after three things take place. Uh, the end of papal supremacy in Europe, that’s 1798, the end of the pre-advent heavenly judgment.
46:We’re going to see that shortly in Daniel 7. And, uh, after God has brought judgment on the papacy because that
46:happens at the end of Daniel 11. And he shall come to his end, and there shall be no one to help him, it says. So, Michael standing up um, takes place
46:after the papacy has come under the judgment of God. This is a very short section here that speaks about the certainty of the judgment.
46:You know, if if you don’t believe that there is a heavenly judgment, if you don’t believe that God will hold
46:us accountable for our words and our deeds, you have no incentive to treat other people with respect and kindness today.
46:If you believe that you can do whatever you want and there is no accountability, then you can behave like an animal to other people.
And so the the the certainty, the judgment acts as as a as a as a moral break upon wicked humanity today. And
47:there are certain verses we find in the scripture that speak about the certainty, the judgment. So what assurance do we have that there will be
47:a final judgment? And the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 17 in one of his sermons he says because he that is God hath
47:appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath by whom he hath
47:ordained that is Christ whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. And uh if
47:this this this verse here tells us that God has fixed a day um at which there will be a judgment and Christ will be
47:involved in that judgment. And the assurance of that is that Jesus was raised from the dead. And if you have your Bibles with you, just turn to
47:Romans 1. Romans 1. This is where Paul talks about the significance of the resurrection of Christ. And so Paul says
48:that the assurance that there will be a final judgment for all men is that God has raised his son from the dead. And in
48:Romans chapter 1 verse 4 it says speaking about Christ Romans 1:4 it says God declared he was declared to be the
48:son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Now that word power in
48:that verse is dunameus. What English word do you think we get from the word dunameus?
48:Dynamite or dynamic. So when Jesus rose from the dead, we would say it was dynamite. Now let me ask you the
48:question. If dynamite goes off in your life, is anything ever the same again?
48:No. So the resurrection of Jesus is is is not just dynamic, but it’s like dynamite going off. It’s the power of God. And when when Jesus rose from the
48:dead, nothing is the same for humanity ever again because it is the guarantee that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the son of God and there is a final judgment and
49:that he’s coming again and that he can raise the righteous saints from the grave one day. Nothing is the same again after this passage here. He’s given
49:assurance through the rising from the dead. Now the next question is, was the judgment still future in Paul’s day? And the answer is found in Acts 24:25.
49:And this is Paul um speaking to the Roman governor. I think this is um Felix. The word Felix means happy. And
49:Felix was a deeply unhappy man. He went home and it’s believed he committed suicide um after his time as the governor of Israel. So Palestine. So he
49:wasn’t a happy man. But it says Paul says this, “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come, Felix, that is the
49:Roman governor, trembled and answered, go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” So, um, according to this passage
49:here, was the judgment still future as far as Paul was concerned? Yes or no?
Yes. So, the judgment he’s speaking about is not the flood, which is Old Testament, um, but this is still future as far as Paul is concerned. So then the
50:next question is um who’s going to be included in that final judgment? You find the answer in Romans 14:10-12.
50:Says, “But why dust thou judge thy brother? Or why dust thou set not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” So
50:according to this verse here, who’s going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ? All of us.
50:That nobody’s exempt from the final judgment. That’s good news.
50:It’s also horrifying news because as a general rule, we want God’s judgment on those who’ve
50:hurt us, but we want God’s mercy for us when we hurt others.
50:So, be careful what you wish for. But whether you wish for it or not, we have the assurance, the certainty that all
shall stand before the judgment seat of God. So then each one of us is accountable to God of how we treat our neighbor.
51:That’s a sobering thought, isn’t it?
51:I used to fight like cats and dogs with my twin brother. We fought all the time. And sometimes we were really naughty.
51:Mom wasn’t going to waste time figuring out who was guilty cuz we were both probably guilty. So she she’d say, “Wait
51:until your father comes home.” That was like saying, “Both twin boys shall stand before the judgment seat.” We knew what was coming.
51:My father would walk us up the stairs to the bedroom and bend us over the beds and take off his belt and we’d receive six of the best across our rear rear ends.
51:It sounds terrible these days, but it did us a power of good at the time.
51:Whatever it was we were being we were guilty of, we never did that stuff again ever.
51:And so when we knew there was when my mother said wait until your father gets home, we knew there was the assurance of judgment. We knew that we were both going to stand before the judgment seat.
52:And we lived in fear and trembling of that judgment moment.
52:And we all know that there is a final judgment and we’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of God. Should we not live therefore with fear and
52:reverence before a holy God? Shouldn’t that then modify how we treat our neighbors and how whether we forgive them or not? And then um a couple more
52:verses in this section here. Uh, in that final judgment, will God just judge our deeds and our words? No. The answer is
52:he’s going to judge something much more personal. This is Romans 2:16, Paul’s discussing the final judgment as it particularly relates to the Gentiles.
52:And he says, “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel,”
52:the secrets of men, that is what you keep hidden in your head. So God doesn’t just judge us for what we do on the
52:outside. God reads our hearts and he reads our minds. There’s nothing secret from God. And so uh that is why the the
53:the uh the psalmist says, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Renew with me a right spirit.” He says he says to God,
53:”You search me and you see if there be any wicked way in me.” Why does the psalmist ask God to cleanse his thinking for him? Because we are so self-d
53:deluded. We we we convince ourselves all our motives are pure. And so the psalmist says, “Well, Lord, I I really don’t know myself, but I need you to
53:search me. I need you to search out any wickedness within me. I need you to give me a new heart. I need you to give me a new and right spirit because I really
53:don’t know myself anymore.” He’s honest with God. And we’re to be honest with God. And when we pray that Psalm of David, we’re asking God not just to read
53:us and to know us, but to change us and transform us. Because one day our secret thoughts are going to be under judgment, not just how we treat our brothers and
53:our sisters. When will God implement the results of this pre-advent judgment? Revelation 22:12 gives us the answer.
54:Jesus says, “Behold, I’m coming soon and my reward is with me.” Ah, that’s the wrong verse, isn’t it? Well, it should
54:say, “Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the saying of the prophecy of this book.
54:Jesus this the the that final judgment the results implemented when Jesus comes again.
54:But the results are known by the close of probation.
54:So we should be more concerned about the close of probation and the second coming of Christ.
54:And we don’t see the results of of of probation.
54:But there is to be a putting away of sin among God’s people on earth while that pre-advent judgment is going on in heaven above that we want nothing to come between us and a holy God.
54:The if we look in the Bible there have been numerous instances of God’s judgment in the Bible. The earth came under judgment after the sin of Adam.
55:There was the Noah’s flood. There was all the judgments that God pou brought upon his people in the time of the judges. There was the Babylonian exile
55:and there were the Assyrian exiles. But all of those are in the Old Testament.
55:And all of the texts we’ve just looked at now from the New Testament, they’re written decades after Jesus ascended to heaven in Acts chapter 1. And they all
55:talk about a future judgment, a judgment that involves God’s own people before Jesus returns. This is what we call the pre-advent or the investigative
55:judgment. And it’s actually good news for those who are hidden in Jesus Christ. It’s good news. And why it’s good news, we’ll come to shortly. So I’m
55:conscious we need to stick to our time here. We’re going to finish this M Michael 12 bit here um uh for now and um
55:we’ll we’ll continue the next one we’ll look at after bre after lunch is location of the judgment then the timing of the judgment and who’s involved in
55:the judgment. So that’s what that’s what our journey is going to look like this afternoon um as we kind of narrow down to the significance of this pre-advent
56:judgment for us today. But the bottom line is this. Um, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
56:The word crisis is a Greek word. It means judgment.
56:The word condemnation in Greek is crimmer. We get the word criminal from that. And in Romans chapter 8 and verse
56:one says there is no crimma. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So we all come into judgment. But
56:if we are in Christ Jesus, we we know that we’ll not face condemnation in that judgment. It’s good news. We’re not to
56:fear the judgment. It’s a chance when God’s saints are are vindicated before the watching universe that they are found in Jesus Christ. We’re going to
56:come on to that this afternoon. So, uh we’re going to close our Sabbath school session now.