Tuesday 31 December 2013

Daniel's Four Kings

Daniel saw a vision of four kings. If the fourth is yet to come, it would be curious that no mention was made of the intervening rulers over the land of Israel: such as the Byzantine rule, the Crusader and Ayyubib rule, the Mamluk rule, Napoleon's rule, the Ottoman rule and the British rule.

But if the fourth king followed the third king without a gap, then Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy all happened consecutively without needing to add an unnatural gap of thousands of years between the first and second half of the final week as some do.

The Messiah indeed came at the time of the fourth king (during Roman rule over the land of Israel), after the 69th week, as prophesied by Daniel.

Knowing Daniel's prophecy, Jesus was able to preach saying, "The time is fulfilled..."

He expected the Jewish leaders to be able to discern the time too, and rebuked them for failing to do so.

And Messiah was cut off, but not for Himself, just as Daniel prophesied.

Daniel was also shown that the sacrifice and oblation would be ended, and that the people of the prince who was to come would destroy the Temple and city. The causes that led to these events all happened within 70 weeks.

But Daniel was not given a timeframe for anything that would happen after that. He was told only that many would be converted to righteousness; and that after it's all said and done, he himself shall be resurrected to his inheritance.

This is the Gospel which John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus and the Apostles announced and which is still being preached all over the world. And then the end shall come.

If the fourth king is yet to come, and if the second coming is meant to happen while the fourth king is reigning, and if that is all meant to take place within a three-and-a-half year period (if the final half of the final week of Daniel's 70 weeks is still in the future) then we would be able to calculate when the second coming is going to happen.

But of that day, Jesus said no-one knows, neither Daniel, nor the angel who had been revealing things to Daniel, nor even the Son of Man - only the Father in heaven knows.

It is therefore likely that the prophecies about the fourth king and the 70th week were both fulfilled without a gap of thousands of years.

This interpretation proves Jesus to be the Messiah, for He came at the appointed time. 

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