Podcasts about medo persia

NOTAS DE ELENAMaterial complementario de la escuela Sabática para adultosNarrado por: Patty CuyanDesde: California, USAUna cortesía de DR'Ministries y Canaan Seventh-Day Adventist ChurchMARTES, 29 DE ABRILDANIEL 7Se ha permitido a toda nación que ha ascendido al escenario de la historia que ocupe su lugar en la tierra para ver si va a cumplir o no el propósito del "Vigilante y Santo". La profecía ha anunciado el levantamiento y la caída de los grandes imperios del mundo: Babilonia, Medo-Persia, Grecia y Roma. La historia se repitió con cada una de ellas, lo mismo que con naciones menos poderosas. Cada una tuvo su período de prueba, fracasó, su gloria se marchitó, perdió su poder, y su lugar fue ocupado por otra. Aunque las naciones rechazaron los principios de Dios y provoca-ron con ese rechazamiento su propia ruina, es evidente que el propósito divino predominó y se manifestó en todos sus movimientos (La educación, pp. 176, 177). La corona que se le quitó a Israel pasó sucesivamente a los reinos de Babilonia, Medo-Persia, Grecia y Roma. Dios dice: "Esto no será más, hasta que venga aquel cuyo es el derecho, y yo se lo entregaré". Ese tiempo está cerca. Las señales de los tiempos declaran hoy que estamos en el umbral de sucesos grandes y solemnes. Todo está en agitación en el mundo. Ante nuestra vista se cumple la profecía del Salvador referente a los sucesos que precederán a su venida: "Oiréis de guerras, y rumores de guerras... Se levantará nación contra nación, y reino contra reino; y habrá pestes, y hambres, y terremotos en diferentes lugares". Mateo 24:6, 7. La época actual es de sumo interés para todos los vivientes. Los gobernantes y estadistas, los hombres que ocupan puestos de confianza y autoridad, los hombres y mujeres que piensan, de toda clase social tienen la atención fija en los sucesos que ocurren alrededor de nosotros. Observan las relaciones tirantes que mantienen las naciones. Observan la tensión que se está apoderando de todo elemento terrenal, y reconocen que está por ocurrir algo grande y decisivo, que el mundo está al borde de una crisis estupenda. En este mismo momento los ángeles están sosteniendo los vientos de contienda para que no soplen hasta que el mundo reciba la advertencia de su próxima condenación; pero se está preparando una tormenta; ya está lista para estallar sobre la tierra; y cuando Dios ordene a sus ángeles que suelten los vientos, habrá una escena tal de lucha, que ninguna pluma podría describirla... Para nosotros, que estamos al borde mismo del cumplimiento de estas grandes escenas, qué momento tan profundo, qué interés tan vivo tienen estas descripciones de lo que está por venir, acontecimientos por los que, desde que nuestros primeros padres salieron del Edén, los hijos de Dios han velado y esperado, anhelado y orado (The Review and Herald, 23 de noviembre, 1905, párr. 5-8, 13; parcialmente en La educación, pp. 179, 180). 

NOTAS DE ELENAMaterial complementario de la escuela Sabática para adultosNarrado por: Patty CuyanDesde: California, USAUna cortesía de DR'Ministries y Canaan Seventh-Day Adventist ChurchLUNES, 28 DE ABRILDANIEL 2En la historia de las naciones el que estudia la Palabra de Dios puede contemplar el cumplimiento literal de la profecía divina. Babilonia, al fin quebrantada, desapareció porque, en tiempos de prosperidad, sus gobernantes se habían considerado independientes de Dios y habían atribuido la gloria de su reino a las hazañas humanas. El reino medo-persa fue objeto de la ira del Cielo porque en él se pisoteaba la ley de Dios. El temor de Jehová no tenía cabida en los corazones de la vasta mayoría del pueblo. Prevalecían la impiedad, la blasfemia y la corrupción. Los reinos que siguieron fueron aun más viles y corruptos; y se fueron hundiendo cada vez más en su falta de valor moral. El poder ejercido por todo gobernante de la tierra es impartido del Cielo; y del uso que hace de este poder el tal gobernante, depende su éxito. A cada uno de ellos se dirigen estas palabras del Vigía divino: "Yo te ceñiré, aunque tú no me conociste". Isaías 45:5. Y para cada uno constituyen la lección de la vida las palabras dirigidas a Nabucodonosor: "Redime tus pecados con justicia, y tus iniquidades con misericordias para con los pobres; que tal vez será eso una prolongación de tu tranquilidad". Daniel 4:27. Comprender estas cosas, comprender que "la justicia engrandece la nación"; que "con justicia será afirmado el trono" y que este se sustenta "con clemencia", reconocer el desarrollo de estos principios en la manifestación del poder de aquel que "quita reyes, y pone reyes", es comprender la filosofía de la historia. Proverbios 14:34; 16:12; 20:28; Daniel 2:21. Esto se presenta claramente tan solo en la Palabra de Dios. En ella se revela que la fuerza tanto de las naciones como de los individuos no se halla en las oportunidades o los recursos que parecen hacerlos invencibles; no se halla en su jactanciosa grandeza. Se mide por la fidelidad con que cumplen el propósito de Dios (Profetas y reyes, pp. 367, 368). La imagen mostrada a Nabucodonosor simboliza el deterioro del poder y la gloria de los reinos de la tierra, y, al mismo tiempo representa adecuadamente el deterioro de la religión y de la moral entre los habitantes de esos reinos. Cuando las naciones se olvidan de Dios se debilitan moralmente en igual proporción. Babilonia desapareció porque en su prosperidad se olvidó de Dios y atribuyó la gloria de su prosperidad a las hazañas humanas. El reino Medo-Persa fue visitado por la ira del cielo debido a que en ese reino fue pisoteada la ley de Dios. El temor de Jehová no tenía cabida en el corazón de la gente. Las influencias que prevalecían en Medo-Persia eran la impiedad, la blasfemia y la corrupción. Los reinos subsiguientes fueron aun más viles y corruptos. Se deterioraron porque menospreciaron su fidelidad a Dios. Al olvidarse de Dios se hundieron más y más en la escala de valores morales (Comentarios de Elena G. de White en Comentario bíblico adventista del séptimo día, t. 4, p. 1190). 

3/30/2025 4 Beasts, 7 Kings, 7 Heads and 10 Horns Intro: Basically…The Four beasts are Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece and Rome. Four nations that were great world empires that controlled Israel after the Babylonian captivity. The Seven Kings are those nations that also ruled over Israel from the Beginning at Moses til the Tribulation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Roman Empire. The Henry Morris Study Bible believes the seven heads are Sumerians, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. More about that later…..

This message highlights God's sovereignty in Daniel 8, showing how He orchestrates history, including the rise and fall of empires like Medo-Persia and Greece. It underscores the importance of humility, warning that pride leads to downfall—seen in the story of Antiochus IV, who opposed God and was ultimately defeated. The sermon also acknowledges the reality of persecution for believers, offering reassurance that God will triumph over evil. Rather than inspiring fear, prophecy should strengthen faithfulness. In closing, the message encourages trust in God's control and unwavering faith in uncertain times, reaffirming that He holds the final victory.

3/16/2025 4 Beasts, 7 Kings, 7 Heads and 10 Horns Intro: Basically…The Four beasts are Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece and Rome. Four nations that were great world empires that controlled Israel after the Babylonian captivity. The Seven Kings are those nations that also ruled over Israel from the Beginning at Moses til the Tribulation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Roman Empire. The Henry Morris Study Bible believes the seven heads are Sumerians, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. More about that later…..

3/9/2025 4 Beasts, 7 Kings, 7 Heads and 10 Horns Intro: Basically…The Four beasts are Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece and Rome. Four nations that were great world empires that controlled Israel after the Babylonian captivity. The Seven Kings are those nations that also ruled over Israel from the Beginning at Moses til the Tribulation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Roman Empire. The Henry Morris Study Bible believes the seven heads are Sumerians, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. More about that later…..

3/2/2025 4 Beasts, 7 Kings, 7 Heads and 10 Horns Intro: Basically…The Four beasts are Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece and Rome. Four nations that were great world empires that controlled Israel after the Babylonian captivity. The Seven Kings are those nations that also ruled over Israel from the Beginning at Moses til the Tribulation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Roman Empire. The Henry Morris Study Bible believes the seven heads are Sumerians, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. More about that later…..

2/23/2025 4 Beasts, 7 Kings, 7 Heads and 10 Horns Intro: Basically…The Four beasts are Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece and Rome. Four nations that were great world empires that controlled Israel after the Babylonian captivity. The Seven Kings are those nations that also ruled over Israel from the Beginning at Moses til the Tribulation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Roman Empire. The Henry Morris Study Bible believes the seven heads are Sumerians, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. More about that later…..

Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/editorialtpv El día de hoy hablaremos sobre la visión de Daniel del macho cabrío, a menudo asociada con los enemigos de Dios (Daniel 8); de acuerdo al libro "Predicando a Cristo desde Daniel", por Sidney Greidanus. Ver aquí: https://teologiaparavivir.com/greidanus-daniel/ . El programa de hoy presenta un análisis expositivo del capítulo 8 de Daniel, enfocándose en la interpretación de una visión profética sobre el surgimiento y caída de imperios, específicamente, Medo-Persia y Grecia, simbolizados por un carnero y un macho cabrío. Se presta especial atención a la figura del "cuerno pequeño", generalmente identificado con Antíoco IV Epífanes, y a su persecución del pueblo de Dios. Se discuten diversas interpretaciones de imágenes simbólicas, como el "ejército del cielo" y las "dos mil trescientas tardes y mañanas", y se explora la teología subyacente, destacando la soberanía divina a pesar de la opresión humana. Finalmente, se proponen maneras de aplicar el texto a la fe cristiana, conectándolo a la figura del anticristo y al juicio final.  Siguenos: - Web: https://teologiaparavivir.com/ - Blog: https://semperreformandaperu.org/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teologiaparavivir/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teologiaparavivir/ - Youtube: https://www.instagram.com/teologiaparavivir/  

WHO OR WHAT are the seven heads on the Beast? This week, we compare Revelation 17 and Daniel 7 to identify what the horns represent both past and future.There is a general consensus that the seven kingdoms are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and a future nation, possibly a revived Roman Empire, that is the global kingdom of Antichrist. As we noted last week, there are others who identify specific kings or rulers: Nimrod, Thutmose III (the pharaoh who oppressed Israel), Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus Ephiphanes, Nero, and Adolf Hitler, with the prophesied Antichrist to be the spirit who possessed one of the seven (or even a resurrected Nimrod).Here's where it gets more complicated: We believe the kings are supernatural—fallen angels, if you like. How do we identify them from among the pagan gods of the ancient world? That's a great question, and it's one we can't answer. We can speculate, but then we are looking “through a glass darkly.”We also note that the link in Revelation 17 between the seven heads on the Beast to “seven mountains” is not necessarily a geographic clue. Mountains in Second Temple Judaism sometimes represent angelic beings, as in 1 Enoch 21 (and probably the “stones of fire” in Ezekiel 28).

DANIELS PROPHECY OF THE END TIME KINGDOMS  I want to revisit my last talk about the Lord's prayer which says ‘Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven'. In that talk I mentioned prophesies from Daniel and Revelation about the disruption of worldly kingdoms in the end times. I'm discussing today the link between the prayer of ‘Your Kingdom Come' and visions that Daniel saw concerning the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven in greater measure in the days to come.   The Book of Daniel is a key book in the unlocking of revelation concerning the prophetic purposes of God, particularly concerning end-time events in the ‘latter days' and there are other visions of Daniel and Revelation that enlarge upon this basic vision. I want to share these prophesies not as dogma but because I have a conviction about the meaning of these prophesies and their relevance to the days in which we live and my approach will be to let Scripture interpret Scripture – all I can do is submit this approach for your discernment. Daniel was one of the Jews living in captivity after Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and took hundreds of thousands of Jews into captivity for seventy years. God gave Daniel favour in the court of the king who found Daniel ‘ten times better' than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm in all matters of wisdom and understanding. We can compare how God gave Joseph and Moses favour with Pharaoh. In chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar had a dream where he saw a vision of a great statue that had a head of gold and shoulders and arms of silver and an abdomen and thighs of brass and legs of iron and feet and toes of iron and clay. And a stone was cut out from a mountain but not by human hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. This vision terrified the king, and he demanded that whoever was chosen to interpret the dream for him had to get it right or he would be killed. and when Daniel heard this, he prayed and asked for guidance and mercy from God and he offered to interpret the dream. This vision may be one of the most important prophetic visions in the Bible since it lays the foundation for the rest of the book of Daniel and also the Book of Revelation or the apocalypse of John.  This vision also gives an understanding of many other end-time events. Daniel said to the king ‘There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will come to pass in the latter days (ah???rîyt? yom – time of the end) (Daniel 2:28)  and the ‘latter days' refers to what would happen to Israel and the Church and the world in the end times. This vision depicts the nature of the world kingdoms from Babylon down to the present day and history shows us the dates when these kingdoms ruled.  Daniel gives the king the interpretation that God showed to him. Firstly Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he was the head of gold, representing the Babylonian empire from 606 BC according to history(v.12) Secondly He told the king that the two shoulders and arms of silver represented the cruel double empire of Medo-Persia which would overtake his kingdom (in 536 BC - history) Thirdly Daniel told the king that the kingdom of the abdomen and thighs of bronze would defeat the Medes and Persians. And history show that this was Greece –Alexander the Great, (331-333 BC) Fourthly There were two legs of iron which would break in pieces and subdue all the other nations. History show us that this was the Roman Empire which would defeat the kingdom of Greece in 63 BC and rule the entire known world. The significance of the two legs of iron is that the Roman empire would later be divided into the Eastern and Western Empires. And the political and cultural and religious disparity between East and West still remains. The fifth and final worldly kingdom of the feet and ten toes of a mixture of iron and clay speaks of a ten-nation world power that will emerge at the end of the age. And we read the emergence of that divided and divisive kingdom in Daniel 2:41'And as you saw that the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the fragile clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw the iron mixed with fragile clay, so they will mix with one another in posterity (zera), but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. The iron in the feet is the expression of the ongoing nature of harsh dictatorial rule that represented the Roman empire in the statue. And the fragile earthly clay represents people. God made Man from the dust of the earth. And that clay speaks of government by the people for the people - democracy. This mixture of dictatorships and democracies mixing together but not holding together is a picture of the fragile nature of our global political and economic community that we see today and have for some years. This ten nation configuration of power is seen in the book of Revelation 17:12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings.  These kingdom rulers will one day join forces from amongst the global prominent nations in Europe and Asia and Africa and the Middle east and the Americas and Oceana and the South Pacific – down under. It is a remarkable fact of history that there has never been a conventional war between two democracies, but today we see Russia as a dictatorship attacking Ukraine which is a democracy, and we see China threatening Taiwan, a democratic republic, and Israel being attacked by Hamas and other Islamic terrorist entitles. The differences between the ideologies and cultures of these two distinct rules of order will never hold together for long.   The Scripture says ‘they will mix with one another in posterity  (Hebrew = zera = posterity which means planning together for a forever future. But we know they will not hold together despite the trade agreements and so-called treaties. So that ten toed kingdom is a configuration of ten nations that will plan to rule their world together forever, and this reflects their arrogance or hubris. The word hubris in the original Greek means an ‘insolent presumption towards God'. This is seen in the corrupt and oppressive political and financial power that is becoming rampant in these days.    Then the vision goes on to say that a Great Stone smites the image on the feet (10 toed kingdom). And Daniel says ‘And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever', Daniel interprets the great Stone as the Kingdom of Heaven and goes on to say ‘just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold and it shall stand forever. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” I believe that the 'days of those kings' has already begun and I believe we are living in times of global events that even the media are calling apocalyptic. And who or what is the great stone? The stone/rock represents Jesus Christ over his faithful people and the rock smites the image of a ten-nation world empire at this end of the age. Jesus said “on this rock I will build my church (Matt 16:18). God's people will reflect the rule of love and faith and justice of the Kingdom of Heaven, and this stone is cut out of a mountain without human hands. This is in stark contrast to the building of the tower of Babel, where man-made brick (beno – baked gleaming white bricks) is used to build a kingdom that will rule forever and reach to Heaven, just like the 10 toed kingdom. And that kingdom was scattered just as will be the final man-made kingdom that plans to rule forever.  ‘In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed' . I submit to you that means that at some time and I have no idea when, by the grace of God and through the Holy Spirit the Kingdom of Heaven will begin to be expressed in greater measure in God's people than ever before in the earth. This will prepare a people who understand what it means to believe and pray ‘Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven' they will desire the will of God in their lives more than their own. It is time to be guided by the Holy Spirit to hear what God is saying to his people corporately and individually and to see with eyes of faith what he is doing from Heaven and to be part of that being done in the earth.    

A @Christadelphians Video: Summary This presentation provides an overview of the sequence of events leading up to the establishment of God's Kingdom on Earth, focusing on the battle of Armageddon and the subsequent conversion of Israel. It highlights the importance of understanding biblical prophecies and being prepared for the imminent return of Christ. Highlights

We are now in the second half of Daniel which focuses on the dreams and visions that Daniel himself received. These visions include imagery of beasts, animals, and horns, representing kingdoms and the kings who come from them. Some of what Daniel sees is explained within the text itself while some remains the topic of debate and speculation to this day. Some, however, has clearly been fulfilled, like the goat which tramples the ram. The goat is the Greek Empire and it's conspicuous horn is Alexander the Great, who trampled the Medo-Persia empire only to die suddenly at the peak of his power. Antiochus emerges from one of the four new kingdoms, a ruler who persecutes the Jews, stops regular sacrifices, and defiles the temple.Daniel 7 - 1:09 . Daniel 8 - 8:12 . Daniel 9 - 14:39 . Isaiah 44 - 21:51 .  :::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Bobby Brown, Katelyn Pridgen, Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

A @Christadelphians Video: # Summary The seminar discusses biblical prophecies regarding other nations, focusing on the visions of Daniel and their implications for the future. Highlights

Send us a messageBased upon the symbolism and historical analysis, the four kingdoms of Daniel's vision as recorded in Daniel 2:38-40 and chapter 7, are BABYLON: (612-539 BC) represented by the head of gold (2:32) and a lion having the wings of an eagle (7:4).MEDO-PERSIA: (539-331 BC) represented by the upper body of silver (2:32) and a bear (7:5). GREECE: (331-63 BC) represented by the belly and thighs made of bronze (2:32) and as a leopard with four wings and four heads (7:6). And… ROME: (63 BC – AD 476).The fourth kingdom is “unlike” the first ones, in that it surfaces in TWO phases.The FIRST phase of this kingdom is represented by legs of iron (2:32 and an unspecified beast with iron teeth and bronze claws (7:7). This was the fierce Roman Empire which dominated the known world for hundreds of years, and was in power during the time of Jesus' birth, life, death and glorious resurrection.The FINAL phase is a “Revived Roman Empire” or “New World Order” which will come on the world scene in the days leading up to the End Times.This fourth kingdom is a confederacy of nations, some weak and some strong – represented in the great image by the feet of part iron and part clay. And so, this image is a view of the whole of world history – showing the ruling kingdoms of the earth – and we are now living in the feet of this image!Support the showVisit our website: https://agapelightministries.com/

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome—all great civilizations whose power and influence have been reduced to rubble over the centuries. But the Bible speaks of a kingdom that won't fade with time. Join John Bradshaw as he looks at the prophecies of Daniel, and learn how the progression and trajectory of history speak to the soon return of Jesus and a kingdom that will last forever.

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome—all great civilizations whose power and influence have been reduced to rubble over the centuries. But the Bible speaks of a kingdom that won't fade with time. Join John Bradshaw as he looks at the prophecies of Daniel, and learn how the progression and trajectory of history speak to the soon return of Jesus and a kingdom that will last forever.

Bottom line: Fulfilled prophecy gives us assurance that prophecies yet fulfilled will be fulfilled. Daniel 7 records Daniel's vision of strange beasts and a coming King. Daniel sees four world empires (Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece, and Rome) rise onto the scene in succession. And he ultimately sees the coming Kingdom of Jesus and His coronation as King. Daniel 7 is perhaps the most important chapter in the book. It is what we call a primary reference. That means it contains original prophecy that will be quoted and referenced by others such as Jesus, Paul, and John the Revelator. In this one chapter, God's incredible, unchangeable redemptive plan for human history is laid out.

Bottom line: Fulfilled prophecy gives us assurance that prophecies yet fulfilled will be fulfilled. Daniel 7 records Daniel's vision of strange beasts and a coming King. Daniel sees four world empires (Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece, and Rome) rise onto the scene in succession. And he ultimately sees the coming Kingdom of Jesus and His coronation as King. Daniel 7 is perhaps the most important chapter in the book. It is what we call a primary reference. That means it contains original prophecy that will be quoted and referenced by others such as Jesus, Paul, and John the Revelator. In this one chapter, God's incredible, unchangeable redemptive plan for human history is laid out.

"26. And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. 27. And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it. "

Esther was a young Jewish woman who became the queen of Medo-Persia. ******* By the way, if you haven't bought a copy of my new book yet, check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Visions-Stories-Faith-Pastor/dp/161493536X

Revelation 10 (NASB95)Andrew and Edwin discuss the mystery of God from Revelation 10 linking back to Daniel's visions and discussion of God's mystery.Read the written devo that goes along with this episode by clicking here.    Let us know what you are learning or any questions you have. Email us at TextTalk@ChristiansMeetHere.org.    Join the Facebook community and join the conversation by clicking here. We'd love to meet you. Be a guest among the Christians who meet on Livingston Avenue. Click here to find out more. Michael Eldridge sang all four parts of our theme song. Find more from him by clicking here.   Thanks for talking about the text with us today.________________________________________________If the hyperlinks do not work, copy the following addresses and paste them into the URL bar of your web browser: Daily Written Devo: https://readthebiblemakedisciples.wordpress.com/?p=16639The Christians Who Meet on Livingston Avenue: http://www.christiansmeethere.org/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TalkAboutTheTextFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/texttalkMichael Eldridge: https://acapeldridge.com/ 

Daniel 2:31-49 (ESV)Daniel 2:31-35Daniel 2:26-49Isaiah 2:2Micah 4:1Daniel 2:31-35Daniel 2:27-28Daniel 2:36-381. Babylon is GoldDaniel 2:392. Medo-Persia is SilverDaniel 2:393. Greece is BronzeDaniel 2:40-424. Rome is Iron and ClayDaniel 2:43-455. The Stone That Smashes and Becomes a Great Mountain is Christ and the Kingdom of GodPsalm 118:19-24Isaiah 8:14Isaiah 28:16Luke 20:18Isaiah 6:6-7Daniel 2:46-49

THAT'S SO LAME With the eclipse so recent, literally putting a point on the new year of the feast cycle at the New Moon (Rosh Chodesh), it seemed proper to emphasize this year's pilgrimage through the feast. This is true specially in the United States where the eclipse bisected an already very divided nation. The eclipse gave us a glimpse of a wedding ring, which for believers in Yeshua, is the covenant, particularly Shabbat, the sign of our betrothal. We protect its holiness while we await the Bridegroom's return. During each eclipse, we have a dramatic reminder. For Americans, at the very least, I take this as a warning. Repent. Be set-apart. No more lukewarmness toward the feasts and Shabbat. Pray. Pray for the world, but especially Israel and our nation. The new moons are a zikaron, or remembrance. It is an appointed time for Adonai to "remember" us, which means to purpose an action pertaining to us. Attend Shabbat and each feast with like kind and like mind. Gather however you can. Each year at Pesach, you may have have started the journey through your last "sealing" on earth as we know it. It is your protection to the tribulation that accompanies those final days. Even as I write this, the ancient beasts of Babylon and Medo-Persia are crouching at the door. In apostolic times, the Biblical feasts were seen as a seal of protection to those who celebrated them. Seven feasts, seven seals. Sound familiar? You can find the details in Creation Gospel Workbook Six. We are living in a miracle so great that almost everyone is missing it...even those who are the miracle! What is even greater than the Exodus? The Greater Exodus! Israel being gathered from all the nations to return to her covenant, the Living Torah, and her Promised Land of covenant. Isn't that greater than the Reed Sea parting? After all, it's been almost 2000 years since a large group of people dared to proclaim Yeshua the Messiah and walk in obedience to his Torah simultaneously. As with the wilderness journey, the arguments and chaos frequently obliterate the miracle-consciousness. First, however, before the journey home, the "moral" return begins in the lands of exile. Before we walk and leap on the way to celebrate the foot festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, we need healing. Thousands upon thousands are being healed of enmity against the Word and their Jewish brothers and sisters walking in the covenant. In ancient times, Jeroboam put up barriers on the highways of Israel to prevent the tribes of the Northern Kingdom from journeying to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. By separating brothers, which is the seventh and most wicked of abominations, the northern tribes quickly lost their identity among the nations. To undo this separation has to be a work of the Ruach HaKodesh. To reiterate how the Ruach works to knit together like kind, rather than scatter and separate, I'm including Chapter Two of Standing With Israel: a House of Prayer for All Nations. It describes how prayer brought Jew and non-Jew together at the time of the afternoon prayer and Temple sacrifice. This prayer is named after the sacrifice, the Minchah. It is also called Shemoneh Esrei, or Eighteen, after its eighteen individual prayers. STANDING WITH ISRAEL: A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL NATIONS CHAPTER TWO JEW AND GENTILE: PETER AND CORNELIUS The Shemoneh Esrei, whatever its form evolving in the Second Temple era, is a common prayer for both Jews and “God fearers” in Acts of the Apostles. Peter and John observe the hour of prayer: “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.” In Acts, Peter and John are still accustomed to praying in the Temple at the appointed hour, and they encounter a lame man, likely a Jew, at the hour of Minchah prayer, the ninth hour. This is three o'clock.

With the Clouds of Heaven Daniel 7:1-28 by William Klock The seventh chapter of Daniel begins this way: In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.   It's finally Daniel's turn to dream.  The storyteller rolls back the clock about a decade to the first year of Belshazzar, which would have been about 550 BC.  The implied audience, remember, is the faithful Jews living in Judah in the early 160s BC, during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.  The purpose of the book of Daniel was to encourage them and to exhort them to stand firm for the Lord, to stand firm for his law, even as this pagan king was making it illegal for them to live according to the law and to worship the Lord, even as many of their fellow Jews were caving in to the pressure and apostatizing.  The book of Daniel points them back to their ancestors who lived during the Babylonian exile and had their own struggles to remain faithful to the Lord.  The story is told through their eyes to encourage the current generation. We also need to understand that the book of Daniel now shifts its genre from tales about Daniel and his friends in the Babylonian court to apocalyptic visions.  There are four visions.  This first one in Chapter 7, a second in Chapter 8, a third in Chapter 9, and a fourth spanning Chapters 10-12.  In Greek, an apokalypsis is a revelation, an unveiling, of something.  It's related to prophecy, but it usually has—at least in the Bible—it usually has to do with current events and is God's way of pulling the curtain back to show that current events aren't just random or haphazard, but that he's at work behind them.  Biblical apocalyptic encourages the faithful to stand firm and to trust in the Lord knowing that even as evil seems like it's out of control, it's not.  God is sovereign and he—and his faithful people—will win the day.  It reminds us that God is king and that he will vindicate his people for their faith. And, as we saw with Revelation, one of the defining characteristics of apocalyptic literature is that it communicates through symbols.  And that can make it difficult for us.  The symbolism would have been obvious to the original hearers, but because it's very context dependent—things like culture and history, worldview and mythology and things like that—it can be very hard for us to understand.  One of the hard things for us, one of the things that gets lost in translation is the visceral reaction this symbolism would have created in the original audience.  For us it's just something to decode: this means that.  For them, the imagery would stir up emotions.  This wasn't about events thousands of years ago.  This was about what they were experiencing.  It was about their world, their not-too-distant past, and their not-too-distant future.  It was about the present affliction, the present persecution, the present pressures that confronted them.  Think of the feelings you might have as you watch the evening news: fear, dread, sadness, elation.  Those sorts of feelings were connected with this imagery.  The timing of this vision, at the beginning of Belshazzar's co-regency, means that Daniel's vision would coincide with big news.  For millennia the Assyrian empire had dominated the Near East.  The Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus and Belshazzar was the last incarnation of Assyria.  To the north was the Median Empire and to the east the Persian.  Cyrus the Great, the Persian emperor was on the move, gobbling up parts of Media and Babylon.  In 550 BC the Medes fell to the Persians.  Now Babylon was in Cyrus' sights.  Here were Daniel and his people, bystanders in the middle of turbulent times.  We can imagine Daniel hearing the most recent news of the fall of the Medes, going to bed, tossing and turning, finally falling into restless sleep, and dreaming.  Let's continue with verse 2: Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.' After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.  (Daniel 7:2-8) In his vision, Daniel stands by the great sea.  In the Old Testament the “great sea” always means the Mediterranean.  It was the centre of the ancient world.  Imagine Daniel standing in a place jutting out into the sea, a place the Rock of Andromeda at Joppa.  The waters rage and the winds blow.  It's not an ordinary wind.  The winds rage from north and south, east and west all at the same time and the sea churns violently around him.  For all the ancient Near Eastern peoples, the sea represented chaos.  Genesis opens with the sea—formless and void—representing the chaos of the uncreated world into which the Lord speaks, separating the waters, raising dry land, bringing the order needed for humans to live and to flourish.  Now, in his dream, Daniel sees the sea raging.  Chaos threatens the order of God's good creation.  As we look at our own current events, it's not very hard to image what Daniel felt.  Turn on the news or look on the Web and so often it seems like chaos and evil are tearing the world apart.  In so many places humans languish when they should be flourishing, all because of war and corruption, because of poverty and greed and sickness.  Sometimes it seems like chaos has won the day. And who's at the heart of the chaos?  Daniel sees four ferocious beasts emerge from the sea.  The beasts are symbolic and it's hard to be certain exactly how all the symbolism here works.  A lot of it seems to come from the Old Testament prophets, but it could also be coming from the mythology and the symbols of the various peoples and empires that are symbolized.  Some of it is eerily similar to the symbolism of the Babylonian books Daniel would have studied in learning about divination and the symbolism of dreams.  What we do know—because Daniel is told in verse 17—is that these beasts represent four empires.   We know from what has preceded and what follows in Daniel that the sequence of empires begins with Assyria, of which Babylon was the last incarnation.  So a regal lion with the wings of an eagle emerges from the sea representing the greatness of Babylon.  Its wings are plucked off and it is set on two feet, which reminds us of Nebuchadnezzar in Chapter 4, ranging in the wilderness like a wild animal, but eventually restored to humanity and kingship by the Lord. From this point there's disagreement on how to interpret the symbolism and that's because of our distance from the original context.  We just can't be sure what the symbolism means and it then becomes very easy to look through history and cherry pick things that match the symbolism and squeeze it into our modern interpretations.  I'll just note that the rabbis and Christians for most of our history interpreted these four empires as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.  That was mostly because in the days of the rabbis and early Christians, Rome was the great global power and because Rome so often stood opposed to both the Jews and Christians.  Rome fell, but Byzantium—the eastern Roman empire—remained until the 15th Century.  And there were successors to Rome in the West.  In 800 Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans and it wasn't until 1806 that the Holy Roman Empire finally came to an end.  But as the years went by, connecting Daniel's fourth beast to Rome became more difficult, and since the early 19th Century folks have had to work especially hard to hold on to that interpretation, whether identifying the beast with the papacy or with the European Union—and those schemes have consistently ended up falling apart. History gives us a better basis for interpreting Daniel's beasts.  We know now that at the time Daniel was written there was a common scheme across the Ancient Near East for describing the succession of empires.  The four great empires were Assyria, the Medes, the Persians, and the Greek Macedonians.  In fact, as the Romans replaced the Greeks in the centuries that followed, they were added to the scheme as a fifth empire. So following this common pattern, the bear represents the Medes.  As in Nebuchadnezzar's statue, it was clearly inferior to the Babylonians.  The three ribs in its mouth may be a reference to Jeremiah 51:27-29, which describes the three nations that joined with the Medes in their attack on Babylon.  And the four-winged, four-headed leopard then represents the Persians.  The swiftness with which the Persians conquered the four corners of the earth contrasts with the ponderous bear imagery of the Medes.  But Daniel's vision really isn't very interested in the second and third kingdoms.  The focus of his dream is on the fourth.  This is the kingdom that raged and threatened the people of God at the time the book was written. And the fourth kingdom is different.  As we'll see in a bit, the first three beasts, despite appearances, were all under control.  But this fourth beast, it does what it wants to do—or at least, that's how it thinks of itself.  The imagery of the great beast, exceedingly strong, and stamping into oblivion what was left after breaking things apart with its iron teeth or tusks, suggests an elephant—a good image of Alexander's unstoppable army that conquered the territory of the other three empires.  The ten horns are fitting symbols of the ten kingdoms that arose from Alexander's empire after his death.[1]  But out of those horns there came up one king in particular, who was a menace to the people of God.  The little horn is, again, a fitting image of Antiochus Epiphanes.  He tried to abolish the law and the worship of the God of Israel.  He was the one who claimed divinity for himself.  He was the cause of all their woes. But then, in the midst of the chaos, as the sea churns and these ferocious beasts rage across the earth, a new image appears—a bit like Dad coming home to find his unruly children tearing apart the house.  Look at verses 9 and 10: “As I looked, thrones were placed,          and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow,          and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames;          its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued          and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him,          and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment,          and the books were opened.   The beasts are brought to heel as the God of Israel takes his seat as judge.  The one who tamed chaos in the first place established earthly kings to preserve his order and to promote human flourishing.  These kings have done the opposite and now what at first seemed like wild and ferocious beasts stand pitifully before the judgement seat of the Most High God, his fiery throne, and before the heavenly hosts.  Then verses 11 and 12: “I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.   Even as he stands before the Most High, that blasphemous little horn continues to speak.  The other beasts, for all their raging, served the Living God—as we've seen in the first six chapters.  They all, in some way and in the end, acknowledged him.  The Lord of history raised them up to serve his purposes.  But this horn on the fourth beast rages against the sovereign God and is judged: killed, destroyed, and burned to oblivion.  The vision gave hope to the faithful living under his reign of terror. But that's not all there is to it.  Daniel has a second vision and this one's not just about the bringing down of wicked rulers; this one is about the raising up of a righteous one.  As St. Paul writes in Romans, creation waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed.  It's not enough to judge the wicked.  Creation longs for its rightful stewards.  Look at verses 13 and 14: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven          there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days          and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion          and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages          should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,          which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one          that shall not be destroyed.   History will not continue as a reign of terror and blasphemy, nor will it merely end in judgement.  In place of the raging kings represented by ferocious beasts, Daniel now sees one “like a son of man”.  In the beginning the Lord created human beings to rule his creation with goodness and wisdom as his stewards and that's what this new figure like a son of man represents.  After the Lord has judged the wicked empires of the world, this son of man arrives riding on the clouds—that's a dramatic image of the Lord's war chariot.  He is presented before the Ancient of Day, before the Most High God, and to him is given glory and an everlasting dominion—ultimately a kingdom that will not be destroyed. But what does this all mean?  The dream continues as one of the heavenly host explains the symbolism to Daniel in verses 15-27: “As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.'   “Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet, and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions. As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.   “Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth,          which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth,          and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise,          and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones,          and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High,          and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,          and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand          for a time, times, and half a time. But the court shall sit in judgment,          and his dominion shall be taken away,          to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion          and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven                   shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,          and all dominions shall serve and obey him.' This is the hope of the saints.  The blasphemous little monster will put himself in the place of God.  He will torment the faithful.  He will have power and authority and, to all appearances, it will seem like his reign will last forever—or longer than those other kingdoms, at any rate.  A time, times—and that would go in sequence: four times and eight times and sixteen times and so on.  But no.  It's a time and times and suddenly a half.  That might be a reference to the roughly three-and-a-half years Antiochus Epiphanes terrorized Judah, but it's more likely the idea that his power is cut short at its height.  The Lord will give him enough rope to hang himself.  And his kingdom will be given to the saints, to the holy ones of the Most High—and his dominion, his kingdom will go on forever and ever. It's an image of the world set to rights.  Chaos is finally, once and for all given order in by the Lord, and human beings are restored to their rightful place, to serve before the Lord as his stewards—as priests and kings.  This is why the Jews saw the son of man here as a symbolic representative of Israel.  They were the people elect and set apart by the Lord, a people made holy to be a light to the nations—a people who, in living with the Lord in their midst—gave the world a glimpse of what creation was supposed to be like and who pointed forward to the day when it really would be set to rights and men and women would finally serve the Lord as the stewards and rulers of his creation. The chapter ends in verse 28: “Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart.” This is the end of the first vision, but there's more to come.  This vision sets the scene and gives us the setting and timeframe for the visions that will follow.  But then—and I guess I'm jumping ahead to the end of Daniel—we realise as Christians that even as Daniel's visions end, it's not really the end of the matter.  The Lord did indeed bring down the evil Antiochus IV.  The Lord did indeed vindicate his people.  A new king would take the throne in Judah.  But as is so often the case with Old Testament prophecy, even though we see it obviously fulfilled in the events of those days, it's fulfilled in a way that leaves things open to a final and greater fulfilment.  Judah was only free for a century and then Pompey came, conquered Jerusalem for Rome, and deposed the Hasmonean dynasty.  And the people would wait again for the Lord to deliver them. It was in those dark days that Jesus was born and began his ministry and it shouldn't surprise us in the least that he took for himself this title from Daniel, son of man.  He was the embodiment of the humanity we forsook in the garden and the embodiment of the Israel that Israel could never manage to be.  In him, God became the first man to be what we were created to be.  And as our representative, he broke the bonds of sin by letting evil do its worst.  The chaos and the vicious beasts of fallen, sinful, rebellious humanity rose up around him and did their worst, they killed him, and they buried him in the earth, and for three days evil thought it had triumphed.  But on the third day, God vindicated his son, raising him from death.  And as Jesus rose from his grave, so Jesus also rose to take his throne.  The son of man has been given dominion and glory and his kingdom and as the good news of his death and resurrection goes out, the peoples, nations, and languages are being brought to him in faith, to serve him and to give him glory.  And in that, we see the people of God, the new Israel, the church empowered by word and Spirit, coming on the clouds—riding the Lord's war chariot, equipped with the gospel—the good news of Jesus, crucified, risen, and enthroned in glory.  And there, Brothers and Sisters, we ought to find hope and inspiration to stand firm in faith even as the seas rage today, as new beasts emerge from the dark waters, even as they speak vain and blasphemous things.  Jesus has won the decisive battle.  He now sends out: Onward!  Christian soldiers.  And on we go, taking up our crosses into the world, knowing that the one who humbled himself on the cross and who conquered by his blood not only stands with us, but has filled us with his own Spirit and now goes on before us. Let's pray again our Collect: Almighty God, consider the heartfelt desires of your servants, we pray, and stretch out the right hand of your majesty to defend us against all our enemies, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.   [1] Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucia, Macedon, Pergamum, Pontus, Bithynia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Parthia, and Bactria.

In this episode, we continue the study of the book of Daniel, focusing on Daniel chapter 7 and his vision of the four great beasts. The first beast, a lion with eagle's wings, represents Babylon. The second beast, a bear, symbolizes the Medo-Persian Empire. The third beast, a leopard with four wings, represents Greece and Alexander the Great. The fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, represents the Roman Empire. The little horn that arises from the ten horns of the fourth beast represents the Antichrist. The chapter also explores God's judgment and the end times. In this conversation, we discusses the final judgment, the second coming of Christ, the thousand years of peace, the tribulation saints, the first resurrection, the battle of Gog and Magog, the destruction of the Antichrist, the rise of the Roman Empire, the persecution of the Jews, the one world government and church, the deception and offenses, the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man, the dominion of the Antichrist, the everlasting dominion of God, the true kingdom of peace, Daniel's grief and God's interpretation, the four beasts as four kingdoms, the dreadful fourth kingdom, the Antichrist's persecution of the saints, the judgment and possession of the kingdom, Daniel's troubled spirit, and hope in God's prophecies. Takeaways The book of Daniel contains prophecies that are relevant to both Daniel's time and the future. The four great beasts in Daniel's vision represent Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The little horn that arises from the fourth beast represents the Antichrist. God's judgment and the end times are depicted in Daniel's vision. God will judge all people and open the Book of Life to determine who will enter heaven. After the seven-year tribulation, Jesus will return and there will be a thousand years of peace on earth. During the thousand years of peace, Satan will be bound and unable to deceive the nations. The tribulation saints are those who get saved during the tribulation and refuse to worship the beast or take the mark of the beast. The Antichrist and the false prophet will be destroyed by God, and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire. The Roman Empire will rise again as the fourth kingdom, and it will be a beast system controlled by AI technology. The one world government and church will accept all religions, but true unity comes from sound doctrine. The Ancient of Days and the Son of Man will be given dominion and an everlasting kingdom. God's prophecies about the end times should give us hope and assurance of His ultimate victory. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stacey-gibson3/message

In this week's study, I continue in Chapter 17 verses 8 and 9. Before I get into the study, I discuss some new events about the global elite. I talk about the AG of Texas and his comments made on the effectives of Pfizer Covid Vaccine. I talk about the South African political leader Julius Malema, who wants to kill the white people in Africa. And I discuss how the school systems are teaching the youths of today similar to what Adolf Hitler did back in the 1930's.In our last study I showed how the City of Jerusalem sits on 7 sevens hill and that Jerusalem is where Satan sets up his throne. This week John goes into detail about these 7 kings.10   Five are fallen, the one =  Indeed, by John's day five powerful, influential Gentile kingdoms that were all birthed in ancient Babel by the mother of harlots all were kingdoms who opposed Yahweh of Israel and his covenant people. These five kingdoms, by this time, had all come and gone.  Five have fallen: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo Persia and Greece.is = (the sixth)  (at this stage of the Vision), Naturally, this is a reference to Rome where Domitian was currently ruling and reigning, a foreshadow of the antichrist.the other = (the seventh), is not yet come.  referring to the reign of the antichrist and his empire.Short space = How long is a short space?  Well, according to chapter 13 verse five he will be given, “authority to act for forty-two months,”  which is the last three and a half years of the tribulation.  and when he shall have come, he must remain a short time. = i.e., a short time compared with the others. We have a similar statement in Chapter 12:12; where, when Satan is cast down, he had "great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."11        And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition; = and the beast (neuter, yhrion) that was and is not, he himself is also an eighth (masculine), and is of (ek , out of) the seven, etc.12.          And the ten horns which thou sawest are (i.e., represent) ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom; but they receive authority as kings at one and the same hour with the Beast =  (i.e., at the same time or season. See chapters 14:7, 15; 18:10, 17, 19. Matt 14:15; 18:1. Mark 6:35. Luke 1:10; 14:17. 1 John 2:18. John 5:35. 2 Cor 7:8. Philem 15). These ten kings, in their mortal stage, were not actually kings; but now, in their superhuman form, they are contemporary, and receive power at one and the same time with the Beast. Popular phraseology always speaks of them as "ten kingdoms." No wonder they cannot be identified or to predict, for the Scripture says nothing about "ten kingdoms," but always "ten kings." The substitution of "kingdoms" only introduces confusion. The verse would then read "They are ten kingdoms, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive authority as kingdoms." This is absurd as well as confusing.And the ten horns which thou sawest = On the scarlet-colored beast, in verse 3. The ‘horns', as we have seen in scripture, are symbolic of power (Rev. 13:1) and ‘ten signifies completeness and sufficiency. By the ten horns, there is expressed widespread, complete power. But this power, as John says, has not come into existence as yet.Are ten kings = Represent or denote ten kings - that is, kingdoms or powers But receive power as kings one hour with the beast = authorityWhich have received no kingdom as yet = That is, they were not in existence when John wrote.Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!

We have sanitized the Christmas story and made it clean and cute but think for a moment of what the Christmas story includes. The Christmas story is not only the announcement to Mary and Joseph of Jesus miraculous conception in Marys womb while remaining a virgin, it is not only the pronouncement to lowly shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, nor is it simply the visit of the magi. The Christmas story is far more than a nativity scene! Think about Jesus resurrection and all the details that surround it. In a culture that did not have much regard for women, it was a woman who first witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. If the gospel writers made up the story of Jesus resurrection, they would not have chosen women to be the first to witness the greatest event in history. In Matthews gospel account, to whom Jews were the primary audience, it is the magi who are included at the beginning of his story in connection to proving the point that the infant Jesus was indeed qualified as the rightful heir of King David. The irony in this is that if you are going to tell a story about Jesus and the motive in doing so is to prove to every Jewish reader that He is the Messiah and greater than David, why in the world would you insert magi into your story?Who were the magi you ask? The magi were royal counselors who used astrology for guidance. Do you know what the Old Testament says about astrology? The Bible forbids the practice of astrology (Deut. 4:9) and uses strong language against it (Isa. 47:13-15). So, why would Matthew include the magi in his story about the life of Jesus? Because God summoned gentile pagans to the Savior of the nations by speaking a language that they could understand. Do you not find it to be both ironic and encouraging that the story of the pagan magi and a woman with a shady past serve as book ends of the four gospels included in the Bible to show us that Jesus is not just the King of the Jews, but also the Savior of the world. Jesus is Gods Yes! to all of His promises of which the one made to Abraham is no exception: And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3). Through Jesus, a son of Abraham and David, the nations are blessed the invitation of the magi and Mary Magdalene to witness the two most extraordinary events in human history is testament to Jesus as the hope of the nations. God Wields Time and Space for His Own Sovereign Designs We are not told how many magi saw the star and we are not given the exact longitude and latitude from where their journey began. All that we are told is that magi were from the East. Now, as I mentioned last week, there are two principals at work that made the first Christmas possible; those principles are: 1) the incarnational principle, and 2) the grace principle. The promise, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was never plan B but always plan A in the mind of God, because His intention was always to dwell with His people. The principle of the incarnation is seen in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eves sin, Israels experience with God in the wilderness, and in the promise of Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. Matthew is quick to point out that Immanuel means God with us. Connected to the incarnation principle is the principle of Gods unconditional grace in that when it came to the virgin birth, there was nothing anyone could have done to make it happen or to prevent it from happening; Christmas happened all because of Gods unconditional and unmerited grace. It was the apostle Paul who wrote: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters (Gal. 4:4-5). In Matthew and Luke we are provided two separate genealogies that demonstrate this. In Luke 3:23-38 we receive what many scholars believe to be Marys genealogy since the point of Lukes gospel is to show Jesus humanity. In Matthew 1:1-17, we are given Josephs genealogy showing Jesus legal standing as a member of the tribe of Judah as the rightful heir to Davids throne, but before we look at Josephs decision to follow through with his marriage to Mary, I want you to see why the magi are so important to Matthews gospel. For now, what you need to know is that God moved history, empires, and kings so that Joseph and Mary would meet, fall in love, and get engaged with a plan to start a family together. Sandwiched in between the time Mary and Josephs genealogies represent, is the 70 years much of the tribe of Judah was carried off into exile into Babylon (see Jer. 29:10). Babylons method of exile was to ingraft their culture into the culture of the Hebrews. What was threatened by the Babylonian exile was the preservation of the tribe of Judah. One of the Hebrews exiled into Babylon was a young man by the name of Daniel. God had gifted Daniel as a prophet and used him to speak into the life of one of the kings of Babylon known as Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel spent all of his long life as an exile, but for purposes related to this sermon, I want to turn your attention to the time Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a huge statue made of four distinct types of material with a head of gold, a chest and arms made of silver, a belly and thighs made of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made of both iron and clay. The Chaldeans were summoned by the king to interpret his dream without being told what dream Nebuchadnezzar had. The Chaldeans were also known as Babylons wise men, and because they told the king that to interpret a dream without being told about the dream was impossible, Nebuchadnezzar threatened death upon all the wise men who could not interpret his dream (Dan. 2:1-18). Because the God Daniel worshiped is the God who can do the impossible he revealed the dream and its meaning to Daniel. Before Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzars dream, he praised God with these words: May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and periods; He removes king and appoints kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to people of understanding (Dan. 2:20-21). Daniel told the king what he dreamed and then interpreted it for him. The kingdoms represented in the different materials of the statute included Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. There was a fifth kingdom represented in Nebuchadnezzars dream that was separate from the statute which was in the form of a stone not cut out by human hands that struck the statues feet which resulted in the crushing of the entire statue. Here is Daniels interpretation of the stone that destroyed the earthly kingdoms: And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever (Dan. 2:44). Guess what the king did next after Daniel finished interpreting his dream? He promoted Daniel as ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief over, all the wise men of Babylon (vv. 46-49). I dont think the magi worshiped the same God of Daniel, but I do think they could trace their roots all the way back to Babylon, and I am convinced that their interest in finding the King of the Jews was related to the stone that was in Nebuchadnezzars dream. I think they included in their studies of the stars any sacred document related to Daniels people in an effort to find and discover the King of the Kingdom that Daniels God would set up that will have no end. If the magi were familiar with Micah 5:2 and its connection they made with Numbers 24:17, which states: A star shall appear from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel (see Matt. 2:1-6), dont you think they were also familiar with Isaiah 9:6-7? I think that the magi connected the dots in the Old Testament and believed that Micah 5:2; Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7 were about the One a powerful pagan Babylonian king dreamed about 500 years before Jesus was born: For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. The way that God spoke to the magi was through a language they could understand as they looked to the stars the God of Daniel created. We are not told how God did it, but He was able to lead the magi with a star because He is the One, who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20)! God Shatters the Assumptions of Man Through His Redemptive Plans Now back to Joseph and Marys genealogies and personal lives. Following Gods promise to Abraham that He would bless him by making him a great nation and a blessing to the nations were 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile. There were some good years in-between those hard years of slavery, wilderness wandering, and exilic discipline, but during those seasons, I am pretty sure that it was difficult for the Hebrew people to see any silver lining or hope that God would, or could, turn the ugly around into something beautiful, but what Joseph and Marys genealogy shows us is that is exactly what God was doing with the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile! Gods plan for Israel and the nations always included a king, but not any old king. The king God intended was a King both human and divine. The plan was never for Israel only to have a human king just like David, nor was His plan of Israel to be only divine. Jesus was always plan A and never plan B. Let me briefly show what I mean by reminding you what we have looked at in the Bible during this series so far. In Exodus 19:6, God said of Israel after their deliverance from Egypt and as a people large enough to be their own nation: and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What would set Israel apart from all the other nations, is that Yahweh would be their King. In Isaiah 44:6 we are told what kind of King to Israel Yahweh is: This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. In other words, Yahweh is King, Redeemer, the Almighty One, eternal, and unlike any other god of the nations in that He is utterly unique! Just as we see in the first two chapters in Genesis before Adam and Eves fall, Yahweh would be King over His people. Yet, in Genesis 49:10, God spoke through Jacob to Judah long before Israel was ever a nation and promised: The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Then when we come to 2 Samuel 7:13, we discover God planned for Israel that not only would the obedience of the nations belong to a human king from the tribe of Judah, but a King who, shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Furthermore, we are told in Psalm 2 that this King will rule the nations with a rod of iron but will also be One in Whom all who find refuge in Him will be blessed (vv. 8-12). In Psalm 110, David says of his descendant who will be King over the nations: Yahweh says to my Lord: Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (v. 1). So, what kind of human King can be a physical descendant of David, have the obedience of the nations, and not be subject to the limitations of death because His reign will be eternal? The kind of King the magi sought, Mary would carry while a virgin, and Joseph would become the legal but nonbiological father of. Both Mary and Josephs bloodline could be traced back to David, Abraham, and Adam. The problem with sin is that it is passed down from the father to his child, for we are told in the Bible: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam (Rom. 5:12, 14). Sin is a genetically transmitted curse passed down from a mans sperm cell to a womans embryonic egg. For Jesus to be the rightful and legal heir of Davids throne, he needed to be a legal son of a man who was from the tribe of JudahJoseph qualified to be that man. For Jesus to be conceived without the curse and plague of sin being passed down to him while remaining a descendant of David, Abraham, and Adam, He had to be conceived and born of woman without biological requirement of a human sperm cell from Joseph. This is why the angel explained to Mary how she could be pregnant: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Conclusion The stakes for Joseph and Mary were very high. If Joseph followed through with ending his relationship with Mary because of a refusal to believe that her pregnancy was a miraculous act of Almighty God through His Holy Spirit, then Jesus would not have been qualified legally to be King of the Jews. Regarding Marys pregnancy, there was no turning back; she could not walk away from her pregnancy like Joseph could have. However, both Mary and Joseph chose to trust the God who sovereignly wields time and space for his redemptive plans even though it blew to ashes any assumptions they had for what was impossible or possible. Together, Mary and Joseph would raise the One the magi sought to find, the one read and studied about from the prophet Micah: But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. When the magi found Jesus, they appropriately worshiped Him and brought to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh fit for the kind of King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about 500 years earlier. The treasure for the magi, Joseph, and Mary was Jesus, and having Him in their lives was truly a source of great joy. There are two important lessons from Matthew 1:18-2:12 that I want to briefly mention and think more deeply upon next week: In the same way that God wielded time and space to make the virgin birth a reality and the visit of the magi a possibility, God has done, is doing, and will do to accomplish his redemptive purposes in and through your life. Your circumstances and sins are swallowed up by an infinitely greater God who bears the title: Redeemer. If God is able to move time and space to accomplish His redemptive purposes for mankind even in the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile, dont you think he can do the same in the midst of the circumstances of your life caused by your own sin? Do you really think that your problems are greater than Gods ability to turn your life around? In order to experience the great joy that Jesus brought to Mary, Joseph, and the magi they had to let go of their assumptions, dreams, future, and safety for the purpose of embracing Jesus as the One promised in Isaiah 9:6-7, For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. In order for you to embrace Jesus as Savior, it will require you to trust Him as Lord over and in your life. To find Jesus the Savior will require that you let go of your idols to experience Him as Redeemer. To say yes to Jesus will mean that you will have to say no to the idols of your heart. Christmas is about Jesus as the type of King we need!

We have sanitized the Christmas story and made it clean and cute but think for a moment of what the Christmas story includes. The Christmas story is not only the announcement to Mary and Joseph of Jesus miraculous conception in Marys womb while remaining a virgin, it is not only the pronouncement to lowly shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, nor is it simply the visit of the magi. The Christmas story is far more than a nativity scene! Think about Jesus resurrection and all the details that surround it. In a culture that did not have much regard for women, it was a woman who first witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. If the gospel writers made up the story of Jesus resurrection, they would not have chosen women to be the first to witness the greatest event in history. In Matthews gospel account, to whom Jews were the primary audience, it is the magi who are included at the beginning of his story in connection to proving the point that the infant Jesus was indeed qualified as the rightful heir of King David. The irony in this is that if you are going to tell a story about Jesus and the motive in doing so is to prove to every Jewish reader that He is the Messiah and greater than David, why in the world would you insert magi into your story?Who were the magi you ask? The magi were royal counselors who used astrology for guidance. Do you know what the Old Testament says about astrology? The Bible forbids the practice of astrology (Deut. 4:9) and uses strong language against it (Isa. 47:13-15). So, why would Matthew include the magi in his story about the life of Jesus? Because God summoned gentile pagans to the Savior of the nations by speaking a language that they could understand. Do you not find it to be both ironic and encouraging that the story of the pagan magi and a woman with a shady past serve as book ends of the four gospels included in the Bible to show us that Jesus is not just the King of the Jews, but also the Savior of the world. Jesus is Gods Yes! to all of His promises of which the one made to Abraham is no exception: And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3). Through Jesus, a son of Abraham and David, the nations are blessed the invitation of the magi and Mary Magdalene to witness the two most extraordinary events in human history is testament to Jesus as the hope of the nations. God Wields Time and Space for His Own Sovereign Designs We are not told how many magi saw the star and we are not given the exact longitude and latitude from where their journey began. All that we are told is that magi were from the East. Now, as I mentioned last week, there are two principals at work that made the first Christmas possible; those principles are: 1) the incarnational principle, and 2) the grace principle. The promise, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was never plan B but always plan A in the mind of God, because His intention was always to dwell with His people. The principle of the incarnation is seen in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eves sin, Israels experience with God in the wilderness, and in the promise of Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. Matthew is quick to point out that Immanuel means God with us. Connected to the incarnation principle is the principle of Gods unconditional grace in that when it came to the virgin birth, there was nothing anyone could have done to make it happen or to prevent it from happening; Christmas happened all because of Gods unconditional and unmerited grace. It was the apostle Paul who wrote: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters (Gal. 4:4-5). In Matthew and Luke we are provided two separate genealogies that demonstrate this. In Luke 3:23-38 we receive what many scholars believe to be Marys genealogy since the point of Lukes gospel is to show Jesus humanity. In Matthew 1:1-17, we are given Josephs genealogy showing Jesus legal standing as a member of the tribe of Judah as the rightful heir to Davids throne, but before we look at Josephs decision to follow through with his marriage to Mary, I want you to see why the magi are so important to Matthews gospel. For now, what you need to know is that God moved history, empires, and kings so that Joseph and Mary would meet, fall in love, and get engaged with a plan to start a family together. Sandwiched in between the time Mary and Josephs genealogies represent, is the 70 years much of the tribe of Judah was carried off into exile into Babylon (see Jer. 29:10). Babylons method of exile was to ingraft their culture into the culture of the Hebrews. What was threatened by the Babylonian exile was the preservation of the tribe of Judah. One of the Hebrews exiled into Babylon was a young man by the name of Daniel. God had gifted Daniel as a prophet and used him to speak into the life of one of the kings of Babylon known as Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel spent all of his long life as an exile, but for purposes related to this sermon, I want to turn your attention to the time Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a huge statue made of four distinct types of material with a head of gold, a chest and arms made of silver, a belly and thighs made of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made of both iron and clay. The Chaldeans were summoned by the king to interpret his dream without being told what dream Nebuchadnezzar had. The Chaldeans were also known as Babylons wise men, and because they told the king that to interpret a dream without being told about the dream was impossible, Nebuchadnezzar threatened death upon all the wise men who could not interpret his dream (Dan. 2:1-18). Because the God Daniel worshiped is the God who can do the impossible he revealed the dream and its meaning to Daniel. Before Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzars dream, he praised God with these words: May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and periods; He removes king and appoints kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to people of understanding (Dan. 2:20-21). Daniel told the king what he dreamed and then interpreted it for him. The kingdoms represented in the different materials of the statute included Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. There was a fifth kingdom represented in Nebuchadnezzars dream that was separate from the statute which was in the form of a stone not cut out by human hands that struck the statues feet which resulted in the crushing of the entire statue. Here is Daniels interpretation of the stone that destroyed the earthly kingdoms: And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever (Dan. 2:44). Guess what the king did next after Daniel finished interpreting his dream? He promoted Daniel as ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief over, all the wise men of Babylon (vv. 46-49). I dont think the magi worshiped the same God of Daniel, but I do think they could trace their roots all the way back to Babylon, and I am convinced that their interest in finding the King of the Jews was related to the stone that was in Nebuchadnezzars dream. I think they included in their studies of the stars any sacred document related to Daniels people in an effort to find and discover the King of the Kingdom that Daniels God would set up that will have no end. If the magi were familiar with Micah 5:2 and its connection they made with Numbers 24:17, which states: A star shall appear from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel (see Matt. 2:1-6), dont you think they were also familiar with Isaiah 9:6-7? I think that the magi connected the dots in the Old Testament and believed that Micah 5:2; Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7 were about the One a powerful pagan Babylonian king dreamed about 500 years before Jesus was born: For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. The way that God spoke to the magi was through a language they could understand as they looked to the stars the God of Daniel created. We are not told how God did it, but He was able to lead the magi with a star because He is the One, who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20)! God Shatters the Assumptions of Man Through His Redemptive Plans Now back to Joseph and Marys genealogies and personal lives. Following Gods promise to Abraham that He would bless him by making him a great nation and a blessing to the nations were 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile. There were some good years in-between those hard years of slavery, wilderness wandering, and exilic discipline, but during those seasons, I am pretty sure that it was difficult for the Hebrew people to see any silver lining or hope that God would, or could, turn the ugly around into something beautiful, but what Joseph and Marys genealogy shows us is that is exactly what God was doing with the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile! Gods plan for Israel and the nations always included a king, but not any old king. The king God intended was a King both human and divine. The plan was never for Israel only to have a human king just like David, nor was His plan of Israel to be only divine. Jesus was always plan A and never plan B. Let me briefly show what I mean by reminding you what we have looked at in the Bible during this series so far. In Exodus 19:6, God said of Israel after their deliverance from Egypt and as a people large enough to be their own nation: and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What would set Israel apart from all the other nations, is that Yahweh would be their King. In Isaiah 44:6 we are told what kind of King to Israel Yahweh is: This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. In other words, Yahweh is King, Redeemer, the Almighty One, eternal, and unlike any other god of the nations in that He is utterly unique! Just as we see in the first two chapters in Genesis before Adam and Eves fall, Yahweh would be King over His people. Yet, in Genesis 49:10, God spoke through Jacob to Judah long before Israel was ever a nation and promised: The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Then when we come to 2 Samuel 7:13, we discover God planned for Israel that not only would the obedience of the nations belong to a human king from the tribe of Judah, but a King who, shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Furthermore, we are told in Psalm 2 that this King will rule the nations with a rod of iron but will also be One in Whom all who find refuge in Him will be blessed (vv. 8-12). In Psalm 110, David says of his descendant who will be King over the nations: Yahweh says to my Lord: Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (v. 1). So, what kind of human King can be a physical descendant of David, have the obedience of the nations, and not be subject to the limitations of death because His reign will be eternal? The kind of King the magi sought, Mary would carry while a virgin, and Joseph would become the legal but nonbiological father of. Both Mary and Josephs bloodline could be traced back to David, Abraham, and Adam. The problem with sin is that it is passed down from the father to his child, for we are told in the Bible: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam (Rom. 5:12, 14). Sin is a genetically transmitted curse passed down from a mans sperm cell to a womans embryonic egg. For Jesus to be the rightful and legal heir of Davids throne, he needed to be a legal son of a man who was from the tribe of JudahJoseph qualified to be that man. For Jesus to be conceived without the curse and plague of sin being passed down to him while remaining a descendant of David, Abraham, and Adam, He had to be conceived and born of woman without biological requirement of a human sperm cell from Joseph. This is why the angel explained to Mary how she could be pregnant: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Conclusion The stakes for Joseph and Mary were very high. If Joseph followed through with ending his relationship with Mary because of a refusal to believe that her pregnancy was a miraculous act of Almighty God through His Holy Spirit, then Jesus would not have been qualified legally to be King of the Jews. Regarding Marys pregnancy, there was no turning back; she could not walk away from her pregnancy like Joseph could have. However, both Mary and Joseph chose to trust the God who sovereignly wields time and space for his redemptive plans even though it blew to ashes any assumptions they had for what was impossible or possible. Together, Mary and Joseph would raise the One the magi sought to find, the one read and studied about from the prophet Micah: But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. When the magi found Jesus, they appropriately worshiped Him and brought to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh fit for the kind of King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about 500 years earlier. The treasure for the magi, Joseph, and Mary was Jesus, and having Him in their lives was truly a source of great joy. There are two important lessons from Matthew 1:18-2:12 that I want to briefly mention and think more deeply upon next week: In the same way that God wielded time and space to make the virgin birth a reality and the visit of the magi a possibility, God has done, is doing, and will do to accomplish his redemptive purposes in and through your life. Your circumstances and sins are swallowed up by an infinitely greater God who bears the title: Redeemer. If God is able to move time and space to accomplish His redemptive purposes for mankind even in the 430 years of Egyptian slavery, 40 years in the wilderness, and 70 years in exile, dont you think he can do the same in the midst of the circumstances of your life caused by your own sin? Do you really think that your problems are greater than Gods ability to turn your life around? In order to experience the great joy that Jesus brought to Mary, Joseph, and the magi they had to let go of their assumptions, dreams, future, and safety for the purpose of embracing Jesus as the One promised in Isaiah 9:6-7, For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. In order for you to embrace Jesus as Savior, it will require you to trust Him as Lord over and in your life. To find Jesus the Savior will require that you let go of your idols to experience Him as Redeemer. To say yes to Jesus will mean that you will have to say no to the idols of your heart. Christmas is about Jesus as the type of King we need!

NOTAS DE ELENAMaterial complementario de la escuela Sabática para adultos.Narrado por: Patty CuyánDesde: California, Estados UnidosUna cortesía de DR'Ministries y Canaan Seventh-Day Adventist Church SÁBADO DE TARDE, 16 DE DICIEMBREESTER Y MARDOQUEOGracias al favor con que los miraba Ciro, casi cincuenta mil de los hijos del cautiverio se habían valido del decreto que les permitía regresar. Sin embargo, representaban tan solo un residuo en comparación con los centenares de millas que estaban dispersos en las provincias de Medo-Persia. La gran mayoría de los israelitas había preferido quedarse en la tierra de su destierro, antes de que arrostrar las penurias del regreso y del restablecimiento de sus ciudades y casas desoladas. Habían transcurrido veinte años o más cuando un segundo decreto, tan favorable como el primero, fue promulgado por Darío Histaspes, el monarca de aquel entonces. Así proveyó a Dios en su misericordia otra oportunidad para que los judíos del reino medo-persa regresaran a la tierra de sus padres. El Señor preveía los tiempos difíciles que iban a seguir durante el reinado de Jerjes, el Asuero del libro de Ester, y no solo obró un cambio en los sentimientos de los hombres que ejercían autoridad, sino que inspiró también a Zacarías para que instase a los desterrados a que regresasen (Profetas y reyes, p. 440). Los cristianos son joyas de Cristo. Existen para resplandecer brillantemente por él, prodigando la luz de su belleza. Su esplendor depende del pulimiento que reciben. Pueden elegir ser bruñidos o permanecer sin serlo. Pero todo aquel que es declarado digno de un lugar en el templo del Señor tiene que someterse al proceso refinador. Sin el pulimiento que el Señor da, no pueden reflejar más luz que la de un guijarro común... El Obrero divino gasta poco tiempo en material inútil. Únicamente pule las joyas preciosas, según la semejanza de un palacio, labrando con ahínco todos los cantos ásperos. Este proceso es severo y penoso; aquí el orgullo humano. Cristo corta profundamente en la experiencia que el hombre en su suficiencia propia ha considerado como completa, y elimina el ensoberbecimiento del carácter. Desbasta con empeño la superficie sobrante, y poniendo la piedra en la rueda pulidora, la aprieta estrechamente para que toda aspereza pueda ser consumida. Entonces, llevando la joya hasta la luz, el Maestro ve en ella un reflejo de sí mismo y la declara digna de [ocupar] un lugar en su cofre. "En aquel día, dice Jehová de los ejércitos, te tomaré... y te pondré como anillo de sellar; porque yo te escogí, dice Jehová de los ejércitos". Hageo 2:23. Bendita sea la experiencia, por severa que sea, que da nuevo valor a la piedra, y la hace brillar con vivo fulgor (En los lugares celestiales, p. 269).  En su gran amor, Dios procura desarrollar en nosotros las gracias preciosas de su Espíritu. Permite que hallemos obstáculos, persecución y opresiones, pero no como una maldición, sino como la bendición más grande de nuestra vida. Cada tentación resistida, cada aflicción sobre-llevada valientemente, nos da nueva experiencia y nos hace progresar en la tarea de edificar nuestro carácter. El alma que resiste la tentación mediante el poder divino revela al mundo y al universo celestial la eficacia de la gracia de Cristo (El discurso maestro de Jesucristo, pp. 99, 100).

Apostate Church Witchcraft (3)  (audio) David Eells – 12/10/23  The Harlot and the Beast    Babylon in the largest sense is the whole world. In the beginning "the waters were gathered together in one place"; the earth was one also (Gen 1:9,10). Man and his language was one upon the earth (Gen 11:1). God saw that their unity was causing them to be a god unto themselves (Gen 11:4-6). This was the first Babel (V-9). God humbled them by confounding their language and spreading them out on the earth which was then one land mass (Gen 11:7,8). In Ps 104:8, God caused the mountains to rise and the valleys to sink.   Before this time the flood only had to cover short mountains (verse 6), and separating into continents and islands the land mass and even further separating mankind (Gen 10:5,25). All nations are thus from Babel and have the sins of Babel in their blood. Now a spiritual Babel is being built, a United Nations of the world. The results will be the same (Rev 16:18,19). Babylon was and is both secular and religious. There are larger and smaller types of each. For instance, the larger type of secular Babylon is the whole world; and a smaller type is the U.S. as ruled by the DS. Let me prove this to you by looking for a moment at religious Babylon. In Rev 17:5 she is called "Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth".   We are told by many Protestant churches that the Mother is the Catholic Church because the other churches came out of her. This is very uncomplimentary of the Protestant churches because in this title the daughters are being called the "harlots". The mother is the great harlot in Verse 1. The Catholic Church is only a smaller type of a much larger type. This mother is much larger and older than the Catholic Church. Let me prove this.   In Rev 18:24, she is guilty of the blood of the prophets and of the saints (To be guilty of blood, you must either physically kill or spiritually kill because you do not warn them of sin and instead teach them to sin (Eze 3:18,19)  (24)and of all that have been slain upon the earth. You cannot blame the Catholic Church for the death of the prophets; that was Israel's apostasy, and it was before Catholicism existed. The all mentioned here is beyond their scope too. Jesus said that Israel was guilty of "all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zechariah" (Mt 23:35). According to that verse, members of the mother harlot existed from Israel all the way back and beyond to Cain.   The mother is the corporate body of apostate religion, and the daughters are the members of that body; just as the church is a corporate body, and the individual churches are members of it. The harlot rode the beast with the seven heads identified in Rev 13:1,2 and Dan 7:4-7 by the beasts which were symbols of world ruling kingdoms (Examples: The Lion with eagles wings was the symbol of Babylon, also the leopard of Greece, and the bear of Medo-Persia).   In Rev 17:9-11 the seven heads are seven mountains [not the hills of Rome but seven kingdoms] on which the woman sitteth: and they are seven kings; the five are fallen [Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece], the one is [Rome, the head that was smitten unto death but revived in Rev.13:3], the other is not yet come [corporate worldwide Revived Roman Empire the Dragon of Rev12]; when he cometh, he must continue a little while [3 1/2 years]. And the beast that was and is not is himself also an eighth [beast of Rev 13] and is of the seven".   The eighth kingdom is made up of all of the seven world empires because the woman sitteth (present tense) on all seven. These kingdoms have lost their individual dominion, but their lives were prolonged according to Dan 7:12, and they are still with us exercising dominion corporately in the end time one world beast. The coming of Christ will destroy all these kingdoms together (Dan 2:35,44).  Note: The aftermath of WWI brought the world together in fear of a worse holocaust. They decided they needed a "man of peace" and the League of Nations was born. They gave no teeth to that beast and the aftermath of WWII brought renewed fear and unity which brought a revision to that beast, then called the U.N. Now the world is coming together again crying for “peace and safety”. The approaching war could be the one that brings forth the next revision in the beast, which will be called the Dragon. It will be Satan's body.  In Daniel's revelation, he deals with the beasts from his time and forward and not with Egypt and Assyria which were before him. Daniel 7:23 says, "The fourth beast [counting Egypt and Assyria, this is the sixth beast] shall be a fourth [sixth] kingdom upon earth [meaning all four (six) are still on earth] which shall be different from all the kingdoms [corporate in nature, because it is the first to become a United States of the world] and shall devour the whole earth".   Inside the fourth beast are all the other beasts which are also the whole earth. The whole earth is made up of the seed of these kingdoms. There is only one Corporate kingdom that has the seven heads and the ten horns (all nations), and it is the U.N., which is now being preempted by an Alliance of Nations. The end time beast of Rev 13 will has within it every tribe, people, tongue, and nation whose name is not written in the Lamb's book of life (Rev 13:7). The sixth verse of the sixth chapter of the sixth book of the New Testament identifies the beast, the corporate old man (Rom 6:6).   The Mother Harlot has exercised religious authority over the beasts throughout history. The Catholic church is only a smaller type of a larger, Babylonish religious system as the U.S. is a smaller type of secular worldwide Babylon. As a small type it will incur the same judgment as the larger type as an example to the world. Many say that they do not see the U.S. in scriptures. Does it sound reasonable that what is arguably the greatest nation on earth would not be mentioned in scriptures? I do not think so.   The U.S. is now at the pinnacle of influence over the world through the U.N., NATO, foreign aid, military strength, trade, and many other avenues. And now they are leading the world into NESARA/GESARA. Every other world-ruling power is mentioned along with their destruction, so the U.S. is not left out. In Tremble Ye Women I explained how the Lord identified the U.S. as Babylon to me. Many proven prophets and teachers have identified the U.S. as Babylon. After being told by the angel of the Lord that America would be destroyed, Dumitru Duduman asked for biblical proof to show the Americans. The angel said, "Tell them to read Jeremiah 51:8-15... also Rev 18", clearly identifying America as Babylon.    Leaven, Truth and the Bride   In the Church of my youth, I always felt the Spirit and joy in worship and fellowship, which was good and God did not condemn us for that. All denominations have a piece of the Lord; they just reject one another's piece. That is what makes them a denomination or sect or division; all of which Galatians calls a work of the flesh. But the doctrine of my Church was leavened just as in all Churches that don't teach and act on the pure Word. As it was with me then, you will need to outgrow all that to be birthed to the next level. This is the way to the Bride. She sits on the highest level of heavenly Jerusalem and includes the Man-child leadership in her body. Those who don't outgrow sects to be "one" with the holy elect, as the Shulamite (Hebrew: perfect) Bride was called in Song of Solomon, will never be in the Bride and instead will be relegated to the queens, concubines and virgins.  {SoS.6:8} There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, And virgins without number. {9} My dove, my undefiled, is [but] one; She is the only one of her mother; She is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed; [Yea], the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.  The Bride will be taken into the house of the King on spiritual Mt. Zion. The queens, concubines and virgins will cry to look again at that which was pleasing to the Lord, which before they had not fully desired to be. {13} Return, return, O Shulammite; Return, return, that we may look upon thee. Why will ye look upon the Shulammite, As upon the dance of Mahanaim?  The thing that causes us to outgrow the immature churches is a respect for the Word above all else, including the idolatry that Christians have with these false institutions. The Word has to be respected above all of these.  Our protection from this deception is always a love for truth and hatred for the leaven of lies.  {2Th.2:9} [even he], whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, {10} and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. {11} And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: {12} that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  The constant feeding on lies and false spirits must be departed from before the seven years or one will miss the Bride who is chosen before the seven day/year marriage feast.  {Exo.12:15} Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.  When there is idolatry with the institutions of men, which holds fellowship and submission to them higher than fellowship and submission to the Word and the more righteous, we open ourselves up to deception that comes from the Lord Himself. The denominations of Israel were deceived in this way and didn't recognize the Lord and the Church has followed the pattern.  {Eze.14:1} Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. {2} And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, {3} Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? {4} Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel that taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I Jehovah will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols;   {5} that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. {6} Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Return ye, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. {7} For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that separateth himself from me, and taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Jehovah will answer him by myself:   {8} and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. {9} And if the prophet be deceived and speak a word, I, Jehovah, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.  With the scriptures above I only scratch the surface of the problem but I have great hopes for you to outgrow religion and "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth".  God bless you dear friend. I will leave you to your decision and pray for you. I hope you will be in the Bride.    False Prophet and Religious Harlot  Experience and the Word have taught me concerning prophecy that if the majority of God's people believe something, it must be wrong. God hides his truths in dreams or visions that are parables so that the false prophets and carnal Christians cannot see them (Mat.13:10-13) but privately He explains them to His disciples. He hides truths from the wise and understanding of this apostate religious system and reveals them to babes (Lk.10:21). He reveals His hidden truths to those who are faithful. (Rev.2:17)…To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna….   John's Revelation was given to him as a parable from Jesus. If it were literal the false prophets would know what is going to happen and that is contrary to Jesus' own words. When the disciples were young and under the Law they did not recognize the false prophets. As a matter of fact, they respected them! And so it is today! I want to show those of you who have eyes and ears who the false prophet is and what is his work.   Let me show you that the false prophet in Revelation is a corporate body of religious leaders that to the trained eye resemble those of Jesus' day. Since Jesus' day is a type of the coming Man-child's day, we know there are going to be false prophets, plural. In all of the New Testament writings, outside of the book of Revelation, we are warned that false prophets, plural, would come. In Revelation, false prophet, singular, is used, but in an allegory or parable.    Since Jesus, Peter and John said that in the end time many false prophets shall arise, then the false prophet in Revelation is a symbol of a corporate body, like the rest of the characters there are corporate bodies. It's the only way that all verses concerning false prophets can be right. (Mat.7:15) Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. (Mat.24:11) And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. (24) For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets… so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.   False prophets fit the type and shadow of history, according to Jesus. (Lk.6:26) Woe [unto you], when all men shall speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets. Peter also said there would be false prophets among us. (2Pet.2:1) But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers …. John also said that many false prophets would speak for antichrist. (1Jn.4:1) Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (3) And every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist ….  Notice that every false spirit is the spirit of antichrist. That's a corporate body. Part of the “strong delusion” (KJV) taught by the false prophets is that we are to be looking for the coming of a man called the false prophet, while the Biblical corporate false prophet is here and in the pulpits already. (2Cor.11:14) And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. (15) It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. You might say “David, aren't you sharing God's secrets with the false prophets?” Have no fear, they are too proud and blind to admit they have passed on the traditions of men.  The traditional church government today breeds false prophets by disobeying God's written order of Church government. Jesus raised up the apostolic fathers to found the Church on a five-fold ministry of men who are spiritual specialists in their field. (Pr.11:14) Where no wise guidance is, the people falleth; But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. Jesus Christ is the Spirit (1Cor.15:45) and head of His body, the Church (Eph.5:23). His headship is manifested physically through the five-fold ministry. (Eph.4:11) And he gave some [to be] apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.   Note that pastors and teachers are grouped together in this verse leading some to believe that there is only a four-fold ministry. However, in 1 Corinthians 12:28 only “teachers” is used for teachers, pastors and evangelists, making only a three-fold ministry. I would like to point out that pastors are teachers who give guidance and evangelists are teachers of the lost to bring them to Christ. So, grouping two together, or three together, does not mean they are the same ministry but that they are all teachers in some form. The different name identifies what they teach making them different ministries.   The members of the head represent these different five-fold ministers. Apostle is Greek for “one sent forth,” and they are sent to raise up churches and set them in order. The apostles are a jack-of-all-trades with a little of the gift of the rest of the five-fold ministry so they can discern the elders that they only are called to ordain. (Act.14:14) But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul… (23) And when they had appointed for them elders in every church….   Paul's brethren were called apostles. (2Cor.8:23) Whether [any inquire] about Titus, [he is] my partner and [my] fellow-worker to you-ward, or our brethren, [they are] the messengers (Greek: apostolos) of the churches…. Titus appointed elders in every city of Crete. (Tit.1:5) For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city…. Elders are ordained five-fold ministers, not assistants to the pastor. In Acts 20:17, when Paul called together the elders at Ephesus, he named them the bishops or overseers who fed the church there.   (Act.20:28) Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. Even apostles are elders (1Pet.5:1; 2Jn.1:1; 3Jn.1:1). When the legalists were trying to bring the Gentiles under the Law, the apostles and the other elders were gathered to consider this problem (Act.15:6). Together the elders made a decision (22) and sent their findings to the rest of the Church (15:23; 16:4).   Let's consider the other elders who are members of the head. The prophets are the spiritual eyes of the head and see what others do not. (Isa.29:10) For the Lord… hath closed your eyes, the prophets…. (11) And all vision is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed…. The pastors or shepherds are the nose of the head because they lead the local body of sheep to pastures with a discernment that is neither from eyes nor ears.   There is no such thing as an assistant pastor in the Scripture. You either are a pastor or you are not. Teachers are the ears of the head. Solomon asked for “an understanding heart” in 1 Kings 3:9 and in verse 12 God granted him “an understanding heart.” The Hebrew word for “understanding” in both verses is “hearing.” I was first ordained through an apostle to be a teacher. Later, a prophet, who knew nothing of this, saw a vision of me with ears as big as an elephant's.   Later, the Lord appeared to me twice and re-ordained me to another office, which was confirmed by other ministers. God does re-ordain some to other offices sometimes. Paul was an example of this. He was a “teacher” who was then “sent forth” meaning, apostle (Act.13:1-4). From here on Paul was called, and called himself, apostle. Some ambitious folks today just claim both offices, using Paul's words in 2Tim.1:11, “whereunto I was appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher” but “preacher” is not an office and teaching is what he did, not his office.   The evangelist is the mouth of the head because he speaks to those outside the body. It takes all of these ministers to perfect the saints and to raise up others into the head. (Eph.4:11) And he gave some [to be] apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (12) for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ… (15) but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, [even] Christ.   Through this method, individuals in the body have a portion of these gifts so that they may be guided and used personally by their head, Who is then their Lord. This is why Satan wanted to replace the five-fold ministry with a man-made one-fold ministry called the nicolaitan error and destroyed the Scriptural government of the church. False government is easy to corrupt and the saints are not perfected by it.   God never wanted a king over Israel, men did. They said, “make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1Sam.8:5). Does pastor, assistant pastor, and elders sound like, president, vice-president, and cabinet? The Church has copied “all the nations” as Israel did. God gave Israel the king they wanted, saying, “they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them” (7). God has given the Church her kings, too. God also warned Israel that their king would take their children to serve him and would charge them a tithe of everything for his service (1Sam.8:10-18).   Sound familiar? Pastors, without any Scriptural foundation, tell us that the Lord did away with the five-fold ministry after the apostles died. Actually it was false prophets who did away with the five-fold ministry. In our worldly system the pastor usurps the authority of the rest of the five-fold ministry. I have heard pastors, who are not even filled with the Spirit, claim that today they are the prophets when they expound the Word under the anointing.   As far as the five-fold ministry is concerned, where in the Scripture does the pastor take authority over an apostle, prophet or teacher, or vice versa? In the world, do doctors take authority in a lawyer's field, or vice versa? Does it make sense to be given authority over another's gift that you have no expertise in? If a prophet, speaking in the Spirit, is told to shut up by a pastor, then God is told to shut up. (Many can exercise the gift to prophesy but the office of a prophet is that of an overseer who has authority in the body.)   Remember that the five-fold ministers are overseers (bishops) who are specialists in their field with authority only in their gift. Each is a portion of the head of the body of Christ and necessary for the guidance of the body. However, when one of the five-fold ministers falls into sin or gets deceived, the rest have authority to correct, discipline, or throw them out (1Cor.5:9-13). This insures the safety of the sheep.   The false system of shepherd-ship is the Nicolaitan error, which Jesus said He hates (Rev.2:6,15). Nicolaitan comes from two words, nikao, meaning “to conquer,” and laity, meaning “the people.” This was and is a privileged order who consider themselves above the common people as mediators between them and God. Ministers are to make disciples of Jesus and His Word, not themselves and their traditions. The Protestants falsely copied the Nicolaitan error from the Catholic Church, which partially took it from the Old Testament priesthood. Jesus constantly denounced this worldly relationship between the ministry and the people.   (Mat.20:25) But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. (26) Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister (Greek: “servant”); (27) and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant (Greek: “bondservant”): (28) even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto (Greek: “served”), but to minister (Greek: “serve”), and to give his life a ransom for many. (23:10) Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, [even] the Christ. (11) But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. (12) And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.   Just as the Spirit of Christ is manifest through men (the true prophet) to lead his female body, the Church, the spirit of antichrist (1Jn.4:1-3) is manifest through men (the false prophet) to lead his female body, the harlot. Both bodies are female because they receive a seed, one from Christ, which is the Word, and the other from antichrist, which is the apostate word.   Let me show you that the false prophet beast in revelation is a member of the harlot. Most agree that the second beast in Revelation 13 is the false prophet. He is given authority by the first beast for the second stage of the last 3½ years of the Tribulation (Rev.13:5). He is identified as a beast because he is a corporate body as is every other prophetic beast in the Scripture.(Rev.13:11) And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (12) And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight. And he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death-stroke was healed. Here we see that the false prophet masquerades as the lamb: “two horns like unto a lamb” but he speaks as the world and Satan: “and he spake as a dragon” (beast).   This second beast in chapter 13 is also identified after the world beast in Revelation 16:13 as the false prophet. This impostor leadership for the harlot has “a form of godliness” (2Tim.3:5) but is carnal and can only teach a worldly corruption of the Word. They are actually a mouthpiece for the world beast in the apostate church. It was said of the world beast, (Rev.13:5) and there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies…. These apostates speak against (Greek: blasphemeo) God with their hypnotizing, ear-tickling doctrines of all-fly-away, unconditional eternal security, worldly prosperity, greasy grace, and anything but the self-crucifying truth.   The false prophet is a corporate body within the corporate body of the harlot, which is female because they receive the seed of antichrist. In verse 15 we see the female body of the false prophet. “And it was given to her (Greek) to give spirit (Greek) to the image of the beast.” Bible numerics show a perfect pattern for “her” and “spirit” in the original Greek and in the most accurate New Testament, the Numeric English New Testament by Ivan Panin. There is no pattern in “he” or “it.” In Greek, breath and spirit are the same. Numerics show beyond a shadow of a doubt which words are correct here.   In the rest of the text this false prophet is identified as male by the same numeric pattern. A translator would have had to respect the Word enough to ignore his own reasoning to simply translate what was there. Most are not willing to go out on a limb and look foolish when they do not see the reason. A male, who is also seen as female, is clear proof that God is not speaking of an individual here but a corporate body of people. In parallel, we are the male body of Christ, made in His image (2Cor.3:18), but we are female in another type (Eph.5:22-25), being married and submitted to Him to receive His seed, His Word.   Let's see this corporate false prophet and his relationship to the harlot in another parable. We know Ahab represents the ten-horned beast who was being ridden by Jezebel (1Ki.18), exactly as the harlot rode the beast in Revelation 17:1-3. They ruled over the apostate ten tribes or horns who were also those who worshiped the image of the beast, the golden calf. As the corporate mother of the harlot sects of Christianity, she leads them into the Great Tribulation and death unless they repent.  (Rev.2:20)…Jezebel…teacheth and seduceth my servants to commit fornication (with the world beast)… (21) And I gave her time that she should repent; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication. (22) Behold, I cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works. (23) And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of you according to your works.   Like the harlot, Jezebel was guilty of the blood of the prophets and of the saints (1Ki.18:4; 2Ki.9:7; Rev.18:24). In Revelation 17:16 when the beast is through using the harlot he devours her, and so it was with Jezebel who was devoured by the dogs (1Ki.21:23), symbolizing the unbelievers (Mk.7:27) or the beast. The true ministers of God are fed at the Church's table (1Cor.9:13-14) and the false prophets are fed from the harlot's table. (1Ki.18:19)…The prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the Asherah four hundred, that eat at Jezebel's table. The two categories of false prophets represent the two horns of the false prophet in Revelation 13:11.   Find out who Baal and Asherah represent in modern times and you will know who the corporate false prophet is. These two have their roots at the tower of Babel and were originally Nimrod and his wife Semiramis (Gen.10:8-10). They created the original harlot religion that spawned all the rest. They are a type of the great corporate mother of harlots of all of history. (Rev.17:5) And upon her forehead a name written, MYSTERY, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of The Harlots And Of The Abominations Of The Earth.   When Nimrod died and Semiramis (later called Asherah) became pregnant, she claimed that Nimrod had become the Sun God (later called Baal) who then by virgin birth was reborn as her son, Tammuz (Son of God). These original Babylonians worshiped the false father, son, and virgin about 2,300 years before the true virgin birth. Semiramis probably knew of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 concerning the virgin birth seed of the woman and if she didn't, the devil did.   With the confusion of languages and dispersion at Babel, this legend went throughout the world and these three were given different names in different cultures, many of which are in the Bible. The golden calf in Egypt was a symbol of the Father (Baal) in the Son. Remember Pharaoh's title meant “Great Temple of the Sun God.” Sun images all over the world and in Catholic and Eastern churches symbolize the false Son. As we saw in the previous chapter, the Israelites with their golden calf thought they were worshiping “YHWH” or “Elohim,” the true God, but it was Baal, “another Jesus.”  One horn, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, represent those who teach “another Jesus.” This is the apostate Protestant ministers. The other horn, the four hundred prophets of the Asherah, represent those who worship the virgin. These are the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and many others that are into “Maryolotry.” Mary is my sister and I love her but she is not the mother of God.   (Rom.1:3) Concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, (Jesus' “flesh” was the “seed of David” through Mary, which was the promised seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15. Mary is the mother of Jesus' flesh which is “Son of Man.”) (4) who was declared [to be] the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; [even] Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus' “spirit” man was the “Son of God.” Jesus agreed with this saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Joh.3:6).   Some would say that the two horns are the apostate leaders of the Christian religion and the leaders of false religions. To this I agree. The same verses usually address both greater and lesser types. The greater type is the most complete fulfillment and all the Babylonish religions will be gathered together in the end time harlot.    Overcoming Babylonish Distractions  Missy Pollock 11/12/23 (David's notes in red) There are 2 types of Christians in the World. Those who put their own worldly pleasures first which are Babylonians. And those who are truly born of God and put Him first in everything.  Below is the warning of Babylonian Distractions. I dreamt that there was what looked like a stereo system playing a radio with a man speaking and the volume was turned up too loud. It was black and was about 18" x 18" in size. (18 is the number for bondage and black is darkness) I couldn't understand what the man was saying; his words sounded all jumbled up. It didn't seem to be a foreign language though. (Babylon means confusion. Whether it be Babylonian apostate Christianity or secular Babylon I don't want to receive their leaven or propaganda news. There are many distracting voices of spirits that I need to cast down.) I asked David to turn it down and he did but it was still loud. (I have done this by teaching against Babylonish distractions. But this means more needs to be done.) It seems that the loud speech represents the distractions of Babylon that everyone individually has to overcome to concentrate on God like the women trying to read the word below.. These distractions were pointed out by Jesus in His parables; Luk 14:15-24 ASV  And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. (The bread we eat is the scriptures. Jesus was the Word and the bread that came down out of heaven that gives life to the world.) 16  But he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many:  17  and he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.  18  And they all with one consent began to make excuse. (To not partake of the Words of life that Jesus served) The first said unto him, I have bought a field, and I must needs go out and see it; I pray thee have me excused.  19  And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused.  20  And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.  21  And the servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed and blind and lame.  22  And the servant said, Lord, what thou didst command is done, and yet there is room.  23  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled.  24  For I say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper. (So the Babylonish distractions, with no eternal value, kept these people from partaking of the Words of Eternal Life. When I was young in the Lord I was captured by the Word and the grace of God and His anointing and began to read it day and night. I soon realized all of the hobbies I had loved so much were just laying around gathering dust. I didn't have time for them any longer and started to sell off or give away what was once a very loved distraction. Like my TV, gun collection, race car, my brand new Z-1 street bike I converted to a chopper, my buss camper, dirt bikes, ski boat, Cadillac, trailer, torch, welder, expensive reel to reel stereo, flushed my marijuana, alcohol, tools of all sorts, some I took back to Exxon where I got them. etc. etc. That was close to 54 years ago and I have never regretted it. I settled into many years of study of the Word, which was not my nature before believing the Bible was the Word of God. So getting rid of distractions came to me because God worked it in my heart to will and to do for His good pleasure.. Mat 22:1-14 ASV  And Jesus answered and spake again in parables unto them, saying,  2  The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son, (The marriage feast for the Son, Jesus was what He was feeding spiritually in His words that the people were feeding on. He is the Word Himself. Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He said, except you eat my body (He was the Word made flesh) and drink my blood (i.e. partake of His nature and DNA through the Word) you will have no life in you.) 3  and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come. (They wouldn't partake of the Word; be born of the Word.) 4  Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them that are bidden, Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, (He said, My meat is to do the will of my Father, which will was revealed in His Words.) and all things are ready: come to the marriage feast.  5  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise;  6  and the rest laid hold on his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.  7 But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. (In 70AD and today)  8  Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy.  9  Go ye therefore unto the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast.  10 And those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was filled with guests.  11  But when the king came in to behold the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding-garment: (Putting on the wedding garment represents putting on the works of Jesus as in Rom 13:13-14 ASV  Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. 14  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.  And  Rev 19:7-8 ASV  Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.  8  And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. ) 12  and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless.  13  Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.  14  For many are called, but few chosen. Luk 10:41-42 ASV  But the Lord answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things:  42  but one thing is needful: for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (Mary was sitting at the Masters feet listening to His eternal Word.) I asked him to turn it down again. David seemed a little annoyed that I asked him again. (Possibly because it is the individual's responsibility to tune out Babylon and its pleasures to follow after God and feed on His Word that we may grow in 30, 60,100 fold fruit of himself.) I told him I couldn't concentrate with it being so loud.  Then he turned it down again but it was still too loud. (Maybe taking the warning in these parables of the Lord will help us tune out the world.) So hesitating, not wanting to take authority, I turned it down. (I shouldn't hesitate to take authority because I've been given authority by the Lord over all the power of the enemy and authority to lay my life down.) But it only got louder. I tried again to turn it down but it didn't lower the volume. I told David I wanted to read the word but but I can't concentrate. I asked him if we could turn it off? (Of course you can turn it off. Get alone with the Lord and speak to Him and listen to Him and His Word, which recreates Him in you. Self-works cannot save us. God will help us to do it through our faith. Mar 11:23-24 ASV  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it.  24  Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye received them, and ye shall have them. There is your Quantum Mechanics Faith. ) There were other sisters sitting at a table with their bibles. I said to them that I can't concentrate when I read my Bible if there is something playing. One sister spoke up and said she couldn't either and others seemed to agree. (I don't recall if anyone turned it off. (But what comes to me about this is that I have to take authority and put to death the deeds of my body. Not listen, watch or read anything that would diminish my faith. I need to walk by faith and not by sight. I can't do that if I'm feeding my flesh with things that get me to look at the things that are instead of seeing or imagining things according to God's promises in his word.)  I asked the Lord for a verse by faith at random for this part of the dream.  Isa. 50:1, in context 1-3. Isa 50:1-3 Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away. [2] Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water (Word), and die for thirst. [3] I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. Then the scene changed and David was walking outside as several people and I were following him. (disciples, learners and followers of Jesus in the Man-child) There were some men that came up to David and he stopped to talk to them. The men joined the rest of us and I knew we were all going to do Kingdom work together. We all continued to follow David. As I looked at David I noticed his hair and thought, His hair is still gray; it hasn't turned darker yet." (Once when thinking about my choice of a new body I didn't believe people would recognize me without this gray hair so I have left that up to Father.) I was thinking about DNA restoration the Man-child will receive at his anointing; youth renewed as the eagle. However Gray hair represents wisdom too; Jesus in David is the wisdom of God.) The End.  I asked the Lord for a verse by faith at random for this part of the dream. 1 Chr. 17:19, in context 1Ch 17:19-27 [19] O Jehovah, for thy servant's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou wrought all this greatness, to make known all these great things. [20] O Jehovah, there is none like thee, neither is there any God besides thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. [21] And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel (As a type of the Church), whom God went to redeem unto himself for a people, to make thee a name by great and terrible things, in driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou redeemedst out of Egypt? [22] For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, Jehovah, becamest their God. [23] And now, O Jehovah, let the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as thou hast spoken. [24] And let thy name be established and magnified forever, saying, Jehovah of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and the house of David thy servant is established before thee. [25] For thou, O my God, hast revealed to thy servant that thou wilt build him a house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray before thee. [26] And now, O Jehovah, thou art God, and hast promised this good thing unto thy servant: [27] and now it hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee: for thou, O Jehovah, hast blessed, and it is blessed forever.   President Trump's Seduction Attempt  Missy Pollock 10/5/23 (David's notes in red)    I dreamt that I was standing in front of President Trump as he was sitting at a desk.   He was telling me something but I don't remember what it was. I do know though that I had a sense that I didn't disagree with him, nor did I have any negative feelings about what he said.  Then I was in the house I grew up in and I was in my bed in my bedroom. (The house represents the harlot church denomination she grew up in the Lord in and the bed/bedroom represents being asleep.) President Trump was there and he gave me a hug. I was ok with the hug at first but then he started trying to seduce me and he even somehow managed to kiss me right on the lips 

Daniel 7 - 1:09 . Daniel 8 - 8:12 . Daniel 9 - 14:39 . Isaiah 44 - 21:51 . We are now in the second half of Daniel which focuses on the dreams and visions that Daniel himself received. These visions include imagery of beasts, animals, and horns, representing kingdoms and the kings who come from them. Some of what Daniel sees is explained within the text itself while some remains the topic of debate and speculation to this day. Some, however, has clearly been fulfilled, like the goat which tramples the ram. The goat is the Greek Empire and it's conspicuous horn is Alexander the Great, who trampled the Medo-Persia empire only to die suddenly at the peak of his power. Antiochus emerges from one of the four new kingdoms, a ruler who persecutes the Jews, stops regular sacrifices, and defiles the temple.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Bobby Brown, Katelyn Pridgen, Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

2 Chronicles - Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, then Jehoiachin rule. Captivity in Babylon. Zedekiah rules in Judah. Cyrus permits return. Daniel - The choice young men. Daniel's resolve. The king's forgotten dream. The king's dream. The interpretation-Babylon the first kingdom. Medo-Persia and Greece. Rome. The Divine kingdom. Daniel promoted. Titus- Salutation. Qualifications of elders.

WHO OR WHAT are the seven heads on the Beast?This week, we compare Revelation 17 and Daniel 7 to identify what the horns represent both past and future. There is a general consensus that the seven kingdoms are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and a future nation, possibly a revived Roman Empire, that is the global kingdom of Antichrist. As we noted last week, there are others who identify specific kings or rulers: Nimrod, Thutmose III (the pharaoh who oppressed Israel), Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus Ephiphanes, Nero, and Adolf Hitler, with the prophesied Antichrist to be the spirit who possessed one of the seven (or even a resurrected Nimrod).Here's where it gets more complicated: We believe the kings are supernatural—fallen angels, if you like. How do we identify them from among the pagan gods of the ancient world? That's a great question, and it's one we can't answer. We can speculate, but then we are looking “through a glass darkly.”We also note that the link in Revelation 17 between the seven heads on the Beast to “seven mountains” is not necessarily a geographic clue. Mountains in Second Temple Judaism sometimes represent angelic beings, as in 1 Enoch 21 (and probably the “stones of fire” in Ezekiel 28).

Sunday sermon topicBe Wise My Friend And Remember The EndScripture Reference:Daniel 7:1-10KEY POINTS:1.  Way more important than figuring out this vision, is having a right relationship with Jesus when the court is in session. Daniel 7:11-14Daniel 7:15-182.  The four kingdoms are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome and at the time of Daniel's Vision Mede was his home.Daniel 1:1-7Daniel 5:29-6:2Daniel 7:19-253.  The Antichrist will rule by murder and driving fear into those left behind for three and a half years.Daniel 7:26-28Revelation 21:1-74.  In the end everything will be new, from the house to the shoe, once we repent of our sins and remain on the Jesus Avenue.Revelation 21:8Mark 13:34-37

Psalm 98 (NKJV)Our hosts find a connection between Psalm 98 and Isaiah 52 when the ends of the earth see the salvation of God for His people when He has Cyrus defeat Babylon and allow a remnant of Israel to return to their homeland.Read the written devo that goes along with this episode by clicking here.    Let us know what you are learning or any questions you have. Email us at TextTalk@ChristiansMeetHere.org.    Join the Facebook community and join the conversation by clicking here. We'd love to meet you. Be a guest among the Christians who meet on Livingston Avenue. Click here to find out more. Michael Eldridge sang all four parts of our theme song. Find more from him by clicking here.   Thanks for talking about the text with us today.________________________________________________If the hyperlinks do not work, copy the following addresses and paste them into the URL bar of your web browser: Daily Written Devo: https://readthebiblemakedisciples.wordpress.com/?p=13345The Christians Who Meet on Livingston Avenue: http://www.christiansmeethere.org/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TalkAboutTheTextFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/texttalkMichael Eldridge: https://acapeldridge.com/ 

Continuing our Bible study series on the exiled prophet, Daniel, we take a look at chapter seven. In this chapter, Daniel has a vision about four beasts, one with many horns. The question becomes, what do these beasts and horns represent and has this vision of Daniel's come to pass yet? 

Scripture Divides Everything into Two CategoriesWhen we look at Scripture, God has a tendency to make things simple for us and categorize everything into only two groups. There is almost never a third option. For example, you have light or darkness, evil or good, heaven or hell, the wide road or the narrow path, sin or righteousness, good fruit (tree) or bad fruit (tree), alive or dead, Spirit or flesh, blessings or curses, saved or lost, I think you get the point. And Scripture treats prophecy the same way: the Future of Israel (God's people) or the Future of the Gentile Nations (everyone else).So when we look at prophetic Scriptures, we must understand which of the two groups the passages speak about. For example, in Daniel 2, we see the vision of the great statue Nebuchadnezzar had that Daniel interpreted. This is a picture of the future of the Gentile nations. And later, in Daniel 7, we see four beasts and a little horn. Again, this is about the Gentile nations.But two chapters later, in Daniel 9:24-27, the focus shifts from the Gentile nations to the people of Israel. And this prophecy is divided into several periods of time that are separated by thousands of years. Daniel was not aware of the separation nor the time between the various periods. This is known as a prophetic skip.“Seventy weeks are determined for (who) your people (Israel) and for (what) your holy city (Jerusalem), to (1) finish the transgression, to (2) make an end of sins, to (3) make reconciliation for iniquity, to (4) bring in everlasting righteousness, to (5) seal up vision and prophecy, and to (6) anoint the Most Holy” – Daniel 9:24.Plus, you have the Olivet discourse in Matthew 24 and 25, as well as the book of Revelation. And don't forget Ezekiel 36-39, which gives us a glimpse of the future of the United States.These are some of the most important prophetic Scriptures in the Bible.Twenty Key Predictive PropheciesTo show the importance of Daniel in prophetic history, let me share 20 Predictive Prophecies that are found in that one book. These alone should give you another reason to dive into the book of Daniel.• The successive rule of four great world empires: Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece, and Rome (chapters 2 and 7)• The reuniting of the Roman Empire in the last days under the rule of ten kings or leaders (2:41 44; 7:24)• The appearance of the Messiah to rule 483 years after the decree is given to rebuild Jerusalem (9:25). This prophecy was fulfilled to the day at the Triumphal Entry.• The violent death of the Messiah (9:26)• The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 (9:26)• The rise of the Antichrist to power (7:8, 20; 8:23)• The beginning of the seventieth week: the Antichrist's seven-year covenant with Israel (9:27)• The Antichrist's breaking of the covenant at its midpoint (9:27)• The Antichrist's claim that he is God (11:36)• The Antichrist's persecution of God's people (7:21)• The setting up of the abomination of desolation in the last days' Temple by the Antichrist (9:27; 12:11)• The Northern / Southern invasion of Israel and the Antichrist (11:40-45; Ezekiel 38-39)• The Antichrist's military conquest and consolidation of his empire (11:38-44)• The final doom of the Antichrist (7:11, 26; 9:27)• The second coming of Christ (2:44-45;...

En Daniel capítulo 2, Daniel le da al rey la interpretación de su sueño, que tiene que ver con la historia humana, principalmente los "tiempos de los gentiles". Él explica los 5 imperios humanos dominantes hasta que Jesús establezca su reino por siempre. Los reinos son: Babilonia, Medo-Persia, Grecia, Roma, Roma revivido, que aún se extenderá hasta que aparezca el anticristo. Y por fin, Jesús, la Roca, se establece en la Tierra como rey político.

Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are captives in Babylon. This episode covers the exciting stories in Daniel 3-5. We will learn what happens to them when they refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, Nebuchadnezzar's seven year punishment, and finally what happened the night Babylon was destroyed by Medo-Persia.Year B Quarter 1 Week 2All Bible verses are from the NKJVFind the Lessons Here: https://mybiblefirst.org/?module=products&func=product&id2=25Connect with Us:Website: https://startingwithjesus.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/startingwithjesusFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/startingwithjesus

Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are captives in Babylon. This episode covers the exciting stories in Daniel 3-5. We will learn what happens to them when they refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, Nebuchadnezzar's seven year punishment, and finally what happened the night Babylon was destroyed by Medo-Persia.Year B Quarter 1 Week 2All Bible verses are from the NKJVFind the Lessons Here: https://mybiblefirst.org/?module=products&func=product&id2=25Connect with Us:Website: https://startingwithjesus.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/startingwithjesusFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/startingwithjesus

Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are captives in Babylon. This episode covers the exciting stories in Daniel 3-5. We will learn what happens to them when they refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, Nebuchadnezzar's seven year punishment, and finally what happened the night Babylon was destroyed by Medo-Persia.Year B Quarter 1 Week 2All Bible verses are from the NKJVFind the Lessons Here: https://mybiblefirst.org/?module=products&func=product&id2=25Connect with Us:Website: https://startingwithjesus.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/startingwithjesusFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/startingwithjesus

Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are captives in Babylon. This episode covers the exciting stories in Daniel 3-5. We will learn what happens to them when they refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, Nebuchadnezzar's seven year punishment, and finally what happened the night Babylon was destroyed by Medo-Persia.Year B Quarter 1 Week 2All Bible verses are from the NKJVFind the Lessons Here: https://mybiblefirst.org/?module=products&func=product&id2=25Connect with Us:Website: https://startingwithjesus.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/startingwithjesusFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/startingwithjesus

Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are captives in Babylon. This episode covers the exciting stories in Daniel 3-5. We will learn what happens to them when they refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, Nebuchadnezzar's seven year punishment, and finally what happened the night Babylon was destroyed by Medo-Persia.Year B Quarter 1 Week 2All Bible verses are from the NKJVFind the Lessons Here: https://mybiblefirst.org/?module=products&func=product&id2=25Connect with Us:Website: https://startingwithjesus.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/startingwithjesusFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/startingwithjesus

Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are captives in Babylon. This episode covers the exciting stories in Daniel 3-5. We will learn what happens to them when they refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, Nebuchadnezzar's seven year punishment, and finally what happened the night Babylon was destroyed by Medo-Persia.Year B Quarter 1 Week 2All Bible verses are from the NKJVFind the Lessons Here: https://mybiblefirst.org/?module=products&func=product&id2=25Connect with Us:Website: https://startingwithjesus.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/startingwithjesusFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/startingwithjesus

Daniel 7 - 1:07 . Daniel 8 - 8:39 . Daniel 9:1-19 - 14:28 . Proverbs 28:1-14 - 19:16 . We are now in the second half of Daniel which focuses on the dreams and visions that Daniel himself received. These visions include imagery of beasts, animals, and horns, representing kingdoms and the kings who come from them. Some of what Daniel sees is explained within the text itself while some remains the topic of debate and speculation to this day. Some, however, has clearly been fulfilled, like the goat which tramples the ram. The goat is the Greek Empire and it's conspicuous horn is Alexander the Great, who trampled the Medo-Persia empire only to die suddenly at the peak of his power. Antiochus emerges from one of the four new kingdoms, a ruler who persecutes the Jews, stops regular sacrifices, and defiles the temple.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by the Christian Standard Bible.facebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Daniel 7 - 1:10 . Daniel 8 - 9:13 . Daniel 9 - 16:10 . Isaiah 44 - 23:51 . We are now in the second half of Daniel which focuses on the dreams and visions that Daniel himself received. These visions include imagery of beasts, animals, and horns, representing kingdoms and the kings who come from them. Some of what Daniel sees is explained within the text itself while some remains the topic of debate and speculation to this day. Some, however, has clearly been fulfilled, like the goat which tramples the ram. The goat is the Greek Empire and it's conspicuous horn is Alexander the Great, who trampled the Medo-Persia empire only to die suddenly at the peak of his power. Antiochus emerges from one of the four new kingdoms, a ruler who persecutes the Jews, stops regular sacrifices, and defiles the temple.:::Christian Standard Bible translation.All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross.Co-produced by Bobby Brown, Katelyn Rahn, Eric Williamson & the Christian Standard Biblefacebook.com/commuterbibleinstagram.com/commuter_bibletwitter.com/CommuterPodpatreon.com/commuterbibleadmin@commuterbible.org

Rev. John Lukomski, co-host of Wrestling with the Basics on KFUO Radio, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Daniel 8. Find Wrestling with the Basics at kfuo.org/WrestlingWithTheBasics. Two years have passed since Daniel's vision in our last chapter. Whereas in the previous vision, each of the four beasts represented Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, respectively, now the vision is of two animals: a ram and a goat. Thankfully Gabriel interprets the vision for Daniel. The ram is Medo-Persia and the goat is Greece. 200 years before Alexander the Great's conquests and 350 years before Antiochus IV's persecutions, Daniel sees it all. Does this vision give us comfort or concern for the future? Mysterious dreams carry a foreboding warning. A disembodied hand writes a cryptic message on the wall. Visions of beasts predict the falling of great kingdoms. And an apocalyptic prophecy foretells the end of time. Thy Strong Word now opens up the Book of Daniel and delves into the life of one of God's prophets exiled in a Babylon. He speaks truth to power in a way that proclaims the providence and power of God. Daniel's writings also leave for us visions of the Antichrist and God's ultimate redemption of his people.

Today in this 18th Episode in the Book of Daniel chapter 7, The most important chapter in all the Book of Daniel, we turn from historical accounts to visions.  What is contained in these visions is amazing.   In fact, all the apocalyptic material in scripture was influenced by this vision.   God was trying to tell us something.  

Esther was a powerful woman God raised up and strategically placed within the palace of Medo-Persia at a specific time in history. Although she was young in age, she used her position of influence to save her nation — the nation of Israel — from being exterminated.